More than any other nation, the United States has envisioned itself as a landscape of pure possibility. From the 17th century to the present, an ever-shifting "American Dream" has been the repository of Americans' longing for a new kind of personal and national life. In this class we will consider how Americans have imagined this new life as manifested in forms as varied as political action made possible under the Constitution to opportunities for home ownership made possible (or impossible) by the free market. Since the class introduces students to the field of American Studies, there will be considerable attention paid to different disciplinary approaches to American society and culture.
Although there may be occasional exceptions, texts will consist mainly of whole books such as Frederick Douglass's autobiography, Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby, Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Miller's Death of a Salesman, and Roth's The Human Stain.
Limited to 20 students per section, the course will be conducted principally by discussions in which all students are expected to participate. Fall semester. Professors Clark, Guttmann, and Sánchez-Eppler.
2023-24: Not offeredThe United States has inscribed the separation of church and state into its constitutional order, and yet Americans have for two centuries been more deeply committed to religious faith and practice than any other people in the Western world. This course endeavors to explore that paradox. Topics addressed include the changing meanings of "the city on a hill"; the varieties of millennial belief and utopian community; the relationship between religion and ethnicity; religious political activism from abolition to prohibition to anti-abortion; and the limits of religious tolerance from movements against Catholics and Mormons to recent warnings of a "clash of civilizations" with Muslim cultures.
Omitted 2009-10. The Department.
2023-24: Not offeredFrom the advertising copy and backdrop of truck ads to the democratic rhetoric of politicians, the West as a place of national mythology still permeates American culture. In this course, we will analyze the evolution of the West as a prominent site of American myth and the contemporary representations of it in literature and film, the Neo-Westerns. Students will read works by authors such as Annie Proulx, Cormac McCarthy, Sherman Alexi and Percival Everett, as well as view recent popular films by Ang Lee, Clint Eastwood, and John Sayles. The course will also include readings in history, as well as other disciplines, to contextualize the creative works and to gauge how the myth of the West compares to its reality and how truly revisionist its most current representations are.
Limited to 20 students. Fall semester. Professor Hayashi.
2023-24: Not offeredThis course is an interdisciplinary introduction to Asian/Pacific/American Studies. We will begin by looking at the founding of the field through the student-led social movements of the 1960s and ask ourselves how relevant these origins have been to the subsequent development of the field. We will then use questions that arise from this material to guide our overview of the histories, cultures, and communities that make up the multiplicity of Asian/Pacific America. Topics will include, but not be limited to, the racialization of Asian Americans through immigrant exclusion and immigration law; the role of U.S. imperialism and global geo-politics in shaping migration from Asia to the U.S., the problems and possibilities in a pan-ethnic label like A/P/A, interracial conflict and cooperation, cultural and media representations by and about Asian Americans, diaspora, and homeland politics. In addition, throughout the semester we will practice focusing on the relationships between race, gender, class, sexuality, and nation. The ultimate goal of the course is to develop a set of analytic tools that students can then use for further research and inquiry.
Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Five College Professor Reddy.
2023-24: Not offeredThis interdisciplinary course defines, analyzes and interrogates processes of US racial formation with a particular focus on immigration, immigrant communities and the question of immigrant rights. We will begin by examining both race and racism as elements in the historical process of “racialization,” and proceed by positing racialization as the key to understanding the political, economic, social and cultural dynamics of the United States. Our focus on immigration will begin in the late nineteenth century and follow through to the present day. It will include an outline of the basic patterns of migration to the United States; the role that empire has played in creating these flows; the relationship between immigration, racialization and nation-state formation; questions of naturalization, citizenship and family reunification; immigrant labor; “illegal” immigrants; nativism and anti-immigration movements; the relationships between gender, sexuality, race, class and nation; and diaspora/transnationalism. Throughout we will pay specific attention to the shape of contemporary debates about immigration and their relationship to the histories we consider.
Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2009-10. Five College Professor Reddy.
2023-24: Not offeredThis course focuses on the political, economic, ideological, social, and cultural dimensions of migration from South Asia to the United States, to be understood within the larger context of South Asian diaspora (hi)stories. Our approach will be interdisciplinary, working with social theory and history as well as literature, film, and music. We will identify different notions of diaspora and migration and how they give meaning to "home," and displacement. The semester begins with Indian labor migration with the system of British colonial indenture, proceeds through the "free" labor migration of workers in the colonial and post-colonial period, and concludes with our contemporary moment.
Not open to first-year students. Limited to 15 students. Preference given to American Studies majors. Fall semester. Five College Professor Reddy.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as American Studies 68 and English 95, section 02.) This course is designed to provide American Studies majors, as well as others interested in interdisciplinary work, the opportunity and support to produce a major piece of research writing on a topic of their choosing. We will examine a wide range of materials, including photographs, paintings, legal documents, journals, poems, and plays. The course will also introduce students to the variety of methodologies utilized by practitioners in the field of American Studies. The specific focus of the course will be the role of place in American culture. By studying discrete geographic locations--their histories, residents, and cultural representations--students will gain appreciation for interdisciplinary work and the development of American Studies.
Requisite: American Studies 11 and 12. Open to juniors and seniors or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Hayashi.
2023-24: Not offeredSpring semester.
2023-24: Not offeredSpring semester.
2023-24: Not offered