Course Syllabus


Room: Avery 104
Time MTWThF 1:30-2:45
Coordinating Instructors:

Additional Instructors:

  • Shawn Smith (English)
  • Chris Friday (Northwest Center & History)
  • Colin Beckles (Comparative American Cultures)
  • Paul Hirt (History)
  • Noël Sturgeon (Women Studies)
  • Val Jenness (Sociology)
  • Karen DePauw (Kinesiology & Leisure Studies)

    Course Description: This course will take an interdisciplinary American studies approach to the history of social movement cultures in the United States from the late 19th century to the present. We will pay special attention to movements that have addressed issues of race and gender, and we will focus the course around the concept of "movement cultures." This team-taught course draws faculty from American Studies, Comparative American Cultures, English, History, Kinesiology & Leisure Studies, Sociology, and Women Studies. Thus part of the course will entail bringing these different disciplinary perspectives to bear on our topic and noting similarities and differences in how they approach our subjects.

    Social movements can be defined briefly as organized collective efforts outside of official government channels that air grievances, express alternative political, economic and/or cultural ideas, and seek to bring about social change in the direction of those alternatives. By movement cultures, we mean attempts by activist groups to find behaviors, styles, values, and expressive forms that distinguish the movement from the larger surrounding culture (for a more extended definition, see the appended "Glossary of Social Movement Terms & Approaches").

    Social movements have been major forces of political and cultural change throughout American history and continue to be crucial forces today. Organized more or less chronologically (given that movements overlap), we will treat the following: the anti-lynching movement of the late 19th, early 20 century, the labor movement, Civil Rights and Black Power, Chicano and American Indian movements, environmentalism, women's movements, gay and lesbian movements, and disability sport movements. Our quick survey of so many movements is meant only to introduce you to them sufficiently to let you begin to build an understanding of similarities and differences among movements, and hopefully to inspire you to learn more about the ones that interest you most. While each instructor will speak about the movement(s) that they specialize in, efforts will be made throughout the course to offer a comparative focus, to explore the interrelations and tensions between and among movements, and to look at how ongoing questions about race, gender, sexuality, class and culture have shaped and been reshaped by movements..

    BOOKS: available at the Bookie (Student Book Corporation) The books are available both in the "American Studies" and the "English" section of the textbook department on the lower level.

    ARTICLES: all the articles marked with an "X" on the course schedule are available on reserve in Avery 202K, the American Studies office. Students may either read them in Avery or check out a copy from which to make their own xerox.

    The articles are also available on-line in two categories Students can either read them on-line or download a copy to disk from this Website so that they can print them out on their home computers, or from one of the computer labs on campus with pay-per-page printers. You may not use the printer in the Avery Microcomputer Lab, however.

    WorldWideWeb Site: While no one is required to use this Web site for the course, students are encouraged to do so. In addition to copies of the course readings, the site has links to on-line social movement materials (organizations, archives, discussion groups, etc.) and a discussion mailing list that will allow students and faculty to exchange ideas outside class about the course topics if they wish. There will be only one assignment for the course that requires use of the Internet. The faculty agreed collectively to make this one assignment because we believe that the Internet is rapidly becoming an intellectual resource as essential for a student to be able to use as a library. And this summer course will provide you with a unique opportunity to gain this knowledge because the Avery Microcomputer Lab (right across the hall from our classroom) will be open for use by this class during the summer. Instruction sessions on how to use the Internet/World Wide Web for research and on the basics of creating web pages and multimedia materials will be provided for all students who wish them (at times announced below in the syllabus and at other times by appointment).

    VIDEOS: A film/video series, mostly held Friday evenings at 7:30pm (plus one Saturday and one Wednesday showing), in TODD 276 will also be part of the class texts. If you miss one of the films, they will available on reserve in the library to be viewed at your convenience. The films offer important information on the movements as well as giving incomparable insight into the look and feel of each movement.

    REQUIREMENTS: Grading for the course will be based upon the following (the percentages given indicate the approximate relative weight given to each component in the determining final grade:


    No exams
    Detailed guidelines for each of these assignments will be provided as the course progresses.

