GE CLST 20B
Interracial Dynamics in American Culture and Society
Description: Lecture, three hours; discussion, two hours. Enforced requisite: course 20A. Limited to first-year freshmen. Examination of nature and meaning of race in American society through study of history, literature, and law. Consideration, among other topics, of construction of race as social and cultural category among two or more groups and exploration of ways in which race has shaped understanding of American citizenship. Letter grading.
Units: 6.0
Units: 6.0
1 of 2
AD
AD
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - This class is the second half of Cluster20A: Race and Indigeneity in the U.S. This quarter's workload and general content is very similar to the first half's, yet I'd argue that this quarter was actually more interesting than the first. Its topics deal more with modern-day issues of race and recent legislation surrounding it, whereas the first quarter focused on the historical origins of race (very early history lessons) and unpacking how it is a social construct. There is no midterm but instead there is an Oral History Paper you must write -- you need to choose an interviewee whose life has meaningful relation to race/Indigenous experiences in America (the ones we have learned about in class), write a script with questions for an interview, interview them, submit a transcript, and then write an essay incorporating their quotes. LOTS of work, but lots of payoff. I find that contemporary topics are more exciting to learn about and more easy to retain, hence why I like this quarter more. As always, the reading load is a little bit heavy and many of them are long. However, I recommend doing these in depth, because the final is a take-home essay about any given topic we have learned about (and you need to use lecture material and supplementary readings to get credit).
Winter 2024 - This class is the second half of Cluster20A: Race and Indigeneity in the U.S. This quarter's workload and general content is very similar to the first half's, yet I'd argue that this quarter was actually more interesting than the first. Its topics deal more with modern-day issues of race and recent legislation surrounding it, whereas the first quarter focused on the historical origins of race (very early history lessons) and unpacking how it is a social construct. There is no midterm but instead there is an Oral History Paper you must write -- you need to choose an interviewee whose life has meaningful relation to race/Indigenous experiences in America (the ones we have learned about in class), write a script with questions for an interview, interview them, submit a transcript, and then write an essay incorporating their quotes. LOTS of work, but lots of payoff. I find that contemporary topics are more exciting to learn about and more easy to retain, hence why I like this quarter more. As always, the reading load is a little bit heavy and many of them are long. However, I recommend doing these in depth, because the final is a take-home essay about any given topic we have learned about (and you need to use lecture material and supplementary readings to get credit).
1 of 2
