GE Cluster 20A,B,CW
Interracial Dynamics in American Society and Culture
| Lecture Schedule: | Tuesday, Thursday 12:30 p.m. –1:45 p.m. – DeNeve Auditorium |
| Faculty: | Jeff Decker, English Vilma Ortiz, Sociology Mark Sawyer, Political Science Min Zhou, Sociology |
Almost everyday I go back to the dorms, and a racial topic will come up. I say, “This is so my Interracial Dynamics class,” and in turn, my hallmates end up saying, “This is so Interracial Dynamics.” I learned more applicable information from this class than any other class. So much history, politics, social issues, and icons were covered in this course, and I believe I will hold it in my heart for at least the rest of my career @ UCLA. Hopefully, I will grow beyond that. –former Interracial Dynamics cluster student
How can a nation as racially diverse as the United States and a state as ethnically varied as California nurture its sense of unity and community? The Interracial Dynamics cluster strives to create a learning environment conducive to dialogue and debate on this question and others such as:
- How do we define diversity?
- How are racial stereotypes produced and sometimes challenged in American popular culture?
- What does it mean to be black in the United States and how is “blackness” measured?
- Will a so-called model minority group such as Asian Americans ever achieve the privileges of “whiteness” as American Jews did before them?
- Does the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II provide lessons for how to understand the treatment of Arab Americans in the wake of 9-11?
- What role should bilingual education play in public schools with large non-English speaking immigrant student populations?
- Is affirmative action necessary?
Course Format
In lectures and discussion sections during the fall and winter quarters, students examine race as a social and cultural category that shapes contemporary American life. Students also study race as a “lived” experience and a contested terrain through some of the following activities:
- Student debates on topics such as affirmative action, bilingual education, and illegal immigration.
- A race, place, and consciousness assignment, where instead of studying others, students study themselves by observing and participating in the activities of a place (a sports event, a club, a store, mall, restaurant, etc.) where they are ethnically and/or racially conspicuous.
- A web-based “media literacy” project focusing on the 1965 and 1992 Los Angeles riots.
- Dinners with cluster faculty coupled with movie screenings.
Spring Seminars – Previous seminar topics have included:
- Ethnic Encounters in American Television, Film, and Literature
- Color of Violence: Racial Violence in American History
- HoopLA: Community Building and Basketball in Multi-ethnic Los Angeles
- The American Dream: Immigrant Fiction and Film
- American Popular Music from Minstrelsy to Hip-Hop
- The Difference Love Makes: Race, Gender, and Desire in American Popular Culture
Foundation Area General Education Credit
Upon completion of the entire yearlong cluster, students will satisfy 3 course requirements in the following GE areas: 2 courses in the Foundations of Society and Culture (1 in Historical Analysis and 1 in Social Analysis) and 1 course the Foundations of Arts and Humanities (Literary and Cultural Analysis).
