American Studies offers an alternative approach to the study of American experience for students who feel too limited by departmental approaches. Lower division, introductory classes explore the ways in which cultural systems shape and reflect life in the United States. These classes pay close attention to the ways in which differences of class, race, gender, generation, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation unevenly affect American lives.
The Program. American Studies majors take five upper division, in-depth classes and participate in three smaller proseminars limited to majors and devoted to close study of major thinkers and of issues crucial to the practice of American Studies. Advanced work in at least two other departments or programs allows each student to emphasize a period, a problem, or a subject tailored to his or her own individual education goals. Students have the option of writing a senior thesis within this emphasis.
Career Alternatives. As an interdisciplinary program, American Studies provides a good liberal arts and sciences undergraduate education. American Studies maximizes a student's contact with a variety of subject matter and approaches. Graduates have moved into a broad range of career settings, including journalism, law, medicine, nursing, law enforcement, teaching, environmental planning, library science, museum curatorship, and business. Some students discover new career possibilities through their internships in American institutions.
| UNITS | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preparatory Subject Matter | 24 | |
| One lower division American Studies course | 4 | |
| One course from African American and African Studies 10, Asian American Studies 1, Chicana/o Studies 10 or 50, or Native American Studies 10 | 4 | |
| One course from Women's Studies 20, 50, 70 | 4 | |
| Two courses from History 17A, 17B, 72A, 72B | 8 | |
| One course from English 30A, 30B | 4 | |
| Depth Subject Matter | 44 | |
| American Studies 100, 111, 115, 120, and 160 | 20 | |
| American Cultural Themes, choose any two courses from the 130, 140, or 150 series | 8 | |
| Emphasis In consultation with an American Studies adviser, the student designs a program of 16 units of upper division course work around a unifying theme, period, or subject matter in American cultures. The course work should come from at least two disciplines or interdisciplinary programs. The student may choose the senior thesis option (190A-190B) for 8 of these 16 units. | 16 | |
| Total Units for the Major | 68 | |
Recommended
Completion of the College requirement in English composition before enrollment in American Studies 190A.
| UNITS | ||
|---|---|---|
| American Studies | 20 | |
| American Studies, upper division courses
No more than 8 units of course 192 may be counted toward this total. | 20 | |
Faculty Advisers. C. Blair, R. Frankenberg, J. Mechling, K. Ono.
Teaching Credential Subject Representative. J. Mechling. See also the Teacher Education Program.
| Upper Division Courses | Graduate Courses | Professional Courses |
*Course not offered this academic year.
General Education (GE) credit: ArtHum = Arts and Humanities; SciEng = Science and Engineering; SocSci = Social Sciences; Div = Social-Cultural Diversity; Wrt = Writing Experience. Select this link to information on the General Education requirement.
*1A. Technology, Science, and American Culture (4) III. Mechling
Lecture--3 hours; discussion--1 hour. American science and technology as cultural systems, mutual influence and interaction of those systems with other cultural systems, including religion, social thought, art, architecture, literature, music, and common sense. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div, Wrt.
*1B. Religion in American Lives (4) I. Frankenberg, Mechling
Lecture--3 hours; discussion--1 hour. Religions and spiritual practices in the United States, and their interrelationships with other aspects of U.S. history, society and culture; indigenous and imported faiths, and the impact of immigration, colonization and culture contact on religious systems. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div, Wrt.
1C. American Lives through Autobiography (4) II. Turner
Lecture--2 hours; discussion--2 hours. American culture as understood through the individual life stories told by Americans, with attention to the roles of gender, race, ethnicity, social class, and sexual orientation in the individual's life course. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div, Wrt.
*1E. Nature and Culture in America (4) III. The Staff
Lecture--3 hours; fieldwork--3 hours. Uses and abuses of nature in America; patterns of inhabitation, exploitation, appreciation, and neglect; attention to California; emphasis on metaphor as a key to understanding ourselves and the natural world; attention to models of healing: stewardship, ecology, the "rights" movement. Offered in alternate years. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div, Wrt.
