American Studies

(Also offered as ANTH, SUST 134)

An introduction to creating a sustainable future that supports environmental health and restoration, social equity, and economic vitality. Examines challenges and examples of integrated, creative strategies on local, regional, national, and global levels. (EST)

Introduces 19th and 20th century American culture. Demonstrates interdisciplinary approaches to American culture studies. Content varies by semester and topics include popular culture, comparative studies of race and ethnicity, nationalism and citizenship, critical regionalism. (G)

An introduction to the socially and politically constructed values directing Americans’ attitudes toward nature, science and technology and to the impacts of those attitudes on built and natural environments regionally, nationally and globally. (EST)

This course focuses on the interdisciplinary study of the construction of gender as a category. Readings will span cross-cultural and historical materials, including literary, artistic and popular representations of masculinity and femininity in America. (GS)

Survey of basic concepts of popular culture and methods for its study. Source materials are drawn from diverse areas–television, film, comics, music and sports. (PC)

An interdisciplinary introduction to the issues of race, class and ethnicity in American life and society. (RCE)

{Fall, Spring}

Provides both an introduction to the complex history and culture of the Southwestern United States and a demonstration of the possibilities of the interdisciplinary study of regional American culture. It is multicultural in its content as it is multidisciplinary in its methodology. (SS)

The content of this course varies by semester. Topics include: America in the 50s; America in the 60s–70s; the American family; power and culture; schooling in America. (G)

Investigation of the historical and social conditions that have shaped the development of Chicano life. (RCE)

(Also offered as NATV 252)

Introductory survey of Native American History, culture and contemporary issues. Students read literature by and about Native Americans covering a variety of topics including tribal sovereignty, federal policy, activism, economic development, education and community life. (RCE)

Examination of the development of American cultural values and attitudes from the 17th to the early 20th centuries. Demonstrates the use of interdisciplinary modes of inquiry. (G)

(Also offered as POLS 303)

Introduction to the role of law and legal institutions in politics and society. (C)

An interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of social movements, focusing on cultural and social formations of these movements. Topics include: folklore of social movements; labor struggles; peace movements; land conflicts. (C)

Varying topics undergraduate course. An in-depth study of one subject in the field of interdisciplinary culture studies. Topics may include material culture, folklore, consumerism, public culture, critical theory, cultural identity and language and representation. (C)

An introduction to the informal, vernacular facets of American culture with a focus on the artistic and symbolic dimensions of daily life as expressed in oral traditions, folkloric events and material culture. (C)

{Fall}

This course will focus on 20th century U.S. cultural history and cultural studies. Proceeding chronologically, the course integrates a range of cultural mediums to investigate the construction of social identity. (C)

This course will investigate the role of visual experience in everyday life. The assigned works represent a variety of interdisciplinary approaches to American visual culture, including photography, film, television, material culture, and public art. (C)

The content of this course varies by semester. Topics include: environmental justice, ecology in America, gender and nature, ethics and genetics, automobiles in American culture. (EST)

This course is designed as a multicultural/interdisciplinary approach to the study of environmental justice. Topics include: environmental racism, internal/nuclear colonialism, harmful technologies, industrial pollution and other toxins in communities of color. (EST)

This course covers environmental conflicts in the U.S. West from World War II to the present. Topics include: natural resource debates, impacts of such technologies as dams and nuclear reactors, agricultural conflicts and environmental justice. (EST)

Varying subjects deriving from the contemporary cultural studies focus on matters of gender. Topics include: feminist theory; gender and nature; the factor of gender in disciplinary and interdisciplinary studies. (GS)

An introduction to a range of interdisciplinary readings in cultural studies of sexuality. The focus of the course is to inquire into the construction of sexualities and to assess their impact in shaping scholarship and cultural theory. (GS)

A discussion section focused on readings in the theory and methods of sexuality and cultural studies. This recitation section is taken concurrently with 332. (GS)

Corequisite: 332

Content varies by semester. Topics include: popular music, popular culture of the 1960s; sex and gender in popular culture; chicano/a vernacular culture; black popular culture; popular environmentalism. (PC)

Varying subjects, based in theoretical and/or historical approaches. Topics include: sex and gender in popular film; films of the nuclear age; African-American film; ethnicity in American cinema; film theory. (PC)

This course is an introduction to the history of television as a medium from its origins through the present moment. In the course we will focus on the structure of the television’s role within American society, and television as a site of cultural representation. (PC)

This course will examine the origins, transmissions, and embedded meanings within contemporary urban legends, with a specific focus on how these legends both perpetuate and reflect attitudes toward race, gender, and politics.

