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Course Listing for AMERICAN STUDIES - Spring 2023 (ALL: 01/25/2023 - 05/12/2023)
Class
No.		 Course ID Title Credits Type Instructor(s) Days:Times Location Permission
Required		 Dist Qtr
1847 AMST-203-01 Conflcts & Cultures Am Society 1.00 LEC Wickman, Thomas MWF: 10:00AM-10:50AM SH - N217 HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 19 Waitlist available: Y Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  NOTE: All seats reserved for first year students.
  Focusing on a key decade in American life—the 1890s, for example, or the 1850s—this course will examine the dynamics of race, class, gender, and ethnicity as forces that have shaped, and been shaped by, American culture. How did various groups define themselves at particular historical moments? How did they interact with each other and with American society? Why did some groups achieve hegemony and not others, and what were—and are—the implications of these dynamics for our understanding of American culture? By examining both interpretive and primary documents—novels, autobiographies, works of art, and popular culture—we will consider these and other questions concerning the production of American culture.
3079 AMST-209-01 African-American History 1.00 LEC Marston, Steven TR: 10:50AM-12:05PM MC - 213 HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 25 Waitlist available: Y Mode of Instruction: In Person  
    Cross-listing: HIST-209-01
  The experiences of African-Americans from the 17th century to the present with particular emphasis on life in slavery and in the 20th-century urban North.
2429 AMST-210-01 Doing Culture 1.00 LEC Baldwin, Davarian TR: 10:50AM-12:05PM LIB - 181 HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 25 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Culture is not something we simply consume, inhabit or even create. Culture is serious business: pun both intended and upended. We have a dynamic relationship with the world around us and in this class we will use culture, both elite and popular, to help bridge the gap between what we do here in the “ivory tower” and how we live out there in the “real world,” hopefully changing both in the process. Here we will not take culture for granted but engage culture as a method, a tool by which to engage, analyze and critique both historical narratives and contemporary events. In this course, street life, advertisements, popular media, and clothing are interrogated as archives of dynamic meaning, arenas of social interaction, acts of personal pleasure, and sites of struggle. We will also explore what happens when a diversity of forces converge at the intersection of commerce and culture. Present day notions of popular culture, and topics such as authenticity and selling out, will be interrogated both socially and historically.
2607 AMST-220-03 Possible Earths 1.00 SEM Wickman, Thomas MWF: 12:00PM-12:50PM SH - S201 GLB2  
  Enrollment limited to 9 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
    Cross-listing: HIST-220-03
  NOTE: 2 seats reserved for first-year students, 5 for sophomores, and 2 for juniors.
  This seminar examines environmental thinking across histories and cultures in order to retrieve sources of hope and wisdom for a planetary future. Reading and discussion will foreground current humanity's vast inheritance when it comes to ways of existing in community with and knowing a living planet. Students will look critically at how texts, images, objects, and practices are historical evidence of the many ways humans have imagined natural communities and acted within them.
3139 AMST-265-01 Thinking with Things 1.00 LEC Guzman, Amanda MW: 10:00AM-11:15AM MC - 106 SOC  
  Enrollment limited to 19 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
    Cross-listing: ANTH-265-01
  Our relationship to and interaction with things is a defining feature of the human experience. To think with things is to use objects as the primary lens of analysis. This course explores a range of object case-studies and the unique questions they present for understanding American history and contemporary society. The course centers on close-looking or building interpretations from direct material observation. Students work hands-on with objects spanning from historical texts to folk art and souvenir material to contemporary art and digital media. Object case-studies draw from diverse representations including cultural heritage debates in museums and portrayals of cultural identity performance in popular media. Students will learn to critically examine and discuss the many materials that make up our world.
1314 AMST-301-01 AmStud Seminar 1.00 SEM Gac, Scott M: 6:30PM-9:00PM SH - S204 WEB  
  Enrollment limited to 15 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  This course, required for American Studies majors and ordinarily taken in the sophomore or junior year, examines central methods in the field. Situated on a theme, such as race or popular culture, seminar participants engage in archival, spatial, public humanities, and transnational approaches to the American experience.
