American Studies Department Course Descriptions
Spring 2010
AMST 201 SATISFIES PART OF THE HUMANITIES CORE REQUIREMENT (DH)
Course Description: This interdisciplinary course examines diversity and changes in American values and lives in a historical context as manifested in social institutions and social movements. It introduces students to various types of primary materials (such as laws, court rulings, sermons, political manifestos, newspapers, etc.) and to different methods of reading and analyzing such materials. Using social and analytical categories such as race, ethnicity, gender, class, and sexuality, the course examines several critical periods in US history as well as situates Hawaii in the context of American experience. The course fulfills a Manoa Core humanities requirement.
| Section | Day |
Time |
Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
| (1) | MWF |
08:30-09:20 |
Sarah Smorol |
| (2) | MWF |
09:30-10:20 |
Sarah Smorol |
MIXED RACE IN AMERICA: Students will gain familiarity with American Mixed Race theory, and politics as well as explore first hand literary accounts by mixed race individuals. Analysis of social and political narratives about Mixed Race people will be facilitated by examining fiction, media, and popular culture as well as government documents and official U.S. Government websites. Topics include European and Native American contact; the Dawes Commission; Jim Crow laws and One Drop ideology; U.S. anti-miscegenation laws; Supreme Court decisions; Blood Quotas in Native American and Hawaiian contexts; the Homestead Act and the Akaka Bill; the U.S. Census and Multi-Racial Americans; Mixed Race activism; and the political effect of bi-raciality on President Obama’s election campaign.
Course Requirements:
Class attendance and participation 20%
Writing Assignments (6 at 3 pgs) each 60%
Final Group Presentation 20%
Text(s): TBA
AMST 202 SATISFIES PART OF THE HUMANITIES CORE REQUIREMENT (DH)
Course Description: This interdisciplinary course examines diversity and changes in American values and lives in a historical context as manifested in art and culture. It introduces students to various types of primary materials (such as poems, novels, films, photography, advertising, songs, etc.) and to different methods such as race, ethnicity, gender, class, and sexuality, the course examines several critical periods in US history as well as situates Hawai‘i in the context of American experience. The course fulfills a Manoa Core humanities requirement.
| Section | Day | Time | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
(1) |
MWF |
10:30-11:20 |
Benjamin Olson |
(2) |
MWF |
11:30-12:20 |
Benjamin Olson |
Course Description:
This course will explore the ways in which art and
culture construct, utilize and contest notions of America and American
identity. This particular version of 202 will focus on American music
in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. We will discuss how industrialization
and urbanization impacted the way music was performed, listened to and
understood throughout these time periods, as well as how notions such
as class, race, nationality and gender have been incorporated into musical
contexts. Music, performance and subcultural identities allow participants
to articulate unique notions of self, other, place and group that are
far more complex and significant than labels such as “entertainment”
or “fashion” account for. This course is designed to disentangle
the meanings behind music and the cultural activities surrounding music
in order to achieve a more nuance understanding of American culture and
identity.
Grading:
Class Participation 20%
Audio Autobiography (2-3 pages) 15%
Performance Review (2-3 pages) 15%
Pre-paper Meetings 10%
Midterm Paper (5 pages) 20%
Final Paper (8 pages) 20%
Texts: Readings can be found in the course reader available at Campus Copy unless otherwise noted.
AMSt 211 W/Contemporary American Domestic Issues
| |
|
|
Instructor |
| |
|
|
Karyn Wells |
| |
|
|
Karyn Wells |
Course
Description: American Studies 211 is an interdisciplinary exploration
of contemporary American domestic issues, values, and representations.
While the specific topics are variant they are discussed within a historical
context and are approached from a variety of critical and contested perspectives
ranging from ethnicity and gender to quantitative description. Each topic
will access matters concerning politics, economics, civil rights, family
life, the justice system and the environment. Course discussions will
be based on a variety of materials including textbooks, novels, handouts,
and film.
This course focuses on contemporary American Indian issues and will link
peripherally to Indigenous Hawaiian issues. While the class will be anchored
in a historical context, we will quickly move on to sovereignty and federal
law, current Indigenous women's social realities, environmental degradation
of sacred spaces, and western representations of the Indigenous "other."
This later discussion will be accessed through a critical analysis of
popular culture representations like Disney's Pocahontas, Sherman Alexie's
Smoke Signals, music, poetry and You Tube. This course fulfills a Manoa
Core Social Science requirement and has a written focus (W) designation.
