American Studies Program

SPRING 2008 REGISTRATION

Here is a list of courses that satisfy requirements for the American Studies major and minor being offered in Spring 2008. In addition, students can also sign up for independent study courses (AMS 377, AMS 477), honors thesis (AMS 480), and internship credits (AMS 340). There are a variety of opportunities for internships, both locally and nationally. In order to register for an internship, independent study, or honors thesis, you will need to fill out an Independent Study Permit Form available in the programs office or from the registrar. Faculty in American Studies would be happy to talk with you about the courses you are considering or possible internships or independent study projects. Please contact the director of American Studies if you have any questions:

Peter Williams
Interim Director of American Studies
9-4305
williapw@muohio.edu

Course Offerings—Spring 2008
American Studies

MPF 101 Introduction to American Studies (3)
A—MWF 9-9:50am--Godeanu
B—MWF 11-11:50am--Godneau
C—TR 11am-12:15pm--Hamlin
This course will introduce students to the study of culture in the United States from an interdisciplinary perspective. Drawing from a variety of source materials ranging from literary and historical texts to visual images and material objects, and relying on a range of interpretive techniques, students examine aspects of thought, expression, and behavior that have shaped and defined the complex modern society of the US.

101 Introduction to American Studies—Honors (3)—MWF 1-1:50pm--Quinn
This is an interdisciplinary course that will introduce you to the field of American Studies through an examination of three basic human needs: shelter, food, and clothing. Together we will explore a range of sources to probe how people in the United States address these needs. We will study the practices, values, beliefs, and symbols of Americans – and, importantly, how these practices, values, beliefs, and symbols change over time.

201 Approaches to American Culture (3) – MW 11:00am-12:15pm--Quinn
This section of AMS 201 will focus on the dynamic relationship between people and places in the United States. Our seminar readings will include an assortment of case studies, scholarly essays, and theoretical pieces. Additionally, we will conduct fieldwork independently and collectively in southwestern and central Ohio. The disciplines that inform this course include: architecture, urban planning, cultural geography, visual culture studies, historic preservation, and public art and history.

214 History of Miami University (3)—TR 3:30-4:45pm--Ellison
Miami University since 1809 from perspectives of local culture; national, social, and economic forces; and history of higher education. Key moments of change; continuity and difference through time; groups and traditions; architecture and landscape; influences of gender, class, race, and region.

222 Italian American Culture (3) – MWF 9-9:50am—Matteo + movie screenings W 7:30-10:00pm
A survey and investigations of the history of Italian immigration in America, the development of Italian American communities across the land, and the contributions that Italian Americans have made to American society and culture. Taught in English. No prerequisites.

301-A Practice in American Studies (3) --TR 2:00-3:15pm --Hamlin
AMS 301 will focus this spring with the museum in the United States. We will take a look at the emergence of the museum in Europe and its transplantation to America in the 19th century; the varieties of museums, for art, history, “natural history,” and ethnology; its flourishing in America’s emergent cities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; the historic preservation movement and “living history” museums such as Colonial Williamsburg and Mystic Seaport; historical “theme parks” such as Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village and Walt Disney’s “Frontierland”; museum architecture; and the transformation of American museums beginning in the post-World War II era. The class will consist of discussions of a variety of readings; PowerPoint presentations on museum architecture; field trips to local museums; guest presentations by Miami scholars; and students’ PowerPoint presentations on individual projects involving the history and character of a museum of their choice.

