American Studies Course Descriptions
American Studies Course Descriptions |
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Following are descriptions of the American Studies undergraduate and graduate courses generally offered in the Fall Term and Spring Term.
301. Junior Seminar I: American Texts—This course, required for the American Studies major and ordinarily taken in the fall of the Junior year concurrent with American Studies 302, examines central texts in American history and culture. Through intensive discussion and writing the class will explore the contexts of these works as well as the works themselves, paying particular attention to the interrelated issues of race, class, gender, and other similarly pivotal social constructs. Course open only to American Studies majors.
399. Independent Study—Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar's Office, and the approval of the instructor and director are required for enrollment. (1-2 course credits)
402. Senior Project— Students undertake projects on American Studies topics of their own choosing. The projects will be supervised by a faculty member in an American Studies-related field. Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar's Office, and the approval of the project adviser and director, are required for enrollment.
409. Senior Seminar: Sex and Gender in American Culture—An examination of selected topics, including publishing and other media, marriage, and work. Readings in biography, history, and cultural criticism. The seminar will feature in-depth individual research and opportunities for collective analysis. Course open only to American Studies, History, or Women's Studies majors.
409-02. Senior Seminar: Democracy and the Poor—An examination of the varied experiences of poverty in American history and the intersection of poverty and democracy. The course considers both the limits on democracy faced by the poor and their efforts to challenges those limits.
466. Teaching Assistantship—Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar's Office, and the approval of the instructor are required for enrollment. (1/2-1 course credit)
498. Senior Thesis Part I—Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar's Office, and the approval of the thesis adviser and the director are required for enrollment. The registration form is required for each semester of this year-long thesis. (The two course credits are considered pending in Part I of the thesis; they will be awarded with the completion of Part II.)
601. IDP Study Unit—Independent study guide available only to students in the Individualized Degree Program. Permission of the instructor and a signed permission slip are required for registration. See the IDP Catalogue for a full listing.
602. IDP Project—Limited to students in the Individualized Degree Program. Requires submission and approval of a special proposal form which is available in the IDP Office. (0-5 course credits)
AMERICAN STUDIES GRADUATE COURSES (Fall Term)
801. Approaches to American Studies—This seminar, which is required of all American Studies graduate students, examines a variety of approaches to the field. Readings will include several "classic" texts of 18th and 19th century American culture and several key works of American Studies scholarship from the formative period of the field after World War II, as well as more recent contributions to the study of the United States. Topics will include changing ideas about the content, production, and consumption of American culture, patterns of ethnic identification and definition, the construction of categories like "race" and "gender," and the bearing of class, race, gender, and sexuality on individuals' participation in American society and culture. Undergraduates who wish to enroll in this course must obtain permission of their adviser and the instructor.
825. Exhibition and Exclusion: Perspectives on the Museum in American Culture—When regarded with an innocent eye, the museum stands as an institution devoted to instruction and delight, but the probing analyses of the new field of "museology" reveals a constellation of cultural, social, political, and economic forces that occupy these sites of collection, exhibition, and exclusion. This course will focus on the complex origins and dynamics of museums in America, from their beginnings in the 18th century to last year's unusually self-critical exhibition, "The Museum as Muse: Artists Reflect" at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Issues to be explored include: the connection between museums and intellectual life; the construction of cultures; museum discourses—and the use of terms such as "civilized" and "primitive;" the politics of the interpretation of cultures; how museums perceive their audiences, and how audiences receive exhibitions. While our specific subject is national in scope, we will also examine key global contexts for the ethics and aesthetics of display. Undergraduates who wish to enroll in this course must obtain permission of their adviser and the instructor.
940. Independent Study
953. Independent Research Project
954. Thesis Part I—(The two course credits are considered pending in Part I of the thesis; they will be awarded with the completion of Part II.)
956. Thesis—(Completion of two course credits in one semester.)
AMERICAN STUDIES COURSES
ORIGINATING IN OTHER DEPARTMENTS
(Fall Term)ECONOMICS 321. American Economic History—A survey of the growth of the American economy from pre-Columbian times to the present. Special attention will be given to the issues of economic growth, industrial development, the economy of the antebellum South, transportation and commerce, the rise of cities, and the impact of major wars on the economy. Prerequisite: Economics 101 and one 200-level Economics course.
EDUCATION 202. History of American Education—A survey of pre-collegiate education from the colonial period to the present. The development of church-affiliated, independent and public schools will be examined within the context of larger patterns of political, social and intellectual history.
EDUCATION 235. Gender and Education—What is gender equity in schooling and what impact does this have on gender equity more broadly? Different disciplinary perspectives on the impact of gender in learning, school experience, performance and achievement will be explored in elementary, secondary, post-secondary, and informal educational settings. The legal and public policy implications of these findings (such as gender-segregated schooling, men's and women's studies programs, curriculum reform, Title IX, affirmative action and other proposed remedies) will be explored. Findings on socialization and schooling in the U.S. will be contrasted with those from other cultures.
ENGLISH 205. Introduction to American Literature II—A survey of literatures produced in the United States since about 1865. We will examine relationships among cultural and intellectual currents and the political, economic, and social development in the United States during this period, focusing particularly on race, gender, and class as analytic categories. Authors to be read include some who are well known—such as James, Hemingway, and Faulkner—and some who are less familiar—such as Freeman, Chesnutt, and Hurston.
ENGLISH 217. Introduction to African-American Literature—A broad survey of African-American writing from the 19th century to the present, with an emphasis on issues of voice, identity and canonicity. Readings in Frederick Douglass, Nat Turner, Harriet Jacobs, Jean Toomer, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Toni Morrison, Gayl Jones, and others.
ENGLISH 265. Introduction to Film Studies—A study of film as a genre and of the critical and technical concepts needed to analyze it. The study is undertaken largely through the examination and discussion of feature films chosen for a variety of technique, style and cultural context. Film screenings will be scheduled accordingly.
