American Studies Courses
AMER 101: Intro to African American Studies
This course provides an overview of African American history and culture. Topics include major events, persons, and issues spanning the period from the African heritage to contemporary times. Students survey the evolution of African American expressive culture in music, literature, film, art, and dance. The course includes lectures, discussions, and video presentations. (This course satisfies Humanities and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: AFAM 110
AMER 110: Introduction to American Studies
Have Americans always shared a common culture, or do the differences between us outweigh what unites us? In this introduction to the field of American Studies, we will explore key debates about what it means to be American, specially the impact of gender, race, ethnicity, and class on definitions of American identity, whether singular or collective. We will study mainly historical, political, and literary texts, especially first-person, nonfiction texts like letters, speeches, essays, and autobiographies in verse and prose. Students will also get a taste of the multidisciplinary nature of American Studies through film, music, dance, creative research projects, and guest speakers. (This course satisfies Humanities and Domestic Pluralism.)
AMER 119: Introduction to American Politics
Origins of the American political system, basic institutions, political parties and interest groups, and evolution of constitutional interpretation. (This course satisfies Social Science.)
cross listed: POLS 120
AMER 175: Introduction to Film Studies
This course addresses basic topics in cinema studies, including: cinema technique, film production style, the basic language of film criticism, genres of cinema, movements from the history of cinema, and film criticism. Many topics are addressed through careful analysis of particularly important and representative films and directors. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Humanities and Writing Intensive.)
cross listed: CINE 175
AMER 200: Topics: American Spaces
(Spring 2024 Topic: American Spaces.) In the course of one day, we might wake up in our own bedrooms, eat breakfast in shared kitchens, ride a public train, work in office cubicles, spend lunch hour in a museum, jog along the lakefront, shop in a neighborhood grocery, and attend a live baseball game. In this course we will look at just such a variety of different American spaces: private and public, small and large, inside and outside, crowded and empty. Our vast continent's spaces, from densely populated cities to sprawling suburban homes, have been shaped by and shape American culture and values. We will evaluate architecture, public memorials and monuments, playgrounds, shops and offices, and other places in considering how space reflects American experiences. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Humanities and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: AMER 480
AMER 201: Psychology of Prejudice
In this course we will explore psychological approaches to understanding stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination--the psychology of prejudice, for short. We will examine research and theory on topics such as historical changes in the nature of intergroup attitudes; the prevalence of prejudice in the U.S. today; the impact of stereotyping and discrimination on members of stigmatized groups; likely causes of prejudice; the psychological processes underlying different forms of prejudice (e.g., based on race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, ability, or appearance); and methods of combating prejudice, encouraging acceptance of diversity, and improving intergroup relations. (This course satisfies Social Science and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: PSYC 205, AFAM 205
AMER 202: Grateful Dead and American Culture
More than fifty years after the band's founding, the Grateful Dead looms larger than ever. From Haight-Ashbury acid-testers to visionary entrepreneurs, the band that grew up and out of the revolutions of the tumultuous 1960s found a way to mix everything from roots music to free jazz to rock into an "endless tour" that put them in the Fortune 500. The Grateful Dead provided a cultural soundtrack for not only the 1960s, but also the paranoia of the Watergate years, the Reagan-soaked 1980s, and on to the jam-band present. This course will focus on the band's performance of authentic "Americanness" throughout its half century run. We'll listen to their music, and also to their fans, enthusiasts, and scholars. We'll understand the various subcultures that separate the sixties and now, and in doing so, offer answers to this key question: Why do the Dead survive? (Elective for English, Theater, and Music) (This course satisfies Humanities.)
cross listed: THTR 206, ENGL 251, MUSC 222
AMER 203: Early American Literature
A survey of early American literature including Native American oral stories and trickster tales, Puritan literature, Smith and Pocahontas accounts, captivity narratives, voices of nationalism, early slave narratives, and women's letters. (This course satisfies Humanities.)
cross listed: ENGL 203
AMER 204: Diverse Voices 19th-c U.S. Lit
(Diverse Voices of Nineteenth-Century United States Literature) Works of representative writers: Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Thoreau, Emerson, Whitman, Dickinson, and Twain. Topics of discussion include Emerson's influence on U.S. culture, developments in literary form, and themes of U.S. community and nature. (This course satisfies Humanities and Writing Intensive.)
cross listed: ENGL 204
AMER 205: Diverse Voices 20th-c U.S. Lit
(Diverse Voices of Twentieth-Century United States Literature) Works of diverse writers: Baldwin, Eliot, Hurston, and Frost. Topics of discussion include major traditions and schools of U.S. literature: realism, modernism, naturalism as they address questions of modernity. (This course satisfies Humanities and Writing Intensive.)
cross listed: ENGL 205
AMER 206: U.S. Environmental Literature
(United States Environmental Literature) An historically organized survey of the various rhetoric through which nature has been imagined by writers from the Puritans to contemporaries: the Calvinist fallen landscape, the rational continent of the American Enlightenment, conservation and 'wise use,' preservation and biodiversity. (This course satisfies Humanities.)
cross listed: ENGL 206, ES 206
AMER 208: Archaeological Field School
Archaeological Field Methods introduces students to the discipline of archaeology, with an emphasis on fieldwork and excavation. Students will serve as the field crew on an archaeological dig in Chicago, with lectures, readings, workshops, and field trips providing the theoretical and historical context for the archaeological methods. Students will learn excavation, recording, laboratory and analytical techniques via some traditional coursework, but most significantly, through participation. Students will have the opportunity to experiment with these techniques, discuss the implications of their findings, and compare them with the research and ideas of professional archaeologists. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Experiential Learning and Social Science.)
cross listed: SOAN 205
AMER 209: Baseball in Chicago
America's favorite pastime runs strong in Chicago. From the infamous 1919 "Black Sox" Scandal to Wrigley Field's recent renovations, this is a sport that inspires lifelong loyalties and city-wide rivalries. This course will use a methodological framework to cover everything from from graft to greatness, as we achieve a longitudinal appreciation of baseball's cultural import. Through the lens of baseball we will view Chicago's past and possible future, and we will inquire as to how a variety of academic disciplines, including history, sociology, anthropology, economics, politics, and religion help to illuminate our understanding of America's national (and Chicago's local) pastime. No prerequisites.