302 U.S. and the World (3) –TR 9:30-10:45am--Stevens
This course is designed to explore issues of American culture, politics and history in a postnational world where, paradoxically, national boundaries are beginning to re-emerge. The focus is on the position of the U.S. in the intricate network of world cultures, and how American culture itself is influenced, but equally influences the patterns of globalization. The first part of the course will deal with the issues connected with the globalization of American culture, the parallels that can be drawn between postcolonialism and globalization as possible paradigms for the interdisciplinary study of culture. The following unit will focus on strategies of configuring national identity in an immigration society; here we will contrast the example of Canada (the so-called (mosaic model), with the U.S. (the melting-pot model). Next we will explore the historical contextualization of democracy and of ‘the American way’, and the transition from American democracy being perceived as a political ‘experiment’ in the nineteenth century, to being accepted as the ‘norm’, and exported worldwide. The postcolonial complexities of the U.S. will be presented in parallel with its neo-colonialism, in the context of a transnational, globalizing world. The new network of relationships between America and a globalizing ‘world’ in the new medium of the internet will be explored in the third unit, while the final unit will focus on popular culture. It will explore how the tension between ethnic stereotypes and national identity is translated in popular culture, and how the U.S. is perceived from abroad.

310U-A Special Topics in American Studies (3) “A View From Abroad: National Stereotypes in Popular Culture,”--MWF 2-2:50pm, T 6-9pm film--Godeanu
This course is designed to explore the representations of the U.S in Europe through the lenses of some of the national myths structuring the American ‘narration of the nation’. National images and national stereotypes belong to the imagery of a society, so that they do not constitute the exclusive field of study of literature. Consequently, in addition to literature, in this course we will explore how popular culture, primarily film, has taken up these national images and circulated them. The first unit will approach the problem of the nation as imagined community, with an invented tradition. It will juxtapose the European version of nationalism to the North American one, while discussing the place that immigration and cultural diversity occupy in the American imaginary. The second unit will approach the concept Americanness and its relation with the American self-image, the doctrine of American exceptionalism, and that of the cultural melting pot. This unit will explore the tensions between ethnic identity and national identity in the U.S., and discuss national stereotypes in ethnic humor and in film. The course then focuses on three elements of traditional representations of America: America as the Promised Land, the Wild West, and the Superhero. The interpretation of three elements will be explored both in American and European movies. The final unit analyzes the role of the non-Western Other in the creation of a more unitary Euro-American perception of the self, in the context of a transnational, globalizing world.

341 Protestantism & Dev./American Culture (4) –2-3:50pm--Williams
This course is a general introduction to the major Protestant traditions (Lutheran, Anglican, Reformed, Wesleyan), their development in the US as movements and denominations, and their interaction with broader themes in American culture. Groups studied will include Puritans, Unitarians, Transcendentalists, Quakers, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Mainline Protestants, Evangelicals, Fundamentalists, and Pentecostals. In addition to two hour exams and a final, each student will prepare a field-based report on two different worship services, one “mainline” and one Evangelical.

362 Era of the American Revolution (3)—12:30-1:45pm—A.Cayton
Origins, events, and legacies of the American Revolution, with particular emphasis on political and social developments.

397 American Environmental History (3) –MWF 12-12:50--Armitage
Introduction to human-natural environment relationships in English North America and the United States, ca. 1600 to present. Chronological and regional approach with emphasis upon political economy and the American conservationist/environmentalist movement.

MPC 401 Senior Capstone in American Studies “True Stories: The Writer’s Craft in Narrative Nonfiction” (4)—TR 2-3:50pm--Tobin
You know narrative nonfiction even if you don’t know its name. It’s the genre that includes Seabiscuit and A Beautiful Mind, Friday Night Lights and Black Hawk Down. Each was a book that became a movie because a writer told a compelling true story—a narrative built out of facts, thoroughly researched and documented. Narrative nonfiction has become a major genre in its own right—a vehicle for journalism, history, cultural commentary and literary insight. We’ll start with this deceptively simple question: What is a story and how does it really work? Then: What challenges arise when the writer decides to tell a story that presents itself as true? We’ll study at least one milestone work as a guiding example, and we’ll compare several techniques for constructing nonfiction narratives. From these you’ll devise a plan for developing your own true story on a topic of your choice—a major piece of writing that you’ll draft and revise with help from the instructor and fellow students.