2592 AMST-319-01 Understandings of Puerto Rico 1.00 LEC Guzman, Amanda MW: 1:30PM-2:45PM LSC - 135 GLB5  
  Enrollment limited to 19 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
    Cross-listing: ANTH-319-01
  An island uniquely characterized by a liminal political status and a dominant stateside diaspora, the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico has been the subject of renewed national attention in the wake of the devastating 2017 Hurricane María and the 2019 "Verano Boricua" which saw the ousting of the governor, Ricardo Rosselló. This course interrogates Puerto Rican culture on its own terms - shifting from traditional definitions of identity formation to contemporary critiques centering historically marginalized communities amidst ongoing climate and economic precarity. Students will work hands-on analyzing diverse (im)material cultural productions, originating from the island and stateside diasporas. Students will engage with Puerto Rican cultural workers as they develop new, critical understandings of the island's cultural legacy and its future.
2918 AMST-320-01 Place in the Native Northeast 1.00 SEM Wickman, Thomas TR: 9:25AM-10:40AM HL - 121 HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 7 Waitlist available: Y Mode of Instruction: In Person  
    Cross-listing: HIST-311-01
  NOTE: 7 seats reserved for AMST majors.
  The coasts, rivers, fields, hills, villages, and cities of present-day Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia have been home for indigenous families, communities, and nations through numerous environmental, political, and economic transformations. Students will learn about the ways that Native nations of the Northeast, from Pequots to Mi'kmaqs, have adapted, recreated, and reaffirmed a deep connectedness to their homelands and territories, from the fifteenth century to the present. Fields trips to local sites and archives will facilitate original historical research. Primary sources to be assigned include autobiographies, travel narratives, war histories, maps, Native American stories, and dictionaries of indigenous place names, and secondary source readings will cover major themes in Native American studies, with special emphasis on sense of place.
2882 AMST-335-01 Mapping American Masculinities 1.00 SEM Corber, Robert W: 1:30PM-4:10PM SH - S205 HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 19 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Also cross-referenced with ENGL Cross-listing: WMGS-335-01
  This course examines the construction of masculinity in American society starting with Theodore Roosevelt’s call at the turn of the twentieth century for men to revitalize the nation by pursuing the “strenuous life." Through close readings of literary and filmic texts, it considers why American manhood has so often been seen as in crisis. It pays particular attention to the formation of non-normative masculinities (African-American, female, and gay) in relation to entrenched racial, class, and sexual hierarchies, as well as the impact of the feminist, civil rights, and gay liberation movements on the shifting construction of male identity. In addition to critical essays, readings also include Tarzan of the Apes, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, The Great Gatsby, The Sun also Rises, Native Son, Another Country, and Kiss Me Deadly (Spillane). Film screenings include Kiss Me Deadly (Aldrich), Shaft, Magnum Force, Philadelphia, Brokeback Mountain, Cleopatra Jones, and Boys Don’t Cry.
3122 AMST-344-01 The 1980s 1.00 LEC Marston, Steven TR: 1:30PM-2:45PM LSC - 136 HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 25 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
    Cross-listing: HIST-344-01
  When we think of the 1980s, certain things might come to mind: synthesizer music, action movie heroes, bright clothes, side ponytails, and other pop-culture markers. Yet the decade also featured a number of crucial developments and conflicts, from the Cold War to the War on Drugs, that set much of the foundation for American life today. This course will address the U.S. in the 1980s through a wide lens, surveying popular culture, global interactions, and political struggles related to race, class, gender, sexuality, and religion. In the process, students will learn how a "gnarly" decade featured ongoing struggle over the conditions, and meanings, of the American nation.
3136 AMST-356-01 Black Neurodiversity 1.00 SEM Paulin, Diana W: 6:30PM-9:00PM 70VS - SEM HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 15 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  This seminar explores the stigma of Black neurodivergence and neurodiversity in mainstream and marginalized communities and cultures in the U.S. as well as in select Black diasporic contexts. It examines how the historical pathologization of Black bodies and minds, at least as far back as enslavement, informs contemporary understandings and treatment of Black neurodivergence and neurodiversity. Students will consider various representational sites of Black neurodivergence and diversity, such as the current mental health crisis that has impacted the Black population disproportionally. They will also explore how past and present discriminatory practices have contributed to the notion of Black inferiority and how idealized constructions of able-bodiedness and neurotypicality have been equated with white supremacy and have reinforced the historical conflation of anti-Black and ableist discourse. By examining how Black-disabled intersectionality informs a variety of counternarratives in fiction, poetry, film, and performance, the class works toward a fuller understanding of the shared humanity and overlapping histories that bind us as citizens of the nation and of the world.
