Blinn introduces new Mexican American and African American history courses for fall 2022

All four courses can be applied toward the core curriculum American History requirement

May 19, 2022

The Blinn College District will introduce four new history courses this fall studying Mexican American/Chicanx and African American history.

Blinn’s Division of Social Sciences is introducing HIST 2327: Mexican American History I, HIST 2328: Mexican American History II, HIST 2381: African American History I, and HIST 2382: African American History II. All four courses can be applied toward the six American history credit hours students must complete as part of the core curriculum , providing an alternative to HIST 1301 and HIST 1302.

HIST 2327: Mexican American History I, will be taught as a blended course in which students meet face-to-face from 9:10-10:25 a.m. on the Bryan Campus. More than half of the class content will be posted on eCampus for students to engage with online. The eCampus portion of the class has no scheduled class sessions.

The course explores Mexican American/Chicanx economic, social, political, intellectual, and cultural history. Topics include the mestizaje and racial formation in the early empire, rise and fall of native and African slavery, relationship to early global economies, development of New Spain’s/Mexico’s northern frontier, gender and power, missions, resistance and rebellion, emergence of Mexican identities, California mission secularization, Texas independence, United States’ wars with Mexico, and the making of borders and borderlands.

HIST 2328: Mexican American History II, also will be a blended course, meeting from 1:25-3:15 p.m. on the Bryan Campus. This course continues to explore Mexican American/Chicanx economic, social, political, intellectual, and cultural history. Topics include the making of borders and borderlands, the impact of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, gender and power, migration and national identities, citizenship and expulsion, 19^th-century activism and displacement, industrialization and the making of a transnational Mexican working class, urbanization and community formation, emergence of a Mexican American Generation, war and citizenship, organized advocacy and activism, the Chicano Movement, changing identifications and identities, trade, and terrorism.

Blinn will offer blended sections of HIST 2381: African American History I on both the Brenham and Bryan campuses. In Brenham, class will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:35-11:50 a.m. In Bryan, class will meet on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:10-10:25 a.m. Both sections will have additional content posted on eCampus.

HIST 2381: African American History I covers the social, political, economic, cultural, and intellectual history of people of African descent in the formation and development of the United States to the Civil War/Reconstruction period. The course includes the study of African origins and legacy, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the experiences of African Americans during Colonial, Revolutionary, Early National, Antebellum, and the Civil War/Reconstruction eras.

HIST 2382: African American History II continues to explore the social, political, economic, cultural, and intellectual history of people of African descent in the United States. This course examines segregation, disenfranchisement, civil rights, migrations, industrialization, world wars, the Harlem Renaissance, and the conditions of African Americans in the Great Depression, Cold War, and post-Cold War eras.

For more information about Blinn history courses, including the Associate of Arts degree track, visit www.blinn.edu/history or email khowell@blinn.edu.