435 Public History Practicum (3)—TR 12:30-1:45pm—Sheumaker
Public history offers the opportunity to practice history and engage in the community in which you live. Students will conduct research projects in community history using the McGuffey Museum collection and local history resources. They will present their research to the general public through posting on the McGuffey Web Museum of Local History. Past students have received internships based in part on their knowledge and use of Dreamweaver software, which students use to create their sites. Possible topics include stone masons and their work in Oxford, domestic life in the 1830s and 1840s as seen in the McGuffey house, African American religious life in Oxford, local cemeteries and the history within, etc. Absolutely no web writing experience required.

Courses from the following cognate departments and programs: (these courses are especially useful in fulfilling the American Culture Focus for the major and the minor)

Anthropology
ATH 185 Cultural Diversity in the U.S. (3)—MWF 10-10:50am--Hargrove
Anthropological introduction to the diversity of contemporary cultural life in the United States.

ATH 312 Introduction to North American Archeology (4)—TR 2-3:50--Spielbauer
Survey of the prehistory of North America including Middle America from the first peopling to contact times.

ATH 325 Identity, Race, Gender and Class (3)—TR 11am-12:15pm—Paulson
No description available.

Black World Studies
BWS 151 Introduction to Black World Studies (4)--A-TR 2-3:50pm—Hunter;
B-TR 11am-12:15pm—Hunter; C-TR 10-11:50am--Giles
Introduces the Afrocentric perspective as it has developed in anthropology, history, political science, geography, sociology, religious studies, mass communications, theater, art, etc. Covers theories, research, methodologies, and practice of Africana studies. Students develop historical and contemporary understanding of the African diaspora.

BWS 337 African American Writing, 1878-1945 (3)—MWF 3-3:50pm--Taylor
Survey of African American writing from after the Reconstruction era to World War II, with special attention to the emergence and history of the New Negro Renaissance. Among the writers studied are Paul Laurence Dunbar, Charles W. Chesnutt, W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Sterling A. Brown, Alain Locke, Margaret Walker, and Richard Wright.

BWS 348 Race and Ethnic Relations (3--TR 2:00-3:15pm--Coates
Description and analysis of emergence and trends of minority relations in the U.S.

BWS 365 Civil War & Reconstruction Era (3)—MWF 9-9:50am—Jackson
Origins and growth of sectionalism with emphasis on the period after 1850, secession and Civil War, Federal and Confederate governments, Reconstruction, and foreign issues.

Communication
COM 143 Intro. To Mass Communications (3)—TR 9:30-10:45am--Becker
Introduction to major mass communication theories as a context to examining some major issues surrounding mass media in American society.

COM 146 Media Aesthetics (3)—A-MWF 8-8:50am; B-MWF 9-9:50am--German
This course is an introduction to media aesthetics. Students will develop an awareness of the artistic choices necessary for good television production and will be introduced to design elements and techniques available for use.

COM 205 American Film as Communication (3)—A-TR 8-9:15am; B-TR 11am-
12:15pm; films shown for both sections T6-9:30pm--Scott
Introduction to the study of communication via American motion pictures. Focuses on analysis of technical and narrative elements found in motion pictures. Screening of films provides backdrop for discussing visual impact of motion pictures as significant form of mass communication.

COM 215 Electronic Media History (3)—A-MWF 10-10:50am—Sholle;
B-12-12:50pm--Staff
Survey of electronic media history. Beginning with early experiments in electromagnetism, students examine development and impact of electronic media in the United States and international settings. Prerequisite: major status or permission of instructor.

COM 354 Media and Society (3)—TR 12:30-1:45pm--Becker
Survey of the place of electronic media in society. Topics covered include media and culture; media economics, industries, and institutions; politics of media content; media and social representation. Prerequisite: junior standing, major status, or permission of instructor.

COM 437 Advocacy in Contemporary America (3)—TR 12:30-1:45pm--Voth
Analyzes post-World War II public persuasion, including messages from a broad variety of media contexts.

