AMSTUD 1B:
Media, Culture, and Society (COMM 1B)
The institutions and practices of mass media, including television, film, radio, and digital media, and their role in shaping culture and social life. The media's shifting relationships to politics, commerce, and identity.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 2:
Introduction to American National Government and Politics (POLISCI 2)
American political institutions (the Presidency, Congress, and the Court) and political processes (the formation of political attitudes and voting) have for some time now been criticized as inadequate to the task of making modern public policy. Against the backdrop of American culture and political history we examine how public policy has been and is being made. We use theories from Political Science and Economics to assess the state of the American system and the policy making process. We use case studies and lectures to analyze contemporary issues including environmental policy, taxes and spending , gun control , economic growth and inequality and mobility. In some of these issue areas we use comparative data from other countries to see how the U.S. is doing relative to other countries. In addition to class room lecture and discussion, student groups are formed to analyze policy issues of relevance to them. (This course has merged with Political Science 123/PubPol 101)
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 25Q:
The Origins of the Modern American City, 1865-1920 (HISTORY 55Q, URBANST 25Q)
Are we living in a new Gilded Age? To answer this question, we go back to the original Gilded Age, as well as its successor, the Progressive Era. How did urban Americans around the turn of the twentieth century deal with stark inequalities of class, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality? And what can we learn from their struggles for our own time? Students use primary and secondary sources in digital and print formats. Possible field trip to San Francisco.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 50N:
The Literature of Inequality: Have and Have-Nots from the Gilded Age to the Occupy Era
Not since the turn of the last century have Americans experienced such a profound gap between those who have and those who do not, between wealthy and working poor, between defacto upper and lower classes, between those of the status quo and those who slip to the social periphery. We will be examining literary and artistic explorations of social and economic inequity, fiction and art that looks at reversals of fortune as well as the possibilities for social change. Readings include Jacob Riis¿ How the Other Half Lives, W.E.B. Du Bois¿ The Souls of Black Folk, Edith Wharton¿s House of Mirth , James Agee & Walker Evans¿ Let Us Not Forget Famous Men , T.C. Boyle¿s The Tortilla Curtain, Julie Otsuka¿s When the Emperor Was Divine and Occupy Movement art.
| Units: 3
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul
AMSTUD 51Q:
Comparative Fictions of Ethnicity (COMPLIT 51Q, CSRE 51Q)
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"?
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP, Writing 2
AMSTUD 54N:
African American Women's Lives (AFRICAAM 54N, CSRE 54N, FEMGEN 54N, HISTORY 54N)
Preference to freshmen. The everyday lives of African American women in 19th- and 20th-century America in comparative context of histories of European, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American women. Primary sources including personal journals, memoirs, music, literature, and film, and historical texts. Topics include slavery and emancipation, labor and leisure, consumer culture, social activism, changing gender roles, and the politics of sexuality.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 63N:
The Feminist Critique: The History and Politics of Gender Equality (CSRE 63N, FEMGEN 63N, HISTORY 63N)
This course explores the emergence of concepts of gender equality in world history. It asks how gender inequality relates to racial, ethnicity, and sexual identities, how men engage with feminism, whether gender equality is purely a western cultural tradition, and much more. We approach the long history of ideas about gender and equality by reading primary historical documents from around the world, moving from the 15th century to the present. Topics include education, the body, sexuality, violence, labor, and politics.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 66:
Ten Ways to Study Cars
This class is a lunch seminar on the car and auto-mobility in twentieth-century America. We will talk about cars with a guest each week from one of ten disciplines; and topics will range from design and mechanics, to film and literature, the mapping of the United States, a gas dependent economy, social mobility, car collectability, and the history of the driver¿s license. Guests from Design and the Stanford Revs Digital Archive will also attend. Once a week TBD at Noon. Manzanita Seminar Room. Limited Enrollment. Sophomore Priority. One Unit.
