Syllabus

• Professor Mike Owen Benediktsson
• mob201@gmail.com
• 917.749.2410 (mobile phone for emergencies)
• Class Schedule: Mondays
  
• Office Hours: Wednesday, 1:30pm – 2:30pm, Room W1648, or by appointment

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

In the second Honors College Seminar, students will investigate the role of immigration and migration in shaping the city’s identity – past, present, and future. Topics to be considered include the social dynamics that affect the relations between racial and ethnic groups in diverse neighborhoods; the factors that have driven and drawn people to New York since the 17^th century; the different ways that religion, race, gender, and ethnicity have shaped immigrant encounters with the city; the formation and social organization of immigrant communities in such neighborhoods as the Five Points, the Lower East Side, Harlem, El Barrio, Little Italy, and Chinatown; the impact of successive waves of newcomers on urban culture and politics; and the continuing debates over assimilation and Americanization. Field trips will complement reading, writing, and research assignments. Students will work together in groups to study a “melting pot” neighborhood somewhere in the city, producing a short documentary film and a research paper about the neighborhood.

PLAGIARISM POLICY: If you draw on material written by someone else, you must acknowledge their work by enclosing any direct quotations in quotes and by citing all resources properly. When you draw upon a concept or a theory developed by an author, even when you do not quote or paraphrase that author, cite their work appropriately. When in doubt, refer to the “Writing from Sources” guide published by the Hunter College Reading and Writing Center and available both here (http://rwc.hunter.cuny.edu/reading-writing/on-line/qpp.html) and on our Blackboard site. All cases of plagiarism will be reported to the Dean’s office.

READINGS:

There are no required books for this course! All of our readings will be accessible electronically, in the “Readings” section of our class website or through the Hunter College library website.

ASSIGNMENTS / EXPECTATIONS:

1. Contributions in Class and Participation in Tours (10%)
2. Weekly Reading Responses (25%)
3. Group Research Paper (12-15 pages) (30%)
4. Group Documentary (30%)
5. Group Presentations (5%)

Class Discussions, etc.: Most classes, we’ll spend some time discussing the required readings. It is vital that you do the readings on time and come ready to talk about them. If some students are particularly quiet in class, I may ask them to share these questions or opinions from time to time. This is not meant to put people on the spot, but rather, to insure that we hear from everybody in the class and not just an outspoken minority. If you come to class on time and contribute frequently to class discussions and participate enthusiastically in workshops and tours, you can expect a very good participation grade.

Tours: There will be two or three tours or museum visits during the semester. Each one will be between two and three hours long. These will be scheduled either during class time or on the weekends. They are mandatory and an important part of the class. Bring some cash for lunch and/or coffee breaks, and dress warmly if it’s cold! Like, really, really warmly. Trust me, if it’s anywhere near or below freezing, you can’t overdo it.

Weekly Reading Responses: Almost every week, you will be asked to post a 300-500 word response to the readings for that week no later than 10pm the night before class. These are a really important component of your grade in the class, because they are the only individual (as opposed to group) written assignments. The reading responses are your chance to engage with the class material on a direct, subjective and personal level. Most weeks, I will provide some questions to help you frame your responses, but feel free to ignore these if you would prefer to simply respond critically to the readings. All weekly assignments should be submitted as posts to our class website. Half of the credit for each reading response will be automatically awarded if it is submitted on time and meets the basic requirements. The other half will be based on my evaluation of your responses at the end of the semester. (This means you’ll be able to go back and revise them before they are definitively graded.) Once or twice during the course of the semester, I may provide some feedback on your reading responses and give you a sense of how you are doing with them.

Documentary Films: In the first half of the semester, in groups of two or three, you will create a short documentary film about a “melting pot” neighborhood (a community of especially high diversity) somewhere in NYC. The final version of these films will be due before spring break, and will be posted on a public website at the end of the semester.

Group Research Papers: In the second half of the semester, in the same groups, you will research and write a paper analyzing a problem or an issue facing the neighborhood that you filmed before spring break. Research papers may draw on scholarly literature, newspaper articles, websites, reports by government agencies or non-governmental organizations, personal interviews, and first-hand observations.

