Sharon Akimoto

Department of Psychology

I am able to help comps students with projects involving social psychological phenomenon, in particular, those that deal with social cognition, stereotyping and prejudice.

I am also able to supervise comps that focus on the psychological aspects of the Asian American experience.

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Deborah Appleman

Educational Studies

I am willing to advise American Studies students in four general topic areas:

1) The relationship of adolescent development and the structure of American Schoolsgender issues in schools, cliques and other peer relationships, identity development, youth culture

2) Issues in urban educationEthnography of urban classrooms, culturally relevant pedagogy, multicultural education

3) Intersections of literature and pedagogyHow American literature gets taught in high schools, adolescents and the bildingsroman, multicultural literature and the dynamic demographics of high school

4) Using literary theory to “”read” popular culture

Reading film, television, magazine though a variety of multiple perspectives, influence of popular media and adolescents (and vice versa)

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Nancy Cho

Director of American Studies, Department of English

Research and teaching interests:

19^th and 20^th century American Literature

American drama

Asian American Literature

Asian American Studies

Race and ethnicity theory

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Cliff Clark

History & American Studies

I am willing to advise American studies students on a wide variety of topics within American social, cultural, and intellectual history. My most recent interest has been in the fields of urban and community history, architecture, and material culture- including the ways in which Americans have shaped the built environment from landscapes, houses, and furniture to zoos, residential colleges, prisons, and other institutions. I also have a background in historic preservation and planning and would be interested in working with students in that area.

A second area of particular interest is late nineteenth century history and popular culture including politics, immigration, industrialization, labor history, the rise of sports, the settlement of the west, imperialism, urban reform movements, and popular music.

Two other areas that particularly interest me are the history of American religion and American education.

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Adriana Estill

Department of English and American Studies

I am prepared to advise in the following areas:

Latino Studies;

U.S. Latino literature, all periods;

Contemporary poetry in the U.S.; I am especially interested in politically and/or socially engaged texts;

Transnationalism, especially as seen in literature, popular culture, and the mass media;

Beauty and body image;

Popular culture in the U.S., particularly magazines, movies, and television, especially if considering race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality;

Theories of feminism and corporeality, cultural studies, race and ethnicity, multi/bi-racial identities, and place.

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Annette Igra

Department of History

I am prepared to advise comps in the following areas:

U.S. history (particularly the 19^th and 20^th centuries), women’s and gender studies, labor, social welfare, law, consumer culture.

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Rich Keiser

Department of Political Science

Prepared to advise students who have taken previous courses with me. Topics would include

1) poverty, wage policy, health care, economic development, as well as others.

2) African American politics since WWII

3) Suburbanization, American suburbs

4) Comparative analyses of white ethnic groups and/or people of color in the struggle for political and economic advancement in the U.S.

5) Conceptualization of politics in 20^th century a/m

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Michael Kowalewski

Department of English

I am prepared to advise American Studies students in the following topic areas:

1) American literature

Especially: 19th and 20th century fiction, 19th and 20th century poetry, "high" modernism, southern literature, literature of the American West, American Indian literature, creative non-fiction (journalism, nature writing, the literature of travel and exploration, social protest writing), and contemporary poetry and fiction

2) American film history

Especially: Hollywood genres, classical Hollywood narratives, Los Angeles and the rise of the film industry, the history of documentary filmmaking, and Hollywood and the depiction of American history

3) "Place" in American culture and art

Especially: environmental issues, geography, urban planning, rural communities, agriculture, regional identity in literature and art (particularly the West and the South)

4) Popular Culture in America

Especially: consumer culture, the role of sports, television journalism, fashion and body image, and contemporary music (particularly rock n roll, hip hop, and country-western)

5) Anything Having to do with California

Especially: the Gold Rush, California art (painting; photography; spray-can murals), film, architecture, California history, California and the Pacific Rim, the literature of Los Angeles, John Steinbeck

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Elizabeth McKinsey

Department of English and American Studies

I am prepared to advise comps students on topics concerning literature, art and cultural history of America, particularly in the early national period and the 19th century. I have also taught or researched colonial American literature and history, the South in the 20th century, women’s literature, and regionalism. The history of the idea of America, the landscape, religion, education, the West, and the role of the artist in American society have also captured my interest at various times.

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Michael McNally

Department of Religion

I am able to advise comps topics that relate to the following research interests and teaching competencies:

Cultural and Intellectual history of American Religions

Native American Religious and Cultural Traditions
Relationship between culture, especially religious culture and the American landscape
Cultural history American healing traditions

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Serena Zabin

Department of History

I would be interested in directing comps projects on a variety of topics dealing with early America. I would be particularly happy to direct comps dealing with:

Cross-cultural contact

Colonialism and empire in early America

Race in the seventeenth and eighteenth-century

Political culture

Early American theater and literature

Print culture and knowledge

The intersection of race and gender in the British colonies

America in the early modern Atlantic world

American Empire