SOAN 349: Frontiers & Borders
MW 2:45-4:00, Alumni 108
Colgate University
 Spring 2005 Professor Thomas Hall
 NEW Office:  B3 Alumni, x7042, email:  tdhall@mail.colgate.edu
 OFFICE HOURS:  M 4-5, TU 2-3, W 11-12, & by appointment
 Last Updated 1-23-05
Syllabus

COURSE GOALS:
Frontiers are complex and fascinating places.  They present an intriguing puzzle.  Virtually everyone who studies frontiers finds they are all similar, as shown in the name we put on them "FRONTIER."  But after even the briefest study, they all seem to be different.  Some even argue that each frontier is unique  Others argue that there can be no general theory of frontiers, but that we can learn a lot about them by comparing and contrasting different frontiers.  Indeed if you search libraries, data files, or the internet for "comparative frontiers" you will get lots of "hits."  Lots has been written on this topic.  Frontiers are places where a great deal of social change takes place.  Obviously, this is in part because frontiers are a location where different groups encounter each other.  Hence, there are many opportunities for exchanges.  There are many opportunities for old knowledge to be recombined in new ways.  Frontiers are also a locale where conflict is likely, if not often predictable as different peoples encounter each other.  Thus, for me, frontiers are ideal places to see how three important sociological processes operate:  social change, conflict, and ethnic (and racial) relations.

This course will begin to examine some these processes and work toward developing explanations for how and why frontiers are formed, transformed, and eliminated. them. It combines several of my own deep interests in sociology. In almost all my courses I combine global and historical perspectives on various topics.  Besides being interesting to me, this is useful to you.  It helps you learn to exercise what sociologist C.Wright Mills called the "sociological imagination," the ability to understand oneself in light of larger social processes. The ability to exercise your sociological imagination is a valuable skill, especially in a rapidly changing, global society -- and one that is becoming increasingly frenetic in terms of its pursuit of what is "in, hip, or cool" now.  This calls to mind another common characteristic of frontiers:  they are often locations where social change of all kinds is volatile and fast! I want to get you involved not only in researching a topic yourself, but get all of you, collectively, into the shuttle between data and explanations (theory). 

Hidden Benefit[s]:  While not the purpose or goal of this course, my approach carries some extra benefits.  Chief among them it will  help you learn about how sociological knowledge is generated.  This means, among other things, this course should help you -- if you are a sociology or anthropology concentrator -- in your theory, methods, and senior seminar courses.  All of these courses focus on one or more aspects of how sociological knowledge is generated.  You will actually do that in this course in your case study.  Conversely, if you have already had any of those three courses -- theory, methods, or senior seminar -- those experiences will help you in this course. 

SPECIFIC GOALS: This course will address the differences, origins, "life-cycle," or the formations, transformations, and destructions of frontiers. Each student group will be required to identify, study, and analyzed one frontier. The readings will help you formulate how your choice and approach to "your" frontier. 

 We can divide frontiers into along two lines:

1) those between different societies that are organized as states;
2) those between states and nonstate societies;
3) those between societies, none of which are states [although the term "frontier" is less frequently used for these].

We can also divide them historically into several categories:
1) recent or twentieth century frontiers;
2) not recent, but "modern" frontiers, that is from about 1500 CE through the 19th century;
3) ancient frontiers, those that existed before 1500 CE.

This simple categorization yields at least 9 types of frontiers.  One of the first readings will show you some categories that can generate over 572 types of frontiers.  Some frontiers, like that between "China" and "Tibet" can fit all nine possibilities!  Indeed, when we deal with such long existing frontiers, the very idea of what the words "China" or "Tibet" refer to becomes a problem.  Here are some other examples:

I would like for the class to be sure to sample from as many different types of frontiers as is practical given the size of the class and the need to have presentations on each.  We will also read about various frontiers.  The point is to have a variety of frontiers to study while we work toward building a theory, that is, a sociological explanation, of frontier formations, transformation, and demise.  One item for our agenda, will be to continuously interrogate or question or critique the [and other] categories. The categories are not ends in themselves, but tools to help us organize a huge variety of frontiers. This may seem abstract, or overwhelming, or confusing, or even all three right now. Relax! These concepts will become clear as we go through the readings.

Some of the topics to be discussed:

COURSE STRUCTURE: The course will be organized in four parts:

PART I: READINGS:   
In this section we will go through the texts and some reserve readings. For some classes a few students will be responsible for summarizing the reading, commenting on it, and asking questions. A separate posting on How to Initiate Discussions on Readings provides guidance for doing this. Other times I will present mini-lectures on relevant topics and lead discussions.

