Catalog
American Cultural Studies
Professors Carnegie (Anthropology), Creighton (History), Fra-Molinero (Spanish), Herzig (Women and Gender Studies), Nero (Rhetoric), and Rice-DeFosse (French and Francophone Studies); Associate Professors Beasley (African American Studies and American Cultural Studies), Chapman (Music), Houchins (African American Studies), Jensen (History), and Melvin (History); Visiting Associate Professor Plastas (Women and Gender Studies and American Cultural Studies); Assistant Professor Osucha (English); Visiting Assistant Professor Godfrey (English); Lecturer Blaine-Wallace (African American Studies)
What does it mean to be American? Students in this interdisciplinary major reflect on this question in multiple ways. American cultural studies core courses ponder the changing meanings of nation and citizenship in both the United States and in the Americas. They consider how groups of Americans see themselves and each other, and investigate how institutions have constructed such differences as race, gender, class, and sexuality. These discussions assume that what has been deemed natural or inevitable is in fact dynamic and changeable, and that what has been socially invisible must be brought to light. All American cultural studies students are grounded in African American studies and use this method of inquiry to better understand the meaning of belonging, privilege, and exclusion. Among current American cultural studies courses are those that focus on cultural geography and cultural politics, borderlands, diasporas, film and media, gender, history, literature, music, performance, queer theory, and race theory.
More information on the American cultural studies program is available on the website (www.bates.edu/ACS.xml).
Major Requirements
The major in American cultural studies requires ten courses in addition to a senior thesis. There are four required courses: an introduction to American cultural studies (ACS 100); an introduction to African American studies (AAS 100); a course introducing interdisciplinary methods of analysis (INDS 250); and a course centering on community study and engagement (ACS 220). Six other courses are to be chosen from the list below. They should include advanced courses at the 200 and 300 levels. Furthermore, one course should study the African diaspora outside of the United States, one course should focus on gender as an interpretive category, and one course should take a cultural studies approach to either Arab American, Asian American, Franco-American, Native American, Canadian, or Latin American experience. The selection and sequence of courses must be discussed with the faculty advisor and approved by the fall semester of the junior year. All majors must complete a senior thesis (ACS 457 or 458).Pass/Fail Grading Option
Pass/fail may not be applied to the four required courses. There are no restrictions on the use of the pass/fail option for other courses taken for the major.In addition to specific American cultural studies courses and courses cross-listed in American cultural studies, the following courses from across the curriculum may be applied to the major:
AAS 100. Introduction to African American Studies.
AA/RH 162. White Redemption: Cinema and the Co-optation of African American History.
AA/WS 201. Race, Ethnicity, and Feminist Thought.
AA/TH 226. Minority Images in Holywood Film.
AA/HI 243. African American History.
AA/MU 249. African American Popular Music.
AA/AN 251. Imagining the Caribbean.
AA/DN 252. Contemporary Issues in Dance.
AA/EN 253. The African American Novel.
AA/EN 265. The Writings of Toni Morrison.
AA/EN 267. Narrating Slavery.
AA/HI 390E. African Slavery in the Americas.
AA/RH 391C. The Harlem Renaissance.
AA/WS s33. Reading Toni Morrison.
ANTH 103. Introduction to Archaeology.
ANTH 222. First Encounters: European "Discovery" and North American Indians.
AN/SO 232. Ethnicity, Nation, World Community.
AN/RE 234. Myth, Folklore, and Popular Culture.
ANTH 333. Culture and Interpretation.
ANTH s10. Encountering Community: Ethnographic Fieldwork and Service-Learning.
ANTH s32. Introduction to Archaeological Fieldwork.
AV/WS 287. Women, Gender, Visual Culture.
AV/WS 296. Visualizing Identities.
AVC 361. Museum Internship.
AVC 374. Methods in the Study of Art and Visual Culture.
AVC 375. Issues of Sexuality and the Study of Visual Culture.
AVC 377A. Picturesque Suburbia.
DANC 250. Early Modern Dance History.
DN/ED s29. Tour, Teach, Perform.
ECON 230. Economics of Women, Men, and Work.
ECON 331. Labor Economics.
ECON 348. Urban Economics.
EDUC 231. Perspectives on Education.
EDUC 240. Gender Issues in Education.
ED/SO 242. Race, Cultural Pluralism, and Equality in American Education.
EDUC 250. Critical Perspective on Pedagogy and Curriculum.