ENGLISH 307. Gender, Race and Ethnicity in Contemporary American Fiction—A study of American fiction since the 1940’s. Particular emphasis will be placed on the emergence of powerful new traditions on "minority" and women’s writing. Among the books to be read are works by Gwendolyn Brooks, Toni Morrison, Rolando Hinojosa, Leslie Silko, and Maxine Hong Kingston.
ENGLISH 320. Black Women Writers—Through readings in fiction, autobiography, essays and some poetry, this course will investigate the conditions and experiences shaping Black female identity in the United States. Although the focus will be on 20th century African American women writers, some selections by earlier writers, and writers from outside the United States, may be included as a way of exploring similarities (and differences) that exist between Black women's writings, experiences, and ways of knowing trans-historically and across the diaspora. Among the recurring issues/themes we will investigate are the impact of race, class, gender, and sexuality on Black women's experiences and artistic vision, the quest for self-determination and self-actualization, the significance of spirituality, and the politics of Black women's roles within the community, family and nation. Writers studied will vary from semester to semester, but may include: Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, Gayl Jones, Harriet Jacobs, Jamaica Kincaid, Sapphire, Mariama B‚, Maya Angelou, Gloria Wade Gayles, June Jordan, Alice Walker, Harriet Wilson, Ann Petry, and bell hooks. Prerequisite: English 213, 217, or other courses in African-American literature.
ENGLISH 338. Political Rhetoric and the Media—George Orwell called political language "the defense of the indefensible," and yet democracies need a lively public culture of argument and debate in order to come to terms with complex issues, define values, make decisions, and solve problems. This course will explore the contemporary state of our political rhetoric in the United States, with a focus on the dynamic interactions of television, radio, print, and cyberspace. Students will participate in electronic discussions with peers across the country as they debate current issues generated by national election campaigns.
ENGLISH 340. Childhood in America—An investigation of the changing conception of childhood in America as reflected in a variety of textual and graphic materials for and about children.
ENGLISH 372. Literature of the Harlem Renaissance—In this course we will read a selection of novels, essays, short fiction, and poetry by African American writers of the period, including Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen, Claude McKay, Zora Neale Hurston, James Weldon Johnson, Jesse Fauset, and Jean Toomer. Emphasis will be on identifying the characteristics that unify this body of literature and on investigating the significance of the Harlem Renaissance within the African American literary tradition.
ENGLISH 379. Character and Conditions: Fiction of the Gilded Age—Horatio Alger's books for boys set the ground rules for American upward mobility: hard work, honesty, and a little luck led to success. This course examines the American premise through the lens of novels written by men and by women, by blacks and by whites, and by immigrants and first-generation Americans as well as by members of old established families.
ENGLISH 495. Senior Seminar: Over the Rainbow—The subject of this seminar, Thomas Pynchon’s GRAVITY’S RAINBOW, is, despite its sprawling length and mind-numbing complexity, arguably the most important and influential literary text to emerge from the U.S. of the 1960’s. Both individually and in various working groups, concentrating on both social and literary contexts, we will use the methods of British cultural studies to investigate the conditions and constituents out of which Pynchon's daffy and difficult novel emerged, as well as the contexts in and discourses through which it was declared a "masterpiece" and endowed with literary value. Students taking this course should be skilled close readers and eager researchers, capable of thinking and arguing for themselves, yet also able and willing to work together in the task of compiling a full inventory of one text’s raw materials and enabling conditions, and sketching out a comprehensive map of that text’s cultural meanings and effects.
FINE ARTS 271. The Arts of America—This course examines major trends in painting, sculpture, architecture, and the decorative arts in the United States from the colonial period to 1900. Emphasis will be placed on how the arts in the USA reflect the social and cultural history of the 18th and 19th centuries.
HISTORY 201.The United States From the Colonial Period Through the Civil War—An examination of the developing American political tradition with emphasis on economic and ideological factors.
HISTORY 215. Drink and Disorder in America—Drinking as an institution has reflected the varieties of cultures, interest groups, and ideologies that have swept America. We will examine the tumultuous history of this institution from the origins of the Republic to the present in order to understand what the "wets" and the "drys" can tell us about the nature of community in America. Special attention to the ways in which gender, race, class, and ethnicity shape perceptions of drinking, leisure, and social control.
HISTORY 218. The United States Since 1945—This course examines America since WWII. We will explore both political events and cultural and social trends, including the cold war, rock 'n' roll, civil rights, feminism, Vietnam, consumerism and advertising, the new right and the new left, the counterculture, religious and ethnic revivals, poverty, and the "me" generation.
HISTORY 247. Latinos/Latinas in the United States—Who are "Latinos/Latinas" and how have they come to constitute a central ethnic/racial category in the contemporary United States? This is the organizing question around which this course examines the experiences of major Latino/Latina groups (Chicanos/Mexicanos, Puerto Ricans and Cubans) and new immigrants from Central America and the Caribbean. We study U.S. colonialism and imperialism in the Old Mexican North and the Caribbean; migration and immigration patterns and policies; racial, gender and class distinctions; cultural and political expressions and conflicts; return migrations and transnationalism; and inter-ethnic relations and the construction of Pan-Latino/Latina diasporic identities.
HISTORY 313. The Struggle for Civil Rights in the United States—African Americans and their white allies have long struggled to win equal rights and equal opportunities in America. We will examine the course of that struggle from the start of the 20th century to the present day, with a focus on the period 1930 to 1968. The course considers questions of urbanization, employment, racism, politics, violence, non-violence, Black Power, and class.
HISTORY 316. Families in American History—An exploration of American families, past and present, that draws on a wide range of historical and literary sources. Topics will include: changing ideals and realities of American family life; racial, religious, class, and ethnic variations; and shifting gender and generational relationships. The culminating project for the course is a family history, based on oral interviews and other sources.