3138 AMST-379-01 Melville 1.00 SEM Hager, Christopher TR: 9:25AM-10:40AM SH - N215 Y HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 15 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
    Cross-listing: ENGL-379-01
  Though a superstar during his early career, Herman Melville watched his reputation decline as his literary ambitions escalated. One review of his seventh novel bore the headline, "Herman Melville Crazy." Not until the 20th century did even his best-known work, Moby Dick, attract considerable attention, but it now stands at the center of the American literary pantheon. Melville's work merits intensive, semester-long study not only because he is a canonical author of diverse narratives—from maritime adventures to tortured romances to philosophical allegories—but also because his career and legacy themselves constitute a narrative of central concern to literary studies and American culture. Through reading and discussion of several of his major works, we will explore Melville's imagination, discover his work's historical context, and think critically about literary form. For English majors, this course satisfies the requirement of a course emphasizing literature written between 1700-1900.
1145 AMST-399-01 Independent Study 1.00 - 2.00 IND TBA TBA TBA Y HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 15 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar's Office, and the approval of the instructor are required for enrollment.
2354 AMST-425-01 Curating Conversations 1.00 SEM Camp, Jordan T: 6:30PM-9:00PM SH - N215 HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 8 Waitlist available: Y Mode of Instruction: In Person  
    Cross-listing: AMST-825-01
  Scholars in the public humanities are able to facilitate conversations across multiple divides: between disciplines, over different institutional spaces, and in traditional and non-traditional sites of knowledge production. This seminar trains students how to curate such conversations. Through readings and discussion, students will learn a variety of critical theories and methodological approaches to develop their own public humanities projects. Along with key texts, students will learn to engage different forms of evidence such as expressive culture, social movement periodicals, oral histories, museum exhibitions, podcasts, and digital archives By the end of the semester, students will demonstrate a critical understanding of public humanities theories and practices; develop research, writing, and curating skills; and present a project to a panel of researchers, educators, and activists.
3112 AMST-450-01 Race and Incarceration 1.00 SEM Greenberg, Cheryl W: 1:30PM-4:10PM SH - S204 HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 4 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Also cross-referenced with CLIC Cross-listing: HRST-350-01, AMST-850-01
  This course is not open to first-year or sophomore students without instructor consent.
  #BlackLivesMatter has brought the intersection of race and the criminal justice system into public conversation, but race has been intertwined with imprisonment since American colonization. This course begins with the ways slavery and African Americans were policed by the state, and the history of American prisons. After the Civil War, freed Black men and women sought equal rights and opportunities. In response, the justice system shifted to accommodate new forms of racial suppression. The course then considers this process, including civil rights activists' experiences with prisons, the War on Drugs' racial agenda, and Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow, which argued that the "prison-industrial complex" is the newest form of racial control. The course ends with current practices of, and challenges to, the criminal justice system. This course meets the Archival method requirement.
1146 AMST-466-01 Teaching Assistantship 0.50 - 1.00 IND TBA TBA TBA Y HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 15 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Submission of the special registration form, available online, and the approval of the instructor are required for enrollment. Guidelines are available in the College Bulletin. (0.5 - 1 course credit)
3128 AMST-480-01 Sports, Identity, Capitalism 1.00 SEM Marston, Steven R: 6:30PM-9:00PM SH - N128 HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 6 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
    Cross-listing: AMST-880-01, HIST-380-01
  NOTE: 6 seats reserved for AMST majors.
  Using transnational methods in American Studies, this course addresses the intersection of sports, global capitalism, and identity, with a focus on how capitalism (as a set of logics and processes) has shaped identity formation on fields, courts, and beyond. We will address such identity categories as nationality, ethnicity, race, gender, and sexuality as (re)formed through sports. We will also examine how global-capitalist logic has shaped the experiences of athlete-laborers, fans, and even those who may seem to have little connection to the games. All of these processes take place in the form of spectacle, rendering mass-mediated sports a crucial purveyor, or "mirror," of social ideas.
1147 AMST-490-01 Research Assistantship 1.00 IND TBA TBA TBA Y HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 15 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  This course is designed to provide students with the opportunity to undertake substantial research work with a faculty member. Students need to complete a special registration form, available online, and have it signed by the supervising instructor.
1110 AMST-499-01 Senior Thesis Part 2 2.00 IND TBA TBA TBA Y HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 15 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar's Office, and the approval of the thesis adviser and the director, are required for each semester of this year-long thesis. (The two course credits are considered pending in Part I of the thesis; they will be awarded with the completion of Part II.)