THE BOOKS: [see Spring 2005 Textbooks]

All books are available at the bookstore and on reserve. I have put other items on reserve, and will post some shorter things to blackboard for this class. I will occasionally recommend some readings from my other class that are germane to the topic at hand.

We will read texts in tandem, that is, moving through each of them as the course progresses.  Why not read one book at a time?  I have a couple of  reasons for this.  First, this is not a reading course, but a course on frontiers and borders. Second, this breaks up the concentration on only one text.  Third, it allows comparing and contrasting the differing approaches to and evidence on frontier formation and changes.  Fourth, and most important, it allows us collectively, as a class, to develop our own understandings of frontiers and borders as the course progresses. 

I note too, that the we come to explanation, or theory at the end.  Again this placement has several reasons.  First, it allows you to begin struggling to develop you own understanding, i.e., theory, of frontiers.  Thus, when you encounter the explanations of others, you will have already thought about this a lot, and will be able to read them critically.  Second, you will have seen a great deal of the evidence in the readings, again allowing you to be critical of various theories.  Finally, by looking at these last we have a great review and preparation for the final.

To keep us on track reading reports I will ask for brief Reading Reports (approximately one half page) on some of the readings. Each student will need to submit 15 of these over the semester.

PART II: DOING RESEARCH:
In practice, this will overlap with Part I. Here the focus will be on how to study frontiers.  Slatta has several valuable suggestions, along with several case studies. We may schedule a session sometime in February on using the library to study frontiers. We will also spend part of some classes talking about how the research is going. You should always read with an eye to what each reading tells you, or what questions it raises about your own case study as well as the general topic.  You should also keep a sharp eye out for what your case study says about each of the readings.  This will eventually become your term paper.

The point of this part is to gain perspective, develop concepts, theories, and methods for studying frontiers. While we are doing the readings you should decide:

To help you along you will need to prepare a Case Prospectus due one or before March 23, which outlines what you have at this point in the term.

I will say more about these in class about this.  For Parts I & II we will organize in groups.

PART III: PRESENTATIONS:
Starting some time after Spring Break students will give a presentations on their findings. I will give you further  instructions on how to do this later. Obviously, those who go early, will not be as far along as those who go later. You should think of the presentation as a progress report on your term paper.  The final version will make use of the discussion from your presentation, and the discussions in Part IV.

PART IV: SYNTHESIZING FINDINGS:
This will take place in two phases. The first phase will begin with student presentations on their case studies.  The second  phase will go on during the last two weeks of the semester. We will use class sessions to brainstorm on all the cases, trying to develop our own theory of ethnic conflict. During this time you will use the feedback from your presentation to prepare a final version of your case study, including a section on what we learn about frontiers from your study. We will also take some class time during the last week to evaluate the course and make suggestions for improving its structure and readings.

OPTIONAL DRAFTS: You will have the option of turning in a draft of your paper shortly after presentation [the deadlines will follow the order of presentations]. I will read those drafts and give you a provisional grade and instructions how to improve the paper. In order to have time to read them and get comments back to you so you can make your final revisions these must be turned in on time. If you are satisfied with the grade on the draft, you need not revise.

Final drafts will be due at the last class

These will be group projects.  We will organize groups in the first couple of weeks.  There will be separate posting on group work later.

GRADING: see Grading and Attendance page

Because enrollment has not stabilized, and I do not know the number of groups we will have, I have not assigned specific points to each activity.  Rather, rather I will weigh the activities in the following proportions.  Once we have the groups set up I will post a "translation" to numbers if you want:

Some of these items will only be grade as done or not, others will have letter grades.  This will be spelled out in detail, later.

For GROUP work, part of each assignment will be an assessment of how much each member contributed to the group effort.

Communications with professor Hall:  
I urge all of you to use email. WHY use email? If something is written (email=written for me), I have a record, AND you have a record. Email is especially good, because even if I am not in my office, often I can answer questions. Suppose you are working on a paper or have a question at 2 am. If you call me at 2am, to quote George Bush [senior], "you're in deep doodoo!"  However, if you leave email I can send you an answer when say at 6am, and you can read it when you get up! 

Also I am at Colgate only Monday through Wednesday [most weeks], but read email daily.  Of course, if the question or issue cannot be dealt with via email, we can meet during office hours or any other mutually agreed upon time.

Occasionally I will respond to an emailed question asking you to please re-ask the question in class.  This is because I think you have an excellent question, that the entire class should hear discussed.

Send comments or questions to tdhall@mail.colgate.edu
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