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American Studies
Chair of the Department of American
Studies: Gregory M. Pfitzer
Professors:
Mary C. Lynn, Douglas Family Professor of American Culture, History, Literary and Interdisciplinary Studies;
Gregory M. Pfitzer;
Joanna S. Zangrando
Associate Professor: Daniel A. Nathan
Visiting Instructor: Joshua Woodfork
American studies is an interdisciplinary major that focuses
upon life and culture in the United States, past and present,
using the resources, techniques, and approaches of a variety
of disciplines. The major examines the diversity of Americans
as well as their commonly-shared experiences, and incorporates
race, gender, class, and ethnicity as categories for cultural
analysis. Students majoring in American studies plan, with faculty
advisors, a program of study that reflects their interests in
American society and culture: history, the arts, music, literature,
government, economics, social structures, sociology and anthropology,
institutions, education, and philosophy and religion. The
combination of a core of interdisciplinary American studies
courses on specific topics, themes, eras and ways to study American
culture together with American subject courses from different
disciplines provides both breadth and in-depth knowledge of
the development of American culture. With the encouragement
of the American studies faculty students often include study
abroad, Washington semester, or internship experiences in their
programs.
THE AMERICAN STUDIES MAJOR: Students must fulfill the requirements
designated in
the three areas below as well as satisfy the general college
requirements for the degree
of bachelor of arts. To qualify for honors in American studies,
students must complete the honors thesis.
American Studies courses: six courses, each of three
credits or more, above the 100 level, to be selected in consultation
with the student's advisor. These must include AM221,
American Studies: Methods and Approaches, and AM374,
Senior Seminar.
American subjects: two courses, each of three credits or more,
about the United States taken in at least two other departments and above the 100 level.
Courses meeting this requirement must be approved by the American Studies Department.
THE AMERICAN STUDIES MINOR: The American studies minor consists
of five courses, including:
AM101,
102
or 201,
202
(depending on the department's perception of the student's preparation);
AM221,
American Studies: Methods and Approaches; and
two additional American studies courses, at least one of which must be at the
300 level.
An interested student should apply to the department
chair for acceptance as an American studies minor and for assignment
to a faculty advisor, who will work with the student to devise
a minor program suited to his or her interests and needs. Students
must maintain at least a 2.0 average in minor courses and must
file a declaration of minor form with the registrar's office
before the beginning of their last semester at Skidmore.
AM 101. INTRODUCTION
TO AMERICAN CULTURE: PRE-CIVIL WAR 4 A study of the development of American
life and culture up to the Civil War. Topics include utopian
visions of the new world, religious settlements, the creation
of a national iconography, the social implications of slavery,
racial and ethnic conflict, gender roles, and the rise of American
intellectual traditions. Resources include fiction, folklore,
satire, sermons, maps, journals, captivity narratives, trial
transcripts, autobiography, art, architecture and material culture.
(Fulfills social sciences requirement.) G.
Pfitzer, the Department
AM
102. INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN CULTURE:
POST-CIVIL WAR 4 An examination of American life and culture
from the Civil War to the present. Topics include social movements,
westward expansion, immigration, urbanization, the Horatio Alger
myth, the rise of labor, economic growth and class differences,
the role of the federal government, racial and ethnic conflict,
gender roles, war and peace, and criticism of American culture.
Various resources, such as popular culture, music, film, sermons,
diaries, trial transcripts, literature, historical studies,
art and architecture, and various primary documents are used.
(Fulfills social sciences requirement.) G.
Pfitzer, D. Nathan, the Department
AM
200. ISSUES IN AMERICAN CULTURE 1
One-credit courses that focus
on specific topics of relevance to American culture (either
historical or contemporary), such as recent books of significance,
film genres, documentary series, or current affairs. May or
may not be associated with three-credit courses being offered
simultaneously by the department (see specific course descriptions).
