Genevieve Carpio's Pedagogical Portfolio: Teaching, Digital Humanities, and Diversity

Syllabus: Topics in California History

TOPICS IN CALIFORNIA HISTORY: LATINO MOBILITY AND DIGITAL HISTORY

Yale University, Fall 2014
Dr. Genevieve Carpio
Office: Dow Hall 407
Email: genevieve.carpio@yale.edu
Office Hours:
Tues and Thurs 3:30-4:30 pm
and by appointment
 
 
This course investigates 20th century California history with an emphasis on points of friction between spatial boundaries and mobility in Latino/a history. Themes investigated include car culture, ethnic quarantines, tourism, and immigration enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico Border. Together, we will ask how policies regulating mobility have shaped Latino racial formation in California. And, we will investigate how migration has intersected with citizenship status, gender, and class to produce varying life experiences over time in the United States.
 
In this course, students are also invited to develop their digital literacy through assignments that combine traditional historical methods with new media. We will experiment with digital applications and explore this epistemological shift in the humanities by curating a digital project based on the theme of Latino/a mobility in California. This hands-on component will require students to consider the relationship between form and content, make curatorial decisions, and consider the use of digital media as a research methodology. 

A. READINGS

• Avila, Eric. Folklore of the Freeway: Race and Revolt in the Modernist City. University of Minnesota Press, 2014.
 
• Cohen, David and Rosenzweig. Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. EBook available at http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/book.php.

• Cresswell, Tim. On the Move: Mobility in the Modern Western World. New York: Routledge, 2006.
 
• Fante, John. Ask the Dust. 1939. Reprint, New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006.
 
• Lytle-Hernandez, Kelly. Migra! A History of the U.S. Border Patrol. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.
 
• Mitchell, Don. Lie of the Land: Migrant Workers and the California Landscape. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1996.
 
• Molina, Natalia. Fit to be Citizens? Public Health and Race in Los Angeles, 1879-1939. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.
 
All books are on reserve at Sterling library. Additional course readings will be available in PDF on the course website
 
B. COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Students are expected to attend class and to be active and prepared participants. Assignments will consist of maintaining a digital portfolio, leading class discussion, writing a digital source review, curating a collective website, presenting in a public venue, and completing a final assessment paper.
 
C. STUDENT EVALUATION

• 10% Attendance and Participation

• 15% Blogger Discussion: Each student will post an entry to our shared class blog that will be used as an introduction to our in-class discussion. Posts that draw upon current policy issues, link to previous posts, or integrate multiple class readings are encouraged. You are also responsible for following your classmates’ blogs in preparation for class. For an example, visit: http://project-musings.blogspot.com/2012/12/week-1-environmental-racism-and-metro.html

• 20% Digital Source Review: During Week 8, you will choose three public history sites to review. One must be from the Scalar showcase http://scalar.usc.edu/scalar/showcase/. Create an assessment rubric to measure the effectiveness of each site and submit a post (1,250-1,500 words) describing how you chose your measurements, the organization of each site, and its effectiveness. Include related links, screen shots or media as relevant. See the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media for samples, http://chnm.gmu.edu/teaching-and-learning/.

• 10% Group Presentation and Reflection: Prior to submitting your final project, we will present our findings for public feedback. In a short reflection post (250-500 words), you will outline the feedback you received and how you plan to address suggestions.

• 30% Final Project: During this course, we will collectively create a website based on either a university collection or a community partner’s holdings. We will design this project collectively as an online exhibit of images, however, the exhibits will be accompanied by individually authored analysis connecting them to course readings. Each student will submit a short proposal (2-3 pp.) and biography (10 source) before beginning their exhibit. You will present your contribution for feedback from your classmates, a campus librarian, and our archival partner.

• 15% Digital Portfolio and Final Assessment: Throughout the semester, students will maintain a personal digital portfolio that will serve as a showcase for their work. Your final entry will consist of an assessment (2,000-2,500 words) of your final project in light of course readings and content. Include related links, screen shots, or media.

D. READING SCHEDULE

INTRODUCTION
 
Week 1
Discussion: Introduction and Course Overview
Image analysis of John Gast’s “American Progress” and Dorthea Lange’s FSA photos
Review “Performing Archive: Edward S. Curtis and ‘the Vanishing Race,’” Claremont Center for Digital Humanities.
 
