Identity and Difference

Readings

The readings assigned for each class session are listed below. Questions for each session’s readings are available on the Study Materials page.

Books

[RCG] = Andersen, Margaret L., and Patricia Hill Collins. Race, Class and Gender. 4th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2000. ISBN: 9780534568924.

[Legacies] = Bogarad, Carley Rees, Lynne Crockett, and Jan Zlotnik Schmidt. Legacies: Fiction, Poetry, Drama, Nonfiction. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, 2008. ISBN: 9781428206298.

Bourgois, Philippe. In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780521017114.

[SocLit] = Coser, Lewis. Sociology Through Literature. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1972. ISBN: 9780138215385.

[SCRE] = Ferrante, Joan, and Prince Browne, Jr. The Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity in the United States. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2001. ISBN: 9780130283238.

[Body] = Lock, Margaret, and Judith Farquhar. Beyond the Body Proper: Reading the Anthropology of Material Life. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780822338451.

[RES] = Nagel, Joane. Race, Ethnicity and Sexuality: Intimate Intersections, Forbidden Frontiers. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780195127478.

Pascoe, C. J. Dude, You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780520252301.

Rhodes, Lorna A. Total Confinement: Madness and Reason in the Maximum Security Prison. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780520240766.

[CDUS] = Susser, Ida, and Thomas C. Patterson. Cultural Diversity in the United States: A Critical Reader. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2001. ISBN: 9780631222132.