The Department
AM
201. AMERICAN IDENTITIES: PRE-1870s 3
A study of the changing ways Americans
have defined themselves, from colonization to the mid-nineteenth
century. Relying heavily on primary sources, the course examines
critical issues and periods including race, ethnicity, gender,
class, culture contact, revolution, reform, and war, as well
as men and women whose lives and work reveal the cultural temper
of their time. (Fulfills social sciences requirement; designated
as a Cultural Diversity course.)
M. Lynn
AM 201L. AMERICAN
IDENTITIES: PRE-1870s WITH WORKSHOP 4
Taken in conjunction with AM201, the
workshop complements AM201 class sessions. Classic texts and
documents in American culture from 1620 to 1877 are examined
in depth. The workshop includes additional reading, journal
writing, oral presentations, a field trip, and assignments in
the American Studies-History Lab. (Fulfills social sciences
requirement; designated as a Cultural Diversity course.) M.
Lynn
AM
202. AMERICAN IDENTITIES: POST-1870s 3
A study of the changing ways Americans
have defined themselves, from the mid-nineteenth century to
the present. Relying heavily on primary sources, the course
examines the impact of modernization, war, and depression, and
considers the impact of race, gender, class and ethnicity on
American culture and society, emphasizing the ways in which
writers, critics, and reformers have responded to and shaped
their society.(Fulfills social sciences requirement; designated as a Cultural Diversity Course.)
M.
Lynn, J. Zangrando
AM
202L. AMERICAN IDENTITIES: POST-1870s
WITH WORKSHOP 4 Taken in conjuction with AM202, the workshop
complements AM202 class sessions. Classic texts and documents
in American culture from 1877 to the present are examined in
depth. The workshop includes additional reading, journal writing,
oral presentations, a field trip, and assignments in the American
Studies-History Lab. (Fulfills social sciences requirement; designated as a Cultural Diversity Course.)
M.
Lynn, J. Zangrando
AM
221. AMERICAN STUDIES: METHODS AND APPROACHES 4 An introduction to American studies scholarship,
methodologies, and approaches to the study of society and culture
in the United States. Course materials include "classics"
in American studies as well as the most recent scholarship:
the "myth and symbol" school, the culture concept,
psychoanalytic methodologies, new literary and feminist critiques,
material culture and oral history resources, mass and popular
culture analyses, with attention to issues of race, gender,
class, and ethnicity throughout. The intent of the course is
to offer students a variety of opportunities to sharpen their
analytical, research, and writing skills from interdisciplinary
and historiographic perspectives. Required of majors and minors
in their sophomore or junior years. G.
Pfitzer, J. Zangrando, D. Nathan
AM
230. BORN IN AMERICA 4 An exploration of the changing ways in which American women have
experienced contraception, abortion, pregnancy, and childbirth, from
1587 to the present. We will examine developments in technology, law,
medicine, the economy, and the role and position of women and the family
in society as they have influenced the reproductive lives of American
women, using sources from the history of medicine, social history,
literature, legal and constitutional studies, government and sociology.
Issues we will consider include social childbirth and the role of the
midwife in the colonial period, the masculinization of obstetrics,
introduction of anesthesia, and criminalization of abortion in the
nineteenth century, the struggle for reproductive freedom and the
introduction of hospital birth, as well as the legalization of abortion
and introduction of alternative birthing patterns in the twentieth
century. By analyzing these topics, reading about them, writing about
them, and thinking and discussing various aspects of each, we will work
to gain a greater understanding of how social change occurs, and what
studying reproduction can tell us about the evolution of American
society. (Fulfills LS2 requirement and EW requirement). M. Lynn
AM
231. ETHNIC AND IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE 3
An introduction to the historical experiences
of several American ethnic and immigrant groups, including Native
Americans, African Americans, and people from Latin America,
Asia, and Europe. Emphasizing both the larger society's view
of a particular ethnic group and that group's perception of
its own experiences, the course examines the processes of assimilation
and acculturation, racism, nativism, ethnic conflict, and cultural
survival mechanisms as found in historical monographs, films,
novels, biographies and autobiographies, demographic materials
and oral histories. (Designated a Cultural
Diversity course.) J. Zangrando
AM
232H. NEW ENGLAND BEGINS 3
A critical examination of the evolution
of culture and society in New England during the seventeenth
century. After considering the origins of the Puritan community,
the course will explore the ways in which that society changed
over the course of the first seventy-five years of settlement,
using the resources and methods of a variety of disciplines.
