Spring 2013/Pasadena
CH850/550
Scalise
CH850/550: IMMIGRATION AND CONVERSION IN AMERICAN CULTURE. Charles Scalise.
DESCRIPTION: Engaging selected major issues in American immigration studies and conversion studies is the focus of this doctoral seminar. Students will pursue research into the history and religious practices of a specific ethnic, racial or national-heritage community of American immigrants. Class discussions and debates will draw from both the common readings and students’ individualized research readings.
SIGNIFICANCE FOR LIFE AND MINISTRY: Understanding major themes in the history of American immigration and religious conversion provides a basis for interacting effectively with the dramatic changes in American society, culture and religion that this “nation of immigrants” continues to experience. This study can provide tools to analyze historically and evaluate critically Christian ministry in multi-cultural settings.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: (1) Students will gain increased knowledge of and some interpretive competence in selected major issues in American immigration studies and conversion studies – assessed by class debate presentations and other class discussion, including brief rotating discussion starter papers and “three questions” weekly exercise on common readings. (2) Students will develop specialized knowledge of the history and religious practices of one specific ethnic, racial or national heritage community of American immigrants – assessed by individualized reading list, paper proposals, research reports, and research paper. (3) Students will demonstrate their capacity to conduct scholarly research in the field(s) of American immigration studies and/or conversion studies, focused upon a particular immigrant community and its beliefs and practices – assessed by research proposal and research paper. (4) Students will engage issues of immigration and conversion in American culture in ways that display a critical yet sympathetic appreciation of the breadth and diversity of the global Christian community – assessed by class debates and other class participation.
COURSE FORMAT: Ten weekly seminar meetings on Monday evenings from 6 – 9pm. The instructor will be present in Pasadena for three of these sessions, while for the remaining meetings the instructor will be present online via Polycom or other video connection.
REQUIRED READING:
Chen, Carolyn. Getting Saved in America: Taiwanese Immigration and Religious Experience. Princeton Univ. Press, 2008. ISBN: 978-0691119625, Pub.price $42.00 [248 pp.].
Daniels, Roger. Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life. Second ed. Harper Perennial, 2002. ISBN: 978-0060505776, Pub.price $18.99 [576 pp.].
Martin, Susan F. A Nation of Immigrants. Cambridge University Press, 2011. ISBN: 978-0521734455, Pub.price $28.99 [344 pp.].
Orsi, Robert. The Madonna of 115th St.: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem, 1880-1950. Third ed. Yale Univ. Press, 2010. ISBN: 978-0300157529, Pub.price $19.00 [360 pp.].
Rambo, Lewis R. Understanding Religious Conversion. Yale Univ. Press, 1993. ISBN: 978-0300065152, Pub.price $22.00 [240 pp.].
Warner, R. Stephen and Wittner, Judith G., eds. Gatherings in Diaspora: Religious Communities and the New Immigration. Temple Univ. Press, 1998. ISBN: 978-1566396141, Pub.price $36.95 [409 pp.].
Choose one of the following immigrant authored narratives or another book with instructor’s permission:
di Domenica, Angelo. Protestant Witness of a New American: Mission of a Lifetime. Chicago: Judson Press, 1956. Digitized March 5, 2009. (OCoLC)609316571. Available on course reserves [172 pp.].
Panunzio, Constantine. The Soul of an Immigrant. New York: The MacMillan Co., 1921. Available on course reserves. Also, available as a Google E-book [329 pp.].
Rasmussen, Janet E. New Land, New Lives: Scandinavian Immigrants to the Pacific Northwest. Norwegian-American Historical Association. Seattle, WA: Univ. of Washington Press, 1998. ISBN-13: 9780295977119. $26.95 [334 pp.].
Also, individualized reading for research paper and presentation.
RECOMMENDED READING:
Books
Alba, Richard A.; Albert J. Raboteau, and Josh DeWind, eds. Immigration and Religion in America: Comparative and Historical Perspectives. Social Science Research Council. New York: New York University Press, 2009. ISBN-13: 978-0814705056. $27.00 [416 pp.].
Alba, Richard and Victor Nee. Remaking the American Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 2003. ISBN-13: $24.50 [384 pp.].
Barbour, John D. Versions of Deconversion: Autobiography and the Loss of Faith. Studies in Religion and Culture. Charlottesville, VA: The University Press of Virginia, 1994. ISBN-13: 978-0813915463. $49.50 [238 pp.].
