Class Schedules

The main objectives of this introductory course are: to explore the historical construction of racial categories in the United States; to understand the systemic impact of racism on contemporary social processes; to consider popular views about race in the light of emerging scholarship in the field; and to develop an ability to connect personal experiences to larger, collective realities. We will engage several questions as a group: What are the historical and sociological foundations of racial categories? When does focusing on race make someone racist? What is white privilege, and why does it matter? All students will be asked to think and write about their own racial identity. This course, or its equivalent, is required for majors and minors.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course introduces students to the key questions that scholars within the field of American Studies apply to explorations of people and cultures affected by competing discourses about “American” citizenship. This is a discussion-based course that will cultivate comprehension of core American Studies concepts and analytical frameworks, while also gauging the role of interdisciplinary research in deepening contemporary understandings of cultures that have circulated within and across the boundaries of the United States. Students will read and critically evaluate “classic” American Studies texts that exemplify the shifting contours of the field over time, as well as works that model the discipline’s long history of research that engages with real world political, social, and economic injustice.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course will introduce students to interdisciplinary research approaches to the study of race, ethnicity, and other categories of difference. Students will learn to conceptualize and design research projects, and will obtain hands-on experience in executing different methods. The course will also consider the critiques of systems of knowledge production and research approaches that have been informed by scholars from fields such as African American history, gender studies, and critical race studies, as well as from the disciplines. The goal is to develop an understanding of the assumptions embedded in many fields of inquiry, and to learn to apply critical approaches to important research questions. Prerequisite(s): AMST 101, AMST 103, or AMST 110.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

The readings and assignments in this course are designed to help students understand how social policies and programs contribute to Americans' lived experiences.  We will examine various theoretical justifications for the policies that constitute the American welfare state, then confront and dissect major strands of the American social safety net to better understand how political institutions and policy mechanisms contribute to both diversity and inequality in individuals' social, economic and political outcomes (based in race, class, gender, dis/ability, region, political jurisdiction, etc.).

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Quantitative Thinking Q2
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

In Motion is an introduction to modern African American History from slavery to contemporary times. In Motion emphasizes the idea that both African Americans and the stories of their lives in the United States are fluid, varied and continually being reinterpreted. Rather than a strict chronological survey, this course is organized thematically. Some of the important themes include movement/mobility/migration; work/labor; resistance to systems of oppression; gender/sexuality/culture/performance; politics/citizenship; and sites of (re)memory. While the course is geographically situated in the United States, we will also consider African American life, culture, thought and resistance in global perspectives. In this course, students will read important historical texts, both primary and secondary, engage in discussion, and write essays that ask them to critically engage the history of African Americans in the US. Cross-listed with History 219. 4 credits.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The history of American Indians is wonderfully complex, but this history is simultaneously fraught with misconceptions and misinterpretations. European (and, later, Euro-Americans) alternated among fascination, fear, and frustration toward American Indians, while American Indians sought to maintain tribal sovereignty and control over their lands, cultures, religions, politics, and lifestyles amidst continuing encroachment and settlement. This course examines American Indian history to 1871 - the year that Congress stopped making treaties with Native nations - by considering the complicated and multifaceted history of the nation's indigenous people. By looking at American Indian interactions with Spanish, French, British, and American explorers, settlers, missionaries, militaries, and government officials, this courses argues that the history of American Indians is essential to understanding past as well as present issues. Furthermore, this course looks to move beyond the notion that American Indian history is one of inevitable decline by creating a more nuanced understanding of the American Indian experience from pre-contact toward the twentieth century.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course examines traditions of 20th century African American women's activism and the ways in which they have changed over time.  Too often, the narrative of the "strong black woman" infuses stories of African American women's resistance which, coupled with a culture of dissemblance, makes the inner workings of their lives difficult to imagine. This course, at its heart, seeks to uncover the motivations, both personal and political, behind African American women's activism. It also aims to address the ways in which African American women have responded to the pressing social, economic, and political needs of their diverse communities. The course also asks students to consider narrative, voice and audience in historical writing, paying particular attention to the ways in which black women's history has been written over the course of the twentieth century.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This survey course will explore history, policy, and pedagogy as they relate to race, ethnicity, and culture as education. K-12 public education will be the primary focus with topics including desegregation, standardized testing, multi-cultural and ethnocentric pedagogy, the teacher's role and experience, and significant historical events in education. The course will culminate by analyzing current trends and future expectations in education.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course is an overview of the development of theatre by and about Black Americans. It examines the historical, social, political, and cultural context of African-American Theatre. After investigating the roots of African-American Theatre in African culture, performance modes, and social values, it focuses on a study of plays written by Black Americans in the 19th and 20th centuries.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

