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University of Pennsylvania
Department of Sociology

Spring 2014

Professor: Dr. Tamara K. Nopper
E-mail: tnopper@sas.upenn.edu
Office: 294 McNeil Bldg.
Course days: Mondays
Time: 2-5pm
Room: Williams Hall 27
Office hours: Wednesdays, 3:30-5pm
and by appointment


American Society
SOCI 005-001

This course explores American society in terms of its history, myths, and policies regarding
meritocracy, social mobility, and achieving the American dream. We consider these themes by
focusing on the origins, debate, and political conflicts over affirmative action, the push for
institutional diversity, anti-discrimination policies, and community and urban development initiatives
since WWII. In the process, we will learn about different actors involved, including civil rights
organizations, presidents and government officials, political parties, universities, corporations,
business schools, lobbyists, diversity administrators, litigants, and special interest groups.
Additionally, we will learn about sociological concepts, theories, and data sources commonly
employed in examinations of inequality.

Course goals
There are three goals for this course. Students will:
become familiar with sociological concepts and theories regarding inequality and social
mobility
gain a broad overview of the history, policies, and debates regarding meritocracy, affirmative
action, and anti-discrimination policies
become familiar with data sources utilized in the study of inequality, affirmative action, and
discrimination

Grade distribution
Exam 1: 150 points
Exam 2: 150 points
Data Analysis Assignments: 300 points (2 at 150 points each)
Attendance: 150 points
Participation: 150 points
Total points: 900 Points

Final grades are based on the following scale:
A+ 97+ C 73-77
A 93-96 C- 70-72
A- 90-92 D+ 68-69
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B+ 88-89 D 63-67
B 83-87 D- 60-62
B- 80-82 F 59 and less
C+ 78-79

Required texts
There is no assigned book for this course. All reading material is available on Canvas.

Incompletes
No student will be given an incomplete in a course without formal permission from the professor.
In order for the agreement to be valid, the professor and the student must sign a contract where the
former will specify a time frame within which the remainder of the course work is to be completed.
The professor is not obligated to provide incompletes and will assess each request individually.

Disability services
Any student who needs an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact the
Office of Student Disabilities Services (http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/lrc/sds/) to coordinate
reasonable accommodations. In order for a disability to be considered in the evaluation of student
performance, the professor must receive documentation provided by this office.

Canvas access
Canvas will be used routinely throughout this course. Make sure to check the site and your
university email frequently for updates since both will be the primary methods of communication
with the entire class. You are responsible for being aware of any messages sent through or posted
on Canvas.

Requirements
Exams 1 and 2: The two exams are multiple choice and will be administered on-line through Canvas
on the dates listed in the course schedule. Guidelines will be available on Canvas.

Data analysis assignments: Students will become familiar with and analyze data utilized in
scholarship, litigation, and policies addressing inequality and discrimination: Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC) cases, educational patterns, and criminal justice patterns. Data
sources will be introduced in class and students will be expected to analyze descriptive statistics. All
assignment guidelines will be posted on Canvas. Students are required to submit two out of the
three assignments and are responsible for submitting the assignment by 1:30pm on the due dates
according to submission requirements (see below). Students are only permitted to submit two
assignments for grading and must do so by the deadlines for each.

Attendance: Taking into account the university academic calendar and course schedule, students are
permitted two excused absences during the semester. These excused absences are to cover all
absences, including those due to entering class late (after attendance is taken) or leaving class early
(regardless of the amount of time before the class ends), religious observance, sickness, individual or
family emergencies, other courses (including taking exams), athletic-related activities (practicing or
playing in games, meets, matches, etc., or representing athletic team in any capacity), work-related
activities (interviews, work schedule, internships), professional meetings, and civic engagement
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(university or off-campus social, organizational, or volunteer activities). Students who join the class
after the semester begins will be marked absent for the days that they missed regardless if they were
not enrolled. Ultimately, missing class (for whatever reason) from when the course formally starts is
your responsibility; you are making a decision to register for a class which conflicts with other
obligations or enrolling in a class after it begins.

In order to receive full credit for attendance (150 points), students may not exceed the two excused
absences. Every additional absence will result in an automatic 10 points being deducted from your
final grade. All obligations or reasons for being late or leaving early are treated the same and thus all
are subject to the attendance policy. Paperwork and documentation are not necessary for any
absence as all are subject to the policy.

