Dr. Shari Jacobson e-mail: jacobson@susqu.edu (o); shari_jacobson@hotmail.com (h)

Office: 206 Steele Hall Phone: 372-4754 (o); 884-2023 (h) (not after 9:30pm)

Office Hours: by appointment

Dr. John Bodinger de Uriarte e-mail: bodinger@susqu.edu

Office: 204 Steele Hall Phone: 372-4759 (o)

Office Hours: W 1-3 and by appointment

National, Transnational, and Diasporic Communities

Th 6:30-9:30pm

Steele 211

This course considers the nature of belonging in the world today. Who is "at home?" Who is displaced/out of place? We begin with theories of the nation and anthropological research on national communities and nation-building. We then turn to theoretical literature on those often considered outsiders to the nation-state, i.e., diasporic, transnational, and refugee communities. Our ensuing focus will then be how cultural formations such as labor, food, the media, tourism, politics, economics, race, gender, and class shape subjects’ respective experiences of belonging, or not. Prerequisite: AN:162 or SO:333 or permission of the instructor.

Student responsibilities include:

*Attending class, participating in class, and demonstrating appropriate and respectful classroom behavior.

*Completing the day’s reading before coming to class. Because we meet only once a week, the readings for any given day are numerous. DO NOT think you will be able to do all the reading on Thursday afternoon before class. Pace yourself throughout the week.

*Participating in 2 group presentations of the day’s readings/films. The group is charged with leading the classroom discussion on the readings and films. We strongly recommend meeting with the professor to discuss your group’s game plan at least one day prior to the class at which you will be presenting.

*Submitting 3 different reading notes. Reading notes are 3-4 page analyses of the day’s reading, and are due in class on the day of the readings. They should not summarize the readings, but engage them analytically. Think about: what issues do the authors raise that are provocative? What did they miss? How do the readings speak to each other? What bigger point(s) do you derive from the readings taken collectively? The best reading notes will be organized around an argument that ties the readings together in some way, and then references the readings as evidence. Reading notes must be typed using standard margins and font-size, and may not be handed in on the days in which you are involved in a group presentation.

*Writing a 15-20-page seminar paper due the last day of class. This paper should engage the theoretical points raised in class with some kind of case study. You may focus on a topic, e.g., how food constructs a sense of belonging, or a particular community, e.g., Chinese immigrants in Panama or citizens of Irish descent in the US. You may also conduct research on your own or your family’s experience of belonging, be it national or diasporic. In all cases, however, the paper must have an argument, engage relevant literature, and theorize the case you are examining. Portions of the paper, viz., a brief statement of the project and proposed methods, an initial annotated bibliography, and a draft (~10 pages), will be due at various points during the semester. Due dates are indicated on the syllabus below. These portions of your paper will be assigned grades that factor into the ultimate grade the paper receives.

*Presenting your paper on the last day of class. Students will have approximately 10-minutes to present their papers as they would at an academic conference. The presentation also counts toward the ultimate grade the paper receives.

Grades will be calculated as follows:

Class attendance and participation: 10%

Group presentations: 16% (8% each)

Reading notes: 24% (8% each)

Paper: 50%, broken down as follows:

Initial statement of project and proposed methods: 8%

Annotated bibliography: 12%

Draft: 10%

Presentation: 10%

Final version of paper: 60%

Additional costs of the course:

The field trip to NYC (Nov. 6) is a mandatory part of the course curriculum. We will be eating lunch and dinner in NYC, and our high estimate is that this will cost ~$25.00. You may also care to purchase snacks along the way, as, in addition to the restaurants for lunch and dinner, we will be visiting some bakeries, a knishery, etc. This would add to the figure above. We are happy to provide a stipend to students who cannot spend the estimated $25.00 on this field trip. If this is the case for you, please speak to one of the professors privately and in advance.

Additional course activities:

Two supplementary course activities are scheduled and noted in italics on the syllabus. Your attendance at the 11/17 panel on globalization and the arts is mandatory. Your attendance at the 10/4 lecture recital on Brecht and Eisler in exile is strongly preferred.

Other course policies:

Late papers/assignments are downgraded ½ grade/day.

