Carleton College: American Studies: Courses (Text Only)

Courses

2009-2010 Courses:
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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; Humanities, Recognition and Affirmation of Difference Requirement; offered Spring 2010 -- C. Clark, 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; Arts and Literature; offered Fall 2009 -- A. Estill, E. McKinsey
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; Recognition and Affirmation of Difference Requirement, Does not fulfill a distribution requirement; not offered 2009-2010
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; Arts and Literature, Recognition and Affirmation of Difference Requirement; offered Fall 2009 -- A. Estill
AMST 227: Beyond the Border: Latinos Across America
The metaphor of the U.S.-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 U.S.? 6; Arts and Literature, Recognition and Affirmation of Difference Requirement; not offered 2009-2010
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; Arts and Literature; offered Spring 2010 -- E. McKinsey
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; Arts and Literature; not offered 2009-2010
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; Recognition and Affirmation of Difference Requirement, Does not fulfill a distribution requirement; offered Spring 2010 -- N. Cho
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; Arts and Literature; offered Winter 2010 -- E. McKinsey
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; Humanities; not offered 2009-2010
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 U.S. 6; Recognition and Affirmation of Difference Requirement, Does not fulfill a distribution requirement; not offered 2009-2010
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; Social Sciences; not offered 2009-2010
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; Does not fulfill a distribution requirement; offered Winter 2010 -- A. Estill
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; Does not fulfill a distribution requirement; offered Spring 2010 -- S. Zabin
AMST 400: Colloquium and Integrative Exercise
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; S/NC; Does not fulfill a distribution requirement; offered Winter 2010 -- N. Cho
AMST 400: Integrative Exercise - Directed Reading
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; S/NC; Does not fulfill a distribution requirement; offered Winter 2010 -- Staff

Carleton College

American Studies

Courses

AMST 115: Introduction to American Studies: The Immigrant Experience

AMST 115: Introduction to American Studies: Placing Identities

AMST 127: Introduction to U.S. Latino/a Studies

AMST 226: Latinas in Hollywood

AMST 227: Beyond the Border: Latinos Across America

AMST 230: The American Sublime: Landscape, Character & National Destiny in Nineteenth Century America

AMST 238: Native American Literature

AMST 239: Introduction to Asian American Studies

AMST 240: The Midwest and the American Imagination

AMST 250: Getting to Know Buffalo Bill Cody

AMST 261: Hip-Hop Media: Commercialization, Community and U.S. Culture

AMST 267: Utopia, Dystopia, and Myopia: The Suburbs in American Fiction

AMST 345: Theory and Practice of American Studies

AMST 396: Junior Research Seminar: American Empire

AMST 400: Colloquium and Integrative Exercise

AMST 400: Integrative Exercise - Directed Reading

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