HISTORY 401-73. Nationalizing America: 1932-1960—This course will discuss topics in the history of the years that encompassed the Depression and the New Deal, World War II, and the Cold War. During this period an activist welfare state/national security state and a national mass culture took form, shaped by responses to economic crisis and economic opportunity, the gathering power of popular culture media and advertising, and wars hot and cold. Both political topics (e.g., New Deal labor or civil rights policies, McCarthyism) and social and cultural topics (e.g, the World War II home front, changing gender roles, suburbanization) will be investigated. Course materials will include fiction, movies, and other documents from the period as well as outstanding works of historical analysis and synthesis.
MODERN LANGUAGES 233-24. Italy and America—An interdisciplinary introduction to the history of relations between these two nations, with an emphasis on the experience of Italians in America, through discussion of works of history, sociology, literature, and film. Topics include explorers and colonists; the Great Emigration; the ethnic neighborhood; the trial of Sacco & Vanzetti; mafia; the war against fascism; unions; religion; and assimilation. There will be course-related trips to Little Italys in cities of the Eastern Seaboard. They will complete their assignments in Italian and will meet with the instructor in supplementary sessions.MODERN LANGUAGES 233-40. German Exiles and the Shaping of Modern American Culture—In the 1930s, the United States experienced a truly exceptional migration of thousands of writers, scientists, filmmakers, philosophers, historians, musicians, architects, and artists who were driven into exile by the Nazi regime. Together, these emigrés had a profound and lasting impact on the intellectual and cultural life in the United States, and their critical engagement with life in the United States provided this nation new ways of looking at itself. This course studies the many contributions that these German and Austrian unwilling guests made, from Billy Wilder’s and Fritz Lang’s pivotal cinematographic accomplishments that shaped the American film industry, to Theodor Adorno’s and Hannah Ahrendt’s influential philosophical studies. Students will be introduced to the work of German writers such as nobel laureate Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, and Alfred Doblin, examine the influence of the Bauhaus movement on American architecture, and become familiar with the music of Arnold Schoenberg and Hans Eisler. In studying autobiographical narratives and personal documents, students also learn about the human drama of exile, the refugees’ expectations of life in America, and the reality of their existence as foreigners, frequently ill-prepared for their new lives. No German required. Taught in English.
MUSIC 117. Music of Black America—A survey of the music of black Americans from the antebellum period to the 1990's, the emphasis being on the cultural functions of the music composed. Major genres include slave songs, blues, jazz and rap. Readings from the works of black American novelists, essayists, and poets complement discussions of the music itself.
MUSIC 234. Protests in Music—This course examines the ways in which social and political issues are expressed in music. We will look at music written, composed, and performed in Paris, Harlem, and Hartford in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries and explore the ramifications of the social and political issues for the music. Topics to be covered include: the music of the French Revolution; music of urban black America, 1960 to the present; Hector Berlioz, Ludwig van Beethoven, Claude Debussy, and "protests" in classical music; and musical messages from Hartford, Connecticut. We will make at least one trip to Harlem and visit public schools in Hartford.
POLITICAL SCIENCE 225. The American Presidency—An explanation of the institutional and political evolution of the presidency with an emphasis on the nature of presidential power in domestic and foreign affairs. Attention is also given to institutional conflicts with Congress and the Courts. The nature of presidential leadership and personality is also explored.
POLITICAL SCIENCE 277. Law, Gender, and the Supreme Court—This course introduces students to contemporary gender issues as they are treated both in the law and in the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. We will explore some of the historical antecedents to contemporary legal gender questions and then examine in detail the following areas of controversy: affirmative action, the equal rights amendment, surrogate parenthood, abortion, and sex discrimination, including AIDS-related questions. The format of the course is primarily discussion.
RELIGION 214. The Jews in America—A social and religious history of American Judaism from pre-revolutionary to contemporary times. After examining the era of immigration and "Americanization," the course will focus on the ethnic, religious, and social structures of American Judaism: The Community Center, the Synagogue, and the Federation.
RELIGION 290. Spiritual Movements in Contemporary America—An anthropological approach to culture change including the rise, development and future prospects of spiritual movements in contemporary American culture. Emphasis is given to the teaching of these movements and their contributions to American religious thought. Topics include Garveyism, the Nation of Islam in the West, the Peace Mission Movement, Hare Krishna, and Pentecostalism among others.
RELIGION 292. From Bing to Whoopi: The Changing Face of Urban Catholic Life in America—Cinematic images of Catholicism provide a point of departure for the study of the mutual influence of Catholic and urban life in the United States during the past fifty years. The course will combine the use of film with textual studies in history, theology, and sociology to explore the Catholic experience of immigration, labor movements, racism, sexual revolution, and social change.
THEATER AND DANCE 245. Women in Theater and Dance—This course will explore 20th century women playwrights, choreographers and performers in context of theatrical expression and its relationship to gender. Topics of study will include the juxtaposition between traditional representation of women in theater and women as they represent themselves; the role of women in the shaping of American modern dance; and contemporary feminist performance theory.
THEATER AND DANCE 339. 20TH Century American Theater and Drama—A detailed study of the development of the modern American theater through an examination of the most famous works of prominent playwrights, directors, designers, and companies, including playwrights Belasco, OíNeill, Glaspell, Rice, Odets, Hart and Kaufman, Williams, Miller, Inge, Albee, Shepard, Norman, and Gray; director/designer teams Hopkins and Jones and Kazan and Mielziner; and companies such as the Provincetown Players, the Theatre Guild, the Group Theater, the Performance Group and the Wooster Group.
