Course |
Title |
Cr |
Time/Place |
Instructor |
101:01 |
Introduction to American Studies Introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of American Studies. Employing literature, legal studies, film, history, visual culture, philosophy, and politics, the class will examine the concept and idea of “America” in its global, national, community, and bodily/psychic permutations. We will explores key themes from the past – such as American exceptionalism, “manifest destiny,” and the search for equality – and examine how these ideas have both changed and persisted as part of a national culture and identity. The goal of the course is to expose students to intellectual and creative possibilities in the field of American Studies, as well as to provide incoming majors with key concepts and analytical tools that can be used in more advanced courses. Emphasis will be placed on students’ analytical skills, close reading, verbal articulations of interdisciplinary scholarship, and critical thinking. Satisfies Core Curriculum Goals: AHo AHp |
3 |
MW 5:35-6:55 RAB 001 (DC) |
Ferguson |
102:01 |
Introduction to Race and Ethnicity in America How do we approach issues of race, ethnicity, and skin color in the 21st-century United States? We live in arguably the most diverse and multicultural time in this nation’s history; and yet, these terms remain contentious, and even “fighting words” in public and private arenas, largely because systemic inequality and quotidian forms of discrimination continue to shape lived experience. This course examines social and political forces, both historical and contemporary, that have brought about racial and ethnic “diversity” and “difference” in the U.S. Focusing on the mid-20th century through the contemporary era, and we will engage case studies from the Civil Rights era through the age of Obama and the War on Terror. Through historical accounts, sociological studies, cultural geography, literature, visual culture, and discussion of current events, we will take a comparative approach to race and ethnicity. We will also pay close to how racial and ethnic difference and conflicts shape neighborhoods, communities, public space, and property ownership. |
3 |
TTh 2:15-3:35 RAB 207 (DC) |
Fleetwood |
200:01 |
AIDS and American Culture This course will explore the American cultural response to the AIDS epidemic via literature, cinema, the visual arts and public policy, from 1981 to the present day. Through readings and film screenings, students will arrive at a sense of what was lost personally and culturally from the death of so many citizens, many of whom were talented aspiring artists and writers. Via the examination of sources contemporary to the outbreak and later assessments of Americans’ social and government responses to the epidemic, students will grow familiar with the country’s uneven early response and changing attitudes toward the virus as its demographic implications change over time. |
3 |
MW 5:35-6:55 CDL (DC) |
McIntyre |
200:02 |
Topics in American Studies: Latinos and Community This interdisciplinary course examines historical and contemporary formations of Latin communities in the US. We critically analyze the connection between space, power, and Latin populations across the country. The class highlights the ways in which Latin groups challenge social obstacles and re-shape their environments through diverse forms of community engagement. Cross listed with 01:590:299:01 and 01:595:299:01 |
3 |
W 5:00-6:20pm 6:40-8:00pm LSH-A256 (LIV) |
Banales |
216:01 |
America in the Arts This is a course that looks at what distinguishes the arts in America from those in other countries—at the special ways Americans communicate in music, painting, architecture, sculpture, movies, literature etc.—as a reflection of American ideas and values. One could argue that the arts constitute a universal language. Be that as it may, America has made unique contributions to the arts that illuminate the nature of our society and culture and illustrate the characteristics of the imaginative and creative forces that constitute such a large part of the American character. As one example, one might ask why it is that jazz, rock ‘n roll, rock, and rap have all been American creations, and what does this tell us about our people? |
3 |
TTh 3:55-5:15 HCK216 (DC) |
Rockland |
225:01 |
Thoughts and Society in the American Past Examines some of the defining American cultural developments of the long nineteenth century, from the Revolutionary era to the eve of WWI: republicanism, revivalism, transcendentalism, populism, progressivism, and pragmatism, among others. Students analyze a variety of historical, visual, literary and performance texts from the era. |
3 |
MTh SC 103 9:50-11:10 (CAC) |
Backes |
246:01 |
