Assignment Writing Service http://StudyHub.vip/AMERICAN-POLITICAL-THOUGHT 👈

1. AMERICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT
David Hammons, In the Hood

2. This course does not advance a set definition of “American Political Thought.” Nor does it survey
established thinkers. Instead, the course develops a critical understanding of American Political Thought
by exploring historically marginalized voices at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and
Indigeneity. It engages underexamined topics in American Political Thought such as black feminism and
intersectionality, antiblack racism and the American Dream, borderlands and migration, and settler
colonialism. Finally, the course materials exceed the usual genres of American Political Thought. They
include, among other things, poetry, a novel, a film, and an “emotion picture.” Ultimately, this course
challenges students to think deeply about what “American Political Thought” might be and why.
American Political Thought
PSCI 4457
TT 5p-6.15p
North 1402
Prof. Chad Shomura
chad.shomura@ucdenver.edu
Office Hours: 3p-4p Tuesdays and
Wednesdays, or by appointment
Scott Listfield, Make America Again

3. Texts
REQUIRED
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me (New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2015)
R. Zamora Linmark, Rolling the R’s (Los Angeles: Kaya Press, 2016)
Layli Long Soldier, Whereas (Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2017)
Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (Berkeley: Crossing Press, 2007)
Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric (Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2014)
RECOMMENDED
Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler (editors), Keywords for American Cultural Studies
(New York: NYU Press, 2014)
Moonassi, Interface

4. EDUCATION
Our class will cultivate a deeper capacity to understand and
question American political life. We will face big issues and
tough questions. Many of the readings may be abstract and
challenging. Don’t worry. Our class welcomes confusion. We
will address questions together as a class. What you don’t
understand at first may become clear after discussion and
further reflection.
Because this is a 4000-level course, you are expected to
develop your own lines of thought. Look up names, events,
and terms you don’t know. The recommended text, Keywords
for American Cultural Studies, provides helpful definitions for
some of the important concepts in this class.
COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES
To read more closely, to think more deeply, and to write more
effectively about the political.
(Adopted from learning objectives written by the Department
of Political Science:
1. Knowledge of the role of political action and political
systems in shaping human cultures and socio-economic
patterns
2. Intellectual and practical skills)
THIS SHOULD GO WITHOUT SAYING
Please bring the texts to class. We will refer to them in our
discussions.
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER DEPARTMENT OF
POLITICAL SCIENCE ANTIRACIST MISSION AND LAND
ACKNOWLEDGMENT STATEMENTS
ANTIRACIST MISSION
The University of Colorado Denver Department of Political
Science commits to an antiracist mission—to undoing racism
and white supremacy in all their forms. The Department
affirms that everyone benefits personally, communally, and
intellectually from antiracist work, not just people of color. The
Department emphasizes that antiracism is the responsibility
and privilege of all individuals, albeit in different ways, with
different risks and resources, different burdens and
opportunities. No one is exempt. We commit to construct and
fund meaningful action to advance these values.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The Department recognizes that it is on the territory of the
Arapaho, Cheyenne, Ute, and other Indigenous Nations.
Because invasion, conquest, and dispossession are the
historical conditions for its continued existence, the
Department commits to supporting Indigenous struggles for
decolonization and self-determination, whether local,
national, or global. This includes undoing the colonial
structures of the academy, contesting the dismissal of
Indigenous knowledges as primitive or superstitious,
challenging all stereotypes of Native peoples, and being
evermore responsive to the needs and demands of Native
communities, Peoples and Nations.

