Diversity Week Committee (2004)

Editor/Compiler, Judy A. Van Wyk, Multicultural Center's Diversity Week Committee Representative

WELCOME

The University of Rhode Island (URI) Multicultural Center (MCC) welcomes you to the on-line Diversity Week Teaching Manual. This Web site was developed and is updated regularly to provide faculty members and instructors with information about how to incorporate Diversity Week into their existing course curriculum.

Increasingly diverse trends in national population demographics signal to institutions of higher education that a more diversified majority student population will soon be a reality on most campuses. Consequently, colleges and universities are facing a number of challenges when determining how to best meet the educational needs of a diverse and truly multicultural community of learners. With these challenges come opportunities to proactively support and even facilitate the inevitable social change processes already taking place on many campuses.

One strategy for such facilitation is the development and implementation of campus-wide diversity initiatives. Campus-wide strategies often are the best course of action. They promote systemic change and are population focused, extending beyond traditional individual student support efforts. Such efforts require a broad perspective necessary to appreciate the often overwhelmingly complex nature of the work involved in creating and supporting an inclusive campus community for all students, faculty, and staff. As difficult as these efforts might be, the outcomes are critically important institutionally, as well as personally rewarding and individually meaningful for those engaged in the challenge.

In stride to meet these challenges, the directors of the URI Multicultural Center, along with friends from all across campus, develop and implement Diversity Week; a campus wide program aimed at informing, enlightening, and improving the campus climate. It is an opportunity for the entire University to celebrate diversity and learn in a multicultural climate.

THANK YOU for visiting the University of Rhode Island Multicultural Center Diversity Week Teaching Manual.

Please direct any comments, suggestions, and/or contributions you might like to add to the Teaching Manual to the Multicultural Center at mcc1@etal.uri.edu, or Judy Van Wyk at vanwyk@uri.edu.

BIG IDEAS: Diversity and Multiculturalism

What is Diversity?

Diverse communities include individuals of different races, ethnicities, national origins, nationalities, religions, gender identities, ages, sexual orientations, socio-economic classes, and abilities as well as differing politics, ideologies, social values, and intellectual orientations.

Embodied in the term diversity is the idea that sharing, understanding, and valuing each other’s lives and experiences enrich communities and create the potential to foster a better world. Greater diversity increases potential for richness in knowledge and depth of understanding that enable communities to more readily identify, and more effectively and efficiently address social problems when they arise.

Diversity promotes learning, and as an institution of higher learning the University of Rhode Island promotes and encourages diversity.

Understanding multiculturalism means recognizing that human beings are embedded in their own cultures. They are born into them, and from them people develop cultural perspectives. Multiculturalism enhances the concept of diversity by combining with it the belief that every diverse aspect of a community should be equally valued.

Cultural perspectives are scripts that organize and make sense of life in distinctly different ways through different systems of meaning. A single event is observed and understood in different ways by people of various cultures. Cultures are built upon the experiences of groups of individuals and, over time, develop into unique ways of understanding life and its events. Consequently, each culture is distinctly different from the next.

The complexity of a culture is enriched by a mix of less distinct differences. Plurality within a culture, as with distinct dialects within a language, creates cultural richness and depth. Such internal cultural difference allows for cultures and their systems of meaning to continually change.

Multiculturalists attempt to empathize with members of another culture – they try to see and feel the world from cultural perspectives that are foreign to their own. They value diversity free from judgment, as judgment springs from ethnocentricity (the comparison of another culture against the view of their own as correct). Ethnocentricity inhibits learning and understanding.

Multiculturalism takes a lot of effort. We can all learn from each other how to enrich our lives with diversity, and to experience the benefits that a diverse community and world has to offer us.

MULTICULTURAL CENTER (MCC)

The URI Multicultural Center (http://www.uri.edu/mcc/) was established in 1993 as a legacy of earlier student activism. In 1998, the University completed and opened a two million dollar Multicultural Center building staffed with a director, an assistant director, an administrative secretary, a graduate assistant, and undergraduate work-study helpers. Located in the heart of the campus, the MCC is a symbol of hope for a socially just and equitable campus for all. To accomplish the mission of the Multicultural Center, the MCC offers a myriad of programs year round (MCC Programs: http://www.uri.edu/mcc/html/programs.html; Calendar of Events: http://www.uri.edu/mcc/html/calendar.html#current). Diversity Week is one of these programs.

Mission of the URI Multicultural Center

The URI Multicultural Center supports, empowers, and collaborates with students, faculty, staff and friends in building a campus-wide community characterized by:

We envision a world in which all people are committed to sharing the responsibility of extending social and cultural equity and freedom of choice to all humankind; and a university in which students, faculty and staff are committed to equipping themselves with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to transform the campus in which they learn, and the world in which they live into inclusive and culturally competent learning communities.

The Multicultural Center's most successful and sustaining campus-wide diversity initiative is a program known as Diversity Week. This program celebrates the importance of diversity and identity in higher education, in the workplace, in the community, and in the global arena. Diversity Week consists of a five-day series of campus-wide programs and events planned and presented entirely by faculty, staff, administrators, students, and community friends. The core of Diversity Week is the schedule of workshops taught by faculty, staff, administrators, students, and friends. These events include: cultural awareness, education, and competence building workshops; a keynote address and Honors Colloquium lectures; a multicultural graduate student research symposium; Diversity on the Web tutorials; the Annual URI Poetry Slam; Pangaea, a cultural music performance festival; a peace and harmony meditation; cultural art exhibits and artist talks; a video festival; a drama performance; music workshops; and interactive round table discussions. Co-sponsored by the Diversity Week Committee and the Multicultural Center, Diversity Week is a collaboration with the Psychology Department, the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, other academic departments, URI Student Senate, and assorted student groups.

Beginning with a small number of workshops and events in 1997, and supported by only a $500 budget, the program initially drew about 500 participants. Recently, Diversity Weeks in the past couple of years have each included about 29 cultural events, 30 workshops, 100+ presenters; and 55 offices, organizations, departments, colleges, programs, and contributors. The current budget shared by program collaborators now approaches $9,000. Attendance in each of the past three years has reached record highs of approximately 3,000 participants (Diversity Week Archives: http://www.uri.edu/mcc/DiversityWeek/index.html).

diversity week survey results

Each year during Diversity Week events surveys are distributed to guests that attend each of the events to assess participants’ experiences and attitudes about them, as well as the program's overall impact on the participants (surveys are not distributed during the larger campus-wide venues, such as the Honor’s Colloquium). A few of the most recent survey results are bulleted below.

¯ Diversity Weeks 2003 and 2004 attracted over 3,000 participants each year over all events.

¯ Excluding the larger campus-wide diversity venues (ex. Honors Colloquium), workshops, presentations, film festivals, and other Diversity Week events attracted approximately 1,750 participants in 2003 and 2,025 in 2004.

¯ Most participants are required to attend Diversity Week events as part of their course curricula (88% in 2004; no comparable information from 2003 is available), and most students felt that learning about diversity and multiculturalism should be required (88% in 2003, 80% in 2004).

¯ When participants attending these events were asked, they overwhelmingly agreed that the events they attended helped them to understand and to value diversity more than before (93% in 2003, 87% in 2004), and to learn to appreciate different cultural perspectives (96% in 2003, 90% in 2004).

¯ When asked about their overall perception of Diversity Week, participants agreed that diversity should be discussed more in the classroom (92% in 2003, 86% in 2004).

¯ URI students overwhelmingly agree that Diversity Week events will help increase awareness of diversity issues (95% in 2003, 91% in 2004), and helps to make URI a safer and more accepting campus (92% in 2003, 83% in 2004).

Follow this link to learn more about the educational value of teaching students about diversity, and teaching to a diverse student population:

· University Faculty Views About the Value of Diversity on Campus and in the Classroom by Geoffrey Maruyama and José F. Moreno

· College Missions, Faculty Teaching, and Student Outcomes in a Context of Low Diversity by Roxane Harvey Gudeman

· The Educational Possibility of Multi-Racial/Multi-Ethnic College Classrooms by Patricia Marin.

THE TEACHING MANUAL

Teaching Manual Subcommittee of the URI MCC Diversity Week Committee

The Diversity Week Committee encourages faculty members to incorporate Diversity Week into their course curriculums to maximize the potential on campus for creating greater awareness and interest in issues of diversity. Recognizing that such incorporation might not be quite as simple as it sounds, Committee members culled expertise on teaching from across campus, and recruited members for a subcommittee from The University of Rhode Island’s Instructional Development Program, The School of Education, The College of Arts and Sciences, The Graduate School of Library Science, University Libraries, and the Offices of Academic and Student Affairs. It is this Subcommittee’s charge to create, and maintain a user-friendly Web-based Diversity Week Teaching Manual as a resource for instructors and professors across the University curriculum.

Goals for the Diversity Week Teaching Manual

· encourage faculty to ensure that their course content and activities address concerns and contributions of diverse groups - individuals of different races, ethnicities, national origins, nationalities, religions, gender identities, ages, sexual orientations, socio-economic classes, and abilities as well as differing politics, ideologies, social values, and intellectual orientations.

· assist them in implementing inclusive strategies across the University curriculum.

· suggest ways that faculty members may include Diversity Week as part of their course curriculum.

Mailee Kue, Co-Director of the University of Rhode Island Multicultural Center

Judy Van Wyk, Department of Sociology & Anthropology; Diversity Week Chairperson and Editor/Compiler of the MCC's Diversity Week Teaching Manual

General Education & Examining Human Differences

The goals for the Teaching Manual support the more general purpose and goals of the URI General Education program.

“The purpose of general education at the University of Rhode Island is to lay a foundation for the lifelong enrichment of the human experience and for a thoughtful and active engagement with the world around us. This foundation is built on recognition of the complex nature of the natural and human worlds. The objective of general education is to introduce students to the fundamental dimensions of this complexity and to build an appreciation of different ways of understanding it and different cultural responses to it http://www.uri.edu/facsen/GENED_Program_May04.html.”

To ensure that all URI students specifically learn about issues concerning diversity, they are required to take a minimum of two of their General Education courses that have been approved for addressing the skill area “examining human difference” which is described as a “course [that] requires assignments which examine the role of difference within and across national boundaries. Appropriate examples of "difference" would include but not be limited to race, religion, sexual orientation, language, culture, and gender.”

· the ability to think critically in order to solve problems and question the nature and sources of authority.

· the ability to use the methods and materials characteristic of each knowledge area with an understanding of the interrelationship among and the interconnectedness of the core areas.

· an openness to new ideas with the social skills necessary for both teamwork and leadership.

· the ability to think independently and be self-directed; to make informed choices and take initiative.”

This section of the Teaching Manual provides faculty members with some essential information about, and examples of ways to engage students to examine human differences. The following suggestions should be tailored to your own unique teaching style, and examples should be used to guide your creativity for developing your own classroom assignments.

We are all familiar with the adage, ‘you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make her drink.’ Similarly, students who feel they are being forced to accept and embrace diversity, against their will, will likely reject it. Learning about diversity is a process through which teachers carefully guide students. This section of the Teaching Manual provides faculty members with general guidelines and ideas for creating an inclusive classroom climate that promotes learning about diversity.

· Develop a repertoire of cases, examples, and illustrations, which draws from a diverse range of experiences, perspectives, and scholarly work.

· As much as possible, use material reflective of a variety of groups; if it does not exist, acknowledge that. For example, “There is not much research on gay and lesbian family communication, and this needs to be done. In the meantime, we can extrapolate a little from what we know about heterosexual family communication and communication patterns in lesbian couples.”

· Establish clear goals for classroom discussions; frequently remind everyone that multiple points of view allow us to better learn and understand.

o Let students know that the purpose of class discussion is to hear a variety of perspectives, explicitly including dissenting viewpoints, in order to achieve a better understanding of the topic under discussion. Encourage them to present and hear questions and comments in ways that promote thinking and in ways that do not create defensiveness—the goal is insight, not persuasion or insult.

o Encourage them to know each other’s names (name cards or name tags at the beginning of the semester; interaction among students; small group activities with rotating group membership help to accomplish this).

o Everyone should assume that everyone is likely to say something foolish at some point, so cut everyone some slack and try to avoid defensiveness.

o Discussions should be facilitated to allow the maximum number of people to participate. For example, announce that you will recognize people in the order they indicate a desire to speak, but privilege those who have spoken less or not at all.

o Move ideas away from individuals and out onto the table, or discuss them in terms of society and social structure.

� Give appropriate examples from your own experience; this helps to create an environment where everyone learns, and recognizes that it is okay to make mistakes.