By a culminating investigation of the events of the Salem witchcraft
crisis of 1692, questions will be raised as to the impact of
those changes and some of the ways in which New Englanders responded
to them. Finally, by studying several historical and literary
treatments of the witch trials, we will gain a greater understanding
of the interconnections between the past and the present. (This
is an Honors course; it fulfills the social sciences requirement.)
M. Lynn
AM
233. REPRESENTATIONS OF THE AMERICAN
PAST IN FILM 4 An examination of how Hollywood filmmakers
have represented the American past, with special attention to
the implications of movies for the construction of American
cultural identity. Students will analyze films as historical
documents that reflect (and sometimes reproduce) the ethos or
cultural politics of the period in which they were made and
first viewed. Through the use of popular culture theories, students
will consider the ways in which films inform (and sometimes
obfuscate and subvert) historical understanding. (Fulfills social
sciences requirement.)
D. Nathan
AM
234. AMERICAN SPORTS/AMERICAN CULTURE 3
A historical examination of 300 years
of sport in America as an important expression of culture, conflict,
and meaning. Special attention is devoted to the ways in which
contemporary sports provide a window into politics, economics,
racial and ethnic relations, class formation, and gender identity.
Students analyze the ways in which Americans have played, watched,
and understood sports and will focus on some of the recurrent
cultural values, trends, and symbolism associated with American
athletes and public life. (Fulfills social sciences requirement.)
D.
Nathan
AM 235. CARIBBEAN AMERICAN IDENTITIES 3 This introductory course will provide an interdisciplinary perspective on the
development of Caribbean American identities in the United States during the
20th century. Drawing on a wide range of materials including: art, films,
videos, documentaries, and novels, this will contextualize the social,
cultural, and political processes that have shaped Caribbean American peoples.
More broadly, the course will interrogate the role of the visual arts in
Caribbean American culture and will use popular culture, including music and
carnival, as critical lenses to examine Caribbean American identities. Geared
toward students who are interested in issues of immigration and ethnicity,
this introductory course opens up perspectives to explore the transformative
experience of immigration and the meaning of culture. (Fulfills social
sciences and cultural diversity requirements.) J. Philogene
AM
250. REGIONAL CULTURE Exploration of the development of distinctive
regional cultures in the United States. Using a broadly based
interdisciplinary approach, these courses focus on the interaction
between people and their environments, the way people develop
attachments to their own regions, and the tensions between regional
and national cultures. (The course may be repeated for credit
with a different topic.)
A.
The Hudson River 4 An introduction to the history, literature,
and art of the Hudson River Valley. The Hudson River is considered
as an environmental entity, an economic and political concern,
and especially as a cultural symbol. The course considers four
centuries of American experience on the Hudson, but focuses
on the nineteenth century, when the Hudson had its greatest
influence on regional and national culture. (Fulfills social
sciences requirement.) G. Pfitzer
B.
The West 4 An examination of the mythic, historical,
and contemporary West, western heroes and themes and what they
reveal about American values and culture. Using film, literature,
social and intellectual histories and the arts, the course considers
discrepancies in the images and realities of western exploration
and settlement. After considering the colonial period, the course
then explores nineteenth century conflicts over property, natural
preservation, mineral and water claims, and the rights of native
Americans and concludes with an examination of contemporary
images and issues. (Fulfills social sciences requirement.) The
Department
C.