The Black Experience in America Interdisciplinary examination of African-Americans within the context of American political economy, special conditions of oppression, responses to exploitation, and resultant social changes. Cross listed with Africana Studies 014:203:01 Eligible for CCRES Minor |
3 |
MW 5:00-6:20 LSH A143 (LIV) |
Ramsamy |
267:01 |
American Film Directors A course focusing on the films of Stanley Kubrick, Orson Welles, John Frankenheimer, David Lynch, Val Lewton, Andy Warhol and others. In-depth analyses of the structure and content of films which include: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Moonrise Kingdom, Cat People, The Magnificent Ambersons, Mulholland Drive, and others. Emphasis on the "mise-en-scene," narrative form, set design, sound, and special effects in the films of these celebrated filmmakers. Warning: some films may contain nudity, sexual situations, violence, profanity, substance abuse, and disturbing images. |
3 |
TTh 5:35-6:55 Th 7:15-8:35 RAB 001 (DC) |
Nigrin |
281:01 |
Topics in American Studies: Asian American Studies Learning Community Explore and learn about the diverse array of peoples of Asian descent in the Americas, including West, South, Southeast, and East Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Throughout the semester, we will examine, reflect upon, and discuss representations of Asian Americans in literature, history, politics, film, scholarship, current events, and popular culture. |
1.5 |
F 1:40-3:00 Asian American Cultural Center (LIV) |
Hwang |
282:01 |
Native American Culture This course will survey the key themes and concepts of Native American literatures, covering oral narratives, poetry, fiction, critical works, and film. We will analyze works of Native American literature along with their tribal contexts, exploring tribally specific cultural histories and their traditional and modern literary representations. Throughout the semester we will explore a variety of genres, beginning with the most central, which is the oral tradition, moving on to the ways this central generic form influences Native American poetry, short stories, novels, and film. Identity became a major preoccupation of twentieth century Native writers. We will trace Native American identities in literature, from writers such as Zikala-Sa and D'Arcy McNickle to writers of what has been deemed the "Native American Renaissance." We will conclude with the poetry of Luci Tapahonso and Ofelia Zepeda, who integrate tribal languages with English as a testament to Native American "survivance." Special Note: Please contact the Registrar's Office at 848-445-2757 to register for mini courses. |
3 |
Class Begins 03/08/16 TTH 6:10-7:30 MU 211 (CAC) |
Mullis |
282:02 |
American Sexualities A historical survey of American sexualities and sexual cultures from the colonial era through the present, this course will focus on primary source documents and on classic texts that have helped to shape the emerging field of sexuality studies. Particular attention will be paid to the ways in which politics, race, religion, ethnicity, age, region, and gender have influenced American sexual cultures and the efforts to regulate them. The course will employ an interdisciplinary approach to its subject, examining artifacts from visual culture such as cartoons, photographs, paintings, and film as well as printed sources. Special Note: Please contact the Registrar's Office at 848-445-2757 to register for mini courses. |
1.5 |
Class Begins 03/07/16 M 9:15-12:15 RAB 018 (DC) |
Fishbein |
282:03 |
American Sexualities A historical survey of American sexualities and sexual cultures from the colonial era through the present, this course will focus on primary source documents and on classic texts that have helped to shape the emerging field of sexuality studies. Particular attention will be paid to the ways in which politics, race, religion, ethnicity, age, region, and gender have influenced American sexual cultures and the efforts to regulate them. The course will employ an interdisciplinary approach to its subject, examining artifacts from visual culture such as cartoons, photographs, paintings, and film as well as printed sources. Special Note: Please contact the Registrar's Office at 848-445-2757 to register for mini courses. |
1.5 |
Class Begins 03/09/16 W 5:35-8:35 RAB 018 (DC) |
Fishbein |
283:01 |
Topics in American Studies: Arts Adventure Visits to museums, galleries, and arts centers in New Brunswick, Princeton, and New York City, as well as Off-Broadway theatre, dance, music, and poetry readings to experience differing artistic forms. How do the aesthetic values of one art discipline (for example, painting) influence the creation of works in another artistic field (such as music or theatre)? We will examine how current events are depicted in the arts, how the arts shape social values, and how the arts are interpreted by different social groupings. We will also consider the human figure in artistic representation, as well as the body as an expressive vehicle. Special Note: Please contact the Registrar's Office at 848-445-2757 to register for mini courses. |