� Make eye contact with all students; students who may not volunteer to speak in class get the message that you think they have something to say, when you make eye contact with them.

� Do not put students on the spot by calling on them when they do no indicate a desire to speak; sometimes it is helpful to say, “Did you want to add something?” so they are free to say no.

� Using the construction “Those of us who are (lesbian, Christian, Latina, Republican, feminist, straight, etc) . . .” helps to avoid a ‘we/they’ presentation. Sometimes students find it funny, but they quickly get the point.

� Intervene whenever someone says something that denigrates or is disrespectful. Do it in an educational way, but do it. For example, “Many of us use put downs like… Why is that problematic? What might we do about it?”

� Do not allow inappropriate humor to go unchallenged (even if it is not directed to the entire class). Students see the lack of challenge as tacit approval.

� Use small groups. Structure the groups so that each person is heard in the group, and rotate whom in the group reports back to the class. Monitor who does the secretarial work (it should NOT always be the female in the group).

� Provide frequent opportunities for students to give you feedback. For instance, have students write a response to every class at the end of class on a 4x6 index card. It is basically the “one minute essay” idea. They can say whatever they want about the class—often they respond in detail to things said in class. Respond to these comments in class but always maintain confidentiality.

Difficult Moments

Every faculty member experiences challenging and difficult moments in the classroom when, for instance, a student tells an inappropriate joke, or responds to another student in a derogatory way. It is important to prepare yourself to successfully handle these situations when they arise.

� Acknowledge the difficulty of the topic. Encourage non-defensiveness and good listening.

� Reiterate that we are all products of our experience, and this is an opportunity to expand everyone’s experience and understanding.

� Do not put anyone down for his or her comments, but do not validate inappropriate comments.

� Develop a repertoire of phrases to use when you are speechless; put it in writing and keep it with your class materials.

� Explore the comments for the sub-text that may be there; sometimes the person speaking is not as articulate as she/he would like to be, and what has been said may be re-phrased.

� Ask students to write about the issue. The writing may be done immediately, or as a take home assignment. You might ask them to defend the point of view of the speaker, or an opposing point of view, or you might assign them to do research on the topic.

� Ask the class, either as a whole or in groups, to reflect on what they might learn from this moment. If you assign groups, ask the groups to report back to the class.

� If a student has a particularly emotional reaction to the incident, giving an immediate writing or small group assignment will allow you time to speak to that student.

� If the difficult moment occurs during regular hours, the Counseling Center is a resource when a student is really upset.

� Consider postponing the discussion; tell the class that the issue is important, and everyone should come prepared to talk about it in the next class session.

The assignments are posted here unedited/unchanged and proper credit and citation of the original authors/faculty members is required for use of any portions.

Gomez-Chiarri, Marta, Associate Professor, Department of Fisheries, Animal and Veterinary Science

· Assignment for NUR443 Community Health Nursing with accompanying unpublished paper by Jeanne Leffers, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, and Diane C. Martins, URI (This paper also contains excellent bibliographies, some are annotated!)

Pasquerella, Lynn, Associate Dean of the Graduate School, and Professor, Department of Philosophy

· Examples of cases Professor Pasquerella uses when teaching Race, Gender and the Law

In my Pathobiology class, I use the Tuskagee Case Study to talk about Bioethics and clinical testing, as well as to introduce epidemiology and syphilis to the class. I got the case from the web, so you can acknowledge the web site:

http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/blood.htm
”Bad Blood:" A Case Study of the Tuskegee Syphilis Project, by A.W. Fourtner, C.R. Fourtner and C.F. Herreid, University at Buffalo, State University of New York

Select a book from the following list. Analyze the book for concepts related to risk and vulnerability.

Identify the vulnerable population and five (5) major threads that are presented.

Present your critique with one or more students for the class. CREATIVITY is an important feature of the presentation.

There will be 10 groups. Only five (5) members per group. Presentations will be Class 10-end. Presentations will be no more than 10 minutes in length.

Abraham, Laurie Kaye. (1993). Mama Might Be Better Off Dead; The Failure of Health Care in Urban America. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Angelou, Maya, I know Why the Cage Bird Sings, Gather Together In My Name and The Heart of the Woman

Fadiman, Anne. (1997). The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmoung Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. NY: Farrar, Straus.

Kelley, Robin. (1997). YO’ Mama’s Disfunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America, Boston: Beacon Press.

Kotlowitz, Alex. (1998). The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, a Death, and America’s Dilemma. NY: Doubleday.

Kotlowitz, Alex. (1991). There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America. NY: Doubleday.

Please evaluate the presentation on a scale from ) (not at all) to 5 (outstanding) on each of the following items.

Speaker introduced the topic.

Themes stated.

Well prepared.

States how concepts/themes related to risk and vulnerability.

Creativity utilized in presenting topic.

Creativity utilized for audience involvement.

Speakers spoke in clear/audible manner.

Major points summarized.

Journey to Compassion:

Meeting Vulnerable Populations in Community Health Nursing Through Literature

While community health nursing educators encourage undergraduate nursing students to become competent in their ability to provide care for vulnerable and diverse population groups, often students remain disconnected from compassion for such groups. The authors, community health nursing educators, developed an innovative assignment designed to create opportunities for students to increase compassion for persons who comprise vulnerable population groups, to value aesthetics for nursing practice and to increase respect for cultural diversity. Students develop their ability to use artful caring for their nursing practice in community settings through an assignment that uses published literature to facilitate caring compassion for the struggles of various vulnerable groups such as the poor, homeless, immigrants, and victims of violence,

Literature such as You Have Seen Their Faces, by Erskine Caldwell and Margaret Bourke-White (1937) brought readers of past generations face to face with people living in poverty in the rural south through photography. In a similar way, Harper Lee’s work, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) encouraged readers to learn of racism, compassion and tolerance through the eyes of the characters Scout, Bo and Atticus Finch. This undergraduate nursing classroom assignment encourages today’s students to meet society’s vulnerable populations through literature.

The purpose of this assignment is to create opportunities for students to increase their ability to care for others by personal literary engagement with vulnerable populations. In order to provide an opportunity for students to view vulnerability through the personal lives of the vulnerable, the assignment employs two aesthetic caring approaches. First, this assignment features selected literature designed to elicit emotional responses that immerse the reader into the personal struggles of the vulnerable. Second, following their personal reaction to the story, students employ creative artistry to present their experience with the literature to their classmates.

The authors believe a human caring pedagogy that examines human suffering enables faculty to share with students their passion and compassion for those vulnerable persons in the community. Using Watson’s (1985) Theory of Human Caring to provide a framework, the assignment’s goal is to broaden the caring relationship from one of nurse and patient to one of nurse and vulnerable population group. As essential elements of Watson’s theory, the carative factors identified core features of nursing. Of significant importance to the development of this strategy were the factors that emphasize the formation of altruistic values, cultivation of sensitivity to self and others and the promotion of transpersonal teaching and learning. Guided by Watson’s philosophy (1985) this strategy seeks to challenge students to develop humanistic caring values and increase their sensitivity to others.

In addition, the use of art allows the student to become aesthetic knowers through both student immersion into literature but also in creative expression of their response to the reading. Boykin, Parker and Schoenhofer (1994) expand Carper’s (1978) articulation of aesthetic knowing as a creative response by the nurse that enhances empirical, ethical and personal patterns of knowing. Chinn and Watson (1994) articulate various ways that art and aesthetics create opportunities for nurses to promote caring environments. According to Gramling and Smith (2001), the use of various art forms can facilitate aesthetic knowing through such caring pedagogical strategies that awaken “the senses and sensibilities to the truth and beauty of the nurse-patient encounter” (p. 11).

Community and public health nurses have a passion for those who are not often viewed as a part of mainstream society such as the poor, the homeless, immigrants and other vulnerable groups. Early nursing pioneers such as Lillian Wald, Mary Breckinridge and Isabella Stewart extended the science and art of nursing of their day to women, children, elderly persons, the disabled and disenfranchised. Mary Breckinridge, founder of the Frontier Nursing Service, taught her staff to value the cultural beliefs of the mountain people they served and encouraged courteous and respectful treatment of them (Johnson, 2001). Through an examination of the needs of the populations she served in the lower East Side of New York City, Lillian Wald developed a population focus on prevention, health promotion, education, environmental awareness and communicable disease control (Erickson, 1996). However, at the heart of their work was a profound commitment to care for those most vulnerable. They embraced this commitment with compassion, passion and energy (Johnson, 2001; Erickson, 1996). Another nursing education pioneer, Isabel Stewart in 1929 best describes the importance of compassion,

The caring component of nursing encompasses much more than a combination of the scientific and the technical. It encompasses and mandates a balance of the head, the heart, and the hands, or the science, the skill, and the spirit. We have forged ahead in the areas of science and technology, but there is fear among us that the spirit becomes dimmer and dimmer with the passage of time (p.1).

Faculty may not easily identify ways to evaluate how well students achieve the desired values and appreciation for the vulnerable in the classroom setting. Community health educators recognize that caring and compassion are the foundation for nursing practice in communities. Young-Mason (2001) challenges nurses to reflect upon their practice to encourage a caring ethic. Through this dialogue of caring, nurses can serve to keep patients from being marginalized.

However, the didactic classroom setting where community health education promotes a population focus often limits our ability to engage students in the caring journey. As Diekelmann (2002) notes, “curriculum can become an oppressive system in nursing schools and can be used to distance students, to protect and safeguard certain knowledge and experiences, and to reproduce the status quo” (Pg. 382). Often, the content appears remote and lifeless to many students. In turn, students sometimes do not have the opportunity to see the value and relevance of such important topics in the community health classroom setting.

For many undergraduate nursing students their community health nursing course experience is different than images of their anticipated role in acute care settings. Contradictory images are reinforced by media depictions of television shows such as “ER” and “Scrubs”. Community health students leave their comfort zone in an institutional setting where there is familiar structure and routine to enter a community health practicum where they often encounter unfamiliar groups of people and novel practice settings. Currently both the AACN (American Association of Colleges of Nursing) Essentials for Baccalaureate Education for Professional Practice (1998) and the recommendations of ACHNE (Association of Community Health Nursing Educators) in Essentials for Baccalaureate Nursing Education for Entry Level Community/Public Health Nursing (2000) mandate a focus upon vulnerable population groups. Current community health education practices might meet the AACN and ACHNE mandates regarding the focus on vulnerable population groups for the clinical practicum experience, yet can fail to provide the student with the ability to appreciate the essence of what it is to be vulnerable.

Community health nursing faculty often struggle to find placements that will offer nursing students an experience rich in exposure and immersion with vulnerable and culturally diverse populations. In public health/community health courses, the clinical practicums are designed to offer students the opportunity to care for persons from vulnerable groups such as the homeless, victims of violence, those living in poverty, immigrants and refugees.

For some students, these experiences personally engage them with individuals who comprise their population focus (people who are homeless, teen mothers, older adults living independently) and capture the spirit and passion that pioneers such as Lillian Wald, Mary Breckinridge and Isabel Stewart championed. However, for other students the limited exposure available in the short time allotted to a clinical practicum with vulnerable clients, may leave them with impressions that only perpetuate the negative stereotypes that are commonly promoted in American culture through racism, ageism, homophobia, and attitudes toward the poor. Often community health nursing educators hear some students complain that “the homeless are just lazy and could have homes if they chose” or that “single mothers living in poverty are just trying to use the system” or that new immigrants come to the United States "so that they can get the services provided by welfare”. Such comments demonstrate that students adopt society’s stereotypes and unless challenged to change them by their educational experience, might bring these stereotypes with them into their clinical practice. Unfortunately, many undergraduate students may complete their community health experience without developing the important caring connection to the health risks and needs of vulnerable populations groups. Most importantly, they then fail to develop the passion to advocate for those most vulnerable.

In response to clinical experiences where student comments such as these can be heard and a strong personal commitment to provide compassionate care for diverse and vulnerable population groups, the authors chose to implement this educational strategy to supplement the classroom and clinical strategies already used in community health. This innovation can serve to counter such negative views that dominate society and free students to strengthen their compassion for vulnerable clients.

Another challenge for community health nursing results from community-based curriculum changes. Though such curricula encourage students to participate more fully in community health efforts throughout their nursing program in non-community health nursing courses, their exposure to vulnerable populations may not be supported by strategies that promote the dignity of the vulnerable. In fact, several baccalaureate programs no longer include a community health practicum concurrently taught with the didactic portion of the course because students have more community-based experiences throughout the curriculum. This, however, may limit the student’s engagement with a population group that encourages the development of meaningful interpersonal relationships and partnerships with community members. (Diekemper, M., Smith Battle, L., & Drake, M. A., 1999).