In this survey course, we will trace the development of an African American literary tradition from the end of the 18th century to the turn of the 20th century, from Phillis Wheatley to Charles Chesnutt. We will explore the longstanding project of writing an African American self as both a literary and a political subject. We will read closely, critically, and appreciatively from multiple genres, including poetry, slave narratives, short stories, novels, and a graphic novel. We will supplement our exploration of those texts with critical and theoretical readings. Among the themes that will organize the course are: writing as a political act; representations of gendered and classed experiences of blackness in the United States, aesthetic innovation in relation to political and social change, genre and its subversion, and the limits of literary representation itself. Requirements include: two papers of about 10 pages each, brief response papers to each new reading, an in-class presentation, class participation, and a final exam. This course fulfills either the literature by U.S. writers of color or the pre-1900 American literature requirement for the English major. Prerequisite: One of the following: ENGL 105, ENGL 115, ENGL 125, ENGL 135, ENGL 136 or ENGL 137.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

America is incomprehensible without reference to black Americans. In this course we explore the complicated lives of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X: how their lives converged and diverged. We analyze the intersections of racial identity, religious affiliation, and political orientation and their relations to the prevailing notions of manhood and American identity. How did Martin Luther King and Malcolm X enter the black freedom movement? How did their religious affiliations facilitate or hinder entry? How did their participation in the movement transform their understanding of religion? In what ways do MLK and X make theological critiques of antiblackness and white supremacy? How do they understand the relations among race, religion, and politics? Is religion central to their respective self-understanding? How do Martin and Malcolm enact—before the fact—the ideas expressed by the Twitter hashtags “#BlackLivesMatter” (created by the activists Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi) and “#SayHerName” (by the poet Aja Monet)?

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course explores the ways in which perceptions of the human body have shaped culture, thought, and discussions of rights in the United States. The first half of the course examines historical shifts related to racial categories, sexual identities, desirability, and health. The second half focuses on how discussions of racialized, gendered, and sexualized bodies influence current political, economic, and social debates. Throughout the course, we will engage in interdisciplinary interrogations of the body as both a site of social and political surveillance, as well as a medium of cultural critique and political protest.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course examines how social constructions of race, class, and gender in the US have been reflected and mediated in American photography from the early 20th century to the present. The course will consider theoretical questions regarding the medium of photography along with ethical and political issues involved in taking pictures of the "Others", and explore how issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, and economic and geopolitical relations of power re inseparable from the historical study, practice, and dissemination of the medium of photography. No previous knowledge or art history or photography required.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This course introduces students to debates, methods, and conceptual frameworks in race and gender, as represented in performance. It engages students in an interdisciplinary exploration of key terms--such as corporeality, embodiment, intersectionality, and performativity--that remain central to the fields of gender and sexuality, critical race theory, and performance. Through drafts and revisions of written work, critical dialogues and oral presentations in small groups, peer feedback, and analytical reading, students will engage in questions around identity formation, structural inequality, and the politics of citizenship.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This Junior Seminar in civic engagement offers upper-level students an opportunity to study - through internships and reflection - and to actively engage with the problem of racialized mass-incarceration on a local, regional, and national scale. During any given semester, the seminar may focus on a specific aspect of the problem, such as: ex-felon disenfranchisement, families and juvenile justice, restorative justice, political prisoners, or prison art and literature. This course requires prior exposure to American Studies (preferably including a critical methods course). Note: The seminar will run concurrently with optional internships specifically created for this course, and a required reflection "lab" period. Placement in these internships is highly recommended. Students must obtain permission to enroll in these internships. Prerequisite(s): AMST 200

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course provides an interdisciplinary discussion of the Latino experience in the United States with a focus on Mexican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Cuban- Americans. Using fiction, poetry, films and critical essays, we will examine issues of race and ethnicity, language, identity, gender and sexuality, politics, and immigration. This course satisfies the Area 2 requirement for the Spanish major. Prerequisite(s): SPAN 305

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

An overview of contemporary approaches to media as culture, a determining as well as determined sphere in which people make sense of the world, particularly in terms of ethnicity, gender, identity, and social inequality. Students develop tools for analyzing media texts and accounts of audience responses derived from the international field of cultural studies and from the social theory on which it draws. Analysis emphasizes specificity of media texts, including advertisements, films, news reports, and television shows. Experience in cooperative discussion, research, and publication. Prerequisite(s): MCST 110

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The Senior Capstone is required of all majors. Majors who meet college criteria are encouraged to conduct an honors project in conjunction with their Senior Capstone.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