Week #	TOPICS	READINGS
1	Introduction to Course
2	Studying Identity and Difference: Concepts	Pascoe, pp. 1-174. Optional Davis, Natalie Zemon. “Boundaries and the Sense of Self in Sixteenth-Century France.” In Heller, Thomas C., Morton Sosna, and David E. Wellbery. Reconstructing Individualism: Autonomy, Individuality, and the Self in Western Thought. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1986. ISBN: 9780804712910. Mead, George Herbert. “The Self, the I, and the Me.” In Lemert, Charles. Social Theory: The Multicultural & Classic Readings. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2009. ISBN: 9780813343921. Bentham, Jeremy. “Of the Principle of Utility.” The Principles of Morals and Legislation, 1789. Wade, Nicholas. “Human Culture, an Evolutionary Force.” New York Times, March 1, 2010.
3	Analytic Perspectives: Bodies	Gordon, Linda. “Social Purity and Eugenics.” Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America. New York, NY: Penguin, 1990. ISBN: 9780140131277. Gould, Stephen J. “Measuring Bodies.” The Mismeasure of Man. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 1996. ISBN: 9780393314250. [Body] Schmidt, Matthew, and Lisa Jean Moore. “Constructing a ‘Good Catch’, Picking a Winner: The Development of Technosemen and the Deconstruction of the Monolithic Male.” Kondo, Dorinne. “On Being a Conceptual Anomaly.” Crafting Selves: Power, Gender, and Discourses of Identity in a Japanese Workplace. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago, 1990. ISBN: 9780226450445. Pascoe, Peggy. “Miscegenation Law, Court Cases, and Ideologies of ‘Race’ in 20th-Century America.” In Ruiz, Vicki, and Ellen Carol DuBois. Unequal Sisters: An Inclusive Reader in US Women’s History. New York, NY: Routledge, 2007. ISBN: 9780415958417. Optional Springen, Karen, and David Noonan. “Sperm Banks Go Online.” Newsweek, April 21, 2003. Fisher, Ian. “Bill Would Govern Use of Dead Men’s Sperm.” New York Times, March 7, 1998. Harmon, Amy. “First Comes the Baby Carriage.” New York Times, October 13, 2005. Alvarez, Lizette. “Spreading Scandinavian Genes, Without Viking Boats.” New York Times, September 30, 2004. Plotz, David. “Who’s Your Daddy?” New York Times, May 19, 2005. Simons, Marlise. “French Uproar Over Right to Death for Unborn.” New York Times, October 19, 2001. Daley, Suzanne. “France Bans Damages for ‘Wrongful Births’.” New York Times, January 10, 2002.
4	Analytic Perspectives: What is “Identity?” “Difference?”	Bourgois, pp. 1-173. Optional [Legacies] Díaz, Junot. “Fiesta 1980.” Originally in Díaz, Junot. Drown. New York, NY: Riverhead Books, 1996. ISBN: 9781573220415. Ahmad ibn Fadlan “Scandinavia and Ibn Fadlan.” MuslimHeritage.com, February 2, 2007.
5	Analytic Perspectives: Deviance	Bourgois, pp. 174-337. Optional Durkheim, Emile. “The Normal and the Pathological.” In Clarke, Edward J., and Delos H. Kelly. Deviant Behavior. New York, NY: Worth Publishers, 2008. ISBN: 9781429205184. LaFraniere, Sharon. “A Miniature World Magnifies Dwarf Life.” New York Times, March 3, 2010. Itzkoff, Dave. “’Family Guy’, Palin, and the Limits of Laughter.” New York Times, February 19, 2010.
6	Deviance and Stigma: The Outer Limits of Identity	Rhodes, pp. 1-224.
7	Sexuality	[RES] “Introduction: Sex matters: Racing Sex and Sexing Race,” “Ethnosexual Frontiers: Cruising and Crossing Intimate Intersections,” “Constructing Ethnicity and Sexuality: Building Boundaries and Identities,” “Sex and Race: The Color of Sex in America,” “Sex and Nationalism: Sexually Imagined Communities.” Optional [RES] “Sex and Conquest.” [Body] Pedersen, Susan. “National Bodies, Unspeakable Acts: The Sexual Politics of Colonial Policy Making.” [Body] Abelove, Henry. “Some Speculations on the History of ‘Sexual Intercourse’ During the ‘Long Eighteenth Century’ in England.” [RCG] Takagi, Dana. “Maiden Voyage: Excursion into Sexuality and Identity Politics in Asian America.” Bumiller, Elisabeth. “Repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Policy Filed in Senate.” New York Times, March 3, 2010. Boylan, Jennifer Finney. “Is My Marriage Gay?” New York Times, May 11, 2009. Rudnick, Paul. “Don’t Ask Me.” New Yorker, March 22, 2010.
9	Gender	Laqueur, Thomas. “Orgasm, Generation, and the Politics of Reproductive Biology.” In Lancaster, Roger N., & Micaela di Leonardo. The Gender Sexuality Reader: Culture, History, Political Economy. New York, NY: Routledge, 1997. ISBN: 9780415910057. Willis, Paul. “Masculinity and Factory Labor.” Originally in Clarke, John, et al. Working-Class Culture: Studies in History and Theory. London, England: Hutchinson, 1979. ISBN: 9780312889784. In Alexander, Steven, and Jeffrey Seidman. Culture and Society: Contemporary Debates. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1990. ISBN: 9780521359399. Cohn, Carol. “Wars, Wimps, and Women: Talking Gender and Thinking War.” In Kimmel, Michael S. The Gendered Society Reader. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2010. ISBN: 9780199733712. Lucal, Betsy. “What it Means to be Gendered Me: Life on the Boundaries of a Dichotomous Gender System.” Gender and Society 13 (1999): 781-797. Optional Kramer, Heinrich, and James Sprenger. “Part I, Question V,” “Part I, Question XI,” “Part II, Question I, Chapter III.” The Malleus Maleficarum, 1486. Stolke, Verena. “Invaded Women.” In Hendricks, Margo, and Patricia Parker. Women, “Race” and Writing in the Early Modern Period. New York, NY: Routledge, 1994. ISBN: 9780415077781. Kapsalis, Terri. “Mastering the Female Pelvis: Race and the Tools of Reproduction.” Public Privates: Performing Gynaecology from Both Ends of the Speculum. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780822319214. Bordo, Susan. “Anorexia Nervosa: Psychopathology as the Crystallization of Culture.” In Counihan, Carole, and Penny Van Esterik. Food and Culture: A Reader. New York, NY: Routledge, 2008. ISBN: 9780415977777. Tsing, Anna. “Monster Stories: Women Charged with Perinatal Endangerment.” In Ginsburg, Faye, and Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing. Uncertain Terms: Negotiating Gender in American Culture. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780807046135. Kendall, Lori. “‘Oh No! I’m a Nerd!’: Hegemonic Masculinity on an Online Forum.” Gender and Society 14 (2000): 256-274. Pyke, Karen D., and Denise L. Johnson. “Asian American Women and Racialized Femininities: ‘Doing’ Gender Across Cultural Worlds.” Gender and Society 17 (2003): 33-53. Glaberson, William. “For Transgender People, Name is a Message.” New York Times, January 24, 2010. Brown, Patricia Leigh. “A Quest for a Restroom That’s Neither Men’s Room Nor Women’s Room.” New York Times, March 4, 2005.
