race & ethnicity working group department of sociology university of california, los angeles art by justin bua

calendar of events

• oct 5, 4 p.m., grad lounge - 1st organizational meeting (notes from first meeting)
• oct 19, 5 p.m., haines hall rm 215 - jooyoung lee, university of california at los angeles
  talk title: "you wanna battle?: negotiating peer reputation and social order in the emcee cipher"
• nov 10, 2 p.m. - jennifer lee, university of california at irvine (co-sponsored with the migration working group)
• nov 14, 3:30 p.m. - sujatha fernandes, princeton university
  talk title: "Blackness, Cultural Identity, and Popular Politics in the Barrios of Caracas."
• nov 18, Noon - rick baldoz, university of hawaii at manoa (co-sponsored with the migration working group)
• tba - andreana clay, san francisco state university
• tba - graduate student presentations: desiree juarez

  future speakers:

• apr 20, 21 - michael omi, university of california, berkeley (ross lecture)
• tba - eddie telles, university of california at los angeles

• provide a forum for the discussion of race, ethnicity, and immigration research, broadly defined.
  
• increase the interaction and exchange of ideas among faculty members and students.
  
• offer training opportunities and workshops to members of the department.

race & ethnicity field exam

participating faculty:

walter allen ruben hernandez-leon (coordinator) darnell hunt ivan light

david lopez vilma ortiz eddie telles min zhou

statement of the field:
The race/ethnicity field exam focuses on two areas of enduring concern in sociology: the nature and persistence of ethnic and racial categories and groupings in contemporary societies, and how these structures relate to social stratification systems and political and economic dynamics. The field includes a variety of perspectives and concerns including race relations, racism, ethnic stratification, immigration, ethnic economies and ethnic politics. Race and ethnicity in the United States today is the central substantive concern, but the field is explicitly comparative, both because no theorizing in this area can be based on the experience of only one society, and also because we are committed to the proposition that the structures of any one society can be understood only with reference to other societies. The field is also historical in the sense that we believe that social structures and attitudes must be understood as historical developments, and we also believe that contemporary ethnic and racial structures need to be understood, if not totally explained, in the context of the spread of European colonialism and imperialism. The reading list includes works written from a variety of theoretical perspectives, including Marxist, Weberian, assimilationist, pluralist, rational choice, social biological and symbolic interactionist . It is also eclectic methodologically, including historical, ethnographic, quantitative and formal theoretical works. Some of the concerns and reading of this field exam overlap with two other current department exam, Comparative Ethnicity and Nationalism, and International Migration. By agreement with the faculty committees for these exams, and as approved by the GCAC and Executive Committees, students taking the Race/Ethnicity Exam may also take either CEN or IM exams, with the understanding that the specific questions a student answers may not overlap. For example, if a student is taking both R/E and CEN, s/he would not answer a comparative question on the R/E exam. Field exam directors will be responsible for enforcing this understanding.

required courses: Soc. 235, Theories of Ethnicity; Soc. 261, Ethnic Minorities.
recommended courses: Soc. 230AB, Comparative Ethnicity and Nationalism; Soc. 231, Race and Ethnicity: International Perspectives; Soc. 236B, Immigration.

links of interest

• american sociological association
• department of sociology, ucla
• university of california at los angeles
• gender working group
• family working group

anthony christian ocampo, student coordinator - anthony.ocampo(at)ucla(dot)edu