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American
Cultures, American Ethnicities the Theme of Seminar
Ten members of the Smith faculty -- drawn
from such varied departments as English, history, theatre, religion,
African-American studies and women's studies -- spent three
weeks in June in an on-campus seminar discussing themes and teaching
concepts that will help them develop new courses in the areas of American
cultures and American ethnicities.
The group read about a dozen
articles and books in preparation for the seminar, including
Racial Formation in the United States from the 1960s to the
1990s by Michael Omi and Howard Winant, "Talking About
Race, Learning About Racism: The Application of Racial Identity
Development Theory in the Classroom" by Beverly Tatum,
and The Ethnic Myth by Stephen Steinberg. Other Smith faculty
members who are engaged in diversity work and teaching met
with the group, to describe their work in such areas as Asian
American studies and Latin American and border studies.
Although
many of the hundreds of courses in the Smith curriculum already
address diversity themes, Carol Christ had suggested that
one way to expand such offerings
might be to explore a model developed at the University of California at Berkeley.
Where possible, faculty members there are encouraged to give in-depth attention
to three ethnic groups in courses they develop. "Everyone has an ethnic
past of some sort," Christ says, and looking at several ethnic groups in
one course gives "everyone a place at the table." That way, "it's
easier to ask ‘What makes my group different from yours?'" When
a donor became interested in the project, funding for the seminar and the development
of the courses it will spawn was assured.
Says Jill de Villiers, professor
of philosophy and Sophia and Austin Smith Professor
of Psychology, "The seminar exposed me to a wealth of information about
the history of racial formation in the U.S. [which, in turn] led me to an appreciation
of the economic and political forces that establish and maintain racism." De
Villiers says she now sees the issues of her work on language variety in the
United States "in a much richer context." Next spring, as an outgrowth
of her seminar experience, she will launch a course on language acquisition and
the special circumstances faced by African-American children who are learning
varieties of English and Hispanic children growing up bilingual.
Although they
know they've set an ambitious goal, all the faculty members
who participated expect to develop new courses as a result of their involvement
in the seminar. They will continue to meet during 2003–04, with another
set of faculty members expected to form a second American Cultures, American
Ethnicities Diversity Seminar in June 2004. -- AES
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