AMER 210: Empire, Slavery, Freedom: Early US
(Empire, Slavery, Freedom: Early United States) What were the origins and foundations of the United States? This course follows the transformation of North America and the emergence of the United States as an independent republic from the seventeenth century to the greatest crisis of the new nation, the Civil War and Reconstruction. Connecting primary sources to major works of historical interpretation, it examines the foundations of the United States by tracing the political, economic, and social underpinnings of historical change. Our exploration of this history will revolve around three key themes: land, labor, and territorial conquest and empire. (This course satisfies Humanities and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: HIST 200
AMER 211: Rights & Reactions: Modern US聽Hist.
(Inequity, Rights, Reaction: Modern United States) This course examines the major developments in U.S. history from Reconstruction to the current American political and social landscape. We explore the rise of a burgeoning capitalist economy, the rapidly changing role of government in American society, the rise of the U.S. as an imperial power, and political and social movements that redrew the boundaries of inclusion in American democracy along class, gender, and racial lines. By the mid-twentieth century, a powerful labor movement gained new rights for workers, the Civil Rights Movement overthrew the Jim Crow order, and feminism challenged established gender roles. These challenges to the status quo, however, unleashed a powerful conservative reaction. A central theme of the course is inequality: we explore both the egalitarian movements that reduced social inequality in the mid-twentieth century, as well as the renewed growth of inequality in the last forty years. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Domestic Pluralism and Writing Intensive.)
cross listed: HIST 201
AMER 212: Islam in America
Muslims have lived in America since at least the early 19th century, and the U.S. is currently home to approximately 3.45 million Muslims. This course explores the origins and history of Muslims living in the US today. Studying the history of African American, immigrant, and convert communities, we address issues of identity, religious practice, integration, and assimilation. The course also examines such contemporary topics as the diversity within religious interpretations and views of Muslim communities, including perceptions of extremism and Islamophobia. Participants look at trends in Muslim-American culture and lifestyle, politics, and gender relations as seen in contemporary social media. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Humanities and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: RELG 225, AFAM 225, ISLM 225
AMER 213: Ritual in Contemporary America
This course examines how ceremonies, festivals and other performative events enrich and define community. This study of ritual may include street fairs, parades, weddings, funerals, feasts and fasts as well as other public and private behaviors that comprise the diversity of American ritual life. Our course shall explore ritual as it occurs in many of the ethnic, racial, subcultural and countercultural communities in Chicago. We will investigate and attempt to understand both the invention and re-invention of community and personal identity through ritual action. Students should anticipate frequent field trips. (This course satisfies Social Science and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: SOAN 275, THTR 235
AMER 215: Archaeological Field Methods
Archaeological Field Methods introduces students to the discipline of archaeology, with an emphasis on fieldwork and excavation. Students will serve as the field crew on an archaeological dig in 91社区, with lectures, readings, workshops, and field trips providing the theoretical and historical context for the archaeological methods. Students will learn excavation, recording, laboratory and analytical techniques via some traditional coursework, but most significantly, through participation. Students will have the opportunity to experiment with these techniques, discuss the implications of their findings, and compare them with the research and ideas of professional archaeologists. Prerequisite: SOAN 110 or equivalent. Corequisite: This course has an additional weekly lab session (2 hrs). Not open to students who have taken SOAN 205. (This course satisfies Experiential Learning and Social Science.)
cross listed: SOAN 215
AMER 216: African American Literature I
This course is an introduction to the writings of African-Americans before the Civil War. These diverse documents tell tales of faith, perseverance, rebellion, suffering, freedom, independence, cunning, and patriotism that are an integral part of the American literary canon. We read a collection of classics together, compare and contrast the voices represented, and consider the diversity of responses to finding oneself in chains in one of the most brutal forms of chattel slavery the world has ever known. Voices studied include Douglass, Wheatley, Jacobs, Brown, Wilson, Walker, Turner, and Thurman. (This course satisfies Domestic Pluralism and Writing Intensive.)
cross listed: ENGL 216, AFAM 216
AMER 217: African American Literature II
What does it mean to be a Problem? This course is a sister course to African-American Literature I, and will cover African-American literature written after the American Civil War. In this part of the one-year survey, we examine narrative attempts by African-American authors to define blackness and the black experience on their own terms in the period before, during, and after the Harlem Renaissance. We read a collection of classics together, compare and contrast the voices represented, and consider the development of African American literary self-representation in the century following Emancipation. Voices studied include Wells, Washington, Hughes, Johnson, Baldwin, and Morrison. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Domestic Pluralism and Writing Intensive.)
cross listed: ENGL 217, AFAM 217
AMER 219: American Art
The visual arts in North America, covering painting, sculpture, architecture, and the applied domestic arts, from the Colonial period to the present. (This course satisfies Domestic Pluralism and Writing Intensive.)