WOMEN’S STUDIES 210. Youth Culture and Gender—This course examines the corporate sales pitch to young consumers, as well as low-budget cultural productions, to ask what constitutes youth culture in the post-World War II U.S. We will discuss a wide range of mainstream and subcultural materials for American youth, from movies and music to body politics, Riot Girls to DIY (do-it-yourself) publications. We will discuss their additions to (and transformation of) national, regional, and local conversations about gender and feminism in the U.S. today.
WOMEN’S STUDIES 278. Sexual Orientation and Law—The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the growing theoretical literature and case law in the area of sexual orientation and the law. We will study the historical treatment of gays and lesbians as a matter of law and public policy, and we will examine the particular discriminatory laws that have been enacted at the local, state, and national level. Texts will include books on a variety of policy issues concerning the legal status of gays and lesbians, as well as court cases, legal briefs, and law review articles. Topics will range from same-sex marriages to discrimination against individuals infected with the HIV virus.
203. Conflicts and Cultures in American Society—Focusing on a key decade in American life - the 1890's, for example, or the 1850's - this course will examine the dynamics of race, class, gender and ethnicity as forces which have shaped and been shaped by American culture. How did various groups define themselves at particular historical moments? How did they interact with each other and with American society? Why did some groups achieve hegemony and not others, and what were - and are - the implications of these dynamics for our understanding of American culture? By examining both interpretive and primary documents - novels, autobiographies, works of art and popular culture - we will consider these and other questions concerning the production of American culture.
227. Blacks and American National Politics—This course will introduce students to the experience of black Americans in the national political arena during the 20th century. We will analyze black involvement in clientage politics (Booker T. Washington), interest group politics (NAACP) and electoral politics (the Jackson campaigns). We will also examine black involvement in radical or reform-minded political movements (the gay rights movement, feminist politics, etc.). The intent of this course is to enable students to render reasonable assessments of historical and current black political strategies.
228. Black Politics in Urban America—This class will introduce students to the history of black involvement in city politics during the 20th century. Because most of the early 20th century politicization of blacks took place in northern urban areas, we will analyze in depth the involvement of northern blacks in machine politics. We will also compare the political situation of blacks in cities with those of white ethnic groups.
296. Homosexuality and American Culture—Since World War II lesbians and gays in the United States have struggled to gain recognition as an oppressed minority with their own distinct history and culture. Focusing on such practices as camp, the gay macho style, and butch-femme role playing, this course examines the cultural aspects of this struggle. How have lesbians and gays challenged the dominant representation of homosexuality in American culture? How has American culture responded to this challenge? Texts include the films "Laura," "All About Eve," "Marnie," "The Children's Hour," "The Boys in the Band," "Cruising," and "Philadelphia"; the plays Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Children's Hour, The Normal Heart, and Angels in America; the novels The City and the Pillar, Giovanniís Room, Rubyfruit Jungle, and Zami: A New Spelling of My Name; and selected short stories from Hard Candy. Supplemental readings include essays by Susan Sontag, Esther Newton, Adrienne Rich, Elizabeth Kennedy and Madeline Davis, and Leo Bersani.
331. Politics and Society in the 20th Century South—This class will introduce students to the broad centuries of political life in the American South during the 20th century. We will discuss the proliferation of demagogues within the electoral arena of the one-party South as well as movements which opposed them (e.g., populism). We will also study the centrality of race, religion, and regionalism in southern life. In addition we will explore the troubled history of organized labor in the region and its relationship to the macro-economic changes that took place in the region as urbanization and industrialization made an agrarian economy less central. Finally, we will discuss the idea of the South as marketed in films and television.
399. Independent Study—Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar's Office, and the approval of the instructor are required for enrollment. (1-2 course credits)
402. Senior Project—Students undertake projects on American Studies topics of their own choosing. The projects will be supervised by a faculty member in an American Studies-related field. Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar's Office, and the approval of the project adviser and director, are required for enrollment.
409. Senior Seminar: Violence in America—This seminar explores the political, social, and historical contexts for the ways in which Americans have understood violence. We will examine how society decides who commits violence, who judges it, and who needs protection from it.
409-02. Senior Seminar: Hollywood and Cold War Culture—This seminar examines the role of Hollywood film in the consolidation of the Cold War consensus of the 1050's and 60's. Marked by a virtually unprecedented campaign to marginalize and suppress political and sexual non-conformity, this consensus threatened to transform the United States into a mirror image of its political and cultural other, the Soviet Union. Men and women who failed to conform to the emerging political and sexual consensus, such as communists, homosexuals, and career women, were constructed as the "enemy within" and relentlessly persecuted. We will ask how Hollywood film both contributed to and undermined this consensus. Open only to American Studies majors. Mandatory weekly screenings.
466. Teaching Assistantship—Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar's Office, and the approval of the instructor are required for enrollment. (1/2-1 course credit)
499. Senior Thesis Part 2—Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar's Office, and the approval of the thesis adviser and the director, are required for each semester of this year-long thesis. (The two course credits are considered pending in Part I of the thesis; they will be awarded with the completion of Part II.)
601. IDP Study Unit.—Independent study guide available only to students in the Individualized Degree Program. Permission of the instructor and a signed permission slip are required for registration. See the IDP Catalogue for a full listing.
602. IDP Project. Limited to students in the Individualized Degree Program. Requires submission and approval of a special proposal form which is available in the IDP Office. (0-5 course credits)
AMERICAN STUDIES GRADUATE COURSES (Spring Term)
802-09. Primary Research Methods—This seminar is designed to enable students to identify, locate, and evaluate a range of manuscript, documentary, and printed materials, from personal letters and diaries to government reports, which they will use in carrying out research on topics of their choice. Archives and other repositories in the greater Hartford area hold a wealth of manuscript and published documents for class members to investigate. Students will critically read selections from secondary literature and examine the use other scholars have made of similar materials. Research projects for the course can generally be designed within the area of a student's particular interest. Course not open to undergraduates.