ED/SO 380. Education, Reform, and Politics.
EDUC s27. Literacy in the Community.
ENG 121C. Frost, Stevens, Williams.
EN/WS 121G. Asian American Women Writers.
ENG 141. American Writers to 1900.
ENG 143. Nineteenth-Century American Literature.
ENG 152. American Writers since 1900.
ENG 241. Fiction in the United States.
ENG 242. American Realisms: Narrative, Aesthetics, and Cultural Politics at Centuries' Ends.
ENG 395F. Five American Women Poets.
EN/WS 395L. Feminist Literary Criticisms.
EN/WS 395S. Asian American Women Writers, Filmmakers, and Critics.
ENG s15. 9/11 in Literature and Art.
FYS 152. Religion and Civil Rights.
FYS 177. Sex and Sexualities.
FYS 234. United States Relocation Camps in World War II.
FYS 242. Blackness (and Whiteness) in the Social Imagination.
FYS 271. Into the Woods: Rewriting Walden.
FYS 299. Contemporary American Poetry.
FYS 300. Exploring Education through Narratives.
FYS 329. Latin American Time Machine.
FYS 363. The Rhetoric of Women: Politics, Prime Time, and Pop Culture.
FYS 381. Visualizing Identities.
FYS 393. DiY and Mash-up Culture.
FRE 208. Introduction to the Francophone World.
HIST 140. Origins of the New Nation, 1500–1820.
HIST 142. America in the Twentieth Century.
HIST 181. Latin American History: From the Conquest to the Present.
HIST 241. The Age of the American Revolution, 1763–1789.
HIST 249. Colonial North America.
HIST 261. American Protest: From the Haymarket Riot to Occupy Wall Street.
HIST 265. Wartime Dissent in Modern America.
HIST 279. The Age of Independence in Latin America.
HIST 282. The City in Latin America.
HIST 390H. The Mexican Revolution.
HIST 390P. Prelude to the Civil Rights Movement.
HI/WS 390Q. A Woman's Place: Gender and Geography in the United States, 1800–Present.
HIST 390S. Colonies and Empires.
HIST 390W. The Civil Rights Movement.
HI/RE 390Y. The Spanish Inquisition.
HIST s20. Visions of the Past: Political Film and Historical Narrative.
INDS 235. The Politics of Pleasure and Desire: Women's Independent and Third Cinema and Video from the African Diaspora.
INDS 257. African American Women's History and Social Transformation.
INDS 262. Ethnomusicology: African Diaspora.
INDS 321. Afroambiente: Writing a Black Environment.
INDS 325. Black Feminist Literary, Theory and Practice.
INDS 342. Performance, Narrative, and the Body.
MUS 212. Introduction to Ethnomusicology.
MUS 247. History of Jazz.
MUS 248. Music in Contemporary Popular Culture.
MUS 254. Music and Drama.
MUS 266. Miles Davis.
MUS 396. Junior-Senior Seminar in Musicology: Music History and Cultural Politics.
PLTC 115. American Political Institutions and Processes.
PLTC 155. Women, Power, and Political Systems.
PLTC 215. Political Participation in the United States.
PT/WS 220. Gender, War, and Peace.
PLTC 230. The U.S. Congress.
PLTC 249. Politics of Latin America.
PLTC 253. U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East.
PLTC 310. Public Opinion.
PLTC 320. The Politics of Latin American Migrant Transnationalism.
PLTC 325. Constitutional Rights and Social Change.
PLTC 329. American Political Development.
PLTC 347. Gender and the State.
PY/SO 210. Social Psychology.
PY/SO 371. Prejudice and Stereotyping.
PSYC 372. Racial and Ethnic Identity Development.
REL 100. Religion and Film.
REL 216. American Religious History, 1550-1840.
REL 217. American Religious History, 1840-Present.
REL 247. City upon the Hill.
REL 270. Religion and American Visual Culture.
REL s27. Field Studies in Religion: Cult and Community.
RHET 260. Lesbian and Gay Images in Film.
RHET 265. The Rhetoric of Women's Rights.
RHET 276. Television Criticism.
RHET 391A. The Rhetoric of Alien Abduction.
RHET 391B. Presidential Campaign Rhetoric.
RHET 391E. The Interracial Buddy Film.
SOC 250. Privilege, Power, and Inequality.
SOC 270. Sociology of Gender.
SOC 395I. Gender and Family.