1.5 |
Class beings 03/06/16 Sun 11:30-2:30 SC 201 (CAC) |
Appels |
283:02 |
Topics in American Studies: Arts Adventure Visits to museums, galleries, and arts centers in New Brunswick, Princeton, and New York City, as well as Off-Broadway theatre, dance, music, and poetry readings to experience differing artistic forms. How do the aesthetic values of one art discipline (for example, painting) influence the creation of works in another artistic field (such as music or theatre)? We will examine how current events are depicted in the arts, how the arts shape social values, and how the arts are interpreted by different social groupings. We will also consider the human figure in artistic representation, as well as the body as an expressive vehicle. Second 7 weeks of semester. Course begins on March 6. |
1.5 |
Class begins 03/06/16 Sun 8:20-10:00 TBA (CAC) |
Appels |
300:01 |
Topics in American Studies: The Era of Civil War and Reconstruction In 1873, Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, in their novel The Gilded Age, provided an epitaph for the era that we shall probe in depth this semester. They maintained that the Civil War and its immediate aftermath “uprooted institutions that were centuries old, changed the politics of a people, transformed the social life of half the country, and wrought so profoundly upon the entire national character that the influence cannot be measured short of two or three generations.” We will examine the coming of the war, the four years of conflict that forever transformed the United States, and the struggle to reconstruct the nation in the decade following Appomattox. Our focus will be primarily on the political, social, and cultural history of the era, though we will also address significant issues in military history. |
3 |
MW 2:50-4:10pm VD 211 (CAC) |
Masur |
301:01 |
Topics in American Studies: Religion in America Explores major developments in American culture, from the period of the Revolution to the present, through the lens of religious history. This class is not a traditional survey of American religion but rather an introduction to a range of big cultural problems and the role of religion in defining, expressing, and shaping them. The class moves through a series of key moments—the separation from the British empire, the rise of market culture, the consolidation of national power, the emergence of consumer culture, the cold war, and the crisis of modernity—and culminates in an assessment of the contemporary scene. Topics include religion and social values, slavery and race, political discourse, reform, gender, and the emergence of new religions. Special attention is given throughout to the popular and mass cultural dimensions of American religious experience, the links between religion and economy, and the persistence of religious belief in American culture. |
3 |
TTh 2:15-3:35 HCK 216 |
Backes |
301:02 |
Topics in American Studies: Multi-Ethnic American Literatures From troubling national food metaphors — “the melting-pot” or “the salad bowl” — to multiculturalism and the transnational and diasporic subjects of globalized postmodernity, the terms of “ethnicity” remain just as fraught and relevant today as ever. In the vein of critical ethnic studies, this class will explore the shifting relationships between various ethnic subjects and the U.S. by considering Latino/a, African American, Native American, and Asian American literatures, as well as the ways they represent and trouble the terms by which we understand a collective “ethnos.” We will look at how these texts comparatively address issues of race, gender, migration, and belonging, and will be driven by such overarching questions as: What are the terms of ethnicity in the U.S., and what are its stakes for the individual, the community and the nation? How does ethnicity shape the stories we tell and the ways we tell them? What does it mean to “live on a hyphen,” to experience “the peculiar sensation of double consciousness,” or to think from the place of the border? And finally, “Who is “Ethnic”? How is this category even determined, and what does it produce? Texts under consideration include: Brown Girl, Brownstone (Marshall; 1959); Down These Mean Streets (Thomas; 1967); The Way to Rainy Mountain (Momaday; 1969); A Gesture Life (Lee; 1999); When the Emperor Was Divine (Otsuka; 2002); The Namesake (Lahiri; 2003); A Mercy (Morrison; 2008); Americanah (Adichie; 2013); as well as The Best American Poetry 2015, guest-edited by Sherman Alexie. |
3 |
TF 11:30am-12:50pm HH-A7 (CAC) |
Castroman |
302:01 |
