AMST 102-01 10853 |
Reading Plays: Asian and Asian American Playwrights |
Days: M W F
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Time: 09:40 am-10:40 am
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Room: THEATR 213
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Instructor: kt shorb
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*Cross-listed with THDA 112-01 (10808), ASIA 194-03 (10809) ; appropriate for first-year students; registration limit has been adjusted to save 5 seats for incoming FYs*
Details
Reading Plays guides students in close readings of dramatic literature, in particular of plays that are typically left out of the traditional theatrical canon. Students will learn about the socio-historical context of each play, and in-class exercises will introduce them to the foundation of script analysis: they will examine the play’s given circumstances, dialogue, dramatic action, characters, and style. Students will read a new play every week; assignments include weekly in-class writing exercises and short critical papers. Some playwrights we may explore are: Ayad Akhtar, Jaclyn Backhaus, Christopher Chen, Mashuq Mushtaq Deen, Prince Gomolvilas, David Henry Hwang, Naomi Iizuka, Rajiv Joseph, Hansol Jung, Haruna Lee, Kimber Lee, Young Jean Lee, Qui Nguyen, Jiehae Park, Lloyd Suh, Kristina Wong, Lauren Yee, and Chay Yew.
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism OR U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts
Course Materials
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AMST 112-01 10269 |
Introduction to African American Literature |
Days: M W F
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Time: 09:40 am-10:40 am
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Room: MAIN 011
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Instructor: Daylanne English
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*Cross-listed with ENGL 112-01 (10268); registration limit has been adjusted to save 5 seats for incoming FYs*
Details
In this introductory course, we will study African American literature from its origins to the present. We will study major genres and movements, including the Harlem Renaissance and Afrofuturism. We will learn to use the tools of literary analysis in order to read closely, critically, appreciatively—and collectively. Themes of prophesy (what Du Bois termed “second sight”), literary experimentation, and beauty will focus our study. Authors will include: David Walker, Harriet Jacobs, W. E. B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, Octavia Butler, Claudia Rankine, and Ross Gay. Requirements include: a presentation, brief written responses to the readings, one medium length essay and a revision of it, and a final project that will include a written component. This course fulfills either the foundation course in literature requirement or the literature by 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
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AMST 114-01 10897 |
Introduction to Asian American Studies |
Days: M W F
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Time: 01:10 pm-02:10 pm
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Room: MUSIC 219
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Instructor: Jake Nagasawa
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*Cross-listed with ASIA 194-01 (10068); registration limit has been adjusted to save 5 seats for incoming FYs*
Details
This course introduces the basic issues and concepts of Asian American Studies. We begin by looking at the birth of Asian American Studies as a field in response to student protests in the late 1960s. We then proceed to an overview of Asian American history beginning with U.S. imperialism in Asia and moving up to the present moment. For the remainder of the course, we'll focus on particular topics such as: the model minority myth; anti-Asian violence; multiracial Asian American identity; and Asian American activism. The approach of this course is interdisciplinary; it draws on theoretical and methodological insights from academic disciplines such as history, ethnic studies, and sociology.
General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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AMST 120-01 10896 |
Hunger Games: Map and Mirror for the 21st Century |
Days: M
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Time: 07:00 pm-10:00 pm
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Room: THEATR 200
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Instructor: Karin Aguilar-San Juan
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*Permission of instructor required; registration limit will be adjusted to save 6 seats for current/ projected SRs, 6 seats for projected JRs, 6 seats for projected SOs and 7 seats for incoming FYs *
Details
This introductory-level course uses the youth-oriented Hunger Games trilogy (plus prequel) as a platform for launching an adult and scholarly conversation about global inequality, environmentalism, Reality TV, race/gender/sexuality, war, revolution, and the power of love. We will take an interdisciplinary approach; we will read, discuss, write, and interact in ways that are less concerned about adhering to disciplinary traditions than about exploring ideas and problems that are relevant to the 21st century. We will take archery lessons and share recipes for baking bread. A major goal of the course is to open up our hearts and minds, and to discover more precisely what we hunger for—as scholars, citizens, and human residents of the planet Earth. Prerequisites: Before the course starts, you should have finished all the books, including the prequel. We will watch the films together in a movie marathon weekend early in the semester.
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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AMST 130-F1 10898 |
What's after white empire–and is it already here? |
Days: T R
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Time: 03:00 pm-04:30 pm
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Room: HUM 214
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Instructor: Karin Aguilar-San Juan
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*First-Year Course Only; first day attendance required*
Details
From the Philippine-American War (1898-1910) to the global uprisings of May 2020, white supremacy and US imperialism have marched hand-in-hand, buttressed by cultures of violence and literal guns and tanks. Yet cracks in the walls of racism and empire have also always existed, with hopeful gestures of solidarity and activist movements pushing forward with new possibilities and imagined futures. In this discussion-based course, we will look for the common threads that link David Fagen (Black U.S. army soldier who defected and joined the Philippine nationalists in 1899) to the Vietnam antiwar movement (1955-1975) to Grace Lee Boggs (Chinese American philosopher activist based in Detroit, 1915-2015) along with many other individuals and events. Among the significant questions we will consider are: How can we change the separatist mindset of "zero-sum" and move toward solidarity on a world scale? What lessons can be drawn from the global COVID pandemic and the Russian war in Ukraine? How can we replace a culture of violence with a culture of peace?
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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AMST 160-01 10556 |
Culture Power Difference |
Days: T R
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Time: 03:00 pm-04:30 pm
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Room: HUM 401
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Instructor: Tia-Simone Gardner
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*First day attendance required; cross-listed with MCST 160-01 (10555)*
Details
The theorization of difference is an important aspect of cultural theory. In this class we will look at the role of difference as it is understood through ideas of representational and aesthetic politics as well as through the practice and production of knowledge. We want to examine the turn to difference within cultural studies and how this move has shifted how we think about power relations and meaning making in society. We will look at the foundational work of critical race and ethnic studies in cultural theory as well more recent scholarly work that focuses on the administration of difference through surveillance technology and social media. The class will expose students to a range of material including print, digital media, film, television, and internet and social media.
General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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AMST 203-01 10645 |
Politics and Inequality: The American Welfare State |
Days: M W F
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Time: 09:40 am-10:40 am
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Room: LIBR 250
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Instructor: Lesley Lavery
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*Cross-listed with POLI 203-01 (10644)*
Details
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
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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AMST 203-F1 10647 |
Politics and Inequality: The American Welfare State |
Days: M W F
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Time: 10:50 am-11:50 am
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Room: LIBR 250
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Instructor: Lesley Lavery
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*First-Year Course Only; cross-listed with POLI 203-F1 (10646)*
Details
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
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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AMST 205-01 10846 |
Trans Theories and Politics |
Days: T R
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Time: 09:40 am-11:10 am
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Room: CARN 105
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Instructor: Myrl Beam
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*Cross-listed with WGSS 205-01 (10845); registration limit has been adjusted to save 4 seats for incoming FYs*
Details
In less than ten years we have gone from Laverne Cox gracing the cover of Time Magazine, declaring that we have reached the “transgender tipping point,” to a broad based anti-trans culture war. From Caitlyn Jenner to Laverne Cox, CeCe MacDonald to Chelsea Manning, Transparent to Pose, trans people have experienced unprecedented media coverage over the past ten years. And yet, alongside this positive media coverage, trans exclusion has emerged as a key component of the global rise of white nationalism, and we see legislatures across the country foment fear of the transsexual child predator, pass bills to restrict trans kid’s participation in sports, and limit gender affirming medical care for youth and adults. Even more concerning, The National Coalition of Antiviolence Projects reports that 2021 saw a record number of murders of transgender individuals, in particular trans women of color. In all of these instances, it’s useful to consider how and why the specter of transness is raised. What social and political work does that figure do? This course investigates the ways that ideas about normative and non-normative gender are produced in the context of white supremacy and capitalism, recognizing that discourses about gender, race, class, sexuality and nation are co-constitutive and historically contingent. Foregrounding intersectionality, we begin with situating the production and policing norms around gender and sexuality as a key tactic of settler colonialism, and then we move forward in time through the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries to think about how norms around racialized gender and sexuality have been policed, resisted, and transformed in various historical moments.This course will examine transness as practices of gender transgression, rather than solely an identity category, practices that are historically and geographically contingent. In doing so, we will ask: What has gender non-conformity meant in various historical moments? How do race, class, gender, sexuality, and disability structure trans lives and communities? How have key institutions within the US constructed ideas about gender normativity and policed gender transgression? How has that policing impacted and shaped trans life? What is the relationship between feminism and trans people and trans liberation? How have trans people envisioned and fought for social justice? What space can trans embodiment and politics open up for new ways of living, relating, and imagining otherwise?
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Social science
Course Materials
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AMST 209-01 10427 |
Civil Rights in the United States |
Days: M W F
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Time: 02:20 pm-03:20 pm
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Room: MAIN 010
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Instructor: Walter Greason
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*Cross-listed with HIST 209-01 (10426)*
Details
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:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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AMST 225-01 10430 |
Native History to 1871 |
Days: T R
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Time: 09:40 am-11:10 am
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Room: MAIN 010
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Instructor: Katrina Phillips
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*Cross-listed with HIST 225-01 (10429)*
Details
This course examines Native history to 1871 -- the year that Congress unilaterally chose to stop making treaties with Native nations -- by considering the multifaceted histories and experiences of Native people in what is now the United States. By looking at Native interactions with (and resistance to) Spanish, French, British, and American explorers, settlers, missionaries, militaries, and government officials, this course argues that Native history is essential to understanding past as well as present issues. Can count towards "Colonization and Empire," or "Race and Indigeneity," or "Law and Social Justice," or "North America" fields.
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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AMST 229-01 10434 |
Narrating Black Women's Resistance |
Days: M W F
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Time: 01:10 pm-02:10 pm
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Room: MAIN 010
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Instructor: Walter Greason
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*Cross-listed with HIST 229-01 (10433), WGSS 229-01 (10435)*
Details
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
Internationalism
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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AMST 237-01 10069 |
Environmental Justice |
Days: T R
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Time: 09:40 am-11:10 am
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Room: THEATR 002
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Instructor: Kirisitina Sailiata
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*Cross-listed with ENVI 237-01 (10070); registration limit has been adjusted to save 5 seats for incoming FYs*
Details
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:
Humanities
Course Materials
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AMST 256-01 10438 |
Transatlantic Slave Trade |
Days: M W F
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Time: 09:40 am-10:40 am
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Room: MAIN 002
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Instructor: Linda Sturtz
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*Cross-listed with HIST 256-01 (10437)*
Details
This class examines the Atlantic commerce in enslaved Africans that took place between 1500 and 1800. We will explore, among other topics, transatlantic commerce, the process of turning captives into commodities, the gendered dimensions of the slave trade, onboard experiences, resistance to the trade, Africans in the Americas, and the abolitionist movement on both sides of the Atlantic. Students will read a range of primary and secondary sources in order to gain a more complex understanding of the trade and how it changed over time. Meets the global and/or comparative history requirement. Meets the pre-1800 requirement, and can count towards "Colonization and Empire," or "Race and Indigeneity," or "Law and Social Justice," or "Africa & Atlantic World" fields within the History major.
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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AMST 275-01 10284 |
African American Literature to 1900 |
Days: M W F
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Time: 02:20 pm-03:20 pm
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Room: CARN 204
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Instructor: Daylanne English
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*Cross-listed with ENGL 275-01 (10283)*
Details
In this course, we will study African American literature from the end of the 18th century to the turn of the 20th century, from Phillis Wheatley to Frederick Douglass to Ida B. Wells. Themes of the course will include forging Black solidarity and writing as means of self-construction and resistance. We will also foreground early African American literature as art, as an at once aesthetic and political project, reading it closely and appreciatively. We will frame our semester’s work with sound studies, exploring how this literary tradition engages with oral culture and with the sonic. Requirements include: brief written responses to the readings, a presentation, a medium-length essay and a revision of it, and a final reflection. This course fulfills the English major requirement either of a course focused on literature by U.S. writers of color or a course on 19th-century American literature.
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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AMST 284-01 10071 |
Radical Reelism: Indigeneity, Politics, and Visual Culture |
Days: M W
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Time: 07:00 pm-08:30 pm
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Room: HUM 215
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Instructor: Kirisitina Sailiata
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*Cross-listed with MCST 284-01 (10072); registration limit has been adjusted to save 5 seats for incoming FYs*
Details
Join us as we explore the roots and routes of Native Cultural Studies through photography, film, television, print and media. How have Indigenous people been represented in visual culture? And what can Indigenous visual artists or film theory teach us about the past, present and future in the United States? No previous coursework required.
