Bicentennial Apply Visit Request Info Give
Academic ToolsCourse Schedule

Course Schedule

Click here to browse textbooks information at the bookstore's web site.
Browse the course schedule by:
Select a subject:
Select a level:
Select a term:
Courses available to first-year students only!
Select a session:

Course Listing for AMERICAN STUDIES - Fall 2024 (ALL: 09/03/2024 - 12/18/2024)
Class
No.		 Course ID Title Credits Type Instructor(s) Days:Times Location Permission
Required		 Dist Qtr
3371 AMST-200-01 Environmental Movements 1.00 LEC Hussain,Fathima S. MW: 11:30AM-12:45PM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 25 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
    Cross-listing: POLS-200-01
  NOTE: 2 seats reserved for first-year students.
  This course critically examines the histories, development, and contemporary work of environmental movements in the United States. Utilizing a combination of primary and secondary texts in connection with multiple movements, ranging from conservation and sustainability movements to environmental justice movements, the course will explore the variety of issues, goals, and methods movements have pursued as well as the connections, interactions, and relations of power between different environmental movements.
3354 AMST-204-01 Central Am. Immigration to US 1.00 LEC Euraque,Dario A. MW: 2:55PM-4:10PM TBA SOC  
  Enrollment limited to 29 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
    Cross-listing: HIST-204-01
  This course will survey the history of immigration patterns from the five countries of Central America to the U.S. between the early 19th century and the current decade in the context of Latin American history. The countries that will be surveyed are: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The methodological emphasis in the lectures will be comparative.
3155 AMST-209-01 African-American History 1.00 LEC Miller,Channon S. TR: 1:30PM-2:45PM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 25 Waitlist available: Y Mode of Instruction: In Person  
    Cross-listing: HIST-209-01
  Moving chronologically, we will begin with the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade on the coast of West Africa that wrought the beginnings of African America and follow the stories of their descendants on these lands. As much we uncover from what roots and waters Black people emerge, we will also learn of how they have survived in a nation-state where their lifelessness is imminent. Over a span of four hundred years, they have made themselves. We will follow their courageous and deliberate formation of a rich cultural heritage, as well as their construction of a complex body of social and political ideas about the contradictory nature of American democracy and the position of Black people within it.
3314 AMST-219-02 Planet Earth 1.00 LEC Wickman,Thomas M. MWF: 12:00PM-12:50PM TBA GLB2  
  Enrollment limited to 12 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Also cross-referenced with ENVS Cross-listing: HIST-219-02
  NOTE: 6 seats reserved for first-years, 8 seats for sophomores, 6 seats for juniors across HIST and AMST.
  This course explores the effect of the natural world on human history and of humans on the natural world. Our focus is on the earth as a global system. We begin with a consideration of human and natural histories in deep time, well before the written record, and offer an argument for why those histories matter. We then examine how the historical past can be understood in the context of these planetary themes, reframing familiar events in ancient and modern history by highlighting major natural changes that accompanied them, such as the redistribution of plants and animals, the fluctuation of climate, and the development of planet-altering technologies. The course culminates in a consideration of the future planetary conditions that past and present actions may cause.
3346 AMST-238-01 Race and Speculative Fiction 1.00 LEC Wyss,Hilary E. TR: 2:55PM-4:10PM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 25 Waitlist available: Y Mode of Instruction: In Person  
    Cross-listing: ENGL-238-01
  Science fiction and fantasy are powerful ways of imagining the world, both as it should or could be and as a cautionary example of what it might become. From Afrofuturism to Indigenous Futurism, contemporary writers of color are using the fantastic to challenge oppressive structures and imagine different ways of being in the world. In this course we will examine the work of African American writers such as Octavia Butler, Asian American writers such as Ted Chiang, and Indigenous writers such as Cherie Dimaline, Louise Erdrich, and Stephen Graham Jones, who use this genre both to explore alternative histories and also to offer a redemptive vision of a future in which alternative ways of being in the world have the potential to save us all.