819. From Decorum to Sensation: Varieties of Museum and Archive Experience—Decorum—or what is deemed proper to a genre, a form, a character—is a term most often applied to literary texts. But notions of propriety maintain an important place in the field of museum studies, as reactions to the recent "Sensation" exhibition at New York's Brooklyn Museum of Art have demonstrated. In this course we will trace the evolving concept of and pressures exerted by decorum in 19th and 20th century museums and their consitutencies, an inquiry which will generate questions about governing bodies, societal and cultural norms, censorship, free speech and tolerance. We will move from the initial cabinets of curiosity in America's earliest museums to the "Cabinet of Wonders" exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in this first year of the new century. We will also look at several innovative exhibition venues, including Exploratorium in San Francisco, Dia Center for the Arts in New York City, the Pequot Museum in Connecticut, and a new Smithsonian project which will attempt to bring that institution's complete collection (its storehouses and its archives) to the public via an interactive web museum.
823. Sports in American Literature and Culture—Work, play, ritual, obsession: sports holds a sacred spot in American culture. In this seminar, we will scan an array of sports (professional, amateur, high school, recreational) through a variety of media (fiction, film, journalism, comic art). How do local team help to build – and to rend – communities? How do exports (baseball) and imports (soccer) shape national identity in an international context? How do athletic fashions translate on the street and in the workplace? How does America construct its sports heroes, how do those heroes construct themselves, and how are participants and observers both enmeshed in myths of race and gender?
823. Museum Studies: Minorities and Museums—In this course we will explore the obstacles and opportunities affecting the impulse to collect, document, and preserve history and culture within communities of color. How do mainstream institutions engage other audiences and themes, and how should communities outside those institutions balance the need for community-based efforts with a relationship to the mainstream? This history has helped define broader popular culture, identity, and political issues. These relationships continue to inform representations and histories. Examples from a range of cultural communities will provide a context with African American museological history as the primary text. Informing these discussions will be the examples of several regional institutions and histories, such as the public legacy of the Amistad rebellion and recent local African American and Latino community projects.
840. Cold War Culture in the United States—This course examines the relation between politics and culture in the Cold War era. In the United States the Cold War was marked by a virtually unprecedented campaign to marginalize and contain political and sexual nonconformity, a campaign that threatened to transform the nation into a mirror image of its political and cultural other, the Soviet Union. Americans who failed to conform to the emerging political and sexual consensus, such as communists, homosexuals, and career women, were construed as the "enemy within" and relentlessly persecuted. How did postwar American culture both contribute to and undermine this campaign? To answer this question, the course emphasizes the complexity of Cold War culture, focusing in particular on the construction of racial and gendered identity in the postwar period. Texts will include the films Mildred Pierce, I Was a Communist for the FBI, Imitation of Life, Vertigo, and The Misfits; the plays Death of a Salesman, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and A Raisin in the Sun; the novels Maud Martha, Invisible Man, On the Road, Another Country, and The Bell Jar. Supplemental readings include essays by James Baldwin, Irving Howe, Ralph Ellison, and Betty Friedan.
940. Independent Study
953. Independent Research
954. Thesis—Part I. (The two course credits are considered pending in Part I of the thesis; they will be awarded with the completion of Part II.)
955. Thesis—Part II. (Continuation of American Studies 954. Two course credits.)
956. Thesis—(Completion of two course credits in one semester.)
AMERICAN STUDIES COURSES
ORIGINATING IN OTHER DEPARTMENTS
(Spring Term)ECONOMICS 214. Business and Entrepreneurial History—The evolution of business structures and practices, primarily in the American experience. Changes in such aspects of management, finance, marketing, and information are considered. Special attention is given to the role or entrepreneurs and conditions which may have influenced their creative efforts. Both an analytical approach and case studies are employed. Prerequisite: Economics 101.
EDUCATION 203. Schooling in America—An examination of different conceptions of the experience of schooling in this country. Does schooling contribute to equality of educational opportunity or limit further the opportunities of those who have little to begin with? Does schooling promote or repress free expression? This course will weigh arguments and evidence supporting each of these possibilities. Topics include desegregation, the distribution of educational resources and their effectiveness, tracking, grading systems, and the exercise of teacher authority.
EDUCATION 236. Multiculturalism and Ethnicity in Education—What are the prospects for achieving social integration and equal opportunity in a diverse society through education? This course explores the cultural and social bases of learning and achievement among linguistic, cultural, and 'racial' minorities in the United States and other societies, using case studies and research findings. Bilingualism, multiculturalism, cultural pluralism and other programs and approaches which address the specific needs, concerns, and interests of African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, Native American and immigrant American learners will be debated.
ENGLISH 204. Introduction to American Literature—A survey of literature, written and oral, produced in what is now the United States from the earliest times to around the Civil War. We will examine relationships among cultural and intellectual developments and the politics, economics, and societies of North America. Authors to be read include some who are well known— like Emerson, Melville, and Dickinson— and some who are less familiar—like Cabeca de Vaca, John Rollin Ridge, and Harriet Jacobs.
ENGLISH 213. Survey of 20th Century African American Literature—This course will introduce students to a broad survey of 20th century African American fictions, essays, and poetry by such celebrated writers as DuBois, Hurston, Wright, Ellison, Petry, Hughes, Baldwin, Brooks, Baraka, Joran, Killens, Morrison, Lorde, and Walker. Our discussions and strategies for reading will be informed by consideration of relevant social, historical, and political contexts. In addition to discussing issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality, emphasis will be on identifying and tracing recurring ideas/themes, as well as on developing a theoretical language to facilitate thoughtful engagement with these works. This course satisfies the requirement of a course emphasizing cultural context.
