Course List

What does it mean to be a citizen of the United States? Who can even achieve this status? These questions have become politically relevant as the Trump administration seeks to end birthright citizenship. However, they are not new. Surveying United States history, this course asks what it has meant to be a full member of the American political community. We will be reading a mixture of primary sources and secondary texts. We will discover that citizenship in the United States has meant different things to different people, that it has been—and remains—contested and malleable. This discussion-based seminar will culminate in a 15-page research paper.