Art forms such as literature, poetry and music are often used as educational tools to integrate important topics into nursing courses (Baumann, 1999; Bruderle & Valiga, 1994; Stowe & Igo, 1996, Germain, 1986). The use of literature for nursing education is used by other nursing educators (Bartol, 1986; Baumann, 1999; Stowe & Igo, 1996; Clark, Zuk, & Beramee, 2000; Darbyshire, 1995; Germain, 1986; Harrison, 2001; Hoffman 1997; Moyle, W., Barnard, A. & Turner, C., 1995) but has not often been employed in many community nursing courses due to other educational demands of the course. Many nurse authors emphasize the importance of literature for nurses to acquire essential skills in cultural competence (Bartol & Richardson, 1998; Clark et al., 2000) in advancing nursing scholarship and inquiry (Baumann, 1999; Harrison, 2001) and for transformation and personal development of nurses (Darbyshire, 1995). In addition other authors suggest that using narratives as strategies, nurses are more likely to develop a caring relationships or aesthetic knowing necessary to nursing (Smith Battle, L. & Deikemper, M., 1999) and story telling (Banks-Wallace, 1998; Chinn, Maeve, & Bostick, 1997). Often, an effective route to compassion in nursing is through literature (Bruderle & Valiga, 1994; Gramling & Smith, 2001). Through story the author has the power to convey a message that touches the reader in ways that the scientific material in nursing textbooks may not.

Further, an appreciation for diversity is a necessary value for all students to develop, particularly nursing students in community health. While our classroom lectures and discussions offer content related to diversity, they often cannot offer the transpersonal atmosphere that promotes personal acquisition of values that emphasize respect for human dignity. Community health clinical practicums offer experiences with high risk and vulnerable populations who are culturally diverse, but they may not provide enough opportunities for personal relationship formation that facilitates student knowledge of the cultural lifeways of individuals who comprise such groups (Leininger, 1991). To encourage the development of caring behaviors for vulnerable populations, a literature-based assignment for all the community health nursing students in two baccalaureate nursing programs was created.

Nursing education, according to Barbee (1993) must address racism to prepare nurses to respect diverse clients and encourage diversity in our profession. Despite the mandate for caring in professional nursing, a lack understanding of racial oppression prevails among many members of the profession (Eliason 1998; Lowenstein and Glanville 1995; Campinha-Bacote, 1998). Further, nurses must integrate knowledge of how social issues such as discrimination of women and social class affect health status into their own practice (McIntosh, 1998). According to Gramling and Smith (2001), “students can develop the capability to respond with cultural sensitivity to the growing diversity in the world” through the use of aesthetic pedagogy (p. 11).

Classroom Assignment Innovation

This literature assignment is designed to have students confront their own cultural values, particularly issues related to race, gender and class. The assignment employs both fiction and non-fiction works of literature that address themes related to vulnerability. These stories tell the reader about culturally diverse and vulnerable characters that experience oppression, stigma, and labeling. Literature offers an opportunity to both connect the reader with and validate the life experiences of others. Additionally, this allows the student to learn from the personal voice in the story, which transforms their perspective. Topics of vulnerability and diversity such as poverty, race, social class, gangs, environmental poisoning, ethnicity, homelessness, child abuse, and rap culture were selected for integration into the community health course.

The aims of the assignment create opportunities for students to develop compassion for persons who comprise vulnerable population groups, value aesthetics for nursing practice, and increase respect for cultural diversity. After careful reading of various potential literary works, the authors selected a list of reading options designed to evoke personal responses to the plight of the vulnerable. Students in the didactic portion of the community course are required to select and read a book from these options provided on the first day of class (see Appendix A). Generally, students are grouped (usually no more than 4 students) to create an aesthetic response for classroom presentation to their peers. All members of the group read the book, then collaboratively develop a response, and creatively share this with the class. In most semesters, this allows for 9 to 12 different books to be included. Students are instructed to: identify the vulnerable population, view the book from the perspective of risk and vulnerability, identify 5 themes or major issues that emerged in the book and be creative in their presentation. The requirement for creativity leads the student into aesthetic expressive forms for their personal reaction to the literature. The evaluation form in their syllabus guides them as they prepare their creative response (see Appendix B).

The following examples reflect the range of students’ creative and compassionate responses to the readings. While these examples offer only a brief summary of how students engage in aesthetics, they offer a glimpse of the power of this strategy. See Table 1 for samples of the various vulnerabilities of the literary selections.

The book Amazing Grace by Jonathan Kozol (1995) connects the students with issues of poverty, violence, and social class. A group of students presenting this book elected to invite the rest of the class into the poverty and crime ridden area of Mott Haven where the book is set. They obtained footage of a news broadcast reporting on recent violent deaths in the neighborhood. To further represent sorrow, they created a model of a cemetery that showed the graves of the many children from the area whose tragic deaths resulted from their living environment, and shared poignant vignettes about the struggles of the families who live there.

While initially a second group of students presenting the same book did not engage in aesthetics when they objectively reviewed a great deal of the statistics and factual material learned from their reading, their presentation ended with a dramatic monologue by one presenter who played the part of several children. Excerpts of the monologue follow.

Hi, my name is Bernardo and I am eight years old, I died when I fell down the elevator shaft in my building. Hi, my name is Lorel and I was 5 years old when I died in a fire in my building. Hi, my name is Damon. I was 16 years old when someone shot and killed me in the lobby of an apartment building. Hi, my name is Sylvia and I died from AIDS at age 9. Hi, we are Danny, Damian, Alicia, Roberto and Christopher and we were all shot to death before we reached the age of 18 (Adapted from Kozol, 1995).

A very powerful presentation for the book, There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotliwitz (1991) left the student audience silent, thoughtful and profoundly moved. First the presenting students showed PowerPoint slides of happy children engaged in playful activities accompanied by a tape of children’s voices singing “God Bless America”. This was immediately followed by slides of inner city neighborhoods where children played in the street and lived in substandard homes. Interspersed among the images were facts about violence, poverty and other tragedies of everyday life for these children and the words “there are no children here” and “the other America”. Playing in the background was “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Coolio. The glaring difference between the reality of the lives of the children in the projects of Chicago and the desired image of children’s lives was overwhelming. The presenters most certainly revealed how they understood and wish others to develop compassionate care for poor minority children.

The book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman (1997) is used frequently by nurses to convey issues related to cultural collision in health care (Bartol & Richardson, 1998; Clark et al, 2000; Gramling & Smith, 2001). A group of students who read this book did their own mini-research project. A Cambodian student nurse interviewed local Cambodian American immigrants to hear them tell of their own experiences with the health care system and their understanding of directions and medical information from their doctors. The students showed the videotaped interviews with translation provided. The group then presented the themes of this mini-research project that matched the book: miscommunication, class cultural conflict, Western vs. Eastern cultural perspective, stereotyping and “old” versus “new” roles in a foreign society.

Another student who read the same book applied the themes of cultural perspectives to health to her own Liberian culture. In both these instances, the multicultural nursing students’ knowledge could be validated in class by their ability to become the expert for this exercise.

To present the book, The Other Side of the River by Alex Kotliwitz (1998) a group of students used a skit to convey the themes they noted in the book. This book highlights issues of racial conflict and violence in neighboring communities. The student group divided itself to represent the members of each town on opposite sides of the river. Using dialogue each side expressed the commonly held beliefs of the predominantly black Benton Harbor residents and the predominantly white St. Joseph residents. Overhead the themes of fear and resentment, affluence/poverty, racism, ethnocentrism, loss, anger, guilt, and corruption were displayed.

A second group of students used slides to link issues in St. Joseph and Benton Harbor to the local area near campus. One slide featured a neighborhood sign on a lawn challenging the local mayor and District Attorney to solve a murder case of a young man of color. The students also linked the issues to racism they observed and challenged in their own student workplaces.

The faculty included the book When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago (1993) to encourage the students to identify with the immigrant experience. Readers became puppeteers as they performed their interpretations of how Negi felt when she first arrived in the United States. As the students “hid behind” the stage, they were able to evoke the feelings of alienation and prejudice noted in the story. A second presentation of this book was a skit where nursing students enacted a scene from the book where Negi visits the home of someone who has died. Their portrayal demonstrated the cultural variation of death and dying with respect and concern.

In a moving presentation of the book about domestic violence, Black and Blue, by Anna Quindlen (1998), the students assumed the role of the narrator and the main characters, Frannie, Bobby and Robert. Each student developed and enacted a monologue based upon their understanding of the character in the book. Acting the part of the main characters they each portrayed the same issue or theme of the book to show the various perspectives of each character. For example, one monologue series highlighted fear. The child, Robert said,

After a fight, we were at Aunt Grace’s and I heard him, I heard him coming, I was listening, I knew these footsteps. Mom says that my face changed, she saw it go still and watchful. My eyes were huge and my shoulders hunched as though I was trying to make myself small, smaller, tiny invisible. With adults, I was always waiting for something to happen. I knew that at any moment grown-ups might go off like a car alarm—loud and scary and for no reason at all (Dufault, 2001).

In this way, the audience was able to experience in a very personal way the student’s understanding of the battering spouse, the victim-wife and the hurting child as people with needs and hurts.

A group of students concerned about violence to children requested to read David Peltzer’s A Child Called It (1995) and The Lost Boy (1998). For their presentation they used music as an artistic device to touch the audience. Most of the student audience was brought to tears at the conclusion of the presentation when the students used the music video of Martina McBride’s “Concrete Angel” to depict the pain a child experiences from child abuse. In another presentation of these books, the presenters created a “Clothesline Project” across the classroom such as the powerful projects used to portray the pain of domestic violence. The students’ art used quotations from the book in the way that the “Clothesline Project” uses the words of victims themselves. The tattered children’s clothes with poignant messages conveyed the pain and suffering of an abused child.

Finally the books Rachel and Her Children, by Jonathan Kozol (1988), and Tell Them Who I Am by Elliott Liebow (1993) about experiences of the homeless encourage the students to make a personal connection with those living on the streets and in homeless shelters. One group presenting Rachel and Her Children divided a section of the classroom to create the hallways of the Martinique Hotel where the homeless families were housed. Using floor to ceiling panels that held images and quotations from the book, they created a walkway for their classmates to travel and experience the horror of family life in such an environment. Yet another student group’s presentation of this book created an atmosphere of darkness, dampness (open classroom window on a cold, damp December day), and privation (passed around bologna sandwiches) in order to share poignant excerpts from the book. A third student group asked students to rank essential needs such as home, job, health, family, and car in order of importance to them. Then, they related a story common to many homeless families where a family member became ill (instructed audience to cross health off the list), lost the job due to absenteeism (instructed audience to cross job off the list), and then the car (cross automobile off), and then the home (cross home off the list). They powerfully conveyed to the class how one might feel when adversity befalls them as they personalized the experience for the audience (See table 2 for examples of creativity).

These examples are but a few of the many creative and sensitive ways that the students shared their readings. Their compassion and sensitivity became evident in the ways they portrayed or described the particular vulnerable group. Additionally, their emotional presentations produced compassionate responses from the remainder of the class.

Discussion

During the past five years, more than 550 students in eleven class sections at two universities participated in this assignment. Faculty evaluation of this assignment indicates that the student presenters demonstrate aesthetic knowing and creativity that allows them to show their understanding of the issues identified and their affective response to the book. Often, they visibly reflect their emotions and usually speak about how the book altered their views of groups that are stereotyped and marginalized. Frequently the students tell their classmates that they highly recommend that others read the particular book.

While outcomes that address attitudinal change were not measured by an objective measurement but by qualitative assessment, this experience convincingly demonstrates that students show compassionate concern for the vulnerable population groups featured in these books in their artful response. Student evaluations of the learning experience were equally sensitive and compassionate. The majority of the students stated that the assignment was very helpful and informative of a different subject matter and that they enjoyed the creativity of the presentations. Students noted that the books were “eye-opening”, informative of a different subject matter and not something they would have been likely to read had it not been assigned. The most frequent comments began with, “I never knew…” in reference to how life is for the marginalized. Many students commented on the fact that issues of racism, vulnerability and another’s cultural viewpoint were new experiences for them. One student writes, “This assignment teaches nurses to look beyond the immediate to see the “Big Picture” which leads to compassion and understanding”. Another wrote, “This is a good way for nurses to apply the theory of community health nursing to real life situations and circumstances.” A third wrote, “This was an extremely valuable assignment. Some of the content [of this book] was so dense and emotional. I think you should assign {same book} to the whole class.” One said, “I would never have read this book unless you assigned it and I could not put it down. I have learned so much about racism.” Another student writes,

On a personal level, the hardships in the novel helped me to appreciate my own life. All too often, people in our country do not grasp that there is a whole world out there very unlike our own. People take for granted personal freedom and opportunity. In reading this book, I tried to imagine what it would be like to live in a culture like that. Reading this book helps people understand the importance of being open minded and understanding (Anonymous, 2001).