PRODUCING RACIAL MOBILITIES
 
Week 2
 
Discussion: An interpretive framework for mobility
 
• Reading: Chapters 1, 2, and 6 in Cresswell, On the Move
• Register for a Scalar account at: http://scalar.usc.edu/works/system/register

Suggested Reading
• Grove, Tim. “New Media and the Challenges for Public History.” Perspectives on History. May 2009. http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2009/0905/0905for4.cfm
• Kirschenbaum, Matthew G. “What is Digital Humanities and What’s It Doing in English Departments?” ADE Bulletin, Number 150, 2010. 1-7.
• Cohen, Daniel et al. “Interchange: The Promise of Digital History.” Journal of American History. Vol. 95 No. 2. September 2008.

MOBILITY AND CITIZENSHIP

Week 3
Discussion: Introduction to Scalar, Boundaries & Place
• Part 1 Molina, Fit to be Citizens

Week 4
Discussion: Quarantine, Selective Mobility, Distribute Blogger Assignment
• Part 2 Molina, Fit to be Citizens
• Create Biography on Scalar site

Suggested Reading:
• Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. NYU Press, 2008.

PRODUCING IMMIGRANT MOBILITIES
 
Week 5
Discussion: Producing Immigrant Mobilities, Smithsonian Border Collection, Skype Guest Margaret Salazar, Curator of Smithsonian Latino History Collection, Metadata and using Scalar to curate images (comparisons to Omeka)
• Chapters 7 in Cresswell, On the Move
• Part 1 Lytle-Hernandez, Migra!
• Blogger presentations begin

Week 6
Discussion: Producing Immigrant Mobilities continued, Reviewing digital sources, Case study Bracero History Archive, Citing digitally authored work
• Part 2 Lytle-Hernandez, Migra!
• Create metadata for an image from the Border Collection and upload to collective Scalar site

Suggested Reading
• “Metadata Basics.” Dublin Core Metadata Initiatives. University Of Tsukuba, Japan, 2012.
• “Metadata Dictionary.” Bracero Oral History Project. Center for History and New Media, 2012 http://braceroarchive.org/resources. View video tutorials.

LABOR AND MOBILITY

Week 7
Discussion: Subversive mobility, Introduction to Latino/a mobility archive
• Part 1 Mitchell, Lie of the Land

Week 8
Discussion: Revolt, Remaking landscape, Brainstorm format of Scalar page
• Part 2, Mitchell, Lie of the Land
• Digital Review Due uploaded to Scalar page

Suggested Reading
• Cohen, David and Rosenzweig. Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. EBook available at http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/book.php.
• Gutterman, Lauren Jae. “Outhistory.org: An Experiment in LGBTQ Community History-Making.” The Public Historian, Vol. 32, No. 4 (Fall 2010), 96-109.

DEVIANT MOBILITY

Week 9
Discussion: Scalar tutorial on integrating media, Exercise delinquency and cars
• Chapter 1 in Packer, Mobility without Mayhem
• Fante, Ask the Dust
• Exhibit proposal (1-2 ppp.), Alternative exhibit proposals, Bibliography of sources for use in Scalar page
• Present proposal for group feedback

Week 10
Discussion: Workshop Exhibits
• Cohen, David and Rosenzweig. Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. EBook available at http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/book.php.
• Meet in computer lab

Suggested Reading
• Herman, Gerald. “Intellectual Property and the Historian in the New Millennium.” The Public Historian, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Spring 2004), 23-48.
• Boyle, James and Jenkins, Jennifer. “Tales from the Public Domain: Bound By Law?” Center for the Study of the Public Domain. Duke University.
• Howard, Jennifer. “What you Don’t Know About Copyrights, but Should.” Chronicle of Higher Education. May 29, 2011.

METROPOLITAN MOVEMENT

Week 11
Discussion: Race and regional mobility
• Part 1 in Avila, The Folklore of the Freeway
• Additional office hours held after class to discuss exhibits

Week 12
Discussion: Race and regional mobility
• Part 2 in Avila, The Folklore of the Freeway
• Public presentation of draft Scalar exhibit

Suggested Reading
• Theimer, Kate. “Chapter 1 Web 2.0 Basics.” Web 2.0 Strategies for Archives and Local History Collections, 2010.
• Bennet, Nuala, Sandore, Beth, and Pianfetti, Evangeline. “Illinois Digital Cultural Heritage Community—Collaborative Interactions Among Libraries, Museums, and Elementary Schools. D-Lib Magazine: The Magazine of Digital Library Research. Volume 8 Number 1, 2002.
• Carpio, Genevieve, Luk, Sharon and Bush, Adam. “Building People’s Histories: Graduate Student Teaching and Undergraduate Education.” Journal of American History. Forthcoming March 2013.

CONCLUSIONS

Week 13
Discussion: Latino mobility in the 21st century, Case study Route 66 heritage
Final assignment and assessments due last day of reading period by 5 PM as screenshots submitted via Assignments tool to Classes*v2