Course Requirements: See instructor
Text(s): See instructor
| Section | Day | Time | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
(1) |
TR |
12:00-01:15 |
Miguel Llora |
(2) |
TR |
01:30-02:45 |
Miguel Llora |
Course Description: This course is an exploration of contemporary global issues and attitudes within the contexts of the Pacific Basin. It will track the influence of American values and institutions in the Pacific and analyze the effects of US foreign policy from the US, the Asia/Pacific, and Latin America. Our topics will take into account the diversity of American values and perspectives. These will include, but will not be limited to, foreign policy, the economy, the environment, national security, international diplomacy, and war. Concurrently, we will discuss the present role of the US in the world. Although we will be primarily looking at these issues within their historical context, the course is designed to draw on a variety of materials including film, literature, newspapers, documentaries, current news reports and other primary source material such as government documents.
Course Requirements: See instructor
Text(s): See instructor
| Section | Day | Time | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
(1) |
MW |
11:30-12:20 |
Dennis Ogawa |
Lab |
F |
11:30-12:20 |
Staff |
(2) |
MW |
11:30-12:20 |
Dennis Ogawa |
Lab |
F |
11:30-12:20 |
Staff |
(3) |
MW |
11:30-12:20 |
Dennis Ogawa |
Lab |
F |
11:30-12:20 |
Staff |
(4) |
MW |
11:30-12:20 |
Dennis Ogawa |
Lab |
F |
11:30-12:20 |
Mami Hayashi |
(5) |
MW |
11:30-12:20 |
Dennis Ogawa |
Lab |
F |
12:30-01:20 |
Mami Hayashi |
(6) |
MW |
11:30-12:20 |
Dennis Ogawa |
Lab |
F |
01:30-02:20 |
Mami Hayashi |
Course Description: Study of Japanese American life in Hawaii and American society at large. Historical and cultural heritage. Biographical portraits, changing family ties, ethnic lifestyle, male and female relations, local identity and the nature of island living.
Course Requirements:
| 1) Two Tests | 25% |
| 2) Final examination | 25% |
| 3) Oral Communication Assignments | 45% |
*Panel Discussion/Group Presentation |
25% |
*Chapter Presentations and Outline |
20% |
| 4) Lab attendance, and participation; JCCH Paper | 5% |
Text(s):
D. Ogawa, Jan Ken Po
D. Ogawa, Kodomo No Tame Ni
*D. Ogawa, J.M. Blink, M. Gordon, California Hotel and Casino: Hawai'i's Home Away from Home
* see the instructor/lab leaders for this book
AmSt 316 U.S. Women's History
Cross listed w/ HIST 361 & WS 311
| Section | Day | Time | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
(1) |
TR |
09:00-10:15 |
Vernadette
Gonzalez |
Course
Description: This course explores the history of women's experience
and gender in U.S. society. It will introduce students to the field
of American women’s history, emphasizing the importance of studying
what is often missing in history
books—the roles, experiences, and thoughts of women across the
spectrum of American society. While we will be looking at some of ?the
"great women" of American history, the course will focus more
on the aspects of the general
experiences of women and ?their political, social, cultural and familial
relationships. Students will learn conceptual frameworks with which
to understand the role and significance of gender in culture and society.
Course Requirements: See instructor
Text(s): See instructor
AmSt 318 Asian America
Cross listed w/ES 318
| Section | Day | Time | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
(1) |
TR |
10:30-11:45 |
Pensri
Ho |
Course Description: This introductory survey course covers the historical and experiential experiences of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in America since 1763 with the establishment of a Filipino settlement of male deserters ("Manilamen") from Spanish galleons in Saint Malo, Louisiana. Since there are over 30 Asian and Pacific Islander ethnic populations in residence in the United States since 1763, this course will highlight the experiences of some groups to illustrate the diversity of this racial group, the arbitrariness of American racial classifications, and the parallels and divergences from other racial groups (African American and European American, in particular). Ultimately, students will gain a greater understanding of what it means to be an American.
This is an interdisciplinary course covering anthropological, sociological, historical, cinematic and literary texts.
However, most of the course
materials consist of ethnographic (qualitative) studies that are framed
by anthropological and American race concepts and theories.
Course
Requirements:
Text(s):
AmSt 325 Religion & Law in the U.S.
Cross listed w/ Pols 325
| Section | Day | Time | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
(1) |
TR |
12:00-01:15 |
Kathleen
Sands |
Course Description: This course studies the intersection of law and religion, with particular attention to the difficulty of defining religion. After mastering pertinent constitutional concepts and key church-state cases, students will work in groups to present a mock trial involving one of three controversial areas: Native American religious freedom, sexuality and religion, or the role of “Intelligent Design” in public schools. This course is designated as a “E” focus, so it will engage ethical questions throughout. These ethical questions, however, will be public rather than personal or religious. Our ethical reflection will be guided by the religion clauses of the constitution, which raise fundamental questions about the scope of individual freedom and the role of government.
