Research Seminar: Cities and Suburbs in American Culture Robert W. Snyder Graduate Program in American Studies 26:050:550 Thursday, 5:30-8:10 pm, Spring 2014 Conklin 233 In this seminar you will research and write an essay grounded in primary sources on cities and suburbs in American culture. Your essay can explore representations of cities and suburbs, cultural production in a city or a suburb, metropolitan politics, urban or suburban ways of life, urban or suburban landscapes or memorials, or the relationships between cities and suburbs. My only firm requirement is that a city, a suburb or the relationship between them must be a vital part of your essay. Research and write with a sense of place. The objective of this course is to strengthen your ability to do the kind of primary source research and analytic writing that are essential for the M.A. thesis, the doctoral dissertation, or other substantial writing projects. If you are new to work with primary sources, this course will help you develop strong foundations in research, writing and analysis. If you have already done work with primary sources, this course will help you develop an M.A. thesis, a publishable essay or a dissertation chapter. Because our seminar is designed to emphasize the development of individual essays, it features more independent work and individual meetings than would be the case in a reading seminar. I also plan to hold one walking tour of neighborhoods and archives in New York City. I am available during office hours, Wednesdays from 4-5:30 pm and by appointment, in 243 Conklin Hall. I am best reached by e-mail at rwsnyder@andromeda.rutgers.edu. Required Books Alison Isenberg, Downtown America: A History of the Place and the People Who Made It (Chicago, 2009) Suleiman Osman, The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn: Gentrification and the Search for Authenticity in Postwar New York (Oxford, 2012) Dolores Hayden, Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000 (Vintage, 2004) Miles Orvell, The Death and Life of Main Street: Small Towns in American Memory, Space and Community (North Carolina, 2012) Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb and Joseph M. Williams,, The Craft of Research, 3 rd edition (Chicago, 2008) 1
Required books, usually paperback editions or used copies, are available at the Rutgers University-Newark Bookstore in Bradley Hall. They are also on reserve in Dana Library. You can also purchase used copies or electronic editions to reduce costs. If you have already read one of our required books and believe that another book would better serve your research interests, you may substitute another book for one of the required texts. This can be helpful when you are choosing a book for your review essay because it gives you the latitude to select a book that will help launch your research essay. Please check with me in advance if you want to exercise this option to clear your alternate book with me. A bibliography on our Blackboard site will introduce you to alternate readings. However, because it emphasizes works about the New York metropolitan area, you are welcome to range beyond it if it does not meet your needs. Assignments Review essay: 20% of grade Your assignment is to write a review essay of approximately 1,000 words analyzing one of the required books, or a pair of articles, chosen from the suggested readings or with my permission from outside our syllabus. Due on or before the day we discuss your chosen book or articles in class. Final day for submission is March 13. Short writing assignments and drafts: 20% of grade Class participation, including class presentations: 20% of grade In addition to regular discussions, students will be required to make short presentations on books, chapters and essays to open our discussions. We will conduct at least one walking tour in New York. You are also encouraged to explore Newark, New York City, and regional cities and suburbs and seek out archives and collections of sources. Final essay: 40% of grade Your essay should be approximately 7,500 words long, or 25 double-spaced pages. Citations should be in Chicago style footnotes or endnotes. The essay should present a strong argument, grounded in primary source research and secondary readings, in clear prose. Course Policies Regular attendance and informed participation are central to this course. Repeated absences or a lack of participation will bring down your grade. If you cannot help missing a class, try to let me know in advance. If a crisis threatens your ability to participate properly, let me know as soon as possible. I am reluctant to award incomplete grades and will consider this option on a case-by-case basis and only with advance discussions. Plagiarism (passing off someone else s work as your own) and fabrication (inventing sources) are forbidden; both will be punished. Please be aware that academic integrity violations at the graduate level are punished more severely than they are at the undergraduate level. 2