ENGLISH 288. Home Fires Burning: American Fiction, 1945-75—A survey of American fiction from the end of World War II, through the Cold War 1950, 60’s, and 70’s, and concluding in the aftermath of the U.S.-Vietnam War. Included will be novels and short stories by Norman Mailer, James Baldwin, Saul Bellow, John Cheever, J.D. Salinger, John Updike, Grace Paley, Donald Barthelme, Thomas Pynchon, E.L. Doctorow, Robert Stone, and Joyce Carol Oates. Students should be prepared to read a novel a week, or its equivalent, as well as occasional secondary readings for historical context. Evaluation will be through a combination of quizzes, short papers, mid-term and final exam.
ENGLISH 313. 20th Century African-American Autobiography—Autobiography has enjoyed a long tradition in African American letters from the 18th century to the present. This course investigates the significance of autobiography for African-American writers historically as well as the genre's continuing significance in the contemporary context. Majors issues we will discuss include the politics of writing for oppressed/marginalized groups, the struggle for voice or subjectivity, the relationship between storytelling and self re-creation, the tension between truth and fiction, and the precarious nature of memory in autobiographical practice. Drawing on recent autobiography criticism and theory, we will examine the autobiographies of a variety of 20th century figures, including performing artists, writers, academics, and political activists. Texts may include autobiographies by Nathan McCall, Assata Shakur, Audre Lorde, Angela Davis, Malcolm X, Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, Adrienne Kennedy, Sanyika Shakur, Zora Neale Hurston, Gloria Wade-Gayles, Richard Wright, Miles Davis, Claude Brown, and Paul Robeson.
ENGLISH 439. Topics in Film: Star Systems—Film industries produce not only films, but stars. In this seminar we will explore how both individual stars, and the phenomenon of stardom itself, are constructed, and how the meanings and effects of both have altered over time. Readings range from recent film theory to more general cultural and political history, with emphasis on the interaction of the mechanics of stardom and the production of gender models and stereotypes, from Joan Crawford to Susan Sarandon and from John Wayne to Kevin Costner. Film screenings will be scheduled accordingly.
ENGLISH 496-02. Senior Seminar: Amistad and Other Rebellions—The period prior to the Civil War witnessed intense conflicts not only about slavery and race but about the spread of capitalism, restrictions on women's economic and social rights, the growth of cities, and a variety of other social issues. "Literature" in this period was seldom seen as heavily intertwined. In this seminar we will look at the relationships between a number of issues prominent in ante-bellum America and works of art which at once expressed ideas about such issues and helped shape responses to them. The Amistad affair will provide one instance; we will examine two or three others as well. This course open to senior English majors only.
ENGLISH 852. Race, Nation, and Culture: Remapping Modern American Fiction—This course examines the relationship between modernism and nativism in the United States. In the 1920s nativist fervor provoked a redefinition of American national identity, one grounded in an essentialist understanding of race. At the same time, the myth of the American melting pot was vigorously attacked by cultural progressives who celebrated the racial and ethnic diversity of American society. How did modern American writers contribute to these debates over national identity? What understandings of race and national identity did they help to promote or undermine? Primary readings will include novels by Toomer, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Lewis, Faulkner, Cather, Glasgow, McKay, Larsen, and Hurston. Secondary readings will include essays on race and national identity by Frank, Kallen, Locke, Boas, and Dewey. This course satisfies the requirement of a literary history course. Undergraduates who wish to enroll in this course must obtain permission of their adviser and the instructor.
HISTORY 202. The United States From Reconstruction to the Present—A continuation of History 201, examining the transformation of the divided and agrarian society of the 19th century into a highly organized, urban-industrial world power.
HISTORY 209. African-American History—The experiences of African-Americans from the 17th century to the present with particular emphasis on life in slavery and in the 20th-century urban North.
HISTORY 232. Immigration & Ethnicity In America: The Urban Crucible—The urban experience has profoundly affected the lives of immigrants and the shaping of ethnic identity in this country. This course will examine the intertwined histories of various immigrant, ethnic and racial groups in several cities over time. Concentrating primarily on the late 19th and the 20th centuries, we will consider such issues as assimilation, pluralism, identity formation, notions of community, religion, and political struggle in the urban context.
HISTORY 312. The Formative Years of American History, 1763-1815—An examination of the causes and course of the American Revolution; the Confederation period; the framing of the Constitution; and the political and diplomatic history of the early republic. Special attention will also be given to the institution of plantation slavery in the South, and the paradoxical relationship between the ideals of republicanism and human bondage in the South.
HISTORY 315. Women in America—An examination of women's varied experiences in the public and private spheres, from their own perspective as well as that of the dominant society. The experiences of women of different classes and races will be compared, as will the relationship between images of women and changing realities of their lives. Emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries.
HISTORY 345. The United States and Vietnam: Warring States—Probably no set of events in the post-war history of the United States has so torn the fabric of American political life and values as the war in Vietnam. The war tested American foreign and military policy aims in Asia and became the object of a soul-searching national controversy that engaged the energies of millions of Americans and tried the collective conscience of the nation. For the Vietnamese people, the war was a harsh experience that evoked sacrifice and suffering in the name of revolution and independence. Vietnam's struggle with the United States represented in symbolic and practical terms an attempt to resolve questions of national identity and sovereignty that were the legacy of foreign domination and an ambiguous encounter with European culture and society. This course will examine the Vietnam war through a variety of historical materials, including monographs, documents, novels, and memoirs. Films and guest lectures will supplement the core readings. Readings will include: George Herring, America's Longest War; John Lewis Gaddis, Strategies of Containment; James Carroll, American Requiem; Truong Nhu Tang, A Viet Cong Memoir; and Tim O'Brien, If I Die in a Combat Zone.