Offers specialized topics on an alternating basis dealing with race, class and ethnicity in the formation of American life and society. Subject areas include immigration, class formation, conquest, colonization, public policy and civil rights. (RCE)

(Also offered as AFST 307)

A survey of the lives of Blacks in the American West (1528–1918). (RCE)

This course examines contemporary Native American cultural production including literature, art and film with an emphasis on historical, political and cultural contexts. Topics may include: definitions of cultural production, sovereignty, colonialism, cultural survival and identity. (RCE)

An interdisciplinary investigation of the development of race as a set of power relations, lived identities and ideas. Pays particular attention to the relationship of race to work, immigration, gender, culture and intellectual life. (RCE)

This course is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of class formations in society. Topics include: culture, ideology, politics, history, Marxism, Weberian sociology, (post-) structuralism, colonialism, textuality, praxis and desconstructionism. (RCE)

Topical survey of theoretical approaches, research methodologies and subject areas within the interdisciplinary field of Native American Studies. (RCE)

Offers topics addressing African-American social, cultural, political and intellectual life. Topics include: black social movements, African-American intellectual history, black cultural studies, slavery in the Americas. (RCE)

This interdisciplinary topics course examines the fastest growing population in the U.S. and includes Latino intellectual history, political and economic relations, recovery projects, music, film and media representations and environment, community and post-colonial studies. (RCE)

Offers topics dealing with the social, cultural and technological developments among the people of the Southwest. Topics include folk art and material culture; rural, urban and border communities; traditional healing; travel and tourism; Hispano/Chicanos after 1848. (SS)

This course will examine popular representations of Native Americans from American literature, film, policy, science and popular culture. Topics include critical and cultural theories of representation and identity and Native resistance and cultural production. (RCE)

Covers the Chicano/Latino experience through its depiction on film and from the perspective of Latino filmmaking. The course analyzes film as communication, film narration, symbolism and subjectivity. (SS)

Introduces students to interdisciplinary approaches in the study of American culture, focusing on “Race, Ethnicity, Gender and National Identity,” “Media, Popular Culture, and Cultural Studies,” “Critical Regionalism,” and “Environment, Science and Technology.” (G)

Considers three interrelated sections: the political and scientific history of the Manhattan Project; strategic alternatives to the use of the atomic bomb; and the literature of the hibakusha survivors of the destruction of Hiroshima. (EST)

(Also offered as ANTH 434, ARCH 449, SUST 434)

Presents frameworks for complex and creative analysis, including systems thinking and synergistic integration of the three pillars of sustainability: environment, equity, economy. Examines innovative local and international case studies in environment, business, policy, and community development. (EST)

Prerequisite: SUST 134.

An analysis of the value of synthesis in liberal scholarship. Focus will be on cooperative interdisciplinary research. (G)

{Spring only}

Capstone course for majors/minors in the Southwest Studies that synthesizes current scholarship on critical regionalism: borderlands studies, trans-nationalism, indigeneity, immigration and other topics. Students develop research, analysis and writing to produce an original research paper. (SS)

(G)

Involves internships in off-campus learning experiences related to the study of American and regional culture and character, such as work in local communities and with relevant institutions. (G)

Development and writing of senior honors thesis under supervision of faculty advisor. (G)

Prerequisite: 285

Restriction: permission of undergraduate director

{Spring}

Examines the basic texts and methods in the field of American studies through discussion and critical/analytical writing assignments. Required for all American Studies graduate students; restricted to graduate students in the department. (G)

{Fall}

This course is concerned with meaning, identity and subject formation in the autobiographical text. Readings will focus on contemporary critical theory about autobiography and post-colonial studies. Students will draw on a broad range of personal accounts that result from the construction of race, gender, class and ethnicity in the United States past and present. (C)

An interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of social movements, focusing on cultural and social formations of these movements. Topics include: folklore of social movements; labor struggles; peace movements; land conflicts. (C)