Popular culture is often perceived as only a means of entertainment. In this course, however, we treat popular culture as central to the production and reproduction of identity categories in order for us to examine how images, ideologies and behaviors are created and represented in American popular culture. Most importantly, the course will explore the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and class in popular culture representations of identity to broadly discuss how identity markers are produced, how they change over time, and how they interlock to form larger structural inequalities and systems of oppression. We will focus on representations of Latinx bodies in the media, blackness and criminality, feminist politics and postfeminist culture, and representations of race and gender in animated films. In addition, students will question their own taken-for-granted notions about what popular culture is and what it does to gendered and raced relations in order to situate popular culture as a contested space of subjugation and disempowerment, as well as one of resistance and possibility.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

The course examines the post-World War II Civil Rights Movement led by African Americans in the United States.  In the class, students will analyze key people, issues, events, and debates within movement history, including, but not limited to, gender and leadership; struggles for civil rights in the south, west, and urban north; the impact of the Cold War on race relations; student activism; movement strategies; and the emergence of Black Power.  Throughout the semester, students will read a wide variety of primary and secondary texts to illuminate the activities and life stories of individual participants as well as the broad historical forces that characterized this long era of insurgency.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The American West is central to the construction of America's identity and popular culture.  The mythology of the American West, built on a narrow foundation of Euro-American settlement and conquest, is critical to understanding the role of the West in the national narrative of American history. Using a variety of materials, including films, art and photography, literature, and historical sources, this course will examine how writers, artists, actors, settlers, and government officials, among others, shaped the creation of the mythic West.  This course will investigate what - and who - is and is not considered part of this mythology, as well as the ways in which these constructs attempted to make sense of the diverse populations converging in the West.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course examines Native American history since 1871. We begin with an introduction to indigenous history before 1871, characterized by centuries of Euro-American attempts to colonize and Christianize, to assimilate Native bodies and allot Native lands. We will then analyze the ways in which Native Americans have continualy fought to sustain their cultures, languages, and religions, as well as their political and socio-economic structures, throughout the 20th and into the 21st centuries. Focusing on themes such as Native resistance to the development of U.S. federal policies and the proliferation of Native culture, we will also consider the shifting nature of Native American sovereignty and the importance of indigenous identity in regards to the experiences of Native Americans.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Poor and minority populations have historically borne the brunt of environmental inequalities in the United States, suffering disproportionately from the effects of pollution, resource depletion, dangerous jobs, limited access to common resources, and exposure to environmental hazards. Paying particular attention to the ways that race, ethnicity, class, and gender have shaped the political and economic dimensions of environmental injustices, this course draws on the work of scholars and activists to examine the long history of environmental inequities in the United States, along with more recent political movements-national and local-that seek to rectify environmental injustices.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This discussion-based course is entirely focused on Bruce Lee, the actor and leading martial arts icon of the 20th century. Using American Studies and Critical Race Studies frames to examine the construction of racialized and gendered bodies, we will discuss Bruce Lee in terms of his biography, identities, politics, philosophy, and filmography. We will take time to appreciate the entertainment value and athleticism that Bruce Lee brought to his work, but we will also learn to distinguish the commercialized, commodified Bruce Lee (from t-shirts to posters to action figures) from the serious historical figure who symbolized the spirit of cultural independence and political sovereignty around the world. Among the required books and movies: The Tao of Jeet Kune Do, and "Way of the Dragon" (1972).

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

From notions of the "pure self" to teenage ganguro ("face-blackening"), Japanese culture is rife with instances of ideology and performance that reflect a deep complexity in its engagement with issues of identity and foreignness. This course traces the roots of this complexity back to Japan's beginnings as a modern nation and examines its cultural development into the present day. Works of fiction will be paired with readings in history and criticism to explore the meanings of identity, race, and ethnicity as they are expressed and contested in Japanese culture. The course will cover the literature of Korea and Taiwan, the experience of domestic minorities, and the contemporary cultures of cos-play ("costume-play") and hip-hop. No prior knowledge of Japanese required.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course focuses on the social and cultural history of the Midwest in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We will examine how the Midwest has been mythologized simultaneously as the “real America” and as dismissible “fly-over” territory, in contrast to spaces more commonly associated with urbanity and cosmopolitanism. Course materials will focus on the social and political consequences of these myths, as well as experiences that complicate popular assumptions of nearly-universal whiteness and gender/sexual normativity in the Midwest. Several units will focus on specific local histories, culminating in a study of Flint, Michigan

