COURSE SCHEDULE

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Course Listing for AMERICAN STUDIES - Fall 2012
Class
No.		 Course ID Title Credits Type Instructor(s) Days:Times Location Permission
Required		 Dist Qtr
2038 AMST-203-01 Conflcts & Cultures Am Society 1.00 LEC Tang,Scott H. MW: 8:30AM-9:45AM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 20
  Focusing on a key decade in American life—the 1890s, for example, or the 1850s—this course will examine the dynamics of race, class, gender, and ethnicity as forces that have shaped, and been shaped by, American culture. How did various groups define themselves at particular historical moments? How did they interact with each other and with American society? Why did some groups achieve hegemony and not others, and what were—and are—the implications of these dynamics for our understanding of American culture? By examining both interpretive and primary documents—novels, autobiographies, works of art, and popular culture—we will consider these and other questions concerning the production of American culture.
2604 AMST-203-02 Conflcts & Cultures Am Society 1.00 LEC Paulin,Diana R. TR: 10:50AM-12:05PM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 20
  Focusing on a key decade in American life—the 1890s, for example, or the 1850s—this course will examine the dynamics of race, class, gender, and ethnicity as forces that have shaped, and been shaped by, American culture. How did various groups define themselves at particular historical moments? How did they interact with each other and with American society? Why did some groups achieve hegemony and not others, and what were—and are—the implications of these dynamics for our understanding of American culture? By examining both interpretive and primary documents—novels, autobiographies, works of art, and popular culture—we will consider these and other questions concerning the production of American culture.
7396 AMST-248-01 Fem Bodies in 19thC Am Lit&Cul 1.00 LEC Miller,Karen Li TR: 9:25AM-10:40AM TBA  
  Enrollment limited to 20
  Corsets, bloomers, hysteria, mammy, jezebel, gynecology, angel on the hearth, suffragette: these are just a few of the garments, labels, cures, and stereotypes applied to women's bodies during the last century. By reading women's fiction and autobiography, we will explore how race, class, ethnicity, and gender operated in 19th century America and examine moments of resistance to prevailing definitions of femininity. For English majors, this course satisfies a requirement of a course emphasizing cultural content.
7414 AMST-291-01 Protest Movements Mod Amer 1.00 LEC Seidman,Derek TR: 1:30PM-2:45PM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 25
  This course will examine the culture of American protest movements. We will use a variety of primary source texts – speeches, images, literature, platforms, films – to explore the connections between protest movements and American culture and society. We will see how people, when organized and mobilized, have changed history and re-shaped the cultural and political meanings of ideas like freedom, justice, and democracy. Some of the movements we will examine include Populism, Progressivism, First- and Second-Wave Feminism, Labor and the New Deal, the Black Freedom Struggle, Gay Rights, the Vietnam antiwar movement, the Conservative ascendency, immigrant rights, and Occupy Wall Street.
2319 AMST-301-01 Jr. Sem.: American Texts 1.00 SEM Tang,Scott H. W: 1:15PM-3:55PM TBA WEB  
  Enrollment limited to 15
  Prerequisite: Students must have completed American Studies 203 or enroll in 203 with 301.203
  This course, required for the American studies major and ordinarily taken in the fall of the junior year, examines central texts in American history and culture. Through intensive discussion and writing, the class will explore the contexts of these works as well as the works themselves, paying particular attention to the interrelated issues of race, class, gender, and other similarly pivotal social constructs. Course is open only to American studies majors.
7283 AMST-352-01 The Culture of Cold War Americ 1.00 SEM Tang,Scott H. M: 1:15PM-3:55PM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 25
  This course encourages students to critically analyze the relationship between the Cold War and developments in American culture. Discussion topics include the roots of the Cold War, the anxieties concerning nuclear annihilation, the fear of global and domestic communism, representations of the Cold War in social memory, political dissent and cultural politics during the Cold War, and the impact of the Cold War on gender norms, civil rights, and labor relations. In addition to reading historical monographs, students will interpret the era’s popular culture.
