Diversity Intensive Sample Course Syllabus

American Women in Black and White
Course Description: This course is designated as Diversity-Intensive, which means that it will explore sexism, racism, and other related ideologies and institutions of oppression and discrimination. We will explore the social construction of race, gender, class, and other identity formations through black and white women’s actions and interactions, in private and in public, primarily during the 19th and 20th centuries. Readings will include primary documents, secondary articles, monographs, and excerpts from scholarly works, featuring selections that encompass a comparative analysis of women’s experiences. Choices that discuss black women’s experiences will be paired, whenever possible, with selections that consider white women in similar chronological or situational contexts. From these readings, we will examine and analyze the ways in which black and white women constructed their identities, how they negotiated the power dynamics in political, social, and cultural situations, their successes and shortcomings, affiliations and altercations, and points of connection and estrangement.

Texts:
Woloch, Nancy, Women and the American Experience, 2d ed., (McGraw-Hill, 1994)
Hine, Darlene Clark, Wilma King and Linda Reed, eds., We Specialize in the Wholly
Impossible: A Reader in Black Women’s History (Carlson Publishing, 1995)
Hewitt, Nancy A. and Suzanne Lebsock, eds., Visible Women: New Essays on American Activism (University of Illinois, 1993)
Many other assigned readings are on reserve in the library. See attached list.

Course Requirements:
Attendance, think pieces, and general participation in class discussions (30% of course grade). Note that missed discussions and think pieces cannot be made up.
Discussion leadership: (15%)
Oral history analysis – see attached requirements (15%)
Research paper – see attached requirements (20%)
Final project – see attached requirements (20%)

Format of the class:

Primarily discussions of readings, augmented by mini-lectures and films. Typically, in-class activities are designed to provide additional historical and historiographical material to work with in developing your own interpretations, as well as getting historians’ interpretations of history.
Discussions: All students will be required to attend classes, complete the readings, and actively participate in class discussions. With each class discussion, students will submit a reaction paper/thinkpiece on the readings and class materials. These essays will discuss the major themes and issues of the readings, lectures, and films, and should be approximately 2-4 pages in length. They should be cast in journal format – that is, they should include personal reflections, written analytically, but not necessarily formally. Class participation and think pieces will be grades on the following criteria: personal engagement with the material, completeness of content, deliberation and analytical depth (the ability to make connections, ability to see similarities and differences in viewpoints, and ability to tie these materials and viewpoints together and compare them with previous class’ materials/personal experience/knowledge)
Discussion Leadership: Students will be placed in groups of 3-4 each; each group will lead 2 discussions over the course of the semester. Each group member must contribute to the discussion leadership. When a group leads a discussion, they should: present a brief (no more than 10 minute) overview of the topic/topics from the readings, tying together major themes and helping to facilitate discussion tied to those themes. Choose 2-3 readings to provide a 3-5 minute introduction of themes and issues and provide facilitating questions for discussion of these readings. Groups will be graded on thoughtfulness of introduction, quality and effectiveness of questions, and adeptness at managing the discussion. Groups may choose which discussion sessions they want to facilitate, and sign up for their chosen discussion date – first come, first served.

Discussion Guidelines:

All students bring to the classroom differences in perception and experiences, based on age, gender, race, nationality, class/upbringing, marriage/children/sexual orientation, among others. Learning is a process of interrupting accepted wisdom, pre-conceived notions, and already-arrived-at-conclusions. We do this by considering other points of view carefully before accepting or dismissing them and refraining from simply debating our own positions against one another. Below are a few tips for leading and participating in productive discussions:

Discussion leaders:
Maintain the class’ focus during the discussion – do not allow the class to wander off in unproductive tangents.Design questions that solicit open responses and reactions to major themes and ideas, seeming contradictions, different points of view, etc. Avoid “what do you think about . . .” questions. Although personal opinions and conclusions will enter the discussion, it’s best if this happens after we have explored the material, rather than at the beginning of the discussion.
After you have asked your question, don’t follow up your questions with your own answer. When you lead the discussion, you should let your colleagues find their own way, rather than providing your point of view. This is one discussion when you may never get to voice your own point of view.
Learn to tolerate silence. Ask your question and then wait. Give people a chance to process what you’ve asked. If your colleagues require clarification, let them ask.
For all participants:
Remember that class participation means speaking and listening. Make sure that you practice equal parts of both.Come to class discussions with an open mind, and eagerness for new ideas and new ways of approaching issues, a willingness to engage with others’ interpretations – both interpretations from the reading and the interpretations of your colleagues, all of whom have absorbed this set of materials and processed them differently.This class is designed as a forum in which we can learn from primary sources, secondary sources, and each other. If we all work together to open the forum to everyone, the class will be a productive learning experience.

COURSE SCHEDULE:
Week I -- Introduction to Course; Videotape: "Imitation of Life"
Readings: Phyllis Marynick Palmer, "White Women/Black Women: The Dualism of Female Identity and Experience in the United States," Feminist Studies 9, no. 1 (Spring 1983) pp.150-170.