5. SAFE SPACE
Our collective responsibility is to cultivate respect for each
other. Racist, sexist, homophobic, ableist, and colonialist
remarks and points of view lack intellectual merit and have no
place in class. I will preserve the safety of the classroom even if
it demands asking disruptors to leave.
ACCESSIBILITY
If you are a student with a disability or believe you might have
a disability that requires accommodations, please contact
Disability Resources and Services, Student Commons Building
#2116, 303.315.3510, disabilityresources@ucedenver.edu. We
will work together to make the appropriate accommodations.
ELECTRONICS
Electronic devices are permitted in class only for viewing the
readings, taking notes, and accessibility matters. If you are
anticipating an emergency call, notify me before class begins.
Other uses of electronics are strictly prohibited because they
are distracting and disrespectful. This is the first and only
warning. Violators will be swiftly ejected from class
QUESTIONS
Please check this syllabus before contacting me. I do not
respond to emails with questions whose answers may be
found here.
NTELLECTUAL ENGAGEMENT
Your knowledge and critical thinking skills will grow through
engagement that is fair, respectful, and well-argued.
Intellectual engagement is required whether you agree or
disagree with the viewpoints of authors, classmates, or the
instructor.
Intellectual engagement is based on arguments rather than
opinions. While an opinion is what you believe, an argument
needs: (1) a clearly articulated position; (2) careful reasoning;
and (3) supporting evidence.
I don’t care what you believe but how you think.
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
Students are required to know, understand, and comply with
the CU Denver Academic Dishonesty Policy as detailed in the
Catalog and on the CLAS website. Academic dishonesty
consists of plagiarism, cheating, fabrication and falsification,
multiple submission of the same work, misuse of academic
materials, and complicity in academic dishonesty. If you are
not familiar with the definitions of these offenses, go to http://
www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/CLAS/facultystaff/
policies/Pages/DefinitionofAcademicDishonesty.aspx. This
course assumes your knowledge of these policies and
definitions. Failure to adhere to them can result in possible
penalties ranging from failure of this course to dismissal from
the University; so, be informed and be careful.

6. PARTICIPATION 25%
Come to class prepared to engage the materials, refer to
specific passages, address your classmates’ points, and ask
questions that further our conversation. Our discussions should
primarily: (1) deepen our understanding of the readings; (2)
critically evaluate the readings; and (3) connect the readings to
other texts and topics in the course. Connecting the readings to
issues outside the class, though valuable, should be kept to a
minimum. Expressions of opinion, especially those that do not
engage the materials, will not merit any participation points.
MICROPAPERS 75%
A “micropaper” is a very short, highly demanding piece of writing.
Due to a 600 word limit, micropapers should be concise, clearly
argued, and well organized.
You will write four micropapers though only three will count to
your final grade. The lowest score will be dropped. Think of it as a
“freebie” so you can adjust to this difficult assignment.
You will have about two weeks to complete each micropaper.
More details will be offered during the semester.
ATTENDANCE
Attendance is mandatory. It is your responsibility to contact the
professor about any absences. More than two unexcused
absences will result in reductions to your final grade. More than
six unexcused absences will result in automatic failure of the
course.
REWRITES, MAKEUPS, AND EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITIES
There are none.
Ilya Milstein, A Library by the Tyrrhenian Sea

7. George Ligon, Double America 2, 2014

8. AUGUST // 20
Hello
AUGUST // 22
+George Yancy, “Dear White America”
+Danez Smith, “dear white america”
AUGUST // 27
+Audre Lorde, “Sexism: An American Disease in Blackface” and “Age, Race, Class,
and Sex: Women Redefining Difference,” Sister Outsider, 60-65, 114-23
+Combahee River Collective, “Combahee River Collective Statement”
+Andrea Smith, “Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy”
AUGUST // 29
+Lorde, “Eye to Eye: Black Women, Hatred, and Anger,” Sister Outsider, 145-175
+Claudia Rankine, “The Condition of Black Life is One of Mourning”
SEPTEMBER // 3
+Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me, 5-39, 68-71
SEPTEMBER // 5
+Coates, 75-108
SEPTEMBER // 10
+Coates, 114-132, 135-152
+Melvin L. Rogers, “Between Pain and Despair: What Ta-Nehisi Coates Is Missing”
+Lester Spence, “‘Coates Is a Realist, Not a Pessimist’: Lester Spence Responds to
Melvin Rogers”
+Melvin L. Rogers, “‘Coates Isn’t Hopeful’: Melvin Rogers Responds to Lester Spence”