7284 AMST-357-01 Race and Urban Space 1.00 LEC Baldwin,Davarian L. TR: 10:50AM-12:05PM TBA  
  Enrollment limited to 25
  Scholars and now even the larger public have conceded that race is a social construct. However, many are just beginning to fully explore how the specific dimensions and use of space is mediated by the politics of racial difference and racial identification. Therefore, this course seeks to explore how racism and race relations shape urban spatial relations, city politics, and the built environment and how the historical development of cities has shaped racial identity as lived experience. Covering the 20th century, the course examines three critical junctures: Ghettoization (1890s-1940s); Metropolitan Formation (1940s-1990s); and Neo-Liberal Gentrification (present).
7415 AMST-380-01 Vietnam War & Amer Culture 1.00 SEM Seidman,Derek R: 6:30PM-9:10PM TBA Y HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 15
  The Domino Theory. Ho Chi Minh. Grunts. Hippies. Protesters. The Tet Offensive. Muhammad Ali. LBJ. Nixon. My Lai. POW/MIA. Apocalypse Now. Full Metal Jacket. Perhaps no modern war has impacted American culture and identity as broadly and deeply as the Vietnam War (or the American War, as the Vietnamese call it). We will use primary-source cultural texts – memoirs, images, songs, films, documents – to make sense of this history. We will examine the larger forces that played out through the war – global decolonization, the Cold War, the “sixties” protest movements, racial politics, the meaning of patriotism, and more – as well as how the struggle to define the war’s legacies ensued afterwards in films, cultural memory, and politics.
2202 AMST-399-01 Independent Study 1.00 - 2.00 IND TBA TBA TBA Y  
  Enrollment limited to 100
  Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar's Office, and the approval of the instructor are required for enrollment.
2203 AMST-402-01 Senior Project 1.00 IND TBA TBA TBA Y  
  Enrollment limited to 100
  Students undertake projects on American studies topics of their own choosing. The projects will be supervised by a faculty member in an American studies-related field. Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar’s Office, and the approval of the project adviser and director, are required for enrollment.
2607 AMST-409-01 SrSem: Spectacle of Disability 1.00 SEM Paulin,Diana R. T: 1:30PM-4:10PM TBA Y  
  Enrollment limited to 18
  Course open only to American Studies majors.
  This course examines how people with disabilities are represented in American literature and culture. Whether it is the exceptional savant who is heralded as a hero because of her "special" abilities or the critically injured person whose disability relegates him to the sidelines of society even though his ability to overcome everyday challenges is applauded from a distance, definitions of disabilities (both generally and explicitly) tell us a great deal about the concept of normalcy and the expectations that we attach to this term. In addition, the various narratives associated with different disabilities and their origins are shaped by other aspects of identity, such as socio-economic class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender. We will look at a variety of mediums including fiction, non-fiction, film, television, and memoirs in order to examine how these representations, along with the material realities of disabled people, frame our society's understanding of disability and the consequences of these formulations. We look at texts and cases such as Million Dollar Baby, the Terry Schiavo case, Born on a Blue Day, Forrest Gump, the American Disabilities Act, the Christopher Reeves story, and Radio.
7336 AMST-409-02 Technology & American Culture 1.00 SEM Miller,Karen Li R: 1:30PM-4:10PM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 15
  Mark Twain was among the first to install a home phone in Hartford and he was amused by others' uncertain handling of new devices. He approached technology with great interest, skepticism, and of course, humor. Many Americans shared Twain’s responses, and in this course we will examine the social impacts, cultural representations, and political significance of select technological developments. We will begin with the nineteenth century as clocks and bells came to govern lives and we will conclude with our relationships with technology today. Each unit will focus on technology and an aspect of American life, such as domesticity, work, war, production, literature, health, and communication.
7457 AMST-424-01 Comic Art in North America 1.00 SEM Couch,N. C. Christopher W: 6:30PM-9:30PM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 7
  This course provides an introduction to Comic Art in North America, from the beginnings of the newspaper comic strip through the development of comic books, the growth of graphic novels, and current developments in electronic media. It focuses on the history and aesthetics of the medium, comparison between developments in the United States, Mexico, and French Canada, and the social and cultural contexts in which comic art is created and consumed. The first half of the semester concentrates on early and 20th-century comic strips and the development of the comic book form through the 1940s; the second on the social changes affecting comic art in the 1950s and 1960s, the development of a comic book subculture from the 1970s to the 21st century, the growth of independently published graphic novels and the independent comics, and contemporary electronic media developments.