HISTORY 350. The Civil War Era, 1845-1877—An exploration of the causes of the American Civil War, including a detailed study of slavery, abolitionism, the development of Southern sectional consciousness, conflict over the Western territories, the disintegration of the national party system and the rise of the Republicans, Lincoln's election, and the secession crisis of 1860-61. The political and military history of the wartime period will also be examined, as will the post-war struggle to reconstruct the Union and define the status of four million newly-freed black Americans.
HISTORY 378. Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans: Colony, Nation and Diaspora—This course will examine, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the historical formation of a colonial society and a people we now call "Puerto Ricans" by focusing both on the island and on the immigrant communities in the U.S. We will study the island's history from the ancient, pre-Hispanic era, through some four centuries of Spanish rule (1508-1898), as well as in the one hundred years of American colonial rule in the twentieth century. How were "Puerto Rico/Puerto Ricans" constituted as colonial subjects under these two vastly different imperial regimes? From slave plantations to hinterland peasant communities; from small towns to modern, industrial cities in the island; from colonial citizens in the island to immigrant, "minority" outsiders in inner-city neighborhoods in the U.S., the historical experiences of Puerto Ricans have forced upon them multiple understandings of who they must be but also allowed them to work out their own, often conflicting, definitions of "Puerto Rican."
HISTORY 402-36. History of Hartford, 1865-Present.—The post-Civil War history of Hartford is a history of the initial triumph of entrepreneurial power and civic will and the subsequent loss of certain forms of urban wealth. Mark Twain called the city the "center of all Connecticut wealth." Despite considerable poverty, in 1876, Hartford still boasted the country's highest per capita income and is now ranked as among the nation's poorest cities. This seminar explores the processes of cultural and social transformation that resulted in these differences. We seek to understand Hartford's late 19th and 20th century political culture and political economy. Topics include: the distribution of capital in industry, housing, charity, and welfare; the racial, ethnic, religious and class composition of the city's men and women residents; urban politics, racial and ethnic antagonisms, and the history of attempts at social change in the city; the modes of artistic and literary expressions that arose over time. Sources for study include readings drawn from other urban histories; documents and primary sources drawn from Hartford's rich archival and museum collections; the portrayal of the city in photography and film. Students will construct projects based upon research and interaction throughout the city. A speakers program and off-campus work supplement the course.
HISTORY 402-54. Film, Fiction, and History—What is "history?" Most of what we know or believe about the human past comes not from conventional history courses of history texts but from works of creative imagination, those fictionalized or dramatized accounts of the past that we encounter in novels and other types of fiction; in theatrical and cinematic productions; and, increasingly, in television. This seminar examines in detail several historical episodes as they have been modified, simplified, reinterpreted or even wholly changed through various works of fiction and the films based on such fictional portrayals of actual events.
HISTORY 402-78. American Promise/American Crisis: The U.S. 1820-61—An explanation of the protracted and steadily intensifying conflict over slavery which finally culminated in the election of Abraham Lincoln, an Illinois Republican moderate, and brought the dissolution of the Union. Assigned readings will include both historical accounts and primary works by abolitionists, pro-slavery apologists, prominent politicians, former slaves, novelists and journalists.
HISTORY 839-02. Race and Ethnicity in 20th Century America—This course examines how Americans have defined race and ethnicity over time as well as the historical experiences of non-whites and immigrant groups in the 20th century. In what ways are ethnic and black experiences similar? In what ways are they different?
HISTORY 866. Historical Studies: The United States in the Prosperous Years 1900-1929—Topics in the culture and political economy of the years 1900-1929, including progressive movements, labor organization struggles, the rise and fall of the Left, the suffrage campaign and its aftermath, immigration and Americanization, the World War home front, migrations and communities of African-Americans, and the impact of the mass media.
International Studies 200. Hippies: Asia in the American Imagination—Walt Whitman, in 1868, hoped that the wisdom and art of India might act as a foil against the functionalized personality of industrial America ("Passage to India"). From Whitman to New Age, Asia appears in the U.S. as an exotic antidote to industrial modernity, despite the fact that Asian labor participated actively in that very modernity. This class will study the ways in which North Americans have represented Asia as well as Asian Americans. We will explore immigration policy, the travels of Asian spiritual healers to the U.S., the many journeys of U.S. hippies to Asia, and the status of Asian goods in the U.S. marketplace. Readings include writings of (Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder) and about (Gita Mehta) hippies, legal documents, documents of exotica (Kung Fu, Sushi) and histories of New Age and alternative healing (Deepak Chipra, Chinese Medicine); we will also listen to music and watch movies (such as the work of Bruce Lee) that fashioned an "Asia" in the minds of Americans.
International Studies 210. Japanese American History and Religion—A survey course on Japanese American history from the fist immigrants who landed in Hawaii and California to the present. Viewed through the lens of religion (Buddhism, Christianity, and new religions), Japanese American ethnicity and identity will be the major theme of the course. The arrival of the issei to the West Coast, the wartime internment camp experience, and the transformations among the samsei-yonsei (third and fourth generation) are three focal moments in Japanese American history that will be treated in depth.
Jewish Studies 275. The Making of American Jews—This course will explore the Jewish experience in America through art and artifacts. By looking at the material culture of Judaism, we will engage in the study of everyday life. We will focus on aspects of Jewish American culture such as food, clothing, ritual objects, and museums and discuss the ways in which visual culture expresses religious beliefs and shapes ethnic identity. The course will introduce students to a variety of sources and consider theoretical ways of understanding them.
Latin American Studies 262. Peoples and Culture of the Caribbean—A review of the attempt to develop generalizations about the structure of Caribbean society. Theoretical materials will focus on the historical role of slavery, the nature of plural societies, race, class, ethnicity and specific institutions such as the family, the schools, the church and the political structure.