9. Anonymous (Baltimore, 2015)

10. SEPTEMBER // 12
+Sara Ahmed, “A Phenomenology of Whiteness,” 149-168
SEPTEMBER // 17
+Jordan Peele (dir.), Get Out (in class)
SEPTEMBER // 19
+Get Out (continued)
+Alison Landsberg, “Horror Vérité: Politics and History in Jordan Peele’s Get Out
(2017),” 1-14
SEPTEMBER // 24
+Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric, 5-36
+Lorde, “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism,” Sister Outsider, 124-133
SEPTEMBER // 26
+Rankine, Citizen, 41-79, 104-109
OCTOBER // 1
+Rankine, Citizen, 130-159
OCTOBER // 3
+Ahmed, “A Phenomenology of Whiteness” (revisited)
+Franny Choi, “Whiteness Walks into a Bar”

11. Jordan Peele, Get Out

12. OCTOBER // 8
+Gloria Anzaldúa, “The Homeland, Aztlán,” “”Movimientos de rebeldía y las culturas
que traicionan,” and “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Borderlands/La Frontera: The
New Mestiza, 23-45, 75-86
OCTOBER // 10
+Anzaldua, “Entering Into the Serpent,” “La herencia de Coatlicue / The Coatlicue
State,” and “”La conciencia de la mestiza / Towards a New Consciousness,”
Borderlands/La Frontera, 47-73, 99-113
OCTOBER // 15
+Jess X. Snow, “Hunger Drives the Body into Imagination”
+ Jess X. Snow, “Migration is Natural” (https://youtu.be/4rN0fdwq30I)
+Ocean Vuong, “A Letter to My Mother that She Will Never Read”
+Ocean Vuong, “I Remember Anyway”
OCTOBER // 17
+R Zamora Linmark, Rolling the Rs, 13-32, 48-59, 62-71
OCTOBER // 22
+Linmark, Rolling the Rs, 81-92, 101-126
OCTOBER // 24
+Linmark, Rolling the Rs, 130-139, 141-155, 161-166

13. jess X Snow, Until We Are All Free

14. OCTOBER // 29
+Haunani-Kay Trask, “Settlers of Color and ‘Immigrant’ Hegemony: ‘Locals’ in
Hawaiʻi,” 1-7
+Dean Itsuji Saranillio, “Why Asian Settler Colonialism Matters: A Thought Piece on
Critiques, Debates, and Indigenous Difference”
OCTOBER // 31
+Haunani-Kay Trask, “Women’s Mana and Hawaiian Sovereignty”
+Haunani-Kay Trask, “‘Lovely Hula Hands’: Corporate Tourism and the Prostitution of
Hawaiian Culture”
+Haunani-Kay Trask, poems (TBD)
NOVEMBER // 5, 7
Class cancelled
NOVEMBER // 12
+“SJ Res 14: A joint resolution to acknowledge a long history of official depredations
and ill-conceived policies by the Federal Government regarding Indian tribes and
offer an apology to all Native Peoples on behalf of the United States,” 111th
Congress, 30 April 2009
+Layli Long Soldier, “Whereas,” Whereas, 57-101
+Katie Kane, “On Whereas by Layli Long Soldier”
NOVEMBER // 14
+Layli Long Soldier, “Steady Summer,” “Left,” “Waȟpániča,” “38,” Whereas, 31-33, 37-39,
43-44. 49-53

15. Matt Hierakuji

16. NOVEMBER // 19
+Lorde, “Poetry Is Not a Luxury,” “The Transformation of Silence into Language and
Action,” “Use of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power,” and “The Master’s Tools Will Never
Dismantle the Master’s House,” Sister Outsider, 36-39, 40-44, 53-59, 110-113
NOVEMBER // 21
+Saidiya Hartman, “The Anarchy of Colored Girls Assembled in a Riotous Manner”
NOVEMBER // 26, 28
Fall Break
DECEMBER // 3
+Janelle Monáe, Dirty Computer (album and emotion picture), https://youtu.be/
jdH2Sy-BlNE
+Adrienne Brown, “New Formation: Janelle Monáe’s Radical Emotion Pictures”
DECEMBER // 5
+Langston Hughes, “Let America Be America Again”
+Lorde, “Learning from the 60s,” Sister Outsider, 134-144

17. Janelle Monáe, Pynk