Institute for American Thought

AMST Course offerings Spring 2012

AMST-A 103: Optimism in America (31432) M. Brodrick (Cap: 25)
12:00P-01:15P TR   ES 1128

In this course, we will examine the often-embattled career of optimism in America through the lens of philosophical, psychological, literary, and cultural texts. This will involve distinguishing different forms of optimism, looking at how optimism manifests in individuals and in groups, and exploring optimism as experienced by diverse populations. Our study will enable us to decide whether there is an adequate basis for optimism about the future of America and our futures as individuals.
A popular view is that American thought and culture is decidedly optimistic. Yet the sanguine optimism that flourished in America during the nineteenth century faced serious and perhaps devastating challenges in the twentieth. Today, we want to be more optimistic, but complex economic problems and rampant skepticism are holding us back.
Perhaps the most famous form of optimism in America is meliorism, or the idea that gaining even a little ground in the fight to make things better constitutes an improvement of the world. To experience this form of optimism, students will engage in service learning activities in the community.

AMST-A 302: Question of American Community (13879) M. Brodrick (Cap: 20)
WEB
A stereotype of Americans is that they are "rugged individuals" who prefer to live and die on their own terms rather than compromise with others. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s idea of self-reliance and the laconic vigilantes played by Clint Eastwood lend support to this view.
Yet the reality of social life in America is far more complex. From Native Americans, to the puritans and transcendentalists, to contemporary African and European American philosophers, the peoples of America have struggled to establish prosperous communities in which individual differences are embraced and the greater good is advanced.
In this course, we will examine competing ideas of the relation between individuals and communities as presented in a diverse selection of American intellectual and cultural traditions. The goal of our examination will be to identify and develop those ideas that hold the most promise for the enhancement of communities in America.

AMST-A 303: American Supernatural (13430) J. Gosney (Cap: 25)
12:00P-01:15P   MW   IT 065

Belief in the supernatural has been an important component of American culture since the founding of the country. From the Salem Witch Trials to The Amityville Horror and from the stories of Edgar Allen Poe to the television series Lost, there seems to be no limit to Americans appetite for myths and legends that deal with the fantastic, otherworldly or otherwise unbelievable. This course will examine several aspects of this cultural fascination with the supernatural, from the mystery of "Area 51" to the legends of the delta blues singers. Along the way, we’ll examine larger questions, such as: Why is belief in the supernatural of continuing relevance to American culture? How does the popular and new media (especially the Internet) perpetuate this belief, and is there a danger in doing so? To what extent are the American character and its definition of self-identity shaped by the belief in the supernatural?

AMST-A 303: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door: American Spiritualities from Emerson to Bob Dylan and Beyond (31430) M. Brodrick (Cap: 20)
01:30P-02:45P   MW   ES 0016
The search for spirituality in America began long before the arrival of Europeans. Native American cultures placed great value on spiritual matters. Today, America is home to a wide variety of traditions that promise to clarify our understanding and deepen our appreciation of spirituality. In this course, we will examine a selection of ideas and experiences of spirituality as presented in American intellectual and cultural sources, including Emerson’s essays, Bob Dylan’s lyrics, Native American philosophy, and the literature of American Zen. One of our aims will be to distinguish spirituality from similar ideas and experiences, including religious ones. A second aim will be to identify those American spiritualities that are more likely to satisfy our spiritual needs.

AMST-A 303: Asian-American Culture (14053) D. Suzuki (Cap: 25)
03:00P-04:15P   MW   BS 3014

This course examines the histories, experiences, and cultures that shape the Asian American community. Through articles, books, and film, this course explores the impact of societal perceptions of Asians on the Asian American experience and Asian American identity. Issues of focus include immigration, civil rights, and cultural sensitivity in local and global work environments.

AMST-A 303: American Audiences: From Deadheads to Gleeks (13878) K. Trager-Bohley (Cap: 20)’
03:00P-04:15P   TR   ES 0016
What do people do with music videos, broadcast radio, comic books, network news and websites? And what do music videos, broadcast radio, comic books, network news and websites do for people? In this class, we explore how people integrate media into their daily lives and the power and identity issues implicated in this interaction. Several of the works that we will examine this semester suggest that media practices frequently reflect, maintain and advance inequalities of American society, especially in respect to gender, class and race. But this is not always the case. Some studies that we read highlight the cohering elements of mediated leisure and their liberating potential. These different assessments of mediated leisure are influenced by many factors, including methods and theoretical frameworks used in a given study. In this class we will carefully consider the production of knowledge-how certain types of theories and methods are prone to produce certain types of knowledge.
Our approach to media audiences will be ethnographic, which encompasses a range of qualitative methods, including participant observation and interviewing. Your major assignment in this class will be an ethnographic study of a media audience of your choice (e.g., a mystery book club that meets at Barnes & Noble, a baseball Internet chat group, Glee Club fans, or, perhaps a community of Dr. Phil television viewers who live at a retirement home.) The ethnographic approach is a holistic one that will help you to discover the hidden rules, purposes, consequences and structure of everyday media practices. Moreover, it will shed light on the ways in which media practices shape and are shaped by American culture.

AMST-A 497 OVERSEAS STUDY, DERBY, UK
AMST-A 499 SR AMERICAN STUDIES TUTORIAL
AMST-B 497 OVERSEAS STUDY, NEWCASTLE, UK
AMST-G 753 INDEPENDENT STUDY