SPAN 215. Readings in Spanish American Literature.
SPAN 216A. España en Blanco y Negro.
SPAN 250. The Latin American Short Story.
SP/WS 323. Gendered Experiences in the Americas Borderlands.
SPAN 348. Culturas de Protesta.
SPAN 442. Hybrid Cultures: Latin American Intersections.
WGST 100. Introduction to Women and Gender Studies.
WGST 355. Gender and Technology.
WGST s23. Technologies of the Body. Courses
ACS 100. Introduction to American Cultural Studies.
This course introduces students to the different methods and perspectives of cultural studies within an American context. The course considers the separate evolution of American studies and cultural studies in the academy, and considers how cultural studies provides a lens through which to investigate dynamic American identities, institutions, and communities. Of particular concern is how differences such as race, gender, class, ethnicity, and sexuality are constructed and expressed in diverse settings, and how they connect to the deployment of power. Enrollment limited to 35. M. Beasley.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
AA/AC 119. Cultural Politics.
This course examines the relationship of culture to politics. It introduces the study of struggles to acquire, maintain, or resist power and gives particular attention to the role culture plays in reproducing and contesting social divisions of class, race, gender, and sexuality. Lectures and discussion incorporate film, music, and fiction in order to evaluate the connection between cultural practices and politics. Enrollment limited to 40 per section. Normally offered every year. M. Beasley.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AC/HI 141. America in the Age of the Civil War.
This course surveys United States history from the early nineteenth to the early twentieth century, focusing particularly on the experience of immigrants, women, the plantation South, and the urbanizing North. Special attention is also given to the history of the American Civil War. Not open to students who have received credit for HIST 141. Enrollment limited to 48. M. Creighton.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDS 210. Technology in U.S. History.
Surveys the development, distribution, and use of technology in the United States from colonial roadways to microelectronics, using primary and secondary source material. Subjects treated include sexual and racial divisions of labor, theories of invention and innovation, and the ecological consequences of technological change. Cross-listed in American cultural studies, history, and women and gender studies. Not open to students who have received credit for HI/WS 210. Enrollment limited to 40. R. Herzig.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDS 211. U.S. Environmental History.
This course explores the relationship between the North American environment and the development and expansion of the United States. Because Americans' efforts (both intentional and not) to define and shape the environment were rooted in their own struggles for power, environmental history offers an important perspective on the nation's social history. Specific topics include Europeans', Africans', and Indians' competing efforts to shape the colonial environment; the impact and changing understanding of disease; the relationship between industrial environments and political power; and the development of environmental movements. Cross-listed in American cultural studies, environmental studies, and history. Not open to students who have received credit for ES/HI 211. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. J. Hall.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
ACS 220. Community Studies.
Too often, students experience college within an academic cocoon, taking for granted their surrounding environment. This course moves beyond the bubble of the academy. After a review of cultural studies methodology, students consider the evolution of the college itself as well as the dynamic history of Lewiston, Maine. Students' understanding of the community is developed in readings on immigration and on practical work in local service-oriented agencies. In addition to community work and weekly assignments prepared for seminar discussions, students produce a research paper relevant to the themes of the course. Enrollment limited to 12. Normally offered every year. M. Creighton.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
AC/FR 240I. French in Maine.
An appreciation and analysis of what it means to speak French and to be "French" in the local and regional context. Students examine questions of language, ethnic identity, and cultural expression through novels, short stories, autobiographies, film, and written and oral histories. Visits to local cultural sites enhance students' understanding of the Franco-American community and its heritage. Prerequisite(s): FRE 207 or 208. Not open to students who have received credit for FRE s35. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 20. [W2] M. Rice-DeFosse.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AC/HI 244. Native American History.
A survey of Native American peoples from European contact to the present, this course addresses questions of cultural interaction, power, and native peoples' continuing history of colonization. By looking at the ways various First Nations took advantage of and suffered from their new relations with newcomers, students learn that this history is more than one of conquest and disappearance. In addition, they learn that the basic categories of "Indian" and "white" are themselves inadequate for understanding native pasts and presents. Much of this learning depends on careful readings of native writers. Not open to students who have received credit for HIST 244. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. J. Hall.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AC/EN 247. Contemporary Arab American Literature.