All work submitted in this course must be produced for this course. While you are welcome to pursue topics that have occurred to you in other classes, you must execute original work for this class. If you are confused on this point, see me. January 23 Introduction Discuss Thomas Bender, The New Metropolitanism (to be distributed in class) January 30: Thinking About Cities and Suburbs Chicago School, LA School and More Louis Wirth, Urbanism as a Way of Life, on course Blackboard site Jane Jacobs, The Uses of Sidewalks Safety, on course Blackboard site Lewis Mumford on Suburbs, 1961, on course Blackboard site City and Community, March 2002 Available online through Rutgers in the Wiley Online Library Michael Dear, Los Angeles and the LA School Robert J. Sampson, Studying Modern Chicago Harvey Molotch, School s Out February 6: Visit to Dana Library Bring to Dana Library, and submit to me, a memo on three broad potential essay topics that interest you. In our sessions with librarians, you should develop a strong sense of both how to find secondary sources on your topics and the availability of primary sources. Read in advance to develop broad topics: Karen Halttunen, Groundwork: American Studies in Place, American Quarterly, vol. 58, no. 1, March 2006, 1-15. Available online through Project MUSE. Timothy J. Gilfoyle, White Cities, Linguistic Turns, and Disneylands: The New Paradigms of Urban History, Reviews in American History, March 1998, v. 26, n. 1. Available online at: http://muse.jhu.edu.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/journals/reviews_in_american_history/v02 6/26.1gilfoyle.html Kevin M. Kruse and Thomas J. Sugrue, Introduction to The New Suburban History, ed. Kruse and Sugrue, (Chicago, 2006) at http://books.google.com/books?id=qq- V6W7sdLEC&lpg=PA1&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false Tour Institute for Jazz Studies, Dana Library, for an introduction to its holdings. Visit Dana Library for research session with Natalie Borisovets on finding primary sources for your essays. 3
February 13: Cities Isenberg, Downtown America February 20: Suburbs Hayden, Building Suburbia February 27: Cities and Suburbs Osman, The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn March 6: Small Towns and Suburbs Orvell, The Death and Life of Main Street March 13: Thinking About Cities and Suburbs-- Recent Work American Quarterly is available online through Rutgers via the online database Project MUSE: http://muse.jhu.edu.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/journals/american_quarterly/ Josh Sides, Straight into Compton: American Dreams, Urban Nightmares, and the Metamorphosis of a Black Suburb, American Quarterly, v. 56, n. 3, Sept. 2004, 583-605. George J. Sanchez, What s Good for Boyle Heights Is Good for the Jews: Creating Multiracialism in the East Side During the 1950s, American Quarterly v. 56, n. 3, Sept. 204, 633-661. Nicole R. Fleetwood, Failing Narratives, Initiating Technologies: Hurricane Katrina and the Production of a Weather Media Event, American Quarterly, v. 58, n. 3, Sept. 2006, 767-789. Patrick Burke, Oasis of Swing: The Onyx Club, Jazz, and White Masculinity in the Early 1930s, American Music, v. 24, n. 3 (Autumn, 2006), 320-346. Available online though Rutgers via JSTOR. David Harvey, The Right to the City, New Left Review, September-October 2008, available online at http://www.newleftreview.org/?view=2740 Spring Break, March 15-23 March 27: A Focused Topic and a Primary Source In this week, we will step away from general topical readings and push toward researching the final essay. From now on, we will emphasize the development of individual essays. Booth, et al, The Craft of Research, preface, prologue and chapters 1-6. 4
Use our readings, library visits and the advice of The Craft of Research to develop a focused essay topic AND find at least one primary source that will help you address the core topic of your essay. Go to the History Matters site at http://historymatters.gmu.edu/browse/makesense/and look up the page Making Sense of Evidence on scholars use of sources. Select the page that relates best to your source. Read closely, apply to your source, and be ready to speak on both in class. Bring to class a primary source that you have found that relates to your research topic and a short memo for submission on its value as a source. April 3 Writing About Cities and Suburbs: Individual Meetings This week, we will not meet as a formal class. Instead, I will meet with each of you individually before or during class time to firm up your essay topics and sources. To sharpen your thinking about writing your essays, read Booth, et al, The Craft of Research, chapters 7-10, 12-17 April 10 Annotated Bibliography I will be attending the meeting of the Organization of American Historians this week, so we will not meet as a group. By class time, everyone must submit electronically an annotated bibliography of the primary and secondary sources that you will use in your essay to support your argument. In your annotations, which should be about one paragraph per source, explain the value of your primary and secondary source to your project and explain how you will use them to support your argument. April 17 Introductions and Outlines Bring to class two copies of a document that presents the introduction and argument of your essay, followed by a detailed outline for your essay that explains how you will support your argument with primary and secondary sources. April 24 Peer Review Bring two printed copies of your essay. Submit one to me and workshop the other with a classmate. You are welcome to meet individually with me to discuss your drafts outside of class. May 1 Last Class: In-Class Presentations Our final class will take the form of a friendly, supportive but serious symposium. Each seminar participant will deliver an oral presentation of 10-15 minutes on their essay, its argument, and its sources. This final session will be an opportunity to learn from each other and sharpen the ideas in your essays. May 8 Final essays due 5 pm in hard and electronic form. I frown on extensions, but if you need one see me well in advance. 5