The South 3 An exploration of the development
of the distinctive culture of the southern region of the United
States. The course examines myths and legends of the Old South
including those surrounding the origins of the plantation system,
southern womanhood and the development of the slave and free
communities of the region in the antebellum period. Topics include
the myths and legends of the New South, the legacy of the Civil
War and Reconstruction, the imposition of segregation, modernization
of agriculture and industry, and the migration of African Americans
northward. The course culminates in a study of the civil rights
movement, and recent demographic, economic, and political changes.
(Fulfills social sciences requirement.) The
Department
D.
New England 3 A study of the growth and development of regional culture in
the northeastern United States from the eighteenth century to
the present. Beginning with a consideration of the heritage
of the Puritan settlers, the course proceeds to an examination
of the Revolutionary experience, the industrial revolution,
the New England Renaissance of the nineteenth century, and the
transforming impact of immigration and migration on the region's
population. It ends with a study of the literature, politics,
and economy of New England in the twentieth century. (Fulfills
social sciences requirement.) M.
Lynn
AM
260. THEMES IN AMERICAN CULTURE Interdisciplinary examinations of critical
themes in the development of American culture and American life.
(The course may be repeated for credit with focus on a different
theme.)
A.
Civil Rights in Twentieth-Century United States
3
An examination of the interactions of individuals, groups, institutions
and agencies seeking to achieve, enforce, or dismiss those civil
rights guarantees contained primarily in the 13th, 14th, and
15th amendments to the Constitution of the United States and
in subsequent twentieth century legislation. Although a major
focus of the course is on the attempts of women and African-Americans
to secure full civil rights protections, students are encouraged
to investigate civil rights issues that range beyond these two
groups. The course uses a variety of materials including legislative
histories, autobiographies, executive orders, judicial decisions,
biographies, histories of specific aspects of the civil rights
struggle, journalistic accounts, documentary films, works of
fiction, and oral histories. (Fulfills social sciences requirement.)
J. Zangrando
B.
The Machine in the Garden 3 An introduction to the impact of industrialism on the American
pastoral ideal. The course focuses on the cultural themes of
agrarian paradise, the geopolitics of land use, sentimental
glorifications of the past, the image of the American farmer,
and the transformation of the American pastoral landscape. The
central theme of the course is the inability of nineteenth and
twentieth century Americans to hold onto the vision of an American
Arcadia in the face of rampant industrialization and unrestricted
technology. (Fulfills social sciences requirement.)
An introduction to the relations between agricultural
industrialization and the American pastoral ideal. In the early
twentieth century, the longstanding association of American identity
with an agrarian paradise was challenged, reconfigured, and/or
redirected by newly emerging discourses in sociology, domestic and
industrial labor, eugenics, and advertising, among others. At the same time,
rural life was radically altered as many small family farms gave way
to agribusiness. This course traces these shifts, focusing primarily
on the transformative period between 1900 and 1945, and considers
efforts to retain the notion of an American Arcadia in the face of the
Machine Age. (Fulfills social sciences requirement.) G.
Pfitzer, J. Casey
C.
African-American Experience, 1860s–1980s 3
A study of the African-American experience, 1860s-1980s. Using
both primary and secondary source material, the course examines
the critical issues and period relevant to the African-American
struggle toward freedom and equality. Topics include slavery,
emancipation, and Reconstruction; the woman's era; the age of
Jim Crow and the new Negro; the civil rights movement; and the
post-reform period. Sources include narratives, documents, photographs,
and films. (Fulfills cultural diversity requirement and social
sciences requirement.) J. Woodfork
F.
The Environment in American Culture
3
An examination of the importance of nature and the environment
in American culture. The course will analyze the role nature
has played in American life from the early human settlement
in North America to the present. Topics will include the evolution
of environmental consciousness in the United States, the development
of national parks, the Adirondack Park in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries, and the impact and future role of the contemporary
environmental movement. (Fulfills social sciences
requirement.) The Department
I.
