AMST-ENGL 1201 / HIST 1503: Introduction to American Studies

TuTh  2:00-3:15pm, AMST class #5832

In this particular section, we will use American Studies methods the study major social movements in 20^th century U.S. history, and how these movements, often beginning on the fringes, have transformed beliefs, policies, and institutions in the American mainstream.  We will look at movements on the left and the right in order to understand our contemporary political environment.  On the left, we will study the Popular Front of the 1930s, civil rights, the various movements of the late 1960s, AIDS activism in the 1980s, and finally, antifa.  On the right, we will study the Ku Klux Klan, Father Coughlin’s “Christian Front” in the 1930s, George Wallace’s third party presidential campaign in 1968, neoliberalism, and the alt-right.  As we do so, we will be mindful of how these U.S.-based political movements were shaped by global political currents, including fascism in Europe, anticolonial struggles in the global south, or communism in Asia and the USSR.  We will also study how economic structures frame the lived experiences out of which social movements emerge. .

Professor: Chris Vials

 

AMST / ENGL 2200:  Literature and Culture of North America before 1800

MWF 10:10-11:00,  AMST class #10902

This course examines the early written and oral record of the area that eventually became the United States. It does so within the context of various non-textual analogues (e.g., architecture, art, landscape, material culture, and social, economic, and political institutions) that will be introduced during weekly discussions and mini-lectures. The goal is to achieve a holistic understanding of the ways in which peoples of many varied backgrounds, from the Asian-derived indigenous inhabitants of North America to the various immigrant populations from continental Europe and the British Isles and the enslaved Africans they introduced to the Western hemisphere, came to express their views of the land and their experiences on it and with each other.

Professor:  Wayne Franklin

 

AMST / AASI 2201     Introduction to Asian American Studies

TuTh 11:00-12:15,  AMST class #10256

According to recent U.S. Census figures, Asian Americans, including long-time residents and newcomers, are the fastest growing racial minority population in the United States. Asian immigrants and refugees now make up about half of the people immigrating to the United States. Their histories, cultures, and experiences are crucial to understanding both historical and contemporary formations of American citizenship, identities, and values. This course is an introduction to the field of Asian American Studies, an interdisciplinary field of inquiry that uses histories, films, memoirs, and other texts to study how the history of immigration, exclusion, and naturalization laws has visibly shaped existing Asian American communities and identities, and how “Asian America” is central to a more general understanding of American culture and public life. The course is organized chronologically. We will first begin with an introduction to the field of Asian American Studies by asking the questions: What is Asian America? What is Asian American Studies? We will then begin exploring the rich history of Asian migration to the United States beginning in the 19th century and the unprecedented debates over race, immigration, and citizenship that resulted, to contemporary issues such as Asian American activism, stereotypes, and popular culture. Throughout the semester, we will interrogate all of these issues by incorporating exercises that emphasize critical reading, thinking, and writing.

Professor:  Na-Rae Kim

 

AMST / ENGL 2276:   American Utopias and Dystopias

TuTh 8:00-9:15am, AMST class #13039