Grading:
25% - Midterm exam.
20% - Commentary on selected Supreme Court opinions.
20% - Briefs of selected Supreme Court case syllabi.
10% - Group presentation of a controversy.
25% - Final paper; your own opinion on the controversy presented by
your group.
Attendance - each absence beyond 3 will subtract 5 points from the final
grade.
Required Texts:
David Currie, The United States Constitution: A Primer for the People
Supreme Court opinions available online and other course materials posted
on Laulima.
AmSt 339 O/Religions in America
Section |
Day |
Time
|
Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
(1) |
MW |
09:30-10:20 |
Kathleen
Sands |
| Lab |
W |
11:30-12:20 |
Kevin Lim |
(2) |
MW |
09:30-10:20 |
Kathleen Sands |
Lab |
F |
09:30-10:20 |
Kevin Lim |
(3) |
MW |
08:30-09:20 |
Kathleen Sands |
Lab |
F |
11:30-12:20 |
Kevin Lim |
Course Description: Beginning with the contemporary landscape and moving backwards, this course builds the historical knowledge, intercultural understanding, and political principles needed today by citizens of a multi-religious America. The treatment of religions will be guided by a distinctively American combination of principles: unity in diversity, religious liberty, and the non-establishment of religion. Materials will include primary and secondary texts, documentary films, and site visits. In weekly discussions sessions, students will analyze the roles that religions do/should play in a variety of public issues. Because this is an Oral-Focus course, a significant part of the grade will depend on informed participation in discussion sections.
Grading:
50% - (25% each) Midterm and Final exams.
10% - Visit to and report on a religious site on Oahu.
20% - Group debate on an issue concerning religion in public life.
10% - Assigned contributions to discussion sections.
10% - Peer review of oral presentations by classmates.
Required texts:
Catherine Albanese, America: Religion and Religions. 4th edition
Marie R. Griffiths, ed. American Religions: A Documentary History
Thomas Tweed and Stephen Prothero, Eds. Asian Religions in America:
A Documentary History
AmSt 344 W/Am Thought & Cult: 20th Century
(Cross listed w/HIST 374)
| |
|
|
Instructor |
| |
|
Richard
Rapson |
Course Description: This description includes both halves of the year-long sequence of History 373-374 (American Studies 343-344), though each course stands on its own and may be taken separately. The courses attempt to define the "climates of opinion" in America at different stages of our past. Consequently a wide range of material is dealt with, the intellectual aim being synthesis. An attempt is made to maximize the possibilities of discussion. Students can expect to attend lectures, hear music, watch movies, participate in several small discussion groups, etc. The first semester (373) moves from European antecedents of colonization to the early years of the 20th Century. The second semester (374) concentrates on the more recent period. Students may take either semester, or they may take both in any sequence. Opportunities are offered for the student to fulfill the requirements of the courses in a wide variety of ways. The courses carry graduate credit, require the permission of instructor to enroll, and are limited to 20 students.
Course Requirements: Papers and book reports. No exams.
Text(s):
Gail Collins, America's Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges,
Helpmates and Heroines
Robert Heilbroner, An Inquiry Into the Human Prospect
Roderick Nash, From These Beginnings, Vol 2
Richard Rapson, Magical Thinking and the Decline of America
Art Spiegelman, Maus: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History/And
Here My Troubles Began
Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave
AmSt 352 O/Screening Asian Americans
(Crosslisted w/ ACM 352)
| |
|
|
Instructor |
| |
|
Hye
Seung Chung |
|
| Lab |
F |
09:30-10:20 |
Eriza
Bareng |
(2) |
MW |
10:30-11:20 |
Hye
Seung Chung |
Lab |
F |
10:30-11;20 |
Eriza
Bareng |
(3) |
MW |
10:30-11:20 |
Hye
Seung Chung |
Lab |
F |
01:30-02:20 |
Eriza
Bareng |
| SCREENING | W |
06:00-08:00pm |
Course description:This course surveys the history of Asian and Asian American representations in American cinema and television from 1915 to the present. Throughout the semester we will focus on images of Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Hawaiians, and Vietnamese that have become most ingrained in American popular culture over the last century, from Fu Manchu and Madame Butterfly stereotypes popular during the classical studio era to more recent reconfigurations of racialized imagery in Jackie Chan and Jet Li films. We will also examine selected television programs with significant Asian or Asian American themes and characters such as Hawaii 5-0, M*A*S*H, All-American Girl, Lost, and Heroes.