Some students even noted that now they would like to read those books they had not yet read. Results of the evaluations that used a Likert scale to measure student rating of the assignment can be found in Appendix C.

While faculty review of the assignment and the student evaluations does not allow measurement of behavior change for nursing practice, the authors believe that using this approach allows the student in the classroom setting to experience the course content in a personal way. The assignment is an effective channel to assist the student in understanding self as well as caring for others. This includes aesthetic knowing of not only their patients and peers, but also of themselves. In order to affect behavior change, knowledge and attitude change precede behavioral change. The strategy creates the opportunity for students to develop aesthetic knowing in the didactic portion of the course where the population focus often minimizes the personal caring art so important in nursing. Hopefully, the assignment is able to capture some of the passion and spirit of leaders such as Lillian Wald, Mary Breckinridge and Isabel Stewart to encourage compassionate care for vulnerable populations. From the perspective of the authors, the exercise provides what Palmer (1998) refers to as “moments in the classroom when I can hardly hold the joy” (p. 1).

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1. Kozol, Jonathan. (1995). Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation. NY: Crown Publishers.

A look at children’s lives in a poor area of the South Bronx, NY, the poorest congressional district of our nation told by one of the strongest advocates for the poor. We see not only the struggles of the community members but the many dedicated people who work to better the lives of the children and future generations.

2. Kozol, Jonathan. (2000) Ordinary Resurrections: Children in the Years of Hope.

Kozol returns to Mott Haven to see the children he wrote about in Amazing Grace.

3. Kotlowitz, Alex. (1991). There are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America. NY: Doubleday.

A look at the struggles in urban America for poor families through the author’s story of two young boys growing up in public housing in one of the poorest areas in this country. We see how their mother tries to protect them from the dangers they face daily as the family tries to meet their basic needs and small successes in life.

4. Abraham, Laurie Kaye. (1993). Mama Might Be Better Off Dead: The Failure of Health Care in Urban America. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Story of four generations of a poor African American family coping with devastating illnesses and struggling to obtain adequate health care in today’s health care climate. This family lives in the same neighborhood that Kotlowitz writes about in There are no children here.

5. Ehrenreich, Barbara (2001). Nickel and Dimed: On (not) getting by in America. New York: Metropolitan.

The author decided to take on the role of minimum wage workers (waitress, housekeeper) and personally learns the struggles of “getting by.”

6. Fadiman, Anne. (1997). The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. NY: Farrar, Straus.

A balanced discussion of the Hmong family’s beliefs and the US health care providers’ efforts to provide what they believe is appropriate care.

This wonderful book highlights the story of the author’s experience growing up in Puerto Rico and as an immigrant to the US.

The story of the author’s perspective of her Chinese culture in terms of relationships, role expectations, and assimilation into American culture.

The story of the Mirabel sisters’ role as activists in the time of the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic.

10. Kotlowitz, Alex. (1998). The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, a Death and America’s Dilemma. NY: Doubleday.

The book examines the response of two cities, St. Joseph and Benton Harbor, Michigan to the death of Eric McGuiness, a black youth. Issues of race, segregation, and the law are sensitively discussed by the author’s extensive interviews with people from both communities.

11. Kozol, Jonathan. (1988). Rachel and Her Children: Homeless Families in America. NY: Fawcett Columbine.

Story of homeless families in a poor inner city neighborhood.

Stories of homeless women by one of the great ethnographers of our time.

A novel about Fran Benedetto, RN and the horrors she experiences as a victim of domestic violence.

14. Peltzer, Dave (1995) A Child Called “It”. Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications.

15. Peltzer, Dave (1997). The Lost Boy. Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications.

16. Peltzer, Dave ( 2000) A Man Called Dave. Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications.

This series offers a graphic and compelling account of the author’s personal experience as an abused child, with his foster care experience and his struggle to cope with his abuse as an adult survivor.

The story of the legal struggles of the families of the children who were victims in the leukemia cluster in Woburn, Massachusetts.

18. Kelley, Robin. (1997). Yo’ Mama’s Disfunktional. Boston: Beacon Press. (race and oppression from the black author’s perspective with reflections on rap culture)

19. Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Gather Together in My Name, and The Heart of the Woman. (autobiographical series)

20. Rothenberg, Daniel. (1998). With These Hands: The hidden world of migrant farmworkers today. New York: Harcourt-Brace.

21. Dodson, Lisa. (1999). Don’t Call Us Out of Name: The untold lives of women and girls in poor America. Boston: Beacon.

22. Pipher, Mary. (2002). The Middle of Everywhere: The world’s refugees come to our town. New York: Harcourt. Or Another Country. (about aging parents).

Introduction ,(10 points); Evidence of preparation (15 points); Creativity (15 points); Presentation style (clear, audible) (10 points); Themes of book identified (20 points); Major points summarized (10 points); Relevance to risk and vulnerability (20 points).

Other faculty members are invited to observe presentations. Evaluation forms are provided where evaluators rate each item/criterion on a scale of 1 to 5 and from the faculty evaluations the student grades are scored.

Additionally, each student presentation group receives a form where they rate the participation of the other members of their group. Occasionally there is one member who has not been an equal contributor, but the expectation of group evaluation usually encourages all members to be active participants.

This assignment helped me learn about vulnerable populations from peer’s presentations. 4.5

Sadri Krasniqi was born in 1941 in Kosovo, a conservative region of the former Yugoslavia. A village policeman under the Tito regime, he emigrated to the United States in 1971, working as a laborer until he had saved enough money to go into business for himself. Sabahete Krasniqi is from Montenegro also of the former Yugoslavia; she came to the United States in 1979 to marry Krasniqi. She readily admits to having had a difficult time adjusting to her "new surroundings"; the Krasniqis, at the time of these proceedings, did not understand or speak English very well.

Krasniqi was accused of sexually molesting their four year old daughter on August 11, 1989. At the time, the Krasniqis were living in North Dallas and Krasniqi owned and operated five Brothers Pizza shops. By 1995, the Krasniqis had sold one of the outlets to pay legal expenses and closed the other four when the emotional burden made it too difficult for them to interact with customers. The following is a presentation of the sequence of these events.

On August 11, 1989, Krasniqi took his nine-year old son and his daughter to the high school gymnasium in Plano, Texas, to watch his son participate in a tae kwon do competition. Sitting in the front row of the audience of hundreds of parents, Krasniqi video-taped his son's show; his daughter was either seated on or standing between Krasniqi's knees. Mary Lou Tailor, also a parent in the audience, alleged that Krasniqi sexually molested his daughter during the competition. Tailor was apparently sitting behind Krasniqi during the competition; she and the other witnesses who she summoned watched as Krasniqi "fondled" the girl. Tailor testified at the parental termination hearing that Krasniqi "put his fingers inside of the panty, and then he was squeezing her. He was squeezing her vaginal area, and he did this several times." Her testimony was supported by that of a plainclothes police officer who was called to the scene. Criminal charges of sexual abuse were initiated against Krasniqi and he was later jailed.

In an April 1990 civil hearing, Krasniqi's parental rights to both his daughter and his ten-year old son were terminated. Mrs. Krasniqi's parental rights were terminated when she allowed the children to be alone with their father following the accusation. She herself was never accused of abuse.

The court noted that Krasniqi's defense was cultural: in Albania, a father's fondling of his daughter would be viewed as an acceptable manifestation of fatherly affection and would not be considered sexual. This is because parent-child sex is unheard of in Albania. Therefore, this type of touching, absent sexual overtones, is not viewed as suspicious. The jury concluded that cultural or not, fondling was not allowed in Texas. The two children were placed in foster care. In 1992, three of the four counts of sexual assault against Krasniqi were dismissed in criminal court. In February 1994, Krasniqi was found not guilty of the fourth charge. In October 1994, however, the children were adopted by the Christian foster parents with whom they had been living. The Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services stated that the children would remain with the adoptive parents because the outcomes of the criminal case had no procedural impact upon the civil case. Regina v. Adesanya

Adesanya, a Yoruba woman from Nigeria, made tribal marks on her two sons' faces to ensure the maintenance of their cultural identity. Adesanya was unaware that ritual scarification was considered to be a violation of the English law prohibiting assault. In fact, the Nigerian High Commission testified that the Nigerian community generally was unaware of this. Moreover, the defense argued that failure to make facial scars would be regarded as child abuse from the point of view of her culture. Adesanya did not claim she was ignorant of the law against assault, but rather that she did not perceive scarification as a form of assault.

People v. (Kong) Moua

A Hmong man, Kong Moua, allegedly carried off a Hmong woman as part of a Hmong marriage by capture ritual. The Hmong custom requires the woman to protest, even if she is willing to marry the man.. In this case the woman filed rape and kidnaping charges. The defense argued that the case involved a mistake of fact as to the woman's consent.

The woman, Seng Xiong, was prevented from contacting her family, but did not go to the police immediately in order to make an important meeting at the Loa Community Center, to which she was driven by Moua. There, she begged her brother to rescue her saying that "she wou;d die if she stayed." She subsequently returned with Kong to her family in an effort to resolve the dispute in a Hmong fashion, with the families meeting together to discuss a settlement. Seng eventually notified the police because Moua said he would kidnap her again. Her explanation as to why she waited to report the incident was that her reputation was at stake and that she might not be able to find a husband if news of the rape came out.

The case centered on what occurred could be construed as "marriage by capture" or "zij poj niam." Marriage by abduction is based on the principle that the man is in love with a woman who has no interest in him. In some cases this is because the man has no marriageable qualities. The man's action in taking the woman without her knowledge and in the face of vociferous protest does not necessarily result in marriage. The actual marriage arrangements, if any,
are made by both sets of parents who, after negotiating the marriage terms, solemnize the transaction at a feast held at the girl's house. To the Hmong it is important to get married "by any means available." It is possible that the dislocation of Hmong lifestyle resulting from their move to the United States may have caused an increase in attempts by Hmong men to marry by means of abduction.

Assessing the Cultural Defense - Insanity and Automatism - People v. Wu

The defendant, Helen Wu, was born in 1943 in Saigon, China. At the age of 19,in about 1962 or 1963, she moved to Macau. She married and had a daughter, who was 25 years old at the time of the trial of this matter in February 1990. In 1963, she met Gary (Wu), the son of one of her friends. That same year Wu went to the United States, and married Susanna Ku. He opened several restaurants in the Palm Springs area.

After eight years of marriage, the defendant was divorced, and became employed,
writing statistics for greyhound races. She was apparently betrothed to remarry in the mid-1970's, but her fiancee developed lung cancer and died. His sister, Nancy Chung (Chung), became defendant's close friend and confidante. According to Chung, Chung's brother made her promise to help defendant because defendant was a kind, moral person, not greedy, but too trusting.

In 1978 or 1979, defendant was contacted by Wu, who had heard that she was divorced and had a daughter. Wu told her his marriage was unsatisfactory because his wife could not have children. According to defendant, Wu told her he planned to divorce his wife. They discussed the possibility that defendant could come to the United States and conceive a child for Wu. The defendant believed Wu would marry her after he divorced his wife. Defendant was in love with Wu, and Wu gave the defendant money to deposit in a joint bank account and sent her $20,000 so she could apply for a visa to the United States.

In November 1979, Helen Wu came to the United States. When the defendant arrived, he hugged and kissed her, told her his divorce proceedings would be completed soon and he definitely would marry her. Defendant lived with Wu's mother. Wu's wife believed she was a family friend. At Wu's request defendant brought $15,000 of the money he had sent her and they opened a joint account together.
In December 1979 or January 1980, Wu and his wife Susanna were divorced; however, Wu did not tell defendant that he had obtained a divorce. Defendant conceived a child by Wu in the early part of 1980, and then moved into an apartment, where she was visited by Wu. After the child, Sidney, was born in November 1980, Wu apparently made no overtures regarding marriage. Depressed, defendant, who could not speak English, could not drive, and who had no
support system in the United States, told Wu she intended to return to Macau, apparently expecting that this information would cause him to try to persuade her to stay.
Wu did not try to persuade defendant to stay, so in February 1981, she returned home but left Sidney with Wu. She could not take the baby because no one knew she had a baby and she and Sidney would have been humiliated in China. She told only her closest friend, Chung, who had already learned of defendant's pregnancy from Chung's daughters who were going to college in the United States, that she had borne a child out of wedlock; such a thing was apparently
considered to be particularly shameful among people of defendant's culture.