Popular Culture
4
A topical examination of the cultural-historical process of the creation,
dissemination, and consumption of mass or popular culture and analysis of
popular culture as a defining characteristic of Americans. Specific focus
will be upon the evolution of modern electronic forms of communication in
the twentieth century, and the interrelationships between the popular and
elite and folk culture will be explored. Illustrative topics include:
popular genre literature, mass movements, celebrities and heroes, and film,
radio, and television. D. Nathan
J.
Diversity in the United States 3
An examination of the ways in which people in the United States try to
reconcile the realities of cultural difference with preconceived notions
of a unified America and American identity. Students will learn about
the United States as a complex, heterogeneous society that has been
profoundly shaped by both the connections and conflict implicit in its
multicultural heritage. Students will also address interrelationships
and tensions that characterize a culturally diverse democracy by
examining how accepted cultural traditions intersect with contested
themes such as race, the family, adoption, gender, sexuality, and
education. (Fulfills social sciences requirement; designated as a
Cultural Diversity course.) J. Woodfork
AM 299. PROFESSIONAL
INTERNSHIP IN AMERICAN STUDIES 3 Internship opportunity for students whose
academic and cocurricular work has prepared them for professional
work related to the major. With faculty sponsorship and department
approval, students may design internships at museums and historical
societies, newspapers, radio and television stations, museums
and historical societies, newspapers, radio and television stations,
planning and architectural firms, schools, government agencies,
and other appropriate sites. No more than three semester hours
may count toward the major. Prerequisite: two courses
in American studies. Must be taken S/U.
AM
331. CRITICAL WHITENESS IN THE U.S. 4 An interdisciplinary examination of whiteness in U.S. culture and
history. Explores the racial construction of whiteness, focusing on its
changing legal, political, aesthetic and cultural definitions over four
centuries of American experience, with special emphasis on the concept
of whiteness in contemporary ethnographic studies, memoirs and essays.
Students will examine the relationship between whiteness and other
components of identity. The nature of white privilege and the conditions
of access to whiteness will be investigated. J. Woodfork
AM
340. WOMEN AND WORK IN AMERICA 3
Examination and analysis of the role
and status of women in the economy, particularly the paid work
force, from the colonial era to the present. Topics considered
are: the perceptions and the realities of women's participation
in the work force, "women's work," and working women's
conscious efforts to improve their economic status. A variety
of sources provide insights into the myths and realities of
working women's experiences; the impact of technology on women's
work; the demands of family on working women; the socialization
of women's work; legislation and working women's status; the
influence of class, race, and ethnicity on women workers and
women's work; the job segregation of women; and women workers
and the organized women's movement. J.
Zangrando
AM 341. AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMEN IN THE VISUAL ARTS 3 An examination of African American women as artists
and as subjects of visual and popular art in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. Students will study a variety of cultural sources (including
paintings, films, novels, and videos), using aesthetics, race, gender,
color, sexuality, and class as categories of analysis to explore critically
the creative expressions and careers of black women artists. The course
provides a lens through which a range of perspectives on various historical,
social, and cultural movements can be viewed, including discussions of how
African American women's art has been a site of resistance to or subversion
of the narrow confines of dominant cultural representations of black women
and a catalyst for political and racial empowerment. Working with an expansive
cultural conception of art, the course explores relationships between art,
politics, and society and pays close attention to the work of formally and
non-formally trained artists in relation to their social, cultural, aesthetic,
and historical contexts. J. Philogene
AM 342. BLACK FEMINIST THOUGHTS 3 Examines the development
and materialization of Black American feminist thoughts within
historical, social, political, and cultural contexts. Interdisciplinary
in focus, it surveys feminist politics and theories through
films, popular culture, manifestos, literary texts, and theoretical
and historical essays. In addition, the course will address
how the concepts of black feminism and black womanhood overlap
and diverge in accordance with the modes of representation used
to articulate them. (Designated a Cultural Diversity course.)
AM
360. AMERICAN CULTURAL PERIODS Examination of specific cultural periods,
each of which has had a particular significance for the development
of American culture. The course will explore the major social,
political, economic, intellectual, and aesthetic issues of the
period, using the resources of literature, history, music, art,
government, sociology, and popular culture. (The course may
be repeated for credit with a different period.)