7476 AMST-428-01 New England & the Blk Atlantic 1.00 SEM Southern,Jacquelyn M: 6:30PM-9:30PM TBA  
  Enrollment limited to 7
  This course will explore the trans-Atlantic cultural, economic, and political constellation that has linked Africa, Europe, and the Americas from the 15th century to the present. In particular, we will investigate some key aspects of New England’s part in the Black Atlantic, including slavery and the slave trade; literature, public speaking, and the arts; commerce and industry; and travel and migration. We will ground this study in past and present geographic sites of diaspora, racialization, and contestation, including ships and ports, the home, church, workplace, market, and performance spaces.
7559 AMST-435-01 Museum Exhibition 1.00 SEM Ring,Richard J. W: 6:30PM-9:30PM TBA  
  Enrollment limited to 7
  One of the most engaging ways to promote collections and explore a subject or theme is to create an exhibition, which is a genre in and of itself—telling a story with artifacts. Through critical readings students will explore the cultural and educational goals of exhibits, visitor needs and accessibility, design elements (including technology), and audience evaluation methods utilized at libraries, historic houses and historical sites, and history and cultural museums. Drawing from the extensive and wide-ranging collections in the Watkinson Library, students will conceive, write, and install an exhibition, design and publish a catalogue, and plan and implement an opening event to take place at the end of the semester in the Watkinson.
7534 AMST-455-01 Agency&Agenda:Comm Am Photo 1.00 SEM McCombie,Mary E. R: 6:30PM-9:30PM TBA  
  Enrollment limited to 7
  This course investigates how photography has described and constructed consumer culture and current events, from selling the American Dream to the events of September 11, 2001. We will examine how advertising photography uses news imagery for its own agenda and creates enduring icons that in turn become part of the imagery of news. We will consider ethics and the roles of the image-maker; tactics of display; the creating agencies and their agendas; the manipulation of images (physical and interpretive); and how race, gender, and ethnicity are constructed in commercial and news images.
7460 AMST-458-01 Creating the New Right Mvmt 1.00 SEM Cohn,William H. R: 6:00PM-9:00PM TBA  
  Enrollment limited to 7
  Course open only to senior American Studies majors.
  This seminar will examine the political and cultural environment that fostered, supported and sustained the New Right political movement that emerged following World War II and became fully formed in the 1980s and after. The key to conservative success lay in their hopes and ability to replace the narrative of American liberalism, with its emphasis on democratic-egalitarian concepts, with a version more in keeping with conservative thinking that stressed the self-governing individual, minimum government activity, and entrepreneurial and market freedom. We want to focus our research and discussion on the extent to which the New Conservative movement’s narrative has succeeded in challenging and reshaping American political culture and American national culture, both popular and elite, as well as its potential impact on the 2012 Presidential election.
2274 AMST-466-01 Teaching Assistantship 0.50 - 1.00 IND TBA TBA TBA Y  
  Enrollment limited to 100
  Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar’s Office, and the approval of the instructor are required for enrollment.
7458 AMST-471-01 Science Fiction and Society 1.00 LEC Couch,N. C. Christopher M: 6:30PM-9:30PM TBA  
  Enrollment limited to 7
  American science fiction literature has never been about the future, but always about the social and cultural moments in which it is created, packaged, and sold. This course will examine the roots of modern American science fiction in Victorian adventure fiction, the rise of mass-market magazine fiction and the development of technophiliac hard SF in the Depression, Cold War SF, the disillusionment of sixties experimentation and the rise of cyberpunk, and the revival of scientific or hard SF in contemporary writing, particularly those authors who examine environmental collapse and renewal. Authors to be considered include Heinlein, LeGuin, Dick, Haldeman, and Brin. The course will include consideration of how SF is written, edited, and published.
2448 AMST-490-01 Research Assistantship 1.00 IND TBA TBA TBA Y  
  Enrollment limited to 100
2204 AMST-498-01 Senior Thesis Part 1 2.00 IND TBA TBA TBA Y  
  Enrollment limited to 100
  NOTE: Requires completion of the Special Registration Form, available in the Office of the Registrar.
  NOTE: Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar's Office, and the approval of the thesis adviser and the director are required for enrollment. The registration form is required for each semester of this year-long thesis. (The two course credits are considered pending in Part I of the thesis; they will be awarded with the completion of Part II.)