The final weeks will be devoted to canonical works by Asian American independent filmmakers—Chan is Missing, History and Memory, and Better Luck Tomorrow—as well as Margaret Cho’s standup comedy performances that challenge the racial and sexual stereotypes still permeating mainstream media.
Students will be asked to frame textual analyses of key films and television programs within various sociopolitical, cultural, and industrial contexts (anti-Asiatic immigration and labor policies; U.S. foreign policies; the practice of “yellowface;”censorship codes; wars in East and Southeast Asia; anti-miscegenation laws; the civil rights movement, etc.)
Textbooks:
Hye Seung Chung, Hollywood Asian: Philip Ahn and the Politics
of Cross-Ethnic Performance
Robert Lee, Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture
Course Requirements:
Weekly film screenings and discussions; individual and group oral presentations;
two 3-page position papers; midterm exam; take-home final exam
AmSt 365 American Empire
(Cross listed w/Hist 379)
| |
|
|
Instructor |
| |
|
Greg
Grandin |
Course Description: This class will examine the idea of 'American exceptionalism,' a phrase used either to argue that the US empire represents a unique kind of world power, one that has been able to project its influence and power free - for the most part -- from the burden of direct colonialism or militarism, or the motivational creed held by US policy makers and intellectuals that the US is a rejuvenating agent of change in the world. This course will argue that all the debates on what is and isn't exceptional about US power miss the one thing that does in fact make the US unique: Latin America. Other modern capitalist empires - France, Holland and Great Britain in Africa, Asia and the Middle East - ruled over culturally and religiously distinct peoples. The Anglo-American settlers who colonized North America, by contrast, looked to Iberian America not as an epistemic 'other' but as competitor in a fight to define a set of nominally shared intellectual and political forms: Christianity, liberalism, republicanism, democracy, and, above all else, the very idea of America. This focus on inter-American relations as "immanent critique" - the process by which a thing is defined by its contradictions - helps explain why the idea of democracy in Latin America has remained enduringly social, while liberalism in the US has become increasingly hollow and evangelical.
Course Requirements: See Instructor
Text(s): TBA
AmSt 373 Filipino Americans: History, Culture & Politics
(Cross iisted w/ES 373)
| |
|
|
Instructor |
| |
|
R.
Labrador |
Course Description: An introduction to the study of Filipino Americans in the U.S. and the diaspora. The course pays special attention to migration, cultural production and community politics as they relate to rap, race, and representation.
Course Requirements: See Instructor
Text(s): TBA
(Required course for undergraduate majors)
| Section | Day | Time | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
| (1) |
TR |
09:00-10:15 |
Mark Helbling |
Course Description: This seminar, the second section in a sequence of two, focuses on contemporary interpretations of the American cultural history from the Civil War to the present. Similar to AmSt 381, the main objective of the course is twofold: 1) to become more familiar with the historical circumstances that shaped the United States as a socio-political entity, and 2) to learn to read and interpret these circumstances thoughtfully and critically.
Course Requirement:
See Instructor
Prerequisite: Officially declared majors in American Studies.
Minors and double majors in American Studies must have a course approval
code to be allowed to register for this course.
Text(s):
| Section | Day | Time | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
| (1) |
M |
02:30-05:00 |
Dennis Ogawa |
Course Description: Ethnic identity and Japanese media. Comparative study of American, Asian American and Japanese media as related to Japanese American ethnic identity.
Grading:
| Final Screening | 35% |
| Essay | 20% |
| Oral Communication | 45% |
ASSIGNMENTS |
|
| Informative panel discussion/Group Presentation | 20% |
| Persuasive individual presentation: Film critique | 20% |
| Class attendance and oral participation | 5% |
Text(s): Various handouts and books to be announced later.
AmSt 435 History of Crime & Punishment
| Section | Day | Time | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
| (1) |
TR |
01:30-02:45 |
Robert Perkinson |
Course Description: History of American crime and punishment from 18th century to the present. Topics: changing crime patterns, evolving punishment methods, penal reform movements, convict resistance, growth of prison industrial complex, racism, class, and gender.
Course Requirements: See instructor
Texts: TBA
AmSt 451 O/Popular Culture
| Section | Day | Time | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
| (1) |
W |
12:30-03:00 |
Hye Seung Chung |
Course
description: This oral-focus upper-division
seminar explores the profound impact of the Cold War in American popular
culture from the 1940s to the 1980s. Students will examine a diverse
array of films and television series across various genres, including
the war film, science fiction, film noir, horror, the espionage thriller,
the disaster film, black comedy, social satire and parody. Throughout
the semester, attention will be given to the sociopolitical and cultural
contexts of the Cold War (with weeks devoted to McCarthyism, the Hollywood
Ten and industry-wide blacklisting, the brainwashing scare, paranoia
surrounding the Bomb, containment narratives, etc.). Students will also
work in groups to investigate the historical background behind the “sights
and sounds” of widespread fear through archival documents of major
Cold War events (the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cuban Missile
Crisis, Détente, etc.). In the process, we will strive to increase
our understanding of the corresponding, reciprocally bound relationships
between politics and popular culture as well as between history and
representation (along the lines of nationality, race, gender, class,
sexuality, and ideology).