From 1981 to 1988 defendant regularly asked Wu to bring Sidney to visit her, but to no avail. In 1981, Wu said he could only come for the summer and defendant told him she wanted Sidney to stay and if he could not, then she did not want to see him because it would be harder after he left. In 1984, Wu asked defendant to visit him but she did not want to come until she was
married, then she and her son would have dignity and status.
In September 1987, Wu told defendant he needed money for his restaurant business. She finally told him that if he would bring Sidney to visit that she would loan him money for his restaurants. In January 1988, Wu brought Sidney, who was then seven years old, to visit defendant in Hong Kong. Defendant showed him $100,000 cash and a receipt for a certificate of deposit of a million Hong Kong dollars. Both the cash and the deposited funds had been
loaned to defendant by Chung, after defendant admitted to Chung that she had lured Wu into bringing Sidney to see her with the promise of a loan. On that visit, Wu proposed marriage, but defendant declined, depressed over the fact that the marriage proposal seemed to be because of "her" money, and because she did not know if Wu was still married or not. Defendant was so discouraged by these beliefs that she attempted to throw herself out of the window of Chung's apartment, but was restrained by Chung, Chung's daughter, and a servant.
According to Chung, Wu, while in Hong Kong, suggested that if Chung invested money in his restaurant business, he could be her sponsor for American citizenship, because the communists would be taking over control of Hong Kong in a few years. Chung declined, saying she did not know anything about the restaurant business. Wu then said there was another way to help her, and when she asked how, he said he could marry her. Chung asked, "What about Helen?" Wu replied by indicating that there was enough time for him to first marry Chung and to later marry defendant. Wu later wrote Chung a letter suggesting the marriage, which he followed up with a telephone call asking if Chung had received his letter. Chung politely cooled these advances by denying she had received the letter, which, however, she saved, and which was
produced at trial.

Chung did not tell defendant of Wu's advances. During the next year defendant worked and traveled with Chung. She wanted to see Sidney but she did not know if Wu was still married and did not want to upset her son's life. In August 1989, defendant, who was on a vacation trip to Las Vegas and San Francisco with Chung, as Chung's guest, apparently heard that Wu's mother, Sidney's paternal grandmother, was terminally ill, so she came to Palm Springs to visit. While there, she was told by the grandmother that when the grandmother died, she, defendant, should take Sidney because Wu would not take good care of him. She was given similar advice by Sandy, Wu's cousin.
Toward the end of August, Wu told defendant that they were going to Las Vegas. Defendant stated she did not want to go. Wu told her it was important that she go, as "she was the main character" because they were going to be married. Defendant and Wu were married on September 1. On September 5, they went to Los Angeles to consult an attorney about immigration law. Defendant, following the marriage and consultation, was still of the opinion that Wu had married her because of his belief that she had a lot of money. During the
drive home from Los Angeles, this belief was reinforced by Wu's comments. When she asked if he had married her for her money, he responded that until she produced the money, she had no right to speak. Defendant asked Wu whether the marriage was not worthwhile simply for the purpose of legitimizing Sidney, and Wu replied that many people could give him children. Defendant told Wu he would be sorry.

She later explained that remark meant that she was thinking about returning to Macau and killing herself. After the trip to the lawyer, defendant told Wu to get her a plane ticket for
September 16 so that she could return to Macau. She asked him not to let Sidney know that she was leaving, because she wished to have 10 days of happiness with her son. Wu wanted to know if defendant was going to get the money, which made her very angry. Defendant gave Wu $6,300, her own money, and told him he liked money too much.

On September 9, the evening of the killing, defendant was playing with Sidney. Earlier that day defendant had interceded on Sidney's behalf when Wu hit Sidney when Sidney would not get out of the family car. Wu had gone to the restaurant to put on two birthday parties, apparently for his friend Rosemary. Defendant and Sidney played and talked, and defendant told Sidney that she knew what he liked because of the mother-child bond between them.

Sidney told defendant that Wu said she was "psychotic" and "very troublesome." He then told defendant that Rosemary was Wu's girlfriend, and that the house they lived in belonged to Rosemary. He also told her that Wu made him get up early so Wu could take Rosemary's daughters to school in the morning and if he did not get up, Wu would scold and beat him. He said Wu loved Rosemary more than him. Defendant began to think about what she had
been told by Sidney's grandmother and Sandy concerning her taking care of Sidney.
She began to experience heart palpitations and to have trouble breathing. She told Sidney she wanted to die, and asked him if he would go too. He clung to her neck and cried. She then left the bedroom, and obtained a rope by cutting the cord off a window blind. She returned to the bedroom and strangled Sidney. According to defendant, she did not remember the strangling itself. She stopped breathing, and when she started breathing again, she was surprised at
how quickly Sidney had died. She then wrote a note to Wu to the effect that he had bullied her
too much and "now this air is vented. I can die with no regret," but did not mention Sidney's killing in the note. She then attempted to strangle herself, failed, went to the kitchen and slashed her left wrist with a knife, and then returned to the bedroom and lay down next to Sidney on the bed, having first placed a waste-paper basket under her bleeding wrist to catch the blood so
that the floor would not be dirtied.

Wu returned home several hours later, and discovered defendant and Sidney. He called the police, and the paramedics were also summoned. The police determined that Sidney was dead. The paramedics tested defendant's vital signs, and determined that although her pulse and blood pressure were normal, she exhibited a decreased level of consciousness.

Dr. Michael Mostyn, the doctor who saw defendant when she was taken to the emergency room, testified that she had cut the veins in her wrist, but not the arteries, which are normally deeper beneath the surface than the veins, and that venous bleeding, if not irritated or prevented from clotting with the use of hot water, would stop, and that in his opinion a person who had simply slashed their veins, rather than their arteries, would not die. He also testified that this fact was not common knowledge to the "man on the street."

Dr. Saul Faerstein, a physician specializing in psychiatry, testified, after reviewing pictures of the wounds on defendant's wrists, that they did not appear to have been inflicted by a "malingerer," that they were the type of wound which a layperson, particularly one who was agitated, severely depressed, or confused, might make in a serious attempt to commit suicide. He
also testified, as to the decreased state of consciousness in which defendant was found, that defendant might have fainted and then remained in a reduced level of consciousness, but that "we're talking about something more than fainting here," and "there are many, people may disassociate, people may have emotional reactions which are acute and severe, where suddenly they become confused, as a result of shock, as a result of some acute shock. Clearly the circumstances of what was going on with her son were overwhelming kinds of trauma that she was experiencing, and I believe that the shock she was experiencing was traumatic but psychological in origin."

Chung testified that two days after Sidney's death, she received a telephone call from Wu, who was fishing for information about how defendant had accumulated the money he believed she possessed. Chung evaded his questions, and then Wu told her that defendant had strangled Sidney and "committed" suicide, but that defendant had been saved. Chung then hired an attorney in Hong Kong to help defendant.

Defendant was charged with murder and, following a trial by jury, was convicted of second degree murder.

Dong Lu Chen, a Chinese born man living in New York, bludgeoned his wife to death after she confessed to adultery. A professor of anthropology at Hunter College, Burton Pasternak, testified that in China women are sometimes severely punished for adultery. He said that it is viewed as an "enormous stain" that reflects not only on the husband but "is a reflection on his
ancestors and his progeny."

Pasternak also observed that adultery rarely ends in a wife's murder in China. In China when irate husbands confront wives suspected of infidelity, the community normally intervenes to prevent any acts of violence. In fact, Pasternak could not cite any cases where Chinese men had killed adulterous wives, though he did know of beatings. Nor did he present evidence to show that a jealousy killing would go unpunished under either customary or modern Chinese law. It seems that no effort was made to discover what punishment would be imposed in the case of a husband who murders an adulterous wife, either under traditional or modern Chinese law. Some commentators have pointed out that at least under modern law such a husband would be punished.

Nevertheless, after a non-jury trial New York State Supreme Court Judge Edward Pincus relied heavily on Pasternak's testimony when he found Chen guilty of second degree anslaughter and decided to sentence him to only five years probation. This "sentence" of five years probation essentially represented a complete defense rather than mitigation.

People v. Kimura

When Fumiko Kimura, a Japanese American living in Santa Monica, California, learned of the infidelity of her husband, she attempted oyako-shinju, parent-child suicide, by wading into the Pacific Ocean with her two children. The two children died, but she survived and was charged with first-degree murder with special circumstances which could have brought the death penalty. Oyako-shinju, while illegal in Japan, is not unheard of as a means by which a family can avoid an otherwise unacceptable social predicament. The Japanese-American community gathered a petition with over 25,000 signatures appealing to the Los Angeles County district attorney not to prosecute her, arguing that her actions were based on a different world-view. According to this world-view, it is more cruel to leave the children behind with no one to look after them than it is for the mother to take them with her to the afterlife.

Six psychiatrists testified that Kimura was suffering from temporary insanity. Some based their conclusion on her failure to distinguish between her own life and the lives of her children. Though she had resided in the United States for several years. As she had remained culturally isolated, she had not become assimilated. Through a plea bargain her homicide charge was reduced to voluntary manslaughter and she was sentenced to one year in county jail (which she had already served), five years probation, and psychiatric counseling. She was subsequently reunited with her husband.

Assessing the Cultural Defense, Self-Defense, People v. Croy

Patrick "Hooty" Croy, a Native American of part Karuk and part Shasta ancestry, lived in Yureka in Northern California, an area where there had been longstanding conflict between the Anglo and Native American populations. Croy and two relatives were chased by twenty-seven police officers after a dispute over the amount of change in a liquor store. Croy killed a police officer in what he claimed was self-defense. Croy was in his own home when he shot the officer and had stripped to the waist and covered himself in ceremonial war paint. He was convicted of murder in 1979 and sentenced to death. The California Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 1985.

At the new trial Croy's attorney presented a cultural defense in the context of self-defense. The cultural argument was that because Croy had suffered discrimination and had been conditioned not to trust white authorities (because white settlers had massacred Indians in the nineteenth century), he was predisposed to perceive that his life was in jeopardy. His main
attorney, Tony Serra, introduced testimony from expert witnesses concerning "racism, genocide, and discrimination against American Indians." In Serra's memorandum to the court arguing for the admissibility of evidence, he describes Croy's fear as "objectively reasonable under the circumstances" but actually insists upon the consideration of subjective factors: "the jury must be informed and educated about the factors that affected defendant's perception of danger and his ability to defend himself, including any physical, psychological, historical or cultural characteristics he may have possessed." Serra characterized the California rule on self-defense as "something of an 'individualized' objective standard of reasonableness which includes the individual's perception of both apprehension and imminent danger from the individual's own perspective, but involves an objective view by the jurors of those circumstances." In essence, Serra argued for a culturally relative reasonable person test.

State v. Butler

In State v. Butler two Native Americans killed a Caucasian, Donald Pier, who had been digging up Indian graves in order to sell authentic Indian artifacts. According to official court documents, they allegedly smashed his fingers in an attempt to obtain his confession and the names of others engaged in the practice of grave-robbing and then cut his throat. Although their attorney seems to have been somewhat reluctant to advance the argument, some Native Americans regarded their action as comparable to self-defense.

For many years Pier had pilfered valuable items from Siletz tribal grave sites. Although Native American residents had complained to authorities, local law enforcement failed to take any action and the district attorney maintained there was insufficient evidence to prosecute. As a result the Siletz people tried negotiation: contacting those suspected of desecrating the graves and requesting the return of the artifacts. While many complied, Pier denied having taken any sacred items.

The judge permitted a member of the Siletz tribe to explain Siletz religious beliefs concerning sacred burial grounds and the significance of their desecration: Integral to their religious value system was the sacred quality of the burial ground, and the tranquility of their relatives' spirits as well.

The only way to restore the harmony would require the re-burial of the stolen artifacts, or the spilling of the marauder's blood. The judge also excused the defendants from the requirement of standing when he entered the courtroom and allowed them to swear their oath on a religious symbol meaningful to them; a medicine bundle rather than a bible.

