Carleton College

AMST 115. Introduction to American Studies: The Immigrant Experience Is America truly a nation of immigrants? What role has immigration played in the construction of an American identity? This course is a team-taught, comparative study of the experience of migrants and immigrants to America and other countries. We will use texts from history, literature, film, psychology, and other disciplines to help us investigate the following topics: the causes of emigration; acculturation and assimilation; changes in family structure and gender roles; discrimination; and ongoing debates about immigration policy in relation to national ideals and principles. 6 cr., HU, WR, RAD; HI, WR2, IDS, Fall—S. Akimoto, N. Cho

AMST 115. Introduction to American Studies: Placing Identities This course will examine the different spaces that inform the production of U.S. identities. We will think about the ways the construction of neighborhoods (urban or suburban) affects our sense of place, ethnicity, and community; we'll consider the impact that border geographies, whether physical or cultural, have on national imaginings; we shall look at contemporary cultural expressions of small town vs. big city life and consider what they feature as particular and unique about Americanness. 6 cr., AL, WR; HI, WR2, IDS, Spring—E. McKinsey, M. McNally

AMST 127. Introduction to U.S. Latino/a Studies This course will survey the field of Latino/a Studies, juxtaposing it to Chicano, Caribbean and Latin American Studies in order to trace the historical, methodological, and paradigmatic conflicts that led to its institutionalization. How does the lens of U.S. Latino/a Studies help us to examine heterogeneous and changing Latino communities? How are the "Latin Boom" of the entertainment industry and the recent demographic shift that places Latinos as the "majority minority" related? A selection of texts from a variety of disciplines (including history, the social sciences, literature, music, and the visual arts) will inform our discussions. 6 cr., ND, WR, RAD; SI, WR2, IDS, QRE, Winter—A. Estill

AMST 226. Latinas in Hollywood Latinas have a long history in Hollywood, from silent films to J. Lo. We will examine how the presence of Latinas onscreen reflects the pressures and needs of different eras. We will think about the pressure to "pass" as white and compare that to the insistent stereotypes about Latinas circulated through film. Throughout the course we'll be attentive to the relationship between film and other media, between the U.S. and other countries. What are the linguistic, social, and economic conditions that enable a "cross-over" artist? And how do Latino/a literatures, documentaries, and performances respond to the film and television industries? Prerequisite: Spanish reading fluency a plus, but not required. 6 cr., AL, WR, RAD; LA, WR2, IDS, Not offered in 2010-2011.

AMST 227. Beyond the Border: Latinos Across America The metaphor of the United States-Mexico border often determines our understanding of Latinos' place in the United States. This class studies Latinidad in other spaces: New York, the suburban Southwest, the rural Midwest, and the agricultural Southeast. We will use several disciplines--literary studies, history, cultural studies (music, film, and dance), and sociology--to investigate the following questions: How do immigrant Latinos change the communities they move into? How do these communities change Latinos? How are place and identity transformed? How do the mass media influence how Americans think about where and how Latinos belong in the United States? 6 cr., AL, WR, RAD; HI, WR2, IDS, QRE, Not offered in 2010-2011.

AMST 230. The American Sublime: Landscape, Character & National Destiny in Nineteenth Century America Focusing on the early nineteenth century struggle to create an American nation and a national culture, we will look at the ways Americans adopted and adapted European ideas, particularly the aesthetic idea of the Sublime, in their attempt to come to terms with the conquest of the new land and its native inhabitants and with the nature of their national enterprise. Writers Irving, Cooper, Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman, and Dickinson and painters Cole, Bierstadt, Church, Kensett, and Lane will be included. Major themes will include attitudes towards landscape and settlement, a distinctively American character, the nature and utility of art, and ideas of American empire. 6 cr., AL, WR; LA, WR2, Not offered in 2010-2011.

AMST 238. Native American Literature Study and discussion of Native American literature from its graphic and oral roots to contemporary memoir, fiction, and poetry. Authors read will include Black Elk/John Neihardt, Charles Eastman, James Welch, N. Scott Momaday, Louise Erdrich, Joy Harjo, Susan Power, LeAnne Howe, Leslie Marmon Silko, David Treuer, and Sherman Alexie. Topics to be discussed will include the importance of place, nature, and spiritual life; diverse representations of historical events; complexities of individual and tribal identity; and differences between fictive literature and ethnography. The course will also critique the depiction of Native Americans by Euro-Americans in popular media. 6 cr., AL; NE, Not offered in 2010-2011.

AMST 239. Introduction to Asian American Studies This course is designed as an interdisciplinary study of Asian American identities and cultures. We will address the diversity and fluidity of Asian American experiences through an examination of history, social sciences, literature, and film. Students of all majors and backgrounds are welcome to enroll. 6 cr., ND, WR, RAD; HI, WR2, IDS, Not offered in 2010-2011.

AMST 240. The Midwest and the American Imagination The history of American culture has always been shaped by a dialectic between the local and the universal, the regional and the national. The particular geography and history of the Midwest (the prairie, the plains, the old Northwest, Native Americans and white adventurers, settlers and immigrants) have shaped its livelihoods, its identities, its meanings. Focusing on the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this course will explore literature, art history, and the social and cultural history of the Midwest. 6 cr., AL, WR; HI, WR2, Not offered in 2010-2011.

AMST 250. Getting to Know Buffalo Bill Cody An iconic figure of the American West, William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody was probably the most famous American in the world at the end of the nineteenth century. He is less well-known today. Using my new book on Buffalo Bill as a point of entry, I will conduct a kind of tour of Buffalo Bill's life and the things written about it. Class readings will range from nineteenth-century dime novels to twenty-first century historiography, with detours through Hollywood and Broadway. 6 cr., HU; NE, Not offered in 2010-2011.

