American Studies (B.A.)
Postgraduate
In New Haven (USA)
Description
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Type
Postgraduate
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Location
New haven (USA)
The American Studies program encourages the interdisciplinary study of the cultures and politics of the United States, the changing representations of national identity, and the construction of borderland and diasporic cultures over time. Each student in the major combines courses in American Studies with courses from other relevant disciplines (literature, history, the arts, and the social sciences) to explore these broad topics from local, national, and global perspectives. Through the selection of an area of concentration, each student develops a focus for course work in the major. The program encourages scholarly work in nontraditional combinations of disciplines; at the same time, however, it assumes and requires a substantial foundation of knowledge in the history and culture of the United States. Students interested in the major are encouraged to consult with the director of undergraduate studies (DUS) as early as possible.
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Start date
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About this course
All students majoring in American Studies must take fourteen term courses approved by the program’s faculty. Although a good deal of freedom in course selection is permitted, it is expected that all students will acquaint themselves with the materials, skills, and perspectives of cultural studies . Accordingly, the major requires completion—preferably by the end of the sophomore year, but no later than the end of the junior year—of at least four gateway courses (AMST 111–299), including two in cultural history/cultural studies, one broad survey course in American literature, and one...
Reviews
Subjects
- Dance
- American History
- Social Movements
- Media
- Public
- University
- Global
- Art
- Staff
- Politics
Course programme
First-Year Seminars
* AMST 007a / HSAR 002a, Furniture and American Life Edward Cooke
In-depth study and interpretation of American furniture from the past four centuries. Hands-on experience with furniture in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery to explore such topics as materials, techniques, styles, use, and meaning. Enrollment limited to first-year students. Preregistration required; see under First-Year Seminar Program. WR, HU RP
M 1pm-4pm
* AMST 012b / HIST 012b, Politics and Society in the United States after World War II Jennifer Klein
Introduction to American political and social issues from the 1940s to the present, including political economy, civil rights, class politics, and gender roles. Legacies of the New Deal as they played out after World War II; the origins, agenda, and ramifications of the Cold War; postwar suburbanization and its racial dimensions; migration and immigration; cultural changes; social movements of the Right and Left; Reaganism and its legacies; the United States and the global economy. Enrollment limited to first-year students. Preregistration required; see under First-Year Seminar Program. HU
MW 1pm-2:15pm
AMST 116a / RLST 115a, How to Build an American Religion Kathryn Lofton
How communities can be organized through code, charisma, ritual, and cosmology. Topics include strategies for concretizing utopia and establishing communal principles, expanding audiences, and specifying creed. This course serves as an introduction to religion through theoretical readings and specific examples drawn from the transnational American scene, past and present. Discussion of particular leaders, sects, practices, and media will offer insights into how ideas organize societies and individuals establish themselves as icons. Students adapt strategies taught in the course in order to practice their own capacity to foster social movements, develop and critique brands, and consider the relationship between religion, politics, and economy. HU
MW 1:30pm-2:20pm
AMST 141a / HIST 141a, The American West Travis Ross
The history of the American West as both frontier and region, real and imagined, from the first contacts between Indians and Europeans in the fifteenth century to the multicultural encounters of the contemporary Sunbelt. Students work with historical texts and images from Yale's Western Americana Collection. HU
TTh 11:35am-12:25pm
AMST 160a / AFAM 160a / AFST 184a / HIST 184a, The Rise and Fall of Atlantic Slavery Edward Rugemer
The history of peoples of African descent throughout the Americas, from the first African American societies of the sixteenth century through the century-long process of emancipation. HU
TTh 1:30pm-2:20pm
AMST 162b / AFAM 162b / HIST 187b, African American History from Emancipation to the Present Staff
An examination of the African American experience since 1861. Meanings of freedom and citizenship are distilled through appraisal of race and class formations, the processes and effects of cultural consumption, and the grand narrative of the civil rights movement. WR, HU
HTBA
AMST 188a / HIST 115a, The Colonial Period of American History Staff
This course explores the history of North America from the period of European colonization through the era of the Seven Years’ War, from roughly 1492 to 1763. Emphasis is placed on the migration of people from Europe and Africa to North America; their contact and interaction with Native Americans; the formation of new societies and economies; and the corresponding development of new political and social ideas in America, with special attention paid to the evolving relationship between slavery and freedom. Although the course addresses the major themes and issues of early American history, the lectures and readings frequently focus on the lives of individuals, both prominent and obscure, who shaped and were shaped by larger forces and developments. HU
TTh 1:30pm-2:20pm
AMST 197b / ARCH 280b / HSAR 219b, American Architecture and Urbanism Elihu Rubin
