DEPARTMENT OF AMERICAN STUDIES

University of Maryland

UNDERGRADUATE COURSE DESCRIPTIONS - Winter 2002

AMST203 POPULAR CULTURE IN AMERICA (Core HO)

0101 M to F 12:00 - 3:00 HZF 0106 Mike Hummel

Why did James Bonds rivals and love interest change with the shifting dynamics of the Cold War? What is the significance of the Taco Bell Chihuahua? Why does the stereotype of the Asian "wise man" recur even now in film and television? These are just some of the questions we will be asking in the course. The course surveys the difference models and methods that critics have used to analyze American popular culture.

AMST204 FILM AND AMERICAN CULTURE STUDIES (Core HO)

0101 M to F 12:00 - 3:00 Key 0106 Dan Creel

This course will focus on the American documentary film genre. Students will be asked to assess specific films and the historical genre in general in a variety of terms including the documentary as entertainment, the perceptions of documentary as objective vs. subjective representation and the documentary film maker as an agent of social and cultural change. Students will also critically consider representations of sexuality, class, race and gender in both historical and contemporary documentary films.

AMST205 MATERIAL ASPECTS OF AMERICAN LIFE (Core HA)

0101 M to F 9:00 - 12:00 HZF 0106 Kelly Quinn

This course offers you the opportunity to examine the dynamic relationship between people and "things". These things - what scholars call "material culture"-enable us to understand questions about American values, beliefs, and practices. Our work together this winter term begins with the premise that material culture plays in American cultures, we will study objects, artifacts, food, clothing and shelter.

AMST207 CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN CULTURES (Core SB & D)

0101 M to F 12:00 - 3:00 HZF 0101 Josh Woodfork

This course will focus on history and race. Starting with a critique of the way certain groups have been ignored in history, the course will look at revisionist attempts to correct the historical gap when it comes to issues of race. Through readings and writing assignments, AMST207 aims to locate students understanding of history and racial identity on a personal level. Using the ethnographic method of life history, students will complete mini-life histories of their classmates educational experiences with history and social studies as well as autobiographical essays.

AMST 211 TECHNOLOGY AND AMERICAN CULTURE (Core HO)

0101 M to F 9:00 - 12:00 PLS 1176 D. Snyder

This course examines debates, concerns, and issues that surround the emergence of the Internet as a dominant technological medium in American culture. The readings will introduce students to the academic field of Cyberculture. These readings will provide a framework for discussion on the Internet and how it is affecting the American Life. As a final project, students will create a selective bibliography on an Internet topic produced in the form of a Web Page.

AMST212 DIVERSITY IN AMERICAN CULTURE (Core D)

Narratives of Racial Identity in the United States

0101 M to F 12:00 - 3:00 TLF 1103 I.. Cserno

This class will explore several autobiographical and fictional narratives by American authors as well as writers of different cultural and national origins residing in the US. We will aim at gaining a profound understanding about the diversity of American identities. The predominant focus of the class readings lies on the different social and cultural constructions of race as a marker of individual and collective identity. In addition to the narratives, there will be numerous readings about the history and culture of the various racial groups in the US. We will discuss in great detail how far the descriptive racial terms such as Asian American or African American capture the complexities of American culture.

AMST418U REBELLIOUS WOMEN IN AMERICAN CULTURE

0101 M to F 12:00 - 3:00 TLF 1101 Barb Perry

This is an interactive, discussion-based course which will explore the changing cultural contexts of how and why women who dare to be "different"-those who challenge established ways of thinking-find themselves labeled as "rebellious", "deviant", and/or "bad" in American culture. This course asks you to engage with and questions how sexism, heterosexism, fascism, and class privilege exist in American culture.

AMST429I HOLLYWOOD REMAKES AND REMAKING HOLLYWOOD FILM

0101 M to F 6:00 - 9:30 PLS 1113 Greg Metcalf

Certain stories are so good that they have to be remade. Films are remade as an act of cultural translation, and attempt to turn a film that worked once with another culture into one that will work for ours. We will consider several elements of the act of interpreting a film recreated for a contemporary audience. The course will consist of screenings, video-supplemental lectures, discussions, written assignments and readings. Journal and papers are intended to offer you the opportunity to demonstrate your command of the materials and techniques, to take the course materials beyond the role repetion of the views of the texts and the instructor.

AMST498N MULTICULTURALISM A THE MOVIES

0101 M to F 9:00 - 12:00 BPS1232 Paul Gorski

Examine and critique the portrayal of racism, sexism, heterosexism, and related issues in a diversity of feature films through multi cultural lenses. Each class is built around the viewing of one motion picture, to include 'Do the Right Thing', 'Torch Song Trilogy', 'Boys on the Side', 'Mi Familia', 'Smoke Signals', and others.