*1F. The Popular Image of Women in America (4) II. Blair
Lecture--2 hours; discussion--1 hour; directed analysis of popular media. Lecture; media exposure; special projects. Examines the image of women as presented in popular media. Emphasis on the politics of gender roles and the connection between the popular feminine image and the demands of the larger American culture.
*2. Forms of American Wisdom (2) III. Mechling
Lecture--1 hour; discussion--1 hour. Exploration of the forms wisdom takes in America: folk knowledge, popular belief, prophetic wisdom, public religion, common sense, science, literature; special attention to the grounding of wisdom in circumstance of race, gender, generation, ethnic identity, and region. (P/NP grading only.)
*4. Freshman Seminar (2) II, III. The Staff (Program Director in charge)
Seminar--2 hours. Prerequisite: open only to students who have completed fewer than 40 quarter units. Investigation of a special topic in American Studies through shared readings, discussions, written assignments, and special activities (such as fieldwork, site visits). Emphasis on student participation in learning. Limited enrollment.
5. Technology in American Lives (4) I. Mechling
Lecture--2 hours; discussion--2 hours. Prerequisite: completion of Subject A requirement. Technology as both a material cultural force and a symbol in American culture; the lives of engineers at work and play; images of the engineer and technology in popular culture; social political and ethical issues raised by technology. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Wrt.
30. Images of America and Americans in Popular Culture (4) I. Blair
Lecture--3 hours; discussion--1 hour. Investigation of verbal and visual discourses about American identity in various popular culture products, including film, television, radio, music, fiction, art, advertising, and commercial experiences; discourses about the United States in the popular culture of other societies. Offered in alternate years. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div, Wrt.
98. Directed Group Study (1-5) I, II, III. The Staff (Chairperson in Charge)
Prerequisite: consent of instructor. Primarily for lower division students. (P/NP grading only.)
99. Individual Study for Undergraduates (1-5) I, II, III. The Staff (Chairperson in charge)
(P/NP grading only.)
100. Interdisciplinary Skills (4) I. Frankenberg, Staff
Lecture/discussion--3 hours; term paper. Design and implementation of interdisciplinary research, analysis and writing for American Studies and other cultural studies fields. Library and Internet research skills, project/problem definition, methods of study of texts, individuals, communities. Hands-on, skill-building, focused reading, discussion.
*101A-H. Special Topics (4) I, II, III. The Staff (Chairperson in charge)
Seminar--3 hours, intensive reading, writing, and special projects. Interdisciplinary group study of special topics in American Culture Studies, designed for non-majors as well as majors. Content will vary according to the instructor and in accord with the following titles: (A) Popular Culture Studies; (B) Women's Studies; (C) Material Aspects of American Culture; (D) American National Character; (E) American Lives Through Autobiography; (F) The Interrelationship Between Arts and Ideas; (G) New Directions in American Culture Studies; (H) Problems in Cross-Cultural American Studies. May be repeated for credit in different subject area only.
110. A Decade in American Civilization (4) I. Schroeder
Lecture--2 hours; discussion--2 hours. Prerequisite: one of courses 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E or 1F. Close examination of a single decade in American civilization; the connections between the history, literature, arts, customs, and ideas of Americans living in the decade. Issues and representations of race, class, gender, age, and sexuality in the decade. May be repeated for credit if decades studied are different. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div, Wrt.
111. Theories and Practices of Everyday Life in the United States (4) I. Ono
Lecture--3 hours; discussion--1 hour. Prerequisite: upper division status; preparatory courses for the American Studies major or the equivalent interdisciplinary experience. Introduction to the cultural studies theories and to critical practices that seek to understand everyday life in the United States, with special attention to uncovering the vernacular theories governing these practices.
115. Living in Bodies: Body Politics in the United States (4) II. Frankenberg
Lecture--3 hours; discussion--1 hour. Prerequisite: upper division status; preparatory courses for the American Studies major or the equivalent interdisciplinary experience. Examination of human bodies as sites for cultural constructions of identities and "selves" in the United States; attention to bodily norms, crises, and transgressions; the relation between disciplining the body and controlling social categories, including race, gender, class and sexualities.
