New York University Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service. Race, Ethnicity, Class and Gender in American Cities 1 P 11.

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1 New York University Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service Race, Ethnicity, Class and Gender in American Cities 1 P (001) Dr. Lisette M. Garcia Course Meeting Time & Location: Thursdays 6:45 8:25 PM Room C West 4 th Street Contact Information: Office: 3034 Puck Building Phone: lisette.garcia@nyu.edu Course Description: American cities are comprised of residents from a great diversity of nations, cultures, religions, and political philosophies. Consequently, conflicts surrounding race, ethnicity, class, and gender are often at the center of disputes about the use of public space and the allocation of city resources. This course examines the patterns of racial ethnic, class, and gender inequality in American cities. We shall address how these inequalities emerge, how they are perpetuated, and the role of public policy in addressing these social problems. Central Questions: How do cities function? How do groups gain and maintain political and economic power? What are the connections between race, ethnicity, class and gender in local power struggles? What types of social problems confront residents in different American cities? What is it about certain cities that leads to growth and prosperity for their residents & firms, while other cities stagnate or decline? Required Texts: Bourgois, Phillipe and Jeff Schonberg Righteous Dopefiend. Berkeley: University of California Press. Jacobs, Jane The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage Books. Massey, Douglas S. and Nancy A. Denton American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Waldinger, Roger Still the Promised City? African Americans and New Immigrants in Postindustrial New York City. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1 Based on the syllabus created by Rachelle Brunn, Fall This is the phone number in my office, however I am not always there so please DO NOT leave me a voic ! Please me with any questions, concerns, or issues. Thank you!

2 Additionally, copies of the books will be on reserve at Bobst Library, with a 2 hour reserve time. Additional readings are available on Blackboard. In addition to the assigned readings, you will be required to keep up with current events by reading the New York Times and Errol Louis column in the Daily News on Thursdays and Sundays. Course Requirements: Attendance and Punctuality: 10% See Attendance and Participation Policy below. Class Participation: 20% You will each be required to facilitate discussion 4 times during the semester (a sign-up sheet will be circulated the first week of class). You should come to class with prepared critiques of the week s readings, questions for discussion and comments to share with the class. You will be a co-facilitator. American Cities Evaluation Assignment: 30% You will also be required to submit a two part assignment which attempts to address the question: what is it about certain cities that leads to growth & prosperity for their residents & firms, while other cities stagnate or decline. For this assignment you will be required to select 2 cities from the lists that I provide, one must be listed as thriving and the other as stagnate or declining. In the first part of this assignment you should research and present basic demographic information, migration & mobility information, housing, education, and employment opportunities, policy initiatives for both cities. As well as present a discussion of what makes the selected cities similar and different, in other words, why is one thriving and one declining? Part one of this assignment is due on October 14 th in class. In the second part of this assignment you will pick one policy from the thriving city and discuss if there is a similar policy in the other city, differences in the policy, and how it could be better implemented in the other city. Part two of this assignment is due on November 18 th in class. More information will be distributed on this assignment as the semester progresses. Final Paper: 40% Your final requirement in this course is a grant proposal paper which can be for a funding agency in any of the major realms of the policy world education, housing/gentrification, transportation, crime or employment. More information will be distributed on this paper as the semester progresses. This paper is due on December 17 th by noon in my mailbox No Exceptions! Grading Policy: Wagner s grading scale is as follows: A/4.0, A-/3.7, B+/3.3, B/3.0, B-/2.7, C+/2.3, C/2.0, C-/1.7 and F/0. Blackboard: You must have access to the class Blackboard site at All announcements and course related documents will be posted on Blackboard. If you have not activated your NYU net account or have forgotten your password, you can activate or change your password at Your account must be activated to access Blackboard.

3 Please note that some class announcements will also be distributed via , this it is important that you actively use your NYU account, or have appropriate forwarding set up on NYUHome Attendance and Participation Policy: The quality of your class experience (and your grade) depends upon you being in class and actively contributing. As such, unexplained persistent absence and/or tardiness will result in your grade being penalized. If you are unable to attend I expect you to me before the class explaining why so I can excuse your absence. Late Assignment Policy: Extensions will be granted only in case of an emergency. Late submissions without extensions will be penalized ½ letter grade per day (B+ to B, e.g.). This includes days when class is not in session and weekends. Students with Disabilities: Any student requiring accommodations should contact me to make proper arrangements. Please be prepared to share your documentation from the NYU disabilities office regarding appropriate accommodations. Statement of Academic Integrity: As members of the NYU Wagner community, we are all expected to adhere to high standards of intellectual and academic integrity. The NYU Wagner statement on academic integrity is available at is a good resource for issues of academic honesty. In brief, all assignments must be the sole work of the individual student. Violations of these standards will automatically result in all participating students failing the course and being remanded to the Discipline Committee for further action. Course Outline: Readings and written assignments should be completed BEFORE the class for which they are listed. September 9 th Introduction to Race, Ethnicity, Class and Gender in American Cities Horton, Hayward Derrick, Enobong Hannah Branch, Lindsay Hixson, and Edelmira Reynoso Redefining Whiteness: Who is White and Does it Matter? Pp in Racism in Post- Race America: New Theories, New Directions, edited by Charles A. Gallagher. Chapel Hill, NC: Social Forces. Winant, Howard Race and Race Theory. Annual Review of Sociology 26: September 16 th Theoretical and Conceptual Perspectives of Race and Ethnicity Lee, Jennifer and Frank D. Bean America s Changing Color Lines: Immigration, Race/Ethnicity, and Multicultural Identification. Annual Review of Sociology. 30: Nelson, Candace and Marta Tienda The Structuring of Hispanic Ethnicity: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Pp in Challenging Fronteras: Structuring Latina and Latino