Introduction to the study of buildings, architects, architectural styles, and urban landscapes, viewed in their economic, political, social, and cultural contexts, from precolonial times to the present. Topics include: public and private investment in the built environment; the history of housing in America; the organization of architectural practice; race, gender, ethnicity and the right to the city; the social and political nature of city building; and the transnational nature of American architecture. HU
MW 11:35am-12:50pm
* AMST 206b / ER&M 221b / WGSS 222b, Introduction to Critical Refugee Studies Quan Tran
Reconfiguring refugees as fluid subjects and sites of social, political, and cultural critiques. Departing from dominant understandings of refugees as victims, consideration instead of refugees as complex historical actors, made visible through processes of colonization, imperialism, war, displacement, state violence, and globalization, as well as ethical, social, legal, and political transformations. Focus on second-half of the twentieth century. SO
W 9:25am-11:15am
AMST 209a / ER&M 223a / PLSC 262a, Race, Politics, and the Law Daniel HoSang
Examination of how race—as a mode of domination and resistance—has developed and transformed in the United States since the early-twentieth-century. How political actors and social movements engage the law to shape visions of freedom, democracy, and political life. Consideration of critical race theory, political discourse analysis, intersectionality and women of color feminism, and American political development. SO
TTh 1pm-2:15pm
* AMST 227a / AFAM 227a / ER&M 349a / HIST 137Ja, From the Voting Rights Act to #blacklivesmatter Staff
This course explores the period beginning from 1964 through the emergence of the #blacklivesmatter movement in 2013. Key concepts covered in this course include the Black Panther Party and rise of the Black Power movement; political campaigns of Shirley Chisholm, Jesse Jackson, and Barack Obama. The seminar concludes with an examination of the #blacklivesmatter movement and broader efforts addressing mass incarceration, poverty, and opportunity gaps in education. HU
HTBA
AMST 236a / EVST 318a / HIST 199a / HSHM 207a, American Energy History Paul Sabin
The history of energy in the United States from early hydropower and coal to present-day hydraulic fracturing, deepwater oil, wind, and solar. Topics include energy transitions and technological change; energy and democracy; environmental justice and public health; corporate power and monopoly control; electricity and popular culture; labor struggles; the global quest for oil; changing national energy policies; the climate crisis. HU
TTh 11:35am-12:25pm
AMST 238a / AFAM 192a / AFST 238a / ER&M 238a, Introduction to Third World Studies Gary Okihiro
Introduction to the historical and contemporary theories and articulations of Third World studies (comparative ethnic studies) as an academic field and practice. Consideration of subject matters; methodologies and theories; literatures; and practitioners and institutional arrangements. SO
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm
* AMST 257a / ENGL 325a, Modern Apocalyptic Narratives James Berger
The persistent impulse in Western culture to imagine the end of the world and what might follow. Social and psychological factors that motivate apocalyptic representations. Differences and constant features in apocalyptic representations from the Hebrew Bible to contemporary science fiction. Attitudes toward history, politics, sexuality, social class, and the process of representation in apocalyptic texts. HU
T 9:25am-11:15am
* AMST 258a / EVST 258a, Wilderness in the North American Imagination Carlos Nugent
The idea and practice of wilderness in American history, art, literature, society, and politics. Authors include Salomon Northup, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Jack London, Aldo Leopold, and Rachel Carson. A class dinner and field trip are held during the term. HU
W 1:30pm-3:20pm
* AMST 310b / AFAM 410b / WGSS 410b, Interdisciplinary Approaches to African American Studies Crystal Feimster
An interdisciplinary, thematic approach to the study of race, nation, and ethnicity in the African diaspora. Topics include class, gender, color, and sexuality; the dynamics of reform, Pan-Africanism, neocolonialism, and contemporary black nationalism. Use of a broad range of methodologies. WR, HU, SO
HTBA
* AMST 330b / ENGL 236b, Dystopic and Utopian Fictions James Berger
Attempts since the late nineteenth century to imagine, in literature, cinema, and social theory, a world different from the existing world. The merging of political critique with desire and anxiety; the nature and effects of social power; forms of authority, submission, and resistance. HU
M 9:25am-11:15am
* AMST 332a / HSAR 410a, Humbugs and Visionaries: American Artists and Writers Before the Civil War Bryan Wolf
This course examines American literature and visual culture of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. We look in particular at outliers, prophets, and self-promoters, from the radical Puritan writer Anne Bradstreet to popular entertainers like P. T. Barnum. Topics include: visuality and the public sphere; landscape and politics; genre painting and hegemony; race and identity; managerial culture and disembodied vision. Class trips to the Yale University Art Gallery and the Metropolitan Museum (New York). HU
W 1:30pm-3:20pm
* AMST 335a / ER&M 320a, Indigenous Geographies Laura Barraclough
This seminar examines the spatiality of indigenous communities, both on their own terms and in relationship to ongoing processes of settler colonialism. Focusing primarily on indigenous geographies and place-making practices in the settler United States, it explores the survivance and creativity of Native peoples in the face of persistent spatial violence. While rooted in the intellectual traditions of critical indigenous studies, we also engage scholarship from history, geography, architecture and planning, anthropology, sociology, and education. Topics include: land-based ways of knowing, relations of care, and identity/community formation; treaties, relocation, and reservation-making; ideologies and practices of property; urbanization, urban indigenous communities, and urban activism; cartography and Geographic Information Systems (GIS); movement and mobility; environmental justice hazards and activism; public memory, monuments, and place-names; the significance of borders (both national and local), especially in relationship to violence; and place-based efforts toward co-existence and solidarity in a more-than-human world. No formal prerequisites; prior coursework in Native American history or studies is helpful, but not required. HU, SO
