Some of the readings below (where noted) have must be accessed off-campus with login authentication from the Brooklyn College Library. Here are Library remote access instructions. You will also need to activate your CUNY New York Times account with these instructions.
Week 1
Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Introductions and expectations
Week 2
Monday, September 1, 2025
No class
Wednesday, September 3, 2025
Diagnostic essay
Week 3
Monday, September 8, 2025
Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence
Wednesday, September 10, 2025
Frederick Douglass “What to a Slave Is the 4th of July?”. Delivered in Corinthian Hall, July 5th, 1852, Rochester, New York.
Week 4
Monday, September 15, 2025
Frederick Douglass, What to a Slave Is the 4th of July?
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
In-class essay
Week 5
Monday, September 22, 2025
No class
Wednesday, September 24, 2025
No class
Week 6
Monday, September 29, 2025
Listening Project workshop
Wednesday, October 1, 2025
No class
Week 7
Monday, October 6, 2025
Diaz, Natalie. “American Arithmetic.” Literary Hub, April 2, 2019.
“Indigenous America” selection from Locke, Joseph L., and Ben Wright, editors. The American Yawp : A Massively Collaborative Open U.S. History Textbook. Vol. 2, since 1877. Stanford University Press, 2019.
Wednesday, October 8, 2025
111th Congress (2009-2010) “Congressional Apology to Native Americans” Text – S.J.Res.14 – Congress.gov, Library of Congress, 6 August 2009.
Long Soldier, Layli. “Whereas.” Poetry Foundation. 2025.
Week 8
Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Conversion day
Deloria, Philip. Playing Indian (password-protected PDF excerpt). Yale University. 1998.
Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Creative Project workshop
Week 9
Monday, October 20, 2025
No class
Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Meeting in room 120 in the library
Berlant, Lauren “Citizenship” (library off-campus login link). In Keywords for American cultural studies, third edition. Burgett, B., & Hendler, G. (Eds.). New York University Press. (2020).
Week 10
Monday, October 27, 2025
The 14th Amendment
President Donald Trump. “Protecting the Value and Meaning of American Citizenship” executive order. January 20, 2025
Creative Project proposal due
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
Thubron, Colin. (2024, October 17). The Artificiality of Nations (library off-campus login link). The New York Review of Books, 43.
Week 11
Monday, November 3, 2025
Villavicencio, Karla Cornejo. “Bad Dream” (library off-campus login link). The New Yorker, vol. 96, no. 45, 25 Jan. 2021, p. 28. Gale OneFile: Pop Culture Studies.
Wednesday, November 5, 2025
So, Anthony Veasna. “Three Women of Chuck’s Donuts” (library off-campus login link). New Yorker, vol. 95, no. 48, Feb. 2020, pp. 54–62.
Listening Project due
Week 12
Monday, November 10, 2025
Halberstam, Jack. “Gender” (library off-campus login link). In Keywords for American cultural studies, third edition. Burgett, B., & Hendler, G. (Eds.). New York University Press. (2020).
Wednesday, November 12, 2025
President Donald Trump. “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism” executive order. January 20, 2025.
Butler, Judith. “This is Wrong.” London Review of Books. March 14, 2025.
Annotated bibliography due
Week 13
Monday, November 17, 2025
Shea, Matt. “The Day Andrew Tate Punched Me in the Face.” The Sunday Times. January 28, 2023.
Wednesday, November 19, 2025
Srinivasan, Amia. “The Right to Sex.” London Review of Books. March 22, 2018.
Week 14
Monday, November 24, 2025
Desmond, Matthew. “Why Poverty Persists in America.” The New York Times, March 9, 2023, sec. Magazine.
Wednesday, November 26, 2025
Chapter 1 only: Molina, Natalia. 2014. How Race Is Made in America : Immigration, Citizenship, and the Historical Power of Racial Scripts (library off-campus login link). Berkeley: University of California Press. 2014.
Week 15
Monday, December 1, 2025
In class: Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
Morris, Wesley, Rembert Browne, Elyssa Dudley, Austin Mitchell, John White, Janelle Anderson, Wendy Dorr, et al. “Cannonball with Wesley Morris: Don’t Let the Vampires In.” The New York Times, July 31, 2025.
Morris, Wesley. “Why is Everyone Always Stealing Black Music?” New York Times, August 14, 2019.
Week 16
Monday, December 8, 2025
Presentations
Creative Projects due
Wednesday, December 10, 2025
Presentations
Week 17
Monday, December 15, 2025
Presentations, endings