120. American Folklore and Folklife (4) III. Mechling
Lecture--3 hours; fieldwork--1 hour. Theory and method of the study of American folk traditions, including oral lore, customs, music, and material folk culture; the uses and meanings of those traditions in various folk communities, including families, ethnic institutions, voluntary organizations, and occupational groups GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div, Wrt.
*125. Corporate Cultures (4) III. The Staff
Lecture--2 hours; discussion--1 hour; fieldwork--1 hour. Prerequisite: one course chosen from course 120, Anthropology 2, Psychology 16, or Sociology 1; or consent of instructor. Exploration of the small group cultures of American corporate workplaces, including the role of environment, stories, jokes, rituals, ceremonies, personal style, and play. The effects of cultural diversity upon corporate cultures, both from within and in contact with foreign corporations.
130. American Popular Culture (4) II. Blair
Lecture/discussion--3 hours; fieldwork--1 hour. Prerequisite: course 1 or upper division standing. American popular expression and experience as a cultural system, and the relationship between this system and elite and folk cultures. Exploration of theories and methods for discovering and interpreting patterns of meaning in American popular culture. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div, Wrt.
*132. Critical Approaches to Media Culture (4) II. Ono
Lecture/discussion--4 hours; film viewing--2 hours. Critical approaches to the study of contemporary media culture, focusing specifically on film, television, computer, and print media and their products and on the various interrelationships between media and U.S. culture. Offered in alternate years. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div, Wrt.
133. Rhetoric of Media on Social Issues (4) III. Ono
Lecture/discussion--4 hours. An introduction to rhetorical analysis of social issues as depicted within media culture, with specific emphasis on the way media frame messages about new social problems. Not open to students who have taken Rhetoric and Communication 124. Offered in alternate years. GE credit: SocSci, Div, Wrt.
*139. Feminist Cultural Studies (4) III. Frankenberg
Lecture/discussion--4 hours. Prerequisite: one course in Women's Studies or American Studies. The histories, theories, and practices of feminist traditions within cultural studies. (Same course as Women's Studies 139.) GE credit: SocSci, Div, Wrt.
*151. American Landscapes and Places (4) II. Blair
Lecture--2 hours; discussion--1 hour; fieldwork--3 hours. Prerequisite: course 1, upper division standing. Comparative study of several American cultural populations inhabiting a region, including their relationship to a shared biological, physical, and social environment, their intercultural relations, and their relationships to the dominant American popular and elite culture and folk traditions. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div, Wrt.
152. The Lives of Children in America (4) III. Mechling
Lecture--2 hours; discussion--2 hours. Experience of childhood and adolescence in American culture, as understood through historical, literary, artistic, and social scientific approaches. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div, Wrt.
*153. The Individual and Community in America (4) II. Frankenberg
Lecture--2 hours; discussion--2 hours. Interdisciplinary examination of past and present tensions between the individual and the community in American experience, as those tensions are expressed in such cultural systems as folklore, public ritual, popular entertainment, literature, fine arts, architecture, and social thought. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div, Wrt.
*154. The Lives of Men in America (4) I. Mechling
Lecture--2 hours; discussion--2 hours. Interdisciplinary examination of the lives of boys and men in America, toward understanding cultural definitions of masculinity, the ways individuals have accepted or resisted these definitions, and the broader consequences of the struggle over the social construction of gender. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div, Wrt.
*155. Symbols and Rituals in American Life (4) III. Mechling
Lecture--2 hours; discussion--2 hours. Prerequisite: course 1. Interdisciplinary examination of selected, richly expressive events (parades, festivals, holidays) and symbols (flags, memorials, temples) which encode nationwide values and understandings (Thanksgiving, New Year's, etc.) or which realize more limited, special meanings (Mardi Gras, rodeo, Kwanza, graduation, bar mitzvah, etc.). Offered in alternate years. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div, Wrt.