Late reading notes will not be accepted.

Students are expected to turn in original work. Students who plagiarize or cheat in any way will be severely punished, up to and including failing the class. They will also be reported to the Committee on Academic Honesty.

The professors reserve the right to exercise the University attendance policy.

All assignments of more than one page must be stapled and have numbered pages. Unstapled papers, i.e., loose papers or papers attached with a paper clip, Band-Aid, Scotch tape, masking tape, a bobbie pin, a safety pin, or anything other than a staple, will not be accepted and are subject to the down-grading policy discussed above.

Course texts:

The only course book is Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities. It is available in the bookstore.

All other readings are in a course reader available for purchase from Mrs. Anne Claus, Steele Hall building secretary, Steele 202, claus@susqu.edu.

TH 9/4	Course Introduction Student and faculty introductions Review of syllabus Sign-up for group presentations Film: Mississippi Masala
TH 9/11	What is a Nation? I Ernst Renan, “What is a Nation?” J. G. Herder, selections from Yet Another Philosophy of History William A. Wilson, “Herder, Folklore and Romantic Nationalism” Frantz Fanon, “On National Culture,” in The Wretched of the Earth Benedict Anderson, chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 in Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism
TH 9/18	What is a Nation? II Benedict Anderson, chapters 7, 10, and 11 in Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism Partha Chatterjee, “Whose Imagined Community?,” Chapter 1 in The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories Andrew Parker, et al, pp. 1-9 in Nationalisms and Sexualities Brackette Williams, “A Class Act: Anthropology and the Race to Nation Across Ethnic Terrain”
TH 9/25	Diasporas and Transnational Communities I William Safran, “Diasporas in Modern Society: Myths of Homeland and Return” Kachig Tololyan, “Rethinking Diaspora(s): Stateless Power in the Transnational Moment” James Clifford, “Diasporas” Kim D. Butler, “Defining Diaspora, Refining a Discourse” Stefan Helmreich, “Kinship, Nation, and Paul Gilroy’s Concept of Diaspora”
TH 10/2	Diasporas and Transnational Communities II Sherman Alexie, “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” Karen Miller-Loessi and Zeynep Kilic, “A Unique Diaspora? The Case of Adopted Girls from the People’s Republic of China” Pnina Werbner, “Global Pathways: Working Class Cosmopolitans and the Creation of Transnational Ethnic Worlds” ***Statement of project and proposed methods due in class***
SAT 10/4 1:30-5:00 8:00-10:00pm	"Hollywood Songbook: Brecht and Eisler in Exile." A lecture recital by David Steinau and a colloquium with invited scholars. Organized by the Departments of Music and History Isaacs Auditorium Performance of Hollywood Songbook Stretansky Hall
TH 10/9	Migrant Laborers Nicholas De Genova, “Migrant ‘Illegality’ and Deportability in Everyday Life” John Bow, “Nobodies: Does Slavery Exist in America?” Leyla Gülçür and Pinar Îlkkaracan, “The ‘Natasha’ Experience: Migrant Sex Workers from the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in Turkey” Film: La Promesse

