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AMERICAN STUDIES EXTENDED UNIVERSITY COURSE DESCRIPTIONS - Spring 2009 EXTENDED UNIVERSITY 182.006 Intro to Environment, Science & Tech MW 6:30 - 9:00 Berger *2nd Eight Weeks Arts & Sciences group: Social Science / Core Curriculum: Social Science This is an introduction to American attitudes toward nature, science, technology and the impacts of those attitudes on built and natural environments regionally, nationally and globally. This course covers the period from World War II to the present, focusing on the environmental effects of such diverse scientific and technological products as chemical pesticides, nuclear power, and television. More specifically, this course will consider: In this course we will look at current environmental issues, delving into contentious topics and passionate debates, while asking difficult questions. How does consumerism impact the environment, and how much stuff do we really need? Is wilderness a necessity or a luxury? Should an endangered fish have water rights? Are pesticides giving us cancer? We'll consider debates within the scientific community, explore conflicts between developers and environmentalists, and look at the promise and limitations of technological solutions. 185.030 Intro to Race/Class/Ethnicity F 10:00 - 3:00 Vizcaino *2nd Eight Weeks Arts & Sciences group: Social Sciences/Core Curriculum: Social Sciences This is an interdisciplinary introduction to the issues, and social and cultural formation of race, class and ethnicity in American life and society. The course is designed to foster an appreciation of the heterogeneity of experience in American life. The course is focused on the study of cross-cultural group relations. More specifically, this course will consider: Who are you? For most of us, self-description includes our race, class, and ethnicity, but what do these terms mean? Are these terms fixed and unchanging? This course introduces the terms, race, class and ethnicity and offers a critical discussion of their historical meaning and their meaning in modern society. We will pay attention to cross-cultural and interdisciplinary themes within thee definitions. 186.005 Intro to Southwest Studies TR 6:30 - 9:00 Eleshuk-Roybal *1st Eight Weeks Arts & Sciences group: Humanities/ Core Curriculum: Humanities Provides both an introduction to the complex history and culture of the southwestern United States and a demonstration of the possibilities of the interdisciplinary study of regional American culture. It is multicultural in content and multidisciplinary in methodology. Examines cross-cultural relationships among the peoples of the Southwest within the framework of their expressions and experiences in art, culture, religion, and social and political economy. More specifically, this course will consider: What is this place we call the Southwest? How is it defined- geographically, politically, and culturally? Who are the people that live there? How have their lives been transformed by social and historical forces into the cultures we see today? At the same time, how have these same groups retained their traditions, customs, and beliefs in response to change? This course will explore contemporary Southwestern cultures, their multiple voices and culture expressions, using an interdisciplinary approach that draws from geography, anthropology, history, literature, and the arts. 310.011 Visual Culture & Social Activism F 10:00 - 3:00 Marcum *2nd Eight weeks Arts & Sciences group: Humanities The course explores the relationship between cultural productions and social change in the United States from the mid-twentieth century to the present. Visual culture will play a central role in our study. From the Black Arts Movement to the agit-prop posters of the AIDS activist group ACT-UP, visual media have been a central feature of movements for social change. However, the class will examine a range of cultural productions and their relationship to activism, social movements, and visual images asking questions such as: how are various kinds of media deployed as a form of activism? What are the potential drawbacks and challenges as well as the benefits and strengths of employing cultural productions as a mode of political action? How does activist art take shape within the specific historical and political contexts of particular social movements? And, how do the cultural productions of social movements work to critique, subvert, or perhaps sustain the raced, classed, and gendered norms that have historically animated the terms of inclusion in American life? Course texts include The Art of Protest: Culture and Activism from the Civil Rights Movement to the Streets of Seattle by T.V. Reed. 320.010 Pop Culture Apocalypse F 10:00 - 3:00 Metzger *1st Eight weeks Arts & Sciences group: Social Science What's so entertaining about the end of the world? The Biblical Book of Revelation (also known as The Apocalypse) foretells the coming of the four horsemen--the harbingers of the end times: through war, plague, and famine, these horsemen will bring death to life on earth. 20th century popular culture has reworked the Biblical specter of the horsemen, the Seven Seals, the number of the beast, the rapture of believers, and the Battle of Armageddon into a secular-apocalyptic genre: from the Cold War black-humor of Dr. Strangelove to the threat of nuclear Armageddon in Watchmen; from the irreverent environmental-dystopia of South Park's "The Day Before The Day After Tomorrow" to the bioterrorist plague of the 12 Monkeys; from the post-apocalyptic scramble for food in Soylent Green, to the narrativized rapture of the best-selling Left Behind series. This class analyzes contemporary and historical popular fascinations with the end of the world. Focusing primarily on post-WWII American culture, this course moves from Biblical End Times, through secular Doomsday scenarios, and post-apocalyptic imaginings. While we begin with an emphasis on religious apocalypse and nature as a harbinger of end times, this class is equally invested in modern science and technology and fears of a human-engineered Armageddon. How does the apocalyptic constitute the thinking and practice of contemporary global politics (U.S. foreign policy; the politics of race, class, gender, and religious difference; the politics of nature)? 320.030 Environment, Science & Pop Culture F 10:00 - 3:00 Armstrong *2nd Eight weeks Arts & Sciences group: Social Science This course deals with the social construction of nature and the environment through the discourses of science and popular culture. The course will operate on two main premises: first that our attitudes towards the environment are a product of our culture and, second, that these perspectives have consequences in our communities, interpersonal relationships, and politics. In dealing with topics such as environmental justice, climate change, nuclearism, and technology, this course will question the ways that media and science shape our daily lives. We will attend to the material effects of environmental discourse upon the natural landscape as well as the consequences of scientific discourse upon individuals and groups. Not only will the course require you to examine your own ideas of nature, but it will help you develop the ability to critically deconstruct popular culture texts to expose the dynamics of power and authority that operate in American society. 