Courses - Fall 2023
AMST101
Credit only granted for: AMST101 or AMST201.
Formerly: AMST201.
Introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of American Studies by examining concepts such as culture, identity, cultural practices, and globalization, as well as theories underlying these concepts. Engages key themes, especially constructions of difference and identity, cultures of everyday life, and America and the world.
AMST202
Cultures of Everyday Life in America
Examine the structures and patterns of everyday life in the U.S., utilizing methods such as ethnography, oral history, survey research, and textual, visual, and material cultural analysis.
AMST205
AMST262
Houses, Schools, and Prisons in American Life
This interdisciplinary course explores the role of property, discipline, and punishment in American life. By exploring the ideological underpinnings in property, discipline, and punishment and their manifestations in houses, schools, and prisons we will explore how these entities reflect American society and its values.
AMST298Q
Cross-listed with: ENGL235.
Credit only granted for: ENGL235 or AMST298Q.
Examines the poetry, prose, and theater of Latinx communities in the United States from their origins in the Spanish colonization of North America to their ongoing development in the 21st century. Considers how authors use literary form to gain insight into human experience, including mortality, religious belief, gender and sexuality, war and peace, family, language use, scientific inquiry, cultural tradition, ecology, and labor. Also studies how Latinx literary traditions have shaped and been shaped by broader currents in American literature, as well as what connections exist between Latinx literature and social and artistic developments in other parts of the world, particularly Latin America and the Caribbean. Authors may include Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, Eulalia Perez, Juan Nepomuceno Seguin, Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Jose Marti, Arthur A. Schomburg, Jesus Colon, Julia de Burgos, Cesar Chavez, Ariel Dorfman, Gloria Anzaldua, Junot Diaz, and Cristina Garcia.
AMST310
Introduction to Comparative Ethnic and Racial Studies
Cross-listed with: AAST310.
Credit only granted for: AMST310, AAST398F, AAST310, or AMST328L.
Formerly: AMST328L and AAST398F.
Introduces students to the study of race and ethnicity in the United States. The class is organized according to the following five units: (1) Introduction; (2) Key concepts; (3) Mechanisms of racial formation; (4) Prevailing myths about race; and (5) Contemporary issues related to race and ethnicity. Through readings, film clips, and presentations, we will explore how the concept of race has developed and endured over time and become familiar with key concepts, such as "race" and "intersectionality". We will attempt to better understand how race is associated with other forms of difference, such as class, gender and ethnicity. We will identify and confront the prevailing myths about race and ethnicity in the United States. Finally, we examine the ways in which contemporary issues reveal the dynamics of race and ethnicity.
AMST312
Introduction to Native American and Indigenous Studies
Credit only granted for: AMST328N, ANTH468F, RELS319N, or AMST312.
Formerly: AMST328N, ANTH468F, or RELS319N.
Key concepts and theories in Native American Studies beginning with an overview of the field and some of its foundational readings and history, then will move into an understanding of Native American identity and representation and a discussion of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination. The course will outline past and present genocidal practices that seek to eliminate Native people and Indigenous responses to those structures such as the concept of survivance, Native feminisms, and theories of Indigenous resurgence. The course seeks to move students through an understanding of past and present structures affecting Native American people in the United States and Canada and move into readings that highlight Native articulations of present and future agency. While the focus of the course is Native peoples with the United States and Canada, understanding Indigenous histories and concepts always includes a hemispheric and transnational analysis.
AMST315
Religion in American Culture
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Recommended: AMST101.
Credit only granted for: AMST315 or AMST328R.
Formerly: AMST328R.
Introduces students to the world's major religious traditions and examines how American culture informs, and is informed by, the variety of religious beliefs and practices in the U.S. This course is primarily concerned with religion as a system of meaning. The focus of the course is not on the history of religion or on analysis of religious texts, but rather on the meaning of a religion to its believers.
AMST320
Credit only granted for: AMST320 or AMST328X.
Formerly: AMST328X.
Explores the connection between film and disability through an analysis of independent and mainstream American films in various film genres. Specifically, we will consider how these film representations reflect and/or challenge the shifting social perspectives of disability over the 20th and 21st centuries. Beginning with the presentation of disability as theatrical spectacle in the traveling sideshow and early cinema, we will work our way through film history to develop an understanding of our society's complicated relationship with disability.
AMST324
Growing Up Asian American: The Asian Immigrant Family and the Second Generation
Cross-listed with: AAST394, IMMR394.
