1201. Introduction to American Studies
What is an American? A multi-disciplinary inquiry into the diversity of American societies and cultures. CA 4.
View Classes »1700E. Honors Core: American Landscapes
3.00 credits
Prerequisites:
Grading Basis: Honors Credit
Real and imagined landscapes in the Americas as seen through the history of the land and its uses and through changing representations of those landscapes in art, literature, science, and popular culture. CA 1.
View Classes »2200. Literature and Culture of North America before 1800
An examination of the early written and oral culture of the area that eventually became the United States. CA 1.
View Classes »2201. Introduction to Asian American Studies
A multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary introduction to major themes in Asian American Studies. Concepts of identity and community, migration and labor histories, Asians and the law, representations of Asians in visual and popular culture, gender issues, interracial and interethnic relations, and human rights. CA 1. CA 4.
View Classes »2204. Jewish Culture in American Film
Representations of the diversity of Jewish culture (historical, religious, secular) in American film. Introduction to film analysis and interpretation. CA 1. CA 4.
View Classes »2207. Empire and U.S. Culture
How the frontier and overseas ambitions have shaped U.S. institutions and culture. The impact of U.S. expansion on people outside its borders. These topics are explored through literary narratives and historical documents. CA 1. CA 4.
View Classes »2274W. Disability in American Literature and Culture
An interdisciplinary examination of the symbolic roles of disability and the social implications of those roles. CA 1. CA 4.
View Classes »2276. American Utopias and Dystopias
Interdisciplinary approaches to American utopian and dystopian literature of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. CA 1.
View Classes »2276W. American Utopias and Dystopias
Interdisciplinary approaches to American utopian and dystopian literature of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. CA 1.
View Classes »2400. City and Community in Film
Aesthetics, history, and contemporary relevance of American films that feature the urban, suburban, and/or small town landscape as a major "character" shaping plot and story. Films read closely as texts that make meaning through a range of tools, including narrative, mise-en-scene, editing, camera work, and genre conventions. CA 1.
View Classes »2550. Crime, Policing, and Punishment in the United States
A survey of political, legal, and cultural development of the American criminal justice system and its social impact from the early republic to the present. Formerly offered as AMST/HIST 2810. CA 1.
View Classes »2993. International Study
1.00 - 9.00 credits | May be repeated for a total of 12 credits.
Prerequisites:
Grading Basis: Graded
Special topics taken in an international study program. Consent of department head required, normally to be granted prior to the student's departure.
View Classes »3082. Critical Race Theory as Political Theory
Interdisciplinary scholarship on racial identity, legal decisions, and political action from the perspective of political science and political theory. Topics include interactions between states and social movements, the intersections of race, class, gender, and membership, and the problems with both post-racialism and identity politics.
View Classes »3265W. American Studies Methods
Also offered as: ENGL 3265W
3.00 credits | May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites:
Grading Basis: Graded
Interdisciplinary research and writing centered on a specific topic in U.S. culture. An introduction and overview of research methods in American Studies.
View Classes »3267W. Race and the Scientific Imagination
How racism has been both reproduced and contradicted in the scientific imagination. Scientific texts and imaginative literature that explore the reparation of past harms and imagine new futures. CA 1. CA 4.
View Classes »3271. Immigration and Transborder Politics
U.S. immigration policy, trans-border politics, and the impact diasporas and ethnic lobbies have on U.S. foreign policy, with emphasis on Latino diasporas.
View Classes »3440W. Visual Culture of the United States, 19th Century
An exploration of how visual culture in the long 19th century contributed to the formation of the United States.
View Classes »3502. Colonial America: Native Americans, Slaves, and Settlers, 1492-1760
The legacy of Columbus, creative survival of native Americans in the face of disease and warfare, religious utopianism and the profit motive in colonization. The growth of a distinctive Anglo-American political culture, gender and family relations, and the entrenchment of a racial caste system.
View Classes »3502W. Colonial America: Native Americans, Slaves, and Settlers, 1492-1760
The legacy of Columbus, creative survival of native Americans in the face of disease and warfare, religious utopianism and the profit motive in colonization. The growth of a distinctive Anglo-American political culture, gender and family relations, and the entrenchment of a racial caste system.
View Classes »3531. Japanese Americans and World War II
The events leading to martial law and executive order 9066, the wartime experience of Japanese Americans, and national consequences. CA 1. CA 4.
View Classes »3542E. New England Environmental History
Interdisciplinary history of New England's terrestrial and marine environmental change. Links among land, sea, and human natural resource use and management, including precontact patterns, colonial impacts, agricultural decline, industrial pollution, overfishing, re-forestation, and the rise of eco-tourism.
View Classes »3544. Atlantic Voyages: European Maritime Expansion, 1400-1650
Late medieval and early modern European expansion into the Atlantic and Indian oceans, with particular attention to European, Asian, African, and American contexts within which that expansion took place. Topics include the transatlantic slave trade; technology adoption and adaptation; convergence of trade, racial ideology, imperial expansion, and imperial identity construction; piracy and settlement; historiographical legacies and later imperialism; and decolonization of contemporary understandings.
View Classes »3568. Hip Hop, Politics and Youth Culture in America
History of hip-hop, its musical antecedents and its role in popular culture. Race, class, and gender are examined as well as hip-hop's role in popular political discourse.
View Classes »3570. History and Theory of Digital Art
Investigates forms of digital and Internet art and the mostly forgotten histories of the technologies behind them. Forms and themes to be explored include games/gaming, surveillance art, cyberfeminism, data visualization, and crowdsourced art. CA 1. CA 4.
View Classes »3699. Independent Study
1.00 - 6.00 credits | May be repeated for credit.
Prerequisites:
Grading Basis: Graded
Supervised reading and writing on a subject of special interest to the student. May be repeated for credit with a change of topic.
View Classes »3807. Constitutional Rights and Liberties
The role of the Supreme Court in interpreting the Bill of Rights. Topics include freedoms of speech and religion, criminal due process, and equal protection.
View Classes »3822. Law and Popular Culture
Exploration of themes in the study of law and courts by contrasting scholarly work against representations of such themes in movies, televisions, and other media of popular culture.
View Classes »3822W. Law and Popular Culture
Exploration of themes in the study of law and courts by contrasting scholarly work against representations of such themes in movies, televisions, and other media of popular culture.
View Classes »4897. Honors Thesis
1.00 - 3.00 credits
Prerequisites:
Grading Basis: Honors Credit