COM 447 Mass Media Criticism (3)—MWF 11-11:50am--German
Examination of the performance of mass media, especially television, in current social settings. Topics include news and entertainment programming and relationship between media industry and its products. Prerequisite: senior standing, major status, or permission of instructor.

Comparative Religion
REL 341 Protestantism and the Development of American Culture (4)—
TR 2-3:50pm--Williams
See AMS 341 description.

Educational Leadership
EDL 282 Cultural Studies, Power and Education (3)—TR 3:30-4:45pm--Staff
Introduces the basic concepts used in cultural studies by studying the locations and uses of power in the education of the American public.

EDL 334 Youth Subcultures, Popular Culture, and Non-Formal Education (3)—
TR 5-6:15--Weems
Using contemporary social and educational theory, this course covers recent development in understanding youth cultures including work from England, the United States, and other countries. Focuses on youth subcultures and popular culture in the United States.

English
ENG 142 Life and Thought in American Literature 1865-1945 (3)—
A-TR 3:30-4:45pm; B-TR 5-6:15pm—Weaver
Introduction to multiplicity of voices in American culture as expressed in literary texts written in and about America: (141) from colonial period through 1865; (MPT 142) 1865 - 1945 (MPT 143) 1945 to present.

ENG 143 American Literature 1945 to Present (3)—TR 11am-12:15pm--Melley
See 142 above.

ENG 202 Varieties of American English (3)—TR 2-3:15pm--Rahman
This interactive course focuses on varieties of English within the context of diverse cultures in the United States. Primary topics include: linguistic diversity, language change, gender differences in language use, language (use) and social class, attitudes toward language as well as examination of specific varieties of English such as African American English, Appalachian English, Native American English, Vietnamese American English, English spoken by persons of Latin American descent, Hawaiian Pidgin English, Gullah, Louisiana Creole, and others.

ENG 248 Asian American Literature (3)—TR 3:30-4:45pm--Cho
Survey of Asian American writing (including the novel, poetry, drama, nonfiction, etc.) from the early 20th century to the present. Addresses immigration experiences, growing up in America, and writing as cultural expression. Course uses an interdisciplinary approach to the study of literature, drawing on history, sociology, ethnic studies, and current trends in American literary studies.

ENG 293 (MPT) Contemporary American Fiction (3)—TR 11am-12:15pm--Parks
Study of new trends and movements in American fiction of the last 10 to 15 years, focusing upon such issues as vision of society, experiments in narrative form and content, mode of humor, treatment of reality, and changing images of the self.

ENG 337 African American Writing, 1878-1945 (3)—MWF 3-3:50--Dunning
Survey of African American writing from after the Reconstruction era to World War II, with special attention to the emergence and history of the New Negro Renaissance. Among the writers studied are Paul Laurence Dunbar, Charles W. Chesnutt, W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Sterling A. Brown, Alain Locke, Margaret Walker, and Richard Wright.

ENG 352 American Literature, 1810-1865 (3)—TR 11am-12:15pm--Rees
Intensive study of issues animating American culture between 1810 and the end of the Civil War, as articulated in selected texts from a variety of literary forms.

ENG 355 American Literature 1945 to Present (3)—TR 9:30-10:45am--Parks
Intensive study of issues animating American culture from 1945 to the present as articulated in selected texts from a variety of literary forms and traditions.

Film Studies
FST 205 American Film as Communication (3)—See COM205
Introduction to the study of communication via American motion pictures. Focuses on analysis of technical and narrative elements found in motion pictures. Screening of films provides backdrop for discussing visual impact of motion pictures as significant form of mass communication.

Geography
GEO 201 Geography of Urban Diversity (3)—A-MWF 9-9:50am—Rubenstein;
B-TR 2-3:15pm--Prytherch
Location of economic activities and social groups among and within U.S. urban areas. Geographic perspectives on underlying processes and resulting problems resulting from changing distributions.

GEO 454 Urban and Regional Planning (3)—TR 11am-12:15--Prytherch
No description available.

