HSED-UE 1033 | HIST-UA 651

GLOBAL CULTURE WARS

Fall 2019 • Monday/Wednesday 12:30-1:45pm
Cantor Film Center 200

Professor Mike Amezcua

mike.amezcua@nyu.edu
Office: Kimball Hall, 315E
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 3:00-5:00pm and by appt.

TA Instructors:

Hadas Binyamini Rebekah Hodge Veronica Padilla

hadas.binyamini@nyu.edu rfh263@nyu.edu veronica@newschool.edu

Jessica Steele Eszter Susan Emilie Tumale

jls1034@nyu.edu eszter.susan.guerrero@nyu.edu est296@nyu.edu

Amy Wilson
aew386@nyu.edu

Course Description and Objectives

Global Culture Wars will examine the roots of some of our most pertinent contemporary
issues with an emphasis on the major pillars that have contributed to our current political
culture. The notion of “culture wars” has typically been understood as a post-1960s
development over deeply divided issues of race, gender, sexuality, religion, resources, and
inequality. However, we will also delve deeper into the past to understand issues that have
contributed to these discussions. Some of the issues we will cover are: racial formation,
settler colonialism, the carceral state, the making of the model minority, immigration,
bilingual education, and others. Many of these issues are rooted in conflict and contradiction,
power and powerlessness. The examples examined in this course are far from the only
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culture wars going on in the U.S. or around the world but they give us a starting point to ask
difficult questions and to consider possible answers about political and cultural conflict, and
its consequences.

Required Readings

Available in the NYU bookstore.

K. Tsianina Lomawaima, They Called It Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School (Lincoln,
NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1995).

Kelly Lytle Hernández, City of Inmates: Conquest, Rebellion, and the Rise of Human Caging in Los
Angeles, 1771-1965 (Chapel Hill, NC: UNC Press, 2017).

Ellen D. Wu, The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015).

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Classroom Wars: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political
Culture (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2017).

Course Assignments

Students will complete five short essays throughout the semester. Prompts for each essay
can be found in our NYU Classes page under the “Resources” tab, select folder titled “Essay
Prompts.” Each paper will count as 15% of the final grade—together they are worth 75%.

Essay 1 – due Sep. 20th

Essay 2 – due Oct. 10th
Essay 3 – due Nov. 8th
Essay 4 – due Nov. 29th
Essay 5 – due Dec. 13th

Class Participation
• All participants in the course are expected to be in class and on time, read regularly
and participate actively in the course during discussion and during TA breakout
sessions. Class participation is graded and consists of 25% of your final grade. In
addition, you are expected to schedule a one-on-one appointment with your TA
during the course of the semester. (TAs will have more information on these
meetings.) Class participation will be graded in two main areas: attendance and active
participation in class (lecture class and breakout session), i.e. does it seem like you
have done the reading? Make a point about something you found interesting in the
reading. Or make connections between different readings. I understand that some
people are shy in a large gathering. I ask that you still push through that shyness, and
use this opportunity to share your thoughts with myself and your classmates. If you
need to miss a class, please send an email to your TA in advance.
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 • The five short papers will be graded on the following criteria:
o Does the paper have a clear thesis/argument?
o Does the student use evidence from the book to support their argument (not
just summarize data)?
o Is the paper clear and well written?

In general grades will be as follows:

A Paper reads like graduate level work; strong in all areas
A- Paper is strong in covering all criteria
B+ Paper covers most criteria well
B Solid paper but something missing—clarity, evidence, or thesis
B- More than one aspect missing
C+ Several aspects missing
C Tries to address the assignment but not ready for prime time
C- Really not ready for non-prime time
D Paper weak in all areas
F No paper, plagiarism problems, or completely misses the point

Important Class Policies, aka “The Laptop Policy”

This is a lecture and discussion-based class, devices are a distraction. To that end, I ask that
you do not take out your laptops, tablets, or mobile phones in this class. Leave them inside
your book bags during the duration of the class. If you have your laptop open, it is almost
impossible not to check email or briefly surf the Internet, even if you don’t mean to or have
told yourself that you won’t. I have the same impulse if I have my laptop open in a meeting.
This kind of multitasking impairs learning; once we are on email/the web, we are no longer
paying very good attention to what is happening in class.

If you insist on taking notes on a laptop but are found surfing the internet, messaging, or
viewing unrelated materials to the syllabus during class, I or any TA will deduct 5% of your
grade. Additionally, it goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that there is to be absolutely
no texting during class time.

FERPA and Policy Prohibiting Audio/Video Recording of Lecture

As classroom technologies continue to advance, more instructors and students are utilizing
video and audio recordings of class sessions. However, depending on how the recordings are
created or edited, they may constitute educational records that are protected under the
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) -- the federal student privacy law. For
the purposes of this large class, I ask that you refrain from recording any video or audio of
this course.

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 Important Take-Aways From this Syllabus

• Attend: If you miss a class. Do not email the Professor (aka me) asking: “Did
I miss anything important?” “Can I come to your office hours to make up
what I missed?” or any variation of these questions. Make a friend in the class,
and ask politely if they can share notes with you. And most importantly, don’t
miss class. Office hours are for expanding or clarifying ideas you’ve already
learned when you were in class.