Self-Defense and Urban Survival Syndrome

The first case utilizing urban survival syndrome involved an eighteen-year-old black youth, Daimion Osby, who shot and killed two young men during a confrontation in a parking lot after a long-running feud between them. One week before the shooting, the two victims had threatened Osby with a shotgun. Osby used urban survival syndrome to furnish an underpinning for his claim of self-defense. During his first trial, Osby's counsel called an urban crime witness. The first trial resulted in a hung jury; the black foreperson thought that Osby had killed in self-defense. In a subsequent retrial in which "[t]he controversial defense was not used as prominently," Osby was convicted of murder. Since the prosecutors had decided before trial
not to seek the death penalty, Osby received an automatic life sentence.

Assessing the Cultural Defense, Provocation, Trujillo-Garcia v. Rowland

Petitioner and the man who later became his shooting victim, Jose Padilla, both came from Mexico to the United States about three years before the shooting incident. Petitioner is from a traditional, Catholic Mexican family of low socioeconomic class and has eleven siblings. When he arrived in the U.S., petitioner went to live with an older brother, Juan, on the Wilson ranch at which Juan worked. Id. at 80-81. In early February, 1986, Juan and his family were assaulted and robbed in their house at the Wilson ranch. Along with his wife and children, Juan moved out of the Wilson ranch and took a job at another ranch. Petitioner then moved into the house his older brother had vacated. It was the first time he had lived alone. Petitioner bought the gun which he later used to kill Padilla in March 1986, one or two weeks before the shooting. Petitioner apparently bought the gun in order to protect his house from further burglary attempts.

On April 3, 1986, petitioner and Padilla played poker, and Padilla lost $150 to petitioner. Four days later, on April 7, 1986, Padilla arrived at petitioner's house and asked for his money back. According to petitioner, Padilla cursed petitioner's mother and told petitioner "we're going
to get to the mother . . . You know what, I'd like you to go and fuck your mother." Petitioner then grabbed his gun from his waistband and shot Padilla. At trial, petitioner presented a defense of adequate provocation. Petitioner argued that the Spanish phrase for "go and fuck your mother,"
"chinga ta madre," is an insult that would strongly provoke most Mexican males. Based on this alleged adequate provocation, petitioner asked that his murder charge be reduced to manslaughter.

In California, the defense of provocation consists of two elements. The first element is subjective -- the defendant must in fact be so aroused that he acts rashly or without deliberation or reflection. People v. Logan, 175 Cal. 45, 48-49 (1917). The second element is objective. The provocation must be such that it would arouse the passions of a reasonable person. Logan, 175 Cal. at 49. At the end of closing argument, the trial court asked the district attorney and defense counsel to submit memoranda on the question of whether the petitioner's cultural background should be taken into account in applying the objective, reasonable person element of the provocation test.

Following submission of these briefs, the trial court found petitioner guilty of second-degree murder. Petitioner appealed his conviction, asserting that the trial court failed to take petitioner's cultural background into account in assessing the reasonableness of his provocation defense, and that this failure violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

People v. Metallides

In the Miami, Florida case of People v. Metallides a Greek immigrant, Kostas Metallides, killed his best friend when he found out that he had raped Kostas' daughter. Metallides' attorney, a public defender, used a temporary insanity argument based on culture. Though not recognized as a defense in Florida, the attorney relied on the "irresistible impulse" test. Metallides' attorney
constructed an argument around the cultural idea that the "law of the old country" is that "you do not wait for the police if your daughter has been raped." Though the jury was given temporary insanity as the official issue to decide, apparently it recognized that honor was a cultural concept.
Metallides was acquitted because the jury technically found him not guilty by reason of temporary insanity, but those involved say it was because of arguments based on Greek culture. The defense attorney said that the judge may have allowed the cultural evidence because the judge's wife was Greek.

Provocation and Urban Survival Syndrome

A second urban-survival-syndrome case involved Torino Roosevelt Boney, a nineteen-year-old who shot a twenty-year-old man in the head after they bumped into each other in a food court at Union Station in Washington, D.C. Boney's attorney and a social worker attributed his violent reaction to this minor incident to urban survival syndrome, which they defined as a "defensive
mind-set prevalent in tough, inner-city neighborhoods." Boney's counsel asserted that "poor urban areas foster a 'cycle of violence and despair' among young black men, and 'a look, a bump or a glance leads to extreme violence."' Boney received a ten-year minimum sentence for the killing.

Sexual Harassment, Case-Study, Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services

Sundowner Offshore Services is a Houston firm that drills for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Joseph Oncale signed on with Sundowner in 1991, having worked on offshore rigs before. During his time with the company, he claims to have suffered a series of abusive incidents. On one occasion, he claims, three male co-workers held him down in a shower and shoved a bar of soap between his buttocks. One threatened rape. As a result, he quit and underwent treatment for posttraumatic stress. Those who allegedly attacked him claim that they did not single out Oncale and that "all males who go onto an offshore platform are subject to a kind of hazing.

A Supreme Court decision, allowing that men who sexually harass other men are discriminating against them and thus breaking the law, opened the door for Oncale to pursue his claim. The burden for Oncale is to prove that he was discriminated against because of his gender. Behavior with sexual content isn't sufficient to constitute discrimination, though it may be "uncivil." In a mixed-sex workplace, it would be enough to show that men and women were treated differently. In this case, however, no women have worked on the rigs. (1.) Should these acts of hazing be considered sexual harassment? (2.) Do such acts create a climate of "general hostility" toward men? (3.) Should the courts retain the "disparity of treatment" test to determine whether certain acts constitute sexual harassment?

This exercise is designed for small (three to five students) groups. I introduce it after we have spent some time thinking about difference in the context of human rights and the construction of what we term “authentic identities.” The general purpose of the exercise is to begin to think about the fact that our commitment to acknowledging and respecting difference is not without its conflicts and complications.

On the reverse of this page is a short excerpt from an issue of The New York Times Magazine. The piece is from a weekly feature written by Randy Cohen called “The Ethicist.”

In this excerpt, Cohen fields a question from a reader that touches on issues of difference in the context of the contemporary United States. As you will see, the reader feels slighted (and perhaps a bit more than that) by the religiously motivated actions of a real estate agent and asks the Ethicist (Cohen) for advice. Although his advice makes no reference to human rights, I think you’ll be able to see that in many ways it is based on the principles that form the foundation of the doctrine of human rights.

Before you leave today, I’d like your group to do three things with this excerpt.

First, I want you to write an analysis of the issues that are raised by the reader. This analysis should employ those ideas that we have developed over the course of our semester. For instance, is there an issue of recognition here? How does difference work in this context?

Second, I want you to decide if you agree with the Ethicist’s advice to the reader. Should she “tear up the contract” as Cohen suggests or is there another way to deal with the circumstances? Keep in mind here that there are at least two structures of difference at work in this problem (gender and religion).

Third, I want you to decide if Cohen is right in his more general conclusion that “calling an offensive action religious doesn’t make it right.” Should we insist (as Cohen seems to imply) that all religions conform to a standard of conduct (at least in public) that is defined by the doctrine of human rights? How does Cohen’s position deal with the issue of recognition across the boundaries created by religious difference?

New York Times Magazine

Between the Sexes

Randy Cohen

The courteous and competent real-estate agent I’d just hired to rent my house shocked and offended me when, after we signed our contract, he refused to shake my hand, saying that as an Orthodox Jew he did not touch women. As a feminist, I oppose sex discrimination of all sorts. However, I also support freedom of religious expression. How do I balance these conflicting values? Should I tear up our contract?

J.L., New York

This culture clash may not allow you to reconcile the values you esteem. Though the agent dealt you only a petty slight, without ill intent, you’re entitled to work with someone who will treat you with the dignity and respect he shows his male clients. If this involved only his own person – adherence to laws concerning diet or dress, for example – you should of course be tolerant. But his actions directly affect you. And sexism is sexism, even when motivated by religious convictions. I believe you should tear up your contract.

Had he declined to shake hands with everyone, there would be no problem. What he may not do, however, is render a class of people untouchable. Were he, say, an airline ticket clerk who refused to touch Asian-Americans, he would find himself in hot water and rightly so. Bias on the basis of sex is equally discreditable.

Some religions (and some civil societies) that assign men and women distinct spheres argue that while those two spheres are different, neither is inferior to the other. This sort of reasoning was rejected in 1954 in the great school desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education, when the Supreme Court declared that separate is by its very nature unequal. That’s a pretty good ethical guideline for ordinary life.

There’s a terrific moment in Cool Hand Luke, when a prison guard about to put Paul Newman in the sweatbox says – I quote from memory – “Sorry, Luke, just doing my job.” Newman replies, “Calling it your job don’t make it right, boss.” Religion, same deal. Calling an offensive action religious doesn’t make it right.

The following exercise is derived from a passage in Patricia J. Williams’ book, The Alchemy of Race and Rights (Harvard University Press, 1989).

I begin by asking students to read the following story without identifying its source or its author. As they read, I ask them to compose a sentence that will bring some conclusion to the episode and to consider whether the story, as it stands, makes sense.

I was shopping in Soho and saw in a store window a sweater that I wanted to buy for my mother. I pressed my face to the window and my finger to the buzzer, seeking admittance. A teenager wearing running shoes and feasting on bubble gum glared out, evaluating me for signs that would pit me against the limits of his social understanding. After about five seconds, he mouthed “We’re closed,” and blew pink rubber at me. It was two Saturdays before Christmas, at one o’clock in the afternoon; there were several people in the store who appeared to be shopping for things for their mothers.

Following a brief work period, I ask several students to read their conclusions. Not surprisingly, most express some combination of irritation, frustration, and resignation. I then move the discussion to the issue of the sensibility of the story. After some work in getting students to focus on what is (and what isn’t) in the story, they come to see that, as it stands, the story is nonsensical (How can a shop be closed early in the afternoon two Saturdays before Christmas?).

We spend a bit of time trying to account for the “rage” (rather than frustration or irritation) and I then show the following image and ask, “Would the story make more sense to you if you knew that this was the face that was “pressed to the window”?

Most of the students immediately agree that if this were the face pressed against the window, the story would make sense. I tell them that, in fact, it was this face; Patricia Williams, pictured here, is a law professor and the author of this episode.

I then tell the students that I made a few changes in Williams account when I first presented it to them. I show them the episode as it was actually composed by Williams:

I was shopping in Soho and saw in a store window a sweater that I wanted to buy for my mother. I pressed my round, brown face to the window and my finger to the buzzer, seeking admittance. A narrow-eyed, white teenager wearing running shoes and feasting on bubble gum glared out, evaluating me for signs that would pit me against the limits of his social understanding. After about five seconds, he mouthed “We’re closed,” and blew pink rubber at me. It was two Saturdays before Christmas, at one o’clock in the afternoon; there were several white people in the store who appeared to be shopping for things for their mothers.

Our discussion then takes an important turn. I ask students to reflect on what they know about race that makes the “raced” version of this story sensible. The ideas of discrimination and prejudice quickly surface, but I press to have them focus on “how race works” in this episode and to think about race as a “structure” that can’t be reduced to the prejudices of the clerk who is the object of Williams’ ire.

One of the more important aspects of this discussion is to lead students to see that race works not only to exclude (Williams on the outside, looking in) but also to include (the white shoppers on the inside, looking out). This opens the door at least a bit to introduce the difficult concepts of “white privilege.”

Here's a simple activity for an introductory course that I plan to use in the Intro to Women's Studies, WMS 150. It could be applied in other intro courses when appropriate with slight changes:

Sheroes project: Sheroes is a term coined by African-American poet Maya
Angelou to refer to women heroes.

For this project students will research "sheroes" in a variety of fields, prepare posters with pictures and information about them, and present their posters to the class.

Each student picks a slip of paper that I have labeled with a category (e.g. African-American biologist, Asian-American physicist, African-American astronaut) and then researches a woman who fits that description.

This could be amended to look up s/heroes in a particular field as appropriate: mathematicians, chemists, authors, etc. Students could do this in groups of 2 if the class is large. I spread oral reports on the s/heroes over the semester-- one or two students report each class meeting.

This exercise serves three functions:
1. It introduces students to important, lesser-known figures from diverse ethnicities

2. It requires students to use assigned research tools (such as Gale Biography on-line or National Women's Hall of Fame, etc)

Diversity Week provides faculty a forum for initiating positive change in student attitudes about diversity. Many faculty members at URI have creatively and very successfully incorporated Diversity Week into their course curriculum, and have generously contributed examples of their assignments for use in this Teaching Manual.

The assignments are posted here unedited/unchanged and proper credit and citation is required for use of any portions.

The Diversity Week Teaching Manual Subcommittee welcomes your contribution of assignments to post. Contact the Multicultural Center at mcc1@etal.uri.edu, or Judy Van Wyk at vanwyk@uri.edu.