  Submission of the special registration form, available in the Registrar’s Office, and the approval of the thesis adviser and the director are required for enrollment. The registration form is required for each semester of this year-long thesis. (The two course credits are considered pending in Part I of the thesis; they will be awarded with the completion of Part II.)
2252 AMST-801-01 Appr to Amer Studies 1.00 LEC McCombie,Mary E. T: 6:30PM-9:30PM TBA  
  Enrollment limited to 20
  NOTE: Undergraduates who wish to enroll in this course must obtain permission of their adviser and the instructor.
  This seminar, which is required of all American studies graduate students, examines a variety of approaches to the field. Readings may include several “classic” texts of 18th- and 19th-century American culture and several key works of American studies scholarship from the formative period of the field after World War II, as well as more recent contributions to the study of the United States. Topics will include changing ideas about the content, production, and consumption of American culture; patterns of ethnic identification and definition; the construction of categories like “race” and “gender”; and the bearing of class, race, gender, and sexuality on individuals’ participation in American society and culture. Undergraduates who wish to enroll in this course must obtain permission of their adviser and the instructor.
2491 AMST-824-01 Comic Art in North America 1.00 SEM Couch,N. C. Christopher W: 6:30PM-9:30PM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 8
  This course provides an introduction to Comic Art in North America, from the beginnings of the newspaper comic strip through the development of comic books, the growth of graphic novels, and current developments in electronic media. It focuses on the history and aesthetics of the medium, comparison between developments in the United States, Mexico, and French Canada, and the social and cultural contexts in which comic art is created and consumed. The first half of the semester concentrates on early and 20th-century comic strips and the development of the comic book form through the 1940s; the second on the social changes affecting comic art in the 1950s and 1960s, the development of a comic book subculture from the 1970s to the 21st century, the growth of independently published graphic novels and the independent comics, and contemporary electronic media developments.
7477 AMST-828-01 New England & the Blk Atlantic 1.00 SEM Southern,Jacquelyn M: 6:30PM-9:30PM TBA  
  Enrollment limited to 8
  This course will explore the trans-Atlantic cultural, economic, and political constellation that has linked Africa, Europe, and the Americas from the 15th century to the present. In particular, we will investigate some key aspects of New England’s part in the Black Atlantic, including slavery and the slave trade; literature, public speaking, and the arts; commerce and industry; and travel and migration. We will ground this study in past and present geographic sites of diaspora, racialization, and contestation, including ships and ports, the home, church, workplace, market, and performance spaces.
7560 AMST-835-01 Museum Exhibition 1.00 SEM Ring,Richard J. W: 6:30PM-9:30PM TBA  
  Enrollment limited to 8
  One of the most engaging ways to promote collections and explore a subject or theme is to create an exhibition, which is a genre in and of itself—telling a story with artifacts. Through critical readings students will explore the cultural and educational goals of exhibits, visitor needs and accessibility, design elements (including technology), and audience evaluation methods utilized at libraries, historic houses and historical sites, and history and cultural museums. Drawing from the extensive and wide-ranging collections in the Watkinson Library, students will conceive, write, and install an exhibition, design and publish a catalogue, and plan and implement an opening event to take place at the end of the semester in the Watkinson.
7413 AMST-853-01 Agency&Agenda:Comm Am Photo 1.00 SEM McCombie,Mary E. R: 6:30PM-9:30PM TBA  
  Enrollment limited to 8
  This course investigates how photography has described and constructed consumer culture and current events, from selling the American Dream to the events of September 11, 2001. We will examine how advertising photography uses news imagery for its own agenda and creates enduring icons that in turn become part of the imagery of news. We will consider ethics and the roles of the image-maker; tactics of display; the creating agencies and their agendas; the manipulation of images (physical and interpretive); and how race, gender, and ethnicity are constructed in commercial and news images.
7461 AMST-858-01 Creating the New Right Mvmt 1.00 SEM Cohn,William H. R: 6:00PM-9:00PM TBA  
  Enrollment limited to 8
  This seminar will examine the political and cultural environment that fostered, supported and sustained the New Right political movement that emerged following World War II and became fully formed in the 1980s and after. The key to conservative success lay in their hopes and ability to replace the narrative of American liberalism, with its emphasis on democratic-egalitarian concepts, with a version more in keeping with conservative thinking that stressed the self-governing individual, minimum government activity, and entrepreneurial and market freedom. We want to focus our research and discussion on the extent to which the New Conservative movement’s narrative has succeeded in challenging and reshaping American political culture and American national culture, both popular and elite, as well as its potential impact on the 2012 Presidential election.