Terms: Win
| Units: 1
AMSTUD 68N:
Mark Twain and American Culture
Preference to freshmen. Mark Twain has been called our Rabelais, our Cervantes, our Homer, our Tolstoy, our Shakespeare. Ernest Hemingway maintained that all modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. President Franklin D.nRoosevelt got the phrase New Deal from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Class discussions will focus on how Twain's work illuminates and complicates his society's responses to such issues as race, technology, heredity versus environment, religion, education, and what it means to be American.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 91:
Exploring American Religious History (RELIGST 91)
This course will trace how contemporary beliefs and practices connect to historical trends in the American religious landscape.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 101:
American Fiction into Film: How Hollywood Scripts and Projects Black and White Relations
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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 107:
Introduction to Feminist Studies (CSRE 108, FEMGEN 101, TAPS 108)
Introduction to interdisciplinary approaches to gender, sexuality, queer, trans and feminist studies. Topics include the emergence of sexuality studies in the academy, social justice and new subjects, science and technology, art and activism, history, film and memory, the documentation and performance of difference, and relevant socio-economic and political formations such as work and the family. Students learn to think critically about race, gender, and sexuality from local and global perspectives.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 111:
Transnational Reproductive Politics (FEMGEN 111)
This course examines the issues and debates surrounding women's reproduction in a transnational framework, including birth control, abortion, surrogacy, prenatal diagnosis, labor and delivery, menstruation, sex trafficking, and the reproductive justice movement. It pays special attention to how knowledge and technology travel across national/cultural borders and how women's reproductive functions are deeply connected to international politics and events abroad.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 114Q:
Visions of the 1960s
Preference to sophomores. Introduction to the ideas, sensibility, and, to a lesser degree, the politics of the American 60s. Topics: the early 60s vision of a beloved community; varieties of racial, generational, and feminist dissent; the meaning of the counterculture; and current interpretive perspectives on the 60s. Film, music, and articles and books.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 116:
American Economic History (ECON 116, HISTORY 156)
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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 120:
Digital Media in Society (COMM 120W, COMM 220)
(Graduate students register for 220.) Contemporary debates concerning the social and cultural impact of digital media. Topics include the historical origins of digital media, cultural contexts of their development and use, and influence of digital media on conceptions of self, community, and state. Priority to Juniors and Seniors.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 121:
Introduction to American Literature (ENGLISH 21, ENGLISH 121)
(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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 121L:
Racial-Ethnic Politics in US (CSRE 121L, POLISCI 121L, PUBLPOL 121L)
This course examines various issues surrounding the role of race and ethnicity in the American political system. Specifically, this course will evaluate the development of racial group solidarity and the influence of race on public opinion, political behavior, the media, and in the criminal justice system. We will also examine the politics surrounding the Multiracial Movement and the development of racial identity and political attitudes in the 21st century. Stats 60 or Econ 1 is strongly recommended.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 121Z:
Political Power in American Cities (POLISCI 121, PUBLPOL 133, URBANST 111)
The major actors, institutions, processes, and policies of sub-state government in the U.S., emphasizing city general-purpose governments through a comparative examination of historical and contemporary politics. Issues related to federalism, representation, voting, race, poverty, housing, and finances.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci
AMSTUD 123D:
American Literature, 1855 to World War I
A survey of American writers from Whitman to T.S. Eliot, including Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Kate Chopin, Theodore Dreiser, and Henry James. Topics include the tension between romance and realism, the impact of naturalism and modernism, as well as race, gender, and the literary evolution of the American language.
Last offered: Autumn 2010
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
AMSTUD 123G:
Mark Twain: A Fresh Look at an Icon and Iconoclast, 100 Years after His Death
The vitality and versatility of a writer who has been called America's Rabelais, Cervantes, Homer, Tolstoy, and Shakespeare. Journalism, travel books, fiction, drama, and sketches by Mark Twain; how Twain engaged such issues as personal and national identity, satire and social justice, imperialism, race and racism, gender, performance, travel, and technology. What are Twain's legacies in 2010, the centennial of his death, the 175th anniversary of his birth, and the 125th anniversary of his most celebrated novel? Guests include actor Hal Holbrook.
Last offered: Spring 2010
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul
AMSTUD 124A:
The American West (ARTHIST 152, ENGLISH 124, HISTORY 151, POLISCI 124A)
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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
Instructors: ;
Cain, B. (PI);
Fishkin, S. (PI);
Freyberg, D. (PI);
Kennedy, D. (PI);
Nemerov, A. (PI);
Franco, A. (GP);
Ho, C. (GP);
McVarish, M. (GP);
Peterson, A. (GP);
Rempel, A. (GP)
AMSTUD 132:
American Art and Culture, 1528-1910 (ARTHIST 132, ARTHIST 332)
The visual arts and literature of the U.S. from the beginnings of European exploration to the Civil War. Focus is on questions of power and its relation to culture from early Spanish exploration to the rise of the middle classes. Cabeza de Vaca, Benjamin Franklin, John Singleton Copley, Phillis Wheatley, Charles Willson Peale, Emerson, Hudson River School, American Genre painters, Melville, Hawthorne and others.