TTh 1pm-2:15pm
* AMST 341a / AFAM 399a / ER&M 407a, Race and Capitalism Aaron Carico
This interdisciplinary seminar explores, both theoretically and historically, how racial formations are bound to the formations of capitalism. Focus on the American scene, with sustained inquiry on slavery, its commodity logics, and their residues. Consideration of the effects of immigration and globalization. SO
W 1:30pm-3:20pm
* AMST 345a / ER&M 409a / WGSS 408a, Latinx Ethnography Ana Ramos-Zayas
Consideration of ethnography within the genealogy and intellectual traditions of Latinx Studies. Topics include: questions of knowledge production and epistemological traditions in Latin America and U.S. Latino communities; conceptions of migration, transnationalism, and space; perspectives on “(il)legality” and criminalization; labor, wealth, and class identities; contextual understandings of gender and sexuality; theorizations of affect and intimate lives; and the politics of race and inequality under white liberalism and conservatism in the United States. SO
M 1:30pm-3:20pm
* AMST 346b / ENGL 235b / HUMS 252b, Poetry and Objects Karin Roffman
This course on 20th and 21st century poetry studies the non-symbolic use of familiar objects in poems. We meet alternating weeks in the Beinecke library archives and the Yale Art Gallery objects study classroom to discover literary, material, and biographical histories of poems and objects. Additionally, there are scheduled readings and discussions with contemporary poets. Assignments include both analytical essays and the creation of online exhibitions. WR, HU
W 1:30pm-3:20pm
* AMST 349a or b / THST 427a or b, Technologies of Movement Research Emily Coates
An interdisciplinary survey of creative and critical methods for researching human movement. Based in the motion capture studio at the Center for Collaborative Arts and Media, the course draws movement exercises and motion capture experiments together with literature from dance and performance studies, art, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, cognitive science, and the history of science to investigate the ways that artists and scholars conceive of human movement as a way of knowing the world. Students will develop their own projects over the course of the semester. No prior experience in dance required.
HTBA
* AMST 355a / AFAM 373a / ER&M 380a, White America Aaron Carico
Critical exploration of how the whiteness of the United States and its institutions has been developed and maintained from the nineteenth century into the present. Special attention paid to the intersection of race and class, particularly to the position of poor whites. Examination of the politics and culture of American whiteness, texts include histories, literary essays, fiction, and films. HU
W 3:30pm-5:20pm
* AMST 358b / ENGL 281b, Animals in Modern American Fiction James Berger
Literary portrayals of animals are used to examine the relations between literature, science, and social and political thought since the late nineteenth century. Topics include Darwinist thought, socialism, fascism, gender and race relations, new thinking about ecology, and issues in neuroscience. HU RP
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm
* AMST 370b / THST 380b, The History of Dance Brian Seibert
An examination of major movements in the history of concert and social dance from the late nineteenth century to the present, including ballet, tap, jazz, modern, musical theater, and different cultural forms. Topics include tradition versus innovation, the influence of the African diaspora, and interculturalism. Exercises are used to illuminate analysis of the body in motion. WR, HU
M 3:30pm-5:20pm
* AMST 403a, Introduction to Public Humanities Ryan Brasseaux
Introduction to the various media, topics, debates, and issues framing public humanities. The relationship between knowledge produced in the university and the circulation of ideas among a broader public, including modes of inquiry, interpretation, and presentation. Public history, museum studies, oral and community history, public art, documentary film and photography, public writing and educational outreach, and the socially conscious performing arts. HU
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm
* AMST 405b / AFAM 406b, Autobiography in America Robert Stepto
A study of autobiographical writings from Mary Rowlandson's Indian captivity narrative (1682) to the present. Classic forms such as immigrant, education, and cause narratives; prevailing autobiographical strategies involving place, work, and photographs. Authors include Franklin, Douglass, Jacobs, Antin, Kingston, Uchida, Balakian, Rodriguez, and Bechdel. WR, HU
M 1:30pm-3:20pm
* AMST 406a / ENGL 326a, The Spectacle of Disability James Berger
Examination of how people with disabilities are represented in U.S. literature and culture. Ways in which these representations, along with the material realities of disabled people, frame society's understanding of disability; the consequences of such formulations. Various media, including fiction, nonfiction, film, television, and memoirs, viewed through a wide range of analytical lenses. WR, HU RP
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm
* AMST 410a / HIST 166Ja / WGSS 409a, Asian American Women and Gender, 1830 to the Present Mary Lui
Asian American women as key historical actors. Gender analysis is used to reexamine themes in Asian American history: immigration, labor, community, cultural representations, political organizing, sexuality, and marriage and family life. WR, HU
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm
* AMST 422b / ER&M 435b / HIST 151Jb, Writing Tribal Histories Ned Blackhawk
. Historical overview of American Indian tribal communities, particularly since the creation of the United States. Challenges of working with oral histories, government documents, and missionary records
American Studies (B.A.)