3355 AMST-272-01 Mapping Arts Economies 1.00 SEM Goffe,Deborah A. W: 1:30PM-4:10PM TBA ARTW  
  Enrollment limited to 19 Waitlist available: Y Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Also cross-referenced with WELL Cross-listing: THDN-271-01
  How does one sustain a life in the arts? How do artistic, curatorial, philanthropic, academic, and community practices relate to one another and to the organizational structures that support them? How is success defined? Where are the points of entry, and who are the gatekeepers? What is the role of place? Designed for practicing and aspiring artists, arts administrators, curators, cultural critics, and advocates, we employ ecological frameworks to consider the evolution of existing arts infrastructures and our place in their futures. Through readings, group discussions, off-campus engagement with industry practitioners, place-based research, and culminating project proposals, we imagine holistic and innovative approaches to sustained arts engagement that respond to social, cultural, and economic realities.
3317 AMST-324-01 Gender and Global Politics 1.00 SEM Hussain,Fathima S. MW: 1:30PM-2:45PM TBA SOC  
  Enrollment limited to 18 Waitlist available: Y Mode of Instruction: In Person  
    Cross-listing: POLS-323-01
  This course will examine gender roles and relations of power in international and transnational politics. The course focuses on the constructions of gender difference, experiences of women and LGBTQ+ people, as well as efforts to transform uneven or unjust gendered relations of power in global politics. We will further consider how gender, in combination with constructs of race, class, sexuality, nationality, and citizenship, serves as a basis for political organization, the distribution of power and resources, and participation in global politics. Topics covered will include conflict, security, economic globalization, labor, migration, environment, human rights, humanitarian intervention, nation-building, and transnational justice.
3134 AMST-336-01 U.S. Colonialism 1.00 LEC Nebolon,Juliet M. MW: 2:55PM-4:10PM TBA GLB2  
  Enrollment limited to 25 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
    Cross-listing: INTS-335-01
  What does it mean to study the United States in the world, and the world in the United States? This course considers the role of the United States within global relations of empire, capitalism, migration, and war. It also examines how U.S. domestic politics of race, gender, national identity, and social justice have evolved in relation to these transnational histories. We will explore how the existence of the U.S. nation-state is premised upon the global histories of European colonialism, indigenous displacement, and transatlantic slavery. We will analyze the cultures and consequences of U.S. empire, as well as the multiracial and transnational social movements that have contested U.S expansion. This interdisciplinary course combines historical, literary, visual, and theoretical texts.
3302 AMST-337-01 Critical Ethnic Studies 1.00 SEM Nebolon,Juliet M. MW: 1:30PM-2:45PM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 19 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
    Cross-listing: WMGS-337-01
  This course considers the relational formation of race in the United States, including its intersection with dynamics such as indigeneity, gender, sexuality, and class. We analyze race as both a social construction that contributes to differentiated access to power and privilege, and as an identity and source of solidarity, community, and political agency. We study the roots of racial capitalism in histories of slavery and settler colonialism. We examine transnational dynamics of race, gender, and sexuality as they circulate via global migration and US imperial expansion. With this relational understanding, we explore histories of and possibilities for antiracist, feminist, and decolonial social movements and cultural production. This interdisciplinary course brings together historical, theoretical, and cultural texts.
3266 AMST-340-01 American Adaptations 1.00 SEM Wyss,Hilary E. TR: 9:25AM-10:40AM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 15 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
    Cross-listing: ENGL-340-01
  This course will look at the ways American writers from the nineteenth century to the present have mythologized an early American moment, looking to the past to critique or celebrate American identity through fiction and poetry. We will focus on texts concerned with early America, from works like Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter to twentieth-century texts like I, Tituba by Maryse Conde and A Mercy by Toni Morrison. By focusing on the historical and literary context for such works, including pivotal moments like the Salem witch trials, King Philip's War, and the American Revolution and writers like Mary Rowlandson and Phillis Wheatley, we will frame our discussion of the ways the past usefully informs current conversations around race, identity, and belonging.
3136 AMST-357-01 Race and Urban Space 1.00 LEC Baldwin,Davarian L. TR: 10:50AM-12:05PM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 25 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Also cross-referenced with EDUC Cross-listing: URST-357-01
  Scholars and now even the larger public have conceded that race is a social construct. However, many are just beginning to fully explore how the specific dimensions and use of space is mediated by the politics of racial difference and racial identification. Therefore, this course seeks to explore how racism and race relations shape urban spatial relations, city politics, and the built environment and how the historical development of cities has shaped racial identity as lived experience. Covering the 20th century, the course examines three critical junctures: Ghettoization (1890s-1940s); Metropolitan Formation (1940s-1990s); and Neo-Liberal Gentrification (present).
