Results for AMSTUD

We may "know" "who" we "are," but we are, after all, social creatures. How does our sense of self interact with those around us? How does literature provide a particular medium for not only self expression, but also for meditations on what goes into the construction of "the Self"? After all, don't we tell stories in response to the question, "who are you"? Besides a list of nouns and names and attributes, we give our lives flesh and blood in telling how we process the world. Our course focuses in particular on this question--Does this universal issue ("who am I") become skewed differently when we add a qualifier before it, like "ethnic"?

Movies and the fiction that inspires them; power dynamics behind production including historical events, artistic vision, politics, and racial stereotypes. What images of black and white does Hollywood produce to forge a national identity? How do films promote equality between the races? What is lost or gained in film adaptations of books?nLimited Enrollment, Instructor¿s Consent Required. Class meetings held in Manzanita Multipurpose Room.

The American economy from colonial times to the present, illustrating the role of history in economic life. Topics: U.S. economic development in global and comparative context; slavery as an economic system; emergence of American technology and business organization; economics of the Great Depression and the New Deal; post-World War II economic performance and social change; globalization, information technology, and inequality. Prerequisite: 1 or 1A or 1V.

(English majors and others taking 5 units, register for 121.) An exploration of the diverse political, racial, social, and aesthetic questions which inform works of American literature from the early national period to the late twentieth century.

The American West is characterized by frontier mythology, vast distances, marked aridity, and unique political and economic characteristics. This course integrates several disciplinary perspectives into a comprehensive examination of Western North America: its history, physical geography, climate, literature, art, film, institutions, politics, demography, economy, and continuing policy challenges. Students examine themes fundamental to understanding the region: time, space, water, peoples, and boom and bust cycles.

Students will open the ¿black box¿ of museums to consider the past and present roles of institutional collections, culminating in a student-curated exhibition. Today, museums assert their relevance as dynamic spaces for debate and learning. Colonialism and restitution, the politics of representation, human/object relationships, and changing frameworks of authority make museum work widely significant and consistently challenging. Through thinking-in-practice, this course reflexively explores ¿museum cultures¿: representations of ¿self¿ and ¿other¿ within museums and institutional cultures of the museum world itself.

This course examines the theory and practice of deliberative democracy and engages both in a dialogue with critics. In spring quarter 2015, this course will have a special focus on deliberative democracy in the the Greater China region. The course will discuss whether a democracy which emphasizes people thinking and talking together on the basis of good information be made practical in the modern age. What kinds of distortions arise when people try to discuss politics or policy together? The course draws on ideas as well as criticisms from the jury literature, from the psychology of group processes and from the most recent normative and empirical literature on deliberative forums. Case studies from the Deliberative Polling method and other deliberation methods, its applications, defenders and critics, both normative and empirical, will provide a cases studies for discussion. Some course sessions will utilize the case method to examine public consultations, the media, and civil society. Throughout the course, students will address how public participation is currently conducted around the world. As we have all seen successful, but more likely unsuccessful attempts to consult the public and this course will examine the various ways of consulting the public and how governments, media, and the public have responded and used the results.

(Same as HISTORY 50C. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 150C.) Major political, economic, social, and diplomatic developments in the U.S. Themes: the economic and social role of government (Progressive, New Deal, Great Society, and Reagan-Bush eras); ethnic and racial minorities in society (mass immigration at the turn of the century and since 1965, the civil rights era of the 50s and 60s); the changing status of women since WW II; shifting ideological bases, institutional structures, and electoral characteristics of the political system (New Deal and post-Vietnam); determinants of foreign policy in WW I and II, and the Cold War.

This class will examine the history of San Francisco from Native American and colonial settlement through the present. Focus is on social, environmental, and political history, with the theme of power in the city. Topics include Indians and Spanish settlers, the Gold Rush, immigration and nativism, earthquake and fire, progressive reform and unionism, gender, race and civil rights, sexuality and politics, redevelopment and gentrification.

Today, almost one-third of Americans identify with a racial/ethnic minority group, and more than 9 million Americans identify with multiple races. What are the implications of such diversity for American politics and culture? This course approaches issues of race from an interdisciplinary perspective, employing research in the social sciences and humanities to assess how race shapes perceptions of identity as well as political behavior in 21st-century U.S. Issues surrounding the role of multiculturalism, immigration, acculturation, racial representation, and racial prejudice in American society. Topics include the political and social formation of race; racial representation in the media, arts, and popular culture; the rise and decline of the "one-drop rule" and its effect on political and cultural attachments; the politicization of census categories and the rise of the multiracial movement.