AMST 251. Extraordinary Bodies in American Culture What makes a body extraordinary? How have humans modified their bodies to challenge social expectations or turn "ordinary" bodies into extraordinary ones? How have science and technology helped make the spectacular body more "normal?" What do these modifications reveal about social concepts of masculinity and femininity, normalcy and deviance, power and agency? This course examines intersections of engineering, design, performance, and the human body in American culture. We will engage with complex social issues, including freak shows, cosmetic surgery, bodybuilding, prostheses, and tattoos to understand technology’s role in reinforcing and challenging ideas of bodily norms in the United States. 6 cr., HU, WR; HI, WR2, IDS, Fall—A. Russek

AMST 252. Ethnic Foodways in the United States This course explores the creation, exchange, and consumption of ethnic foodways in the United States. In particular, we will look at food as a cultural artifact that is intricately tied to individual and group identification with ancestry and traditions. Our interdisciplinary study of food and culture will consider the influence of factors such as geography, home and community cooking, business and industry, and globalization in the formation and evolution of ethnic food in the United States. What is ethnicity? Is all American food also ethnic food? And is there such a thing as an American cuisine? Includes community-based research component. 6 cr., HU, WR, RAD; HI, WR2, IDS, Spring—A. Russek

AMST 261. Hip-Hop Media: Commercialization, Community and U.S. Culture This course will examine mainstream media representations of urban America, specifically framed as the "hip-hop generation," through critique of Hollywood films, mainstream news outlets, television programs, and media conglomerates that profit from these images. We will read these narratives against the hip-hop generation's framings of themselves as a community, considering modes of self-articulation in and beyond various media outlets. We will listen to songs, watch videos, travel the Internet, and trace "communities" on Myspace. By exploring hip-hop's media constructions we can consider the framings of gender, race, class, and sexuality of young people of color in the United States 6 cr., ND, RAD; NE, Not offered in 2010-2011.

AMST 267. Utopia, Dystopia, and Myopia: The Suburbs in American Fiction This course peers through the picture window of suburban life in the United States. Our primary text will be film. To what extent do fictional accounts reflect the scholarly concerns and analytical conclusions of Historians and Social Scientists? What themes are common in film and/or literature but get little attention from scholars? Students will be obligated to view films on their own if designated show times are inconvenient. Some films may be R-rated. Prerequisite: American Studies 115 or sophomore standing. 6 cr., SS, WR; SI, WR2, Not offered in 2010-2011.

AMST 345. Theory and Practice of American Studies Introduction to some of the animating debates within American Studies from the 1930s to the present. We will study select themes, theories, and methodologies in the writings of a number of scholars in the field and try to understand 1) the often highly contested nature of debates about how best to study American culture; and 2) how various theories and forms of analysis in American Studies have evolved and transformed themselves over the last seventy years. The course is not designed to be a fine-grained institutional history of American Studies, but a vigorous exploration of some of the central questions of interpretation in the field. Normally taken by majors in their junior year. Prerequisite: American Studies 115. 6 cr., ND; NE, IDS, Winter—A. Russek

AMST 396. Junior Research Seminar: Music of the 1970s Frequently derided as a nadir of musical culture, and forever tainted by disco, the 1970s were a period of extraordinary musical creativity and change. In additional to the flowering of soft rock, funk, heavy metal, and punk, the era also saw debates over authenticity in country music, experimentation with minimalism, jazz, and technology in classical music, and the beginnings of a "world music" market as reggae made its way onto U.S. charts. We'll explore this decade of music through listening, footage, historic documents, and the scholarship focusing on its stylistic innovations and critical and audience reception. Prerequisite: American Studies 345 or permission of instructor. 6 cr., ND, WR; NE, WR2, IDS, Spring—M. Russell

AMST 396. Junior Research Seminar: American Empire This class will attempt to define the "American Empire" from its origins to the present. Treating the idea of empire both geographically and politically, we will examine how economic, social, political, and/or cultural sites of power come together to create an empire. This course will pay special attention to the roles that race, gender, and ethnicity play in the creation of an American empire. Using the methods of American studies and other disciplines, we will occasionally step back to ask how the field of American Studies itself contributes to our understanding of the American empire. Prerequisite: American Studies 345. 6 cr., ND, WR; NE, WR2, IDS, Not offered in 2010-2011.

AMST 399. Senior Seminar in American Studies This seminar focuses on advanced skills in American Studies research, critical reading, writing, and presentation. Engagement with one scholarly talk, keyed to the current year's comps exam theme, will be part of the course. Through a combination of class discussion, small group work and presentations, and one-on-one interactions with the professor, majors learn the process of crafting and supporting independent interdisciplinary arguments, no matter which option for Comps they are pursuing. Students also will learn effective strategies for peer review and oral presentation. Concurrent enrollment in AMST 400 is required. Prerequisite: American Studies 396. 6 cr., ND; NE, Winter—E. McKinsey

AMST 400. Integrative Exercise - Essay/Project Students read selected works and view films in the field of American Studies and in a narrow topic area designated by the program. For integrative exercise examination students only. 6 cr., S/NC, ND; NE, Winter—M. Russell

AMST 400. Integrative Exercise - Exam The colloquium will meet as a research seminar, providing a structured environment for seniors working on approved essays or projects in American Studies. It will build upon the research experience of the junior seminar, and prepare students for the independent production of theses or performances to satisfy the college "comps" requirement. Students will be evaluated for this course upon completion of the senior integrative exercise. They will be required to give a public presentation on their research during the spring term. 6 cr., S/NC, ND; NE, Winter—M. Russell