7459 AMST-871-01 Science Fiction and Society 1.00 LEC Couch,N. C. Christopher M: 6:30PM-9:30PM TBA  
  Enrollment limited to 8
  American science fiction literature has never been about the future, but always about the social and cultural moments in which it is created, packaged, and sold. This course will examine the roots of modern American science fiction in Victorian adventure fiction, the rise of mass-market magazine fiction and the development of technophiliac hard SF in the Depression, Cold War SF, the disillusionment of sixties experimentation and the rise of cyberpunk, and the revival of scientific or hard SF in contemporary writing, particularly those authors who examine environmental collapse and renewal. Authors to be considered include Heinlein, LeGuin, Dick, Haldeman, and Brin. The course will include consideration of how SF is written, edited, and published.
2725 AMST-894-01 Museums and Communities Intern 1.00 IND TBA TBA TBA  
  Enrollment limited to 100
  Matriculated American studies students have the opportunity to engage in an academic internship at an area museum or archive for credit toward the American studies degree. For detailed information, contact the Graduate Studies Office.
2257 AMST-940-01 Independent Study 1.00 IND TBA TBA TBA Y  
  Enrollment limited to 100
  Selected topics in special areas are available by arrangement with the instructor and written approval of the graduate adviser and program director. Contact the Office of Graduate Studies for the special approval form.
2253 AMST-953-01 Research Project 1.00 IND TBA TBA TBA Y  
  Enrollment limited to 100
  Under the guidance of a faculty member, graduate students may do an independent research project on a topic in American studies. Written approval of the graduate adviser and the program director are required. Contact the Office of Graduate Studies for the special approval form.
2254 AMST-954-01 Thesis Part I 2.00 IND TBA TBA TBA Y  
  Enrollment limited to 100
  (The two course credits are considered pending in Part I of the thesis; they will be awarded with the completion of Part II.)
2256 AMST-955-01 Thesis Part II 2.00 IND TBA TBA TBA Y  
  Enrollment limited to 100
  (Continuation of American Studies 954.)
2255 AMST-956-01 Thesis 2.00 IND TBA TBA TBA Y  
  Enrollment limited to 100
  (Completion of two course credits in one semester).
7272 ECON-321-01 Amer Economic History 1.00 LEC Gunderson,Gerald A. MW: 8:30AM-9:45AM TBA SOC  
  Enrollment limited to 40
  Prerequisite: C- or better in Economics 101.
  A survey of the growth of the American economy from pre-Columbian times to the present. Special attention will be given to the issues of economic growth, industrial development, the economy of the antebellum South, transportation and commerce, the rise of cities, and the impact of major wars on the economy.
2048 ENGL-205-01 Intro to Amer Lit II 1.00 LEC Hager,Christopher MW: 8:30AM-9:45AM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 50
  NOTE: For English majors, this course satisfies the requirement of a course emphasizing cultural context.
  NOTE: 15 seats reserved for first-years.
  This course surveys major works of American literature after 1865, from literary reckonings with the Civil War and its tragic residues, to works of "realism" and "naturalism" that contended with the late 19th century’s rapid pace of social change, to the innovative works of the modern and postmodern eras. As we read works by authors such as Mark Twain, Kate Chopin, William Faulkner, and Toni Morrison, we will inquire: how have literary texts defined and redefined "America" and Americans? What are the means by which some groups have been excluded from the American community, and what are their experiences of that exclusion? And how do these texts shape our understanding of the unresolved problems of post-Civil War American democracy? For English majors, this course satisfies the requirement of a course emphasizing cultural context.
2093 ENGL-265-01 Intro to Film Studies 1.00 LEC Riggio,Milla C. TR: 2:55PM-4:10PM
W: 6:30PM-9:30PM		 TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 65
  NOTE: 15 seats reserved for first-years.
  NOTE: For English majors, this course satisfies the requirement of a literary theory course, or a course emphasizing cultural contexts. This course can be counted toward fulfillment of requirements for the film studies minor. Film screening only on Wednesday.