A few general approaches to incorporating Diversity Week assignments into courses at URI have emerged, and are explained below with examples.

· A faculty member plans for a topic on diversity to be addressed in his/her own class that regularly meets on a Wednesday, but opens the class to the campus community, and schedules it as a Wednesday Workshop.

· A faculty member assigns students to conduct a Wednesday Workshop during Diversity Week.

Durand, Alain-Philippe, Associate Professor, Department of Modern & Classical Languages & Literatures

· A faculty member assigns students to select an event to attend, and a written assignment follows. This type of assignment can be offered as extra credit, or for regular course credit.

· A slight variation of the previous approach; in these assignments, students are provided time off from a class, or for the week to spend an equal amount of time attending Diversity Week events.

· Many faculty members simply bring their entire classes to Diversity Week events during their regularly scheduled classes.

The Diversity Week Committee and the Teaching Manual Subcommittee offer special thanks to all of the faculty members who have contributed, or plan to contribute example assignments from their own classes.

This course is a survey of the French speaking Cinema from the 1930’s to the 1990’s. It gives an overview of the main genres and directors in France. In addition to viewing required films before coming to class, students will also read some of the most important texts dealing with French film. Therefore, the goals of this course are as follows: 1 - to acquaint the students with some of the major film figures and movements in France since the 1930's; 2 - to learn various approaches one may take to interpreting a film; 3 - to acquire the concepts and terminology necessary for communicating your ideas about cinema; 4 - to develop an awareness of the assumptions films of any kind make about us as viewers; to uncover the ways in which directors and authors skillfully shape our understanding and our interpretations of a given motion picture.

The students in this class will be shared in two teams. The first team will organize, present, and animate a debate on "Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary French Cinema" on Tuesday October 17 at 3:30-4:45pm. The group will conduct and advertize this public event as part of Diversity Week organized by the URI Multicultural Center. More info on this event will be

distributed in class to the participants. Your grade for the debate will be based on: - team work and organization; - capacity to motivate debate discussion; - quality of personal discussion and participation. The other team will organize, present, show and animate a debate on a French

film of their choice. As it was done in Paris in the fifties and sixties, the group will conduct this Ciné-Club session opened to the public as part of the National French Week. In this course, the Ciné-Club session will take place on November 9 at 7-10pm. Your grade for the Ciné-Club will be based on: - team work and organization;- capacity to motivate debate discussion; - quality of personal discussion and participation.

As stated above, my student Vince Johnson will give a presentation of his in progress Honors Project during diversity week which is another example of how I use this event in my teaching. I am pasting below (copied from the Honors Program Web Site) a description of what is a Honors Project, HPR 401.

What is a Senior Honors Project? The Senior Honors Project is an opportunity for undergraduate students to pursue independent research, scholarship, and creative work under the guidance of a faculty sponsor. It culminates in the production and presentation of the student's own substantial creative work. The Senior Honors Project provides a capstone research, scholarly and creative experience for students completing the Honors Program as well as for students not in the Program but wishing to achieve such an experience near the end of their undergraduate career.

The Honors Senior Project offers seniors the opportunity to work one-on-one with a faculty mentor on a research and creative endeavor of mutual interest. This arrangement fosters intellectual growth and provides the capstone experience for students completing the Honors Program requirements. Senior projects are recognized at the annual Spring Honors Convocation and are presented at the annual Spring Undergraduate Research Day. Grant funding for senior projects is available through the Honors Program and Office of the Provost on a competitive basis.

The Senior Honors Project offers talented and motivated undergraduate students the opportunity for independent distinguished research and creative work that is oftentimes not available until graduate studies. For their Honors Projects, seniors have produced videos; mounted photography,

sculpture, and art exhibits; written poetry manuscripts; practiced nursing in the Dominican Republic; and explored topics from hunger to the unsolved mystery of the yawn.

Who is eligible? Proposals are welcome from all second-semester juniors and seniors who are eligible for Honors study by maintaining a 3.2 GPA. In unusual circumstances such as study abroad during the junior and senior year, the requirements of particular major programs of study, or distinguished early opportunities for independent work, exceptions may be made to the class

standing requirement. Rare exceptions may also be made to the GPA requirement when warranted. Exceptions are granted by approval of the Honors Director.

How do I get started? To begin, you will need a project and a faculty sponsor. Once these are in hand, complete the attached "Proposal for Honors Project" form and submit it to the Honors Director for final approval.

What is an acceptable topic?There is no formula or limit for the topic of your project. Above all, it should be one that challenges you, heart and mind, and that brings together the culmination of your undergraduate studies. Ideally, the topic should come from your own selection and invention. If you are having trouble selecting or narrowing a topic, however, resources are available to help you. Speak with potential faculty sponsors. Schedule an appointment with the Honors Director. Come to the Honors Office and ask the Honors Secretary to let you look over past Honors Project proposals to find out what a proposal looks like.

When should I start? The answer to this question is "start as early as possible." As you are taking classes during your first three years, be alert to the ones that especially intrigue you, get to know the professor and find out what research and creative work he or she is doing. Though you will submit your proposal for approval in your junior year or early in your senior year, cultivate academic relationships with potential faculty sponsors early and keep those relationships alive.

What is the role of the faculty sponsor? Your faculty sponsor is the biggest key to the success of your project. The Senior Honors Project is an independent study. Your faculty sponsor will help you shape and refine your topic, give you advice and guidance as you proceed, set up a schedule of times to meet with you to discuss your progress, and evaluate and grade your final work. Normally we encourage you, even when your project is interdisciplinary, to select one professor to serve as your sponsor. Professors from the same or from other departments who are interested in your work may serve as additional advisors or consultants as you need them and they are willing, but one professor needs to be responsible for your final evaluation and grade. All full-time professors at the University are eligible to sponsor Senior Honors Projects. However, remember this is not a requirement of their workload, but a voluntary privilege they will undertake with you based on your talent, preparation, persuasion and long-term academic relationship.

· examine images and representations of women and discuss their impacts and effects

· develop an understanding of the concept of gender and identify varied cultural assumptions about gender

· consider the intersection of gender with other social and cultural identities such as race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality

· explore the conditions and circumstances affecting the lives of women in the United States, as well as globally and transnationally

REQUIRED TEXTS: Texts have been ordered at both the Rhode Island Book Company and the URI Bookstore. Make sure you purchase all texts before mid-semester as they may not be available in the bookstores after that time. Always bring the readings to class.

TURN YOUR CELL PHONES OFF DURING CLASS TIME. If you have an emergency situation that requires you to have your phone on, advise me in advance of class.

I encourage any student with a documented disability to contact me at the beginning of the semester so that we may work in conjunction with Disability Services for Students to support your success in this course. Disability Services for Students is located in the Office of Student Life, 330 Memorial Union, 874-2098.

We will often begin our class with an unannounced quiz. These quizzes are designed to measure reading comprehension; questions will be taken directly from our readings. There are no make-up quizzes. If you are late for class, you may miss the opportunity to begin or complete your quiz. I will drop the lowest quiz grade before I calculate your final grades.

Class Participation: This class may differ from many of your other courses in that it requires a considerable amount of active and sustained class participation. The majority of our class time will be spent in small group and whole class discussion. My definition of class participation does not include merely showing up for class. It does include asking questions and making contributions which demonstrate that the reading assignments have been completed, sharing experiences, and thoughtfully responding to the ideas offered by your classmates, the authors we read, and/or me. I will consider both the quantity and quality of your contributions when I evaluate your participation.

This course covers material which may result in challenges to beliefs and values you currently hold. This is often a difficult process. I expect that you will often argue with me and with each other. Disagreement is expected, encouraged, and necessary for our growth -- abusive and insulting language is not.

If you are not the kind of person who generally speaks up in class, please make this course an exception. If you find it difficult to speak in class, please come see me so I can help you.

***Regular attendance is required. Please be on time: I find tardiness both rude and disruptive. Excessive absenteeism and excessive tardiness (more than two instances) will affect your grade. I will deduct points for more than two absences, regardless of cause, as follows: For the third absence, you will be charged one point; for the fourth absence, you will be charged two points; for the fifth absence and any other absences over five, you will be charged three points each. If you miss eight or more classes, you cannot earn a passing grade in this class. Any instances of tardiness in excess of the first two will be calculated in the same way as absences, except that two instances of tardiness will equal one absence (for example, the third and fourth instance will result in a one point deduction, etc.). Keep track of your own absences and instances of tardiness. You are responsible for any material covered and assignments due when you are not in class. I strongly recommend that you trade phone numbers and email addresses with several classmates so you have a resource in case you do miss class. If you have an unexpected and serious tragedy (e.g., a death in the immediate family, a medical emergency, etc.), I will require documentation from the Dean, and you will be responsible to meet with me to make arrangements for any authorized make-up work.***

Our class meets for 75 minutes. Please refrain from leaving the room during our class time unless you have an unexpected emergency.

All assignments are to be submitted in class on the dates specified below. I do not accept late papers/projects. If you have an extraordinary and serious personal trauma or medical emergency that you think warrants an extension, please see me privately.

If you need to submit an assignment via email for some approved reason, I must receive the assignment in advance of our class meeting time. Do not send me attachments.

All written assignments are to be word-processed (no handwritten submissions will be accepted), 10-12 pt. font, proofread, and spell-checked. Use staples. Avoid plagiarism. Plagiarism is taking anyone else’s words or ideas and presenting them as your own without quotation marks (if you are quoting directly from the text), or without giving credit to the author (if you are paraphrasing or summarizing), or without documenting your source. Plagiarism is a violation of University regulations, as well as unethical, and can lead to a failing grade in the course or dismissal from URI.

· Take notes while you read and in class, and use your notes to help you think about your assignments and to prepare for quizzes.

· Consider the questions offered in the relevant “Reflecting on the Section” pages of our text.

· Think about connections between the readings, between the readings and your life experiences, and between the readings and current events.

· Come see me during office hours to ask questions, talk about your interests or concerns, or just chat. Also, feel free to email me.

“To be a feminist is to integrate an ideology of equality and female empowerment into the very fiber of my life. It is to search for personal clarity in the midst of systemic destruction, to join in sisterhood with women when often we are divided, to understand power structures with the intention of challenging them.”

· All assignments are to be read PRIOR to class OR how can you discuss it if you haven't read it?

Tuesday, January 20: NO CLASS. MONDAY CLASSES MEET. I will not hold office hours.

DUE: First Student Choice Assignment must be submitted on or before February 10.

NOTE: The Tenth Annual Lecture on Multiculturalism is scheduled for February 11.

Hughes, The ‘Natasha’ Trade: Transnational Sex Trafficking (ON RESERVE and also available on-line at: www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/natasha_nij.pdf)

“What we need to search for and find, what we need to hone and perfect into a magnificent, shining thing, is a new kind of politics. Not the politics of governance, but the politics of resistance. The politics of opposition. The politics of forcing accountability. The politics of slowing things down. The politics of joining hands across the world and preventing certain destruction. In the present circumstances, I’d say that the only thing worth globalizing is dissent.”

REMINDER: Emecheta’s novel is to be read in its entirety for the first day of discussion—

NOTE: April 21 is Day of Silence. See www.dayofsilence.org for more information.

Note: University Manual 8.51.17 All work for courses, including term papers but excepting final examinations, shall be completed by the final class meeting.

Diversity Week Report

(I’ve done this both as a written and an oral-in class assignment. I’ve done it the last three years.)

· To connect your experiences in this class to events occurring on the URI campus. (RIBTS 1, 10)

· Attend one session from the 2003 URI Diversity Week that focuses on cultural, ethnic or racial diversity. If you have doubts about the diversity emphasis, see me before the session to get approval.

· Keep notes on the Diversity Session you attended. Describe the session (title, speakers, audience, etc.)

· Reflect on what you learned from the session and connect what you have learned to Nieto and your outside readings.

· How might you use the information you learned in order to provide better educational opportunities to your future students?

Each year the URI Multicultural Center hosts the annual Diversity Week events held on campus. This year, diversity week runs from the week of Sept. 29 – Oct. 3, and is chock full of events for students. In an effort to ensure that students in my classes have the time to participate in this year’s events, I am not holding official classes during Diversity Week.

▪ Read about Diversity Week so that you develop an understanding of the purpose, goal, and overall philosophy of Diversity Week.

▪ Plan a schedule in which you will attend at the very least, three events that each run for a minimum of 50 minutes in length.

Please refer to the Writing Guide & Grading Rubric that I have provided for you in the course syllabus for general specifications for written work, proper grammar, and punctuation; and refer to the “ASA Style Guide” for proper referencing and citation.