4 Lives in the U.S., edited by Mary Romero, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo and Vilma Ortiz. New York: Routledge. Oliver, Melvin L. and Thomas M. Shapiro Wealth and Racial Stratification. Pp in America Becoming: Racial Trends and Their Consequences, edited by Neil Smelser, William Julius Wilson and Faith Mitchell. Washington D.C.: National Academy Press. September 23 rd Theoretical and Conceptual Perspectives of Race, Gender, and Class Andersen, Margaret L The Social Construction of Gender. Pp in Thinking about Women: Sociological Perspectives on Sex and Gender, 5 th edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Bearfield, Domonic A Equity at the Intersection: Public Administration and the Study of Gender. Public Administration Review. May/June: DeNavas_Walt, Carmen, Bernadette D. Proctor and Jessica C. Smith Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: Pp in U.S. Census Bureau Current Population Reports P Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. Landry, Bart The Theory of Intersectional Analysis. Pp. 1-15, 67 in Race, Gender, and Class: Theory and Methods of Analysis. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. September 30 th Thinking About Cities Jacobs, Jane The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage Books. Introduction, Part 1 and Part 2. October 7 th - Thinking About Cities continued Jacobs, Jane The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Vintage Books. Part 3 and Part 4. October 14 th - Race, Class and the Struggle for Jobs Waldinger, Roger Still the Promised City? African Americans and New Immigrants in Postindustrial New York City. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Chapters 1-3. Part 1 of the American Cities Evaluation Assignment Due October 21 st - Race, Class and the Struggle for Jobs continued Waldinger, Roger Still the Promised City? African Americans and New Immigrants in Postindustrial New York City. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Chapters 4-6. October 28 th Racial Residential Segregation Massey, Douglas S. and Nancy A. Denton American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Chapters 1-3.

5 November 4 th Racial Residential Segregation continued Massey, Douglas S. and Nancy A. Denton American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Chapters 4 and 6 Charles, Camille Z The Dynamics of Racial Residential Segregation. Annual Review of Sociology. 29: November 11 th - Race, Class, Gender and the Homeless Bourgois, Phillipe and Jeff Schonberg Righteous Dopefiend. Berkeley: University of California Press. Chapters 1,2, and 5. November 18 th Race, Class, Gender and the Economy Browne, Irene, Leann Tigges and Julie Press Inequality Through Labor Markets, Firms, and Families: The Intersection of Gender and Race-Ethnicity Across Three Cities. Pp in Urban Inequality: Evidence from Four Cities, edited by Alice O Conner, Chris Tilly, and Lawrence D. Bobo. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Mason, C. Nicole Race, Gender and the Recession: Job Creation and Employment. New York: Women of Color Policy Network, NYU Wagner. Stafford, Walter Gender, Race, Class and Welfare Reform. Pp. XX-XX in The State of Black America. National Urban League. Part 2 of the American Cities Evaluation Assignment Due November 25 th No Class December 2 nd Gender, Class and Public Policy Interventions Gilbert, Dennis The Poor, the Underclass, and Public Policy. Pp in The American Class Structure: In an Age of Growing Inequality, 5 th edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company. Kling, Jeffrey R. Jens Ludwig and Lawrence F. Katz Neighborhood Effects on Crime for Female and Male Youth: Evidence from a Randomized Housing Voucher Experiment. The Quarterly Journal of Economics. February 2005: Williamson, Anne R., Marc T. Smith and Maria Strambi-Kramer Housing Choice Vouchers, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, and the Federal Poverty Deconcentration Goal. Urban Affairs Review. 45: December 9 th Race, Public Policy and the City Dreier, Peter, John Mollenkopf and Todd Swanstrom The Roads Not Taken: How Federal Policy Promoted Economic Segregation and Suburban Sprawl. Pp , in Place Matters: Metropolitics for the Twenty-First Century. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.

6 Yinger, John The History of Fair Housing and Fair Lending Policy. Pp in Closed Doors, Opportunities Lost: The Continuing Costs of Housing Discrimination. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Yinger, John Public Policy to Combat Discrimination in Housing: A Comprehensive Approach. Pp in Closed Doors, Opportunities Lost: The Continuing Costs of Housing Discrimination. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. December 17 th Final Paper Due I reserve the right to change or alter this syllabus.