JAN 328 - Bay Area Social Justice Movements: Identity and Place-Based Activism

Course Meeting Days & Times: MTThF, 9:15 AM-11:45:00 AM

Instructor(s): Cook, Corey & Wise, Andrea

Email: cdc13@stmarys-ca.edu

Fee: $200

Course Description:  Through the lenses of power, resistance, and identity, this course provides an introduction to American social movements from the 1950s to the present. The San Francisco Bay Area has been fertile ground for social justice movements for three generations. This is a discussion-based local travel course about American protest movements that examines the unique role of Bay Area political structures and mobilizing institutions as the basis for these diverse movements. First, we will look at some questions that pertain to all protest movements, such as leadership, mobilization, organization, strategy, and consciousness. Then, using these concepts, we will spend the rest of the course examining racial and social justice movements in the Bay Area and the ways in which places have a profound effect on people who in turn constitute these unique places.

We will be taking three trips during the class - A Black Panther walking tour of West Oakland, a visit to Alcatraz Island to learn about the tribal occupation of the island in 1969 with a stop in San Francisco’s Chinatown and Manilatown, and a walking tour of the San Francisco’s Castro District with a foray into the Mission District.

Students will be expected to be available all day each day during the third week for these excursions.

 

Prerequisites & Notes
None

Credits: 3