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AMERICAN STUDIES UNDERGRADUATE
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS - FALL 2013
182.001 Intro to Environment, Science & Tech W 4:00 – 6:30 Correia
182.002 Intro to Environment, Science & Tech TR 2:00 – 3:15 Estes
182.006 Intro to Environment, Science & Tech MW 5:30 – 6:45 Staff
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.
183.001 Introduction to Gender Studies TR 11:00 – 12:15 Smalls
Arts & Sciences group: Humanities
This course focuses on the interdisciplinary study of the construction of gender as a category. Readings will span cross-cultural and historical materials, including literary, artistic, and popular representations of masculinity and femininity in America.
More specifically, this course will consider:
What does it mean to be or become a woman or man? Is there a basic essence to femininity and masculinity, which remains unchanged throughout time and place? Or are our concepts of what constitutes femininity and masculinity historically and culturally specific and mutable? What are the processes and mechanisms by which our understandings of gender are produced, maintained, or changed? This course addresses these questions, offering students a stimulating, accessible introduction to the depth and breadth of work on gender from an interdisciplinary perspective. The field of gender studies is dynamic and diverse, full of debate, controversy, and inquiry over issues of representation, identity, meaning, interpretation, and politics. We will explore these issues through contemporary writings on gender that intersect with sex, race, sexuality, and class. As much as this course is an introduction to a body of work – both scholarly and popular, written and visual - that focuses on gender, it is also a course that interrogates the material. Thus students will be working on their critical reading/ writing skills.
184.002 Intro to American Pop Culture TR 5:30 – 6:45 Ernest
184.005 Intro to American Pop Culture TR 11:00 – 12:15 MITCH 221 Tiongson
Arts & Sciences group: Humanities
Popular culture can be defined as the beliefs and practices that characterize a particular culture, as well as the objects, narratives, and rituals through which they are organized and that are widely shared, enjoyed, and understood among a population. It is also generally understood as the culture of ordinary people, as opposed to highly educated or specialized elites.
This course examines many aspects of popular culture, including movies, action figures and other toys, cartoons/comics, advertising, television, and urban legends. The class involves learning how to read popular culture as a text and as an indicator of societal norms, diversions, and diversities.
185.001 Intro to Race/Class/Ethnicity MWF 12:00 – 12:50 MITCH 221 Madrigal
185.007 Intro to Race/Class/Ethnicity TR 5:30 – 6:45 Abbott
Arts & Sciences group: Social Science/Core Curriculum: Social Science
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.
186.002 Intro to Southwest Studies TR 12:30 – 1:45 DSH 333 Porsild
186.003 Intro to Southwest Studies MW 5:30 – 6:45 Lopez
186.004 Intro to Southwest Studies TR 5:00 – 7:30 DSH 333 Porsild - 2nd 8 weeks
186.005 Intro to Southwest Studies MWF 3:00 – 3:50 Cammack
Arts & Sciences group: Humanities/ Core Curriculum: Humanities
This course 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. It 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.
