Teaching Team

John Abbenante, Dr. Rebecca Bell-Metereau, Dr. Eric Benjamin, Dr. Leticia Garza-Falcon

Curriculum

Southwest Texas State's -ISM (N.) course was titled "Introduction to U.S. Ethnic Studies" and was offered through the U.S. Ethnic Studies department.

The course was designed to address diversity issues using the video documentary process as a tool to increase connections among academic studies, communities outside the university and the media.

Students in this course explored and responded to multi-disciplinary survey of different contemporary and historical research methodologies currently used by various academic disciplines in analyzing the diverse social, economic, political and cultural facets of ethnic groups in the United States. Special attention was given to African American, American Indian and Mexican American ethnic groups. Students also identified their history of ethnicity in the American experience using the oral history of their own family.

Students gained a working understanding of group process, power dynamics, exploring and negotiating differences, and the relationship between media representation and ethnic and personal identity. Students attained visual literacy and mastery of some aspect of video production, as well as an ability to recognize documentary styles and critique and analyze portrayals of ideology and socially constructed identities.

Community Educational Activity

Southwest Texas State University aims to encourage greater cooperation between the university and the surrounding community through their Community Educational Activity. A September town meeting will feature excerpts from the -ISM (N.) student videos, followed by a brief panel discussion. In October participants will continue the discussion from the first meeting. A special episode of Channel 19's " Meet the Professors" show will be broadcast during October featuring a panel of students, professors and community experts who will field call-in responses to videotaped excerpts from the October meeting. In November, participants will reconvene to plan ongoing activities requiring local community and university collaboration, such as service projects, reading and discussions groups, and grant proposals related to community problem solving. The final event, on December 1st, will celebrate diversity through the arts. SWTSU students, local youth and other community members will present dance, music, theatrical performances, art work, and readings.

Contact: Rebecca Bell-Metereau, rb12@admin.swt.edu

Watch for more details...

Resources Used In Course

Churchill, Ward and Jaimes, M. Annette (ED.) (1992). Fantasies of the Master Race, Literature, Cinema and the Colonization of American Indians. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press. (SWT)

Feagin, Joseph R. and Clairece Booher. (1996). Racial and Ethnic Relations (Fifth Edition). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. (SWT)

Garvy, Helen. (1965) Before Your Shoot: A Guide to Low Budget Film and Video Production (Third Edition). Shire Press. (SWT)

Gregory, Steven and Sanjek, Roger (EDS.). (1994). Race. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. (SWT)

Kyvig, David E. and Marty, Myron A. (1978). Your Family History: A Handbook for Research and Writing.Arlington Heights, IL: AMH Publishing Corp.(SWT)

Montejano, David. (1986). Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836-1986. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1992. (SWT)

Padilla, Genero M. (1993). My History, Not Yours: The Formation of Mexican American Autobiography. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.(SWT)

Stack, Carol B. (1974). All Our Kin: Strategies for Survival in a Black Community. New York: Harper and Row. (SWT)

Weber, David J. Myth and the History of the Hispanic Southwest: Essays. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1988. (SWT)

Attinasi, John. "Racism, Language Variety, and Urban U.S, Minorities: Issues in Bilingualism and Bidialectalism", Race. Ed. Steven Gregory and Roger Sanjek. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994. (SWT)

Blakey, Michael L. "Passing the Buck: Naturalism and Individualism as Anthropological Expressions of Euro-American Denial", Race. Ed. Steven Gregory and Roger Sanjek. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994. (SWT)

Brodkin Sacks, Karen. "How did Jews Become White Folks?", Race. Ed. Steven Gregory and Roger Sanjek. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994. (SWT)

Cameron, Barbara. "Gee, You Don't Look Like an Indian from the Reservation", The Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. Eds. Gloria Anzaldua and Cherrie Moraga, Watertown, MA: Persephone Press, 1981.(SWT)

