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Americanist Courses

 

ENGLISH

 

ENGL 369: Literature and Culture of the American West

Krista Comer

 

ENGL 378: Literature of the Americas: Introduction to Caribbean Literature

Joseph Clarke

 

This course is meant to be a survey of West Indian Literature.  I use the descriptor “West Indian” because, like the communities and cultures who accept this term as a description of who they are, the literature we will be preoccupied with comes from the English speaking Caribbean.  We will be concerned mainly with short stories, poetry, and novels.  We begin chronologically in the 1920's and 30's and move through to the “boom,” as it is sometimes called, of the 1950's and spend some time on the dramatic rise and then domestication of Rastafarianism and then end with a look at the writers who have chosen to remain in the Caribbean rather than take flight.  The reading for the course is not heavy, no more than 200 pages a week.

 

ENGL 389: Generation X in Literature and Culture

Krista Comer

 

Our course surveys several cultures associated with Generation X in order to ask: what, who and why is Gen X? Are today's students Gen X, Gen Y, both? We begin by establishing broad sociological and historical contexts, asking after the differences between slacker culture, Gen “Mex,” and that of the hip hop nation. We then move to reading a series of Gen X literary, musical and film texts. Early “classics” include Coupland and Ellis alongside later “response” Gen X texts like Liu, Schweser & Himelstein, Nicholson, Kadohata. Films include New Jack City, Slacker, Smoke Signals, Quadrophenia. Conclusions focus on so-called Gen Y (or Gen 9/11).

 

ENGL 458: Disease and Difference: The Body in Visual Culture

Kirsten Ostherr

 

This course examines the history of visual representations of disease in photography, cinema, and digital media.  We will consider how nationally, racially, and sexually marked bodies constitute an iconography of social and organic contamination.  Topics include early cinema, colonialism, photography, immigration, science fiction, and Internet “viruses.”

 

ENGL 460: 20th- and 21st-Century U.S. Literature and Culture

Susan Lurie

 

This course will examine 20th century and contemporary U.S. Literature and culture in context of theories and movements of social justice and individual freedom. These might include: liberal individualism, theories of subjective agency, feminism, antiracism, and so on. The course will examine the role that literature plays in constructing, questioning, and reformulating ideas of freedom and agency.

 

ENGL 472: Native American Literature

Lisa Slappey

 

This course examines the literature of the Native American Renaissance, from N. Scott Momaday's groundbreaking Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, House Made of Dawn (1968), to the recent works of some emerging writers. Although our focus will be on the contemporary novel, we will also explore American Indian autobiography and other works of nonfiction. Our literary analysis will be supplemented by an awareness of the cultural and political movements important to American Indian peoples in the late 20th century. To what extent are Native texts both innovative forms of artistic expression within a literary tradition and instruments of social change? How might Native American works be read as “resistance” literature? In exploring such questions, the class will address the issues of sovereignty, land claims, activism, and identity.

 

ENGL 560: Nineteenth-Century American Literature: Liberalism

Caroline Levander

 

ENGL 581: Contemporary Cultural Studies

Susan Lurie

 

This course will begin with a brief overview of the history of, and debates within, U.S. Cultural Studies.  We will go on to study the cultures generated by prominent national events as well as cultures that produce and challenge meanings for national subjectivity in the context of everyday life.  We will give consideration to how various technologies contribute to the shaping of significance; how, for example, do photography, print materials, television, and film differently produce and convey cultural knowledge?  There will also be a section in the course specifically on the intersection of Cultural Studies with Race and Ethnicity Studies.

 

ENGL 588: Media Studies

Kirsten Ostherr

 

Topics vary from year to year but will likely address interdisciplinary approaches to studying the relationships between film, photography, television, and digital technologies such as the Internet and computer-generated imaging.

 

 

HISPANIC STUDIES

 

SPAN 346:  Contemporary Mexico

Maarten van Delden

 

Topics discussed include: the Mexican political system, the debate on national identity, border culture, urbanization, regionalism, and indigenous cultures. Uses a wide range of texts to introduce students to the richness and complexity of contemporary Mexican culture.

 

SPAN 350/LING 421: Sociolinguistics of Spanish

Rafael Salaberry

 

Analysis of the modern varieties of Spanish covering phonetics, vocabulary, morphosyntax, and pragmatics.

 

SPAN 466/566: 20th-Century Mexican Narrative

Maarten van Delden

 

Examines the innovations in narrative form developed by twentieth-century Mexican novelists and short-story writers, as well as the social and political subjects with which they grappled in their work.