200.001 Introduction to CHMS TR 2:00 – 3:15 DSH 132 Samora
This course will introduce students
to the field of Chicano/a Studies and provide an introductory exploration of historical, political, social, and cultural dimensions of the Mexican American experience in the United States, with special reference to New Mexico. (Offered with CCS 201, Introduction to Chicana and Chicano Studies)
200.008 Comparative Global Societies TR 11:00 – 12:15 Staff
The course explores historical and contemporary social forces that impact diverse ethnic communities across the Americas. Throughout the course, students examine economic and socio-cultural dynamics of Indigenous, Latino, Asian-Pacific Africana communities and women’s lived experiences within and across these communities, particularly as these experiences intersect within the United States. Each of these population groupings is composed of peoples of different nationalities, genders, sexual orientations, and heritage groups who may share a common racial, linguistic, religious, cultural, and/or historical background. This course emphasizes the social makeup of the diverse populations and will examine the relationship to international and global economic systems and the ways in which these promote and limit social change. (Offered with CCS 102, Introduction to Comparative Global and Ethnic Societies)
200.009 Introduction to Peace Studies MW 4:00 – 5:15 Brown
Introduction to peace research. Primary content of Peace Studies program; focuses on the concepts of peace/war, security/ conflict, and violence/non-violence. Special emphasis on non-violent conflict resolution, human rights, and social justice issues. (Offered with PCST 102, Introduction to Peace Studies)
285.001 American Life and Thought W 4:00 – 6:30 MITCH 215 Goldstein
Arts and Sciences group: Humanities
This seminar considers the problem of social and economic inequality in the United States. Taking as our point of departure the 2006-2008 financial crisis, our readings and discussions focus on placing these current events in the context of the longer history of economic development and crisis – and the interrelated dynamics of wealth and poverty – in the US. Our approach will necessarily be thematic rather than comprehensive. In other words, we will focus on specific examples as basis for discussion and debate without claiming thorough coverage of every relevant issue. Readings, and other source material for our in-class discussion such as film selections, will be combined in order to allow for a comparative analysis of past and present. (Note: this course is required for all American Studies majors and minors).
303.002 Law in the Political Community T 5:30 – 8:00 Ganjei
Arts & Sciences group: Social Science
The purpose of this course is twofold: to introduce students to the principal features of the American legal system as a part of the political system, and perhaps more importantly, to equip the students with a set of analytical tools that they can use to analyze how actors and institutions operate within this system and why they behave in certain ways. With a critical eye, we will explore how the law functions as a tool and an institution of government, the presidency, the judiciary, the bureaucracy, etc. Furthermore, we will examine the role played by the court system in the formation and implementation of public policy. (Offered with POLS 303, Law in the Political Community)
309.002 Youth, Power, Social Movements T 4:00 – 6:30 Tiongson
Arts & Sciences group: Social Sciences
This course examines youth involvement in social movements through the lens of social movement theory and youth studies. It explores the circumstances under which youth-based and youth-led social movements emerge as well as the role of youth expressive forms such as art and music in the formation, development, and political trajectory of these movements. At the same time, the course examines how youth conceive of social justice and social change and how youth go about framing social issues. Scrutinizing a select number of sites and forums where youth are engaging in activism, it attempts to draw larger theoretical lessons about the nature of power, social change, and contemporary youth politics.
310.001 Casino Marketing & Mgmt T 5:30 – 8:00 ORTG 153 Bubb
This course will examine the marketing and management techniques that commercial and tribal casinos use to make their businesses run more effectively and profitably. The casino industry is a multi-billion dollar industry annually and gambling has become one of the world’s most popular forms of entertainment; therefore, the industry is constantly changing to keep up with customers’ needs, shifts in popular culture, and changes in technology. Since most casinos often appear in geographical regions with other competing casinos, the knowledge of how to differentiate one casino from the rest is critical. Casinos spend billions of dollars annually to both train their employees and to market their products to consumers. The shift from casinos being gambling destinations to mega-resorts has impacted how casinos market their programs because now casinos must promote gambling in conjunction with their affiliated restaurants, hotels, and entertainment venues. Students will learn how casinos use and develop sales techniques, promotions and loyalty programs, targeted marketing, and merchandising. Students will also learn how casinos staff and manage all of their different revenue producing venues: casinos, restaurants, hotels, and entertainment venues.
310.002 Cultural Studies & Folklore TR 12:30 – 1:45 Trujillo
Arts and Sciences group: Humanities
310.004 Chicano-a Culture W 4:00 – 6:30 Alemán
Arts and Sciences group: Humanities
This course will examine specific forms of Chicano/a horror in folklore, fiction, and film as a way of understanding the social and cultural significance of figures such as La Llorona, the chupacabra, vampires, zombies, and other markers of Chicano/a expressive culture that resonate with horror. We’ll study the way Chicano/a horror works as a reactionary mode in which Chicano/as are figured as horrifying (i.e. aliens, vampires, demons, and monsters) and as a radical kind of critique that exposes how the history, dispossession, and alienation of Chicano/as in the US is itself the stuff of horror. The course will span a variety of selections from folklore, fiction, and especially film to analyze the different forms and functions of Chicano/a horror.
