First-Year Courses in American Culture This page was created at 12:05 PM on Thu, Oct 4, 2001. Fall Academic Term, 2001 (September 5 - December 21) Open courses in American Culture (*Not real-time Information. Review the "Data current as of: " statement at the bottom of hyperlinked page) Wolverine Access Subject listing for AMCULT Fall Term '01Time Schedule for American Culture. AMCULT 100. What is an American? Section 001. Instructor(s): Vicente Diaz (vdiaz@umich.edu) Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (SS). Laboratory fee required. Credits: (4; 3 in the half-term). Lab Fee: Laboratory fee required. Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. What is an American, and Who Gets to Say So? For what purposes, motives, interests? How do we make sense of American Identity (identities), and why should we try anyway? This course, "What is an American?" encapsulates these and many other questions. Asking a series of questions about American identity through history and region, this course also raises methodological and political questions about cultural inquiry and criticism in the American context. This course combines a brief survey of classical and marginal(ized) views on American identity, with a jaunt across the contested landscapes of contemporary American culture through critical readings on select institutions and practices (like shopping malls, sports, food, to name a few). Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: No Data Given. Waitlist Code: 1 AMCULT 102. First Year Seminar in American Studies. Section 001 – Politics of Race Since WWII. Meets With History 196.001. Instructor(s): Matthew J Countryman (mcountry@umich.edu) Prerequisites & Distribution: Only first-year students, including those with sophomore standing, may pre-register for First-Year Seminars. All others need permission of instructor. (3). (SS). Laboratory fee required. No Description Provided Check Times, Location, and Availability AMCULT 103. First Year Seminar in American Studies. Section 001 – The Culture of Jazz Instructor(s): Anderson Prerequisites & Distribution: Only first-year students, including those with sophomore standing, may pre-register for First-Year Seminars. All others need permission of instructor. (3). (HU). Laboratory fee required. No Description Provided Check Times, Location, and Availability AMCULT 204. Themes in American Culture. Section 001 – The Sexual Revolution. Instructor(s): Charlotte Fay Pagni (pagni@umich.edu) Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (HU). Laboratory fee required. May be repeated for credit with permission of concentration advisor. Credits: (3). Lab Fee: Laboratory fee required. Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. This course explores the 1960s Sexual Revolution as a historical phenomenon that resonates in contemporary American culture. After World War II, social, economic, and political conditions facilitated a wave of liberalism in sexual matters. An unprecedented frankness toward sex pervaded the mass media, revealing a widening gap between official dogma and actual practices. From an interdisciplinary and multicultural perspective, this course considers the historical context, manifestations, and public reception of cultural changes associated with the Sexual Revolution. Topics include: second-wave feminism and the crisis in masculinity; the gay, lesbian, and bisexual movements; racial, ethnic, and religious differences; youth culture; sexuality as commodity; sex and class distinction; sex in the media; popular sex manuals; the Pill and reproductive choice; the declining "double standard"; alternative sexual practices and lifestyles; sex activism; conservative backlash; and the limitations of sexual liberalism. Readings, screenings, and class discussions provide a foundation for three engaging research projects: an interview of a "baby boomer" about coming of age during the Sexual Revolution; a critical essay about a movie, TV show, book, music, or other pop culture artifact from 1955-75; and an analytical paper examining a current sexuality issue in historical perspective. Note: Some course materials are sexually explicit. Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: No Data Given. Waitlist Code: No Data Given. AMCULT 206. Themes in American Culture. Section 001 – Women's Health in 19th and 20th Century America Instructor(s): Christine Kae Bass (cbass@umich.edu) Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (SS). Laboratory fee required. May be repeated for credit with permission of concentration advisor. Credits: (3). Lab Fee: Laboratory fee required. Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. This course will use women's health in 19th- and 20th-century America as a lens through which to view women's history, social history, and medical history. We will explore a wide range of topics, including: sexuality, abortion, birth control, childbirth, women's diseases, women as health care reformers, and women as health care professionals. In particular, we will look at how women's diseases are socially constructed and how they often reflect society's views of women. We will also look at how gender, race, and class impact access to medical care and research on women's health. The course will be a seminar with discussion based upon close reading of the assigned texts. There will be several short papers, a class presentation, and a final examination. Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: No Data Given. Waitlist Code: No Data Given. AMCULT 206. Themes in American Culture. Section 002 – AIDS in America Instructor(s): Richard A Meisler (rmeisler@umich.edu) Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (SS). Laboratory fee required. May be repeated for credit with permission of concentration advisor. Credits: (3). Lab Fee: Laboratory fee required. Course Homepage: https://coursetools.ummu.umich.edu/2001/fall/amcult/206/002.nsf The American response to the AIDS epidemic is important in itself and also provides a window into important aspects of our values and culture. These involve the place in our social world of sexuality, gender and sexual orientation; scientific and medical knowledge; poverty; homelessness; health care, prevention, pharmaceuticals, and the financing of all of these fields; privacy rights; incarceration; racial and cultural diversity; the law and the legal system; artistic responses to a social crisis; policy issues in all of these fields; and public health efforts. This course will be an interdisciplinary exploration of all of these phenomena as they bear on the AIDS crisis. Some field work--a practicum experience--will be involved in parts of the community where the impacts of the epidemics may be observed and engaged. Scientific knowledge of HIV/AIDS--presented for a nonscientific audience--will be a required part of the course curriculum. Other parts of the course will involve studying research results in the social sciences and engaging with artistic work--memoirs, fiction, film, poetry, fine arts, music--concerning AIDS. Although the focus of the course is AIDS and America, the global context of the AIDS epidemic will be studied to provide a context for the American experience. Special attention will be given, in this part of the course, to AIDS in Africa. Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: No Data Given. Waitlist Code: No Data Given. AMCULT 213. Introduction to Latino Studies – Humanities. Section 001. Instructor(s): Jorge Duany Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (HU). (R&E). Laboratory fee required. Credits: (3). Lab Fee: Laboratory fee required. Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. This course provides an overview of the historical and contemporary situation of Latino communities in the United States. It focuses on the construction and transformation of ethnic and national identities amont immigrants from Latin America. It also deals with issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality as they inform the making of Latino cultures. Finally, the course examines the role of wider economic and political forces in the structuring of Latino communities. Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: No Data Given. Waitlist Code: 1 AMCULT 214. Introduction to Asian American Studies – Social Science. Section 001. Instructor(s): Phillip D Akutsu (akutsu@umich.edu) Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (SS). (R&E). Laboratory fee required. Credits: (3). Lab Fee: Laboratory fee required. Course Homepage: https://coursetools.ummu.umich.edu/2001/fall/amcult/214/001.nsf This course will examine the long and diverse history and experiences of Asian Americans (Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos, Koreans, South Asians, and Southeast Asians) in the United States. Migrating "east" from Asian countries since the mid-1800s, Asian Americans represent a significant part of America's history and culture. However, individuals from this multiethnic community continue to be viewed as "exotic strangers" in transit. This course provides an introduction to the study of the experiences of Asian immigrants and their citizen descendants in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century to the present as well as a critical analysis of Asian American contributions to historical, scientific, political, and cultural developments in the United States. Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: No Data Given. Waitlist Code: 1 AMCULT 217. Introduction to Native American Studies – Humanities. Section 001. Instructor(s): Betty L Bell (blbell@umich.edu) Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (HU). (R&E). Laboratory fee required. Credits: (3). Lab Fee: Laboratory fee required. Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. This is an introductory course to the historical and literary cultures of Native America. We will trace the evolution of the indigenous cultures of the United States through pre-contact oral literature, tribal colonization, and removal to the reservation, the creation of the Native American as American citizen, and explore native identity – as conceived by native writers and American popular culture – at the end of the 20th century. We will rely, when possible, on the words of Native Americans to discuss “contact” between tribal peoples and EuroAmericans and the resulting “adaptations” in tribal culture and identity. In addition to literature, we will reply on film, documentary and popular, for the representation of native experience and to chart images of the American Indian. Students are not expected to have knowledge of native history or literature; the course is designed to provide an introduction to both. An advanced course, English 382, will be taught in Winter Term. There will be two lecture sessions and one discussion section per week. Students will be required to keep a journal of their readings, to participate in discussion groups, and take a midterm and final. Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: No Data Given. Waitlist Code: 1 AMCULT 222. Elementary Ojibwa. Courses in Ojibwa Section 001. Instructor(s): Irving N McCue Prerequisites & Distribution: Non-LS&A students must have permission of the American Culture Program Director. (3). (LR). Credits: (3; 2 in the half-term). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. This course is designed to give the conversational and cultural skills necessary to enable students to use Ojibwa in real life situations. The teaching methods are entirely inductive, and the role of writing is downplayed. There is considerable emphasis on teaching culturally appropriate behavior, and the simple conversational patterns of greetings, leave takings, introductions, table talk, etc. Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: No Data Given. Waitlist Code: No Data Given. AMCULT 224 / SPANISH 290. Spanish for Heritage Language Learners. Courses in Spanish Section 001. Instructor(s): Prerequisites & Distribution: Basic knowledge of Spanish language. (4). (Excl). This course does not satisfy the language requirement. Credits: (4). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. See Spanish 290.001. Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: No Data Given. Waitlist Code: No Data Given. AMCULT 240 / WOMENSTD 240. Introduction to Women's Studies. Section 001. Instructor(s): Sidonie A Smith (sidsmith@umich.edu) Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (HU). (R&E). Credits: (4; 3 in the half-term). Course Homepage: https://coursetools.ummu.umich.edu/2001/fall/womenstd/240/001.nsf See Women's Studies 240.001. Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: No Data Given. Waitlist Code: 1 AMCULT 243 / WOMENSTD 243. Introduction to Study of Latinas in the U.S. Section 001. Instructor(s): Maria E Cotera (mcotera@umich.edu) Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (HU). (R&E). Credits: (3). Course Homepage: https://coursetools.ummu.umich.edu/2001/fall/womenstd/243/001.nsf For over a century Latinas have been writing themselves into U.S. history, continuously redefining their political, cultural, and social locations within the discourses of American identity. Their refusal to remain silent observers of? history? has resulted in a body of work – poems, essays, novels, and short stories – that reveals the ways in which ethnic, racial, class, gender, and sexual differences shape our conceptions of American identity. In this class we will explore the narrative practices of Latinas, paying special attention to the ways in which their poems, short stories, novels, and theoretical essays have given voice to their differential locations within the discourses of American identity and culture. Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: No Data Given. Waitlist Code: 1 AMCULT 260 / HISTORY 260. Religion in America. Section 001. Instructor(s): Prerequisites & Distribution: Hist. 160 and 161 are recommended but not required. (3). (HU). Credits: (3). Course Homepage: No homepage submitted. See History 260.001. Check Times, Location, and Availability Cost: No Data Given. Waitlist Code: No Data Given. This page was created at 12:05 PM on Thu, Oct 4, 2001. University of Michigan | College of LS&A | Student Academic Affairs | First-Year Handbook | First-Year Information | Parent Handbook | LS&A Bulletin This page maintained by LS&A Academic Information and Publications, 1228 Angell Hall Copyright © 2001 The Regents of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA +1 734 764-1817 Trademarks of the University of Michigan may not be electronically or otherwise altered or separated from this document or used for any non-University purpose.