Credit only granted for: AAST394, AAST398E, AMST324, AMST328V, IMMR319G or IMMR394.
Formerly: AAST398E.
An interdisciplinary course examines the experiences of children of Asian immigrants in the U.S., focusing on intergenerational dynamics in the Asian immigrant family, their intersections with race, gender, class, sexuality, and religion, and how these shape second-generation Asian American life. Topics include identity and personhood, the model minority myth and education, work and leisure, language and communication, filiality and disownment, mental health and suicide.
AMST328C
Perspectives on Identity and Culture; Race and the Story of American Freedom
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Together, we will explore these and many other questions as we survey American history while emphasizing the ways ethnic and racial minoritieshave shaped American identity from pre-historic times through the present. By examining or re-examining American history through the lens of these and other racial and ethnic groups we will develop an understanding of key concepts and definitions such as race/class/gender;ethnic group, racial group, minority/majority; institutional racism; social construction of race versus biological construction, resistance, and change.
AMST328D
Perspectives on Identity and Culture; Detention, Deportation and Displacement
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Cross-listed with AMST328D. Credit only granted for USLT328D or AMST328D.
AMST328K
Perspectives on Identity and Culture; Gender, Labor and Racial Identities in Diaspora Communities
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Cross-listed with AASP398G. Credit only granted for AASP398G or AMST328K.
Students will be exposed to a range of interdisciplinary perspectives, theories, and methodologies for exploring the intersectionality of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and racial identities in multiple post-emancipation and modern African/Black diaspora communities. The class readings and discussions will examine the interactions and linkages between and among various African diaspora/descendant and native-born African American/Black peoples, from multiple vantage points, in different historical periods and movements in the U.S., Africa, the Caribbean, Latin American and Europe.
Students will be exposed to a range of interdisciplinary perspectives, theories, and methodologies for exploring the intersectionality of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and racial identities in multiple post-emancipation and modern African/Black diaspora communities. The class readings and discussions will examine the interactions and linkages between and among various African diaspora/descendant and native-born African American/Black peoples, from multiple vantage points, in different historical periods and movements in the U.S., Africa, the Caribbean, Latin American and Europe.
AMST328M
Perspectives on Identity and Culture; Black Baltimore in the Post Racial U.S: African American Urban Culture in the Age of Obama
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F, Aud
Cross-listed with AASP398Q. Credit only granted for AASP398Q or AMST328M.
Using the city of Baltimore as our case study and taking an interdisciplinary approach that draws from the scholarly fields of African American studies, sociology, geography, anthropology, history, and urban planning this course explores how both Blackness and anti-Blackness shape the city, its histories, its racial and cultural geography, its social movements, its political economy, and the competing visions for its future. This is an interactive course that will work to develop students capacity to understand and discuss major and minor moments in the history of Black Baltimore; understand and discuss the relationship between material conditions, racism, and urban policy; develop interdisciplinary frameworks through which to interpret and analyze the contemporary and historical conditions shaping the lived experiences of Black Baltimoreans; and analyze scholarship produced within the African American Studies tradition.
Using the city of Baltimore as our case study and taking an interdisciplinary approach that draws from the scholarly fields of African American studies, sociology, geography, anthropology, history, and urban planning this course explores how both Blackness and anti-Blackness shape the city, its histories, its racial and cultural geography, its social movements, its political economy, and the competing visions for its future. This is an interactive course that will work to develop students capacity to understand and discuss major and minor moments in the history of Black Baltimore; understand and discuss the relationship between material conditions, racism, and urban policy; develop interdisciplinary frameworks through which to interpret and analyze the contemporary and historical conditions shaping the lived experiences of Black Baltimoreans; and analyze scholarship produced within the African American Studies tradition.
AMST328W
Cross-listed with: AAST355.
Credit only granted for: AAST355, AAST398L or AMST328W.
Formerly: 398L.
Explores how Asian Americans have historically been represented in the U.S. by Hollywood, and in turn, how independent and Hollywood Asian American filmmakers have represented themselves. It covers the history of racial, gendered, and sexualized representations of Asian Americans in Hollywood, as well as Asian American filmic responses within and outside Hollywood. It also introduces how four basic tools of film analysis mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing and sound work together to create meaning in moving images. It examines how these elements are put together in three different types of films by Asian American filmmakers: narrative, documentary, and experimental. How films function in society to circulate ideas that reproduce and challenge stereotypes about Asian Americans.
