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2016/17 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

HIST3452 Constructing and Contesting Whiteness in the US, 1865-1975

20 creditsClass Size: 28

Module manager: Dr Say Burgin
Email: s.burgin@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2016/17

Module replaces

HIST3450: American History and Historians

This module is approved as a discovery module

Module summary

This module offers students the opportunity to study the construction of whiteness, as both a marker of racial identity and a complex set of power relations, in the US. With a particular focus on black and white relations in the US, this module treats the century between the post-slavery Reconstruction period and the Black Power movement. This era offers a particularly rich historical period for studying whiteness, as it witnessed mass immigration from Europe, multiple black movements that posed challenges to racial domination, and persistent efforts by a cross-section of US society to re-entrench white supremacy. This module is arranged by a combination of chronological and thematic sessions, and it will also consider how whiteness studies can inform historical study. Throughout the module, students will also be encouraged to think about how race and whiteness continue to shape both historical scholarship and the US.

Objectives

1. To study the history of race relations in the United States, from the 1860s to the 1970s, through the prism of whiteness.
2. To explore the ways in which whiteness was both constructed and contested in the US during and through significant historical processes, including European immigration, segregation, black protest and scientific racism.
3. To critically assess the theoretical field of whiteness studies as an approach for studying history.
4. To review key historiographical debates related to whiteness and race in the US.

Learning outcomes
On successful completion of the module, students will be able to demonstrate:
1. A comprehensive understanding of the history of whiteness, as both a racial identity and set of power relations processes, in the US from the late 19th through late 20th centuries.
2. Familiarity with the theoretical field of whiteness studies and its application within historical study.
3. An ability to think critically about dominant historiographical narratives.
4. An ability to apply an interdisciplinary approach to the historical study of race.


Syllabus

This module will study a range of critical moments in the history of US race relations, as well as some crucial themes, including:
- An introduction to critical whiteness studies
- Whiteness and US history
- Black ideas about whiteness in the post-emancipation, New Negro and Black Power eras
- Immigration and strivings for whiteness
- Not-quite-whiteness: class and ethnicity
- Forging Whiteness through Gender
- Eugenics and the Birth Control Movement
- Property, the Law and Whiteness

Teaching methods

Delivery typeNumberLength hoursStudent hours
Seminar112.0022.00
Private study hours178.00
Total Contact hours22.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)200.00

Private study

Set reading for seminars, as well as broader independent research/reading for weekly seminars; set reading around whiteness studies and its application to history; completing three 'journal' assignments; and researching and completing two essays.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Student progress will be monitored through class discussions and contributions, discussion and evaluation of journal and essay plans, performance on the three assessments, and informal one-on-one meetings with students.

Methods of assessment


Coursework
Assessment typeNotes% of formal assessment
Essay1 x 2,000-word essay, due by 12 noon on Monday of teaching week 940.00
Essay1 x 3,000-word essay, due by 12 noon on Monday of examination week 150.00
Reflective log2 x 750-word entries10.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 27/04/2016

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