A.
1920s 3
An intensive examination of the "roaring twenties,"
with special attention to the impact of class, race, and gender
on the development of American culture in the period. The course
focuses on a series of controversies illuminating some of the
conflicting forces at work in American society, including debates
over immigration, Prohibition, evolution, sexuality, and the
role of women in society. It will examine some of the major
intellectual, social, and cultural issues of the era.
M. Lynn
B.
1950s 3
An interdisciplinary analysis of the decade of the 1950s in
America. Using a wide variety of primary and secondary sources,
including fiction, film, music, biography, autobiography, poetry,
sociology, drama, and social criticism, the course explores
the distinctive culture of this decade. It focuses on the ways
different groups of Americans experienced the period, studying
conformity and consumerism, the beatniks, rock and roll, and
the silent generation, as well as the roots of the protest movements
and the counterculture of the 1960s. M.
Lynn
C.
1960s 3
A consideration of the major events of the 1960s, including
the New Frontier, the Cuban missile crisis, the assassination
of John F. Kennedy, the war in Vietnam, the civil rights movement,
the sexual and gender revolutions, the rise of rock and roll,
the counterculture, the moon landing and other landmarks of
the decade. The course considers not only what happened during
those climactic years, but why such events were so important
to American development, and how perceptions about the 1960s
have changed over time. G. Pfitzer
AM
361. AMERICAN MATERIAL CULTURE 4
Introduction to the material aspects
of American culture and the variety of ways in which artifacts—three-dimensional
objects, the built environment, design and architectural styles,
technological processes and production, decorative and folk
arts—serve as social and cultural documents. The course centers
on the cultural attitudes and values embodied in as well as
shaped by the production, utilization, and conservation of material
objects. Readings, discussions, museum and other field trips,
and object-oriented research projects assist students in enhancing
their visual literacy and in making connections between material
culture and the larger culture. J. Zangrando
AM
362. AMERICAN AUTOBIOGRAPHY 3
An examination of American culture through
the lives of specific people as recorded in their autobiographies.
The course explores autobiography both as an act of self-creation
and as a reflection of culture. Various autobiographies are
examined for their revelations about choices, crises, values
and experiences of representative people in particular periods
of the American past. D. Nathan, J. Woodfork
AM
363. WOMEN IN AMERICAN CULTURE 4
An examination of the changing position
of women in American culture and society from the seventeenth
century to the present. Topics will include the developing familial,
economic, sexual, educational, and political roles of women,
as well as consideration of the suffragist and feminist movements.
Issues of race, class, and ethnicity will be included, and resources
from a variety of disciplines will be used, including material
culture, history, literature, politics, sociology, and economics.
M. Lynn
AM
371, 372. INDEPENDENT STUDY
3, 3 A program of individual reading, research,
and writing which qualified majors design in consultation with
and under the direction of the American studies faculty. An
independent study allows an in-depth examination of a topic
not treated extensively in regular departmental course offerings.
Students meet with faculty on a regularly scheduled basis to
discuss and analyze readings and research in primary and secondary
sources. The
Department
AM
374. SENIOR SEMINAR 4
Exploration of primary and secondary
sources in the interdisciplinary examination of a particular
topic in American culture. Students will pursue a major research
project or prepare an honors thesis proposal. Required of all
senior majors. Open to majors only; normally taken in fall semester
of senior year. G. Pfitzer
AM
375. HONORS THESIS 4
Independent study and research leading
to a thesis examining a topic relevant to American civilization
from an interdisciplinary perspective. Required of candidates
for department honors. Participation by invitation of the department
to students with strong records in the major or by petition
of a student with special research interests. Prerequisite:AM374.
Open to majors only. The Department
AM
376. TOPICS IN AMERICAN CULTURE 3 or 4 Interdisciplinary seminars exploring
a substantial aspect of the development of American culture.
