01:050:101
Introduction to American Studies (3)
Introduces the American studies method through the use of primary documents including novels, autobiographies, paintings, photographs, and films.
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01:050:202
American Regionalism (3)
Multidisciplinary study of the regions of the United States, with focus on their literature, folklore, music, and other arts.
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01:050:216
America in the Arts (3)
What is "American" about American art and design; examination of the architecture as well as fine, folk, and industrial arts and artifacts of the United States. Normally a craft project required of students.
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01:050:228
The Contemporary American (3)
The emerging American of our times. Forces shaping American culture as revealed in literature, the media, social criticism, and psychology.
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01:050:240
Latino/Latina American Cultures (3)
Introductory survey of recent texts and films by and about Latinas/os in the United States. Discussion of exile, integration, and assimilation; political presence and nationalism; and examination of literary modes and genres (autobiography, poetry, novel, film, music). Special attention to the migration experiences of Mexican-American, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Dominican communities.
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01:050:250
Cultures of the Portuguese-Speaking Communities in the United States (3)
Discussion of sociocultural issues concerning the diverse Portuguese-speaking communities of the United States.
Course taught in English; will count for the Portuguese major or minor if all written work is done in Portuguese. Credit not given for both this course and 01:810:250.
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01:050:259
Popular Culture (3)
How popular culture shapes and reflects society in advertising, music, popular entertainment, fads, fashion, radio, television, sports, and games.
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01:050:261
The American Best Seller (3)
Representative best-selling novels of recent decades and what they and their popularity indicate about American values and assumptions.
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01:050:262
American Film and American Myth (3)
American film and its relationship to American myths, society, and culture. Representative classic films screened.
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01:050:263
American Folklore (3)
Traditional verbal and material lore. American folk narratives, myths, legends, tales, ballads, and songs. How folklore functions in American society and institutions.
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01:050:264
American Folklife (3)
Examination of the lifestyles of American folk groups with emphasis on artifacts: folk architecture, handicrafts, art, costume, and foods.
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01:050:265
American Experimental Film and Video (3)
Survey course on history and development of American experimental cinema movements from beginning to present. Filmmakers include Andy Warhol, Maya Deren, Stan Brakhage, Sidney Peterson, Kenneth Anger, Yoko Ono, and others.
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01:050:281,282,283,284
Topics in American Studies (1.5,1.5,1.5,1.5)
Half-semester minicourses given each year on topics of contemporary interest that lend themselves to interdisciplinary treatment.
May be repeated for credit when topic differs.
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01:050:291
Jerseyana: New Jersey as a Culture (3)
Interdisciplinary, regional approach to New Jersey, examining its landscape, the peculiarities of its history, its folklore and myths, arts and architecture, music, and literature.
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01:050:300,301
Topics in American Studies (3,3)
Topics of contemporary interest that lend themselves to interdisciplinary treatment.
May be repeated for credit when topic differs.
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01:050:303
A Decade in American Culture (3)
Interdisciplinary approach to understanding a particular decade in American culture, employing the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Decade studied depends on the instructor.
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01:050:304
The American City (3)
Interdisciplinary approach to the origin, development, and problems of the American city.
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01:050:305
Images and Narratives of War (3)
Examination of the various ways that wars, post-WWII (such as Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf Wars, and others), have been represented in American popular culture. Material includes films, novels, memoirs, reportage, and histories.
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01:050:306
American Detective Fiction and Film (3)
Examination of the distinctively American literary genre of the hard-boiled detective novel and the many films that this genre has inspired, including a look at film noir.
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01:050:307
The Culture of the 1960s (3)
Examination of the culture of the 1960s, with emphasis on the civil
rights movement, the war in Vietnam and student radicalism, Woodstock,
women's liberation, and the sexual revolution, using social history,
literature, music, and film.
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01:050:308
The Culture of Metropolis (3)
Examination of the urban culture of New York City in the 19th and 20th centuries, emphasizing the impact of race, class, gender, and ethnicity on developing subcultures.
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01:050:309
Nineteenth-Century Architecture in the United States (3)
Overview of the social and intellectual history of architecture in the
United States to 1900. Role of architecture in societal transformations
(the development of nationhood, industrialization, and urbanization).
Emphasis on the invention of new building types, including
universities, government buildings, prisons, hospitals, railroad
stations, and the architecture of World's Fairs.
Prerequisites: 01:082:105,106 or permission of instructor.
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01:050:311
Seminar in Black Diasporic Media (3)
Examines a range of visual media by black cultural producers. Offers a diasporic framework as an opportunity to trace how technologies, genres, styles, and issues circulate through various historical moments, media, conceptualizations of blackness, and locations.
Credit not given for both this course and 01:014:303.
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01:050:312
Sports in American Culture (3)
Examines the place of sports in American life and how sports may be thought of as "the American religion," as a metaphor for American ideals and values. Figures from the world of sports (players and coaches) will be regular guest speakers.
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01:050:314
Technology and Culture in America (3)
Cultural responses to the growth and elaboration of American technology as reflected in literature, art, and popular culture.
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01:050:315
Documentary Expression in America (3)
Relationship between the social and aesthetic functions of documentary in film, photography, journalism, biography, and the nonfiction novel.
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01:050:324
Wayward Americans (3)
Cultural approach to the means by which socially dominant groups in American society have sought to control deviant behavior. Examination of social theory, social history, literature, and film.