Course Requirements:
Weekly film screenings and discussions; group oral history presentation;
take-home midterm exam; final research paper
Textbook:
Robert J. McMahon, The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction
AmSt 456 W/Arts in the United States
(Cross listed with Art 472)
| Section | Day | Time | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
(1) |
MWF |
08:30-09:20 |
Joseph Stanton |
Course Description: This course will examine the development of the visual arts in America from colonial to contemporary periods.
Course Requirements:
There will be two tests, fourteen one-page comments, and a final
paper.
Required Text:
A packet of photocopied articles.
R. Hughes, American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America
(Cross listed with Art 481)
| Section | Day | Time | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
(1) |
n/a |
ONLINE |
Heather Diamond |
Course Description: Exhibits of objects, animals, plants, and ephemera are of increasing interest to more than museum professionals. Media analysts, scholars of culture, and education specialists analyze the multiple ways visitors to museums, aquariums, nature parks, and even shopping malls interact with displays and make sense of their experiences. Creators of exhibits must continually find ways to make complex ideas and contextual material accessible and compelling. This course focuses on the interpretive practices of museums and related institutions. On the one hand, students will study the methods of communication employed by museums by examining wall texts, labels, brochures, and exhibition designs. On the other, they will consider how the very format and content of exhibitions and interpretive materials affect visitor experiences and contribute to the “production of knowledge” within a society.
Exhibitions can become sites of public controversies and battles over the “politics of representation.” Individual viewers or whole communities may feel that a particular display undermines “traditional family values” or inappropriately challenges long-held beliefs about a nation’s history. Others may feel that a curator’s interpretive framework inadvertently denigrates a minority community or overlooks the importance of ethnic, racial, class, gender, or sexual differences. Thus, museum professionals must carefully consider and examine the ethical dimensions of their institutional practices. For instance, how do their exhibitions and interpretive materials reflect contemporary discussions on the inclusion of multicultural perspectives or the presentation of indigenous sacred objects?
During the semester, students will look at exhibits in Hawai‘i, the continental U.S., and other parts of the world. Through readings on a wide range of related subjects, discussions, site visits, and writing assignments, the class will engage with theoretical, historical, ethical, and practical issues. Students will observe interpretive programs in local museums as well as analyze the methods employed by museum professionals to involve and assist visitors. Students will also conceive and develop models for interpretive programs including labels and other information systems. The instructor will work with students to develop content and methods of writing appropriate to museum exhibits, and students will be asked to do museum-quality interpretation for their research projects.
Museums are dependent on staff members who combine strong conceptual, analytical, research, and writing skills, along with creative problem-solving abilities and a knowledge of the contemporary ethical issues facing the profession. Multiple opportunities to develop these skills and abilities will be available throughout the semester. Students who take this course may be inspired to work within museums in the future as professionals or volunteers; to develop projects as artists; or to participate in programs as informed visitors and patrons. Finally, the course is structured to weave back and forth between the study of three distinct but related activities: 1) the interpretation or representation of objects and phenomena by museum professionals, 2) the reception of the interpretative materials by museum visitors, and 3) the ethical implications of the interpretive materials produced by museums or encountered by viewers especially as they contribute to the reproduction or contestation of cultural knowledge in a society.
This course will take
place entirely online. Students will be required to conduct site visits
at local museums and to meet all deadlines for discussions, examinations,
and writing assignments.
Required Course Text and Readings:
Beverly Serrell, Exhibit Labels: An Interpretive Approach
Steven C. Dubin, Displays of Power: Controversy in the American Museum
from the Enola Gay to Sensation
Online readings
Contact:
For information and course approval, please contact Dr. Heather Diamond
at hdiamond@hawaii.edu
| Section | Day | Time | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
(1) |
MWF |
09:30-10:20 |
William Chapman |
Course Content: An overview of issues in the conservation of historic places, cultures and values in Hawaii, Asia and the Pacific. The course covers the range of historic and cultural resources in the region, steps taken to preserve those resources and present threats to their preservation. Issues of past colonial interventions, the rights of indigenous peoples to have a say in what is preserved and how it is done are considered in detail throughout the course. Examples will be drawn from the instructor’s experience in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Guam, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, the Republic of Belau, the Northern Marianas Islands, the Hawaiian Islands as well as other sites in Asia and the Pacific.
