AMS 101 - Introduction to American Studies

Course unit(s): 1
Meets GAR: Meets general academic requirement HU.
This course will provide an introductory exposure to the study of American culture through the interdisciplinary methods of American Studies. It will examine a particular topic concerning American cultural and social formations from a specific set of disciplinary perspectives that will change from semester to semester, depending on the instructor’s scholarly orientations. Topics for Introduction to American Studies in different semesters would include, for example, “Representations of the American City”, “American Cultural Landscapes”, “The Romance of Nature in America”, “Performing Class in America”, “Americans Abroad”, “The Veteran in American Film and Literature”, and “Immigration in the Twentieth Century”. The common methodology will be, first, the focus on American cultural and social formations and, second, the deployment of at least two different disciplinary perspectives that will supplement as well as complement each other in the process of framing critical investigation of the topic. Pluralizing the perspective of study is intended not only to intensify the engagement with the given topic but to emphasize that identifications of America and of American national culture are contested and changeful. The introductory course will give students the opportunity to become familiar with influential theories in the development of the field that will help prepare them for more advanced course work in American Studies in addition to offering them the chance to investigate the particular topic at issue. The course will be required for majors in American Studies and open to all students.