cross listed: ARTH 219
AMER 220: Religion and Politics in the USA
This course focuses on the ways religion has been a source of political division and unity in America. Polls indicate that America is, by far, the most religious of industrial democracies and that our contentious political debates are, in large part, due to the religious dimensions of morally evocative issues like abortion and gay marriage, and the firm positions of such constituencies as the Christian Right and new Religious Left. Historically, public debates concerning abolition, suffrage and temperance drew on scholarly and legal interpretations of the Constitutional promise of both religious freedom and the separation of church and state. We will examine the role of religion in the founding of the American republic, and in contemporary political movements such as Black Lives Matter, the Federation for Immigration Reform, 21st century civil rights organizations with concerns ranging from prison reform to the environment, and the 2020 U.S. Presidential election. . (This course satisfies Humanities and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: RELG 236, POLS 236
AMER 221: The Presidency
The president is the symbolic leader of the federal government but, compared to Congress, the framers of the U.S. Constitution intended the executive to be the weaker branch of the national government. This course examines the growth and accumulation of presidential power and the implications of a strong executive for domestic politics and America's foreign relations. It also considers relations between the institution of the presidency and the courts, the media, and the people. (This course satisfies Social Science.)
cross listed: POLS 221
AMER 222: Congress
A glance at the enumerated powers granted the legislative branch under the U.S. Constitution suggests Congress is the strongest of the three branches of the national government. Yet the power of Congress is divided between two chambers, and the vast majority of legislation proposed in either chamber never becomes law. Congress is supposed to represent the interests of the people of the various states - and yet its public standing is nowadays at an historic low. This course examines the basic operations, structure, power dynamics, and politics of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. It also considers the rivalry and relationship between Congress and the President. (This course satisfies Social Science.)
cross listed: POLS 222
AMER 224: Literature of the Vietnam War
This course examines the Vietnam War as refracted through various literary genres. The readings for the course include Graham Greene's The Quiet American, Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, and Truong Nhu Tang's Vietcong Memoir. (This course satisfies Humanities and Global Perspective.)
cross listed: ENGL 224, ASIA 224
AMER 225: Mass Media and US Politics
An analysis of the influence of the mass media on American political institutions and American attitudes. Topics include First Amendment issues, political campaigns, political movements, public opinion, advertising, and entertainment. (This course satisfies Social Science.)
cross listed: POLS 224
AMER 227: History of Jazz
Principal styles of representative jazz musicians; the roots (including blues and ragtime); jazz in New Orleans and Chicago; and big band, swing, bop, and fusion. No prerequisite. (Cross-listed as American Studies 227. ) (This course satisfies Humanities and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: MUSC 227, AFAM 227
AMER 228: Women Writing Women
This course surveys selected women writers, in diverse genres past and present, with a focus on American women writers in the 20th and 21st centuries. As we read selected literary texts, we explore how they "write women," in other words, how they deconstruct and reinvent the meanings of "woman" in their work. (This course satisfies Domestic Pluralism and Writing Intensive.)
cross listed: ENGL 228, GSWS 228
AMER 229: Historic Artifact Analysis
(Historic Artifact Analysis: Artifacts of Modernity.) This hands-on course introduces archaeological laboratory methods and accompanying archival and research-based techniques for interpreting these "artifacts of modernity": excavated materials from ongoing archaeological projects of historic-period sites in the Chicago area. Students will be exposed to various stages of artifact processing on a collection from a recently excavated site, including: washing, sorting, identification, data entry, analysis, report preparation, and curation. Students will learn how to identify 19th- and 20th-century artifacts--American, British, French, Japanese, Chinese, and other--representing a broad range of materials from the daily lives of past peoples/past societies. The artifact analysis will allow students to develop skills useful for museum, laboratory, and/or archaeological settings. Prerequisite: SOAN 205 OR SOAN 215 OR SOAN 220 OR consent of instructor. Corequisite: This course has an additional weekly lab session (2 hrs). (This course satisfies Social Science.)
cross listed: SOAN 225
AMER 230: African American Religions
This course is an exploration of the rich diversity of African American religions from the colonial period to the present. Attention will be given to key figures, institutional expressions as well as significant movements in North America, the Caribbean and broader Black Atlantic. Major themes include African traditions in American religions, slavery and religion, redemptive suffering, sacred music, social protest, Black Nationalism, African American women and religion, religion in hip hop and secularity in black religious literature. Students will learn about the ways these themes have often served both as unique contributions to and critiques of America? political establishment and social landscape. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Humanities and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: RELG 237, AFAM 237
AMER 232: Religion and Capitalism
Scholars have long studied the relationship between religion and capitalism. Sociologist Max Weber, one of the founders of the field of religious studies, linked Protestant Christianity and the rise of the "spirit of capitalism." This course considers the deep connections between religion, economics, and business. Topics include Islamic banking, American Protestantism and the Gospel of Wealth, Christian socialism, religion and business ethics, the commodification of mindfulness, and capitalism-as-religion. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Humanities and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: RELG 232
AMER 234: Witches, Preachers, and Mystics
In this course students consider the historical development of religion in the United States of America. We study topics such as the contact between Native Americans and European settlers, religion and the founding of the Republic, religious revivals and awakenings, immigration and religion, the rise of new forms of religion in the United States, responses to scientific and technological developments, and the entangling of religion and politics. The course covers religion from the colonial period to the dawn of the twentieth century. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Humanities and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: RELG 234, HIST 234
AMER 235: Racism and Ethnic Relations
This course surveys of the development of the theories of race and ethnic relations at the individual, group, and cultural levels. Students will examine the impact these theories have had on social policy. The course focuses on the experience of Asians, Latinos and African Americans with special attention given to institutional expressions of oppression in American Society. (This course satisfies Social Science and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: SOAN 235, AFAM 235
AMER 237: Philosophy & 1960s Popular Culture
This course offers a demanding tour through the intellectual milieu of the 1960s in the United States. We will read philosophical works, social theory, popular and literary fiction, and occasional pieces of various sorts (speeches, journalism, etc.); we will watch films and television shows; we will listen to music: all with the goal of figuring out not just how people in the 1960s were thinking, but also of understanding how philosophy and popular culture reflected and refracted each other during a particular - and particularly volatile - historical moment. (This course satisfies Humanities.)