The course will focus on American abstract painting from the 1930s to the 1960s, emphasizing the works of art at the Anderson Collection at Stanford. We will focus on looking closely at pictures by Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, and other renowned abstract painters, developing skills of speaking and writing about these works of art. We will also place these pictures in their mid-20th century context: World War II and the Cold War; Hollywood and popular culture generally; Beat literature; and locations such as New York and San Francisco.

Many activists in the racial justice, immigrant, indigenous, feminist, and LGBTQ movements, are committed to principles of leadership by frontline communities - their goal is to build power in communities that are disempowered by dominant institutions and practices. This makes for complicated relationships with those that are not part of those frontline communities but recognize that their own silence makes them complicit in systems of oppression. In this course, we will examine how power and privilege can undermine attempts to collaborate in social justice work, and then explore principles and practices of solidarity and allyship that attempt to overcome these challenges. We will discuss texts on white privilege and anti-racism as our primary point of reference, but will connect to other kinds of ally work and movements for collective liberation. As a community-engaged learning course, students will work with community partners to establish long-term relationships based in solidarity. Students are encouraged to work with movements and organizations with whom they already have relationships (e.g., through student-activism). Throughout the quarter, we will have guest lectures and workshops with community partners and movement strategy organizations.

Required for American Studies majors. Changing interpretations of American identity and Americanness.

This course explores the transition from Victorian to modern womanhood in the U.S. from the 1890s to the end of the 20th century, including the experiences of Native, European, African, Mexican, and Asian American women. It asks how, when, and why the majority of American women become wage earners, gained full citizenship, and enacted political opportunities; how race- and class-specific ideals of womanhood changed in popular culture; and how women have redefined their reproductive and sexual relations.

Restricted to declared majors. Practical experience working in a field related to American Studies for six to ten weeks. Students make internship arrangements with a company or agency, under the guidance of a sponsoring faculty member, and with the consent of the director or a program coordinator of American Studies. Required paper focused on a topic related to the internship and the student's studies. May be repeated for credit.

Critical and creative exploration of song in the Americas. About twenty-five key examples will guide discussion of the interactions between words, music, performance and culture. Weekly listening, reading and assignments will be organized around central themes: love, sex and romance; war and politics; labor and money; place; identity; society and everyday life. Genres include art song; blues, gospel, jazz and country; pop, soul, rock and hip-hop; bossa nova, nueva canción and salsa; electronic and experimental. Takehome and in-class assignments will include critical and creative writing, and music composition, production and performance; final projects may emphasize any of the above.

Methods, interpretations, and issues pertinent to honors work in American Studies. Open to juniors interested in honors.

A new course on the history and meaning of Pop art in the United States and abroad. The course will feature close study of paintings, photographs, and prints at the Cantor Art Center. The course will be given in the Denning Family Resource Room, located in The Anderson Collection building. If you have any questions regarding the location, please contact Linda Esquivel at lindae@stanford.edu.

Research and writing of senior honors thesis under the supervision of a faculty member. The final grade for the thesis is assigned by the chair based on the evaluations of the primary thesis adviser and a second reader appointed by the program. Prerequisite: consent of chair.

Course explores visible and invisible disabilities. focusing on issues of gender and identity. The course emphasizes psychological as well as physical health, cross-cultural variables, diversity of disability experiences, legal and political aspects, work and home accommodations, self-labeling, caretaking, stigma and passing, and the difference gender makes to how disabilities are experienced. Disabilities covered include blindness, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, arthritis, emotional and learning disabilities, and conditions requiring wheelchairs and other forms of physical assistance.

This course explores the lives and experiences of Mexicans living in the United States, from 1848 to the present. Themes and topics include: the legacies of colonialism, the Mexican-American War, transnational migration, the effects of economic stratification, race and racialization, and the impact of sexual and gender ideologies on the lives of Mexicans residing north of the border.

This course is intended to illuminate ideas about justice, freedom, equality, democracy, peace, and social conflict, and to raise persisting questions about such topics as the role of violence in politics through looking at the ideas of America writers such as Edward Bellamy, W.E.B. DuBois, Eugene Debs, Jane Addams, Emma Goldman, John Dewey and Reinhold Niebuhr.