Introduction to AMCS: #AmericanCultureStudies: Exploring the Field!

What does it mean to do American culture studies? This course teaches students how to critically analyze U.S. culture and society and introduces them to the history, methodologies, frameworks, and key questions that have shaped and continue to inform this interdisciplinary field. American culture studies is a broad and vast discipline that defies simple summary; it asks probing questions to uplift marginalized voices and experiences as part of an expansive definition of American identity. This course exposes students to practices that constitute American culture studies rather than demarcate a terrain for what it is: historically crossing disciplinary boundaries (arts, humanities, social sciences) and engaging diverse texts (film, literature, historical documents, popular culture, performance, material culture, etc.) American culture studies resists strict definition! In this course students study how knowledge and understandings about society and culture are produced and learn approaches to analyzing, curating and interpreting cultural objects and theorizing cultural phenomena. We examine the concept and idea of "America" in local, regional, national, and international contexts and continuums; we explore the lived experiences of diverse American communities within and across cultural and literal borders. Through a case study approach, the course engages questions related to the construction of ethnic and racial identities in the U.S.; visual, material, and digital cultures; social thought and social issues; mass media and popular culture; gender and sexuality; citizenship and nationhood; art, literature, and performance; and American imperialism.
Course Attributes: EN H; BU BA; AS HUM; FA HUM; AR HUM

Introduction to AMCS: #AmericanCultureStudies: Exploring the Field!

AMERICAN CULTURE STUDIES 229

Section 01