cross listed: PHIL 235
AMER 238: Religion and Place in Chicago
This course looks to the way that religious communities have created and used different spaces in the greater Chicago area, paying attention to Chicago as a specifically urban place. We focus on both neighborhoods and sacred spaces themselves, including the architectural forms of these spaces. We examine the effects of immigration and urban change on neighborhoods and congregations. This course covers a diverse range of historical and living communities, drawing from the tools of religious studies, history, urban studies, and architectural studies. It also includes numerous field site visits, with much of the instruction taking place on location in Chicago's sacred spaces. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: RELG 238
AMER 240: Public History
Public history is the practice of history outside the academy. Public historians record and preserve evidence of the past in many formats, analyzing and interpreting their findings to general and specialized audiences beyond the traditional classroom setting. This course will survey the theory and practice of various professional historical specialties - ranging from archival administration to historic site management, museum exhibitions, and historical reenactment. Institutional constraints, audience development, and conflicts between history and public memory will be major thematic issues. Field trips to institutions and sites in the Chicago metropolitan area.
cross listed: HIST 285
AMER 241: United States Foreign Policy
Students in this course explore the domestic and international factors that have shaped the foreign policy of the United States since the end of the Cold War, and especially over the past decade. Students study the major ideologies shaping contemporary debates about the national interests of the U.S. and the country's role abroad, the models of foreign policy decision-making, and the workings of core policymaking institutions - the White House, executive branch departments and agencies, Congress, and civil society - on matters of war and peace, trade and foreign assistance, human rights and humanitarian affairs, and the environment. (This course satisfies Social Science.)
cross listed: POLS 240, IREL 240
AMER 242: Influence and Interest Groups
Organized interests shape American campaigns and candidates, citizen attitudes, and policy at every level of government; the power of these groups lies in their numbers, their dollars and their organization. This course introduces the intellectual traditions and debates that have characterized the study of interest groups and their influence on public policy, political opinion, and political actors, and will compare theory to practice in the American political experience. (This course satisfies Social Science.)
cross listed: POLS 225
AMER 245: Indigenous Arts of the Americas
This course introduces the art and material culture of the Indigenous Americas from pre-contact to the present. We consider how Indigenous cultural production, including architecture, painting, basketry, sculpture, ceramics, textiles, photography, performance, and new media operate within and outside of the category of "art" in conjunction with diverse traditions and world views. By centering Indigenous voices and perspectives, this course emphasizes how different forms of Indigenous art across time represent continuous, dynamic, and lived traditions which have preserved culture and resisted domination in the face of colonial conflict, assimilation, and oppression. Thematic topics include the material expression of cosmologies, belief systems, and environmental relations; the role of ethnography in the history of Indigenous art; the politics of museum display and ownership; and the decolonization of institutions and (art) histories in conjunction with visual sovereignty. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Humanities and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: ARTH 245
AMER 250: American Civil War
The origins of the war in the antagonistic development of the free North and slave South; Lincoln and the Republican Party; Black activity in the North and South; the war; the transforming and gendered aspects of fighting the war; Reconstruction; the impact of the war on American development. (This course satisfies Humanities and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: HIST 226
AMER 251: Rhetorical History of U.S.
A historical survey of rhetorical artifacts focusing on how interested parties use discourse to establish, maintain or revive power. (This course satisfies Humanities.)
cross listed: COMM 251
AMER 253: American Revolution
To quote the historian Gordon Wood, the American Revolution 'was the most radical and far-reaching event in American history.' In this course we examine this momentous Founding Age of the United States, with a special focus on the ideas that shaped this period. We explore the growing estrangement of American colonies from Great Britain and the culmination of this process in the Declaration of Independence. Then we look at the process and controversies involved in creating a new nation, and the United States government.
cross listed: HIST 222
AMER 259: American Constitutional Law
This course examines the major constitutional themes of judicial review, federalism, separation of powers, the commerce power, due process rights, and equal protection under the law. Students read U.S. Supreme Court cases in order to analyze and understand the allocation of government power. Prerequisite: POLS 120 or permission of instructor. (This course satisfies Social Science.)
cross listed: POLS 261
AMER 260: American Political Thought
This course surveys American political thought from the colonial era to the present. Readings will be drawn nearly exclusively from primary source material, including the writings of philosophers, novelists, activists, and politicians. We will pay careful attention to conceptualizations of freedom, equality, constitutionalism, and legitimate resistance, particularly as they relate to questions of national identity. There are no prerequisites, but either POLS 120 or a previous course in political theory is encouraged. (This course satisfies Humanities and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: POLS 250
AMER 261: U.S. Environmental History
(United States Environmental History) Introduction to the historical study of the relationship of people in the present-day United States with the natural world. Examination of the ways that 'natural' forces helped shape U.S. history; the ways human beings have altered and interacted with nature over time; and the ways cultural, philosophical, scientific, and political attitudes towards the environment have changed in the course of U.S. history, pre-history to the present. (This course satisfies Humanities and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: HIST 232, ES 260
AMER 263: US Cities
This course is an introduction to the political, economic, and social forces that have shaped US cities in the last 200 years, with a focus on the city of Chicago. We explore the growth of urban economies, migration and immigration into cities, racial/ethnic segregation and displacement, and struggles over power and resources. Students are introduced to multiple disciplinary approaches to understanding US cities, and visit relevant sites in Chicago. This course is the core course for the Urban Studies minor program. (This course satisfies Social Science and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: HIST 235, ES 263, URBS 120
AMER 264: History of Rock and Roll
This course covers the history of rock music from its origins in the blues and American country music to the diverse rock styles heard today. Analysis of performances and compositional styles of several familiar rock stars is included. Social and political influences will be addressed, but the focus will be on the music itself. No prerequisite. (This course satisfies Humanities and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: MUSC 264
AMER 265: American Jurisprudence
(Jurisprudence: Philosophy of American Law) Students examine the ways Americans have conceptualized and theorized about the law from the time of the Founding to the present day. Topics to be covered include natural law versus legal positivism; the relationships among law, politics, economics, and society; and debates over constitutional and statutory interpretation, the proper role of judges in a democracy, and the relationship between domestic and international law. There are no prerequisites, but either POLS 120 or a previous course in political theory is encouraged. (This course satisfies Humanities and Writing Intensive.)