Course Requirements: See instructor
Texts: Course reader
| Section | Day | Time | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
(1) |
TR |
10:30-11:45 |
Vernadette Gonzalez |
Course Content: AMST 481 is the capstone course for American Studies majors but is open to all students interested in pursuing an individual research project related to American history, culture, and society. With the close support of the
instructor, UH librarians, and other faculty advisors, students will have the opportunity to design an original research project, become an expert in their focused area of interest, formulate a provocative argument, and write an article-length essay. Above all, the course will allow students to spread their intellectual wings, to think imaginatively and creatively, and to explore an engaging topic in depth. Unlike research seminars in other departments, students are welcome to deal with topics and methods from across the humanities and social sciences, from film analysis to ethnography to archival research.
The course will begin
with discussions on effective research and writing, but the bulk of
the semester will be devoted to individual student projects. Students
will meet twice a week to evaluate sources, discuss research approaches,
share excerpts, edit writing, and assess structure and progress. By
the end of the semester, each student will produce a polished research
paper, one she (or he) may consider for publication or can use as a
writing sample for graduate school or job applications.
Course Requirements: See instructor
Text(s): See instructor
AmSt 499V Readings in American Studies
Section: (1) Arranged
Course Content: American Studies 499V is a directed reading/directed research course. Such course is not intended as routine alternatives to regular course offerings but rather as opportunities to explore themes and topics that are not covered in any available course within the American Studies Department or other departments within the University.
To enroll in a 499 class, you must obtain the consent of a particular professor with an expertise on the topic you wish to pursue. This professor may be in American Studies or in any department.
Within a week after registration, you must submit to the department office a one-page description of the work to be done. This description must contain the following:
a. The theme
or topic to be explored
b. The nature of the work to be done
c. Justification as to why 499 is the only feasible alternative
d. The list of books to be read (if a directed reading course)
e. The number of credits to be awarded
f. The basis upon which the credits are to be awarded--a paper, exam,
or whatever. Include information on the frequency of student/professor
meetings.
This one-page account must be signed by you, the professor, and the undergraduate chair and submitted to the American Studies Department Office (Moore 324).
Procedure
for Registration: You may obtain appropriate forms/approvals from
the American Studies Department office (Moore 324) or download these
forms.
Directed Reading Consent
Form
Directed Reading Approval
Form
Section: (1) Arranged
Graduate students are required to register for at least one credit of work (either Directed Studies 500 or any other course) in the semester of graduation.
This course is offered as a one credit course with a mandatory grading of Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U) but will not carry credit toward meeting credit requirements for the degree. However, payment for one credit worth of tuition will be necessary.
If degree requirements are fully completed, a Satisfactory grade will be issued and the student will be awarded the degree. If not, a grade of Unsatisfactory will be given and the student will be required to register again for Directed Studies 500 the following semester or until such time that the requirements are completed
| Section | Day | Time | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
(1) |
M |
03:30-06:00 |
David Stannard |
Course
Content: American cultural origins and development.
Civil War to present.
Course Requirements: See Instructor
Texts: See Instructor
AmSt 638 American Punishment
(Cross listed w/SOC 638)
| Section | Day | Time | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
(1) |
T |
03:30-06:00 |
Robert Perkinson |
Course
Content: At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the United States
manages the largest and most punitive criminal justice system in its history.
Per capita, the United States incarcerates nearly one out of every 100
residents, a greater percentage than at any other time in American history
and a higher rate than any other country in the world. This course will
explore the historical evolution of this massive disciplinary system from
the eighteenth century to the present. We will consult a wide range of
primary and secondary sources in order to outline the major periods of
American punishment and the transitions between them, from the first colonial
penitentiaries to Progressive-era reformatories to the high-tech control
units of today.
Major topics of inquiry include: the causes of historical change between
modalities of punishment, crime and social order, the troubling gaps between
ideologies and practices of punishment, the paradoxical legacy of penal
reform movements, convict activism and rebellions, the role of race, class,
and gender in state punishment, and the significance of criminal justice
in the broader currents of American social, cultural, and political history.
Course Requirements: Class participation, short review
essays, bibliographic essay
Texts: See Instructor
Cross listed with HIST 639B
| |
|
|
Instructor |
| |
|
|
Richard
Rapson |
Sub-Themes in the Spring:
1) Teaching, the use of films and historical fiction in the classroom, theory and the state of today's Universities
2) Multidisciplinary intellectual and research strategies
3) The history of private lives
Course Description: Most graduate students focus on historical fragments and confront large-scale interpretation with skepticism. The whole is often seen through the lenses of gender, class, and ethnicity. These seminars return us to the sources of those debates: the bold attempts to see things whole, to look for large patterns, to see the shape of the forest rather than zero in on each separate tree.