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01:050:325
Women on the Fringe: Perceptions of Women as Social and Sex-Role Deviants in American Civilization (3)
Societal reaction to female behavior deviating from social and feminine norms. Use of historical narratives, literature, and film to treat such themes as heresy, madness, prostitution, adultery, criminality, political protest, and lesbianism.
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01:050:326
The Culture of American Women (3)
Construction of feminine culture as distinct from the dominant patriarchal culture, examining social history, religion, psychology, sociology, oral history, literature, and film.
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01:050:329
The United States as Seen from Abroad (3)
United States as perceived by foreign commentators, such as Dickens, Trollope, and Waugh, and American expatriate intellectuals and artists, such as James, Hemingway, and Baldwin.
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01:050:330
American Cults and Communes (3)
Examination of historic and fictional communal and religious experiments, illuminating their surprising similarities and what they tell us about American society and culture. From the Shakers and the Oneida community through Jonestown and the Hare Krishnas. Texts include novels and feature films.
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01:050:331
Ethnic America (3)
Examination of cultural pluralism and the means by which ethnic groups such as Irish, Italians, Jews, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanics have constructed their ethnic identities and the political and cultural forces that shaped those constructions.
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01:050:332
The American Jewish Experience in Literature (3)
Patterns of alienation and assimilation of an American ethnic group as portrayed in its literature. Attention to early narratives as well as the works of contemporary writers such as Roth, Potok, Bellow, Malamud, and Singer.
Credit not given for both this course and 01:563:332.
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01:050:333
The Cultures of Consumption (3)
Examination of the development of mass society, mass production, and consumption from the 1880s to the present. Areas considered may include industrialization and the development of work in relation to leisure, the development of the advertising industry, television, technology, and popular and mass production and consumption.
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01:050:335
Jewish-American Women: Contested Lives (3)
Explores the Jewish-American female identity in autobiography and memoir, social history, literature, and film. Examines interplay of religious belief, secularism, social mobility, and acculturating influences within American experience.
Credit not given for both this course and 01:563:335 or 01:988:334.
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01:050:341
The Child in America (3)
Evolution of concepts of childhood and adolescence in America and of child-rearing practices through an examination of social history, religious tracts, novels, poetry, film, and child care manuals.
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01:050:342
American Sexuality (3)
Changing American attitudes toward sexual expression and changes in sexual behavior. Examination of literature, film, 19th- and 20th-century advice manuals, and reports on sexual behavior such as the Kinsey Report and the works of Masters and Johnson.
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01:050:365
American Folk Song and Ballad (3)
Social concerns in folk songs--sources and circulation in oral tradition, with reference to lyrical folk songs, narrative folk songs, traditional ballads, broadside ballads, and Native American ballads.
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01:050:366
Folklore of American Occupational and Regional Groups (3)
Folklore of occupational groups such as sailors, lumbermen, cowboys, and miners, and of regional groups such as southern mountaineers, Mississippi Delta blacks, Louisiana Cajuns, and Jersey Pineys.
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01:050:376
Native American Literatures in English (3)
Fiction, poetry, and autobiography by such writers as Apes, Momaday, Welch, Silko, and Erdrich. Attention to issues of Native American representation.
Credit not given for both this course and 01:351:376.
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01:050:389
Junior Seminar in American Studies (3)
A required interdisciplinary seminar for majors. Theme dependent on instructor.
To be taken by American studies majors in their junior year after completing 01:050:101 and 303.
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01:050:390
Special Problems in American Culture (3)
Independent study of an interdisciplinary nature, which may be expressed in a paper, audiovisual project, or other creative enterprise.
Prerequisites: Permission of department and instructor during preceding semester required. May be repeated for credit with permission of department.
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01:050:450
Seminar: Folk Festival Management (3)
Designed to accompany presentation of the New Jersey Folk Festival. Readings in histories of folk performance and fieldwork in folklore, as well as planning and production of public event.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor during preceding semester required.
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01:050:455
Maritime Culture (3)
An interdisciplinary course which uses a number of disciplines to explore the influence of the sea on American life. A study of marine policy which embraces both economic and environmental issues as well as current policy regarding world trade and regulatory reform, conservation and fisheries, national defense and admiralty law. Students interpret the past not only through readings and classroom discussions but also through material culture studies of maritime artifacts and folklore.
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01:050:465
Cultures of U.S. Imperialism (3)
An exploration of American nation building through the imperial projections of the United States. Topics include the economic, political, social, and cultural dynamics between the United States and its colonies, both formal and informal. The focus of any one particular semester might be on a single location, such as the American Southwest, Hawaii, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, or Iraq. Alternatively, the course could take a comparative approach to these imperialist projects.
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01:050:487,488,489
Seminars in American Studies (3,3,3)
Interdisciplinary seminars for majors. Themes dependent on instructor.
For American studies majors who have completed 01:050:389.
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01:050:490
Senior Essay or Senior Project in American Studies (3)
Independent study of an interdisciplinary nature, which may be expressed in a paper, audiovisual project, or other creative enterprise.
Prerequisites: Permission of department and instructor during preceding semester required. May be repeated for credit with permission of department.
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01:050:495,496
Honors in American Studies (3,3)
Research essay or project, designed by the student and prepared under faculty supervision. An oral defense is required.
Prerequisite: Permission of department. Open only to seniors.
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