cross listed: POLS 262
AMER 266: Music in Film
Music has played an important part of the movie-going experience since the beginnings of the film industry in the 1890's, and the blending of music and drama has deeper roots still. This course charts the development of music and sound in film, from these deep roots through the mis-named silent-movie era and on to the great film composers of the twentieth century and today. Students will learn the fundamental elements of a film score, investigate how a film composer works, and develop a vocabulary for describing and assessing film music. No prior knowledge of music or film history is necessary. (This course satisfies Humanities.)
cross listed: MUSC 266, CINE 266
AMER 268: The Judiciary
This is an examination of the federal court system, focusing on the United States Supreme Court. Students will study the constitutional beginnings of the federal judicial branch and its position vis a vis the two other branches of government. We will examine the history of the United States Supreme Court, the politics of presidential appointment of judges, selected case law over the course of the Court's history and its impact, personalities on the Court and the Court's decision-making process. (This course satisfies Social Science.)
cross listed: POLS 266
AMER 269: American Philosophy
American philosophy has a rich and diverse history. With the sometimes conflicting commitments to principles and pragmatism as a focus, the course will investigate topics such as (1) early debates over American political institutions: human rights and democracy versus aristocratic leanings to ensure good government; (2) eighteenth-century idealism (e.g., Royce) and transcendentalism (focusing on moral principle, as reflected in Emerson and Thoreau); (3) American pragmatism in its various forms (Pierce, James, and Dewey); (4) Whitehead and process philosophy; and (5) contemporary manifestations (e.g., human rights, environmental concerns, technology, and struggles with diversity).
cross listed: PHIL 270
AMER 270: Hist of Educ in American Society
(History of Education in American Society.) Two hundred years ago, the vast majority of men and women in the United States only attended a formal school for a few years at most. Many of the functions we associate with schooling - the transmission of knowledge, socialization, and job preparation - took place in the home, community, or workplace. The story of the 19th and 20th century is the story of the expansion of education into a central experience in the lives of Americans, delivered in a vast network of educational institutions. By moving thematically through the roles of both K-12 and higher education, this course will examine the processes through which a wide array of social functions moved into the school system, and the modern U.S. educational system was forged. A central course theme will be how established forms of social inequality and exclusion were incorporated into and then reproduced by an expanding system of education. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Humanities and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: HIST 239, EDUC 239
AMER 271: The New American Nation, 1787-1848
This course covers America's 'Founding Period' from the end of the Revolution through the conclusion of the U.S.-Mexican War. During this time, Americans gradually came to see themselves as part of a unified nation with its own distinctive culture and ideals, though this outcome was far from certain. Beginning with the Constitution and the uncertain legacies of the American Revolution, the course considers the fundamental political, social, and cultural problems that could easily have torn the young Republic apart. Topics and themes include the problems of democracy and popular politics, the limits of citizenship, the formation of a distinctive American culture, the place of America on the world stage, the transition to capitalism and the 'market revolution,' and the figure of Andrew Jackson. Prerequisites: No prerequisites. Corequisites: No corequisites.
cross listed: HIST 224
AMER 272: Disney, Music and Culture
Walt Disney created an empire both influencing and being influenced by society and culture since its inception. Disney films, music, propaganda, media, business practices, and merchandise have been imbedded into popular culture. Disney, Music, and Culture is an introduction to the history and content of the Disney Corporation, the films and soundtracks, and a critical look at them through the lenses of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and disability, among others. A major element of this course will involve viewing Disney films and analyzing critically based on the lenses mentioned above. The evolution of how Disney utilized music will also be examined at length. (This course satisfies Domestic Pluralism and Writing Intensive.)
cross listed: MUSC 267
AMER 273: American Music
Music in the United States from the time of the pilgrims to the present day. The course includes art music, folk music, religious music, and jazz. Prerequisite: Any music class or consent of the instructor.
cross listed: MUSC 265
AMER 274: Race and Criminal Justice
This course will examine the systemic racial injustices inherent in American criminal jurisprudence from police interaction to trial and sentencing, incarceration, and supervised release. Students will study how racial injustice continues to pervade the American criminal justice system despite the constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process. How do so many players, from police officers to judges and juries, fail to protect against racial injustice? Why do courts, when confronted with allegations or proof of racially motivated police misconduct, overwhelmingly cite "harmless error" doctrine? To attempt to answer these complicated questions, students will learn legal criminal procedure, study 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th amendment case law, and have an opportunity to listen to and speak with a variety of professionals in the criminal justice field. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Social Science and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: POLS 270, AFAM 270
AMER 275: Introduction to Film Studies
Cinema technique, production, language, style, genres, movements, and criticism, through the analysis of particularly important and representative films and directors.