2373 AMST-825-01 Curating Conversations 1.00 SEM Camp, Jordan T: 6:30PM-9:00PM SH - N215 HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 7 Waitlist available: Y Mode of Instruction: In Person  
    Cross-listing: AMST-425-01
  Scholars in the public humanities are able to facilitate conversations across multiple divides: between disciplines, over different institutional spaces, and in traditional and non-traditional sites of knowledge production. This seminar trains students how to curate such conversations. Through readings and discussion, students will learn a variety of critical theories and methodological approaches to develop their own public humanities projects. Along with key texts, students will learn to engage different forms of evidence such as expressive culture, social movement periodicals, oral histories, museum exhibitions, podcasts, and digital archives By the end of the semester, students will demonstrate a critical understanding of public humanities theories and practices; develop research, writing, and curating skills; and present a project to a panel of researchers, educators, and activists.
3113 AMST-850-01 Race and Incarceration 1.00 SEM Greenberg, Cheryl W: 1:30PM-4:10PM SH - S204 HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 4 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
    Cross-listing: HRST-350-01, AMST-450-01
  This course is open only to History and American Studies majors, or permission of instructor.
  #BlackLivesMatter has brought the intersection of race and the criminal justice system into public conversation, but race has been intertwined with imprisonment since American colonization. This course begins with the ways slavery and African Americans were policed by the state, and the history of American prisons. After the Civil War, freed Black men and women sought equal rights and opportunities. In response, the justice system shifted to accommodate new forms of racial suppression. The course then considers this process, including civil rights activists' experiences with prisons, the War on Drugs' racial agenda, and Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow, which argued that the "prison-industrial complex" is the newest form of racial control. The course ends with current practices of, and challenges to, the criminal justice system. This course meets the Archival method requirement.
3130 AMST-880-01 Sports, Identity, Capitalism 1.00 SEM Marston, Steven R: 6:30PM-9:00PM SH - N128 HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 4 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
    Cross-listing: HIST-380-01, AMST-480-01
  Using transnational methods in American Studies, this course addresses the intersection of sports, global capitalism, and identity, with a focus on how capitalism (as a set of logics and processes) has shaped identity formation on fields, courts, and beyond. We will address such identity categories as nationality, ethnicity, race, gender, and sexuality as (re)formed through sports. We will also examine how global-capitalist logic has shaped the experiences of athlete-laborers, fans, and even those who may seem to have little connection to the games. All of these processes take place in the form of spectacle, rendering mass-mediated sports a crucial purveyor, or "mirror," of social ideas.
1241 AMST-894-01 Museums and Communities Intern 1.00 IND TBA TBA TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 15 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Matriculated American studies students have the opportunity to engage in an internship at an area museum or archive for credit toward the American studies degree. Interested students should contact the Office of Graduate Studies for more information.
1242 AMST-940-01 Independent Study 1.00 IND TBA TBA TBA Y HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 15 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Selected topics in special areas are available by arrangement with the instructor and written approval of the graduate adviser and program director. Contact the Office of Graduate Studies for the special approval form.
1125 AMST-953-01 Research Project 1.00 IND TBA TBA TBA Y HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 15 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Under the guidance of a faculty member, graduate students may do an independent research project on a topic in American studies. Written approval of the graduate adviser and the program director are required. Contact the Office of Graduate Studies for the special approval form.
1126 AMST-954-01 Thesis Part I 1.00 IND TBA TBA TBA Y HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 15 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  (The two course credits are considered pending in Part I of the thesis; they will be awarded with the completion of Part II.)
1128 AMST-955-01 Thesis Part II 1.00 IND TBA TBA TBA Y HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 15 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  (Continuation of American Studies 954.)
1227 AMST-956-01 Thesis 2.00 IND TBA TBA TBA Y HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 15 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  (Completion of two course credits in one semester).
3040 MUSC-218-01 American Popular Music 1.00 LEC Woldu, Gail TR: 1:30PM-2:45PM AAC - 112 ART  
  Enrollment limited to 39 Waitlist available: Y Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Also cross-referenced with AMST
  A broad survey of popular music in the United States from the late 19th century to the present. We will explore blackface minstrelsy, the music of Tin Pan Alley, ragtime and big band jazz, early blues and country music, post-war pop singers, the evolution of rock and roll, rhythm and blues and soul, folk music, alternative music, hip-hop, and MTV and the popular mainstream. Themes of music and identity, multi- cultural sources, the business of music, and the influence of technology will be followed throughout the course. No previous background in music is required. Also listed in American Studies.