Each student will have a chance to read one of the great, influential “big picture” histories and to reflect upon the enterprise. Though the emphasis will be on America, we will also perforce take in models from Western history writ large and from world history. This will be done during both the Fall and Spring semesters.
Additionally,
in each semester, five of our seminars will be held jointly with the graduate
seminar in Social Psychology as we all try to stretch ourselves beyond
the conventional disciplinary barriers. These joint seminars have brought
great excitement to our Wednesdays. The FALL seminar
is the first half of a two-semester sequence; students can effectively
take either semester separately, or else they can take both semesters
in any order. Students will be encouraged freely to stake out positions
on a variety of important and controversial matters in a series of what
are usually lively conversations.
In the FALL semester, students will do more individualized
reading than in the SPRING, where each person's research
interests will be given scope. The FALL seminar attends
to the large debates that have shaped writing about America.
The SPRING class devotes some time to the teaching enterprise,
to the academic career, to the issues that excite the Academy, and to
the use of films and fiction in shedding light on the past. Requirements:
In addition to reading and lots of discussion, students in the FALL terms
will make brief oral presentations. In the SPRING term, the focus is expanded
to take on innovative research design.
Required
texts:
Richard L. Rapson, Magical Thinking and the Decline of America
Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind
Lawrence Levine, The Opening of the American Mind
E.L. Doctrow, Ragtime
| Section | Day | Time | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
(1) |
R |
03:30-06:00 |
Mark Helbling |
Course Description: Examination of intellectual figures and movements in American history.
Course Requirements: See instructor
Text(s): TBA
Crosslisted w/Hist 669
| Section | Day | Time | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
(1) |
W |
03:30-06:00 |
Greg Grandin |
Course Description: Fifty years ago, in 1959, the historian
William Appleman Williams published Tragedy of American Diplomacy,
a foundational text for the emerging New Left. Despite his quirky,
idiosyncratic style and concerns, Williams profoundly influenced the
way generations of subsequent scholars and activists thought about
America and the world, as well as helped shape the postwar left's
critique of corporate liberalism and advocacy of participatory democracy.
Williams, through the course of a career running from the late 1940s
to 1990, synthesized the work of a remarkable array of intellectuals
and philosophers: Marx, Hegel, and Spinoza, critical sociologists
like C. Wright Mills and Hans Gerth, Frankfurt School Marxists, with
their attention to ideology and psychology, progressive historians
such as Frederick Jackson Turner and Charles A. Beard, "myth
and symbol" interpreters of American Studies like Perry Miller,
Raymond Williams' work on culture and society, political economists
and developmentalists like Raul Prebish, Paul Baran and Gunnar Myrdal,
and theorists of imperialism, finance capitalism, and crisis, including
Lenin, Hobson, Luxemburg, and Schumpeter. Williams understood himself
as working in a tradition that emphasized history as "totality,"
once remarking that what most "exhilarated" him by Marx
was his "capacity to see in one piece of evidence a set of relationships
that reveal an economic truth, a truth about an idea, a social verity,
and a political truth." He focused on diplomacy -- or more precisely,
a social history of US expansion -- because he said that "if
there is a Spinozian whole for an historian, then it has to involve
foreign policy and the periodization of history."
This seminar will reconsider the most important influences on early
New Left efforts to place the concept of expansion at the center of
the study of US society, culture, and politics. Throughout, we will
assess the difficulties in producing the kind of holistic, all- encompassing
"parts for the whole" approach Williams advocated, as well
as evaluate its ongoing influence.
Course Requirements: See instructor
Text(s): TBA
Crosslisted w/Plan 676
| Section | Day | Time | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
(1) |
M |
03:30-06:00 |
William Chapman |
Course Description:
The course familiarizes students with the basic techniques used in the
recording and evaluation of historic buildings and other cultural features.
Emphasis is on field survey methods, the compilation of inventories,
and evaluations of significance and/or integrity. Students will become
familiar with State of Hawai`i's own survey and registration process,
with both inventories and methodologies for field surveys of cultural
resources in other states and countries, and will also be introduced
to the requirements of the National Register of Historic Places Program
of the federal government. There will be further introductions to basic
architectural and other historic resource descriptive terminology, methods
of researching the history and contexts of historic properties, and
some training in the preparation of site plans.