Readings will include folktales, selected ghost tales, and scholarly essays on Chicano/a folklore and the horror genre; novels such as . . . and the earth did not part, The Rag Doll Plagues, and Black Widow’s Wardrobe; and films screened in class such as Mexican Werewolf in Texas; The Wailer; All Souls Day; and Constantine. (Offered with ENGL 351, Chicano/a Cultural Studies: Horror in Folklore, Fiction and Film)
310.005 Writers in the Community TR 5:30 – 8:00 ORTG 123 Contreras
This course is designed to place UNM writing students into diverse community settings to work alongside students of all ages, needs, interests and abilities. WTC writing workshops will be offered in schools, community centers, justice settings, homeless- shelters, healthcare facilities, and other venues. The WTC writers-in-residence will facilitate poetry/creative writing workshops and literary projects and work with program coordinators and teachers to accomplish goals established between the UNM students and their sponsors. The student projects will culminate in the publication of an anthology of participants’ work and may include a celebratory community presentation/performance. (Offered with CCS 393, Writers in the Commuity)
310.007 NM Literary Landscapes W 4:00 – 6:30 MITCH 211 Romero
The course explores Chicano/a letters and the spoken word tradition in New Mexico and beyond. The course examines poetic traditions through a variety of forms including poetry, storytelling, singing/songwriting, and spoken word artistry. (Offered with CCS 374, New Mexico’s Literary Landscape and Beyond)
314.001 Violin Making TR 8:00 – 11:00 COMMJ 144 White
Arts & Sciences group: Humanities
This is part of a four-semester course in Violin Making: Construction, History, Culture and Performance. Through both lectures and field trips, students will learn the history of violin making, some aspects of performance, and be exposed to a variety of cultural and historical materials related to the religious, ritual and folk violin performances and dances practiced in New Mexico since the early 17th century. Enrollment in the course must be approved by the instructor, Dr. Peter White, who can be reached at plwhite@unm.edu.
330.002 Black Men in America MW 11:00 – 12:15 MVH 4022 Becknell
Arts & Sciences group: Humanities
This course is offered with AFST 297, Black Men in America. Please contact Africana Studies for course description.
330.003 Feminist Theories TR 9:30 – 10:45 HUM 428 Grinell
Arts & Sciences group: Humanities
In this course we will explore the intersections, oppositions, and juxtapositions between feminist theory and theories of post colonialism, queerness, and critical race. These studies will help us think about and negotiate the way in which our own actions and identities, bodies, genders, sexualities, and adherence to/rejection of social norms impact ourselves and others. The study of women, gender, sexuality, feminism, and identity will, on a broader level, help us to think and speak critically about the structures of power and privilege as they manifest themselves on both the individual/personal level and in a larger/global context. We will engage in studying these issues and concepts as a means of understanding traditional historical means of dominance and oppression of marginalized groups. (Offered with WMST 304, Feminist Theories)
330.008 Queer Theory TR 11:00 – 12:15 HUM 428 Levitt
Arts & Sciences group: Humanities
This course is offered with WMST 379, Queer Theory.