This course engages Arab American literature from 1990 until the present. Students examine novels, short fiction, memoirs, or poetry in an effort to understand the major concerns of contemporary Arab American authors. Students are expected to engage theoretical material and literary criticism to supplement their understanding of the literature. In addition to a discussion of formal literary concerns, this course is animated by the way authors spotlight gender, sexual orientation, politics, and history. Prerequisite(s): one 100-level course in English. Enrollment limited to 25. T. Pickens.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AC/HI 248. Back East, Down South, Out West: Regions in American Culture.
This course examines American regions as they have emerged as cultural entities from the eighteenth century to the present. Its primary texts are grounded in contemporary scholarship in history and cultural geography and in popular literature, film, music, and architecture. Students investigate the intersection of demographic and economic history with cultural invention. Beginning with a focus on "olde" New England and continuing with a study of the cultural power of the "wild" West, students devote considerable attention to the "deep" South to understand how region mediates the identities and experiences associated with race, class, and gender difference. Prerequisite(s): AC/HI 141 or HIST 243. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. M. Creighton.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDS 250. Interdisciplinary Studies: Methods and Modes of Inquiry.
Interdisciplinarity involves more than a meeting of disciplines. Practitioners stretch methodological norms and reach across disciplinary boundaries. Through examination of a single topic, this course introduces students to interdisciplinary methods of analysis. Students examine what practitioners actually do and work to become practitioners themselves. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, and women and gender studies. Prerequisite(s): AAS 100 or 140A or WGST 100, and one other course in African American studies, American cultural studies, or women and gender studies. Enrollment limited to 40. Normally offered every year. Staff.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDS 259. Afrofuturism.
Of the 1969 moonwalk, George Clinton said that once man defied gravity, all bets were off. The music mogul later went on to defy gravity by "funk-ifying" the world. Yet, his ideas are not without precedent in African American culture. In this course, students examine the aesthetic that came to be known as Afrofuturism as an outlet for African American literary and artistic expression. They analyze the theoretical work that explains Afrofuturism as a social and political movement as well as a literary one, reading the work of authors such as Octavia Butler, Sam Delaney, Tananarive Due, Ishmael Reed, Toni Cade Bambara, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Charles Chesnutt. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, and English. Prerequisites(s): AAS 100 or AA/EN 114 or 115. Recommended background: course work in American cultural studies, African American studies, or English. Enrollment limited to 25. Normally offered every year. T. Pickens.INDS 267. Blood, Genes, and American Culture.
Places recent popular and scientific discussions of human heredity and genetics in broader social, political, and historical context, focusing on shifting definitions of personhood. Topics include the ownership and exchange of human bodies and body parts, the development of assisted reproductive technologies, and the emergence of new forms of biological citizenship. Recommended background: course work in biology and/or women and gender studies. Cross-listed in American cultural studies, history, and women and gender studies. Not open to students who have received credit for HI/WS 267. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 40. R. Herzig.ConcentrationsInterdisciplinary Programs
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
ACS 280. Story of Things: Introduction to Material Culture.
The phrase "material culture" refers to the "things" of our daily lives. Our material lives range from our bodies to the clothes we wear, the specific objects we use, the food we eat, and the places we go. Material culture has been defined from numerous perspectives, most notably anthropology, archaeology, art history, cultural theory, and history. Scholars in these and other disciplines have used material culture as sources of evidence to explore the everyday lives of ordinary citizens. This seminar introduce students to consider how objects are used to reinforce, propagate, and resist cultural hierarchies based on race, class, gender, sexuality, and national identity. Prerequisite(s): ACS 100, AA/AC 119, or ANTH 101. Enrollment limited to 30. M. Beasley.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AC/AV 288. Visualizing Race.
This course considers visual constructions of race in art and popular culture, with a focus on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. General topics include the role of visual culture in creating and sustaining racial stereotypes, racism, white supremacy, and white-skin privilege; the effects upon cultural producers of their own perceived race in terms of both their opportunities and their products; and the relations of constructions of race to those of gender, class, ethnicity, and sexuality. Not open to students who have received credit for AVC 288. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. [W2] E. Rand.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AC/AV 340. History of Photography.
This course explores the photographic medium from its inception to the art of contemporary photography. Students examine specific photographic genres, such as landscape, portraiture and images of the body, travel photography, and documentary and war photography through the lens of their cultural, social, and political context. Requirements for the course include weekly assignments related to the readings, a research paper, and final group research presentation. Enrollment limited to 25. Staff.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AC/WS 353. Critical Theory/Critical Acts.
