Citizen Nation

For Sept 6 in class:

Leno’s Citizenship Test (pre-2009)

Myths about migration to US (On The Media, July 2016)

Somalis in Maine (August 2016)

The Electoral College (New York Times, 2012)

How Much do Americans Know About Immigration? (Washington Post, Sept 2016)

Links & resources to explore before Thurs Sept 8 class:

Take the 100-question US Citizenship Quiz – do this before Thursday, WITHOUT looking up answers & email me a screenshot of your results = thangen@worcester.edu

Voter Registration
Find Your US Senator / Representative
Find your MA Senator / Representative
Voter ID Laws, State by State
Massachusetts Redistricting Info
FAQs about the Electoral College
National Popular Vote Campaign

Reminder: Sept 8, a 2-3 page response paper is due on the Bellamy Citizenship book. Bring the paper to class as a printed paper (staples and everything!), don’t email it to me. We will discuss the entire book in class, please read it using the discussion questions I handed out as a guide, and bring the book to class ready for a lively discussion.

This is the course website for “Citizen Nation” at Worcester State University in Fall 2016, which can be taken as either History (HI) or Political Science (PO), as well as for Honors credit. Our class meets Tues / Thurs at 8:30 am in Sullivan 326. I used this website when I taught the course in previous terms and I’ve left that course material up as an archive for those students; you can ignore any post not tagged “Fall16.”

This course is a rigorous seminar on the history and meaning of American citizenship, organized around several guiding questions: Who counts as an American? How do we decide as a society? What does it mean to be an American citizen? What rights, privilege, and responsibilities are part of that definition? In the founding generation, citizenship was limited to property-owning white men, and since that time, struggles to expand American citizenship have been at the core of the American story. How did the specifics of that struggle unfold over the course of American history?

As an upper-level seminar and a LASC “super-course”, this class presumes some prior historical knowledge and will ask you to dig deeply, read extensively, and write often; it is designed to be challenging even for experienced students. For the complete list of what you’ll be expected to know and do by the end of the course, see the “About” tab above.

For incoming students, get the list of 3 required books under the “Readings” tab above, and read the “Peer to Peer Advice” tab to get a sense of what to expect from–and what to put into–this semester’s work. Please note we will use the Bellamy Citizenship book in the FIRST WEEK of class, so get it in advance. Previous semester’s student research abstracts are posted in the “Student Showcase” if you’d like to get a sense of the quality and scope of work produced in prior semesters. If you need to contact me over the summer, you can track me down with the information posted under “Prof Info.” I look forward to meeting you in September!

Worcester State is opening late today, Tues 12/9 at 10:00 am. That means no class for us. Please drop off your response papers #6 sometime today in my office mailbox, Sullivan 327D, or email them to me. Also, if you have not yet written an abstract for your CITIZEN essay, please do that and email it also. I will post your web essays between now and Thurs, so I may contact you individually if I have specific questions about your revisions. Continue reading →

Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Here’s what we’re up to upon our return to campus. Continue reading →

Over the next several class periods, we are looking at what happened with citizenship and civil rights from the 1960s to the present. Remember this was a complex movement, or really – a set of overlapping movements – with different strategies, constituencies, and histories. It cannot be reduced to a few key figures or events, and it did not end with the 1960s or even in the 1970s. So it helps to think about the civil rights revolution as unresolved, unfinished, and ongoing, and as part of a shared American history no matter your background. Continue reading →

I recommend you spend at least 1 hour exploring some of these links and resources to help you understand this important episode, and considering how it relates to the history of American citizenship in the 20th century: Continue reading →

Our class for Tues 11/4 has light reading but will be a hands-on workshop with some sources and materials for understanding the internment of Americans of Japanese descent during World War II. Continue reading →

Some web/video links for additional context. Continue reading →

Thanks to our guests from US-CIS‘s Lawrence Field Office last Thursday (who forged ahead with their presentation despite the power outage), we have a better sense of the current immigration and naturalization process. Continue reading →

I need to make a change to the syllabus’s assigned readings Continue reading →