GEO 459 Advanced Urban and Regional Planning (3)—F 1-5:30pm--Rubenstein
Application of planning tools and techniques to significant urban and regional land use problems. Evaluation of major planning tools for redevelopment of central cities and declining regions in the U.S. Innovative techniques for solving American urban spatial problems at local to national levels.

Gerontology
GTY 154 Aging in American Society (3)
A-MWF 9-9:50am--Staff D-TR 9:30-10:45am--Kinney
B-MWF 10-10:50am--Staff E-TR 12:30-1:45pm--Staff
C-TR 11am-12:15pm--Staff
Overview of the processes of aging. Emphasis placed on "typical" aspects of aging from three perspectives: the aging individual, social context of aging, and societal responses to an aging population.

GTY 472 Minority Aging (3) TR 2-3:15pm—Brown
Examines aging among U.S. minority and ethnic groups. Topics include theoretical perspectives, demographics, economics, health, social support, public policy and service delivery systems, and the role of culture in adaptation to aging.

History
HST 111 Survey of American History (3)
A--MWF 8-8:50am—McVety
Survey of the interplay of forces that have brought about evolutionary development of American economic, cultural, and political history from 1492 to the present. A functional and synoptic treatment of America's great historical problems.

HST 112 Survey of American History (3)
Please see on-line course list; there are 15 sections of this class available.
See description for HST 111.

HST 222 U.S. Diplomatic History Since 1914 (3)—MWF 10:10:50am--McVety
Survey of U.S. foreign policy from 1914 to the present, with emphasis on issues of neutrality, isolationism, collective security, imperialism, the Cold War, nuclear policy, arms control, and relations with the Third World.

HST 362 The Era of the Revolution (3)—TR 12:30-1:45pm—A.Cayton
See AMS 362 description.

HST 365 Civil War and Reconstruction (3)—MWF 9-9:50am--Jackson
Origins and growth of sectionalism with emphasis on the period after 1850, secession and Civil War, Federal and Confederate governments, Reconstruction, and foreign issues.

HST 367 United States in the 1960’s (3)—TR2-3:15pm--Frazier
Examines political, social, and cultural changes in the United States in the turbulent decade of the 1960s. Describes the consensus that existed in the 1950s, and then explores such topics as the civil rights movement, the women's movement, expansion of the welfare state, war in Vietnam, and the growth of a counterculture.

HST 372 Native American History since 1800 (3)—MWF 1-1:50pm--Cobb
Native Americans in North and Latin America from the early decades of the nineteenth century through the present.

Interdisciplinary Studies
IDS 153 American and World Cultures (1)
A*—W 7-9:40pm—Rioja Velarde* AO**—W 4-4:50--Staff
Seminar designed to enable students to enhance knowledge and understanding of the contributions diversity makes in society. Students will learn about and reflect on the intersections of the social identities of gender, age, class, race, sexual orientation, ability, religion, and culture. Course involves attending a series of lectures by eminent scholars, followed by class discussion and critique of the scholarships and presentations of these eminent scholars.
*Intersecting Lives: Globalization is Diversity in the 21st Century.
**Students must attend late afternoon & evening presentations.

IDS 159 Strength Through Cultural Diversity (3)
Please see on-line course list; there are 10 sections of this class available.
Helps students function effectively in an increasingly diverse global society. With culture defined as "the way we do things around here," conflict is viewed as a natural result of interactions among people. Emphasis on applying the concepts of culture to a variety of countries and to subcultures of the U.S. so that students learn how conflict arises and how negotiation skills can be used to manage conflict.

Italian
ITL 222 Italian American Culture (3)—A-MWF 9-9:50am—Matteo;
B-M 7:30-10pm--Matteo
See AMS 222 for description.

Latin American Studies
LAS 260 Latin America in the United States—TR 11am-12:15pm--Minzenberg
No description available.

Music
MUS 135 Understanding Jazz: Its History and Context (3)—TR 3:30-4:45pm—
Garcia
Evolution of jazz in the United States from its origins to the present. Emphasis placed on developing aural perceptions of stylistic differences between historical periods and significant performers.