Week II -- Friendship Across Racial Lines (personal relationships)
Discussion of Palmer reading and "Imitation of Life"(Tues)
Readings: Golden and Shreve, Skin Deep C pages 1-5, 13-23, 36-59; Bonnie Dill Thornton, "Race, Class, and Gender: Prospects For An All-Inclusive Sisterhood," Feminist Studies 9, no 1 (Spring 1983), pp. 131-149; also in Moses, U.S. Women in Struggle pp.277-295 (Thurs).

Week III -- Junctures of Race and Class (theoretical basis)
Readings: Lerner, Why History Matters, Chapters 10 and 11.(Tues)
Hine, Chapters 1 and 3 (Thurs)

Week IV -- Race and Gender--Antebellum South
Readings: Hine, Chapter 5; Fox-Genovese, Chapters 2 and 3 (Tues)
Hine, 12 and 13; Woloch, Chapters 2 and 4 (Thurs)

Week V -- Race, Class and Gender--Antebellum North and South
Readings: Woloch, Chapter 6; Horton, "Freedom's Yoke: Gender Conventions among Free Blacks" from Free People of Color; Meigs, "Sexual Pecularities" from Dorenkamp, Images of Women (Tues)
Hine, Chapters 14, 15, 16 (Thurs)

Week VI -- Gender, Race and Class--Postbellum America
Readings: Lerner, Black Women In White America, pp.173-226; Hine, Chapters 17 and 21; Kathleen Blee, "Women In the 1920s' Ku Klux Klan Movement," Feminist Studies 17, no.1, pp.57-77; also in Moses, U.S. Women in Struggle, pp.89-109. (Tues)
Videotape: "Passion For Justice: Ida B. Wells" Cimbala, pp. 99-124; Giddings, Chapter 1, pp.17-32. (Thurs)

Week VII -- Fall Break
Guest scholar/Special Program (Thurs)

Week VIII -- Organizing for Change-- The Women's Club Movement
Readings: Lerner, Black Women In White America, pp.164-171 & Chapter 8 ("Lifting As We Climb"); Giddings, Chapter VI ("To Be A Woman Sublime. . . ") (Tues)
Hine, Chapters 18 and 26; Hewitt, pp.243-324; Woloch, Chapters 7,8,12; Davis, chapter 8 (Thurs).

Week IX -- Twentieth Century Activism (Birth Control Movement, Woman Suffrage)
Readings: Woloch, Chapters 15 and 16; Cimballa, pp.125 - 138; Hine, Chapter 29; Davis, Chapter 12; "Birth Control Pills and Black Children: The Sisters Reply", "Patricia Robinson: Poor Black Women" from The Sixties Papers (Tues).Giddings, Chapter VII ("The Quest for Woman Suffrage. . . "); Davis, Chapter 7; Hine, Chapter 28; Hewitt, pp. 62-100; Woloch, Chapters 13 and 14; Sharon Harley and Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, Chapter 2: "Discrimination Against Afro-American Women In the Woman's Movement, 1830-1920" from The Afro-American Woman; Wheeler, Chapter 1 and 2. (Thurs).

Week X -- The Civil Rights Movement
Readings: Crawford, pp. 13-37; 51-70; 145-167; 183-202; Woloch, Chapters 19. Hine, Chapter 32; Hayden & King, "Sex and Caste: A Kind of Memo," Sara Evans, "Women's Consciousness and the Southern Black Movement" from A History of Our Time.

Week XI -- Women's Rights Movement
Readings: Lerner, Black Women In White America, pp. 584-592; Cimballa, pp. 153-165; "SDS Statement on the Liberation of Women","The National Organization for Women Statement of Purpose", "National Black Feminist Organization Statement of Purpose", "The Combahee River Collective Statement" from Schneir, Feminism in Our Time; "SNCC Position Paper: Women in the Movement." (Tues)
Reid, Together Black Women, pp. 32-55; "Shulamith Firestone: The Dialectic of Sex" , "Frances Beale: Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female" in The Sixties Papers; Giddings, Chapter 17. (Thurs)

Week XII -- Black and White Feminism
Readings: Wolloch, Chapters 20; Golden, pp. 256-264; bell hooks, Chapters 1 and 4. (Tues)
Patricia Hill Collins, "What's In a Name? Womanism, Black Feminism, and Beyond," from The Black Scholar; Golden, pp. 229-267; Evans, "Women's History and Political Theory..." in Hewitt. (Thurs)

Week XIII -- Politics
Readings: Woloch, Chapter 21 and 22; "Anita Hill: Statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee", "African American Women in Defense of Ourselves" from Schneir; Kimberle Crenshaw, "Whose Story Is It Anyway?" from Morrison, ed., Race-ing Justice (Tues)
Lubiano, Wahneema, "Black Ladies, Welfare Queens, and State Minstrels", Christine Stansell, "White Feminists and Black Realities" from Morrison, ed., Race-ing Justice.; Williams, Chapter 6 and 9; Joan Tronto, "Changing Goals and Changing Strategies," in Moses, U.S. Women in Struggle.(Thurs)

Week XIV -- Quilt presentations (Tues)
11/25-11/27 Thanksgiving (Thurs)

Week XV -- Quilt presentations.
12/2
Note: This syllabus was adapted from “Parallel Lives: Black and White Women in American History,” a course taught by Beverly Bond and Janann Sherman at the University of Memphis.