WEEK 16: the end

For our last class meeting we will be reading and discussing the book Overcoming Katrina: African American Voices from the Crescent City and Beyond.

This powerful oral history will help us close our class and make meaningful connection between our past and present. To focus your preparation, each of you is expected to compose one last “Critical Evaluation” essay.

To help give the book a greater context, as well as provide some further depth to the injustice which accompanied human tragedy in New Orleans, I encourage you to watch Act I & II of “When the Levee Broke,” Spike Lee’s award winning documentary on Katrina. If you can not find a copy through your own various means, I have made it available to you via Sakai. Just log on and click on the tab that corresponds to our class (CH HIST 100R .1 SP11). Once there, click on the word “Movie” in the left-hand sidebar menu.

You can learn more about the film by clicking here.

WEEK 15

This week you only need to complete your Historiography Essay, which is due in class on Wednesday. As we practiced and discussed, be sure and prepare a brief “mind map” for your essay and include that with the final assignment.

Our class will give us an opportunity to watch the film “The Ballad of Esequiel Hernandez” as we continue our discussion of the ways our course topics and themes continue to be represented in more recent historical events.

We will also complete course evaluations and make plans for our final class.

WEEK 14

We have only three weeks left of our class! This week is a little bit of a “down week” for you, so that you can complete what you need to complete in your other classes without slacking off on ours. Our readings are available for download by clicking on our password-protected “Digital Readings” page. It is one essay written by Audre Lorde and a new report issued by the NAACP. Both will give us ample opportunity to discuss the persistence of race in our society.

You do NOT have to prepare a Critical Evaluation essay on this week’s readings.

And, as a final reminder, your Historiography Essay is due on April 27th, during next week’s class.

WEEK 13

First, I want to thank you for your effort, preparation, and participation for last week’s seminar.  It was a real treat to have someone of Professor Gonzalez’ stature in our class. I hope you had as much of a special experience as I did.

Next week we return to our regular time, place, and format as we read and discuss the book Wide-Open Town, by Nan Alamilla Boyd. The book is available as an e-book through the Hoonold-Mudd Library. Just search for it in Blais (from a campus network connection) and click on the book’s electronic listing. Josh will lead our discussion and the rest of you will prepare by writing a CE essay.

We are nearing the end of our semester a bit faster than I would like to think. We have only four classes left encompassing two books; some digital readings; a movie, and a historiographical essay. As we briefly discussed this past week, toward the goal of alleviating some of the pressures involved with the week of our April 20th class, we will now make the Historiography due on April 27th. That means this is what our remaining classes will look like:

April 13:
READ: Wide-Open Town by Boyd.
WRITE: CE 8 (unless you are a seminar leader).

April 20:
READ: digital readings available from course website.
NOTE: you do not have to write a CE this week.

April 27:
We will watch a FILM in class and you will turn in your Historiography Essay (via email).

May 4:
READ: Overcoming Katrina by Penner and Ferdinand.
WRITE: CE 9.

The Final Portfolio will be due no later than Tuesday, May 10^th, at 1:15 p.m. (or Thursday, May 5^th at 1:15 p.m. for graduating seniors).

WEEK 12

This week we will be joined by Professor Gilbert G. Gonzalez, the History Department’s 2011 Ena Thompson Distinguished Lecturer.

As you know, we will be reading and discussing his book Guest Workers or Colonized Labor? As we discussed, each of us is responsible for preparing some questions and comments to keep our discussion moving. That kind of work is meant to be the heart of your Critical Evaluation assignments, anyway, so now you have a more deliberate focus.

I have also sent an email invitation to each of you to join us for lunch before hand.

Finally, I hope you will be able to join us for Professor Gonzalez’ public address “The Centrality of the United States in a Century of Mexican Migration” (Tues. @ 11AM in Rose Hills) and the screening of his documentary on the Bracero Program, “Harvest of Loneliness” (Thurs. @ 7PM in Rose Hills). The film will be followed by a Q&A.

See you this week!