340.010 UFO's in America F 10:00 - 3:00 Dewan *1st Eight weeks Arts & Sciences group: Humanities This course traces the emergence and continued subsistence of the UFO phenomenon in American culture, from its origins in the Cold War era to its prosperousness in the Internet Age. In dealing with topics such as contemporary folk traditions, Cold War paranoia, conspiracy culture, and new religious movements, this course will teach students to critically examine how contemporary belief systems are formulated and integrated into popular culture, as well as how these beliefs inhabit "battlegrounds" of meaning between modern rationalist and quasi-religious ideologies. 340.011 Urban Legends F 10:00 - 3:00 McCormack *1st Eight weeks Arts and Sciences group: Humanities This course is an exploration of urban legends in contemporary culture. We will explore recurring themes and means of transmission, as well as the cultural meanings and interpretations that have been ascribed to them. Our readings and discussions will examine the underlying components of these stories, including issues of race, class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and ideology. 340.012 Autobiography of America F 10:00 - 3:00 Samora *1st Eight Weeks Arts & Sciences group: Humanities What does it mean to be "American"? The field of American Studies has traditionally been U.S. centered, focusing on the United States and its dominating position in the world. Until recently, the experiences of peoples of diverse cultural and historical backgrounds were often bypassed. As the United States experiences dramatic political and demographic changes, and as our relationship with the world is about to change again, the question of what it means to be an American brings up important issues about our place in the United States, the Americas, and around the world. This course examines the multiple ways that "American" has been defined and interpreted in the historical era from WWII to the present. Tracing themes of migration, work, and family the course is designed to engage students using the methods and approaches in the field of American Studies. Class materials include fiction, film, photographs, historical essays, oral histories, and autobiography. The course teaching structure includes some lecture, video presentations, group discussions, projects, and guest presentations. Students are expected to do all the class readings, participate in discussions and activities, analyze cultural texts in class, conduct at least one oral history interview, and write response papers to the texts. 340.030 Fan Culture & Gender W 10:00 - 3:00 Cattrell *2nd Eight Weeks Arts & Sciences group: Humanities From soap fans to sports fans, American popular culture is filled with fan communities. In this course, we will examine the interplay between fan culture and gender. How does gender impact fan communities and what can this impact teach us about gender in America? How is "fandom" defined and represented in American pop culture? What does it mean to be a fan, and how does gender affect our popular culture obsessions? How are fans treated within academic scholarship? Has the proliferation of the Internet allowed fan culture to be less gendered, or has it only served to reinforce gender boundaries? We will examine both scholars of fan/audience studies (Radway, Bacon-Smith, Hills, Jenkins, Kirby-Diaz etc.) and representations of fans in popular culture (Trekkies, Fanboys, Nurse Betty, Big Fan, etc.) to answer these important questions. 360.030 Southwest Cultural Landscapes TR 6:30 - 9:00 Berger *2nd Eight Weeks Arts & Sciences group: Humanities This course examines cultural landscapes through two major approaches. The first part of the course will focus on theoretical understandings of cultural landscapes. These include ideas on landscapes as sites of cultural production, the tensions and contestations in cultural landscapes as they are inscribed, memorialized and contested, landscapes as material discourse, connections between cultural landscapes and political, cultural and other identities, and landscape memory. Students will be expected to demonstrate theoretical knowledge on a midterm. The second part of the course focuses on methodology and the practice of documenting cultural landscapes in the field. We will cover archival work, site sketching, assessment of the built environment, preservation, historical recording and place ethnography. We will also explore a variety of recognized and lesser known cultural landscape types in the Southwest. Students will document a cultural landscape for their final exam project. Online Courses 182.006 Intro to Environment, Science & Tech Correia Arts & Sciences group: Social Science / Core Curriculum: Social Science This is an introduction to American attitudes toward nature, science, technology and the impacts of those attitudes on built and natural environments regionally, nationally and globally. This course covers the period from World War II to the present, focusing on the environmental effects of such diverse scientific and technological products as chemical pesticides, nuclear power, and television. More specifically, this course will consider: In this course we will look at current environmental issues, delving into contentious topics and passionate debates, while asking difficult questions. How does consumerism impact the environment, and how much stuff do we really need? Is wilderness a necessity or a luxury? Should an endangered fish have water rights? Are pesticides giving us cancer? We'll consider debates within the scientific community, explore conflicts between developers and environmentalists, and look at the promise and limitations of technological solutions. For more information, special technology fees and computer requirements, please go to the EU Website at eu.unm.edu 310D.021 Women Artists of the American West MW 7:00-8:00 Ressler Arts & Sciences group: Fine Arts (On-line course - Required online chat: Monday and Wednesday evenings, 7-8pm) This course is taught entirely on the Internet. It presents the vital contributions that women have made to the visual art and history of the American West and focuses on women artists who are living or have lived west of the Mississippi River during the 19th- and 20th-centuries. Students will study a broad range of subjects that include Native American Potters, Women on the Pacific Rim, Lesbian Photography, and Quilt making in New Mexico. Additional historical readings introduce the four course themes: Community, Identity, Spirituality, and Locality. Designed to develop a learning community, students will learn how to extend discussion outside the conventional classroom by interacting in wholly online (Internet) chat rooms and other discussion forums. Projects include weekly writings and independent written or visual research. Highlights include guest lectures, an optional field trip, and CD-ROM. For more information, special technology fees and computer requirements, please go to the EU Website at eu.unm.edu
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