Regis College, CCS 300 RU05
Sophomore Seminar: Immigration and America

Syllabus PDF 
Excused Absence PDF 
First Peer Edit Sheet
Anti-Immigration Cartoons PDF 
Service Learning Office - for arranging Service (or Interview)
Service Contract PDF - due Sept.12
Interview Contract PDF - due Sept.12
Midterm Service Hrs. PDF - due Oct.12
Final Service Hours PDF - due Dec. 1
Final Service Eval. PDF - due Dec. 1 (but give eval. to supervisor by mid-Nov.)

CCS 300 Grades
www.mygradebook.com

Dr. Ghedotti's Dogs
Bosco & Max

Regis Sites
Library
Justice Education
Core Studies

Bulletin Course Description - Sophomore Seminar

Asks fundamental questions about justice, diversity, and liberty in the diverse and complex society of the United States. Analyzes issues of power and privilege in contemporary society and nurtures concern for social justice. Integrates academic study with community-based service learning projects. Prerequisite(s): CCS 200.

Course Section Description - Immigration & America

This course will focus on immigration to the United States in both historic and contemporary contexts. Immigrants of all types built this country and contributed their cultures and perspectives to form what is now the vibrant and distinctive culture of the United States. This “building” and creation of a distinctive culture has not ceased, and contemporary immigration continues this process today. Prerequisite(s): CCS 200.

Course Section Goals

This course aims to provide students both with an awareness of diversity in the United States as generated by immigration and a sense of how we all share an immigrant ancestry. This course also seeks to explore questions of social justice, culture, and belonging in an immigrant nation. Specifically:

•  Students should understand what occurred when the Americas, despite a large native population, were “colonized” by Europeans. In addition, students should understand how points of view about individual and societal motivations influence explanations about why and how this colonization occurred.
• Students should understand the patterns of immigration into North American since the 1600s and how these patterns have molded society and culture in the United States. Students should also be able to place their own family’s immigration history into this historic context.
• Students should understand how race and ethnicity were and are defined in the United States, and the role of race and ethnicity in economic, social, and cultural assimilation to American society.
•  Students should generally understand past and contemporary nativist movements in the United States.
• In general, students should understand and be able to develop informed opinions concerning contemporary immigration issues.
• Students should be able to demonstrate the ability to give a simple short presentation, conduct academic research, and write effectively.

Class Sessions, Time and Place:

Monday & Wednesday 4:00-5:15pm

Instructor:

Dr. Michael Ghedotti
Chapel Basement Cubicle 11, Phone: (303) 458-4091
Email: mghedott@regis.edu

Office Hours:
TBA

I check my e-mail frequently (at least every day) and my voice mail less frequently (a couple of times a week).

REQUIRED COURSE MATERIALS:

Lecture texts:
Garbaccia, D. 2002. Immigration and American Diversity, A Social and Cultural History. Blackwell.

Diamond J. 1999. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. W. W. Norton & Company.

Jacoby, T. 2004. Reinventing the Melting Pot, The New Immigrants and What it Means to Be American. Basic Books.

Martinez, R. 2001. Crossing Over, A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail. Picador/Henry Holt & Co.

Books may be purchased at the Regis University Bookstore in the Regis Student Center.

Supplemental readings (required) - See Regis Reserves:
Chapter 2, pp. 33-56.  --  Mann, Charles C. 2005. 1491 : new revelations of the Americas before Columbus. New York, Knopf.

pp. 60-63 (just these 4 pages in Chapter 3, not the whole chapter)  --  Young, Robert J.C. 2003. Postcolonialism. Oxford; New York : Oxford University Press.