Cortes, Carlos. "Pluribus and Unum: The Quest for Community and Diversity", Change. September/October 1991. (SWT)

Davis, Angela. "Reflections on the Black Woman's Role in the Community of Slaves", Women, Race and Class. New York: Random House, 1981.(SWT)

De La Graza, Beatriz. "The Kid from the Alamo", The Candy Vendor's Boy and Other Stories. Houston: Arte Publico, 1994. (SWT)

De La Torre, Adela and Pesqera, Beatriz M. "A Note on Ethnic Labels", Building with Our Hands. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993. (SWT)

Giddings, Paula. "Casting of the Die: Morality, Slavery and Resistance", Where and When I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America. New York: Bantam Books, 1984. (SWT)

Gregory, Steven. "Race, Rubbish, and Resistance: Empowering Difference in a Community of Politics", Race. Ed. Steven Gregory and Roger Sanjek. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994. (SWT)

hooks, bell. "Reconstructing Black Masculinity", Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992. (SWT)

hooks, bell "Representions of Whiteness", Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992. (UNC) (SWT)

Hu-Dehart, Evelyn. "P.C. and the Politics of Multiculturalism in Higher Education", Race. Ed. Steven Gregory and Roger Sanjek. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994. (SWT)

Jaimes, Annett. "American Racism: The Impact of American-Indian Indentity and Survival", Race. Ed. Steven Gregory and Roger Sanjek. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994. (SWT)

Lorde, Audre. "Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference", Racism and Sexism: An Integrated Study. Paula S. Rothenberg, New York: St. Martinís Press, 1988. (SWT)

Lorde, Audre. "The Master's Tools will Never Dismantle the Master's House", Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. New York: The Crossing Press, 1984. (SWT) (UNC)

Menchaca, Martha. "Chicano Indianism: An Historical Account of Racial Repression in the United States", American Ethnologist. 20.3, 1993. (SWT)

Rosaldo, Renato. "Race and Other Inequalities: The Borderlands in Arturo Islas's Migrant Souls", Race. Ed. Steven Gregory and Roger Sanjek. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994. (SWT)

Saldivar, Ramon. "Race, Class, and Gender in the Southwest: Foundations of an American Resistance Literature and Its Literary History", Chicano Narrative: The Dialectics of Difference. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990. (SWT)

Sanjek, Roger. "The Enduring Inequalities of Race", Race. Ed. Steven Gregory and Roger Sanjek. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994. (SWT)

Sanjek, Roger. "Intermarriage and the Future of Races in the United States", Race. Ed. Steven Gregory and Roger Sanjek. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994.(SWT)

Takagi, Dana Y. "Post Civil Rights Politics and Asian American Identity: Admissions and Higher Education", Race. Ed. Steven Gregory and Roger Sanjek. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994. (SWT)

Villanueva, Tino. "History Class", Cronacas de Mis Anos Peores. La Jolla, CA: Lalo Press. (SWT)

Whitehead, Harriet. "The Bow and the Burden Strap: A New Look at Institutionalized Homosexuality in Native North America", Sexual Meanings: The Cultural Construction of Gender and Sexuality. Eds. Sherry B. Ortner and Harriet Whitehead. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. (SWT)

Williams, Brett. "Babies and Banks: The 'Reproductive Underclass' and the Raced, Gendered Masking of Debt", Race. Ed. Steven Gregory and Roger Sanjek. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994. (SWT)

Zavella. Patricia. "Reflections on Diversity among Chicanas", Race. Ed. Steven Gregory and Roger Sanjek. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994. (SWT)

Riggs, Marlon. (1991). Color Adjustment. San Francisco, CA: California Newsreel. (SWT)

Student Video Topics

Mexican American identity ... racism ... interracial dating ... sexism ... separatism ... racism in the church ... hip hop music ... Chicana activism ... multicultural education ... affirmative action ... diversity of musical tastes at the university ... stereotypes