    ************************************************************************ DAILY COURSE SCHEDULE WITH READING ASSIGNMENTS

    WEEK 1

    M 5/13: Course Outline and Personal Introductions

    Tu 5/14: Class Discussion on Approaches to Analyzing Movements
    Reading: "Introduction" pp. vii-xvii, in Darnovsky, et al. eds. Cultural Politics and Social Movements
    V. Taylor & N. Whittier, "Analytical Approaches to Social Movement Culture," in Johnston & Klandermans, eds. Social Movements and Culture.

    W 5/15: Anti-lynching Movement (S. Smith)
    Reading: Ida B. Wells, "Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases"(X)

    Th 5/16: Anti-lynching Movement (S. Smith)
    Reading: K. Sanchez-Eppler, "Bodily Bonds: The Intersecting Rhetorics of Feminism and Abolition"(X)

    OPTIONAL INTRODUCTORY WORKSHOP: How to find things on the Internet? Exploring the "American Movement Cultures" Web site. Thursday May 16th, 3-4pm, in the Avery Microcomputer lab.

    F 5/17: Anti-lynching Movement (S. Smith)
    Reading: G. Bederman, "'Civilization', the Decline of Middle-Class Manliness, and Ida B. WellÕs Anti-lynching Campaign (1892-94)"(X)

    FRIDAY NIGHT FILM: "Matewan", 7:30pm

    WEEK 2

    M 5/20: Labor Movement (C. Friday)
    Reading: T. Almaguer, "'In the Hands of People Whose Experience Has Been Only to Obey a Master and Manage for Themselves'"(X)
    Recommended (required for grad students): D. Roediger, "Gaining a Hearing for Black-White Unity: Covington Hall and the Complexities of Race, Gender and Class"(X)

    Tu 5/21: Labor Movement (C. Friday)
    Reading: S. Model, "Work and Family: Blacks and Immigrants from South and East Europe"(X)
    Recommended (required for grad students): K. Korstad, "Black and White Together: Organizing in the South with the Food, Tobacco, Agricultural Allied Workers Union (FTA-CIO), 1946-1952" (X)

    W 5/22: Labor Movement (C. Friday)
    Reading: R. Forstad & N. Lichtenstein, "Opportunities Found and Lost: Labor, Radicals, and the Early Civil Rights Movement"(X)
    Recommended (required for grad students): P. Zavella, "Occupational Segregation in the Canning Industry"(X)
    Th 5/23: Discussion/Transition

    OPTIONAL INTRODUCTORY WORKSHOP: How to create a homepage on the World-Wide Web. Thursday, May 23, 3-4:30pm, Avery Microcomputer Lab.

    F 5/24: Civil Rights (T. Reed) Reading: C. Carson, In Struggle, chps. 1-5, 9

    SATURDAY 5/25 SPECIAL FILM EVENT: "EYES ON THE PRIZE" MARATHON 9am-12pm; 1:30pm-4:30pm

    WEEK 3

    M 5/27 MEMORIAL DAY - NO CLASS MEETING BUT DO ASSIGNED READING
    Reading: Carson, In Struggle, chps. 10-13
    Recommended (required for grad students) Charles Payne, selections from "I've Got the Light of Freedom" (X)

    Tu 5/28 Black Nationalism (C. Beckles)
    Reading: (required vs. recommended readings for the next 3 sessions will be noted later):
    B, Seale, selections from Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton (X)
    S. Carmichael & C. Hamilton, selections from Black Power (X) Carson, In Struggle , chps. 14-15

    W 5/29 Black Nationalism (C. Beckles)
    Reading: T. Martin, selections from Race First (X)
    W. Churchill et al, selections from Agents of Repression (X)
    Carson, In Struggle , chp. 16-17

    WEDNESDAY NIGHT FILM: "The Fire This Time" 7:30pm

    Th 5/20 Black Nationalism (C. Beckles) Reading: Carson, In Struggle , chps 18 & Epilogue
    ÒNew African American Vanguard Movement (NAAVM)Ó(X)
    "On the Million Man March" (X)
    E. Lincoln, selections from The Black Muslims in America (X)
    M.K. Asante, selections from Afrocentricity (X)

    F 5/31 Chicano Movement (T. Reed)
    Reading: Chicano mural slide show, on-line at our Web site

    FRIDAY NIGHT FILMS: "Incident at Oglala" & "Chicano!"

