Special Topics in Political Science (490-0-2)
Topic
Intersectionality and Policy
Instructors
Tabitha Bonilla
Meeting Info
Technological Institute M349: Thurs 2:00PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
This course examines the role of immigrants and immigration in American politics with a critical focus on the relationship between race and immigration in the United States, historically and present-day. Topics include racialized nativism and the role of immigration policy in American nation-building; immigration-driven anxieties and perceived racial threats to American national identity; influential theories and evidence of immigrant assimilation and immigrant political incorporation; promises and pitfalls in the formation of panethnic racial categories or classifications; group-based differences in attitudes toward immigrants and immigration, examined through the lenses of belonging and citizenship; the impact of immigration on public opinion and electoral behavior (e.g., partisanship, vote choice); and immigrant participation and mobilization, focusing attention on how race, ethnic/national origin, citizenship status, and legal status shape extrasystemic political action. Throughout the course we attend closely to questions of data, methodology, and research design.
Registration Requirements
Graduates Only
Learning Objectives
Critically engage with theories and evidence related to the relationship between race and immigration in the American political context (historical and contemporary)
Examine sources of heterogeneity within and across diverse immigrant communities (e.g., race, ethnic/national origin, nativity, immigrant generation, citizenship status, legal status, language) and their impact on immigration politics and policy
Understand empirical measurement challenges in the overlapping fields of racial and ethnic politics and immigration politics in the United States
Teaching Method
Seminar
Class Materials (Required)
Escudero, Kevin. 2020. Organizing While Undocumented: Immigrant Youth's Political Activism under the Law. NYU Press.
García, Angela S. 2019. Legal Passing: Navigating Undocumented Life and Local Immigration Law. University of California Press.
Hajnal, Zoltan L. and Taeku Lee. 2011. Why Americans Don't Join the Party: Race, Immigration, and the Failure (of Political Parties) to Engage the Electorate. Princeton University Press.
Hochschild, Jennifer, Jacqueline Chattopadhyay, Claudine Gay, and Michael Jones-Correa, Eds. 2013. Outsiders No More?: Models of Immigrant Political Incorporation. Oxford University Press.
Jiménez, Tomás. 2009. Replenished Ethnicity: Mexican Americans, Immigration, and Identity. University of California Press.
Jones, Reece. 2021. White Borders: The History of Race and Immigration in the United States from Chinese Exclusion to the Border Wall. Beacon Press.
*Additional articles, book chapters, and other assigned readings will be available via the Northwestern Libraries website or posted to the course website (Canvas).
Enrollment Requirements
Enrollment Requirements: Reserved for Graduate Students.