cross listed: COMM 275
AMER 276: Inequality and Reform: US 1865-1920
This course offers an introduction to the political, social, and cultural history of the United States between Reconstruction and World War I, as the country rebuilt and reimagined itself in the wake of the Civil War and the end of slavery. We will pay special attention to new patterns of inequality in the contexts of industrialization, urbanization, and immigration. We will also examine the complexities and contradictions of progressive reform movements, including efforts to improve housing, sanitation, and labor conditions. We will look at how those transformations affected people's everyday lives and conceptions of American citizenship, and we will explore the emergence of popular mass culture through photography, art, architecture, advertising, and films. (This course satisfies Humanities and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: HIST 228
AMER 277: Immigration Law and Policy
This course provides an in-depth understanding of our current U.S. immigration regime using a multi-disciplinary approach. It explores the range of policy issues affecting today's immigrants and nonimmigrants. The course examines the fundamental principles of immigration law in the context of competing interests among Congress, the President, and the Judiciary that shape this nation's current immigration policy and affect reform efforts. Additionally, the course focuses on the human rights aspect of immigration, including issues related to the treatment of undocumented immigrants, human trafficking, and the system's response to the recent influx of refugees and asylum seekers. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Social Science and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: POLS 265
AMER 284: Music of Protest
Does a song have the power to alter history? Can music change the path of the politics of a nation? Throughout the history of the United States, music has played an important role in social, political, and cultural change. In this course, we focus on important moments of musical protest in Popular music in the United States, from the Civil War to the present day. We examine a range of issues, with a strong focus on Civil War-era abolition songs, music of the Civil Rights era, anti-War songs from the Vietnam and Iraq conflicts, and contemporary music that addresses police brutality and systemic racism. Additional topics include labor songs, and songs that protest environmental destruction. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Humanities and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: MUSC 284, AFAM 284
AMER 286: The American Graphic Novel
(Reading the American Graphic Novel) This course will examine the theory and practice of the graphic novel in America in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The serial visual narrative, also known as the graphic novel or comic book, has had a formative influence on American literary and popular culture. Not all comics and graphic novels are written about superheroes; the form has proven flexible enough to encompass such genres as the memoir, historical narrative, and journalism. This course will have a particular focus on the work of such writer-artists as Marjane Satrapi, Alan Moore, Art Spiegelman, Alison Bechdel, Scott McCloud, Joe Sacco, Harvey Pekar, Robert Crumb, Chris Ware, John Lewis, Daniel Clowes, and Lynda Barry. Students will read and discuss these graphic narratives with an emphasis on how they make difficult or marginal content accessible to readers, and will have the opportunity to try their own hands at writing comics or a short graphic novel. No prerequisites. (This course satisfies Humanities and Writing Intensive.)
cross listed: ENGL 266
AMER 308: Sport and Spectacle Modern America
This course considers the history of sport as mass entertainment from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. More than an escape from everyday life, the games Americans have played and watched have been thick with social, cultural, and political meanings. Athletes and spectators alike have defined and challenged ideas of gender, race, and the body; they have worked out class antagonisms, expressed national identities, and promoted social change. Topics include: the construction of race; definitions of manhood and womanhood; industrialization, urbanization, and the rise of modern spectator sport; media and mass spectacle; fitness and athletic reform movements; collegiate athletics; sports figures and social change. Prerequisite: History 200 or 201, or permission of the instructor.
cross listed: HIST 308
AMER 312: Black Metropolis
(Black Metropolis: A Study of Black Life in Chicago). This course is a study of race and urban life in Chicago. From the founding of Chicago by a black man to the participation of blacks in the rebuilding of the city following the Great Chicago fire, and into an exploration of Bronzeville, 'a city within a city,' this course will highlight blacks and their contributions to this great city. Study of landmark texts, documentaries, novels, and photography, along with at least one field trip to the Chicago area, will reveal the impact of the Great Migration on the city; contributions of talented musicians, writers, and photographers involved in the Chicago Renaissance; and the origins of the famous black Chicago newspaper, the Chicago Defender, including its regular column by Langston Hughes. .
cross listed: AFAM 312, ENGL 312
AMER 315: US Catholic Immigrant Experience
From the Irish who arrived before the Civil War to the Mexicans and Vietnamese who have come recently, the Catholic experience in the US has been a continuing story of immigration. This course examines how succeeding immigrant groups have practiced and lived their Catholic faith in different times and places. Religion cannot be separated from the larger social and economic context in which it is embedded, so the course will also pay attention to the ways in which the social and economic conditions that greeted the immigrants on their arrival shaped how they went about praying and working. Finally, the changing leadership of the Catholic Church will be taken into account, since it provided the ecclesiastical framework for the new Catholic arrivals. Prerequisite: HIST 120 or HIST 121 or permission of the instructor. .
cross listed: HIST 315, RELG 315
AMER 319: Protest and Police in U.S. History
This course examines historical instances of policing, inequality, and protest, including mobs in the American Revolution, abolitionist direct actions, the terror of the Klu Klux Klan, sit-ins against Jim Crow, protest against military action, and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Throughout U.S. history, Americans have been committed both to protest and disruption in order to advance their causes, and to stability, security, and the maintenance of order. Despite widespread fears about disorder and crime today, Americans in the past were far more violent. In this course, we will trace how ordinary people came together to challenge authority, and how those with power built state structures that could legitimately use violence. We will see how policing was shaped by fears of newly- arrived immigrants, the demands of a slave economy, and entrenched racism. We will study the intersecting histories of race, inequality, and state power across the American past. Students will develop a major research project on a particular historical instance of policing, inequality, and protest. Prerequisite: HIST 200 or HIST 201 or permission of instructor. (This course satisfies Domestic Pluralism and Writing Intensive.)