Participation: Evaluation will consider how often students are prepared to contribute to class
discussion and participate in class activities, including in-class group work. You may not avoid being
held accountable for participation simply because you self-identify as shy. Students should do all
of the following on a consistent basis to get the full participation points: attend class regularly,
demonstrate that you have not only read the material when assigned but that you are making an
effort to understand it by asking questions about it, make connections between different types of
material, and be prepared for and contribute to in-class group work. If you fall asleep, disrupt the
lecture by talking to your classmates, text, check your phone, surf the internet during class, or leave
and enter the class numerous times, you will not receive any credit for participation that day even if
you have participated according to guidelines. If you have a laptop and exhibit the following
behaviors, it will be concluded that you are using the internet during class: 1) staring at the screen for
long periods of time while others are paying attention; 2) using the mouse to scroll frequently
without typing; and 3) other students appear distracted by whats on your screen.

Submission requirements for all assignments
All written assignments are to be submitted as pdf documents.
All assignments are to be submitted through the Canvas system.
Late assignments will not be accepted. If an exam is administered via Canvas, students
must complete it during the provided time period to earn credit. If assignment guidelines
require students to upload an assignment, it must be submitted by the due date and time to
get any credit. Emailed assignments will not be accepted.
In the case of an emergency, possible changes to assignment deadlines may be made at my
discretion. Emergencies do not include job interviews, job schedules, assignments for other
classes, getting the car fixed, computer malfunctions, failure to back up your files,
internships, sports events, or similar circumstances. Emergencies must be documented and
include deaths in the family, going to the doctor or hospital or having a family member
going to the doctor or hospital, and issues that involve police action. When a
documentation of an emergency is provided, the late assignment must be submitted by the
new deadline. Students with documented emergencies will receive no attendance or
participation credit for days missed.




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Responsibilities of students
This course operates with the philosophy that students learn best when they are expected to be co-
responsible for their education and are therefore actively involved in the learning process. By
enrolling and remaining registered in this class you agree to the following:
adhering to all of the terms of the syllabus and any appropriate changes;
getting whatever you missed from a colleague, including lecture notes, announcements, what
was covered, etc., regardless of why you missed class or missed the information when
present;
becoming familiar with Canvas and the process of submitting assignments through the
system;
keeping track of grades and assignment schedule;
engaging material before scheduling a meeting to discuss it;
deciding whether to withdraw from the class;
communicating professionally and with collegiality; when writing emails include the
following: your first and last name and the class in which youre enrolled;
taking the initiative to become familiar with any historical information or vocabulary words
that are necessary for understanding course material;
identifying and using university resources that may help with language skills and reading and
writing comprehension; and
managing your time and personal responsibilities.

Miscellaneous
At any time during the course, I have the right to make appropriate changes to the syllabus.
Changes will never include earlier deadlines than originally given.
I will not serve as the advisor, formally or informally, for thesis or research projects that are
not required for this course nor will I conduct research for students or their peers.
If you schedule a meeting and fail to show up or are more than 15 minutes late, you run the
risk of not getting future meetings with me beyond office hours.
Film and film clips illustrating class material will be shown in class. If you miss class the
days on which films are shown, you are responsible for locating copies of the films and film
clips (not all are available in the university library).
I will not respond to requests for letters of reference or recommendations from any student
until after final grades are submitted and the course evaluation period is over.
I only respond to emails between 9am and 5pm, Mondays through Fridays and Im unable to
instantly respond to emails during this time period, i.e., Im not simply on call. Dont ask a
question that is answered on the syllabus or that has been addressed in class as I will tell you
to review the syllabus or your notes in such cases. I will respond to the email from which
your original email was sent. Failure to check that email or problems with that email as well
as reading the email in a timely fashion is your responsibility.
You must ask permission to record courses, audibly or visually. Even if permission is given,
misuse of the recording (circulation on the internet, selling of lectures, etc.) may potentially
result in legal action as the lectures are my intellectual property.


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Course schedule
For the best understanding of the material, read the articles in the order they are given below.
Students are to complete the readings by the end of the week that they are assigned. For example,
when readings are listed under Read under the heading of Week 1, they are to be read by the
beginning of Week 2.

