History 328: American Mixed Blood |
History 328: American Mixed Blood
Oberlin College
Department of History
Fall 2009
Pablo Mitchell, Eric and Jane Nord Associate Professor of History and Comparative American Studies
Oberlin College
From the coyote and the half-breed to the “tragic” mulatto, people of mixed ethnic and racial heritage occupy a conflicted and controversial place in American history. This course will chart the histories of people of mixed heritage from the colonial period to the present, exploring the relationship between the historical experiences of mixed heritage and broader trends in American history including slavery, imperialism, legal transformation, and changing cultural patterns. We will also consider current social theories of hybridity and mestizaje.
Required Texts:
Haunted by Empire: Geographies of Intimacy in North American History, Ann Stoler, ed., selected essays
Martha Hodes, The Sea Captain’s Wife: A True Story of Love, Race, and War in the Nineteenth Century
Earl Lewis, Heidi Ardizzone, Love on Trial: An American Scandal in Black and White
Renee Christine Romano, Race Mixing: Black-White Marriage in Post-War America
Jane M. Gaines, Fire and Desire: Mixed-Race Movies in the Silent Era
Susan Koshy, Sexual Naturalization: Asian Americans and Miscegenation
Joel Williamson, New People: Miscegenation and Mulattoes in the United States
Karen Leonard, Making Ethnic Choices: California’s Punjabi Mexican Americans
Lauren Basson, White Enough to be American? Race Mixing, Indigenous People, and the Boundaries of State and Nation