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HISTORY 286D: Yours in Struggle: African Americans and Jews in the 20th Century U.S. (JEWISHST 286D)

This colloquium explores the history of African Americans and Jews in 20th century US beginning with Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe and the Great Migration to America's urban centers. It considers the geographical and economic tensions that developed between two minority groups living in close proximity; the appropriation of black culture; Jewish claims to whiteness and performance of blackness; intercommunal relations during the Civil Rights movement; the breakdown of the black-Jewish alliance in the late 1960s; and the lingering ramifications of this shift today.
Last offered: Autumn 2019 | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

HISTORY 286E: Labor Migration: Gender, Race, and Capitalism in North Africa and the Middle East

Current media coverage dwells on the plight of migrants passing through North Africa in search of higher-wage jobs in Europe. But labor migration from, to, and through North Africa and the Middle East is nothing new. Pushing beyond widespread views of labor migration as a policy problem for Western governments to "solve," we will instead explore how migrant laborers shaped the modern history of North Africa and the Middle East, from the late Ottoman Empire until today. We will read an array of texts in history and historical anthropology--each deploying different sources, methods, and empirical examples--to discuss how migrant laborers molded 1) conceptions of race and gender, 2) the development of capitalism, 3) political mobilization, and 4) the boundaries between nations and regions. Among other examples, we will discuss trans-Atlantic migrants from the Ottoman Levant who shaped labor and gender relations within the Middle East and the Americas; migrant workers from North Africa and the Middle East who sustained wartime industries in European empires and metropoles; the construction of an oil economy in the Gulf that was built by migrant labor; and sub-Saharan African domestic workers in the Middle East facing exploitation and crisis. Throughout, we will devote particular attention to the ways in which our readings place migrant laborers and their communities at the center of analysis, despite the fact that migrant laborers do not have a voice in dominant archives.
Last offered: Spring 2021 | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

HISTORY 286F: Jews in Trump's America and Before (JEWISHST 186)

This class considers the notion of American Jewish exceptionalism through the lens of Trump's America. The social and economic success of American Jewry over the last 350 years is remarkable, yet Jews continue to find their position in American society called into question. This course moves between past and present and will consider key moments in American Jewish life with a particular emphasis on contemporary currents, including post-liberal identity politics, Israel, and the rise of white supremacy.
Last offered: Spring 2020 | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
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