Week 1: Jan. 15
Meritocracy, Horatio Alger, and the American dream narrative
An introduction to affirmative action
Read: Katznelson: When Affirmative Action was White and Sugrue: Affirmative Action
from Below: Civil Rights, the Building Trades, and the Politics of Racial Equality in the
Urban North, 19451969

Week 2: Jan. 20
OFF: Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday
Read: Kotlowski: With All Deliberate Delay: Kennedy, Johnson, and School
Desegregation and Fergus: Black Power, Soft Power: Floyd McKissick, Soul City, and the
Death of Moderate Black Republicanism

Week 3: Jan. 27
Affirmative action and soft power politics
Southern strategy
Read: Forman: The Black Manifesto, Boggs: The Myth and Irrationality of Black
Capitalism, and Kotlowski: Black Power-Nixon Style: The Nixon Administration and
Minority Business Enterprise

Week 4: Feb. 3
Black capitalism and Black Power
Origins of the Minority Business Development Agency
Read: Cornell: American Indians and political protest: The Red power years, Kotlowski:
Alcatraz, Wounded Knee, and Beyond: The Nixon and Ford Administrations Respond to
Native American Protest, and Weems and Randolph: The National Response to Richard
M. Nixons Black Capitalism Initiative: The Success of Domestic Dtente

Week 5: Feb. 10
Native Americans, sovereignty and self-determination
Political repression and strategic incorporation
Read: Blum: Possibilities and Limits of the Comparable Worth Movement and Williams:
The Glass Escalator, Revisited: Gender Inequality in Neoliberal Times

Week 6: Feb. 17
Due: Data Analysis Assignment 1
Equal access, equal pay, and comparable worth
Glass ceiling, glass escalators, and intersectionality
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Read: Wingfield: Racializing the Glass Escalator: Reconsidering Mens Experiences with
Womens Work, Bhatt: The Little Brown Woman: Gender Discrimination in American
Medicine, and Lewis: Lifting the Ban on Gays in the Civil Service: Federal Policy toward
Gay and Lesbian Employees since the Cold War

Week 7: Feb. 24
Glass ceiling, glass escalators, and intersectionality cont.
Sex discrimination and sexuality
Read: Embrick, Walther, and Wickens: Working Class Masculinity: Keeping Gay Men and
Lesbians out of the Workplace, Beauchamp: Artful Concealment and Strategic Visibility:
Transgender Bodies and U.S. State Surveillance After 9/11, and Kirkland: Whats at Stake
in Transgender Discrimination as Sex Discrimination?

Week 8: March 3
Sex discrimination and transgender identity
Gender surveillance
Read: Grant, Mottlet, and Tanis: Executive Summary: Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of
the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, Harrison, Grant, and Herman: A
Gender Not Listed Here: Genderqueers, Gender Rebels, and OtherWise in the National
Transgender Discrimination Survey and Scott: Complaint

Week 9: March 10
Spring break

Week 10: March 17
Exam 1
Read: Thomas: From Affirmative Action to Affirming Diversity, Kelly and Dobbin: How
Affirmative Action became Diversity Management: Employer Response to
Antidiscrimination Law, 1961-1996 and Berrey: Why Diversity Became Orthodox in
Higher Education, and how it Changed the Meaning of Race on Campus

Week 11: March 24
From race-based affirmative action to diversity initiatives
The business and university push for diversity
Read: Skrentny: Are Americas Civil Rights Laws Still Relevant?, Rumbaut: Pigments of
Our Imagination: The Racialization of the Hispanic-Latino Category, Tienda and Simonelli:
Hispanic Students are Missing from Diversity Debates, and Koshy: Historicizing Racial
Identity and Minority Status for South Asian Americans

Week 12: March 31
Non-Black people of color, recent immigrants, and affirmative action
Latino/as, Affirmative Action, and panethnicity
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Read: Takagi: From Discrimination to Affirmative Action: Facts in the Asian American
Admissions Controversy and Tamer: Arab Americans, Affirmative Action, and a Quest
for Racial Identity

Week 13: April 7
Due: Data Analysis Assignment 2
Asian Americans, Arab Americans, and Affirmative Action
Read: Kahlenberg: Class-Based Affirmative Action, Roach: Class-Based Affirmative
Action, and Aja, Darity, and Hamilton: If Not Race, Then Wealth: Why Universities
Should Avoid Income As Proxy for Race-Based Admissions Policy

Week 14: April 14
Class-based Affirmative Action
Read: Pierce: Racing for Innocence: Whiteness, Corporate Culture, and the Backlash
Against Affirmative Action, Segall: Mass Incarceration, Ex-Felon Discrimination & Black
Labor Market Disadvantage, and Rodriguez and Emsellem: 65 Million Need not Apply:
The Case for Reforming Criminal Background Checks for Employment

Week 15: April 21
Anti-Affirmative Action Backlash
Contemporary legal discrimination

Week 16: April 28
Exam 2

Data Analysis Assignment 3 DUE via Canvas on Monday, May 5 by 1:30 pm

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