Fall 2012

CSP 1  (Im)migrant Communities of California

Team-Taught–Mary Christianakis, Ph.D.; Salvador Fernández, Ph.D.; and Richard Mora, Ph.D.

This course offers students the opportunity to analyze the sociohistoric, legal, and cultural tensions surrounding various (im)migrant communities in California. Students will explore the various waves of (im)migration across time to understand the diverse communities of California. Students will also build critical and interpretive capacities through the examination of state policies, statistics, and various historical and empirical studies. Additionally, through the construction and revision of several expository, research-based writings on immigration, students will hone their writing, argumentation, and presentation skills.

CTSJ 105 Immigration and Education

This course will locate the topic of immigration and education within historical, legislative, and cultural debates on what it means to be an American and who has the right to an Education. Students will explore and debate precedent-setting Supreme Court cases, such as Mendez v. Westminster, which challenged the segregation of Mexican children into separate schools, and Lau v. Nichols, which fought hard for non-English speaking students to have linguistic access to the public school curricula. In addition, students will research the historical antecedents to the recent anti-immigrant movements in California, Arizona, and Colorado, which target the use of languages other than English in school settings, and have all but abolished bilingual public schools. Against this historical and legislative backdrop, students will examine ethnographic research detailing the persistent challenges that immigrant children face in schooling, including migrant children, and the ways in which they, their parents, and communities experience those challenges. This course will count towards the Critical Theory and Social Justice (CTSJ) Major, as an Education Minor elective, and also fulfill the group 6 (Intercultural) geographical group for Core Program requirements.

Spring 2013

CTSJ 210 Mother Goose to MySpace: Children’s Literature and Popular Texts

Why did the London Bridge fall down? Is Rub-a-dub-dub really about bath time? Why didn’t an old man live in a shoe? Who is more imperialist, Babar or Peter Pan? Is Tinky Winky gay? Is South Park a children’s show? Is Harry Potter a Hero? How tired was Rosa Parks? Using different critical approaches, this course will examine children’s poetry, picture books, novels, cartoons, feature films, and music videos. Analysis will include topics related to gender, race, culture, and nation, as they play out in the aesthetics, images, and poetics of children’s texts.

CTSJ 310 Children, Poverty, and Public Policies

In this course, students examine contemporary child poverty both in the United States and abroad. Topics include how poverty is defined both locally and globally, the numbers and distribution of poor children, as well as the causes of child poverty. Readings explore poverty in relation to education, economics, homelessness, child labor, family, gender, and race. Students analyze historical anti-poverty policies such as the New Deal, the War on Poverty, and the United Nations Convention on the rights of the child, as well as contemporary proposals to reduce child poverty such as childcare, welfare, job training, job creation, and tax policy.

Publications

Christianakis, M. and Mora, R. (May, 2011). (Re)Writing Identities: Past, Present, and Future Narratives of Youth in Juvenile Detention Facilities. Multiple Childhoods / Multidisciplinary Perspectives: Interrogating Normativity in Childhood Studies. Rutgers University, Camden, NJ.

Mora, R. and M., Christianakis, M. (March, 2011). Teen Motherhood: Controlling Images, Abjection, & Performativity. Pacific Sociological Association Annual Meeting. Seattle, WA.

Christianakis, M. (November, 2010). Rewriting Identities: Past, Present, and Future Narratives of Youth in Juvenile Detention Facilities. American Anthropological Association. New Orleans, LA.

Christianakis, M. (April, 2010). “I ain’t losing to no squeek”: Children teaching and learning videogames. Pacific Sociological Association Conference, San Francisco, CA.

Chin E. & Christianakis (February, 2010). Undergraduates as Human Subjects. Childhood Anthropology Conference, Albuquerque, NM.

Christianakis, M. (September, 2008). Romani (Gypsy) Child rearing: Work, marriage, school, and property–Occidental College. Los Angeles, California

Christianakis, M. (August, 2007). “I don’t need your help!”: Fifth graders, Vygotsky, and peer editing. EECERA-Vygotsky Conference-Prague, CZ

Christianakis, M. (May 2007). “Pocahontas was in love with a guy from England”: Children, history, and language arts texts. Paper presentation at the International Reading Association-Toronto Canada

Christianakis, M. (2006). “Who Asked You?”: Fifth graders negotiating authorship during peer editing. Paper presentation at 23rd National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing. Conference Theme: “Authority”. Ann Arbor, Michigan

Christianakis, M. (2005). Feminist framings of teacher research: Emancipation, transformation, collaboration. Conference sponsored by California Council on Teacher Education. San Diego, California

Christianakis, M. (2002). Inside the digital divide: Fifth graders peer editing with computers. Conference sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English. Atlanta, Georgia

Christianakis, M. (2001). Digital divisions and the differentially negotiable curriculum. Conference sponsored by The Spencer Foundation and The Center for the Integrated Studies of Teaching and Learning. Berkeley, California

Christianakis, M. (2001). Inside the digital divide: An ethnographic account of diverse and urban fifth graders writing with computers. Conference sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English. Berkeley, California