  This course provides a general introduction to the study of film and focuses on the key terms and concepts used to describe and analyze the film experience. As we put this set of tools and methods in place, we will also explore different modes of film production (fictional narrative, documentary, experimental) and some of the critical issues and debates that have shaped the discipline of film studies (genre, auteurism, film aesthetics, ideology). Note: Film screening only on Wednesday evenings. For English majors, this course satisfies the requirement of a literary theory course, or a course emphasizing cultural contexts. This course can be counted toward fulfillment of requirements for the film studies minor.
7295 ENGL-851-01 Queer Harlem Renaissance 1.00 SEM Paulin,Diana R. R: 5:30PM-8:30PM TBA  
  Enrollment limited to 15
  This course approaches the Harlem Renaissance or "the New Negro" Movement through the lens of sexuality, paying particular attention to the ways in which understandings of racial identity were filtered through representations of sex and gender. We will consider how writers of the Harlem Renaissance explored notions of sexuality and gender given the history of slavery and exploitation that generated rigid formulations of race and gender. How did cultural producers challenge, reinforce, question and imagine sexuality and its intersection with other aspects of identity, such as class, gender, and national origins. Writers/artists include, Wallace Thurman, Carl Van Vechten, Bessie Smith, Angelina Weld Grimke, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Langston Hughes, and Bruce Nugent. Note: For undergraduate English majors, this course satisfies the requirement of a course emphasizing literature written after 1800, or a course emphasizing cultural context. For the English graduate program, satisfies the requirement of a course in American literature, or a course emphasizing cultural context for the literary studies track.
2840 HIST-201-01 US Colonial Per thru Civil War 1.00 LEC Wickman,Thomas M. TR: 2:55PM-4:10PM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 35
  This course introduces students to major developments in the political, economic, and social history of North America between 1492 and 1865. We will study encounters between Europeans and Native Americans, the founding of European colonies, the rise of the Atlantic slave trade, the Seven Years’ War, the American Revolution, the spread of plantation slavery, the War of 1812, Indian removal, westward expansion, the U.S.-Mexican War, and the Civil War. Students will be challenged to imagine American history within Atlantic and global contexts and to pay attention to North American borderlands. Perspectives to be considered include those of explorers, naturalists, sachems, warriors, captives, slave traders, overseers, field slaves, indentured servants, merchants, artisans, sailors, farmers, mothers, children, missionaries, midwives, manufacturers, laborers, and governing officials.
7475 HIST-208-01 North Amer Environmental Hist 1.00 LEC Wickman,Thomas M. TR: 1:30PM-2:45PM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 20
  This course surveys the environmental history of North America and the Caribbean from 1491 to the present. Topics include indigenous practice, colonization, agricultural intensification, industrialization, urbanization, war, waste disposal, and climate change. Above all, the course will be concerned with the political conflicts and social inequities that arose as the continent and its surrounding waters underwent centuries of ecological change. The global environmental contexts and consequences of American political and economic activities also will be emphasized.
7275 HIST-218-01 US Since 1945 1.00 LEC Greenberg,Cheryl MW: 2:40PM-3:55PM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 30
  This course examines America since World War II. We will explore both political events and cultural and social trends, including the Cold War, rock 'n' roll, civil rights, feminism, Vietnam, consumerism and advertising, the New Right and the New Left, the counterculture, religious and ethnic revivals, poverty, and the "me" generation.
7333 HIST-344-01 America's Most Wanted 1.00 SEM Greenberg,Cheryl MW: 10:00AM-11:15AM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 15
  Americans are fascinated by crime. We read detective fiction, watch police dramas, and hold murder mystery dinners. When the crimes are real, we debate guilt or innocence, punishment or rehabilitation, death penalty or life in prison at our dinner tables. Why this fascination, and what does it tell us about our culture and our concerns? In this course we examine several actual crimes and try to understand what made these crimes, and not others, so riveting. What drew us in? What kept us there? Along the way we will also discuss changing police and penal practices, how attitudes about race, class, religion, and gender play into public fixations on particular crimes, and how and why those attitudes shifted over time.
