Spring 2015 Featured Courses
Introduction to American Studies: CAS AM 200
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 majors and minors. Carries humanities divisional credit in CAS.
Patterson, MWF 10am-11am
What’s Boston?:CAS AM 202
What’s Boston? explores Boston’s complex urban and natural world. University faculty share cutting-edge research, focusing on Boston as a PLACE and a guiding IDEA, introducing the perspectives of disparate scholarly disciplines. Discover where you stand and where you might go! No prerequisites. This course welcomes first-year students and is open to all BU undergraduates. *Students must register for a lecture and discussion section.
Bluestone: M 5pm-6:30pm + Discussion Session: M 6:30pm-8pm
American Arts & Society: Cold War and Consensus in the 1950s: CAS AM 250
This course explores the tensions between domestic ideals and fractured reality in Cold War America. Combining film study, literary criticism, material culture, and cultural history, students gain a thorough, interdisciplinary understanding of the 1950s. Topics include Elvis Presley, McCarthyism, suburbia, and Disneyland.
Croker, T/TR 9:30am-11am
Internships in Public History: CAS AM/HI 313
Students undertake supervised work in Boston-area institutions dedicated to the public presentation of America’s past. Students meet with the instructor to discuss themes in public history theory and practice that, together with the internship experience and related readings, inform a final research project and class presentation. Also offered as CAS HI 313.
Dempsey, T 5:30pm-7:30pm
American Baseball: CAS AM 502
This interdisciplinary research seminar examines the history, culture, and science of the game from its shadowy origins in the early days of the nineteenth century, explosive growth in popularity during the Jazz Age, to the controversy-ridden Steroid Era.
Andres, Fahy, Whalen, TR 2pm-5pm
New England Cultural Landscapes: CAS AM 524. A seminar that examines the historic forces that have shaped distinctive regional landscapes of New England, and catalogues the changing forms that made up that landscape. This course focuses primarily on rural, small-town, and residential neighborhood landscapes in town and cities over four centuries. Readings will be selected from the fields of social and cultural history, giving students an opportunity for interdisciplinary reading, discussion, and research. Also offered as CAS AH 525.
Dempsey, 10am – 1pm.
For course information and to sign up, see the Student Link