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CoursesSpring 2010CAS AM 200 A1 Intro to American Studies An introductory seminar to the ideas, methods, and historical materials in American Studies. Interdisciplinary readings explore the evolution of the field and analyze the ways in which American national purpose has been idealized over time in art, film, and literature. Queen TR 11:00-12:30 CAS AM 250 A1 Special Topics in American Studies: An American Study of Baseball An undergraduate seminar that will study baseball as an extension of American society. Students will research the game’s historical myths and expose its social realities, exploring the ways in which baseball mirrored, challenged, and altered the national landscape. Civille TR 9:30-11 *AM 250 carries Writing Program credit for CAS WR 150. CAS AM 502 A1 Perspectives on the American Experience; Dressing Democracy: Clothing and Culture in America Touted as the only nation where citizens could not be classified by their appearance, Americans were nevertheless anxious about fashion, etiquette, and deportment. Surveying a wide range of sources in literature, history, and consumer culture, this course will examine questions of dress and manners in nineteenth and early twentieth-century America. Carlson TR 12:30-2 CAS AM 524 New England Cultural Landscapes A seminar that will examine the historic forces that have shaped distinctive regional landscapes of New England, and catalogue the changing forms that made up that landscape. This course will focus primarily on rural, small-town, and residential neighborhood landscapes in town and cities over four centuries. This seminar will review the house types found within them and the pattern of their arrangement into streetscapes and developments. Readings will be selected from the fields of social and cultural history, giving students an opportunity for interdisciplinary reading, discussion, and research. Offered as MET AM 524. Dempsey M 2:00-5:00 pm
Fall 2009CAS AM 301 A1 Perspectives on the American Experience: The Vietnam War in American Culture This course examines the ideals, images, and representations of the Vietnam experience in the American cultural imagination to situate the conflict within the broader historical context of American myth, symbol, and storytelling. Students will examine a variety of cultural artifacts including films, literature, music, photographs, journalistic accounts, political speeches, and oral histories to engage with an array of perspectives and of mediums for conveying values and beliefs. Particular emphasis will be given to the manner in which issues of race, class, gender, and ethnicity influenced experiences of the war and continue to shape memories and interpretations of it decades after. As a result, this course approaches the war thematically rather than chronologically, under the premise that Vietnam constitutes, not a contained episode in the distant past, but an ongoing cultural dialogue about what it means to be American, both at home and abroad. Potorti TR 9:30-11:00 CAS AM 367 A1 Material Culture Introduction to the theory and practice of the study of material culture, the physical stuff that is part of human life. Material culture includes everything we make and use, from food and clothing to art and buildings. Lectures will introduce a wide range of contemporary scholarship on material culture from a range of disciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, history, sociology, art and architectural history, and cultural studies. Also offered as CAS AH 367. Sewell MWF 10:00-11:00 CAS AM 546 A1 Historic Preservation This course covers key aspects of the history, theory, philosophy, and modern practice of historic preservation in America, with a special focus on New England. Part of the core curriculum for the Preservation Studies Program, it offers an introduction to the American preservation movement, current issues, and critical skills that can be further developed in other classes. It also introduces students to key figures in several preservation agencies and organizations in this region through class lectures and group discussion. This course is usually the first course taken in the Program and is offered annually during the fall semester. Also offered as MET AM 546. Dempsey T 5:30-8:30
Summer 2009Summer 1 (May 19-June 25):
Spring 2009CAS AM 200 A1 Intro to American Studies An introductory seminar to the ideas, methods, and historical materials in American Studies. Interdisciplinary readings explore the evolution of the field and analyze the ways in which American national purpose has been idealized over time in art, film, and literature. Queen TR 11:00-12:30 CAS AM 250 A1 American Visual Culture in the Great Depression The course examines the visual culture of the 1930s and how different visual media (painting, photography, advertising, architecture) approached the subject of hard times during the Great Depression. We will be examining major figures of the era in each of these categories, but also looking at vernacular and non-canonical works in order to better understand the period as lived experience. Root MWF 12:00-1:00 *AM 250 carries Writing Program credit for CAS WR 150. CAS AM 502 A1 Special Topics in American Studies: American Landscapes This course uses the idea of landscape as an interdisciplinary lens for exploring American culture. We will examine the physical and metaphorical landscape of America across time, including the concepts of wilderness, frontier, the pastoral, and region. Sewell F 11:00-2:00 CAS AM 553 Documenting Historic Buildings Seminar in architectural and landscape recording techniques involving readings, fieldwork, and writing; projects include research on individual buildings as well as groups of resources. Emphasis on research design and evaluation of evidence. Also offered as MET AM 553 C1. Dempsey W 2:00-5:00