Within the ever widening field of Queer Studies, queer theories have sought to theorize race, class, gender, sex, sexuality, nation, empire, and settler colonialism as constitutive components of systems and structures of regulation and violence. This class will touch on some of the early foundations of queer theory and use that foundation as a spring board to explore queer of color, queer migration, queer diaspora, postcolonial queer, and queer Native studies scholarship. Queer studies has inherited a lot of baggage, not the least of which is the ways in which non-normative sexualities have provided ample opportunities for the colonialist tourist gaze of the academy and the global gay consumer to participate in imperial projects. By merging insights and tensions between and among various queer theories this class will examine how race has been historically as well as contemporaneously sexualized, and how sexuality has been racialized within discourses of colonialism, nationalism, human rights, citizenship, migration, tourism, diaspora, and indigeniety. Along the way, we will question the ways the nation-state, identity, and subjectivity are producers of and produced in settler colonial sexual modernities.(Offered with WMST 379, Queer Theory)
330.009 Introduction to Chicana Studies M 12:00 – 12:50 DSH 224 Valenzuela
Arts & Sciences group: Humanities
This course will introduce students
to the field of Chicano/a Studies and provide an introductory exploration of historical, political, social, and cultural dimensions of the Mexican American experience in the United States, with special reference to New Mexico. This course is a hybrid class, meeting both in class and online. (Offered with CCS 332, Introduction to Chicana Studies)
340.001 Gaming, Tourism & Pop Culture W 5:30 – 8:00 ORTG 153 Bubb
Arts & Sciences group: Humanities
This course will examine how commercial casinos, tribal casinos, and racinos help to shape American popular culture. The casino industry is a multi-billion dollar industry annually and gambling has become one of the world’s most popular forms of entertainment. Casino gaming has transformed from small scale gaming halls to billion dollar mega-resorts. The course will provide students with a hands-on examination of a number of gaming related topics including: the psychology of gambling, regulation and operation of casinos, types of gaming, sports books & online gaming, surveillance and monitoring, marketing, tourism, and the use of entertainment. The course will require travel and fieldwork at local casinos as we examine how various forms of popular culture help to shape the gambling landscape.
340.002 Hip Hop, Race & Gender W 4:00 – 6:30 Smalls
Arts & Sciences group: Humanities
This course explores the dynamic relationship of hip hop, race, gender, and sexuality through literature, film & video, music/sound, and social media. In this course, we’ll think through embodiment and representation (and their effects) as it relates to hip hop “authenticity,” racial identification and formation, masculinity, femininity, socioeconomic class, sexuality, region/nation, and aesthetics.
340.004 Age, Gender & Pop Culture W 4:00 – 6:30 Gravagne
What stories are being told about aging in popular culture today? How do these stories both reinforce and resist the multiple and often invisible practices of ageism, the process of systematic stereotyping of and discrimination against people because they are perceived as old? In what ways do gender, class, and ethnicity inflect these stories? What might be the consequences of telling these stories differently? In this course, we attempt to answer these questions by exploring cultural representations of aging in contemporary movies such as “Gran Torino,” “Calendar Girls,” “Something’s Gotta Give,” and “Young@ Heart,” literature such as Endnotes and To Love What Is, and TV programs such as “South Park,” “Golden Girls,” and “30 Rock.”
By seeing that age, like race and gender, is a marker of social difference and categorical identity that is shaped more by culture than by biology, more by belief and custom than by bodily change, we can discover how we “learn” to be old. We will also discover that early in life we become complicit in the stereotypical thinking that defines the old or aging (20’s, 40’s, 60’s, 80’s?) as frightening, genderless, asexual beings who deserve to be marginalized and viewed as less than fully human. Once we understand that meanings attributed to and representations of aging are neither natural nor essential, we will explore examples, theories, and methods of rewriting this cultural narrative of decline and deterioration to reflect the gains as well as the losses occasioned by growing older. By telling stories differently, we will find other ways to age.
341.001 Film as Social Transformation M 6:00 – 9:30 SUB Theater Cutler
Through documentaries, features, politically-oriented shorts, and activist films we will explore issues of war and peace, activism and resistance, and race, gender, religious, economic, national and sexual rights and abuses from a variety of academic perspectives using a number of differently leveraged theoretical lenses.
We will explore possibilities offered by mediation, conflict resolution, NGOs, individual and social activism, the effectiveness or not of revolution, of non-violent protest, of terrorism, and more. And we will explore the concepts of negative and positive peace, structural violence, conflict resolution, scapegoating, othering, and more.
Students taking this class for credit will be expected to read selections each week and respond in short written assignments, integrating ideas and concepts from the readings, the class discussions and the films. Two larger papers are due throughout the semester.
Community members are invited to attend the film screenings, contribute to class discussions afterward, and will be provided copies of the readings if they desire.
