GRAD > AMST
American Studies Courses
AMST 601 Intro Amer Studies +
Description:
This course focuses on interdisciplinary methods by comparing the ways different disciplines approach the study of American culture. It introduces students to the history of American Studies as a field, to the questions explored in greater depth in the other core courses, and to contemporary intellectual debates within the field. Readings are chosen to enable students to compare the questions asked and the methods and evidence used by scholars in the fields of social and cultural history, literary criticism, the new historicism, and cultural studies. More Info
Offered in:AMST 602L American Society and Political Culture: 1600-1865 +
Description:
This course will examine major historical events and processes that have impacted the development of American political culture, including settler colonialism, revolution, slavery, sectionalism, and territorial expansion, from the perspective of different social groups, such as leaders, artists, writers, women, indigenous peoples, free laborers, and enslaved people. Central themes include the interplay between regional divergences and national convergences; constructions of racial, gender, class, ethnic, and national identities; the rise of early cultural forms, like the novel, newspaper, and photograph; and the politics of resistance and reform. More Info
Offered in:AMST 603 Modern Political, Social, and Cultural History +
Description:
This course focuses on the emergence of modern American society, culture, and politics since 1865, with emphasis on the following topics: the ideologies of modernism, progressivism, and socialism, and the political, economic, and social forces that constitute modernity; innovations in politics, the arts, and the social sciences, and their relationship to new technologies and the labor practices of industrial capitalism; the labor movement's struggle for industrial democracy; the emergence of feminism and civil rights. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
AMST 604 Gender and Sexuality in US History and Culture +
Description:
This course explores the historical construction of gender and sexuality in US social and political culture of different eras, through current historical scholarship, primary documents, and such cultural representations as literature or film. How are conceptions of manhood and womanhood, of heterosexuality and ''deviant'' sexualities, shaped and reshaped in response to historical forces, and linked to concepts of race and class? How are dominant definitions contested? More Info
Offered in:AMST 605 Ethnicity, Race, and Nationality +
Description:
This course will explore the construction and maintenance of ethnic, racial, and national identities in the United States. Students will analyze various interdisciplinary texts which contain implicit and explicit expressions of gender, ethnic, racial, sexual, regional, and national identities. Various case studies will furnish material to train students in the methods and approaches used in American Studies. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
AMST 606 Studies in Popular Culture & Technology +
Description:
This course focuses on changing definitions of culture and methods of cultural studies; the changing meanings of ''folk culture,'' ''mass culture,'' and ''popular culture''; and the changing dynamics among technology, the media, and culture. Topics for readings and discussion may include: the relations between changing technologies and the activity of audiences in shaping commercial popular culture: the social and economic context of technological innovation; the cultural imperatives of technological change. More Info
Offered in:AMST 688 Final Project +
Description:
A substantial research paper, drawing on systematic original research. The project may address a research topic in American studies or may construct a curriculum unit using primary sources and including a pedagogical and intellectual justification. The project will be determined in consultation with the student's advisor and must be approved by the advisor. A written proposal signed by student and advisor must be submitted to and approved by the director of the graduate program. Depending on faculty availability, students enrolled in AmSt 688 during the spring semester can participate in a research and writing seminar to facilitate the completion of final projects. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
AMST 691 American Studies Summer Institute +
Description:
Co-sponsored by the University of Massachusetts Boston and John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, this course is an intensive two-week program, organized as a series of informative and thought-provoking lectures and discussions led by a distinguished panel of scholars and guests. Participants in the Institute include secondary school teachers from the greater Boston area and graduate students in American studies, political science, history, and related disciplines. Topics vary from year to year, and they are drawn from American history, politics, culture or social policy. Upon completion of the two-week lecture series, students complete an extensive research paper on a topic related to the Institute. Sessions are held at the JFK Library. More Info
Offered in:- TBA
AMST 696 Independent Study +
Description:
An advanced course of independent reading in some aspect of American history or culture with the approval of the instructor and the director of the graduate program. More Info
Offered in:AMST 697 Topics in American Studies +
Description:
An advanced course offering intensive study of selected topics in American Studies. Course content varies according to the topic and will be announced prior to registration. This course may be repeated. More Info
Offered in:- TBA