Fall 2024 Feinberg Series Courses

HISTORY 156: the power of universities 

Fall 2024, M/W 1:25-2:15 with Friday Sections, Taught by Professor Asheesh Siddique, HS DU GenEd, 4 Credits

This course offers a critical introduction to the history and political economy of the American university, with an emphasis on how the institution has produced and reproduced structural inequality despite its purported democratizing mission. In particular, we will scrutinize the historical development of the ideology that universities are sites of democracy and vital to a flourishing democratic society in relation to the historical role of American universities in producing forms of racial, gender, and socioeconomic power. Students in the course will explore the history of the American university with particular reference to its contemporary crisis through a series of thematic units focused on the origins of several components of higher ed inequality. 

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The following questions motivate and structure the semester’s inquiry: 1) Who holds power in the contemporary American university? How did they get it? Whose interests do they serve? 2) How did college come to be so expensive, and how and why did the burden of paying for it shift from the government and institutions to students? 3) How did settler colonialism and the dispossession of the land of First Peoples shape the making of American higher education? 4) What was the relationship between the making of the American university and American slavery, and what legacies has this relationship left in the present? 5) How have the labor and employment practices of American universities changed over time, such that the majority of university teachers today are contingent rather than tenure-line? 6) How did universities come to privilege STEM fields over the humanities as sites of institutional investment?

Following a unit that gives a brief introductory overview, the course is divided into six units, each addressing one of the course’s motivating questions. Students will attend Feinberg Series events and read both complex primary sources and key historiographical interventions, practicing the skills of interpreting evidence in both oral and written contexts in both class discussions and through essay assignments. Other assignments will include a midterm exam, a final exam, and evaluation of active participation during discussion meetings.

HISTORY 691: EXHIBIT DESIGN PRACTICUM ON STUDENT ACTIVISM 

Fall 2024, Tu 2:30-5pm, Taught by Professor Diana Sierra Becerra, 3 Credits

This hands-on course is connected to the 2024–25 Feinberg Family Distinguished Lecture Series, “What Are Universities For?” We will explore the rich history of student activism at the University of Massachusetts, with a focus on anti-imperialist organizing during the 1980s. How did the UMass community defy CIA recruitment and U.S. foreign policy in Central America? With instructor guidance, students will produce an exhibition and other educational materials. Students will participate in the project, from start to completion, and engage in archival research, exhibition curation, lesson plan development, and outreach. The exhibit will be launched and displayed on campus in spring 2025.

Open Classroom Days

UMass and Five College students are warmly invited to attend History 154: The Power of Universities, during the following Open Classroom Days. Taught by Professor Asheesh Kapur Siddique, co-director of the Feinberg Series, this course offers a critical introduction to the history and political economy of the American university. All classes meet in Hasbrouck Lab Add, Room 126 from 1:25-2:15pm. No registration is required.

The Ideological Origins of University Land Acknowledgements
Wednesday, September 25

What Is Tenure?
Monday, October 21

McCarthyism, Then and Now
Wednesday, October 23

The Academic Labor Movement in Historical Perspective
Monday, November 4

Are Students Workers?
Wednesday, November 6

Inventing Student Loans
Wednesday, November 20

Additional Affiliated Courses

UMASS AMHERST

Education 229: Introduction to International Education
Professor Sangeeta Kamat, Tu/Th, 1-2:15pm

Education 351: Foundations of Education
Professor John Heffernan, Tu/Th, 1-2:15pm

English 49S: Literature and Social Justice
Professor Rachel Mordecai, Tu/Th, 10-11:15am

English 792: Research Methods in American Culture
Professor Asha Nadkarni, Wed, 4-6:30pm

Education 733: Foundations of International and Comparative Education
Professor Sangeeta Kamat, Online Course

History 220: Capitalism and its Alternatives in Latin America
Professor Kevin Young, Mon/Wed, 10:10-11am

History 268 Women and the Law: History of Sex and Gender Discrimination
Professor Jennifer L. Nye, Tu/Th, 1-2:15pm

History 275: The Craft of History
Professor Brian Ogilvie, Mon/Wed, 2:30-3:30pm

History 354: History of Mexico
Professor Kevin Young, Mon/Wed, 4-5:15pm

History 378: Rape Law-Gender, Race, (In)justice
Professor Jennifer L. Nye, Tu/Th, 10-11:15am

History 394PI: History and Its Publics
Professor Diana Sierra Becerra, Tu/Th, 10-11:15am

Sociology 390: Labor and Community Organizing
Professor Jerry Levinsky, Wed, 6-8:30pm

HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE

Critical Social Inquiry, 203: The Queer University in Ruins
Professor rl Goldberg, Mon/Wed, 1-2:20pm