Calendar

August 27, 2020: Community in pandemic times: Categories, concerns, and our current predicament.

 

September 3, 2020: Modernity, locality, belonging. Polarization.

Readings to be completed for this week, before class:
Delanty, introduction and chapters one-three.
and
Goldberg, Jonah. 2018. “Tribalism Today: Nationalism, Populism, and Identity Politics.” Chapter Ten in The Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy. Crown Forum.

 

September 10, 2020: Citizenship, multiculturalism. Polarization.

Reading: Delanty, chapters four-six.
and
Klein, Ezra. 2020. “Your Brain on Groups.” Chapter Three in Why We’re Polarized. Avid Reader Press.

 

September 17, 2020: Postmodernism, cosmopolitanism. Gentrification.

Reading: Delanty, chapters seven-nine and conclusion.
and
Betancur, John. 2011. “Gentrification and Community Fabric in Chicago.” Urban Studies 48(2):383-406.

 

September 24, 2020: Identity. Gentrification.

Discussion leader: Loftin.
Reading: Fukuyama, preface and chapters one-six.
and
Romero, Rachel and Deborah A. Harris. 2019. “Who Speaks for (and Feeds) the Community? Competing Definitions of “Community” in the Austin, TX, Urban Farm Debate.” City & Community 18(4):1162-80.

 

October 1, 2020: Identity. Gentrification.

Reading: Fukuyama, chapters seven-eleven.
and
Andron, Sabina. 2018. “Selling Streetness as Experience: The Role of Street Art Tours in Branding the Creative City.” The Sociological Review 66(5):1036–1057.

 

October 8, 2020: Identity. Gentrification, authenticity.

Discussion leader: Cox.
Reading: Fukuyama, chapters twelve-fourteen.
and
Grier, Sonya A. and Vanessa G. Perry. 2018. “Dog Parks and Coffee Shops: Faux Diversity and Consumption in Gentrifying Neighborhoods.” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing 37(1):23–38.

 

October 15, 2020: Nationalism. Authenticity.

Discussion leader: Brown.
Reading: Anderson, preface, chapters one-four.
and
Linton, Ralph. 1937. “One Hundred Per Cent American.” The American Mercury 40:427-9.
and
Lenard, Patti Tamara and Peter Balint. 2020. “What Is (the Wrong of) Cultural Appropriation?” Ethnicities 20(2):331-52.

 

October 22, 2020: Nationalism. Authenticity.

Discussion leader: Nance.
Reading: Anderson, chapters five-seven.
and
Menand, Louis. 2018. “Faking It: Literary Hoaxes and the Ethics of Authorship.” New Yorker December 10, 94(40):68-73.

 

October 29, 2020: Nationalism. Authenticity.

Reading: Anderson, chapters eight-eleven.
and
Pluckrose, Helen, James A. Lindsay, and Peter Boghossion. 2018. “Academic Grievance Studies and the Corruption of Scholarship.” Areo October 2.

 

November 5, 2020: Technology and Community

Discussion leader: Neufeld.
Reading: Turkle, front matter and part one
and
Twenge, Jean M. 2017. “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” The Atlantic September.

 

November 12, 2020: Technology and Community

Reading: Julian, Kate. 2018. “The Sex Recession: Why Are Young People Having So Little Sex?” The Atlantic September.

Papers due.

 

November 19, 2020: Technology and Community

Discussion leader: Tullier.
Reading: Turkle, part two
and
Haidt, Jonathan and Tobias Rose-Stockwell. 2019. “The Dark Psychology of Social Networks: Why It Feels Like Everything Is Going Haywire.” The Atlantic December.

 

November 19, 2020

Thanksgiving holiday!

 

December 3, 2020

Student presentations.
Current plan: we will meet this night via Zoom, not in person.

 

December 10, 2020

Take home final exam due back by email no later than 9:00 p.m.