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course examines the history of the social and cultural impacts of HIV and AIDS. We will focus on specific responses to the virus and disease, and how racist ideology and homophobia have shaped legal and medical policies since the early 1980s. We will also confront the discourse of HIV/AIDS—specifically, how meanings associated with the virus/disease have been constructed and contested by various institutions, as well as those seeking social justice for HIV-positive individuals. In addition to examining the evolving medical, political, and legal landscapes of the debates regarding HIV/AIDS, we will explore how art and protest have influenced popular understandings of what it means to be HIV-positive.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

"Chicana/o History" is designed to introduce students to the histories of the Chicana/o people prior to the Spanish colonization of the Americas to the present century. Specifically, this course will provide an overview of culture, religion, education, economics, immigration and civil rights through a Chicana feminist framework. We will begin with a general presentation of terminology and identification categories. Then move towards a general reading on the precolonial histories of the Olmecas, Aztecas, and Tolteca cultures and politics. We will follow with a study of Chicana women’s labor struggles in the U.S. along with the emergence of labor movements. In addition, the class will explore how and why the field of Chicana/o Studies emerges at the height of the Civil Rights and the Chicana/o movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Students will delve into U.S. constructions of immigration, citizenship and nationhood to understand contemporary debates and scholarship on issues affecting the Chicana/o-Mexicana/o Latina/o communities. By the end of the semester students will be able to critically engage, analyze, and contest not only contemporary constructions of Chicana/o identity and representation, but also grasp a clear understanding of Chicana feminism as an intellectual and theoretical discourse and a strategy for survival for the Chicana/o community.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course provides an interdisciplinary discussion of the Latino experience in the United States with a focus on Mexican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Cuban- Americans. Using fiction, poetry, films and critical essays, we will examine issues of race and ethnicity, language, identity, gender and sexuality, politics, and immigration. This course satisfies the Area 2 requirement for the Spanish major. Prerequisite(s): SPAN 305

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

In this discussion-based seminar, we will examine U.S. Global presence through the lenses of empire, diaspora, and transnationalism. We will look specifically at U.S. involvement in the Philippines and Viet Nam from 1898 to 1975 as moments of military occupation and cultural domination, as well as turning points for U.S. nation-building. What is "imperialism" and how is it different from "hegemony"? How did U.S. imperial adventures in Asia help to recreate a Western geographic imaginary of the "East"? How did they reshape or reconfigure "American" positions and identities? Under what circumstances were former imperial subjects allowed to generate racialized communities? To what extent are memories of U.S. conflicts in Asia cultivated, proliferated, twisted, or suppressed? What lessons can be garnered for the contemporary historical moment? Other topics for exploration include: internment, transracial adoption, commemorations of war, and anti-imperialist/anti-war movements.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Urban social geography is the study of social and spatial dimensions of city life. In this course, we will explore some of the ways in which urban society is organized geographically. We will also consider how the spatial patterns of urban life influence public policy issues in the American context. Topics covered in this course include causes of racial segregation, debates about gentrification, sustainable suburban development, the transition from government to governance in cities, and the delivery of urban services that affect the education, health and economic welfare of urban populations. Students will learn current research, engage debates about critical urban issues, and learn techniques useful for analyzing spatial patterns in the urban landscape. Prerequisite(s): GEOG 241 or GEOG 261 or GEOG 262 or permission of instructor

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

In this advanced course, we will study the longstanding tradition of African American women’s theory—that is a, body of thought that analyzes and challenges systemic U.S. oppressions while centering and valuing a wide range of black women’s perspectives and experiences. We will begin with 19th century contestations of notions of “ideal” womanhood and will extend our study into the 21st century, including theories of intersectionality and queer-of-color and black transgender theory. Authors may include: Harriet Jacobs, Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Audre Lorde, Patricia Hills Collins, Kara Keeling, and Omise’eke Tinsley, among others. We will also consider art and music as black feminist theory, studying figures such as Wangechi Mutu and Janelle Monáe. Course requirements include: weekly 1-page responses to the reading, one essay of about 5 pages, one 1-hour presentation, and a substantial final individual project. This course fulfills the U.S. writers of color requirement for the English major.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The great African American writer Langston Hughes (1902-1967) is best known as the poet laureate of the Harlem Renaissance. But his career was vaster still. He was a Soviet screenwriter, Spanish Civil War journalist, African literary anthologist, humorist, playwright, translator, social critic, writer of over 10,000 letters, and much more. This course engages Hughes's full career, bridging race and global issues, politics and art, and makes use of little-known archival materials. This course fulfills the U.S. writers of color requirement for the English major.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism OR U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials