Course Listings

Below are the descriptions for the current and upcoming undergraduate and graduate courses in American Studies and U.S. Latina/o Studies. You may also visit Testudo at www.testudo.umd.edu/ScheduleOfClasses.html for further information, including available seats for each class.

Spring 2012

AMST Courses

AMST101 Introduction to American Studies

0101 MWF 9-9:50am D. Ishii

0201 MWF 10-10:50am J. Chaplin

0301 TuTh 11-12:15pm P. Saiedi

0401 TuTh 2-3:15pm S. Stephenson

Credit will be granted for only one of the following: AMST101 or AMST201. Formerly AMST201. Introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of American Studies by examining concepts such as culture, identity, cultural practices, and globalization, as well as theories underlying these concepts. Engages key themes, especially constructions of difference and identity, cultures of everyday life, and America and the world.

AMST202 Cultures of Everyday Life in America

0101 TuTh 12:30-1:45pm T. King

Examine the structures and patterns of everyday life in the U.S., utilizing methods such as ethnography, oral history, survey research, and textual, visual, and material cultural analysis.

AMST204 Film and American Culture Studies

0101 W 4-6:40pm S. Pramschufer

CORE Humanities (HO) Course.

This course explores film as a vital site, where American culture is theorized and where cultural meaning is negotiated. We will investigate how films imagine specific historical moments and what relationships films envision between visual (moving) images and reality, history, fantasy etc. The course thereby offers you a larger foundation for thinking about visual media in a historical moment, where we are constantly surrounded by technology, images, and icons.

AMST207 Contemporary American Cultures

0101 MWF 11-11:50am

0102 MWF 1-1:50pm

CORE Behavioral and Social Science (SB). CORE Diversity (D) Course.

Telling stories is the job of the ethnographer. By collecting data, making cultural observations, attuning interview skills and working in the field, ethnographic researchers reveal important dimensions of contemporary American cultures. This course introduces the tools and techniques of ethnography while examining how social position, memory interpretation and cultural differences create dilemmas and challenges for the study of people, organization, communities and societies.

AMST260 American Culture in the Information Age

0101 TuTh 9:30-10:45am

CORE Behavioral and Social Science (SB) Course.

What does it mean to live in an “information age?” We live in a world where data bombards us at every turn; quite literally, the ability to process information has become a defining characteristic of humanity. Access to information (or the lack thereof) has become one of the foundational aspects of contemporary American culture, redefining our relationship to space (outer, inner, and local), sexuality, community, and the body. This course asks the student to consider not only what they know, but how they know it – how is knowledge created when knowledge is everywhere? How we know what we know reflects our intersectional identities How does access to this wealth of information, these new ways of knowing shaping our lives and our understandings of self?

AMST289A Shifting Sands: Constructing Cultural Mainstreams and Margins in the U.S.

0101 Tu 9-10:40am C. Hanhardt

Th 8-8:50am A. Nelson

0102 Tu 9-10:40am C. Hanhardt

Th 9-9:50am A. Nelson

0103 Tu 9-10:40am C. Hanhardt

F 12-12:50pm A. Allen

0104 Tu 9-10:40am C. Hanhardt

F 1-1:50pm A. Allen

On any given issue, where do you locate yourself in terms of cultural mainstreams and margins? Do you favor mainstream media, identify with the 75% of Americans who call themselves middle class, shop in mainstream stores in the mall? Or, do you see yourself “swimming against the tide,” preferring an alternative lifestyle, listening to music that’s “out there,” or living in a neighborhood that almost everyone seems to have forgotten? Are you in a mainstream sometimes and in a margin on other things? How did you get where you are, and why does it matter? In the context of our representative democracy, how do mainstreams and margins relate to majorities and minorities, to economic and political power, to individual and collective identity(ies), to the politics of belonging, and to social policies? This course addresses these and other questions about the construction, relations, and operation of cultural mainstreams and margins via a series of case studies, including hand-held technology, shifting U.S. demographics, the New York City mosque controversy, and consumer surveys. We shall also employ a variety of primary sources, research methodologies, and interdisciplinary scholarship to examine how students themselves are actors in the making and assignment of meaning to cultural mainstreams and margins in the course of everyday life.

AMST328A Perspectives on Identity and Culture: Migration and Sexuality

0101 MWF 11-11:50am M. Vargas

Also offered as USLT498F.

How does sexuality travel across borders? How do sexuality and migration intersect? This course will delve into the multiple possibilities hidden in the intersections of migration and sexuality and illuminate before silenced histories and voices that are found in those intersections. Class discussions will explore current events and debates occurring in mainstream culture and everyday life that center on immigration and/or sexuality. Additionally, this course aims to provide a useful framework of contemporary and interdisciplinary immigration and sexuality literature that will help students develop and interrogate critical questions.

AMST328N Perspectives on Identity and Culture: Introduction to Native American Cultures of the United States

0101 M 4-6:40pm L. Gordon

This interdisciplinary course surveys Native American cultures of the U.S.—and includes a regional case study of their historical and ongoing concerns—with a focus on key elements of sacred worldviews shared by indigenous peoples of the U.S. and beyond. Native American sources, including texts, films, cyberspaces, performances, and gatherings present diverse cultural representations of sacred world views for analysis. Scholarly, creative, political-activist, and visionary/prophetic voices challenge the epistemologies and meaningless/fallen material worldviews of western science, culture studies, and Abrahamic religions. Readings and discussions examine: 1) the historical and contemporary importance to First-Nation peoples of sacred worldviews in their negotiation of cultures, identities, and sovereign rights in the U.S. (and beyond) ; and 2) the reasons for increasing scientific and scholarly interest in these worldviews/knowledge systems within a globalized American context marked by mounting real-world crises.

To gain and demonstrate experiential as well as scholarly knowledge of the differences between western material/fallen worldviews and indigenous sacred worldviews and their implications/consequences for contemporary Native American cultures, identities, and everyday lives. Participants study and practice a communitarian ethical research approach and self-reflexive, participant-observation, field work-based method of person-centered ethnography and ethnographic life history narrative writing.

AMST340 Introduction to History, Theories, and Methods in American Studies

0101 TuTh 12:30-1:45pm

Prerequisite: AMST201 and two additional AMST courses. Sophomore standing. For AMST majors only. Introduction to the process of interdisciplinary research, including research literatures, questions, first-hand sources and library and analytic methods in American Studies. Each student will craft a prospectus for original research.

AMST386 Experiential Learning

0106 TBA J. Paoletti

Prerequisite: permission of department. Junior standing. Faculty mentored independent learning. Online interaction using Blackboard required.

AMST388 Honors Thesis

Individual Instruction Course

AMST398 Independent Studies

Individual Instruction Course

AMST418D Cultural Themes in America: Growing Up American

SG91 WEB Online R. Kelly

Restricted to Shady Grove students. Human societies, if they are to persist over time, must accomplish two things. They must replace their population, ordinarily (although not necessarily) through biological reproduction. Secondly, adults must transmit their culture—the knowledge and beliefs that structure and give meaning to their way of life, their “social inheritance”—to the younger generation who will be responsible, in their turn, for carrying on that way of life. “Socialization” is the process in and through which cultural transmission is accomplished. AMST418D looks at various issues connected with the process of socialization in the United States, drawing on works of fiction, autobiography, and sociology, as well as court cases, to do so.

AMST418H Cultural Themes in America – Honors

Individual Instruction Course

AMST418L Cultural Themes in America: Asian Religions in American Culture

0101 TuTh 11-12:15pm J. Caughey

For more than 150 years Taoism, Sufism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Zen have had significant influences on American Society. Using the anthropological model of cultural encounter (what happens when an individual encounters an unfamiliar cultural meaning system), we will explore how various writers, artists, activists, musicians, scientists, health professionals, and other kinds of Americans have found inspiration in these traditions and adapted them to life in the U.S. In addition to studying five basic texts from these traditions, we will use self (or auto-) ethnography to explore our own reactions to these texts as we seek to understand what these spiritual traditions have to say about the problems and possibilities of life in the U.S.

AMST429J Perspectives on Popular Culture: Social Activism and Popular Culture

0101 MW 2-3:15pm S. Parks

In Social Activism and Popular Culture, we will explore the cultural environment in which any social activism must operate. In this class you will get to work on an advocacy project of your own while learning about how popular culture, the public discourse, and social activism work together. Participants in this course will choose a social cause and a related non-profit organization as the subjects of their assigned exercises. By the end of the semester, each participant will have a completed portfolio to be delivered to a selected contact person at the organization. The semester includes a face-to-face brainstorming meeting between the student and the contact person.

AMST429K Perspectives on Popular Culture: The Detective in Culture, Novels, and Film

0101 Tu 3:30-6:30pm G. Metcalf

The course surveys the development of the fictional detective from the classic reasoning detective and the American hardboiled detective, to more recent variations, and a few key movies. The course will require students to read several short stories, novels, and online readings, and view films.

AMST432 Literature in American Society

0101 WEB Online R. Kelly

AMST432, Literature and American Society, introduces students to a socio-cultural approach to literary works. Taking “literature” to be both a socially-constructed category and a complex institution, we will: 1) investigate the use of literary works as cultural evidence; 2) examine the creation, distribution, interpretation, evaluation, and selective memorialization of literary works in American society from the nineteenth century to the present; and 3) analyze the functions of literary works in larger cultural processes. A key question addressed in the course is the role of literature in the lives of readers.

AMST450 Seminar in American Studies

0101 MW 10-11:15pm J. Paoletti

0201 MW 2-3:15pm J. Paoletti

AMST498D Special Topics in American Studies: Black Masculinities

0101 TuTh 12:30-1:45pm J. McCune

AMST498L Special Topics in American Studies: Native Americans and U.S. Cinema

0101 TuTh 2-3:15pm R. Chester

Beginning with the silent era and continuing to the present, the class will examine representations both by and about Native Americans, exploring how film has defined and redefined Native American identity in U.S. history and culture. The course includes films directed by Native Americans and with Native American actors.

AMST498M Special Topics in American Studies: Latinas/os and U.S. Popular Culture

0101 TuTh 9:30-10:45am R. Chester

Also offered as USLT498B.

Using multiple theoretical and historical lenses, this course examines past and present issues surrounding Latina/os and popular culture in the United States. A diverse ethnoracial constituency with a long history in the United States, Latina/os also represent the fastest growing demographic in contemporary U.S. American society. This course is timely, then, in attempting to historicize and explore the political and ideological ramifications of cultural products both by and about US Latina/os. Using theories drawn from Marxian analysis, cultural studies, visual culture studies, critical race theory, borderlands theory, and feminism, this class will examine multiple texts from a variety of timeframes. As we do so, we will explore such issues as representational exclusion and inclusion from the “imagined community” of US identity, transnational identifications, ethnoracial stereotyping and resistance to such, and intersections of Latino/a identities with aspects of class, race, sexuality, and gender. This will entail investigations of diverse cultural arenas and media, among them Hollywood cinema, television, popular music, and theatrical performance. Students will be assessed on their participation in classroom discussions, on several short in-class and take-home assignments, and on two analytical essays of their own conceptualization.

AMST498N Special Topics in American Studies: Citizens, Refugees, and Immigrants

0101 TuTh 12:30-1:45pm P. Guerrero

Also offered as USLT498I.

This course critically engages with notions of exclusion and inclusion within the United States through citizenship, immigrant, and refugee status. These are guiding categories because Latina/o communities and, indeed, any community are defined through these divisions. We begin by learning the about the categories of race, gender, and citizenship in order to have a common starting point as well as to understand why these have been so important to the U.S. nation-state. We then move on to understand the difference between race and racial formation and learn about an ideology that has been a driving force in U.S. history.

AMST603 Current Approaches to American Studies

0101 Tu 4-6:40pm P. Williams-Forson

For AMST majors only or permission of department. Permission of instructor required for non-A MST graduate students. Builds on AMST601 and explores contemporary literature, theory, and intellectual issues in American Studies.

AMST628M Social Activism and New Media

0101 M 4-6:40pm S. Parks

New media are being used to introduce new strategies for social activism, but questions remain about how and when they are pragmatically successful. How are Twitter and Tumblr different from rallies, Facebook from the meeting hall? When are games and Second Life better or worse than face-to-face training exercises? How does the lack of physical risk change the endeavor? In this course, participants will examine the ways in which new media are changing and are changed by their applications for social activism.

Goals: Participants will understand the role of social interaction and social expression in the processes and strategies of social activist movements. They will also understand the roles of new media in facilitating and changing the processes and strategies. Participants will engage with actual social media and games in order to analyze their logistical and pragmatic efficacies for the purposes of social activism and how their use may influence the nature of social activism. By the end of the class, participants should be able to select and strategize with new media. The final project is a staging and analysis of a strategic project, including selecting a new medium appropriate to the desired process and result; designing the activity, running a pilot and analyzing the result.

AMST629A Seminar in American Studies: Ethnography

0101 Th 4-6:40pm J. Caughey

This course will be concerned with the ethnographic study of American social worlds. Readings will include methodological articles and chapters on ethnography and examples of ethnographic studies. We will review the ethnographic methods of participant-observation-interview fieldwork as developed in anthropology and sociology, particularly those versions that emphasize techniques for exploring and describing the actors’ cultural meaning systems. As we consider the stages of ethnographic research in the American social context – including the complex ethical issues involved - we will be concerned with how particular methods of interviewing, observation, interpretation, and writing can be adapted to our research concerns in American Studies including dimensions of difference such as race, class, gender, religion, sexuality, and disability and to areas of study such as those of cultural meaning, material culture, and popular culture.

We will be particularly concerned with how person-centered ethnography, with its attention to the ways in which contemporary groups and individuals are polycultural, can be built into the ethnographic study of particular social worlds – including questions of how to research and represent the multiple perspectives of social world members as well as those of ethnographers seeking to understand such worlds.

AMST655 Introduction to Museum Scholarship

0101 W 4-6:40pm E. Hughes

Restricted to graduate students in American Studies, Anthropology, Historic Preservation, or History (including HILS), or others by permission of department. Also offered as HIST 610. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: AMST 638C, AMST 655, HIST 610, or HIST 619C. Formerly AMST638C. Provides students a basic understanding of museums as cultural and intellectual institutions. Topics include the historical development of museums, museums as resources for scholarly study, and the museum exhibition as medium for presentation of scholarship. Meets in the Smithsonian Institution Library Conference room on the ground floor of the National Museum of Natural History near the 10th Street NW and Constitution Avenue entrance. The first class session will meet at the information desk.

AMST698 Directed Readings in American Studies

Individual Instruction Course

AMST798 Non-Thesis Research

Individual Instruction Course

AMST799 Master’s Thesis Research

Individual Instruction Course

AMST851 Interpretation of Cultural Landscapes

0101 7-9:45pm M. Sies

A research seminar that provides students an opportunity to survey the principal approaches to studying a cultural landscape, learn how to apply and adapt a field research method, and produce a primary research report on a cultural landscape of their choice.

AMST857 Museum Scholarship Practicum

0101 TBA M. Sies

Prerequisite: AMST856 and Permission of Museum Scholarship Program. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: AMST857 or HIST811. Students devise and carry out a research program using the collections at the Smithsonian Institution or some other cooperating museum, working under joint supervision of a museum professional and a university faculty member. Also offered as HIST811.

AMST898 Pre-Candidacy Research

Individual Instruction Course

AMST899 Doctoral Dissertation Research

Individual Instruction Course

USLT Courses

USLT202 US Latina/o Studies II: A Contemporary Overview 1960s to Present

0101 TuTh 2-3:15pm A. Rodriguez

CORE Behavioral and Social Science (SB) Course. CORE Diversity (D) Course.
Interdisciplinary course on emerging populations of Latinos in the 20th century with a focus on the multiple waves of Latino immigration as a result of neocolonialism, imperialism, globalization, and transnationalism. Examines the positioning of immigrant waves in the political, sociocultural, and historical contexts of US Latinidades.

USLT488B US Latina/o Senior Seminar

0101 TuTh 9:30-10:45am P. Guerrero

USLT498B US Latina/o Studies: Special Topics: Latinas/os and U.S. Popular Culture

0101 TuTh 9:30-10:45am R. Chester

Also offered as AMST498M.

USLT498F US Latina/o Studies: Special Topics: Migration and Sexuality

0101 MWF 11-11:50am M. Vargas

Also offered as AMST328A.

USLT498I US Latina/o Studies: Special Topics: Citizens, Refugees, and Immigrants

0101 TuTh 12:30-1:45pm P. Guerrero

Also offered as AMST498N.

USLT Elective Courses

AMST298W Introduction to Queer Latina/o Studies

0101 MW 2:00pm-3:15pm C. Perez

EDCP420 Advanced Topics in Human Diversity and Advocacy

0101 TuTh 11:00am-12:30pm

GEOG788M Migration: Latin America and the United States

0101 TuTh 11:00am-12:15pm R. Luna

JOUR453 News Coverage of Racial Issues

0101 TuTh 5:00pm- 6:15pm K. Davis

SPAN408F Great Themes of the Hispanic Literatures: U.S. Latina/Latino Languages of Latinidades

0101 TuTh 9:30am-10:45am A. Rodriguez

SOCY424 Sociology of Race Relations

0101 TuTh 11:00am-12:15pm K. Marsh

SOCY441 Social Stratification and Inequality

0101 TuTh 9:30am-10:45am J. Pease

WMST498N Advanced Special Topics in Women’s Studies: Latina Women and Families

0101 MW 2:00pm- 3:15pm A. Perez

NPAP Courses

Native Peoples of the Americas Program: at least 25% of the content of the following courses focus on issues related to Native American Studies.

AMST328N Perspectives on Identity and Culture: Introduction to Native American Cultures of the United States

0101 M 4-6:40pm L. Gordon

Also offered as ANTH468F.

This course surveys the territories and 50 states of the U.S. in defining the subject and scope of its study of Native American Indian cultures—and also situates its regional case study of key historical and contemporary concerns—by identifying key elements of a sacred worldview shared by indigenous peoples. Native sources, including texts, films, videos, present diverse cultural representations—and scholarly, creative, political-activist, and visionary voices— which demonstrate the historical and contemporary importance of this worldview in the negotiation of cultures, identities, and sovereign rights by Native American Indian peoples of the United States.

ANTH298L Special Topics in Anthropology: Representation of American Indians in Film and Museums

0101 W 3-5:45pm A. Carattini

ANTH468L Special Topics in Cultural Anthropology: Conservation and Indigenous People in Latin America

0101 M 6-8:45pm J. Chernela

Also offered as LASC448L.

ARTH250 Art and Society in the Ancient American World

0101 MW 10-10:50am, F 11-11:50am B.Bland

0102 MW 10-10:50am, F 9-9:50am B.Bland

0103 MW 10-10:50am, M 11-11:50am B.Bland

0104 MW 10-10:50am, W 9-9:50am B.Bland

0105 MW 10-10:50am, M 9-9:50am B.Bland

0106 MW 10-10:50am, W 11-11:50am B.Bland

CORE History or Theory of Arts (HA) Course. CORE Diversity (D) Course.

Surveys major arts and architecture of the pre-Columbian world, including Mesoamerican and Andean cultures from the earliest known civilizations through European contact and conquest. Acquaints students with the monumental architecture, urban planning, painting, sculpture, and portable arts of the ancient Americas.

CMLT277 Literatures of the Americas

0101 TuTh 12:30-1:45pm

CORE Literature (HL) Course. CORE Diversity (D) Course.

Comparative study of several North, South, and Central American cultures with a focus on the specificities, similarities, and divergences of their literary and cultural texts.

ENGL339A Native American Literature: American Indian Literatures: Tradition, Protest, and Renewal

0101 MW 11-12:15pm R. Bauer

CORE Diversity (D) Course.

GEOG413 Migration: Latin America and the United States

0101 TuTh 11-12:15pm R. Luna

Prerequisite: GEOG313 or permission of department. Recommended: HIST250, USLT201, or LASC234. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: GEOG413 or GEOG498M. Formerly GEOG498M. Develops an understanding of the push and pull factors that have contributed to human mobility (migration) that has transformed the Americas. The class is divided in two parts: immigration and emigration from Latin American and Latin America migration to the United States. We will be interested in studying the migration shifts that have occurred in Latin America and the theories that help explain them. The themes that will be addressed are the history of migration with Latin America and to North America, the impact of this migration on both sending and receiving countries, and the various policy strategies and issues concerning migration.

SOCY424 or AAST424 Sociology of Race Relations

0101 TuTh 11-12:15pm K. Marsh

Prerequisite: six credits in sociology or permission of department. Analysis of race-related issues, with a primary focus on American society. The historical emergence, development, and institutionalization of racism; the impact of racism on its victims; and racially based conflict.

SPAN235 Issues in Latin American Studies II

0101 TuTh 11-12:15pm I. Rodriguez-Santana

0102 TuTh 2-3:15pm T. Guzman-Gonzalez

CORE Humanities (HO) Course. CORE Diversity (D) Course.

Also offered as PORT235 and LASC235.

Major issues shaping Latin American and Caribbean societies including the changing constructions of race, ethnicity, gender and class as well as expressions of popular cultures and revolutionary practices. A continuation of SPAN/PORT/LASC234, but completion of 234 is not a prerequisite. Taught in English.

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Fall 2012

AMST Courses

AMST101 Introduction to American Studies

0101 MWF 9-9:50am

0201 MWF 1-1:50pm

0301 TuTh 8-9:15am

0401 TuTh 12:30-1:45pm

FC01 F 10-11:15am

FC02 Tu 3:30-4:45pm

CORE Humanities (HO) Course. CORE Diversity (D) Course.

GenEd: Distributive Studies – Humanities; Diversity – Understanding Plural Societies.

AMST202 Cultures of Everyday Life in America

0101 MWF 10-10:50am

GenEd: Distributive Studies – History and Social Sciences.

Examine the structures and patterns of everyday life in the U.S., utilizing methods such as ethnography, oral history, survey research, and textual, visual, and material cultural analysis.

AMST203 Popular Culture in America

0101 TuTh 11-12:15pm

0201 Tuth 2-3:15pm

FC01 F 11:30-12:45pm

CORE Humanities (HO) Course.

GenEd: Diversity – Understanding Plural Societies.

What is popular culture, how does it function, and why does it matter? Conventionally, “high culture” has been clearly distinguished from and privileged over “low culture.” High culture has enjoyed connotations of elite, at times even esoteric, importance and low culture has endured effective dismissal as something of vulgar irrelevance. But if we regard culture generally as essentially the ways in which we cultivate collective meanings about our lives and our place(s) in the world, what then might be the role of popular culture? What might be the scope and limits of a set of cultural forms that are considered to be, in their “popularity,” commonly accessible? What possible contributions, for better and for worse, can popular forms offer to the cultivation of collective meanings in diverse American cultural contexts? Specifically, how does popular culture address the crucial notions of subjectivity and agency, notions that typically shape the parameters of meaningful life and–conversely– functional, if not actual, death?

This semester, we will keep such questions in mind as we engage a variety of popular culture forms, including (but not limited to) music, film, television, and sports, with specific attention to how these forms relate to the everyday practices and beliefs of a contemporary American context. Because as participants we are, all of us, necessarily and inextricably implicated in any discussion of American popular culture, such as exploration will invoke our personal investments in the discussion. This approach will outline our terrain and provide the tools with which we can work through our questions thoughtfully, responsively, and responsibly. Through our diligent, collaborative, critical, and self-reflexive efforts, our class together will develop resources we can use to interrogate how popular culture matters to the most critical of meaning formations, the understanding of life and death.

AMST205 Material Aspects of American Life

0101 MWF 12-12:50pm

0102 MWF 10-10:50am

FC02 F 1-2:15pm

CORE History or Theory of Arts (HA) Course.

GenEd: Diversity – Understanding Plural Societies.

AMST205 is a survey course that aims to familiarize students with interdisciplinary theories and methods for material culture studies. Material culture regards the objects around us and considers the changing meanings that these objects have. Material culture shapes the ways that we think about ourselves and the world around us. Major questions of AMST205 include: What is material culture? What are the ways of understanding the meaning of materials? Can we “find” concepts, such as inequality or difference, or states of being like gender, ethnicity, or class? How does material culture shape us and how do we shape it?

AMST298I Selected Topics in American Studies: Transnational American Studies

0101 MW 11-12:15pm J. Padios

In this course we will explore how the movement of people, goods, knowledge, and capital across national borders—both within the Americas but also outside of it—shapes the culture and politics of everyday life. Drawing on a wide variety of media, we will examine diverse transnational experiences, practices, and social formations from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first centuries. Our study will include how immigrants sustain notions of “home” in and between multiple countries; how artists and intellectuals of color forge international connections for radical ends; how queer subjectivities are shaped by local and global gender and sexual politics; and how transnational labor migrants struggle against the exploitative forces of globalization. In keeping with the critical approach that underwrites American Studies more broadly, we will track the ways that social differences—especially of race, gender, class, and sexuality—shape individual and group identity within these transnational flows. We will also learn to use transnational analysis as a tool for critiquing the global power of the United States and for understanding how identity, culture, and activism move beyond the nation-state.

AMST340 Introduction to History, Theories, and Methods in American Studies

0101 TuTh 11-12:15pm M. Sies

AMST386 Experiential Learning

0106 TBA J. Paoletti

Prerequisite: permission of department. Junior standing. Faculty mentored independent learning. Online interaction using Blackboard required.

AMST388 Honors Thesis

Individual Instruction Course

AMST398 Independent Studies

Individual Instruction Course

AMST418A Cultural Themes in America: African-American Visual and Material Culture

0101 W 4-6:40pm C. LaRoche

Moving from the shores of Africa to the birth of African American culture to the study of African diasporic cultural influences, this class will explore the active role of visual and material culture in the shaping and defining of identity. Our goal is to develop visual literacy as we discover the historical uses of the arts in service of the struggles for freedom and equality. Visual art, material culture, politics, popular culture, music, literature, philosophy, theater, film, poetry, and anthropology will shape the inquiry through which we examine both the diasporic dimensions of African American aesthetics and its economic exploitation in the service of global capitalism. Understanding the multi-layered impact of African American history and cultural influences on a personal, societal, and global scale will be the mission of this class. Prerequisite: At least three credit hours of prior coursework in AMST.

AMST418H Cultural Themes in America – Honors

Individual Instruction Course

Prerequisite: At least three credit hours of prior coursework in AMST.

AMST418L Cultural Themes in America: Asian Religions in American Culture

0101 MW 2-3:15pm J. Caughey

AMST418R Cultural Themes in America: Identity in American Culture

0101 Online R. Kelly

Prerequisite: At least three credit hours of prior coursework in AMST.

AMST429D Perspectives on Popular Culture: Children and the Media

0101 TuTh 2-3:15pm M. Brody

This course includes critical analysis of children’s media from television to cyberspace (SpongeBob, Batman, Disney, Glee, Grand Theft Auto, Facebook) discussing not just content, but the message of the medium (McLuhan) with an emphasis on psychology. The class considers the application of child media themes as they reflect society (economics, violence, sex, and development) and act as a bridge to adult issues such as education, work, money, relationships, health and technology.

Course will include lectures, video, readings (including hand-outs) and possible special guests.

By the end of this course, students would be media-literate and understand the profound influence technology and media exert not only on children but themselves. Critical thinking about one’s own life will be the most important consequence of taking this course. Prerequisite: At least three credit hours of prior coursework in AMST.

AMST433 American Humor

0101 Tu 3:30-6:30pm G. Metcalf

Credit will be granted for only one of the following: AMST418A or AMST433. Formerly AMST418A. American humor from the Colonial era through the present in genres including literature, journalism, graphic arts, performance, and modern media. How humor expresses and mediates important social and cultural concerns including politics, religion, race and ethnicity, gender and topical issues. Prerequisite: At least three credit hours of prior coursework in AMST.

AMST450 Seminar in American Studies

0201 TuTh 9:30-10:45am J. Paoletti

AMST498B Special Topics in American Studies: Fashion and Consumer Culture in the U.S.

0101 TuTh 12:30-1:45pm J. Paoletti

This seminar will introduce major theoretical works in the study of consumer behavior, from Veblen’s “Theory of the Leisure Class” to emerging fashion theory. Along the way, we will examine a variety of phenomena through these theoretical lenses. Possible topics include religion and consumption, children as consumers, media representations of the fashion industry, consumer activism, dress codes, class and consumption and how individuals use clothing to express identities and group membership. Resources will include artifacts from the University of Maryland Historic Costume and Textile Collection. All students will develop a research project resulting in a final paper; graduate students will also lead one class session on a topic of their choice. Prerequisite: At least three credit hours of prior coursework in AMST.

AMST498E Special Topics in American Studies: Culture and Difference in the Global Economy

0101 MW 2-3:15pm J. Padios

Since the late twentieth century, massive transformations in technology, economic regulation, and politics have led to what has been called the “new international division of labor.” Now more than ever before, a single commodity—whether clothing, a car, or even customer service—can be produced, distributed, and purchased by workers and consumers in various parts of the world. With so many different people making up this global assembly line, what roles do culture and social difference—especially but not exclusively race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality—play in the global economy? In this course we will explore the various ways that historians, feminist theorists, social scientists, and political philosophers, among others, have approached this question. While we will focus on global production and consumption within and involving the United States, we will also look at workers in other parts of the world. We will see, for example, how local gender politics shape the work culture of women workers in South China, Barbados, and North America; how religious practice informs modes of resistance to capitalism in Malaysia and Colombia; and how management figures use race and ethnicity to divide labor forces in Central America and indeed all over the world. We will also look closely at modes of transnational consumption, especially tourism. This course will provide students with a solid ground from which to understand the U.S. in the global economy, as well as how to think about cultural practices and forms of difference as constitutive, not just ancillary, to economic life. Prerequisite: At least three credit hours of prior coursework in AMST.

AMST498G Special Topics in American Studies: Latinas/os on the Silver Screen

0101 TuTh 2-3:15pm R. Chester

Also offered as USLT498A.

Since the early days of moving images, the cinema has held a uniquely prominent and influential position in U.S. culture. In pursuit of commercial reward, Hollywood studios and independent filmmakers create in their cinema not only (sometimes not even!) entertainment, but also ideas about politics and culture, which disseminate from the “silver screen” to mass audiences in the Americas and across the globe. Embedded in a culture in which race was and is always an issue, the U.S. film industry remains a crucial arena in which representations of ethnoracial identity and its relationship to national identity are produced, interpreted, debated, and reconceived. Beginning with the era of silent film and concluding with contemporary films, this course explores the ambiguous and shifting history of U.S. Latinas/os both behind and in front of the camera. Combining media theory and film history, we will consider the film industry’s relationship to Latinidad, examining issues such as the shift from silent film to sound, the impact made on Latino/a images by the Second World War and the “good neighbor” era, and Latinas/os in the Cold War Red Scare. In these periods, representational power remained chiefly in the hands of white Hollywood producers, and Latinos/as (most often Mexican Americans) were subject to a series of demeaning representational strategies. As we move into the second half of the course, we will turn attention to self-representation by Latina/o filmmakers and empathetic images created by whites in and after the 1970s. How have Latinas/os been depicted in Hollywood history? How have inter-American foreign relations shaped the US Latino/a image? How have Latina/o filmmakers confronted issues such as racism and sexism in the United States? Students will explore these issues throughout the semester, and in doing so gain insight into both Latina/o racial formations and the practice of film criticism. Prerequisite: At least three credit hours of prior coursework in AMST.

AMST498L Special Topics in American Studies: Native Americans and U.S. Cinema

0101 TuTh 12:30-1:45pm R. Chester

AMST498O Special Topics in American Studies: The Diversifying U.S.: Globalization, Immigrants, Migrants, and Refugees

0101 TuTh 9:30-10:45am P. Guerrero

Also offered as USLT498K.

Prerequisite: At least three credit hours of prior coursework in AMST.

AMST498Y Special Topics in American Studies: Female Power, Possession, and Loss: The Strong Black Woman and the Missing White Woman in U.S. Cultural Discourse

0101 MW 10-11:15am S. Parks

Prerequisite: At least three credit hours of prior coursework in AMST.

AMST601 Introductory Theories and History in American Studies

0101 M 4-6:40pm N. Struna

Not open to Graduate Advanced Special Students. Explores the formative literature, theories, research approaches, and history of American Studies.

AMST601 is the initial course of a two-course sequence introducing graduate students to some of the literature — from the field, the discipline, and beyond — that has shaped and reshaped Americans’ Studies over time. In this course, we focus on the theories and paradigms, or conceptual frameworks, evident in scholarly work through the mid-1990s. By concentrating on the historiography of Americans’ Studies and on the theoretical directions and assumptions of scholars, this course should help you to understand the making of theories in American Studies and, of course, the making of American Studies before the turn of the century. Reading and thinking about this “early” scholarship should also prepare you for the contemporary theories and literature that are the focus of AMST 603 (Current Approaches to American Studies).

AMST628A Seminar in American Studies: Fashion and Consumer Culture in the United States

0101 TuTh 12:30-1:45pm J. Paoletti

AMST628N Seminar in American Studies: Space, Place, and Identity in the Digital Age

0101 Th 4-6:40pm J. Farman

AMST629J Seminar in American Studies: Black Cultural Currents

0101 W 4-6:40pm J. McCune

This course takes seriously both historic and contemporary debates in the study of black culture. Moving from W.E.B. Dubois to Anna Julia Cooper to Kara Walker, we will explore the currents (the moves and the momentum) of conversations within the interdisciplinary approach to understanding black cultural production. We will forge a dialogue between texts (literature, photographs, film, and performance) and the things learned in traditional academic scholarship. How might we think of “blackness” not simply as a category of identity, but as an analytical tool or orientation towards the world that shapes political, cultural, and social responses to the larger American experience or beyond?

AMST629O Seminar in American Studies: The “Bad” Life: Deviance, Disability, Defiance

0101 Tu 4-6:40pm C. Hanhardt

AMST698 Directed Readings in American Studies

Individual Instruction Course

AMST798 Non-Thesis Research

Individual Instruction Course

AMST799 Master’s Thesis Research

Individual Instruction Course

AMST856 Museum Research Seminar

0101 W 4-6:40pm R. Friedel

Prerequisite: AMST 655. Also offered as HIST 810. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: AMST 638D, AMST 856, HIST 810 or HIST 819D. Formerly AMST638D. A research seminar focusing on the practice and presentation of cultural and historical scholarship in museums and historical sites. Students will complete an original research project on the challenges and opportunities of public exhibition and interpretation of cultural and historical research. Also offered as ANTH856 and HIST810.

AMST857 Museum Scholarship Practicum

0101 TBA

AMST898 Pre-Candidacy Research

Individual Instruction Course

AMST899 Doctoral Dissertation Research

Individual Instruction Course

USLT Courses

USLT201 US Latina/o Studies II: An Historical Overview to the 1960s

0101 TuTh 2-3:15pm P. Guerrero

CORE Social or Political History (SH) Course. CORE Diversity (D) Course.
Interdisciplinary course on focusing on demographics, terminology, and social contructs of race, class, ethnicity, indigeneity, gender, and sexuality associated with the historical and political roots of U.S. Latinidades. Examines the formation, evolution, and adaptation of U.S. Latina/o communities as critical field of inquiry.

USLT498A US Latina/o Studies: Special Topics: Latinas/os on the Silver Screen

0101 Th 4-6:40pm R. Chester

Also offered as AMST498G.

USLT498K US Latina/o Studies: Special Topics: The Diversifying U.S.: Globalization, Immigrants, Migrants, and Refugees

0101 TuTh 9:30-10:45am P. Guerrero

Also offered as AMST498O.

NPAP Courses

Native Peoples of the Americas Program: at least 25% of the content of the following courses focus on issues related to Native American Studies.

AAST424 Sociology of Race Relations

0101 TuTh 8-9:15am K. Marsh

0201 TuTh 9:30-10:45am R. Ray

Prerequisite: Six credits in sociology or permission of department. Also offered as SOCY424. Not open to students who have completed SOCY424. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: AAST424 or SOCY424. Analysis of race-related issues, with a primary focus on American society. The historical emergence, development, and institutionalization of racism; the impact of racism on its victims; and racially based conflict.

AMST498L Special Topics in American Studies: Native American and U.S. Cinema

0101 TuTh 12:30-1:45pm R. Chester

Prerequisite: At least three credit hours of prior coursework in AMST.

ARTH255 Art and Society in the Modern American World

0101 MW 10-10:50am; M 9-9:50am A. McEwen

0102 MW 10-10:50am; M 11-11:50am A. McEwen

0103 MW 10-10:50am; W 9-9:50am A. McEwen

0104 MW 10-10:50am; W 11-11:50am A. McEwen

0105 MW 10-10:50am; F 10-10:50am A. McEwen

0106 MW 10-10:50am; F 9-9:50am A. McEwen

GenEd: Distributive Studies – Humanities; Diversity – Understanding Plural Societies.

Explores the origins and evolution of art in the modern American world, from the late colonial era to the present, comparing major artistic movements and their historical contexts. Considers the diversity of art across Latin America and the United States, and the ways in which artworks mediate social, ethnic, political, and national identities.

ARTH389A Special Topics in Art History and Archaeology: Western Film and the Vision of the West

0101 W 3-6:30pm G. Metcalf

CMLT277 Literatures of the Americas

0201 TuTh 2-3:15pm

CORE Literature (HL) Course. CORE Diversity (D) Course.

Comparative study of several North, South, and Central American cultures with a focus on the specificities, similarities, and divergences of their literary and cultural texts.

CMLT298N American Indians in Literature and Film: Perspectives North and South

0101 TuTh 3:30-4:45pm R. Harrison

CORE Literature (HL) Course. CORE Diversity (D) Course.

Also offered as LASC248N. Credit will be granted for one of the following: CMLT298N or LASC248N.

GEOG313 Migration: Latin America

0101 TuTh 9:30-10:45am R. Luna

CORE Diversity (D) Course. GenEd: Distributive Studies – History and Social Sciences.

Credit will be granted for only one of the following: GEOG313 or GEOG323. Formerly GEOG323. A geography of Latin America and the Caribbean in the contemporary world: political and cultural regions, population and resource distribution, historical development, current levels of economic and social well-being, urbanization, development policies, migration trends, physical features and climates.

GVPT272 The Politics of Race Relations in the United States

0101 MW 3-3:50pm; F 9-9:50am B. McKenzie

0102 MW 3-3:50pm; F 10-10:50am B. McKenzie

0103 MW 3-3:50pm; F 1-1:50am B. McKenzie

0201 MW 1-1:50pm; F 9-9:50am B. McKenzie

0202 MW 1-1:50pm; F 10-10:50am B. McKenzie

0203 MW 1-1:50pm; F 1-1:50am B. McKenzie

GenEd: Distributive Studies – History and Social Sciences; Diversity – Understanding Plural Societies.

Prerequisite: GVPT170. Political dimension of historical and contemporary racial cleavage in the United States with particular emphasis on the post-World War II period.

LASC234 Issues in Latin American Studies I

0101 TuTh 2-3:15pm T. Guzman-Gonzalez

0201 MW 11-12:15pm I. Rodriguez-Santana

CORE Humanities (HO) Course. CORE Diversity (D) Course. GenEd: Distributive Studies – History and Social Sciences; Diversity – Understanding Plural Societies.

Also offered as SPAN234 and PORT234. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: LASC234 or SPAN234 or PORT234. Interdisciplinary study of major issues in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Latin America’s cultural mosaic, migration and urbanization. Democratization and the role of religions. Taught in English.

LASC234H Issues in Latin American Studies I

0201 MW 11-12:15pm I. Rodriguez-Santana

CORE Humanities (HO) Course. CORE Diversity (D) Course. GenEd: Distributive Studies – History and Social Sciences; Diversity – Understanding Plural Societies.

LASC248N Special Topics in Latin American Studies: American Indians in Literature and Film: Perspectives North and South

0101 TuTh 3:30-4:45pm R. Harrison

Also offered as CMLT298N. Credit will be granted for one of the following: CMLT298N or LASC248N.

LASC448J Special Topics in Latin American Studies: Aztec Culture: Human Sacrifice and Conquest

0101 MW 3:30-4:45pm J. Maffie

Also offered as RELS419J.

PORT234 Issues in Latin American Studies I; (3 credits)

0101 TuTh 2-3:15pm T. Guzman-Gonzalez

0201 MW 11-12:15pm I. Rodriguez-Santana

CORE Humanities (HO) Course. CORE Diversity (D) Course.

Also offered as SPAN234 and LASC234. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: PORT234 or SPAN234 or LASC234. Interdisciplinary study of major issues in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Latin America’s cultural mosaic, migration and urbanization. Democratization and the role of religions. Taught in English.

RELS419J Advanced Topics in Religious Studies: Aztec Culture: Human Sacrifice and Conquest

0101 MW 3:30-4:45pm J. Maffie

Also offered as LASC448J.

SOCY424 Sociology of Race Relations

0101 TuTh 8-9:15am K. Marsh

0201 TuTh 9:30-10:45am R. Ray

SPAN234 Issues in Latin American Studies I

CORE Humanities (HO) Course. CORE Diversity (D) Course.

Also offered as PORT234 and LASC234. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: SPAN234 or PORT234 or LASC234. Interdisciplinary study of major issues in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Latin America’s cultural mosaic, migration and urbanization. Democratization and the role of religions. Taught in English.

0101 TuTh 2-3:15pm T. Guzman-Gonzalez

0201 MW 11-12:15pm I. Rodriguez-Santana

SPAN234H Issues in Latin American Studies I

0201 MW 11-12:15pm I. Rodriguez-Santana

CORE Humanities (HO) Course. CORE Diversity (D) Course.

SPAN361 Latin American Literatures and Cultures I: From Pre-Columbian to Colonial Times
Prerequisite: SPAN301 and SPAN303 or permission of instructor. Not open to students who have completed SPAN323 or SPAN346. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: SPAN361, SPAN323, or SPAN346. Overview of cultural history of Latin America from pre-Columbian civilizations to the Colonial period, exploring the foundations of the Spanish American cultural and literary tradition to approximately 1770. Taught in Spanish.

0101 TuTh 3:30-4:45pm E. Merediz

0201 TuTh 2-3:15pm S. Sosnowski

0301 MWF 12-12:50pm

SPAN363 Latin American Literatures and Cultures III: From Modernism to Neo-Liberalism

0101 MW 2-3:15pm L. Demaria

0101 MW 3:30-4:45pm L. Demaria

Prerequisite: SPAN301 and SPAN303, or permission of instructor. Not open to students who have completed SPAN324 or SPAN347. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: SPAN324, SPAN347, SPAN363. An overview of cultural and literary production of Latin America from the late 19th through the early 21st centuries, exploring the production of literary texts in their socio-historical, political, and cultural contexts and development. Taught in Spanish.

SPAN408T Great Themes of the Hispanic Literatures: Whose Voice? Gender, Class and Ethnicity in Mexico

0101 MWF 1-1:50pm L. Melgar

SPAN450 The Hispanic Caribbean

0101 MWF 10-10:50am J. Quintero-Herencia

Prerequisite: One of the following courses: SPAN331, SPAN332, SPAN333, SPAN361, SPAN362, or SPAN363. Credit will be granted for only one of the following: SPAN408C or SPAN450. Formerly SPAN408C. Explores the Hispanic Caribbean as “island spaces” of multiple migrations and cultural identities, as sites of colonial experiences and post-colonial debates.

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