An in-depth study of one subject in the field of interdisciplinary culture studies. Topics may include material culture, folklore, consumerism, public culture, critical theory, cultural identity and postcolonial studies. (C)

This course will investigate the role of visual experience in everyday life. The assigned works represent a variety of interdisciplinary approaches to American visual culture, including photography, film, television, material culture, and public art. (C)

This is a graduate-level introduction to the interdisciplinary field of post-colonialism. The readings will cover areas in post-structuralism, post-modernism, semiotics, discourse analysis, textuality, Western Marxism, cultural nationalism, colonialism(s) and imperialism. (C)

Graduate seminars; content varies. Topics include: democracy, culture and history; American landscapes; history and narrative. (C)

Graduate study of subjects in Environment, Science and Technology. Content varies by semester and topics include: science/technology studies, environmental justice, the environment and political and social development, ecology in America, gender and nature. (EST)

Considers three interrelated sections: the political and scientific history of the Manhattan Project; strategic alternatives to the use of the atomic bomb; and the literature of the hibakusha survivors of the destruction of Hiroshima. (EST)

This course is designed as a multicultural/interdisciplinary approach to the study of environmental justice. Topics include: environmental racism, internal/nuclear colonialism, harmful technologies, industrial pollution and other toxins in communities of color. (EST)

This course surveys key methods and model case studies in ecological history, in impacts of technology on the environment and in the role of cultural values and ethics in natural resource policy decisions. (EST)

Varying subjects deriving from the contemporary cultural studies focus on matters of gender. Topics include: feminist theory; gender and nature; the factor of gender in disciplinary and interdisciplinary studies. (GS)

Content varies by semester. Topics include: popular music, popular culture of the 1960s; sex and gender in popular culture; chicano/a vernacular culture; black popular culture; popular environmentalism. (PC)

Varying subjects, based in theoretical and/or historical approaches. Topics include: sex and gender in popular film; films of the nuclear age; African-American film; ethnicity in American cinema; film theory. (PC)

Graduate seminar surveying approaches to the study of popular culture and major theoretical debates in the field. Students also work with popular culture texts, including film, television, toys, fashion, music and advertising. (PC)

Offers specialized topics on an alternating basis dealing with race, class and ethnicity in the formation of American life and society. Subject areas include immigration, class formation, conquest, colonization, public policy and civil rights. (RCE)

This course examines contemporary Native American cultural production including literature, art and film with an emphasis on historical, political and cultural contexts. Topics may include: definitions of cultural production, sovereignty, colonialism, cultural survival and identity. (RCE)

This course will survey the theoretical and methodological convergence/divergence of race, class and ethnicity. This class is designed as a graduate-multidisciplinary approach to racial, class and ethnic formations, relations, structures, institutions and movements. (RCE)

Seminar offering topical survey of theoretical approaches, research methodologies and subject areas within the interdisciplinary field of Native American Studies. (RCE)

Offers topics addressing African-American social, cultural, political and intellectual life. Topics include: black social movements, African-American intellectual history, black cultural studies, slavery in the Americas. (RCE)

This interdisciplinary topics course examines the fastest growing population in the U.S. and includes Latino intellectual history, political and economic relations, recovery projects, music, film and media representations and environment, community and post-colonial studies. (RCE)

Offers topics dealing with the social, cultural and technological developments among the people of the Southwest. Topics include folk art and material culture; rural, urban and border communities; traditional healing; travel and tourism; Hispano/Chicanos after 1848. (SS)

This course will examine popular representations of Native Americans from American literature, film, policy, science and popular culture. Topics include critical and cultural theories of representation and identity and Native resistance and cultural production. (RCE)

Covers the Chicano/Latino experience through its depiction on film and from the perspective of Latino filmmaking. The course analyzes film as communication, film narration, symbolism and subjectivity. (SS)

(G)

Offered on a CR/NC basis only.

This seminar reviews: 1) archival and library research; 2) data collection and fieldwork (plus subsequent analysis and presentation of data); 3) processes of hypotheses and theory building; and 4) development of a research proposal. (G)

Prerequisite: 500

{Spring}

(G)

For Ph.D. candidates only.

(G)

Offered on a CR/NC basis only.