10	Religion; Social Class	Jacobson, Shari. “Modernity, Conservative Religious Movements and the Female Subject: Newly Ultraorthodox Sephardi Women in Buenos Aires.” American Anthropologist 108 (2006): 336-346. Rouse, Carolyn, and Janet Hoskins. “Purity, Soul Food, and Sunni Islam: Explorations at the Intersection of Consumption and Resistance.” Cultural Anthropology 19 (2004): 226-249. [SocLit] Orwell, George. “The Pecking Order of a Restaurant,” 1933. “The Lower Classes Smell,” 1937. [RCG] Mantsios, Gregory. “Media Magic: Making Class Invisible.” [RCG] Zinn, Maxine Baca, and D. Stanley Eitzen. “Economic Restructuring and Systems of Inequality at Century’s End.” [RCG] VanderStaay, Steven. “The Armstrongs: an Oral History.” [RCG] Newman, Katherine. “Working Poor, Working Hard.” Optional [SocLit] Orwell, George. “Shooting an Elephant,” 1945. [Legacies] Vonnegut, Jr., Kurt. “Harrison Bergeron.”
11	Ethnicity	Malamud, Bernard. “The Jewbird.” In Cassill, R. V. The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. 1st ed. New York, NY: W. W. Norton, 1978. ISBN: 9780393090727. [RCG] Takaki, Ronald T. “A Different Mirror.” Originally in Takaki, Ronald R. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Boston, MA: Back Bay Books, 2008. ISBN: 9780316022361. [RCG] Ferber, Abby L. “What White Supremacists Taught a Jewish Scholar About Identity.” Originally in The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 7, 1999. [RCG] Cofer, Judith Ortiz. “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named María.” [RCG] Moraga, Cherríe. “La Güera.” Originally in Moraga, Cherríe, and Gloria Anzaldúa. This Bridge Called My Back: Radical Writings by Women of Color. New York, NY: Kitchen Table Press, 1983. ISBN: 9780913175187. [CDUS] Biolsi, Thomas. “Contemporary Native American Struggles.” Zia, Helen. “Gangsters, Gooks, Geishas and Geeks.” In Schaefer, Richard T. Racial and Ethnic Groups. 9th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2004. ISBN: 9780130418692. [SCRE] “Constitution of the State of California, Article XIX: Chinese.” [SCRE] Gould, Stephen Jay. “Science and Jewish Immigration.” [Body] Cosgrove, Stuart. “The Zoot Suit and Style Warfare.”
13	Race	Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. “Racial Formation.” Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s. New York, NY: Routledge, 1994. ISBN: 9780415908641. Smedley, Audrey. “‘Race’ and the Construction of Human Identity.” American Anthropologist 100 (1999): 690-702. [SCRE] U.S. Office of Management and Budget. “Federal Statistical Directive No. 15: Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting.” [SCRE] Jensen, Robert. “White Privilege Shapes the U.S.” and “More Thoughts on Why the System of White Privilege is Wrong.” [SCRE] Jefferson, Thomas. “Letter From Thomas Jefferson: Virginia’s Definition of a Mulatto.” Du Bois, W. E. B. “The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study,” 1899. “The Souls of Black Folk,” 1903. In Farganis, James. Readings in Social Theory: The Classic Tradition to Post-Modernism. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2010. ISBN: 9780078111556. [Legacies] Jacobs, Harriet. “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” Optional Nixon, Ron. “DNA Tests Find Branches but Few Roots.” New York Times, November 25, 2007. Potok, Mark, et al. “The Geography of Hate.” New York Times, November 25, 2007. Saulny, Susan. “With New Homes, Town Makes Amends for Its Bias.” New York Times, March 10, 2010.
14	Race, Gender, Ethnicity I	[CDUS] Merry, Sally. “Racialized Identities and the Law.” [SocLit] Brown, Claude. “Everybody White She Saw Was Mr. Charlie.” [SocLit] Johnson, James Weldon. “To be a Negro.” [SocLit] Twain, Mark. “Huck Breaks the White Code.” [SocLit] Wright, Richard. “The Price of Keeping One’s Place.” [RCG] Anderson, Elijah. “The Police and the Black Male.” [RCG] Dyson, Michael. “The Plight of Black Men.” [SCRE] Zinn, Howard. “Persons of Mean and Vile Condition.” Pollock, Mica. “Race Bending: ‘Mixed’ Youth Practicing Strategic Racialization in California.” Anthropology & Education Quarterly 35 (2004): 30-52. Rotimi, Charles N. “Genetic Ancestry Tracing and the African Identity: A Double-Edged Sword?” Developing World Bioethics 3 (2003): 151-158.
15	Race, Gender, Ethnicity II	Cole, Johnnetta Betsch, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall. “Collisions: Black Liberation Versus Women’s Liberation.” Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women’s Equality in African American Communities. New York, NY: Ballantine, 2003. ISBN: 9780345454133. [RCG] Davis, Deirdre. “The Harm That Has No Name: Street Harassment, Embodiment, and African American Women.” [RCG] McIntosh, Peggy. “White Privilege.” [RCG] Williams, Patricia. “Of Race and Risk.” (Also in Schaefer, Racial and Ethnic Groups.) “How to Tell Your Friends From the Japs.” Time, December 22, 1941. [SCRE] Forbes, Jack D. “‘Indian’ and ‘Black’ as Radically Different Types of Categories.” [SCRE] Browne, Prince. “Why ‘Race’ Makes no Scientific Sense: The Case of Africans and Native Americans.” Lei, Joy L. “(Un)necessary Toughness? Those ‘Loud Black Girls’ and Those Quiet Asian Boys.’” Anthropology & Education Quarterly 34 (2003): 158-181. Optional [CDUS] Goode, Judith. “Teaching Against Culturalist Essentialism.” [RCG] Churchill, Ward. “Crimes Against Humanity.” Harmon, Amy. “Indian Tribe Wins Fight to Limit Research of its DNA.” New York Times, April 21, 2010.