AMST340
Introduction to History, Theories and Methods in American Studies
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg
Prerequisite: Must have completed AMST201; and 2 courses in AMST.
Restriction: Must be in American Studies program; and sophomore standing or higher.
Introduction to the process of interdisciplinary research, including research literatures, questions, first-hand sources and library and analytic methods in American Studies. Each student will craft a prospectus for original research.
AMST386
Experiential Learning
Credits:
3 - 6
Grad Meth:
Reg, P-F
Restriction: Permission of ARHU-American Studies department; and junior standing or higher.
AMST388
Honors Thesis
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg
AMST398
Independent Studies
Credits:
1 - 3
Grad Meth:
Reg
AMST418H
Cultural Themes in America; Cultural Themes in America-Honors
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg
Prerequisite: At least three credit hours of prior coursework in AMST.
AMST498B
Special Topics in American Studies; Revolutions and Diasporas
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg
Cross-listed with USLT498R. Credit granted for USLT498R or AMST498B.
This course investigates how revolutions in Latin America influenced the history of US immigration, refugee, and asylum policies and how they changed US history, culture, experience, geography, politics and the future.
This course investigates how revolutions in Latin America influenced the history of US immigration, refugee, and asylum policies and how they changed US history, culture, experience, geography, politics and the future.
AMST498C
Special Topics in American Studies; Central Americans and the United States: Culture, Politics, and Community
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg
Cross-listed with USLT498D. Credit only granted for AMST498C or USLT498D.
With attention to history, memory, politics, and culture, explores the relationships, conflicts, and exchanges of people and power between the United States and the Central American isthmus. Through literature, feature films, documentary films, theatre, poetry, and other mediums, the course investigates the role of the US government and military, as well as US corporate interests and US-backed dictatorships, in the culture, politics, and economy of nations including El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Honduras.
With attention to history, memory, politics, and culture, explores the relationships, conflicts, and exchanges of people and power between the United States and the Central American isthmus. Through literature, feature films, documentary films, theatre, poetry, and other mediums, the course investigates the role of the US government and military, as well as US corporate interests and US-backed dictatorships, in the culture, politics, and economy of nations including El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Honduras.
AMST601
Introductory Theories and History in American Studies
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
Restriction: Must not be a Graduate Advanced Special Student.
Explores the formative literature, theories, research approaches, and history of American Studies.
AMST628N
Seminar in American Studies; Space, Place, and Identity in the Digital Age
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
AMST655
Introduction to Museum Scholarship
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
Cross-listed with: ANTH655, HIST610, INST653.
Credit only granted for: AMST655, ANTH655, HIST610, INST728T or INST653.
Provides students a basic understanding of museums as cultural and intellectual institutions. Topics include the historical development of museums, museums as resources for scholarly study, and the museum exhibition as medium for presentation of scholarship.
AMST698
Directed Readings in American Studies
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg
AMST798
Non-Thesis Research
Credits:
1 - 3
Grad Meth:
Reg, Aud
AMST799
Master's Thesis Research
Credits:
1 - 6
Grad Meth:
S-F
AMST857
Museum Scholarship Practicum
Credits:
3
Grad Meth:
Reg
Prerequisite: AMST856, ANTH856, or HIST810.
Restriction: Permission of Museum Scholarship Program required.
Cross-listed with: ANTH857, HIST811, INST787.
Credit only granted for: AMST857, ANTH857, HIST811, INST728I or INST787.
Students devise and carry out a research program using the collections at the Smithsonian Institution or some other cooperating museum, working under joint supervision of a museum professional and a university faculty member.
AMST878A
American Studies Pedagogy Mentoring; Mentoring for First Year Teaching in American Studies
Credits:
1 - 3
Grad Meth:
S-F
Prerequisite: permission of department and must be a current AMST teaching assistant.
AMST878B
American Studies Pedagogy Mentoring; Mentoring for Second Year Teaching in American Studies
Credits:
1 - 3
Grad Meth:
S-F
Prerequisite: permission of department and must be a current AMST teaching assistant.
AMST878C
American Studies Pedagogy Mentoring; Mentoring for Third Year Teaching in American Studies
Credits:
1 - 3
Grad Meth:
S-F
Prerequisite: permission of department and must be a current AMST teaching assistant.
AMST898
Pre-Candidacy Research
Credits:
1 - 8
Grad Meth:
Reg
AMST899
Doctoral Dissertation Research
Credits:
6
Grad Meth:
S-F
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University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
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