Critical theory is about the unraveling of streams of repressive discourses and hierarchies in our contemporary world, and it has been artists who have fostered ruptures and fissures in everyday life. This seminar ponders the concept of "cultural worker" and laments the domain of theory by exploring the intersections between critical theory, art, and cultural politics. Students engage in the ruptures, the fragments of knowledge, and the making sense of the residue of "social change" while not forgetting the problematization of the aesthetic. They consider U.S.-based interdisciplinary artists such as Thiong'o, Fusco, Ana Mediata, Tania Bruguera, David Hammon, Jay-Z, Pope.L, and Lady Gaga with critical theorists such as Fanon, Butler, Foucault, Phalen, Muñoz, Moten, Adorno, Barthes, Dorothea Olkowski, and Benjamin. This seminar is based on close readings of theoretical texts and connecting those texts with contemporary cultural politics. Prerequisite(s): one of the following: AA/AC 119, ACS 100, AC/AV 340, AC/EN 395B, AV/WS 287, INDS 250 or 267, or WGST 100. Enrollment limited to 15. M. Beasley.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ACS 360. Independent Study.
Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study per semester. Normally offered every semester. Staff.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
AC/EN 395B. Privacy, Intimacy, and Identity.
This seminar explores American concepts of "self" in historical and cultural context, focusing on distinct yet overlapping discourses of privacy, intimacy, and identity, as these are shaped by evolving understandings of race, sexuality, gender, class, and nation. Beginning with a critical investigation of how the nation's Puritan settlers articulated, practiced, and regulated "the self" and concluding with a consideration of how self and identity are presented in mediated environments such as Facebook and MySpace, students consider scholarship in American literary and cultural history, critical theory, and primary literary and legal texts. Prerequisite(s): one 200-level English course or one 200-level American cultural studies course and ENG 141 or 152. Recommended background: WGST 100. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] E. Osucha.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AC/EN 395C. Frontier and Border in U.S. Literature.
The American "frontier" has long been a controlling idea in the production of U.S. national identity: less physical reality than ideological framework, what historian Frederick Jackson Turner called "the meeting point between savagery and civilization." Drawing on theoretical and historical writings, studied alongside twentieth-century U.S. literary texts, this course examines the history and legacy of this concept, and the new interpretive and cultural paradigms of "the border" that have supplanted Turner's "frontier thesis." Studying the border as "contact zone," students read widely in Chicana/o and Native American literatures, studying connections and commonalities in what are often treated as distinct traditions, toward a more nuanced understanding of the diverse territories — real and imagined — engaged by critical discourses of the border. Prerequisite(s): one 200-level course in American cultural studies or English. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. [W2] E. Osucha.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDS 395Z. Arab American Feminisms.
This course develops students' ability to look at the intersection of gender, ethnicity, politics, and sexuality. Students read theoretical and literary material as a catalyst for our discussions of fiction, focusing on the way Arab American feminists articulate their unique theoretical concerns. Students read such scholars as Mohja Kahf, Rabab Abdulhadi, Nadine Naber, and Randa Jarrar, and others. Students consider the critical triumphs and limitations of creative and theoretical work in discussing these subjects. Cross-listed in American cultural studies, English, and women and gender studies. Recommended background: previous course work in American cultural studies or women and gender studies. Enrollment limited to 15. Instructor permission is required. T. Pickens.ACS 457. Senior Thesis.
Under the supervision of a faculty advisor, all majors write an extended essay that utilizes the methods of at least two disciplines. Students register for ACS 457 in the fall semester and for ACS 458 in the winter semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both ACS 457 and 458. [W3] Normally offered every year. Staff.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
ACS 457, 458. Senior Thesis.
Under the supervision of a faculty advisor, all majors write an extended essay that utilizes the methods of at least two disciplines. Students register for ACS 457 in the fall semester and for ACS 458 in the winter semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both ACS 457 and 458. [W3] Normally offered every year. Staff.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
ACS 458. Senior Thesis.
Under the supervision of a faculty advisor, all majors write an extended essay that utilizes the methods of at least two disciplines. Students register for ACS 458 in the winter semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both ACSs 457 and 458. [W3] Normally offered every year. Staff.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
ACS s10. Taste, Memory, Book: Indigestible Memories of Food.