7572 HIST-344-02 America's Most Wanted 1.00 SEM Greenberg,Cheryl MW: 11:30AM-12:45PM TBA Y HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 15
  Americans are fascinated by crime. We read detective fiction, watch police dramas, and hold murder mystery dinners. When the crimes are real, we debate guilt or innocence, punishment or rehabilitation, death penalty or life in prison at our dinner tables. Why this fascination, and what does it tell us about our culture and our concerns? In this course we examine several actual crimes and try to understand what made these crimes, and not others, so riveting. What drew us in? What kept us there? Along the way we will also discuss changing police and penal practices, how attitudes about race, class, religion, and gender play into public fixations on particular crimes, and how and why those attitudes shifted over time.
2136 PBPL-201-01 Intro to Ameri Public Policy 1.00 LEC Fulco,Adrienne MWF: 10:00AM-10:50AM TBA Y SOC  
  Enrollment limited to 35
  This course is only open to Sophomore and Junior students.
  NOTE: Course not open to First Year Students
  NOTE: 25 seats reserved for sophomores and 10 seats reserved for juniors.
  This course introduces students to the formal and informal processes through which American public policy is made. They will study the constitutional institutions of government and the distinct role each branch of the national government plays in the policy-making process, and also examine the ways in which informal institutions-political parties, the media, and political lobbyists-contribute to and shape the policy process.
2693 PBPL-344-01 Seeking JUSTICE in Amer Life 1.00 SEM Fulco,Adrienne
Schaller,Barry R.		 M: 1:15PM-3:55PM TBA Y  
  Enrollment limited to 20
  Prerequisite: C- or better in PBPL 201 or PBPL 202 or permission of the instructor.
  This course will examine basic theories of ethics (common morality), found in moral and political philosophy in order to consider the extent to which traditional ethical and moral principles govern legal, political, and private decision-making. We will begin by identifying ethical and moral principles in our founding documents before proceeding with the main work of the course, which is to examine the ethical and moral reasoning behind legal and policy decisions, business decisions, and personal decisions. Among the diverse subjects that will be discussed are physician-assisted suicide, the death penalty, buying and selling of body parts, human cloning, legalizing drugs, affirmative action, national service in war, hate speech and political dissent, wealth and income distribution including disbursing public money to private business, individual rights versus the needs of the community, torture, truth and lying in private and public, equality and inequality, drug-enhancement in sports, immoral behavior on the part of public figures.
2337 POLS-102-01 American Natl Govt 1.00 LEC Chambers,Stefanie TR: 9:25AM-10:40AM TBA SOC  
  Enrollment limited to 35
  Not open to seniors.
  NOTE: 15 seats reserved for first-years.
  How do the institutions of American national government shape our politics and policies? This introductory course examines the nation’s founding documents (including the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Federalist Papers), the goals they sought to achieve, and the institutional framework they established (including Congress, the Presidency, and the courts). It then evaluates the extent to which these institutions achieve their intended aims of representing interests and producing public goods, taking into account the role of parties, interests groups, and the media. Throughout the course, we will attend to the relevance of race, class, religion, and gender. We will draw on the example of the 2012 presidential election and other current events to illustrate the functioning of American government and politics.
2338 POLS-102-02 American Natl Govt 1.00 LEC Chambers,Stefanie TR: 10:50AM-12:05PM TBA SOC  
  Enrollment limited to 35
  Not open to seniors.
  NOTE: 15 seats reserved for first-years.
  How do the institutions of American national government shape our politics and policies? This introductory course examines the nation’s founding documents (including the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Federalist Papers), the goals they sought to achieve, and the institutional framework they established (including Congress, the Presidency, and the courts). It then evaluates the extent to which these institutions achieve their intended aims of representing interests and producing public goods, taking into account the role of parties, interests groups, and the media. Throughout the course, we will attend to the relevance of race, class, religion, and gender. We will draw on the example of the 2012 presidential election and other current events to illustrate the functioning of American government and politics.
7282 POLS-102-03 American Natl Govt 1.00 LEC Williamson,Abigail Fisher TR: 2:55PM-4:10PM TBA SOC  
  Enrollment limited to 35
  Not open to seniors.
  How do the institutions of American national government shape our politics and policies? This introductory course examines the nation’s founding documents (including the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Federalist Papers), the goals they sought to achieve, and the institutional framework they established (including Congress, the Presidency, and the courts). It then evaluates the extent to which these institutions achieve their intended aims of representing interests and producing public goods, taking into account the role of parties, interests groups, and the media. Throughout the course, we will attend to the relevance of race, class, religion, and gender. We will draw on the example of the 2012 presidential election and other current events to illustrate the functioning of American government and politics.