MODERN LANGUAGES 233-26. Cinema and Societies in Crisis: Contemporary Russian and American Films—This course will examine the representation of various contemporary social problems in the films of two different countries: the United States and Russia. In comparing the cinematic treatment of similar moments of crisis, we will attempt to determine which aspects of these phenomena are universal and which are culturally bound. In addition, we will seek to identify an aesthetics of crisis, as we look for similarities in the construction of each narrative. The semester will be divided into six two-week units, which will link recent Russian and American films thematically. These themes will be: Race and Ethnicity, Politics and Militarism, Historical Revisionism, Violence and Crime, the Representation of Women, and Family Values. The directors whose works will be studied include: Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Vyacheslav Krishtofovich, Spike Lee, Pavel Lounguine, Nikita Mikhalkov, Rachid Nougmanov, Martin Scorcese, and Oliver Stone.
MUSIC 172.Contemporary Musical Theater—An appreciation of the corpus of recent Broadway musicals, that, beginning with Stephen Sondheim's Company (1970), brought new aesthetic and intellectual vigor to an art form grown stale on the outmoded formulas of Rodgers & Hammerstein and Lerner & Loewe. "Musical comedy" no longer constitutes an appropriate form for these works born of contemporary consciousness and realism, works influenced by some of the most advanced streams of 20th-century artistic thought. Works to be studied include Hair, Pippin, Sweeney Todd, A Chorus Line, Cats, and many others. No previous training in music is required.
MUSIC 224.Music of Black American Women—A broad survey of the music of black American women that focuses largely on the work and lives of the classic blues singers of the 1920's, but also discusses the jazz singers of the 1940's and 1950's, black women in the classical arts, the girl groups of the 1960's, and women in rap. Musicians to be studied include Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, Marian Anderson, Leontyne Price, Kathleen Battle, Florence Price, Jessye Norman, Billie Holiday, Ethel Waters, Dinah Washington, the Supremes, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, the Marvelettes, Queen Latifah, Lil'Kim, Lauryn Hill, and Bahmadia. Students will write several 4-6 page papers based on the assigned reading and do a final project/interview with a local black women active as a composer, teacher, or performer.
PHILOSOPHY 241. Race, Racism and Philosophy—An intensive examination of some philosophical discussions of race and racism. Topics include the origins of European racism, the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic racism, the conceptual connections between racist thinking and certain canonized philosophical positions (e.g., Locke's nominalism), the relationship between racism and our notions of personal identity, the use of traditional philosophical thought (e.g., the history of philosophy) to characterize and explain differences between European and black African cultures, the possible connections between racism and Pan-Africanism, the nature of anti-Semitism, and recent attempts to conceptualize race and racism as social constructions.
POLITICAL SCIENCE 216. American Political Thought—A study of the development of American political thought: the colonial period, the Revolution; Jeffersonian democracy; Jacksonian democracy; the defense of slave society; social Darwinism; the Populist and Progressive reform movements; current theories of conservatism, liberalism, and the Left.
POLITICAL SCIENCE 316. Constitutional Law: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights—An analysis and evaluation of decisions of courts (and related materials) dealing principally with freedom of expression and equal protection of the laws. Prerequisite: C- or better in Political Science 102.
PUBLIC POLICY 219. Building America: The Epic Struggle Between Road and Rail—This course discusses how transportation over 150 years helped create powerful urban centers, facilitated western migration, and built the suburban nation we know today. Primary attention will focus on the historical battle over government support between road and rail in America and Europe, the causes for the railways' decline, and the prospects for their revival in an autocentric society. In addition, problems and policies related to suburbanization, pollution, congestion, and land use will be addressed. The course title comes from the book authored by the instructor.
RELIGION 262. Religion in American Society—The historical role of religion in shaping American life and thought, with special attention to the influence of religious ideologies on social values and social reform.
RELIGION 267. Religion and the Media—Western religion, and Christianity in particular, have always put a premium on employing the available techniques of mass communication to get its message out, but today many religious people see the omnipresent "secular" media as hostile to their faith. This course will look at the relationship between religion and the communications media, focusing primarily on how the American news media have dealt with religion since the creation of the penny press in the 1830s. Attention will also be given to the ways that American religious institutions have used mass media to present themselves from the circulation of Bibles and tracts in the 19th century through religious broadcasting beginning in the 20th century to the use of the Internet and worldwide web today.
RELIGION 283. Native American Religions—An anthropological study of the religions of the Americas' indigenous peoples. Emphasis will be given to their ethnohistory, oral traditions, myths, symbols and ritual performances. The course will also consider culture change and the rise of modern nativistic movements among American Indians.
WOMEN’S STUDIES 102. Gender and Sexuality: Issues and Controversies—This is an introductory survey of the major issues and controversies in the fields of gender and sexuality studies. Broadly interdisciplinary, it introduces students to social constructions and essentialist conceptions of gender and sexuality; explores the relationship between gender and sexuality; and considers the intersection of gender and sexuality with other categories of identity such as class, race, and nationality. It also engages questions of ideology and representation, asking how stereotypes have contributed to constraining and emancipating individuals through their gender and sexuality. Course materials are drawn from a range of disciplines, including sociology, psychoanalysis, history, anthropology, and literary and film studies.
WOMEN’S STUDIES 402-02. Feminist Legal Theory—This course will explore selected issues and controversies in American feminist legal theory and will emphasize the development of its theoretical foundations. We will examine how and why legal theory has become one of the most vital areas for the emergence of a distinctly feminist critical approach to questions of the relationship between law, gender and society. In readings and class discussions we will study and evaluate the ways in which feminists have attempted to redefine legal problems and have applied legal analysis to sex and gender issues. Topics will include: feminist critiques of the liberal law; sex and gender equality; sex discrimination; affirmative action; abortion; pornography; and sexual harassment. Authors we will read include Catharine MacKinnon, Andrea Dworkin, Deborah Rhode, Mary Jo Frug, Patricia Williams, Kimberle Crenshaw, Robin West, and Zellah Eisenstein.