General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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AMST 294-01 10073 |
Critical Race Studies |
Days: M W F
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Time: 03:30 pm-04:30 pm
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Room: ARTCOM 202
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Instructor: Jake Nagasawa
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*Registration limit has been adjusted to save 3 seats for incoming FYs*
Details
Who hasn’t heard of Critical Race Theory in this day and age? More often than not, "CRT" has served as a paper tiger for white supremacist, right wing attacks. However Critical Race Theory is primarily a legal studies approach, and is just one of many ways of thinking about race. In this course, we will offer a broad, interdisciplinary foundation for understanding, analyzing, and coming to terms with race, racism, and racial inequality in the United States. Students will have the freedom to explore their own interests through in-class discussions and a research paper. Topics will include racial formation in the United States; Asian settler colonialism; racial capitalism; and yes, Critical Race Theory.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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AMST 294-02 10849 |
Endarkened Epistemologies: A Black Feminist |
Days: M W F
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Time: 10:50 am-11:50 am
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Room: HUM 102
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Instructor: Ebony Aya
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*Cross-listed with WGSS 294-01 (10848)*
Details
Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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AMST 294-03 10887 |
Monuments and Memory |
Days: M
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Time: 07:00 pm-10:00 pm
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Room: CARN 06A
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Instructor: STAFF
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*Cross-listed with GEOG 294-02 (10368)*
Details
Monuments to enslavers, colonizers, torturers, dictators, war criminals, and other unsavory historical figures often garner substantial news media attention and hold symbolic and cultural significance. The death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police forces in 2020 reignited an ongoing global discussion over such monuments that points to their continuing importance as a global issue and their role in political efforts to reshape narratives around national and regional identities. Monuments are also increasingly connected to movements to decolonize places and pursue (or deny) social justice. This interdisciplinary geography course focuses on monuments and memory within a contemporary global context. It surveys controversies over tearing down, re-contextualizing, removing, renaming, and relocating problematic monuments and memorials, as well as efforts to construct new monuments (sometimes called counter-monuments or counter-commemoration) to underrepresented, colonized, or otherwise marginalized groups. Monuments to enslavers across the Americas in countries like the United States and Brazil and to colonizers in Europe, Africa, and Asia will occupy much of the course reading and discussion. The course will also involve a field-based component in which we physically visit, reflect on, and interpret local memorials in the Twin Cities area.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Course Materials
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AMST 308-01 10790 |
Introduction to U.S. Latinx Studies |
Days: M W F
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Time: 01:10 pm-02:10 pm
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Room: HUM 213
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Instructor: Alicia Muñoz
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*First day attendance required; cross-listed with SPAN 308-01 (10789), LATI 308-01 (10791)*
Details
This course provides an interdisciplinary discussion of the Latinx 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 or SPAN 306
General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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AMST 380-01 10293 |
Topics in African American Literature |
Days: M W F
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Time: 12:00 pm-01:00 pm
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Room: MAIN 111
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Instructor: Daylanne English
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*Cross-listed with ENGL 380-01 (10292)*
Details
In this class, we will explore how love resides at the very heart of the African American literary tradition by studying how African American writers of the 20th and 21st centuries have consistently expressed, theorized, and embraced love. Our readings will represent multiple kinds of romances and sexualities, yet all will center the love that both emerges from and helps to create Black collectivity, solidarity, and joy. Our readings will also reveal and challenge the oppressive forces that Black love and lovers so often must withstand. Authors will include: W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, and Samuel Delany. In addition, we will read some scholarship related to the course topic and to our texts. Course requirements include: discussion questions on our readings, a presentation, a short essay, and a final project. This course fulfills the U.S. writers of color requirement for the English major. Prerequisite: One prior English course numbered in the 100s.
General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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AMST 394-01 10074 |
Junior Seminar: Advanced Topics in Critical Ethnic Studies |
Days: T R
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Time: 03:00 pm-04:30 pm
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Room: HUM 111
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Instructor: Kirisitina Sailiata
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*Permission of instructor required; first day attendance required*
Details
Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.
General Education Requirements:
Distribution Requirements:
Humanities
Course Materials
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AMST 400-01 10075 |
Senior Seminar |
Days: T R
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Time: 09:40 am-11:10 am
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Room: HUM 217
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Instructor: Duchess Harris
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*First day attendance required*
Details
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
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