Last offered: Autumn 2013
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II
AMSTUD 134:
Museum Cultures: Material Representation in the Past and Present (ARCHLGY 134, ARCHLGY 234, ARTHIST 284B, CSRE 134, EDUC 214, NATIVEAM 134)
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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 15 units total)
AMSTUD 135:
Deliberative Democracy and its Critics (COMM 135, COMM 235, COMM 335, POLISCI 234P, POLISCI 334P)
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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-ER, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 137:
The Dialogue of Democracy (COMM 137W, COMM 237, POLISCI 232T, POLISCI 332T)
All forms of democracy require some kind of communication so people can be aware of issues and make decisions. This course looks at competing visions of what democracy should be and different notions of the role of dialogue in a democracy. Is it just campaigning or does it include deliberation? Small scale discussions or sound bites on television? Or social media? What is the role of technology in changing our democratic practices, to mobilize, to persuade, to solve public problems? This course will include readings from political theory about democratic ideals - from the American founders to J.S. Mill and the Progressives to Joseph Schumpeter and modern writers skeptical of the public will. It will also include contemporary examinations of the media and the internet to see how those practices are changing and how the ideals can or cannot be realized.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:EC-EthicReas, WAY-ER, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 139B:
American Women Writers, 1850-1920
The ways in which female writers negotiated a series of literary, social, and intellectual movements, from abolitionism and sentimentalism in the nineteenth century to Progressivism and avant-garde modernism in the twentieth. Authors include Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Jacobs, Rebecca Harding Davis, Emily Dickinson, Kate Chopin, Edith Wharton, Gertrude Stein, Willa Cather, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-A-II
AMSTUD 140:
Stand Up Comedy and the "Great American Joke" Since 1945 (CSRE 140C)
Development of American Stand Up Comedy in the context of social and cultural eruptions after 1945, including the Borscht Belt, the Chitlin¿ Circuit, the Cold War, censorship battles, Civil Rights and other social movements of the 60s and beyond. The artistry of stories, monologues, jokes, impersonations, persona, social satire, scatology, obscenity, riffs, rants, shtick, and more by such artists as Lenny Bruce, Dick Gregory, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Margaret Cho, Sarah Silverman, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, as well as precursors such as Mark Twain, minstrelsy and vaudeville and related films, TV shows, poems and other manifestations of similar sensibilities and techniques.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
AMSTUD 142:
The Literature of the Americas (COMPLIT 142, CSRE 142, ENGLISH 172E)
A wide-ranging overview of the literatures of the Americas inncomparative perspective, emphasizing continuities and crises that are common to North American, Central American, and South American literatures as well as the distinctive national and cultural elements of a diverse array of primary works. Topics include the definitions of such concepts as empire and colonialism, the encounters between worldviews of European and indigenous peoples, the emergence of creole and racially mixed populations, slavery, the New World voice, myths of America as paradise or utopia, the coming of modernism, twentieth-century avant-gardes, and distinctive modern episodes--the Harlem Renaissance, the Beats, magic realism, Noigandres--in unaccustomed conversation with each other.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II
AMSTUD 143:
Introduction to African American Literature (AFRICAAM 43, ENGLISH 43, ENGLISH 143)
(English majors and others taking 5 units, register for 143.) African American literature from its earliest manifestations in the spirituals, trickster tales, and slave narratives to recent developments such as black feminist theory, postmodern fiction, and hip hop lyricism. We will engage some of the defining debates and phenomena within African American cultural history, including the status of realist aesthetics in black writing; the contested role of literature in black political struggle; the question of diaspora; the problem of intra-racial racism; and the emergence of black internationalism. Attuned to the invariably hybrid nature of this tradition, we will also devote attention to the discourse of the Enlightenment, modernist aesthetics, and the role of Marxism in black political and literary history.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 145M:
Culture Wars: Art and Social Conflict in the USA, 1890-1950 (ARTHIST 145, ARTHIST 345, FEMGEN 145)
This course examines social conflicts and political controversies in American culture through the lens of visual art and photography. We consider how visual images both reflect and participate in the social and political life of the nation and how the terms of citizenship have been represented¿and, at times, contested¿by artists throughout the first half of the 20th century. The class explores the relation between American art and the body politic by focusing on issues of poverty, war, censorship, consumerism, class identity, and racial division.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 146:
Asian American Culture and Community (ASNAMST 146S, COMPLIT 146, CSRE 146S)
This course introduces students to the histories of Asians in America, specifically as these histories are part of a broader Asia-US-Pacific history that characterized the 20th century and now the 21st. We will combine readings in history, literature, sociology, with community-based learning.nnThe course takes place over two quarters. The first quarter focuses on gaining knowledge of Asian America and discussion key topics that students wish to focus on collaboratively. During this first quarter we also learn about community-based learning, set up teams and projects, and develop relationships with community organizations. The second quarter students work with student liaisons (senior students who have experience in service learning) and complete their work with the community¿there are no formal class meetings this second quarter. Service Learning Course (certified by Haas Center). Course can be repeated once.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
AMSTUD 146C:
Hemingway, Hurston, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald (ENGLISH 146C)
While Hemingway and Fitzgerald were flirting with the expatriate avant-garde in Europe, Hurston and Faulkner were performing anthropological field-work in the local cultures of the American South. Focus on the tremendous diversity of concerns and styles of four writers who marked America's coming-of-age as a literary nation with their multifarious experiments in representing the regional and the global, the racial and the cosmopolitan, the macho and the feminist, the decadent and the impoverished.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 147J:
Studies in Music, Media, and Popular Culture: The Soul Tradition in African American Music (AFRICAAM 19, CSRE 147J, MUSIC 147J, MUSIC 247J)
The African American tradition of soul music from its origins in blues, gospel, and jazz to its influence on today's r&b, hip hop, and dance music. Style such as rhythm and blues, Motown, Southern soul, funk, Philadelphia soul, disco, Chicago house, Detroit techno, trip hop, and neo-soul. Soul's cultural influence and global reach; its interaction with politics, gender, place, technology, and the economy. Pre-/corequisite (for music majors): MUSIC 22. (WIM at 4 units only.)
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 15:
Global Flows: The Globalization of Hip Hop Art, Culture, and Politics
This course consists of film screenings, dialogues, and performances that examine and engage Hip Hop Cultures and artists from around the world. We will explore diverse scenes and artists, from the formation of new musical genres such as hiplife in Ghana, to the impact of the first Hip Hop concert in Morocco, to comparative investigations of race and citizenship in Japan, Cuba, Palestine, France, and the United States (including Black, Mexican and Arab-Americans).
| Units: 1-2
AMSTUD 150:
American Literature and Culture to 1855 (ENGLISH 23, ENGLISH 123)
(English majors and others taking 5 units, register for ENGLISH 123 or AMSTUD 150). A survey of early American writings, including sermons, poetry, captivity and slave narratives, essays, autobiography, and fiction, from the colonial era to the eve of the Civil War.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II
AMSTUD 150A:
Colonial and Revolutionary America (HISTORY 150A)
(Same as HISTORY 50A. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for HISTORY 150A.) Survey of the origins of American society and polity in the 17th and 18th centuries. Topics: the migration of Europeans and Africans and the impact on native populations; the emergence of racial slavery and of regional, provincial, Protestant cultures; and the political origins and constitutional consequences of the American Revolution.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 150B:
19th-Century America (AFRICAAM 150B, HISTORY 150B)
(Same as HISTORY 50B. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 150B.) Territorial expansion, social change, and economic transformation. The causes and consequences of the Civil War. Topics include: urbanization and the market revolution; slavery and the Old South; sectional conflict; successes and failures of Reconstruction; and late 19th-century society and culture.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 150C:
The United States in the Twentieth Century (HISTORY 150C)
(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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 150X:
From Gold Rush to Google Bus: History of San Francisco (HISTORY 152E, URBANST 150)
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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 152A:
"Mutually Assured Destruction": American Culture and the Cold War
The temperature of the early Cold War years via readings of Soviet and U.S. propaganda; documentary film and film noir; fiction by Bellow, Ellison, O¿Connor, and Mailer; social theory by Arendt, the New York Intellectuals, and the Frankfurt School; and political texts such as Kennan¿s Sources of Soviet Conduct, the ¿Truman Doctrine¿ speech, and the National Security Council Report 68. Major themes include the discourse of totalitarianism, MacCarthyism, strategies of containment, the nuclear threat, the figure of the ¿outsider¿ and the counterculture, and the cultural shift from sociological to psychological idioms.
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
AMSTUD 152C:
The JFK Era and American Literature (ENGLISH 152C)
Few U.S. presidents have exerted so great a fascination on the national and global post-World War II imagination as John F. Kennedy. As the 2013's semi-centennial anniversary of Kennedy's assassination attests, the production of films, television and multimedia programs, biographies, conspiracy theories, academic studies, and literary texts about the iconic JFK and his fabled, thousand-day presidency continues unabated. In this course, we will explore the attention Kennedy has drawn from writers and filmmakers like Norman Mailer, Lorraine Hansberry, Don DeLillo, Oliver Stone, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Stephen King.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II
AMSTUD 152G:
Harlem Renaissance (AFRICAAM 152G, ENGLISH 152G)
Examination of the explosion of African American artistic expression during 1920s and 30s New York known as the Harlem Renaissance. Amiri Baraka once referred to the Renaissance as a kind of "vicious Modernism", as a "BangClash", that impacted and was impacted by political, cultural and aesthetic changes not only in the U.S. but Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. Focus on the literature, graphic arts, and the music of the era in this global context.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 152K:
Mixed-Race Politics and Culture (AFRICAAM 226, CSRE 152K, ENGLISH 152K)
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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 154:
American Intellectual and Cultural History to the Civil War (HISTORY 154)
(Same as HISTORY 54. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 154.) How Americans considered problems such as slavery, imperialism, and sectionalism. Topics include: the political legacies of revolution; biological ideas of race; the Second Great Awakening; science before Darwin; reform movements and utopianism; the rise of abolitionism and proslavery thought; phrenology and theories of human sexuality; and varieties of feminism. Sources include texts and images.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 154X:
The American Civil War: A Visual History (ARTHIST 154, ARTHIST 354)
A painting of men charging across a field, a photograph of dead bodies in a ditch, a fragment of metal, a sliver of bone, and a brass button: how do we make sense of the visual record of the American Civil War (1861-65)? From the Capitol Dome to a skeleton dug up in a highway project a hundred years after the last battle, the course will consider the strange and scattered remnants of a famous era. Drawing on the poetry of Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and Herman Melville, the paintings of Winslow Homer, the photographs of Alexander Gardner, and the oratory of Abraham Lincoln, the course will examine what cannot be portrayed: the trauma of war.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II
AMSTUD 155C:
Abstract Expressionism: Painting/Modern/America (ARTHIST 155C)
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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
AMSTUD 156H:
Women and Medicine in US History: Women as Patients, Healers and Doctors (FEMGEN 156H, HISTORY 156G)
Women's bodies in sickness and health, and encounters with lay and professional healers from the 18th century to the present. Historical consttruction of thought about women's bodies and physical limitations; sexuality; birth control and abortion; childbirth; adulthood; and menopause and aging. Women as healers, including midwives, lay physicians, the medical profession, and nursing.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 157:
The Constitution: A Brief History (HISTORY 157, POLISCI 128S)
A broad survey of the Constitution, from its Revolutionary origins to the contemporary disputes over interpretation. Topics include the invention of the written constitution and interpretative canons; the origins of judicial review; the Civil War and Reconstruction as constitutional crises; the era of substantive due process; the rights revolution; and the Constitution in wartime.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-AmerCul
AMSTUD 157P:
Allyship: Challenging Privilege and Doing Solidarity in Movements for Collective Liberation (AFRICAAM 157P, CSRE 157P, FEMGEN 157P)
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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 2-4
AMSTUD 157X:
Language as Social and Political Activism: Feminist and LGBTQ Social and Political Movements (FEMGEN 157, FEMGEN 257)
How does a social or political movement gain traction? For example, how did 20th-century movements of the disenfranchised, such as the Civil Rights movement or Women¿s Suffrage, gain a voice an eventually enact change? In the mediascape of today, where everyone with access to a computer has voice, how does a movement like Occupy Wall Street change the national conversation? How do written and verbal choices of the movements impact their success? In this course, students will write and revise their own arguments in order to best understand the writing in these movements and to best produce future work for social change. We¿ll examine the role of rhetoric¿the use of argument to persuade¿in social movements working toward social justice.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
AMSTUD 159X:
American Photographs, 1839-1971: A Cultural History (ARTHIST 159, ARTHIST 359)
This course concentrates on many important American photographers, from the era of daguerreotypes to near the end of the pre-digital era. We study photographs of the Civil War, western exploration, artistic subjects, urban and rural poverty, skyscrapers, crime, fashion, national parks, and social protest, among other topics. Among the photographers we study: Carleton Watkins, Eadweard Muybridge, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Garry Winogrand, and Diane Arbus. Emphasis on developing students' abilities to discuss and write about photography; to see it.
Last offered: Spring 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II
AMSTUD 160:
Perspectives on American Identity
Required for American Studies majors. Changing interpretations of American identity and Americanness.
Terms: Win, Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 161:
Women in Modern America (CSRE 162, FEMGEN 161, HISTORY 161)
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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 165:
History of Higher Education in the U.S. (EDUC 165, EDUC 265, HISTORY 158C)
Major periods of evolution, particularly since the mid-19th century. Premise: insights into contemporary higher education can be obtained through its antecedents, particularly regarding issues of governance, mission, access, curriculum, and the changing organization of colleges and universities.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
AMSTUD 166:
Introduction to African American History - the Modern Freedom Struggle (AFRICAAM 166, HISTORY 166)
(AFRICAAM-166/ AMSTUD-166/ HISTORY-166) This course focuses on African-American political movements of the period after 1930, with special emphasis on the contributions of grassroots activists and visionary leaders such W. E. B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. The lectures will utilize audio-visual materials extensively, and the exams will cover these materials as well as the content of traditional lectures. Students are encouraged to undertake research projects utilizing the unique resources of the King Research and Education Institute.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-AmerCul
AMSTUD 178:
Ethnicity and Dissent in United States Art and Literature (ARTHIST 178, ARTHIST 378)
The role of the visual arts of the U.S. in the construction and contesting of racial, class, and gender hierarchies. Focus is on artists and writers from the 18th century to 1990s. How power, domination, and resistance work historically. Topics include: minstrelsy and the invention of race; mass culture and postmodernity; hegemony and language; memory and desire; and the borderlands.
Last offered: Spring 2004
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 179:
Introduction to American Law (POLISCI 122, PUBLPOL 302A)
For undergraduates. The structure of the American legal system including the courts; American legal culture; the legal profession and its social role; the scope and reach of the legal system; the background and impact of legal regulation; criminal justice; civil rights and civil liberties; and the relationship between the American legal system and American society in general.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci
AMSTUD 183:
Re- Imagining American Borders (CSRE 183, FEMGEN 183)
How novelists, filmmakers, and poets perceive racial, ethnic, gender, sexual preference, and class borders in the context of a national discussion about the place of Americans in the world. How Anna Deavere Smith, Sherman Alexie, or Michael Moore consider redrawing such lines so that center and margin, or self and other, do not remain fixed and divided. How linguistic borderlines within multilingual literature by Caribbean, Arab, and Asian Americans function. Can Anzaldúa's conception of borderlands be constructed through the matrix of language, dreams, music, and cultural memories in these American narratives? Course includes examining one's own identity.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 185:
American Studies Internship
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.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-3
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Abrams, W. (PI);
Bernstein, B. (PI);
Breitrose, H. (PI);
Bukatman, S. (PI);
Chang, G. (PI);
Eisen, A. (PI);
Elam, M. (PI);
Fishkin, S. (PI);
Freedman, E. (PI);
Gillam, R. (PI);
Jenkins, N. (PI);
Jones, G. (PI);
Mesa, C. (PI);
Obenzinger, H. (PI);
Palumbo-Liu, D. (PI);
Rakove, J. (PI);
Reich, R. (PI);
Saldivar, R. (PI);
White, R. (PI);
Wolf, B. (PI);
Wright, G. (PI);
Cacciari, L. (GP)
AMSTUD 186:
Tales of Three Cities: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles (ENGLISH 186)
How urban form and experience shape literary texts and how literary texts participate in the creation of place, through the literature of three American cities as they ascended to cultural and iconographical prominence: New York in the early to mid 19th century; Chicago in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; and Los Angeles in the mid to late 20th century.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-A-II
AMSTUD 186B:
American Song in the 20th Century and after (MUSIC 186B, MUSIC 286B)
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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-CE
AMSTUD 195:
Individual Work
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-5
| Repeatable
for credit
Instructors: ;
Abrams, W. (PI);
Bernstein, B. (PI);
Breitrose, H. (PI);
Bukatman, S. (PI);
Chang, G. (PI);
Eisen, A. (PI);
Elam, M. (PI);
Fishkin, S. (PI);
Freedman, E. (PI);
Gillam, R. (PI);
Jenkins, N. (PI);
Jimenez, T. (PI);
Jones, G. (PI);
Koelle, A. (PI);
Mesa, C. (PI);
Obenzinger, H. (PI);
Palumbo-Liu, D. (PI);
Rakove, J. (PI);
Reich, R. (PI);
Richardson, J. (PI);
Rutten, A. (PI);
Saldivar, R. (PI);
White, R. (PI);
Wilcox, M. (PI);
Wolf, B. (PI);
Wright, G. (PI);
Cacciari, L. (GP)
AMSTUD 201:
History of Education in the United States (EDUC 201, HISTORY 158B)
How education came to its current forms and functions, from the colonial experience to the present. Focus is on the 19th-century invention of the common school system, 20th-century emergence of progressive education reform, and the developments since WW II. The role of gender and race, the development of the high school and university, and school organization, curriculum, and teaching.
| Units: 3-5
AMSTUD 214:
The American 1960s: Thought, Protest, and Culture
The meaning of the American 60s emphasizing ideas, culture, protest, and the new sensibility that emerged. Topics: black protest, the new left, the counterculture, feminism, the new literature and journalism of the 60s, the role of the media in shaping dissent, and the legacy of 60s protest. Interpretive materials from film, music, articles, and books.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 226:
Race and Racism in American Politics (CSRE 226, POLISCI 226, POLISCI 326)
Topics include the historical conceptualization of race; whether and how racial animus reveals itself and the forms it might take; its role in the creation and maintenance of economic stratification; its effect on contemporary U.S. partisan and electoral politics; and policy making consequences.
Last offered: Winter 2013
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 226X:
Curating Experience: Representation in and beyond Museums (CSRE 226X, EDUC 226X)
In an age when some 50% of museum visitors only "visit" museums online and when digital technologies have broken open archival access, anyone can be a curator, a critic, an historian, an archivist. In this context, how do museums create experiences that teach visitors about who they are and about the world around them? What are the politics of representation that shape learning in these environments? Using an experimental instructional approach, students will reconsider and redefine what it means to curate experience.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2-4
| UG Reqs: WAY-A-II, WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 231X:
Knowing God: Learning Religion in Popular Culture (EDUC 231X, JEWISHST 291X, RELIGST 231X)
This course will examine how people learn religion outside of school, and in conversation with popular cultural texts and practices. Taking a broad social-constructivist approach to the variety of ways people learn, this course will explore how people assemble ideas about faith, identity, community, and practice, and how those ideas inform individual, communal and global notions of religion. Much of this work takes place in formal educational environments including missionary and parochial schools, Muslim madrasas or Jewish yeshivot. However, even more takes place outside of school, as people develop skills and strategies in conversation with broader social trends. This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to questions that lie at the intersection of religion, popular culture, and education.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
AMSTUD 240A:
Pre-Honors Seminar
Methods, interpretations, and issues pertinent to honors work in American Studies. Open to juniors interested in honors.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 1-5
AMSTUD 246B:
Pop Art (ARTHIST 246B)
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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
AMSTUD 250:
Senior Research
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.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum
| Units: 1-15
| Repeatable
for credit
AMSTUD 256:
America- China Relations (HISTORY 256, HISTORY 356)
