NORAM2576 – An Enlightening Lens: Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life
Course description
Course content
In The Uprooted (1951) Oscar Handlin claimed, "Once I thought to write a history of the immigrants in America. Then I discovered that the immigrants were American history." This was an overstated but natural reaction to the neglect of the role of immigration and ethnicity in American history books until that time. Today, that dimension of the nation’s history is accepted as important to understanding nearly every aspect of American society, past and present.
Immigration to the United States is today seen within the wider framework of global migration history, in a recognition that population movements to the U.S. originate in socioeconomic systems—in the structural and social conditions in both the sending countries and the U.S. Incentives to leave combined with knowledge of opportunities in America have made the U.S. historically the most popular of many nations receiving large numbers of immigrants. Finally, the U.S. is now confronting a new historic peak of immigration and is once again wondering "e pluribus unum?"—can many peoples unite in one nation? And, of course, today that also means considering how immigrants relate to long-resident minorities in the country and how these minorities’ situation is and has been affected by massive immigration.
Learning outcome
After completing this course you will have:
- learned how to survey and critically evaluate the causes of peoples' migration to America, the means by which they came, the experiences they had because they were immigrants, the responses of American society to their immigration, the ways immigrants have transformed U.S. history, and the interpretations historians have put on these processes.
Admission
Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.
If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.
Prerequisites
Formal prerequisite knowledge
No obligatory prerequisites beyond the minimum requirements for entrance to higher education in Norway.
Overlapping courses
- 10 credits overlap with NORAM4576 – An Enlightening Lens: Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life (discontinued)
- 5 credits overlap with NORAM2577 – An Enlightening Lens: American History through the Prism of the Immigrant Experience (discontinued)
- 5 credits overlap with NORAM4577 – An Enlightening Lens: American History through the Prism of the Immigrant Experience (discontinued)
Teaching
Seminar, two hours per week for 14 weeks, 28 hours in total.
Attendance is obligatory 11 out of 14 seminars. Additional absences must be justified by documentation to the exam adviser.
You must also submit an essay in the middle of the semester. This essay must be approved by the teacher in order to take the exam.
Access to teaching
A student who has completed compulsory instruction and coursework and has had these approved, is not entitled to repeat that instruction and coursework. A student who has been admitted to a course, but who has not completed compulsory instruction and coursework or had these approved, is entitled to repeat that instruction and coursework, depending on available capacity.
Examination
A 4 hour written exam.
Earlier given assignments (note that the exam form has changed!): http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/hf/ilos/NORAM2576/eksamensoppgaver/tidligere-gitte-eksamensoppgave.html
Examination support material
You are allowed to use an English–English dictionary .
Language of examination
English
Grading scale
Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.
Results will be found at StudentWeb within three weeks after the exam.
Explanations and appeals
Resit an examination
Withdrawal from an examination
It is possible to take the exam up to 3 times. If you withdraw from the exam after the deadline or during the exam, this will be counted as an examination attempt.
Special examination arrangements
Application form, deadline and requirements for special examination arrangements.