350.001 New Approaches in CCS W 7:00 – 9:30 DSH 231 Roybal
The course focuses on examining the various theories and methods utilized by Chicana/o scholars during the evolution of Chicana/o Studies. The class presents theories and methods that inform writings in Chicana/o studies. The course also refers to contemporary experimental expressions of theory and method, which may impact Chicana/o Studies. The critical questions that this class will explore are: a) what are the philosophical and historical foundations, which provide theories of Chicana/o historic and contemporary experiences and b) how relevant are the more contemporary theories, concepts and approaches such as Internal Colonialism, Marxism, Neomarxism Postmodernism, Poststructuralism, Postcolonialism, Critical Race Theory and Theories of Gender, Indigensim and Sexuality. (Offered with CCS 480, New Approaches in Chicana and Chicano Studies)
350.002 Race, Family & the Law TR 9:30 – 10:45 MVH 4022 Gipson Rankin
Arts & Sciences group: Social Science
Please contact Africana Studies for a course description.
350.003 Leadership & Mentoring in Urban Communities TR 3:30 – 4:45 ORTG 153 Bubb *There will be a strong service-learning component to this class.
Arts & Sciences group: Social Science
This course examines the ethnic, cultural, and class problems facing children and teenagers within the urban communities of Albuquerque. The course provides students with opportunities to work interactively with community-based organizations that focus on creating educational and recreational programming and providing social services for children and teenagers of different social classes, cultures, and ethnic backgrounds. Students have opportunities to gain professional experience within different community sites as they observe, interact, and participate with community members. Each community site that the class interacts with provides students with different insights as to how professional organizations operate, how structural development and management occurs, how educational, recreational, and social programming decision making processes are conceived and implemented, and how students can implement theoretical information into practical settings while collaboratively working with others to create activities, events, and programs. The course prepares students to interact with children and teenagers who face a varying array of social and economic problems in their everyday lives. Students gain practical experience that will help them to work in social and educational settings by addressing issues such as student developmental theory, supplemental instruction, group dynamics, learning styles, success skills, and the ability to effectively communicate, interact, and problem solve when working with individuals struggling with various social and economic problems.
350.007 Intro to Human Rights M 3:00 – 5:30 Cargas
Please contact Peace Studies for more information.
350.009 Race, African & African Diaspora Film T 5:30 – 8:00 Olorunsiwa
Arts & Sciences group: Humanities
In addition to examining the ways race matter in the society and the impacts of this in people’s lives, this class will explore how people of African descent worldwide are expressing their experiences, cultures, identity, distinctiveness, important concerns and heritage through cinematic images across the globe. The class will take a comprehensive approach in the examination of films from across the wide spectrum of the African Diaspora in order understand, grasp and appreciative their richness, beauty and diversities in terms of cultural, political, social and aesthetic significance. Some of the films to examine in the class include Black Skin White Mask (1996, directed by Isaac Julien), Bamako (2006, directed by Abderrahmane Sissako), Different but Equal (1984, directed by Basil Davidson) and Xala, the Curse (1975, directed by Ousmane Sembene).
356.001 Native American Cultural Production T 4:00 – 6:30 Denetdale
Arts & Sciences group: Humanities
357.002 Rewriting Slavery MWF 1:00 – 1:50 MITCH 105 Matthews
2013 marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, which initiated the federal dismantling of slavery in the U.S. Given the remarkable changes that have occurred in that century and a half, how do we remember slavery, and what are the implications for and consequences of the ways in which we do (and do not) remember? This course examines a variety of rewritings of slavery from the antebellum era to the present. We’ll look at literary, historiographic, cinematic and pictorial representations of slavery as institution and set of practices in order to explore how they have shaped our understandings of freedom, labor, race, racism, masculinity and femininity, and American history and culture more broadly. (Offered with ENGL 315.002)
357.003 Children in Genocide TR 6:30 – 7:45 Heying
Students in this course specifically examine the experiences of children who have survived the horrors, tragedies and trauma of genocide. In particular, students in this course explore the experiences of children who survived genocide in the following five nation-states in the late 20th century: Cambodia (1975-1979), Guatemala (1978-1983), Sudan (1983-present), Rwanda (1994) and Bosnia (1992-1995). Students gain a historical perspective on the genocides that occurred in these areas and will be exposed to interdisciplinary approaches (e.g., examining works in anthropology, psychology, sociology, etc.), that describe how children have experienced and responded to growing up in the violence of genocide. Students also learn to recognize the long-term effects the genocide has had on these child survivors’ life experiences both as children and also later on as adults. In addition, students will learn about global human rights discourses and how human rights decrees and declarations affect child survivors of genocide in particular. The course concludes by having students examine current conflicts such as Israel/Palestine and engages them in asking whether these present-day conflicts can be or should be declared as genocide. Students also explore how non-governmental agencies and scholars can best assist today’s genocide survivors based on what the students learn from the experiences of child survivors as presented and discussed in this course. (Offered with PCST 340).
