SOCIOLOGY 4321
The Family

Professor: Dr. Johnnie Spraggins

Office Hours: T,W,Th 11:30-12:30
Class Meeting: T,Th 1:00-2:15 LIB 119

Required Book
Minority Families in the United States: A Multicultural Perspective. Third Edition. Ronald L. Taylor (Ed.) Prentice Hall: New York.

This class is intended to introduce the student to the family in the United States from a feminist sociology of knowledge perspective. The format of the class will be to introduce topic(s) each week for discussion. I will first introduce the topic(s), followed by active participation by the student based on the readings for the week and personal experience. The student is expected to keep abreast of the readings in order that we all have a common set of readings from which to draw. My introductory lecture, each week, will not necessarily draw upon the readings, but rather will provide a framework of departure from which our discussion will proceed. I hope that together we will create an atmosphere where everyone will feel comfortable to recount their own unique experiences of, as well as conceptions of, family fife in the United States and others places with which class members may have had experience or be familiar with.

By concentrating upon the United States, I do not intend to exclude other experiences, such as family life in other countries, but rather work from an archetype with which we are daily bombarded. In the media, in the way university and work life is structured, in expectations which students are believed to aspire to, in the ways that U.S. society is structured by the state and the workplace, the U.S. family is presented as an ideal type. Family values are presented to us in such a way that they are considered 'natural' and 'right' that we desire to reach a common ideal. We will question these archetypes, as well as deconstruct the reasons why these ideals are so presented.

While some issues, such as sexuality, disability, death, and gender (masculinity and femininity) are not singular topics on the syllabus, we will forefront these areas in our discussions around other themes. I am open to your particular interests as they relate to this course also.

The reading load is light as recounted in this syllabus. The upshot is that you will be assigned additional readings from current literature. I well choose them and make them available to you as they become available.

The final paper will be a sociological topic on the family. Wide discretion is allowed on this paper. It is to be ten to twelve pages, word processed or typed, free of grammatical and spelling errors. I expect you to have edited the paper, for content and style. The grade you are given will reflect that expectation. Have a friend or tutor proofread your paper before turning it in. In preparation for the final paper, two preliminary papers are required. The first paper will briefly discuss your ideas for the final paper, including anticipated problems, three pages in length. The second paper will be an annotated bibliography of your sources. Class participation will also be considered in assigning of the final grade. If you desire to write a paper based upon your own empirical work, it is expected that the methodology you intend to employ will be addressed in the first paper. The study of sociology in general and the family in particular offer us the opportunity to learn about ourselves, the society we live in, and circumstances which have affected our behavior, the choices we have made and ones we will make in the future. In addition, this course is designed to develop critical thinking skills, writing about personal matters, and the presentation of those ideas to our colleagues. The topic on which you write your paper is one I hope you will choose carefully. My experience is that the best papers in sociology develop out of ideas in which the student has a strong personal interest. I am available to assist you in choosing your topic, and it is suggested that you think about this matter early in the term. The presentation that you make before your classmates will be drawn from your paper; however, it is your choice in how far you reveal your personal interest in the topic. I am not asking you to divulge your innermost secrets. However, by drawing yourself into the paper, you are expected to gain knowledge not only about sociology, but about yourself, your friends, your choices, and your future as well as your past.

This is a Service Learning Course
This means that in addition to the classroom meetings, a component of the course will be to learn some of the material outside the classroom in a structured learning environment. The Office of Service Learning and Volunteerism and the agency with which we have arranged for you to perform service and accomplish learning will treat the precise details of this component of the course separately, with an introduction. This is not optional. Some of the issues we will consider include:

-Contested Terrain: Reproduction Feminism and Men
-Family Violence
-Motherhood
-Families of choice
-Socialization Family Policy: Family & the State, Education, Medicine, & Work

The above topics are suitable topics for your term paper and may be considered suggestions. The paper must integrate experience from the Service Learning component of the course, as well as material from the readings, and original research you have performed in the library and on the Internet.

Course Reading Schedule

WEEK ONE

Preface; Introduction pp. i 16 The New Darwinism; Inequality; Differences; Social Organization of the Family

1982 Thorn, Barrie and Marilyn Yatom Rethinking the Family: Some Feminist Questions. Longman: NY. pp. 1 24. "Feminist rethinking
of the family: An overview."

WEEK TWO

Chapter One African American Families in the United States, pp. 17 47

Chapter Two West Indian Families in the United States, pp.48,61

RESERVE DESK: in Rethinking the Family, "Is there a family? New anthropological views." June Collier, Michelle Rosaldo, and Sylvia
Yanagisako.

WEEK THREE

Chapter Four Tradition and Transition in Mexican Origin Families in the United States, pp.77, 100
Chapter Three Headquarters and Subsidiaries: Haitian Immigrant Family Households in New York City, pp.62 76
RESERVE DESK: in Rethinking the Family "Why men resist," Wm. Goode.

WEEK FOUR

RESERVE DESK: 1994 Mills, Nicolaus et al, Arguing Immigration: The Debate Over the Changing Face of America. Touchstone: NY.
Francis Fukuyama, "Immigrants and Family Values." pp. 151 168.

Review/Exam

WEEK FIVE

The Puerto Rican Family pp. 101-115
Cuban American Families pp. 114 130

RESERVE DESK: 1976 Rubin, Lillian Worlds of Pain: Life in the Working Class Family. Basic Books: NY. "The marryin' bed," pp.
134 154.

Review/Exam

WEEK SEVEN

Chinese American Families pp.131 163
Japanese American Families pp. 164 180

RESERVE DESK: 1981 Hendry, joy Marriage in Changing Japan . St. Martin's Press NY. C 4 The mechanics of making a
match. Pp. 140 154.

WEEK EIGHT

RESERVE DESK: 1983 Blumstein and Pepper Schwartz American Couples: Mona, Work, Sex. "Five Lesbian Couples" pp. 448 501, & "Five Gay Male Couples", pp. 502 546.

WEEK NINE

Lichter, Daniel and Rukmalie Jayakody "Welfare Reform: How Do we Measure success?" in Annual Review of Sociology 2002.v.28 117 141.

WEEK TEN

Readings: Korean American Families pp.193 211

Vietnamese American Families pp.181 192

RESERVE DESK: 1996 Luker, Kristin Dubious Conceptions: The Politics of Teenage Pregnancy. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts. "Why do they do it?" pp. 134 174.

WEEK ELEVEN

Rules, Roles, and Realities: Indo American Families in the United States, pp.212 224
Native American Families in the United States, pp.227 249
Minority Families and Social Change, pp. 250 300

RESERVE DESK: 1993 Newman, Katherine Falling from Grace: The Experience of Downward Mobility in the American Middle Class. Free Press: NY. C.1 "American nightmares," pp. 1 19.

WEEK TWELVE STUDENT PRESENTATIONS

WEEK THIRTEEN STUDENT PRESENTATIONS

WEEK FOURTEEN REVIEW/FINAL