3267 AMST-360-01 Walden 1.00 SEM Hager,Christopher MW: 10:00AM-11:15AM TBA Y HUMW  
  Enrollment limited to 15 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Also cross-referenced with WELL Cross-listing: ENGL-360-01
  Henry David Thoreau is popularly regarded as a pioneer of social distancing, but his work speaks to contemporary life in other ways, too. He followed his conscience into conflict with federal law. He studied the natural world so fastidiously that scientists use his journals to document global warming. He made flawed but uncommonly earnest efforts to understand North America's indigenous history. This course takes WALDEN as the starting point for an intellectual exploration ranging from Thoreau's medieval Japanese precursor Kamo No Chomei to debates still raging about him today. Students will get to follow-or carve out for themselves-one of many paths of inquiry Thoreau's work inspires, including Ecology & Climate, Ethics & Political Resistance, Transcendentalism & Eastern Philosophy, or Indigeneity & Deep History.
1410 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.
3192 AMST-409-01 Race, Gender, Global Security 1.00 SEM Heatherton,Christina T: 6:30PM-9:00PM TBA GLB2  
  Enrollment limited to 6 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Also cross-referenced with GLBLSTD Cross-listing: AMST-809-01, HRST-409-01
  Recent events have focused attention on questions of race, gender, social justice, and the militarization of police. This course will consider how notions of race and security that evolved in the late 20th and early 21st century U.S., have shaped political discourse, and how in turn, those ideas have circulated around the world. Through analyses of American Studies texts, documentaries, and popular culture, we will consider both emerging and prevailing definitions of security. By examining case studies in major global cities, including Los Angeles, we will explore how space has been organized around the logics of racialized threats and gendered notions of safety. For a cumulative paper, students will select a global city and offer history, context, and analysis of the production of insecure spaces.
3373 AMST-465-01 Decolonial Feminist Theory 1.00 SEM Hussain,Fathima S. M: 6:30PM-9:00PM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 19 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
    Cross-listing: POLS-365-01
  NOTE: We strongly encourage students to take AMST 301 prior to enrolling but this is not an official prerequisite.
  This course surveys decolonial feminist thought prevalent in feminist and decolonial discourses in the United States. Readings will consider relevant histories and legacies of settler colonialism and decolonization, enslavement and abolition, labor, migration, reproduction, and nation-state building in the construction of different lineages in decolonial feminist thought. The course will also explore how decolonial feminist theory has contributed to numerous academic fields of study such as history, law, literature, and politics, among others.
1439 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)
1516 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.
2811 AMST-498-01 Senior Thesis Part 1 1.00 IND TBA TBA TBA Y HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 15 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  This course is the first part of a two semester, two credit thesis. Submission of the special registration form and the approval of the thesis adviser and the director are required for enrollment. The registration form is required for each semester of this year-long thesis.
2361 AMST-801-01 Approaches to American Studies 1.00 LEC Miller,Karen Li W: 6:30PM-9:00PM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 15 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  This seminar, which is required of all American Studies graduate students, examines a variety of approaches to the field. Readings may include several “classic” texts of 18th- and 19th-century American culture and several key works of American studies scholarship from the formative period of the field after World War II, as well as more recent contributions to the study of the United States. Topics will include changing ideas about the content, production, and consumption of American culture; patterns of ethnic identification and definition; the construction of categories like “race” and “gender”; and the bearing of class, race, gender, and sexuality on individuals’ participation in American society and culture. Undergraduates who wish to enroll in this course must obtain permission of their adviser and the instructor.
3193 AMST-809-01 Race, Gender, Global Security 1.00 SEM Heatherton,Christina T: 6:30PM-9:00PM TBA GLB2  
  Enrollment limited to 3 Waitlist available: N Mode of Instruction: In Person  
  Also cross-referenced with GLBLSTD Cross-listing: AMST-409-01, HRST-409-01
  Recent events have focused attention on questions of race, gender, social justice, and the militarization of police. This course will consider how notions of race and security that evolved in the late 20th and early 21st century U.S., have shaped political discourse, and how in turn, those ideas have circulated around the world. Through analyses of American Studies texts, documentaries, and popular culture, we will consider both emerging and prevailing definitions of security. By examining case studies in major global cities, including Los Angeles, we will explore how space has been organized around the logics of racialized threats and gendered notions of safety. For a cumulative paper, students will select a global city and offer history, context, and analysis of the production of insecure spaces.
1535 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.
1431 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.
1427 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.
1428 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.)
1430 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.)
1429 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).