    WEEK 4

    M 6/3 American Indian Movement: Guest Lecturer: Janet Campbell Hale
    Reading: R. Ortiz, "Land, Sovereignty and Nationhood."(X)

    Tu 6/4 Discussion/Transition

    W 6/5 Environmental Movement (P. Hirt)
    Reading: R Nash, 'Ideological Origins of American Environmentalism,'(X)
    R. Nash, "Abolitionism, Environmentalism, and the Limits of American Liberalism,"(X)
    C. Merchant, "ÒPreserving the Earth: Women and the Progressive Conservative Crusade,"(X)
    Recommended (required of grad students) R. Nash, "Ecology Widens the CircleÓ(X)
    C. Merchant, "Earthcare: Women and the American Environmental Movement"(X)

    Th 6/6 Environmental Movement (N. Sturgeon)
    Reading: P. Shabecoff, "Saving Ourselves,"(X)
    P. Shabecoff, "The Environmental Revolution,"(X)
    C. Manes, "Rise and Fall of Reform Environmentalism," (X)
    C, Manes, "Ecology of Confrontation"(X)

    F 6/7 Environmental Movement (N. Sturgeon)
    Reading: C. Hamilton, "Industrial Racism, the Environmental Crisis, and the Denial of Social Justice," in Darnovsky, et al. eds., Cultural Politics and Social Movements
    Recommended (required for grad students): A. Szasz, "The Iconography of Hazardous Waste," in Darnovsky, et al. eds., Cultural Politics and Social Movements

    FRIDAY NIGHT FILMS: "Testing Peace" & "No Nukes" 7:30pm

    WEEK 5

    M 6/10 Women's Movement (E. Garrison)
    Reading: B. Ryan, Feminism & the Women's Movement , intro. chs 2 &3
    B. Aptheker, "Abolitionism, WomenÕs Rights and the Battle over the Fifteenth Amendment;"(X)
    N.Cott, ÒIntroductionÓ(X)
    Recommended (required for grad students): Ryan, chp 1 N.Cott, "Chapter 1: The Birth of Feminism"(X)

    Tu 6/11 Women's Movements (E. Garrison)
    Reading: Ryan, Feminism & the Women's Movement , chps 4-6
    Recommended: (required for grad students). A. Echols,"'We Gotta Get Outta this Place,'" in Darnovsky, et al., eds. Cultural Politics

    W 6/12 Women's Movements (E. Garrison)
    Reading: Ryan, Feminism & the Women's Movement , chps 7-10
    B. Findlen, ed., selections from Listen Up! (X)

    Th 6/13 Lesbian and Gay Movement (V. Jenness)
    Reading: Adams, Rise of Gay and Lesbian Movement , chps. 1-4
    Recommended (required for grad students): A. Stein, "Sisters and Queers," in Darnovsky, et al. eds. Cultural Politics .

    F 6/14 Lesbian and Gay Movement (V. Jenness)
    Reading: Adams, Rise of Gay and Lesbian Movement , chps. 5-9
    Recommended (required for grad students): J. Escoffier, "Community and Academic Intellectuals," in Darnvosky et al., eds. Cultural Politics

    WEEK 6

    M 6/17 Lesbian and Gay Movement (V. Jenness)
    Reading: Josh Gamson, "Silence, Death, and the Invisible Enemy: AIDS Activism and Social Movement 'Newness'" (X)

    Tu 6/18 Disability Sport Movement (K. DePauw)
    Reading: M.A. Messner, selections from Power at Play (X)

    W 6/19 Disability Sport Movement (K. DePauw)
    Reading: J.P. Shapiro, selections from No Pity (X)
    K.P. DePauw, "Sport, Society and Individuals with Disabilities" (X)
    Recommended (required for graduate students): S. Bitter & C.L. Cole, selection from Women, Sport and Culture (X)

    Th 6/20 Disability Sport Movement; Course Conclusion (K. DePauw & assembled faculty)

    Friday June 21st, Conference Begins [make as a link]

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    last updated 5/13/96