Fall 2008CAS AM 301 A1 Perspectives on the American Experience: Radical Communities in Twentieth Century American Religious History This course examines some of the radical developments in American religious history from the turn of the twentieth century to the present, including the Ghost Dance Religion, Christian Science, early Pentecostalism, Reconstruction Judaism, the Nation of Islam, Peoples Temple, and late-20th century Fundamentalist and feminist theologies. We will consider how the language, ideas, and cultural products of religious outsiders responded to and influenced mainstream ideas about what American communities could and should look like in terms of gender, race, economics, and faith-based practices. We will closely examine primary documents and cultural texts from believers and their critics, as well as secondary works by historians, in order to think about the challenges these religious outsiders posed to religious, social, and political institutions in the United States. Robinson TR 9:30-11:00 CAS AM 367 A1 Material Culture Introduction to the theory and practice of the study of material culture, the physical stuff that is part of human life. Material culture includes everything we make and use, from food and clothing to art and buildings. Lectures will introduce a wide range of contemporary scholarship on material culture from a range of disciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, history, sociology, art and architectural history, and cultural studies. Also offered as CAS AH 367. Sewell MWF 10:00-11:00 CAS AM 546 A1 Historic Preservation This course covers key aspects of the history, theory, philosophy, and modern practice of historic preservation in America, with a special focus on New England. Part of the core curriculum for the Preservation Studies Program, it offers an introduction to the American preservation movement, current issues, and critical skills that can be further developed in other classes. It also introduces students to key figures in several preservation agencies and organizations in this region through class lectures and group discussion. This course is usually the first course taken in the Program and is offered annually during the fall semester. Also offered as MET AM 546. Dempsey T 5:30-8:30
Summer 2008Summer 1 (May 21-June 25):
Spring 2008CAS AM 200 A1 Introduction to American Studies An exploration of the multi-faceted themes of American society and culture in selected historical periods using a variety of approaches to interpret such topics as American art, literature, politics, material culture, and the mass media. Required of concentrators. Patterson TR 11:00am-12:30pm CAS AM 250 A1 American Arts & Society: American Colors - Race and Culture in the U.S., 1965-present This course is an interdisciplinary examination of American culture in which we will explore the interplay of race, society, ethnicity, and popular discourse through analysis of critical and creative literature, film, and television. Focusing on recent American history (1965 to the present), we will utilize U.S. Census-derived racial categories as the framework, (i.e. black/African American, white/Caucasian, Asian, and so forth) to interpret the meaning of such classifications and investigate their impact on the ever-growing heterogeneous American society. Texts will include, Chang-Rae Lee's Native Speaker, Laura Coltelli's Winged Words, Tricia Rose's Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America as well as selections from the edited collection Latino/a Popular Culture. Film and television screenings will include Smoke Signals, Crash, Chapelle Show, South Park, Da Ali G Show, and Ugly Betty. Carries Writing Program credit for CAS WR 150. Savory MWF 10:00am-11:00am CAS AM 501 A1 Special Topics in American Studies: Issues of Form, Genre, and Audience: Twentieth-Century Fiction on the Page and the Screen We will read fiction by important twentieth-century American authors and view selected cinematic (and television) adaptations of their work, attending to some of the artistic and cultural issues that arise when images replace words, corporate decision-making processes substitute for personal acts of creation, and idiosyncratic works of art are turned into movies and TV shows intended to appeal to mass audiences. Authors whose works will be considered include Henry James, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers, John Cheever, John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates, and possibly others. This course fulfills the American studies senior research seminar requirement and is also open to graduate students (who will be required to complete a special research project). Carney TR 12:30pm-2:00pm CAS AM 502 A1 Special Topics in American Studies: American Consumer Society and Its Discontents Analysis of critiques of America as a consumer society. Readings in history, literature, economics, and social theory critically investigate political change and cultural values. Reflecting on such investigations, this course assesses the idea of America and the nature of its democracy. Queen TR 12:30pm-2:00pm CAS AM 553 A1 Documenting Historic Buildings and Landscapes Seminar in architectural and landscape recording techniques involving readings, fieldwork, and writing; projects include research on individual buildings as well as groups of resources. Emphasis on research design and evaluation of evidence. Also offered as MET AM 553 D1. Dempsey R 2:00pm-5:00pm General Course OverviewAM 200 required of concentrators, followed by an AM course at the 200-level or aboveCAS AM 200 Introduction to American Studies An exploration of the multi-faceted themes of American society and culture in selected historical periods using a variety of approaches to interpret such topics as American art, literature, politics, material culture, and the mass media. Required of concentrators. Staff Electives:CAS AM 250 American Arts and Society Investigates key issues and themes in American arts and letters. Past topics include Autobiography and Self-Portrait in American Culture, the Outcast in American Literature, and Issues in Documentary Film and Photography. Carries Writing Program credit for CAS WR 150. Staff CAS AM 301 Perspectives on the American Experience American history and society as viewed by those who made it. Past topics include Manhood in America, The History of Ordinary Life, The Sixties, and The Modern American City. Staff CAS AM 367 Material Culture Introduction to the interdisciplinary theory and practice of the study of material culture, the physical stuff that is part of human life. Material culture includes everything we make and use, from food and clothing to art and buildings. Lectures will introduce a wide range of contemporary scholarship on material culture from a range of disciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, history, sociology, art and architectural history, and cultural studies. Also offered as CAS AH 367. Sewell CAS AM 501 Special Topics in American Studies Topic varies. CAS AM 502 Special Topics in American Studies Topic varies. Independent Studies:CAS AM 401, 402 Senior Independent Work Prerequisite: approval of College Honors Committee. CAS AM 491, 492 Directed Study Prerequisite: consent of Director of Undergraduate Studies. |
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| October 21, 2009 | AMNESP | CAS | GRS | Boston University| Map* |