• Speak: If you have come across something in the readings that excites you,
puzzles you, or confuses you, bring it up in class during discussion. Studies
show the more you engage in active speaking during appropriate times in
class, the more you will retain what you are learning. Take class discussion
seriously, like an assignment and chime in, do not let your peers shoulder the
load for you.

• Read: Always come to class prepared by having read all course materials
required for that class meeting. It is your responsibility to obtain all required
books. Do not email the professor: “where can I get the book?”

Important Additional Policies that all students need to be aware of:

Any student attending NYU who needs an accommodation due to chronic, psychological,
visual, hearing, mobility and/or learning disability, should register with the Moses Center for
Students with Disabilities at 212.998.4980, 726 Broadway, 2 floor, www.nyu.edu/csd.
nd

NYU Steinhardt’s Grading Policies

http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/registration/standards#grading_policies

Statement on Academic Integrity:

http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/policies/academic_integrity

Policy on Religious Holiday Observance:

http://www.nyu.edu/about/policies-guidelines-compliance/policies-and-
guidelines/university-calendar-policy-on-religious-holidays.html

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 Course Schedule

Week 1 (Sep 4) – Introductions

Wednesday – Introductions to each other and to the course

• Plans for the semester—review of syllabus, ground rules for our class

Week 2 (Sep 9/11) – Settler Colonialism

Monday
• Read K. Tsianina Lomawaima, They Called it Prairie Light, Chapters 1-2.
• Organization of TA groups.

Wednesday
• Lomawaima, They Called it Prairie Light, Chapters 3-4.

Week 3 (Sep 16/18) – Education and Conquest

Monday – Breakout Session 1: Meet with TA’s in discussion groups to review expectations
for the course, for writing, and preparing for your first essay assignment.
• Lomawaima, They Called it Prairie Light, Chapter 5.

Wednesday
• Lomawaima, They Called it Prairie Light, Chapter 6-Epilogue.

Essay #1 due Friday, September 20. Upload through “Assignments” tab on NYU
Classes.

Week 4 (Sep 23/25) – Incarceration Nation

Monday
• Kelly Lytle Hernández, City of Inmates, Intro-Chapter 1.

Wednesday
• Hernández, City of Inmates, Chapters 2-3.

Week 5 (Sep 30/Oct 2) – Criminalizing Immigration

Monday
• Hernández, City of Inmates, Chapter 4-5.

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Wednesday
• Natalia Molina, “Deportations in the Urban Landscape.” (Found under “Resources”
in NYU Classes)

Extra Credit Opportunity if you attend:

Public Lecture by Natalia Molina, University of Southern California
October 3, Thursday, 6pm
20 Cooper Square, 4th Floor

Week 6 (Oct 7/9) – Carceral Culture Wars

Monday – Breakout Session 2: Meet with your TA and group.

• Hernández, City of Inmates, Chapter 6-Conclusion.

Wednesday – Special Guest Lecture: Dr. Christina V. Cedillo, University of Houston-Clear

Lake

Essay #2 due Friday, October 10.

Week 7 (Oct 16) – Cold War Multiculturalism

Monday – Fall Recess, No Class.

Wednesday
• Ellen D. Wu, The Color of Success, Intro-Chapter 1.

Week 8 (Oct 21/23) – The Politics of Belonging

Monday
• Wu, The Color of Success, Chapter 2.

Wednesday
• Wu, The Color of Success, Chapter 3.

Week 9 (Oct 28/30) – Making the Model Minority

Monday
• Wu, The Color of Success, Chapter 4.

Wednesday
• Wu, The Color of Success, Chapter 5.

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Week 10 (Nov 4/6) – Racial Liberalism and Global Wars

Monday – Breakout Session 3: Meet with your TA and group.

• Wu, The Color of Success, Chapter 6.

Wednesday
• Wu, The Color of Success, Chapters 7-Epilogue.

Essay #3 due Friday, November 8.

Week 11 (Nov 11/13) – Great Society to the Conservative Turn

Monday
• Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Classroom Wars, Intro-Chapter 1.

Wednesday
• Petrzela, Classroom Wars, Chapter 2.

Week 12 (Nov 18/20) – Social Movements

Monday
• Petrzela, Classroom Wars, Chapter 3.

Wednesday
• Watch and discuss in class, Fear and Learning at Hoover Elementary, Dir. Laura Angelica
Simon.

Week 13 (Nov 25) – Language Wars

Monday – Breakout Session 4: Meet with your TA and group.

• Petrzela, Classroom Wars, Chapter 4.

Wednesday – Thanksgiving Recess (No Class)

Essay #4 due Friday, November 29.

Week 14 (Dec 2/4) – Classroom Wars

Monday
• Petrzela, Classroom Wars, Chapter 5.

Wednesday – Special Guest Lecture: Dr. Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, The New School
• Petrzela, Classroom Wars, Chapters 6-7.
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Week 15 (Dec 9/11) – Pillars of the Global Culture Wars

Monday – Breakout Session 5: Meet with your TA and group.

• Petrzela, Classroom Wars, Chapter 8-Conclusion.

Wednesday – Wrap up and final review of course themes.

Final Paper due Friday, December 13.