 

 

HISTORY

 

HIST 295/395: The American South

John Boles

 

Survey of the history of the American South from the development of Native American cultures to the present.  Includes social, cultural, and intellectual history, with emphasis on slavery and the plantation economy, the rise of southern distinctiveness, the Civil War and Reconstruction, sharecropping, political reform, the civil rights movement, the rise of the Sunbelt, southern religion, music, and literature, and the future of southern regionalism.

 

HIST 332: Engendering American Democracy

Allison Sneider

 

This course traces the complicated history of American voting rights from the colonial period through the present and focuses our attention on changing ideas about democracy, sovereignty, and consent.  Centering our attention on a series of expansions and contractions in the American electorate, we will assess the importance of class, gender, and race to the cultural, political, and legal history of enfranchisement.

 

HIST 347: U.S. Labor History: 20th-Century Representations

Alex Lichtenstein

 

This lecture/discussion course considers the last century of American labor history through a close analysis of journalism, fiction, and film. Topics will include: industrialization, immigration, gender, inductrial unionism, race relations, syndicalist, socialist and communist organizing, agrarian labor, and deindustrialization.

 

HIST 366: Modern Brazil

Joel Wolfe

 

Course examines Brazil's history, from its 1822 peaceful independence to present efforts in creating a democratic society following a military dictatorship. Topics include a legacy as the world's largest slave-holding society in the 19th century, struggles to conquer its huge territory, and the interaction of those factors in shaping national identity.

 

HIST 386: Recent U.S. Foreign Policy

Allen Matusow

 

This course will examine American policy during the climactic years of the Cold War. Topics will include detente under Nixon and Carter, confrontation under Reagan, the "new thinking" of Gorbachev, regional conflicts, and the fall of the Soviet Union.

 

HIST 427: History of the Civil Rights Movement

Edward Cox

 

Examination of the modern Civil Rights movement, with emphasis on the goals and strategies of major spokespersons and leaders, as well as the achievements of the campaign. Includes the extent of its success or failure and whether or not an "unfinished" agenda needs to be completed.

 

HIST 564: Early America (Also HIST 565: Graduate Reading Seminar in Early America)

TBA

 

Study of major works on the English colonies of North America, as well as topics of particular interest to individual students from 1607-1800.

 

HIST 569: Race, Labor and Region in American History

Alex Lichtenstein

Graduate seminar focusing on the struggle over jobs, equality, and civil rights in both the American South and the Southwest, from the 1880s to the 1960s. Readings will allow comparisons of Mexican-American, African-American and white working class experiences.

 

HIST 578: Topics in Southern History

Alex Lichtenstein

 

This graduate reading seminar will entail in-depth examination of the historiography of particular issues in the history of the American South. Topics will vary.

 

HIST 583: Southern History (Also HIST 595: Graduate Reading Seminar in the American South)

John Boles

 

Graduate seminar on religion and slavery in the Old South.

 

 

RELIGIOUS STUDIES

 

RELI 247: Religion and Revolution: Black Theology from 1969 to the Present

Anthony Pinn

 

Beginning in the 1960s, Black theology combined the best of the Christian Tradition and the energy of Black Power. And, giving religious importance to "Black is beautiful," Black theology changed theological discourse. Through readings and group discussions, students will explore the history, sources, and define elements of Black theology.

 

RELI 270/542: Introduction to the Black Church in the U.S.

Anthony Pinn

 

Much of what has historically taken place within Black communities has been shaped by and initiated through Black Christian churches.  As the first institutions in the U.S. developed and controlled by Black Americans, these churches are major resources for those interested in understanding religious expression and socio-political activism within the Black community.  This course provides an introduction into the history, thought, and worship of the major Black denominations.

 

 

SOCIOLOGY

 

SOCI 309: Race and Ethnic Relations

 

Historical and contemporary issues and theories of race and ethnic relations in the United States. The key groups covered will be European Americans, African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Mexican Americans. Group patterns of assimilation and conflict inform a basic tenet that race and ethnicity are organizing features of society.

 

SOCI 340: Contemporary Mexican Society

Katharine Donato

 

In this course, we seek a sociological understanding of contemporary Mexican society. After reviewing the historical roots of the modern Mexican state, we will examine how economic, political, and social institutions operate in Mexico, their formal & informal structures, & then consider their consequences.

 

SOCI 389: African Americans in Society

Holly Heard

 

Contemporary life of Blacks (African Americans) in society. The meaning and significance of race, prejudice and discrimination; social institutions such as economy, education and family; and potential strategies such as affirmative action.

 

SOCI 440: Family Inequality

Holly Heard

 

This is an intensive upper-level seminar focused on aspects of inequality concerning American families. We will discuss how well-known models of inequality, such as race/ethnicity, gender and social class, affect individual families, as well as how families serve as agents of inequality along these lines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This page is maintained by Gale Kenny and was last updated 07/27/06