These courses involve in-depth analysis using the resources
and techniques of several different disciplines and require
a major research paper. (The course may be repeated for credit
with a different topic.)
A.
War 3
An examination of the experience of war and its impact on American
culture over the course of the last two centuries. The course
concentrates on the American Revolution, the Civil War, Indian
Wars, World War II, and the Vietnam War, using various resources
including fiction, history, film, oral history, and autobiography
to explore the changing nature of war and its effects on American
society and culture. War and politics, the morality of war,
military strategy and tactics, war and gender roles, class,
race and ethnicity, the home front experience, and war's impact
on the larger culture are some of the issues considered. M.
Lynn
B.
City 3
An examination of the growth and impact of urban life on American
culture. Using fiction, film, histories, sociological studies
and material culture, the course examines the relation between
the perceptions of urban life and the actualities of that experience.
By focusing on how varying reactions to the urban experience
result from economic, ethnic, or gender differences, the course
explores such topics as: the effect of industrialization, the
waves of rural migration and overseas immigration, the concentrations
of wealth and poverty, the impact of architecture, and the parks
and planning movements. D. Nathan
C.
America on the Couch 3
A consideration of selected topics in the fields of cultural
studies and psychohistory. Through interdisciplinary materials,
students will explore the rich literature of psychohistorical
interpretation, attempting to understand personal motivation,
emotional character, and abnormal behavior in both prominent
American figures and in the nation at large. Topics include
conversion theory in the Salem witchcraft trials, infantilism
and paternal authority in the age of Jackson, sentimental regression
in the Civil War era, George Custer and the schizophrenic personality,
neurasthenia in Victorian America, paranoia in the Nixon years,
and narcissism in the "me" decade of the 1970s. G.
Pfitzer
D.
Religion 4
An examination of the institutions of religion and the roles
religion has played in the development of American society,
from the seventeenth century to the present. Beginning with
a study of the Puritan "city on a hill," proceeding
to the Great Awakening, the Revolutionary separation of church
and state and designation of religious toleration, the course
will continue to explore the development of an increasingly
diverse society of belief and unbelief. Using a variety of interdisciplinary
sources, the course focuses on nineteenth century nativist attacks
on Catholicism, the role of religion in the slave community,
revivalism, fundamentalism, the social gospel, and contemporary
controversies over evolution, prayer in the public schools,
and the impact of race, gender, and class. M.
Lynn
E.
Disorderly Women 3
An examination of women characterized by the larger society
as unruly, disruptive, radical, militant, unfeminine, or just generally
disorderly, and what this characterization reveals about American
society. The course will consider types of women as well as
the experience of individual, so-called disorderly, women in
the nineteenth- and twentieth-century United States. Questions
will include: What defines women as disorderly in specific times
and places; how do women deviate from the roles and behavior
expected of all women; what has motivated disorderly women,
from their perspectives, to act as they have, and what has been
the psychic cost? The central focus is on "disorderly women"
as actors within and upon their society and on the responses
of that larger society to their actions. J.
Zangrando
F.
America and the Sea 3
An exploration of the role ocean has played in American life.
Beginning with the view of the sea as an ecosystem, the course
uses literary and historical sources to trace the sea's importance
in the development of American culture. After studying the cultural,
social, and economic importance of the sea in American life,
the course returns to the biology of the sea through student
research projects on current environmental problems, as well
as national and international laws and regulations, which protect
the ocean as a commons for the world. The
Department
AM
399. PROFESSIONAL INTERNSHIP IN AMERICAN
STUDIES3
or 6 Professional experience at an advanced
level for juniors or seniors with substantial academic and cocurricular
experience in the major. With faculty sponsorship and departmental
approval, students may extend their educational experience into
such areas as historic preservation, museum administration and
education, journalism and communications, urban planning, teaching,
public administration, and other related fields. No more than
three semester hours may count toward the major. Open to junior
and senior majors and minors. Must be taken S/U.