cross listed: HIST 319, AFAM 319
AMER 321: Photo and its Cultural Effects
(Photography and its Cultural Effects: The Evolution of a Medium and Questions of Representation, 1860-1900.) How did photography change how people understood the world during the US Civil War and beyond? How did it capture the war, the landscape, and the people of the US? Of the world? How did people see and understand photographs? Who did it leave out and how? Beginning with the US Civil War, this class will explore photographs between 1860 and 1900 as well as their cultural use and circulation. We will examine the development of photography as well as the understanding of photographs as "real" depictions through images of the Civil War and other concurrent and later kinds of photographs including portraits, landscape photographs, and the racialized lynching photographs of the end of century. This class will also consider the ways that photography presented a mediated representation of race and diversity, and even developed as a tool of power and privilege through restricted representation and access for those less fortunate. Prerequisite: At least one art history class or consent of instructor. (This course satisfies Humanities and Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: ARTH 321
AMER 322: US Elections and Political Parties
In this course, students examine the nomination procedures and election of political candidates in the United States, with a focus on significant historical campaigns, both congressional and presidential. We also study the role and development of political parties. The influences of interest groups, race, gender, voting behavior, money, and the media on our electoral process are also considered. Prerequisite: POLS 120 or the consent of instructor. (This course satisfies Social Science and Writing Intensive.)
cross listed: POLS 322
AMER 328: Topics in American Politics
AMER 340: History and the Moving Image
This course explores the role of moving images (film, television, internet) in understanding history as both collective process and contested interpretation. The course will integrate a discussion of recent historical methodologies concerning moving images, with examples from a variety of forms, including historical epics, documentaries, propaganda, television series, literary adaptations, and biographies. Special emphasis will be placed upon the ambiguities of historical context, including the time of production, the period depicted, and changing audiences over time. Topics include: 'Feudal Codes of Conduct in Democratic Societies,' 'Film as Foundation Myth for Totalitarian Ideologies' and 'Situation Comedy of the 1970s as Social History.' Prerequisite: Two history courses or permission of the instructor.
cross listed: HIST 360, CINE 360
AMER 348: Museums and Exhibitions
History is an academic discipline but it also has a public face. 'Public history,' through museum exhibitions, historical sites, the Internet, and other venues, is a growing career field. Students in this class will learn the communication tools necessary to produce an engaging and intellectually sound exhibit, including the techniques of oral history. The class will develop a concept, research in local archives, write label copy, and design and install an exhibit. We may use audio, video, photography, and the web to tell our story. The exhibition will be presented in the Sonnenschein Gallery or a local history museum, such as the Lake County Museum. The course will include field studies to Chicago-area history museums. Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing, or permission of the instructor.
cross listed: HIST 368
AMER 351: John Waters and American Culture
American film director John Waters will visit 91社区 as the keynote speaker for the 7th Annual 91社区 Literary Festival during Spring 2011. His films, from early transgressive works such as Pink Flamingos (1972) through the commercial success of Hairspray (1988) and its follow-up Broadway musical, explore the American experience of trash culture through the lens of his hometown, Baltimore, MD. Students will examine the making of an American icon by interrogating Waters' engagement with contemporary popular culture, humor, and kitsch/trash culture. More broadly, this class will address how Waters' work may best be interpreted through queer theory, a perspective that examines the dualities of identity and performance, the natural, neutral and social constructions of gender, and how normative standards of sexuality and gender change over time.
cross listed: COMM 350
AMER 355: Immigration in U.S. History
The United States has had exceptionally high levels of immigration and internal geographic mobility from the colonial period to the present. Placing the geographic area that would become the United States into a global frame, this course explores patterns of European, Asian, and Latin American migration into a land already inhabited by mobile indigenous populations, the forced migration of enslaved Africans to the U.S. and later migration of black citizens northward, as well as the movement of migrants over the long-contested (and moving) U.S.-Mexico border. We learn about the politics of migration, including the long history of anti-immigrant nativism and xenophobia in the United States, as well as the role of migrants in shaping major U.S. social and political movements. We also examine how ethnic, racial, and national identities - including "American"-are not fixed categories, but rather constructed and reconstructed over time. (This course satisfies Domestic Pluralism and Speaking Intensive.)
cross listed: HIST 312
AMER 358: U.S. Enviro in Great Depression
(U.S. Environmental Culture in the Great Depression). This course explores the many ways people in the United States understood and shaped their diverse local environments during the crisis of the Great Depression. Although the Dust Bowl is perhaps the most iconic of these environmental upheavals during the 1930s, this course examines diverse geographical regions: from the Appalachian mountains to the (de)forested Upper Midwest, from the agricultural South to the Dust Bowl plains and the water-starved West. In each region, interdisciplinary approaches (including literary, historical, sociological, and visual media studies methods) trace the impacts of economic turmoil on the environment and the people who depended on it for their livelihoods, as well as the way economic disaster paved the way for the government's unprecedented intervention in environmental matters. This course fosters critical examination of U.S. subcultures during the Great Depression, including African-Americans, the Southern poor, the Range culture of the American West, and the immigrant experience. Prerequisite: Any 200-level ES course or permission of instructor.
cross listed: ES 358
AMER 360: The First Amendment
In this course students explore the U.S. Supreme Court's interpretation of freedoms of speech (including obscenity and libel), assembly and association, the press, and the exercise and establishment of religion. We will also examine First Amendment issues raised by regulation of the Internet and other new media. Prerequisite: POLS 120 or consent of instructor. Not open to First-Year Students.