MUS 386 The History and Development of Hip Hop Culture in America (3)—
MWF 10-10:50--Kernodle
Surveys development of the Hip Hop culture (rapping, graffiti art, breaking, DJing) from black vernacular forms in Africa and America.

MUS 461 American Music (3)—MWF 4-4:50--Kernodle
Music in American cultural life, including all levels and types of cultivated and vernacular expressions. Native American musical traditions through our present musical diversity.

Physical Education, Health, and Sports Studies
PHS 279 African Americans in Sport (3)—MWF 11-11:50am--Harris
Socio-historical analysis of participation of African Americans in sport and society, and examination of the role sport has played in African Americans' integration into the larger society. Investigates the way the image of African Americans has been constructed and maintained through sporting practices. Sociological theories and concepts used to examine the impact of historical events, such as Reconstruction, black migration, and World Wars, on African American involvement in sport and other institutions.

PHS 378 Sport and Social Status (3)—MWF 9-9:50am--Harris
Focuses on allocation and socialization. Emphasis upon power in social structure as evidenced in class, status, gender, and race relations.

Political Science
POL 352 Constitutional Law and Politics (4)—TR 12-1:50pm--Good
Supreme Court as a legal and political institution; leading judicial decisions with respect to separation of powers and federalism.

POL 353 Constitutional Rights and Liberties (4)—A-TR 4-5:50pm--Good;
B-7-8:50pm--Good
Leading cases and related materials on the Bill of Rights and 14th Amendment.

POL 354 Political Parties and the Election Process (3)—TR 7-8:50pm--Schneider
Nature, functions, organizations, and activities of political parties, and the processes of nomination, campaigns and elections in the American political system, with a comparative analysis of parties and the election process in other political systems.

POL 356 Mass Media and Politics (3)—TR 12:30-1:45pm--Kelley
Mass media, especially television, in politics in the United States, with comparisons to nature, roles, and impacts on politics of the mass media in other countries. Emphasis given to mass media as instruments of political communication and opinion leadership, and as tools of political influence and control.

POL 357 Politics of Organized Interests (3)—TR 12:30-1:45pm--Brown
Nature, functions, organizations, and activities of interest groups in the American political system with a comparative analysis of interest groups in other political systems.

POL 373 American Foreign Policy (3)—A-MWF 8-8:50am—Rothgeb;
B-TR 2-3:15pm--Haney
Theoretical and case studies in the formulation and conduct of American foreign policy; analysis of the role of personality, intelligence gathering, decision making, and diplomacy in the execution of foreign policy.

POL 459 Capstone: Seminar on the American Political System (3)—
W 10am-12:50pm--DeWine
Examination of broad themes on the American political system through readings, research, writing, presentations, and discussions. Topics vary, within the broad themes denoted below, according to section. Prerequisite: open to seniors who are majors in the department or who have completed a Thematic Sequence in National Political Institutions, Public Law, or Effective Citizenship.

Psychology
PSY 210 Psychology Across Cultures (3)—A-TR 8-9:15am—Li;
B-MW 5-6:15pm--Sekhon
No description available.

PSY 325 Psychology of Prejudice and Minority Experience (3)—
MWF 11-11:50am--Hugenberg
Consideration of psychological factors underlying prejudice toward racial,
ethnic, and other minorities. Impact of prejudice and discrimination on
members of minority groups.

Sociology
SOC 152 Social Relations and US Cultures (4)—A-MW 3-4:50pm—Hardy;
B-6-7:50pm--Hardy
No description available.

Women’s Studies
WMS 201 Introduction to Women’s Studies (3)--
Please see on-line course list; there are 7 sections of this class available.
Interdisciplinary introduction to the study of women which focuses on determinants and expressions of women's roles.

WMS 370.F Selected Topics in Women's Studies (3)—M 2-4:40—Johnson & Winkler
Examines specific aspects of women's roles, status, and experiences.