Group Presentations: Finally, in the last class, you and your group will show your films and present your research to the class in a short (15 minute) informal presentation. The grading of this presentation will not be particularly strict – the main idea is for you to share your interesting research with each other.

CLASS SCHEDULE:

I. Introduction

• Week 1: January 30: Introduction
  • Readings:
    • Foner, “How Exceptional is New York?”
  • Assignments:
    • Neighborhood Description for Site

• Week 2: February 6: The Task at Hand
  • Readings:
    • Mehta, “The Meltingest Pot”
    • Ellick, “Melting Pot – Closed Book”
    • Berger, “Melting Together in Ditmas Park”
  • Assignments:
    • Post neighborhood description.
    • Online human subjects training and forms.
    • Choose partners and roles for group projects.
    • Post reading response.

II. The Melting Pot

• Week 3: February 15: The Melting Pot I
  
  • Readings:
    • Gordon, pp. 60-63, 84-114, Assimilation
    • Excerpt from Gerstle, “Liberty, Coercion and the Making of Americans”
    • 19th/Early 20th Century Assimilation Cartoons
  • Assignments:
    • Post reading response
    • (with research team): Choose neighborhood, consulting WNYC Diversity Map

• February 20:  NO CLASS

• Week 4: February 26:  The Melting Pot II
  • Readings:
    • Orozco, “Everything About Assimilation”
    • Gabaccia, “Food Fights”
  • Assignments:
    • SITE VISIT AND B-ROLL
    • Reading Response

• TOUR: Saturday, 3/2, 10am: Tenement Museum!!!

III. The Enclave

• Week 5: March 6: The Enclave
  • Readings:
    • Sullivan, “Ethnic Enclaves-Sanctuary or Impediment?”
    • Guest, section on Enclaves from “God in Chinatown”
    • “A Dilapidated Tract of Queens…”
    • “Concern for the Underclass…”
  • Assignments:
    • Interview Footage
    • Post Reading Response

IV. The Gorgeous Mosaic

• Week 6: March 13: The Big Onion (L.E.S. Walking Tour – Meet at 1:30pm at Chambers and Broadway)
  • Readings:
    • None
  • Assignments:
    • Post Response
    • Storyboard

• Week 7: March 20:  The Gorgeous Mosaic I (Sunset Park Walking Tour – Details TBA)
  • Readings:
    • – TBA
  • Assignments:
    • TBA

• No Class: March 26: Spring Break!

• Week 8: April 3:  EDITING WORKSHOP
  • Readings:
    • TBA
  • Assignments:
    • -VOICEOVER

• Thursday, April 4, 10pm, FINAL DOCUMENTARIES DUE ON WEBSITE!

Part IV. The Crazy Quilt

• Week 9: April 10: The Crazy Quilt I
  • Readings:
    • Herman, Ethnic Succession
    • Excerpts from Anbinder, Five Points
      
    • [Highly recommended] Watch Film: Gangs of New York
  • Assignments:
    • Post Reading Response

• Week 10: April 17: Library Research Workshop – Details TBA
  
  • Readings:
    • TBA
  • Assignments:
    • TBA

• Week 11: April 24: The Crazy Quilt II
  • Readings:
    • None
  • Assignments:
    • Primary and Secondary Sources

V. The Growth Machine

• Week 12: April 31:  Use vs. Exchange I
  • Readings:
    • Molotch, “The City as Growth Machine”
    • Sharon Zukin Profile in Times
    • Watch Sharon Zukin interview here.
    • Schwartz “Gentrification and its Discontents”
  • Assignments:
    • Post Reading Response

• Week 13: May 8:  Use vs. Exchange II
  • Readings:
    • None
  • Assignments:
    • Research Paper Outline

• Week 14: May 15: Conclusion
  • Readings:
    • None
  • Assignments:
    • Final cut of film due!!!

• Monday, 5/27, 11:59 PM: Final Research Paper Due!!!!!!!