▪ Page 2: List all of the events that you attended during Diversity Week, making note of the time, title, date, presenters, etc. for each one.

▪ Pages 3 & 4: Write no more than two pages describing at least three of the events that you attended.

▪ Pages 5 & 6: Write no more than two pages applying what you learned by attending the events to the things that you have learned in this course about crime and delinquency.

SAMPLE student work/Responses to Diversity week

Durand, Alain-Philippe, Associate Professor, Department of Modern & Classical Languages & Literatures

If you have samples to contribute of student work/responses to Diversity Week, please ask their permission, and then contact either the Multicultural Center at mcc1@etal.uri.edu, or Judy Van Wyk at vanwyk@uri.edu.

A tremendous amount of information about teaching in diverse populations is already available on the Internet. Follow these links to learn more.

Arizona State University: "Discussion Ground Rules" http://www.asu.edu/provost/intergroup/resources/classgroundrules.html: provides ground rules designed to ensure that the widest range of opinions and ideas are discussed to bring about constructive dialog from the Intergroup Relations Center..

Colorado State University: "Teaching Diversity: Challenges and Complexities, Identities and Integrity" (2001), http://www.google.com/u/colostate?q=teaching+diversity [A collection of shared experiences about teaching diversity compiled for the purpose of helping others to teach diversity]

National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME): http://www.nameorg.org. [Promotes multiculturalism via educational resources.]

National Multicultural Institute: http://www.nmci.org. [Holds conferences, consults, produces publications and does workshops on teaching organizations and communities effective ways to respect and use diversity and multiculturalism]

Pennsylvania State University: "A Framework to Foster Diversity at Penn State" (2004)

http://www.equity.psu.edu/framework/framework.asp [a system set up to make Penn State a more diverse community. The framework elaborates on four points: Campus Climate and Intergroup Relations, Representation (Access and Success), Education and Scholarship, and Institutional Viability and Vitality]

Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT): “Researching Multicultural Resources on the World Wide Web” http://wally.rit.edu/depts/ref/research/multi.html. [This site provides "information professionals" with an online guide to finding resources for multicultural education.]

Rockhurst University: "Center for Teaching Excellence at Rockhurst University: Diversity Weblink" http://cte.rockhurst.edu/weblinks/diversity.htm [A list of links to sites focused on learning and teaching diversity.]

Social Psychology Network: "Reading Room" http://www.understandingprejudice.org/readroom: a list of bibliographic links to books, articles and other sources. UnderstandingPrejudice.org is a Supplement to a McGraw-Hill anthology entitled Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination.

Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence: Peace Psychology Division of the

Southern Poverty Law Center: “Tolerance.org” http://www.tolerance.org. Contains many links to teaching ides. [A good place to start for people who are interested in ending bigotry, hate crimes, and promoting diversity in communities and classrooms.]

University of Arizona: “Intergroup Relations Center” http://www.asu.edu/provost/intergroup/resourcesmain.html. [Provides programs and research on promoting diversity within the education system and its surrounding communities]

University of Colorado at Boulder: “What Works and How –Bibliographies and Sample Syllabi for Multicultural Studies” http://www.colorado.edu/journals/standards/V6N1/EDUCATION/SYLLABI/bibsyll.html: a collection of eight syllabi from various disciplines designed for undergraduates and high school seniors from the.

University of Michigan: "Creating Inclusive College Classrooms" http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsis/P3_1.html: classrooms in which instructors and students work together to create and sustain an environment in which everyone feels safe, supported, and encouraged to express her or his views and concerns.

------ "Guidelines for Discussion of Affirmative Action" http://www.crlt.umich.edu/publinks/affactdiscuss.html: guidelines to help instructors facilitate classroom discussions, both spontaneous and planned, about affirmative action, from the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching.

University of Rhode Island: “International, Multicultural, and Ethnic Researchers”

Webster University: “Incorporating Genocide, Ethno political Conflict, and Human Rights Issues into The Psychology Curriculum: Instructional Resources” (1999 OTRP Instructional Research Award), Linda M. Woolf, (2000), http://www.habermas.org/divrespsy.htm. [Resource guide for creating classes that focus on genocide, ethnopolitical conflict and human rights issues]

For additional references on diversity and multiculturalism, access references listed on other Web sites that appear under "Web Sources" in this Manual.

Edelstein, Marilyn. 1998. "Resisting Postmodernism; or, 'A Postmodernism of Resistance': Bell Hooks and the Theory Debates," pages 68-118 in Other Sisterhoods: Literary Theory and U.S. Women of Color, edited by Sandra Kumamoto Stanley. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. [Discusses relations between feminism and postmodernism on issues of race and gender.]

Friedman, Susan Stanford. 1995. "Beyond White and Other: Relationality and Narratives of Race in Feminist Discourse." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 21(1): 1-41. [Fine analysis of concept of "relationality."]

Greenblatt, Stephen. 1995, 2^nd ed. "Culture," pages 225-232 in Critical Terms for Literary Study, edited by Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [Useful definition of "culture."]

Ling, Amy. 1987. "I'm Here: An Asian American Woman's Response." New Literary History. 19(1): 151-160.

McIntosh, Peggy. 1988. White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women's Studies. Wellesley, MA: Wellesley Center for Research on Women, 1988. [The pivotal early work on the concept of "white privilege."]

Menand, Louis. 1995, 2^nd ed. "Diversity," pages 336-353 in Critical Terms for Literary Studies, edited by Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin. Chicago: U of Chicago Press. [Contrasts "centrist" with "radical" multiculturalism.]

Messer-Davidow, Ellen. 1987. "The Philosophical Bases of Feminist Literary Criticisms." New Literary Theory. 19(1): 65-103. [Good presentation of "perspectivism."]

Newfield, Christopher, and Avery F. Gordon (Eds). 1996. "Multiculturalism's Unfinished Business," pages 76-115 in Mapping Multi-Culturalism. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press. [Lucid definitions and analyses of "weak multiculturalism" vs. "strong multiculturalism." Collection has good introduction by Gordon and Newfield, and other very useful essays.]

Robinson, Lillian S. 1997. "Treason Our Text: Feminist Challenges to the Literary Canon," Studies in Women's Literature 2:1 (1983): 83-98. Rpt. in Lillian S. Robinson’s In the Canon's Mouth: Dispatches from the Culture Wars, on pages 2-22. Bloomington: U of Indiana Press. [Important early feminist analysis of the canon debates, especially in relation to gender and class. Volume includes other useful essays, including a review essay on Lauter's Canons and Contexts.]

Sleeter, Christine E. 1991. "Introduction: Multicultural Education and Empowerment," pages 1-23 in Empowerment Through Multicultural Education, edited by Christine E. Sleeter. Albany: State U of New York. [Helpful analysis of "five approaches to multicultural education," including "single group studies" and "education that is multicultural and social reconstructionist."]

Wall, Cheryl A. 1989. "Introduction: Taking Positions and Changing Words,” pages 1-15 in Changing Our Own Words: Essays on Criticism, Theory, and Writing, by Black Women, edited by Cheryl A. Wall. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers UP. [Good discussion of subjectivity and critiques of racial and gender essentialisms.]

Yezierska, Anzia. 2002. "America and I." The Open Cage: An Anzia Yezierska Collection, edited by Alice Kessler-Harris. New York: Persea Books, 1979. Rpt. in The Heath Anthology of American Literature, edited by Paul Lauter et al. 4th ed. Vol. 2. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Anzaldua, Gloria. 1987. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. San Francisco: Aunt Lute. [Influential text on concept of "the border" and on the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality; blend of theoretical, personal, and poetic discourses.]

Awkward, Michael. 1995. Negotiating Difference: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Positionality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Barlow, David E., and Melissa Hickman Barlow. 2000. Police in a Multicultural Society: An American Story. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.

Brodkin, Karen. 1998. How Jews Became White Folks: And What that Says about Race in America. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.

Dyer, Richard. 1997. White. New York: Routledge. [Perceptive theoretical discussion of the construction of whiteness.]

Ellis, Angele, and Marilyn Llewellyn. 1997. Dealing With Differences: Taking Action On Class, Race, Gender, and Disability. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Gates, Henry Louis Jr. 1992. Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars. New York: Oxford University Press. [Good collection of his essays on race, the canon, and culture.]

Hooks, Bell. 1990. Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics. Boston: South End Press. [Insightful critiques of racial essentialism, esp. in "Postmodern Blackness"; also essays on whiteness and astute film analyses focusing on issues of race and representation, etc.]

Hooks, Bell. 1994. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge. [Insightful discussions of critical, liberatory, and feminist pedagogies.]

Johnson, Allan G. 2001. Privilege, Power, and Difference. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company.

Kottak, Conrad Phillip, and Kathryn A. Kozaitis. 1999. On Being Different: Diversity and Multiculturalism in the North American Mainstream. Boston MA: McGraw Hill.

Lauter, Paul. 1983. Reconstructing American Literature: Courses, Syllabi, Issues. Old Westbury, N.Y.: Feminist Press. [Important early book on making American literature courses more inclusive and multicultural; good introduction by Lauter and sample syllabi for dozens of new courses.]

Lauter, Paul. 1991. Canons and Contexts. New York: Oxford University Press. [Includes both previously published and new essays by Lauter--a major force in the expansion of the American literary canon and curricula--on the canon, American literary study, the university, and society.]

Michaelsen, Scott, and David E. Johnson. 1997. Border Theory: The Limits of Cultural Politics. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press. [Collection of theoretical and applied essays on border theory and multiculturalism.]

Morey, Ann Intilili, and Margie K. Kitano. 1997. Multicultural Course Transformation in Higher Education: A Broader Truth. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. 1994, 2^nd edition. Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s. New York: Routledge. [Second edition of their important 1986 book, which critiques the concept of "race" and presents their theory of "racial formation."]

Parrillo, Vincent N. 1996. Diversity in America. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.

Rothenberg, Paula S., (Ed.) 2002. White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism. New York: Worth. [Key essays on whiteness and white privilege; includes pedagogical apparatus.]

Rosenblum, Karen E. and Toni-Michelle C. Travis. 2000, 2^nd Edition. The Meaning of Difference: American Constructions of Race, Sex and Gender, Social Class, and Sexual Orientation. Boston MA: McGraw Hill.

Ruoff, A. LaVonne Brown, and Jerry W. Ward, Jr. (Eds.) Redefining American Literary History. New York: MLA. Important collection on multiculturalism and the expanding canon, including critical and historical essays and very useful bibliographies, e.g., Teresa McKenna's on Chicano literature.

Stein, Gertrude. 1936. The Geographical History of America, or. The Relation of Human Nature to the Human Mind.. New York: Random House. [Modernist literary text that defies generic classification.]

Takaki, Ronald. 2002, 3^rd Edition. Debating Diversity: Clashing Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity in America. New York: Oxford University Press.

Vulnerability	Title of Book
Racism	The Other Side of the River Yo Mama’s Disfunktional
Poverty	Amazing Grace Ordinary Resurrections There Are No Children Here
Children’s Environmental Health Risks	Civil Action
Victims of Violence	Black and Blue A Child Called It, Lost Boy
Homelessness	Tell Them Who I am Rachel and Her Children
Immigrants and Refugees	The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down When I Was Puerto Rican The Middle of Everywhere
Medically Uninsured and Underserved	Mama Might Be Better Off Dead

Creative Activity/ Aesthetic Representation	Example
Skits	Portrayal of death rituals in When I Was Puerto Rican Family health crises in Mama Might Be Better Off Dead
Dramatic Monologue	Using the voice of the characters in the story students bring aesthetics into their presentations (Black and Blue & Amazing Grace)
Diorama	Cemetery where children from Mott Haven are buried (Amazing Grace)
Videos	Simulation of “talk show” where Eliot Liebow and key characters of Tell Them Who I Am are interviewed Students act out a documentary report of book
TV clips	News report from Mott Haven, Bronx in Amazing Grace “Oprah” show with interview of author of book
Games	“Truth or Consequences” game to dispute assumptions of those who live in poverty “Jeopardy” game to illustrate facts reported in A Civil Action
Movie clips	Scenes from movie “Hardball” to show how a child feels when afraid of gangs
Clothesline Project	Replication of project used by domestic violence projects to illustrate the themes of book for Peltzer books
Power point slides with music	Color, artistic and audiovisual effects to support the facts important to the book
Mini research	Investigation of Cambodian health beliefs to illustrate diverse health beliefs
Use of food and water	Water bottles marked with code to illustrate randomness of toxicity in water supply Limited or inadequate food to demonstrate what choices those in poverty have

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