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Sample Proposal: Cultural Diversity

College of Liberal Arts

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SOC 322M Sociology of Masculinities

Department of Sociology

To satisfy the Cultural Diversity flag, at least one-third of course grade must be based on content dealing with underrepresented cultural groups in the US. Please describe which underrepresented cultural groups will be studied in this course, and how one-third of the course grade is based on study of the group(s).

In this course, we examine social and individual meanings of masculinity, the dominant paradigms of masculinity that we take as the norm, and the problems, contradictions and paradoxes men experience in modern society. We examine these themes while looking at the social and cultural dynamics shaped by class, race/ethnicity, sexuality, age, and culture in a variety of social contexts and arrangements. Although we study men representing the diverse cultural groups in the United States, we pay special attention to the experiences of African American and Latino men.

For the purposes of the Cultural Diversity Flag, the committee understands a cultural group to be “underrepresented” if the experience of its members in the US has been or continues to be one of persistent marginalization. What are some typical readings, assignments, or activities in the course that are related to the context of persistent marginalization of these underrepresented cultural groups?

On African American men: (1) hooks, Reconstructing Black Masculinity (2) Harper, The Measure of a Man (3) C. Johnson, Barack Obama and the Mythology of Black Men (4) Ferguson, Making a Name for Yourself (5) Wingfield, Racializing the Glass Escalator (6) Weitzer & Kubrin, Misogyny in Rap Music (7) Woods, The Black Male Privileges Checklist On Latino men: (1) Ramirez & Flores, Latino Masculinities in the Post 9/11 Era (2) Gonzalez-Lopez & Gutmann, Machismo (3) Gonzalez-Lopez, Heterosexual Fronteras (4) Gonzalez-Lopez, Fathering Latina Sexualities On both, African American and Latino men: (1) Nonn, Hitting Bottom (2) Shelton & John, Ethnicity, Race, and Difference On Asian American men: (1) Espiritu, All Men Are Not Created Equal (2) Han, They Don’t Want to Cruise Your Type.

The Cultural Diversity flag indicates that a course will challenge students to explore the beliefs and practices of an underrepresented group in relation to their own cultural experiences so that they engage in an active process of self-reflection. Please describe some assignments or activities that give students an opportunity for this kind of reflection.

The final paper (30% of grade) offers students the opportunity to engage in an exercise of reflexivity. They have 2 options to work on final paper: Option A offers students the opportunity to examine men in contemporary society, which frequently is about their own lives. And Option B is called “My letter to him”, which is the option that the overwhelming majority of students frequently select. As indicated in my syllabus (see pages 5-6), students write a letter to the man who represented a relevant presence in their lives, usually their father. In the letter, they describe in a self-reflexive manner they ways in which this relationship shaped their own lives. As indicated in page 6 of the syllabus, all of the questions students are required to answer involve a very personal and intimate engagement with their own intellectual and personal journey, and with the literature discussed in this course. It is not usually that I find myself grading this papers with tears in my eyes, moved by the ways in which they can relate their own lives (especially their relationship with their father) with the material discussed in this class. This is usually an extraordinary opportunity for students of color who reflect about the own journeys of the men of color who changed their lives — a father. Students migrating from a different culture have requested to write the essay in their first language, which makes it even more powerful for the students (I usually ask for a translation in English in case that is not a language I am not familiar with).