The history of turbulent relations, military conflict, and cultural clashes between the U.S. and China, and the implications for the domestic lives of these increasingly interconnected countries. Diplomatic, political, social, cultural, and military themes from early contact to the recent past.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-GlobalCom
AMSTUD 258:
Topics in the History of Sexuality: Sexual Violence in America (CSRE 192E, FEMGEN 258, FEMGEN 358, HISTORY 258, HISTORY 358)
This undergraduate/graduate colloquium explores recent historical interpretations of the history of sexuality, with a focus on sexual violence. The readings cover changing definitions and laws, cultural representations, and the role of gender, race, and age in the construction of rape and other forms of sexual violence. Topics include slavery; incest, seduction, and statutory rape reform; the racialization of rape and the anti-lynching movement; street harassment; men and boys as victims; war and conquest; and feminist responses to rape.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 260:
Disability, Gender. & Identity (FEMGEN 260, FEMGEN 360, HUMBIO 141)
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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-Gender, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 265:
Writing Asian American History (ASNAMST 265, HISTORY 265, HISTORY 365)
Recent scholarship in Asian American history, with attention to methodologies and sources. Topics: racial ideologies, gender, transnationalism, culture, and Asian American art history. Primary research paper.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-AmerCul, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 267E:
Martin Luther King, Jr. - His Life, Ideas, and Legacy (AFRICAAM 267E, HISTORY 267E)
Using the unique documentary resources and publications of Stanford's King Research and Education Institute, this course will provide a general introduction to King's life, visionary ideas, and historical significance. In addition to lectures and discussions, the course will include presentations of documentaries such as Eyes on the Prize. Students will be expected to read the required texts, participate in class discussions, and submit a research paper or an audio-visual project developed in consultation with the professor.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4-5
AMSTUD 271:
Mexicans in the United States (CHILATST 171, CSRE 171H, HISTORY 271)
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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
AMSTUD 272E:
Theories of Citizenship and Sovereignty in a Transnational Context (CHILATST 172, CSRE 172H, FEMGEN 272E, HISTORY 272E, HISTORY 372E)
This course explores the multiple meanings of citizenship and the ways in which they change when examined using different geographic scales (from the local to the transnational). The course will pair theoretical readings on citizenship with case studies that focus on North America. Topics include: definitions of citizenship; the interrelation of ideas of citizenship with those of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality; the relationship between sovereignty and territoriality; human and civil rights; and immigration.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
AMSTUD 275R:
Roads Not Taken, 1880-1960 (ETHICSOC 275R, PHIL 275R, POLISCI 335L)
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.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
AMSTUD 279X:
American Jewish History: Learning to be Jewish in America (EDUC 279X, HISTORY 288D, JEWISHST 297X, RELIGST 279X)
This course will be a seminar in American Jewish History through the lens of education. It will address both the relationship between Jews and American educational systems, as well as the history of Jewish education in America. Plotting the course along these two axes will provide a productive matrix for a focused examination of the American Jewish experience. History students must take course for at least 3 units.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2-4
AMSTUD 281:
Asian Religions in America; Asian American Religions (ASNAMST 281, RELIGST 281, RELIGST 381)
This course will analyze both the reception in America of Asian religions (i.e. of Buddhism in the 19th century), and the development in America of Asian American religious traditions.
Last offered: Winter 2014
| Units: 4
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP
AMSTUD 32:
The 5th Element: Hip Hop Knowledge, Pedagogy, and Social Justice (AFRICAAM 32, CSRE 32A, EDUC 32X, EDUC 432X, TAPS 32)
This course-series brings together leading scholars with critically-acclaimed artists, local teachers, youth, and community organizations to consider the complex relationships between culture, knowledge, pedagogy and social justice. Participants will examine the cultural meaning of knowledge as "the 5th element" of Hip Hop Culture (in addition to MCing, DJing, graffiti, and dance) and how educators and cultural workers have leveraged this knowledge for social justice. Overall, participants will gain a strong theoretical knowledge of culturally relevant and culturally sustaining pedagogies and learn to apply this knowledge by engaging with guest artists, teachers, youth, and community youth arts organizations.
| Units: 1-5
AMSTUD 103:
On the Road: Cars and the Auto-Mobility of Race, Gender, Class, and Age in American Literature
The car in American literature, history, and culture, provides hope and makes it possible to relocate, transcend social status, and reinvent oneself. In this class we will examine how the car allows Americans to navigate identity in new ways. Readings include: Fitzgerald, Stein, Steinbeck, Escovedo-Colton, Nabokov, Barrett, Walker, Murray, Simpson, Wolfe, Kerouac, Davis, Freeman, Gilroy, Lucasi, Hamper, Moore, and Nass.
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
AMSTUD 105N:
Law and Popular Culture
This seminar focuses on the interface between two important subjects: law and popular culture. Before class, students will see a series of films or television shows relating to law, lawyers, and the legal system. There is also a weekly homework assignment based on materials in the assigned text and the assigned film or TV show. We will discuss the pop culture treatment of subjects such as the adversary system, good and bad lawyers, female and gay lawyers, the work life of lawyers, legal education, ethical issues, the jury system, and criminal and civil justice. The seminar discussions will draw on film theory and film-making technique to deepen understanding of the interrelationship between law and popular culture. The discussions will illuminate the ways in which pop culture products both reflect and change social views about law and lawyers. The assigned text is Michael Asimow & Shannon Mader, "Law and Popular Culture: A Course Book" (Peter Lang 2013).
