WHAT IS AMERICAN STUDIES?
Prerequisites: None Corequisites: None What is America? Who is American? How do we live in America? This new lecture course will introduce you to the dynamic, inter-disciplinary field of American Studies.
- TR 6:10 p.m.-7:25 p.m.
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Instructor:
Manu Karuka
Info - 4 points
American Studies Methods: Cultural Studi
AMST Methods: Cultural St
The study of culture is at the heart of the humanities and social sciences. Each discipline outlines a specific way of defining culture, a specific set of research questions, and a specific way to collect and analyze evidence. Though it is an interdisciplinary formation, American Studies, too, is marked by specific ways of approaching the study of culture. In contemporary American Studies, this approach is rooted in historical materialism. This course serves as an introduction to the historical materialist study of culture. Our course of study is organized chronologically, and spans Brazil, England, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Jamaica, Peru, and the Soviet Union.
This is a reading intensive course. For each meeting, we will engage in a close reading and discussion of a major text in the historical materialist study of culture. We will discuss these texts with the following questions in mind: how does this text define culture? How does this text identify the significance of culture? What are the kinds of examples and evidence that the text draws on to support its argument? How does this text propose the study of culture? Students in the class are responsible for short papers that answer these questions. You will also select a specific cultural “text” and draw on our readings to build out a series of research questions.
- M 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
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Instructor:
Manu Karuka
Info - 4 points
Oral History Methods & Praxis in America
ORAL HISTORY METHODS & PR
This course introduces students to the philosophy, ethics, and practice of oral history with specific emphasis on interview and transcription techniques and the use of oral history in interdisciplinary research and analysis. This course will also include instruction on the archival collection, preservation, description, and digitization of oral history interviews.
Course themes include:
Introduction to Oral History
Foundations of Oral History
Ethical and Legal Considerations (IRB, vulnerable populations, shared authority)
Oral History Best Practices
Oral History and Memory
Interviewing
Transcription and Metadata as Political Acts
Oral History as Primary Sources in Research and Writing
Community Oral History
Oral History as Public History
Oral History and Social Justice
Oral History Online
Oral History and Exhibitions/Programming
- W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
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Instructor:
Kimberly Springer
CULPA: 1 h-index: 13 Info - 3 points
SENIOR RESEARCH ESSAY SEMINAR
- M 9 a.m.-10:50 a.m.
- M 11 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
- W 10:10 a.m.-noon
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Instructor:
Kimberly Springer
CULPA: 1 h-index: 13 Info - 4 points