cross listed: POLS 361
AMER 361: Civil Rights Movement
This course focuses on the origins, development, and accomplishments of the civil rights movement in post-World War II America. Particular emphasis will be given to the differences between the struggle for black equality in the south and its northern counterpart. Taught in a seminar format, the class will be both reading- and writing-intensive. Course readings and paper assignments are designed to help students develop a comparative analytical framework and to illuminate the following lines of inquiry: What caused and what sustained the civil rights movement? What changes took place within the movement over time, particularly at the level of leadership? What underlay the radicalization of the movement and what were the consequences? To what extent did the civil rights movement succeed and how do we measure that success today? Finally, how did the black civil rights movement inspire other groups and minorities in American society to organize? Prerequisite: History 200 or History 201. (This course satisfies Domestic Pluralism and Speaking Intensive.)
cross listed: HIST 306, AFAM 361
AMER 362: Love in a Time of Capitalism
Most of us are familiar with the idea that romantic love plays a different role in the contemporary world than it did at other times and the idea that love manifests in different ways across cultures. Rather than attempt a survey of all the possible manifestations of romantic love, this course aims to explore how 'love' features into our understandings of human interaction in the 21st century, particularly in the United States. We will be particularly focusing on the contemporary American notion that love and money are opposing forces. Our first goal will be to identify at least some of the tropes of love that are in current circulation. We will then explore the potential social consequences of those tropes, including the ways in which such tropes are passed on and reproduced across generations and the possibility of commodifying and 'selling' certain tropes as the 'right' way to be in love. Throughout the course, we will collect love stories, and our final task of the semester will be to compare our theoretical and media derived understandings of romantic love to its manifestations in people's lives. Prerequisites: SOAN 110 and 220 or consent of instructor. (This course satisfies Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: SOAN 362, GSWS 362
AMER 364: The Fourteenth Amendment
(The Fourteenth Amendment: Civil Rights and Equality) Students in this course examine the rulings of the United States Supreme Court in order to learn how the Fourteenth Amendment guides the government's treatment of people based on race, creed, national origin, gender, economic status and sexual orientation. State action, strict scrutiny analysis, affirmative action and voting rights are also covered. Prerequisite: POLS 120 or consent of instructor. Not open to First-Year Students. (This course satisfies Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: POLS 363
AMER 366: Civil Liberties
This course focuses on our individual liberties as addressed in the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment. Using United States Supreme Court cases, we examine the protection of our individual liberties - the meaning of equal protection and the antidiscrimination principle, expressive freedom and the First Amendment, religious liberty and church-state relations, rights of personal autonomy and privacy, criminal justice, voting rights, property rights and economic freedom. Prerequisite: POLS 120 or permission of instructor. Second year standing is also required. (This course satisfies Domestic Pluralism.)
cross listed: POLS 365
AMER 367: Environmental Apocalypse
One dominant strain of environmental imagination in the United States鈥攑articularly after World War II, a period of rapid environmental change often referred to as the anthropocene, or Great Acceleration鈥攈as been fear of imminent environmental apocalypse, which manifests itself on a spectrum from diffuse anxiety to paralyzing terror. This course explores this culture of fear through a variety of topics in postwar environmental consciousness in the U.S., including the specter of nuclear annihilation, carcinogenic chemicals, runaway population growth and food scarcity, climate change, and global pandemics. Texts and methodological approaches are literary, historical, anthropological, and sociological.
cross listed: ES 363
AMER 384: Rhetorical Presidency 2024 Election
(The Rhetorical Presidency: 2024 U.S. Presidential Election) This course examines the rhetorical nature of the office of the President of the United States. Prerequisite: Comm 255, or another 200-level Communication course approved by the Department Chair, or consent of the instructor.
cross listed: COMM 384
AMER 386: Read Popular Culture:TV Criticism
Focusing on how culturally we are both producers and products of our popular culture we will try to answer the question: 'are we, as a culture, using the potential of television wisely'?
cross listed: COMM 386
AMER 390: Internship
AMER 393: Research Project
AMER 440: Advanced Writing Seminar
An advanced course in which each student completes a Senior Writing Project (This course satisfies Creative & Performing Arts.)
cross listed: ENGL 440
AMER 478: The 21st Century World (Dis)Order
The international system of states is undergoing a power shift. Though it will remain the dominant world power for some time to come, most scholars agree that American global preeminence is waning. Yet scholars disagree about the effect of this shift on world order. Some see an effort by the United States and its closest allies to prop-up the current American liberal world order of global economic integration and cooperative security. Others envision either a 'post-American' world in which the United States and rising great powers re-negotiate the ground rules of a new liberal order, or a world in which the United States is one of a small number of great powers competing for power and influence in an illiberal world. Each of these possibilities raises compelling questions about war and peace, and cooperation and discord in twenty-first century international politics. Will this power shift jeopardize the liberal world order? Can this world order persist in the absence of American preeminence? How might the United States and its allies extend the current American world order? (This course satisfies Global Perspective and Speaking Intensive.)
cross listed: IREL 480
AMER 480: Sem: American Spaces
(Spring 2023 Topic: American Spaces.) In the course of one day, we might wake up in our own bedrooms, eat breakfast in shared kitchens, ride a public train, work in office cubicles, spend lunch hour in a museum, jog along the lakefront, shop in a neighborhood grocery, and attend a live baseball game. In this course we will look at just such a variety of different American spaces: private and public, small and large, inside and outside, crowded and empty. Our vast continent's spaces, from densely populated cities to sprawling suburban homes, have been shaped by and shape American culture and values. We will evaluate architecture, public memorials and monuments, playgrounds, shops and offices, and other places in considering how space reflects American experiences.
cross listed: AMER 200