Burns, Jeffrey M., Ellen Skerret, and Joseph M. White, eds. Keeping Faith: European and Asian Catholic Immigrants. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2000. Rpt. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2006. ISBN-13: 978-1597529082. $33.00 [348 pp.].
Ebaugh, Helen Rose and Janet Saltzman Chafetz, eds. Religion and the New Immigrants: Continuities and Adaptations in Immigrant Congregations. Walnut Creek, CA: Alta Mira Press, 2000. ISBN-13: 978-0742503908. $34.95 [297 pp.].
Gabaccia, Donna. Immigration and American Diversity: A Social and Cultural History. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2002. ISBN-13: 978-0631220336. $55.95 [320 pp.].
Groody, Daniel G. and Gioacchino Campese, eds. A Promised Land, A Perilous Journey: Theological Perspectives on Migration. Notre Dame, IN: Univ. of Notre Dame Press, 2008. ISBN-13: 978-0268029739. $32.00 [352 pp.].
Moschella, Mary Clark. Living Devotions: Reflections on Immigration, Identity, and Religious Imagination. Princeton Theological Monograph Series. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications. ISBN-13: 978-1556352881. $26.00 [229 pp.].
Phalen, William J. American Evangelical Protestantism and European Immigrants, 1800-1924. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2011. ISBN-13: 978-0786461356. $45.00 [226 pp.].
Portes, Alejandro and Josh DeWind, eds. Rethinking Migration: New Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives. New York: Berghahn Books, 2008. ISBN-13: 978-1845455439. $34.95 [460 pp.].
Portes, Alejandro and Rubén G. Rumbaut. Immigrant America: A Portrait. Third ed. Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press, 2006. ISBN-13: 978-0520250413. $26.95 [460 pp.].
Prentiss, Craig R., ed. Religion and the Creation of Race and Ethnicity: An Introduction. New York and London: New York University Press, 2003. 224pp. ISBN-13: 978-0814767016. $24.00. [151 pp. assigned].
Wong Lai-fan. From Atheists to Evangelicals: The Christian Conversion Experiences of Mainline Chinese Intellectuals in the U.S.A. Columbus, GA: TEC Publications, 2008. ISBN-13: 9781931527859 [196 pp.]. N.p. Available in Hubbard Library.
Waters, Mary C. and Reed Ueba, eds., with Helen B. Marrow. The New Americans: A Guide to Immigration Since 1965. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 2007. ISBN-13: 978-0674023574. $45.00 [736 pp.]. Full text available online at Hubbard Library.
Yoo, David. Contentious Spirits: Religion in Korean-American History, 1903-1945. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford Univ. Press, 2010. ISBN-13: 978-0804769297. $21.95 [232 pp.].
Articles
Dolan, Jay P. “The Immigrants and Their Gods: A New Perspective in American Religious History.” Church History 57:1 (March 1988): 61-72. Full text available online at Hubbard Library.
Hirschman, Charles. “The Role of Religion in the Origins and Adaptations of Immigrant Groups in the United States.” International Migration Review 38 (2004): 1206-33. Full text available online at Hubbard Library.
Levitt, Peggy. “’You Know Abraham Was Really the First Immigrant’: Religion and Transnational Migration,” International Migration Review 37, 3 (2003): 847-873. Full text available online at Hubbard Library.
Luria, Keith P. “Conversion and Coercion: Personal Conscience and Political Conformity in Early Modern France.” The Medieval History Journal. 12, 2 (2009): 221-247.
Smith, Timothy L. “Religion and Ethnicity in America.” American Historical Review 83 (Dec. 1978): 1155-85. Full text available online at Hubbard Library.
Yang, Fenggang. “Chinese Conversion to Evangelical Christianity: The Importance of Social and Cultural Contexts.” Sociology of Religion, 59, 3 (1998): 237-257. Full text available online at Hubbard Library.
Links
Immigration History Research Center. www.ihrc.umn.edu
The Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) www.cmsny.org
ASSIGNMENTS AND ASSESSMENT:
Class Attendance and Participation (30%) – attendance, class debate presentations and other class discussion, including brief rotating discussion starter papers and “three questions” weekly exercise on common readings.
Individualized reading list (10%)
Paper proposal (10%)
Research paper (50%)
PREREQUISITES:Open to CATS students and a few 500-level students with instructor’s permission. All students must already have studied American religious history or modern church history (e.g., CH506, CH504 or the equivalent).
RELATIONSHIP TO THE CURRICULUM:Elective.
FINAL EXAMINATION: No.