7279 POLS-225-01 American Presidency 1.00 LEC McMahon,Kevin J. TR: 10:50AM-12:05PM TBA SOC  
  Enrollment limited to 50
  An explanation of the institutional and political evolution of the presidency with an emphasis on the nature of presidential power in domestic and foreign affairs. Attention is also given to institutional conflicts with Congress and the courts. The nature of presidential leadership and personality is also explored.
2643 POLS-301-01 American Political Parties 1.00 LEC Evans,Diana TR: 9:25AM-10:40AM TBA SOC  
  Enrollment limited to 30
  Prerequisite: C- or better in Political Science 102.
  An analysis of American political parties, including a study of voting behavior, party organization and leadership, and recent and proposed reforms and proposals for reorganization of existing party structures.
7321 RELG-214-01 Jews in America 1.00 LEC Kiener,Ronald TR: 2:55PM-4:10PM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 25
  A social and religious history of American Judaism from pre-revolutionary to contemporary times. After examining the era of immigration and “Americanization,” the course will focus on the ethic, religious, and social structures of American Judaism: the community center, the synagogue, and the federation. (May be counted toward American studies and Jewish studies.)
2158 RELG-267-01 Religion and the Media 1.00 LEC Silk,Mark R. TR: 9:25AM-10:40AM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 30
  Western religion, and Christianity in particular, has always put a premium on employing the available techniques of mass communication to get its message out. But today, many religious people see the omnipresent “secular” media as hostile to their faith. This course will look at the relationship between religion and the communications media, focusing primarily on how the American news media have dealt with religion since the creation of the penny press in the 1830s. Attention will also be given to the ways that American religious institutions have used mass media to present themselves, from the circulation of Bibles and tracts in the 19th century through religious broadcasting beginning in the 20th century to the use of the Internet today. (May be counted toward American studies and public policy studies.)
7327 SOCL-214-01 Racism 1.00 LEC Williams,Johnny Eric MW: 1:15PM-2:30PM TBA SOC  
  Enrollment limited to 40
  A cross-national comparison of racial and ethnic differences as sources of conflict and inequality within and between societies. We will also consider the role of race and ethnicity as a basis for group and national solidarity. Topics will include the persistence of ethnic and racial loyalties in regard to language, marital choice, and politics; a comparison of social mobility patterns among various ethnic and racial groups; ethnicity and race as reactionary or revolutionary ideologies; the issues and facts regarding assimilation and pluralism in different societies.
7330 WMGS-215-01 Drink & Disorder in Amer 1.00 LEC Hedrick,Joan D. TR: 8:00AM-9:15AM TBA HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 40
  Drinking as an institution has reflected the varieties of cultures, interest groups, and ideologies that have swept America. We will examine the tumultuous history of this institution from the origins of the Republic to the present in order to understand what the ‘wets’ and the ‘drys’ can tell us about the nature of community in America. Special attention to the ways in which gender, race, class, and ethnicity shape perceptions of drinking, leisure, and social control. (Also listed under American Studies and History.)
2083 WMGS-301-01 Western Feminist Thought 1.00 LEC Hedrick,Joan D. TR: 9:25AM-10:40AM TBA Y HUM  
  Enrollment limited to 25
  Prerequisite: C- or better in one other course in Women Gender and Sexuality.
  An exploration of the main currents in American feminism, with occasional excursions into European thought. The course readings assume (rather than demonstrate) women’s historical subordination to man and put forward various explanations and strategies for change. Readings in J.S. Mill, C. P. Gilman, Emma Goldman, Simone de Beauvoir, Adrienne Rich, bell hooks, Mary Daly, Audre Lorde, and others. Primarily for sophomores and juniors. Permission of the instructor is required.
7329 WMGS-345-01 Film Noir 1.00 SEM Corber,Robert J. W: 1:15PM-3:55PM TBA  
  Enrollment limited to 15
  This course traces the development of film noir, a distinctive style of Hollywood filmmaking inspired by the hardboiled detective fiction of Dashiell Hammett, James Cain, and Raymond Chandler. It pays particular attention to the genre’s complicated gender and sexual politics. In addition to classic examples of film noir, the course also considers novels by Hammett, Cain, and Chandler.