TH 10/16	The Secure Nation Health and Hygiene Alejandro Grimson, “Hygiene Wars on the Mercosur Border: Local and National Agency in Uruguaiana (Brazil) and Paso de los Libres (Argentina)” Iris Chang, “Fear of SARS, Fear of Strangers” New York Times, “Prejudice or Prudence on SARS,” letters to the editor in response to Chang Terrorism John Edgar Wideman, “Whose War: The Color of Terror” Manuchehr Sanadjian, “Multiculturalist Discourse, Esoteric Representation of Islam and the Global Anti-Terror Campaign” Charles Lewis and Adam Mayle, “Justice Department Drafts Sweeping Expansion of Anti-Terrorism Act” Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, Section-by-Section Analysis Eric Lichtblau, “Audit Finds Big Problems in Handling of 9/11 Detentions” Arms Hugh Gusterson, “The Virtual Nuclear Weapons Laboratory in the New World Order”
Fall Break 10/18 – 10/21
TH 10/23	Tourism Denise Brennan, “Tourism in Transnational Places: Dominican Sex Workers and German Sex Tourists Imagine One Another” Richard Clarke, “Self-Presentation in a Contested City: Palestinian and Israeli Political Tourism in Hebron” Steven C. Dinero, “Image is Everything: The Development of the Negev Bedouin as a Tourist Attraction” Rebecca Luna Stein, “‘First Contact’ and Other Israeli Fictions: Tourism, Globalization, and the Middle East Peace Process” Laurence Wai-Teng Leong, “Commodifying Ethnicity: State and Ethnic Tourism in Singapore” Jocelyn Linnekin, “Consuming Cultures: Tourism and the Commoditization of Cultural Identity in the Island Pacific” Film: Cannibal Tours ***Annotated bibliography due in class***
TH 10/30	Food Uma Narayan, “Eating Cultures: Incorporation, Identity and Indian Food” Allison James, “How British is British Food?” Lynn Harbottle, “Fast Food/Spoiled Identity: Iranian Migrants in the British Catering Trade” David Y. H. Wu, “McDonald’s in Taipei: Hamburgers, Betel Nuts, and National Identity” Josephine A. Beoku-Betts, “We Got Our Way of Cooking Things: Women, Food, and Preservation of Cultural Identity among the Gullah” Andrew Buckser, “Keeping Kosher: Eating and Social Identity among the Jews of Denmark” Film: What’s Cooking?
TH 11/6	Class trip to NYC (with History and Culture of Jewish Cuisines)

TH 11/13	Media Robert Baird, “Going Indian: Discovery, Adoption, and Renaming Toward a ‘True American,’ from Deerslayer to Dances with Wolves” Annette M. Taylor, “Cultural Heritage in Northern Exposure” Anthony C. Alessandrini, “‘My Hearts Indian for All That’: Bollywood Film between Home and Diaspora” Koushik Banerjea, “Sounds of Whose Underground?: The Fine Tuning of Diaspora in an Age of Mechanical Reproduction” Mark Graham and Shahram Khosravi, “Reordering Public and Private in Iranian Cyberspace: Identity, Politics, and Mobilization”
M 11/17 4:15-5:45 pm	Invited Panel to discuss Globalization and the Arts, Isaacs Auditorium Dr. Falu Bakrania, SUNY Binghamton Dr. Andy Lamas, UPenn Dr. Toby Miller, NYU
TH 11/20	Going Home? Polgreen, Lydia, “Angolans Come Home to ‘Negative Peace’” Takeyuki (Gaku) Tsuda, “From Ethnic Affinity to Alienation in the Global Ecumene: The Encounter between the Japanese and Japanese-Brazilian Return Migrants” Nicole Constable, “At Home but Not at Home: Filipina Narratives of Ambivalent Returns” Edna Lomsky-Feder and Tamar Rapoport, “Homecoming, Immigration, and the National Ethos: Russian-Jewish Homecomers Reading Zionism” Paulla A. Ebron, “‘Where and When I Enter’: Situating the Ethnographer Within African American Counter Discourses” E. Frances White, “Africa on My Mind: Gender, Counter Discourse and African-American Nationalism” ***Draft of paper due in class***
Thanksgiving Break 11/26 – 11/30
TH 12/4	A Multicultural Nation? Minelle Mahtani, “Interrogating the Hyphen-Nation: Canadian Multicultural Policy and ‘Mixed Race’ Identities” Lok Siu, “Cultural Citizenship of Diasporic Chinese in Panama” Bonnie Honig, “Immigrant America?: How Foreignness ‘Solves’ Democracy’s Problems” Talal Asad, “Multiculturalism and British Identity in the Wake of the Rushdie Affair” Sciolino, Elaine, “Back to Barricades: Liberty, Equality, Sisterhood” Film: Born in East LA
TH 12/11	Presentation of Seminar Papers

References

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2001 “‘My Hearts Indian for All That’: Bollywood Film between Home and Diaspora.” Diaspora 10(3):315-340.

Alexie, Sherman

2003 “What You Pawn I Will Redeem.” The New Yorker April 21 & 28:169-177.

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