Course Requirements: See instructor
Text(s): See instructor
AmSt 685: Museums and Communities
Crosslisted w/ EDCS 685
| Section | Day | Time | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|
(1) |
T |
03:30-06:00
|
Betty Lou Williams |
Course Content: In this class, students will examine the public role and responsibilities of museums by looking at a constellation of topics: the history and recent evolution of American museum policy and procedure; museum education, programming, and evaluation; the museums’ obligation and need to meet public needs and demands; marketing museum collections and activities; & emphasizing the museums’ central role of building stronger relationships with communities and diverse audiences. Also, material on educational theories and object-centered learning will be explored. Site based visits (as a class and on an individual basis) are required for this course. Students will be expected to choose a research topic relevant to the course objectives, which also connects to their personal area of interest.
Prerequisites: 683 (or concurrent) or consent.
Texts: See instructor
(Museum Studies Certificate students only)
Section: (1) See Instructor Karen Kosasa
AmSt 695 Historic Preservation Practicum
( Historic Preservation students only)
Section: (1) See Instructor William Chapman
Course Description: Applies course work in historic preservation to "hands on" activities under the direction of practicing professionals and university faculty
Course Requirements:
—The practicum
should seek to apply general preservation theory to the student's specific
discipline.
—Internships must be taken with an organizational entity such as
a public or private agency or an architectural or planning firm which
is involved in some aspect of preservation. Selection of internship program
and affiliated organization or agency must be approved by the director.
—Internship activities shall involve exploration and application
of knowledge gained in course work of the Historic Preservation Certificate
Program.
—Students are expected to devote between 8-10 hours per week to the
internship plus a bi- weekly meeting with the faculty member in charge,
alternating with a bi-weekly meeting with the contact of the sponsoring
entity.
— The individual shall record the process undertaken.
—At the completion of the internship, the student shall submit a
copy of the internship report or project to complete the practicum to
the Director.
—The practicum may be taken at any time after the completion of American
Studies 675 (628/421/410). It may be undertaken during the academic year
or during summer.
Course Content: American Studies 699V is a directed reading/directed research course. Such courses are not intended as routine alternatives to regular course offerings but rather as opportunities to explore themes and topics that are not covered in any available course within the American Studies Department or other departments within the University.
Students must first discuss with the graduate chairperson what is to be studied and with whom as well as justify why a 699 is the only feasible alternative. As of Fall 1997, no more than three credits of 699 can be applied to fulfill the PhD requirements. Three credits of 699 can be applied to fulfill the MA (Plan A and B) requirements.
To enroll in a 699, you must obtain the consent of a particular professor with an expertise on the topic you wish to pursue. This professor may be in American Studies or in any department. Within a week after registration, you must submit to the department office a one-page account of the work to be done. This account must contain the following:
a. The theme
or topic to be explored
b. The nature of the work to be done
c. Justification as to why 699 is the only feasible alternative
d. The list of books to be read (if a directed reading course)
e. The number of credits to be awarded
f. The basis upon which the credits are to be awarded (paper, exam, etc).
Include information on the frequency of student/professor meetings.
This one-page
account must be signed by you, the professor, and the graduate chair and
submitted to the American Studies Department Office (Moore 324). It will
determine in which particular field you get credit for this directed work.
Without it, you will lose the right to have your directed work count toward
the three-course requirement in any of your three fields.
Procedure for Registration: You may obtain appropriate forms/approvals
from he American Studies Department office (Moore 324) or download these
forms.
Directed Reading Consent
Form
Directed Reading Approval Form
Before registering for a Thesis 700 (for Plan A students only), the student must have completed and obtained an approved thesis committee approved/thesis topic/proposal progress form from Graduate Division
If the above have not been submitted and approved by Graduate Division, the CRN for AmSt 700 WILL NOT BE ISSUED. Please see Gerry (in Moore 324) one month prior to registration to process the necessary forms.
Master’s
Plan A students may register for GRAD 700F after completing all Plan A
requirements including the required Thesis 700 credits. Students enrolled
in one credit of 700F are considered to be carrying a full-time load.
To register for 700F for the first time, submit to the Graduate Records
Office a Petition
to Enroll in GRAD 700F. Upon approval of the petition by the Graduate
Division, the student will receive a course reference number (CRN) for
registration purposes.
A student who wishes to register for 700F more than once should contact
the Graduate Records Office for instructions.
NOTE: Master's Plan A students MUST register in 700F in the semester they
plan to graduate.
Section:
(1) Arranged BEFORE a doctoral student can register for a AmSt
800 (Dissertation), the student must have:
a) passed the qualifying (written & oral) examinations
b) pass the comprehensive oral examination
If you have not received your AmSt 800 CRN, please call the American Studies
department office (956-8570).
Updated 11/12/09