Topics in American Studies: Sounding the Blues Gil Scott Heron, in his poem “Bicentennial Blues,” wrote, “the blues has always been American, as American as apple pie...the question is why?” In an attempt to answer that question, this course will conduct an exploration of blues based music, literature, and film. We will explore the evolution of the blues as both a musical genre and as a cultural space where questions of race, gender, class, art, politics and more converge. The rise of the popularity of the blues as a musical style will be juxtaposed with key historical events and social movements. In addition to gaining perspective on the historical roots of the blues, we will also explore how the blues continues to resonate in popular culture today. |
3 |
TTh 2:15-3:35pm LOR 115 (DC) |
Moomjy |
310:01 |
Approaches to American Studies: Generations in Conflict Introduces students to the research methods and intellectual strategies that characterize the interdisciplinary field of American Studies. The goal of the course is to familiarize students with the central approaches to the field and to effectively practice American Studies together as a group. To this end the class focuses on the broad theme of generation conflict in American culture and the many scholarly approaches that may be used to explore this topic. |
3 |
T 3:55-5:15 5:35-6:55 RAB 018 (DC) |
Backes |
310:02 |
Approaches to American Studies: Messing with Nature This course introduces students to the interdisciplinary history, practice, and research methods that comprise American Studies. The goal of the course is to familiarize students with the central techniques of the field and encourage students to apply these approaches in their own work. To demonstrate how diverse methodologies can help tackle a specific issue, the course will focus primarily (though not exclusively) on the relationship between American society and the natural world. We will “mess around” with the concept of nature from a variety of perspectives—from the use of ecological disaster in contemporary fiction to the causes and consequences of the 1930s Dust Bowl. We will also think about the categories of “natural” and “unnatural” and the consequences—intended or otherwise—of defying them. Major readings include fiction, history, nature writing, cultural studies, and folklore, among other topics. |
3 |
Th 12:35-1:55pm 2:15-3:35pm RAB 018 (DC) |
Decker |
312:01 |
Sports in American Culture American spectacles surrounding sports, athletes, fans and their heroes and heroines have articulated an exhilarating and complex narrative of American culture. What role does athletics play in higher education? What do major sporting events tell us about American culture and society? A variety of sport controversies will be examined such as steroid use, body fascism, violence, power, and the role of media, the Big 10 and the NCAA in American athletics. Finally, sport spaces will be interrogated critically in the context of assumptions, intersections, and transformations of gender, race, sexuality, class, and ability in sporting bodies and identities. |
3 |
Th 6:10-7:30 7:40-9:00 SC 101 (CAC)
|
Schuster |
341:01 |
The Child in America The Child in America examines the evolution of concepts of childhood and adolescence and of child-rearing practices from the colonial era through the present via an analysis of social history, religious tracts, novels, poetry, film, and child care manuals. We will study such issues as child discipline; the impact of religion on child-rearing practices; homelessness; the effects of race, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality on childhood development; and the cultural significance of toys. |
3 |
MW 2:15-3:35pm RAB 018 (DC) |
Fishbein |
450:01 |
Seminar: Folk Festival Management Focus on the theoretical study of folk cultures while developing skills in planning, fieldwork, administration, funding, staffing, publicity, and production of the New Jersey Folk Festival at Rutgers. |
3 |
M 6:00-9:00pm RAB 018 (DC) |
Gillespie |
489:01 |
Seminar in American Studies: The Nexus of Film and Literature To reduce it to one word, this course is about issues in ADAPTATION, usually literature to film but sometimes the other way around. Most courses concerning film teach it as if it was literature. But literature consists of words, while film is primarily visual. Film is as close, if not closer, to painting as it is to literature. To eternally say, “The book was better than the movie” is to reveal a certain snobbery and to betray ignorance of both literature and film. Nevertheless, film and literature do influence and inform one another. This course concerns itself with that place where they overlap and intersect. Professor Rockland has wide experience in both literature (as a writer) and film (as a scriptwriter, actor, and television producer), and has participated peripherally in the making of two Hollywood films. Note: This course is the American Studies Senior Seminar. However, if space is available, it will also be available to other students with a keen interest in the subject matter. |
3 |
T 10:55-12:15 12:35-1:55 RAB 018 (DC) |
Rockland |