*156. Race, Culture and Society in the United States (4) II. Frankenberg
Lecture--2 hours; discussion--2 hours. Prerequisite: course 1. Interdisciplinary examination of the significance of race in the making of America; how race shapes culture, identities and social processes in the United States; the interweaving of race with gender, class and nationhood in self and community. GE credit: ArtHum or SocSci, Div, Wrt.
160. Undergraduate Seminar in American Studies (4) II, III. Schroeder, Mechling
Seminar--3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: open to junior and senior American Studies majors only. Intensive reading, discussion, research, and writing by small groups in selected topics of American Studies scholarship; emphasis on theory and its application to American material. Limited enrollment. May be repeated once for credit when content differs.
*180. Junior Proseminar (2) I, II, III. Mechling, Turner, Frankenberg
Discussion--2 hours. Prerequisite: junior standing in American Studies major. A small-group, intensive study of works frequently cited in American Studies scholarship; emphasis on theory and its application to American materials. May be repeated for credit with consent of instructor.
190A. Senior Thesis Research Seminar (4) I. Blair
Seminar--2 hours; extensive writing. Prerequisite: senior standing in American Studies major. Research and prospectus writing for senior thesis.
190B. Senior Thesis (4) I, II, III. Mechling, Turner, Frankenberg, Blair, Ono
Independent study--12 hours. Prerequisite: senior standing in American Studies major and course 190A. In consultation with advisor, student writes an extended research paper on a topic proposed in course 190A.
192. Internship in American Institutions (1-12) I, II, III. The Staff (Chairperson in charge)
Internship--1-12 hours. Prerequisite: enrollment dependent on availability of intern positions, with priority to American Studies majors. Supervised internship and study within and about key organizations in American civilization at archives, museums, schools, historical societies, governmental and social agencies, etc., with attention to the techniques of participant observation and the collection of ethnographical data. May be repeated for credit for a total of 12 units. (P/ NP grading only.)
197T. Tutoring in American Studies (1-5) I, II, III. The Staff (Chairperson in charge)
Tutorial--1-5 hours. Prerequisite: consent of Chairperson of American Studies Program. Tutoring in lower division American Studies courses, usually in small discussion groups. Periodic meetings with the instructor in charge; reports and readings. May be repeated
for credit when the tutoring is for a different course. (P/NP grading only.)
198. Directed Group Study (1-5) I, II, III. The Staff (Chairperson in charge)
Prerequisite: consent of instructor. (P/NP grading only.)
199. Special Study for Advanced Undergraduates (1-5) I, II, III. The Staff (Chairperson in charge)
Prerequisite: consent of instructor and Chairperson of American Studies Program. (P/NP grading only)
*207. The Critical Study of Whiteness (4) II. Frankenberg
Seminar--4 hours. Prerequisite: Graduate standing in social science, humanities, arts, or cultural studies. Critical study of the emergence and significance of the social and racial status "whiteness" and its cultural practices. The colonial context for emergence of whiteness, its centrality to class, race, gender formation, and to social, cultural, legal, and educational processes. Offered in alternate years.
*220. American Folklore and Folklife (4) III. Mechling, Turner
Seminar--3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: graduate standing or consent of instructor. Theory and methods for the study of the folklore and the folk customary behavior of Americans; contributions of folklore studies to scholarship in humanities and social science disciplines.
298. Group Study (1-5) I, II, III. The Staff (Chairperson in charge)
Prerequisite: consent of instructor. (S/U grading only.)
299. Individual Study (1-12) I, II, III. The Staff (Chairperson in charge)
Prerequisite: consent of instructor. (S/U grading only.)
396. Teaching Assistant Training Practicum
(1-4) I, II, III. The Staff (Chairperson in charge)
Prerequisite: graduate standing. May be repeated for credit. (S/U grading only.)
UC Davis 1999-2000 Online General Catalog. Posted July 30, 1999.
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Molly Theodossy, Keitha Hunter and Barbara Anderson, Editors
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