Course Offerings

Race and Ethnicity in America

(Start 6/22 - End 7/31)

T/H

1:00-4:40P

RAB 208

CD

Almiron

Popular Culture

(Start 5/26 - End 6/19)

M

6:00-11:00P

HCK 201

CD

Cult Films in American Culture

(Start 5/26 - End 7/3)

T/H

6:00-9:40P

VH 105

CAC

Dancing with the Stars: Athletic Bodies

What makes an athletic and agile body? Is it a football player or a ballet dancer? This course helps each student to find a new appreciation of the human body. We read the works of playwrights, painters, sculptors, dancers, choreographers, literary authors, and athletes of all types. Outings to performances, sports facilities, museums, galleries, indoor and outdoor athletic shows.
(Start 5/26 - End 6/19)

M/W/F

6:00-10:00P  

AB 2250

CAC

Topics: Comedy and Happiness

What is the relationship between laughter, comedy, wonder, and happiness? Often in this fast-paced, technological American society of the 21st century we forget to be content with the subtle humor hidden in our daily lives, both at work and home. This course surveys recent psychological, anthropological, sociological, and motivational literature on happiness, especially groundbreaking studies of the last decade. Simultaneously we examine the history of comic theatre, from its roots in Ancient Greece to stand up routines found in todays urban and suburban comedy clubs. Be prepared to take the subject seriously, and you will likely complete the course having found an inner smile.
(Start 6/22 - End 7/31)

M/W

6:00-9:40P

SC 101

CAC

Topics: Sex, Love, Romance, Dating

An overview of the psychological and humanist literature on modern conceptions of love, courtship, and sexual behavior.  How does one navigate romance in the midst of gender identity politics, sexual identity, and mediated sexuality? First we explore love relationships and values representing various cultures and times beginning with ancient attitudes toward love in Aristophanes, Sappho, Plato, and The Greek Anthology.  Contemporary dating practices and sexual expressivity will both be considered from the standpoint of sociology, psychology, healthcare, and humanistic studies.  The arts will serve as a primary pedagogic tool for understanding dimensions of human love and dating.  Alternative medicine will also be considered in relation to urban sexual practices.  American culture of the last few decades has shown a heightened concern for sexual behavior, practices, and preferences.  Other decades have prioritized love relations, love letters, romance, and reflection on courtship practices.  This seminar will investigate why one approach often eclipses the other.
(Start 5/26 - End 7/3)

T/H

1:00-5:00P

BCC-L

Topics: Beach Culture

How has beach culture become an integral urban and suburban experience?  Each of the five Saturday meetings will provide a chance to enjoy the outside weather of various New Jersey beaches while we study the many experiential aspects of beach economy, anthropology, and sociology: labor, industry, tourism, recreation and hospitality, ecology, global warming, “beach reading,” beach poetry, architectural and historical sites, cultural venues, self-reflection, beach arts, yoga on the beach, and athletic beach life.
(Start 5/26 - End 7/3)

S

10:30-7:00P

SC-201

CAC

Topics: Jersey Shore Music Culture

Outings to those places where Jersey Shore music culture had its beginnings -- and where it continues to flourish. We study the widest dimensions of the connection between music and summer beach culture, and the yearning for a song that will speak to our hearts. We will consider New Jersey Shore music culture within the wider context of the history and dissemination of music throughout American culture. How has New Jersey music remained distinct, yet also been built from other contemporary trends? What is the function of music, and its relationship to forms of individual and social relaxation and signification? How is music listening understood differently in the concert hall on the one hand, and by-the-beach on the other? What principles of acoustics and brain functioning can we learn from “shore listening”? The course examines the biological and social ecosystems of making and hearing music, and all dimensions of sound, as well as the celebratory rituals surrounding music perception and appreciation.
(Start 5/26 - End 7/03)

T/H

6:00-10:00P

BCC-L

American Detective in Fiction and Film

The detective, as a preeminent figure in all forms of American popular culture, has become the subject of a variety of theoretical exploration.  By investigating that figure, this class will explore how the genre embodies all the contradictions of American society and the ways in which literature and the media attempt to handle those contradictions. Issues of class, gender, and race; the interaction of film and literature; and generic evolution are fundamental to any understanding of the American detective in all of his or her forms.
(First week begins online 7/6)

Online

McElhinney

21st Century Expression: On and Off the Net

(Start 5/26 - End 7/3)

T/H

6:00-9:40P

RAB 208

CD

American Horror

The Latin root of the word ‘monster’ means warning and horror is inescapable from social allegory as it disrupts the ‘normal’ and challenges the body.  A uniquely American genre born of crime, tragedy, toilet-training, war, voyeurism, excess and mental illness, the genre of Horror attracts and repels often in equal measure.  From abjection to ‘othering’—personal history fuses with political events and transitory social customs, creating an ever-changing and controversial flux of what may be deemed ‘horrific’.  We will look at controversial motion pictures, court transcripts and texts (fiction and otherwise) that defy, redefine, or revisit cultural and social norms associated with horror.
(First week begins online 5/26)

Online