Courses

21:050:200 Introduction to American Studies (3)
An interdisciplinary survey of the culture of the United States.

21:050:202 Race and Ethnicity in the United States (3)
Introduction to the field of critical race and ethnic studies. The course examines ethnic and racial identities, and how they are produced, maintained, reinforced, and transformed. It considers how ethnicity and race intersect with class, gender, citizenship, and sexuality. Topics will include: imperial expansion, identity, community, production of racial knowledge, migration and displacement, and forms of belonging and non-belonging.

21:050:211 Newark Community Activism (3)
In our highly colonized, late capitalist world marked by massive environmental destruction we all have needs that aren’t being met; from lack of access to housing, food, and safety to the absence of deeply connective relationships. This reality can feel overwhelming, paralyzing, and depressing, but alternative ways of being, living, and collectively supporting each other exist in communities across the world. In this unusual learning space organized by the Humanities Action Lab, we will learn about radically different ways of moving through our lives from mutual aid practitioners, environmental justice organizers, and Indigenous lifeways. All participants in this space will act as teachers and learners to develop and expand accountable, transformative, and community-centered pedagogies and practices that challenge what teaching and practicing justice-centered public history can and should be. Along the way, we’ll create, share, and explore multi-media hyperlocal narratives that explore the historical roots of current problems and imagine alternative visions for the future that center around mutual aid and community care. These narratives may either be drawn from, or contribute to, existing Humanities Action Lab projects such as Climates of Inequality, States of Incarceration, and the Rikers Public Memory Project, as well as through collaboration with local Newark mutual aid groups, projects, and practitioners.

21:050:245 The Asian American Experience (3)
Introduction to major themes in Asian American studies through U.S. national and transnational frameworks as it examines historical and contemporary issues that shape the diverse lives and experiences of Asian Americans.

21:050:250 Core Topics in American Studies (3)
Course topics will vary. Course fulfills the "Other Liberal Arts" core curriculum requirement.

21:050:311,312 Popular Culture and the Media (3,3)
Popular arts, attitudes, folklore, and myths in print, broadcast, electronic, and commercial media; relationship of popular culture to vogues, movements, censorship, audience, leisure, politics, business, and technology; content analysis of actual texts, and examples balanced with a survey of theory, history, and criticism.

21:050:391,392 Fieldwork in American Studies (3,3)
Oral history, photographic surveys, historical preservation, or other practical exercises in the collection, analysis, and description of evidence of American culture. The focus is a team project.

21:050:488,489 Topics in American Studies (3,3)
Each semester the course offers a different topic for intensive, interdisciplinary study in a seminar format; seminar paper required. For specific topics in any semester, consult the online schedule of classes.

21:050:498,499 Individual Study in American Studies (3,3)
Supervised arrangement for readings, a research paper, fieldwork, or an internship in such institutions as the New Jersey Historical Commission, the New Jersey Historical Society, the Newark Public Library, or the Newark Museum.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor or program director.

American Studies 050 (SASN)

American Studies 050