The food narrative is an increasingly popular subgenre of autobiography; as Ruth Reichl explains, "People are writing their lives in food. They are actually looking at the world food-first." This course explores the intersections of writing, memory, and the book. Food books (e.g., cookbooks, food memoirs) are not only instructional manuals for the culinary arts and repositories for traditional dishes, they also reflect food habits of a population, act as historical markers of major events, and record technological advances in a society. They provide narratives of self-development, interpersonal engagements, and intercultural negotiations as they recount relational life stories. Students read, write, and create food books. Recommended background: one course in American cultural studies or women and gender studies. Enrollment limited to 15. M. Beasley.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDS s12. Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, 1960–1970: History, Strategies, and Implications.
This course examines the history and strategies of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and it's role in the African American civil rights movement in the South from 1954. The course provides a context for students to analyze implications for present-day moral radicalism, social protest, and the relation of faith and justice making. Students read texts, witness documentaries, learn and sing freedom songs, and observe video selections from the fiftieth anniversary of SNCC Conference in April 2010. Crosslisted in African American studies, American cultural studies, and history. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. W. Blaine-Wallace.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
AA/AC s16. The Wire: The City and Race in Popular Culture.
This course focuses on the HBO series The Wire. Students discuss the episodes in terms of their narrative structure and content as well as cinematic techniques including shot sequence, lighting, camera angle, editing, and transitional devices. They also explore some of the sociopolitical issues this series examines: poverty, unemployment, the drug trade, public education, the decline of newspapers, and public housing. The intersection of race, gender, sexuality, and class serves as the lens through which they scrutinize these topics. Enrollment limited to 20. S. Houchins.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDS s19. Food, Culture, and Performance.
This interdisciplinary seminar examines the idea of cultural engagement through food. Students explore the meanings of food and eating across cultures, with particular attention to how people define themselves socially, symbolically, and politically through food consumption practices. Drawing from cultural, critical, and performance theories, students engage in the dialectics of cultural exchange and the fluidity of identity; they interrogate conceptions of desire and consumption. The course develops research and writing skills, introduces visual and performance theories of culture, and fosters an understanding of the importance of food and its relationship to identity construction, histories, and cultural literacy. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, anthropology, and women and gender studies. Enrollment limited to 20. M. Beasley.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)
INDS s25. Introduction to Contemporary Cuban Culture.
In this introduction to Cuban culture students explore selected themes such as contemporary perceptions of race, the cultural politics of music, questions of sexual identity, and implications of the "Special Period" following collapse of the Soviet Union. During the second half of the course, students visit significant cultural sites, attend guest lectures, and experience everyday life in Cuba; they learn to process their experiences using basic ethnographic techniques. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, anthropology, and Spanish. Enrollment limited to 20. C. Carnegie, M. Pettway.INDS s36. Making African American History: Preserving the Archives of the Portland NAACP.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization, and it has had an active branch in Portland, Maine, since 1920. However, that branch's role in African American history is relatively unknown because there is no publicly available record of its activities. In this course, students uncover and preserve this important piece of local African American history. They begin with a historical overview of the NAACP and of African Americans in Maine coupled with training in the fundamentals of archival processing. Students then arrange and describe NAACP papers newly housed at the Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine, and consider how this collection adds to the public record. Transportation and supplies are provided. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, English, and history. Recommended background: AAS 100, AA/HI 253, or HIST s40. Enrollment limited to 10. M. Godfrey.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
INDS s37. Afrofuturism and the Black Speculative Imagination: A Study of Octavia Butler.
Of the 1969 moonwalk, George Clinton said that once man defied gravity, all bets were off. The music mogul later went on to defy gravity by "funk-ifying" the world. Yet Clinton's ideas are not without precedent in African American culture. In this course, students examine the aesthetic that came to be known as Afrofuturism as an outlet for African American literary and artistic expression. Students focus on the work of Octavia Butler and her volcanic influence, fame, and talent. Since her work dovetails with Clinton's anti-gravity stance and forms a locus for black speculative fiction in particular and speculative fiction in general, they study a selection of her novels, short fiction, and own words as well as secondary critical and theoretical material. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, and English. Recommended background: course work in the natural sciences. Prerequisite(s): one course in African American studies, American cultural studies, or English. Not open to students who have received credit for INDS 259. Enrollment limited to 30. T. Pickens.Concentrations
This course is referenced by the following General Education Concentrations
ACS s50. Independent Study.
Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study during a Short Term. Normally offered every year. Staff.Interdisciplinary Programs
This course counts toward the following Interdisciplinary Program(s)