357.004 Black Masculinity MWF 1:00 – 1:50 Coleman
Please contact the English department for a course description.
360.001 Religion in New Mexico TR 12:30 – 1:45 DSH 318 Holscher
Arts & Sciences group: Humanities
This course is about the religious people and practices that have populated New Mexico, from the sixteenth century through today. New Mexico’s religious character is distinct in the United States—in a country where Protestants have historically dominated government and culture, New Mexican history is characterized by the long encounter between Catholicism and indigenous worldviews. When American Protestants arrived in New Mexico, they found a place already filled with religious variety—from “unchurched” Indians to Catholic nuns and penitentes. Today, the state is known not only for its Christian and Native American communities, but also for its smaller populations of non-Christians, including Jews, Sikhs and Buddhists, as well as its eclectic array of new agers and other spiritual “seekers.” In this course, we will learn about all these religious players. We will consider how religion has shaped the state’s political and cultural identity, as well as its reputation within the United States. We will think about how other qualities that define day-to-day life in New Mexico—including ethnic identity, poverty, and the rugged and arid landscape—have historically shaped the religious lives of people living here. Finally, we will reflect on how New Mexico’s religious story challenges and/or amends dominant narratives of religious history in the United States.
360.003 Interdisciplinary Approaches to Poverty in NM TR 11:00 – 1:30 Melendez
*2nd 8 weeks
Arts & Sciences group: Humanities
363.001 Chicano/Latino Film T 4:00 – 6:30 Melendez
Arts & Sciences group: Humanities
Examines the history of Latino/a film images and depictions in America from the Silent Period to the present. Special regard is given films produced by Chicanos/Latinos in the contemporary period. In this regard, the course seeks to understand Latino/a filmmaking as a self-representational medium and as a response and an affirmation of the Latino/a experience in America. In this course we will have the opportunity to screen feature-length films, Chicano/a docu-drama and Latino/a independent and experimental films. We will study Chicano/Latino film as a form of cultural representation and communication. Additionally, we will consider such questions as film narration, symbolism and Latino/a subjectivity in film. The film titles we will see this semester have been selected for their subject matter and approach as well for their innovation in style and technique. A partial list of films include: Salt of the Earth, The Ring, Giant, Zoot Suit, Stand and Deliver, Break of Dawn El Norte, Mi Familia, American Me, I Am Joaquin and work by Lourdes Portillo, Sylvia Morales, Luis Valdez and other filmmakers.
385.001 Theo & Meth of Am Studies M 4:00 – 6:30 Schreiber
This seminar introduces students to interdisciplinary approaches to the study of American culture. During the semester, we will examine the history of American Studies, as well as focus on contemporary scholarship in the field. This course explores the political and social meanings of cultural conflict and national identity through close analysis and classroom discussion of various research methodologies that employ primary source material such as historical documents, literature, ethnography, and visual and popular culture. We will focus on how ideas about race, gender, sexuality, class, and region have shaped contests over the meaning of citizenship and belonging.
The seminar will be framed around the following questions: What is distinct about interdisciplinary scholarship? What kinds of questions do American Studies scholars ask? What does a comparative framework offer in terms of methods?
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