| Units: 3
AMSTUD 121X:
Hip Hop, Youth Identities, and the Politics of Language (AFRICAAM 121X, ANTHRO 121A, CSRE 121X, EDUC 121X, LINGUIST 155)
Focus is on issues of language, identity, and globalization, with a focus on Hip Hop cultures and the verbal virtuosity within the Hip Hop nation. Beginning with the U.S., a broad, comparative perspective in exploring youth identities and the politics of language in what is now a global Hip Hop movement. Readings draw from the interdisciplinary literature on Hip Hop cultures with a focus on sociolinguistics and youth culture.
| Units: 3-4
AMSTUD 151H:
ID21 STRATLAB: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Improvising Identities (CSRE 151H, DANCE 151H, DANCE 251H, TAPS 151H, TAPS 351H)
A quarter-long exploration of improvisation in relationship to identity and race in the 21st century in which students investigate new dynamics of doing and thinking identities through the arts. Panel discussions, performances, and talks that engage critically with the theme, concept, and practice of improvising identity across a variety of contexts and genres such as jazz music, modern dance, contemporary art, race comedy, food, and hip-hop poetry/freestyle. Strategies that artists/scholars have used to overturn essentializing notions of identity in theory and practice.
| Units: 4-5
AMSTUD 164C:
From Freedom to Freedom Now: African American History, 1865-1965 (HISTORY 164C)
(Same as HISTORY 64C. History majors and others taking 5 units, register for 164C.) Explores the working lives, social worlds, political ideologies and cultural expressions of African Americans from emancipation to the early civil rights era. Topics include: the transition from slavery to freedom, family life, work, culture, leisure patterns, resistance, migration and social activism. Draws largely on primary sources including autobiographies, memoirs, letters, personal journals, newspaper articles, pamphlets, speeches, literature, film and music.
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-AmerCul
AMSTUD 186A:
American Hauntings
Cultural, psychological, social, and political dynamics of haunting in American literature, from the early national period to the late 20th century. Sources include ghost stories and other instances of supernatural, emotional, or mental intervention. Authors include Charles Brockden Brown, Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Charles Chesnutt, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Toni Morrison, and Stephen King.
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
AMSTUD 244:
The Visual Culture of the American Home Front, 1941-1945 (ARTHIST 244)
How does home front of WWII look now? What sort of meanings appear with the vantage of more than sixty years' distance? Examining Hollywood films from those years -films made during the war but mostly not directly about the war - the seminar focuses on developing students' abilities to write emotion-based criticism and history. Weekly short papers, each one in response to a film screening, are required. Among the films screened: Shadow of a Doubt, Gaslight, I Walked with a Zombie, The Best Years of Our Lives.
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum
AMSTUD 257:
Journalism and Imaginative Writing in America (COMM 278)
Walt Whitman spent twenty-five years as a journalist before publishing his first book of poems. Mark Twain was a journalist for twenty years before publishing his first novel. Topics include examination of how writers¿ backgrounds in journalism shaped the poetry or fiction for which they are best known; study of recent controversies surrounding writers who blurred the line between journalism and fiction. Writers include Whitman, Fanny Fern, Twain, Pauline Hopkins, Theodore Dreiser, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ernest Hemingway, Meridel LeSueur.
| Units: 5
AMSTUD 261A:
Geography, Time, and Trauma in Asian American Literature (ASNAMST 187)
The notion that homes can be stable locations for cultural, racial, ethnic, and similarly situated identity categories. Tthe possibility that there really is no place like home for Asian American subjects. How geography, landscape, and time situate traumas within fictional Asian American narratives.
| Units: 5
AMSTUD 261E:
Mixed Race Literature in the U.S. and South Africa (AFRICAAM 261E)
As scholar Werner Sollors recently suggested, novels, poems, stories about interracial contacts and mixed race constitute ¿an orphan literature belonging to no clear ethnic or national tradition.¿ Yet the theme of mixed race is at the center of many national self-definitions, even in our U.S. post-Civil Rights and South Africa¿s post-Apartheid era. This course examines aesthetic engagements with mixed race politics in these trans- and post-national dialogues, beginning in the 1700s and focusing on the 20th and 21st centuries.
| Units: 5
AMSTUD 262C:
African American Literature and the Retreat of Jim Crow
After the unprecedented carnage of WWII, the postwar era witnessed the slow decline of the segregated Jim Crow order and the onset of landmark civil rights legislation. What role did African American literature and culture play in this historical process? What does this shift in racial theory and praxis mean for black literary production, a tradition constituted by the experience of slavery and racial oppression? Focus on these questions against the backdrop of contemporaneous developments: the onset of the Cold War, decolonization and the formation of the Third World, and the emergence of the "new liberalism.".
| Units: 5
AMSTUD 262D:
African American Poetics (AFRICAAM 262D)
Examination of African American poetic expressive forms from the 1700s to the 2000s, considering the central role of the genre--from sonnets to spoken word, from blues poetry to new media performance--in defining an evolving literary tradition and cultural identity.
| Units: 5
