Graduate course in Native American literature and criticism

Check out the latest cross-listing in AMS graduate courses, from Prof. Stephanie Fitzgerald:

ENGL 790/AMS 808: Studies in: Native American Renaissance 1968-Present.
In 1969, American Indian writing burst into the American literary consciousness with the awarding of the Pulitzer Prize to N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa) for his novel House Made of Dawn. Taking its title from a Navajo chantway and fusing Native oral traditions with modernist techniques, it forever changed the course of American Indian writing. Since the landmark publication of Momaday’s novel, the field of American Indian literatures has grown exponentially. In essence, this course provides an overview of the construction of the field itself. We will focus on contemporary Native fiction and poetry from the “Native American Renaissance,” a movement than runs roughly from 1968 to 1983, into the 21st century along with an examination of current critical approaches and key debates in the field. Along with Momaday, primary texts may include those by Leslie Marmon Silko, Joy Harjo, Louise Erdrich, James Welch, and Craig Womack, among others. Secondary texts will cover key debates over Native nationalism, cosmopolitanism and ethnocriticism from critics such as Craig Womack, Robert Allen Warrior, Jace Weaver, Gerald Vizenor and Paula Gunn Allen.

Seminar on New Media

Over in History of Art, John Pultz has invited graduate students and advanced undergraduates to check out his spring seminar in new media. What's it about? you may ask.

...historical, critical, cultural, technical, and aesthetic issues surrounding new media beginning as early as the 1960s to the present. Lens based, digital, and electronic art forms will be considered, including but not limited to video art, computer art, digital art, light art & projections, digital photography, and art film.

Are you sold yet? Enough said. Click on the flyer.

Know your history- now at a new time

Join AMS core faculty member and historian Jacob Dorman on this trip through over 100 years of American culture. Don't know much about history? Maybe what you need is this:

An examination of the major historical shifts, trends, and conflicts that have shaped the polycultural nature of life in the United States from 1877 to the present. In addition to tracing developments in literature, architecture, drama, music, and the visual arts, this course will investigate patterns and changes in the popular, domestic, and material culture of everyday life in America. Topics covered will include: African American cultures; circuses and world’s fairs; minstrelsy, ragtime, blues, jazz, and rock-and-roll music; the Holiness, Pentecostal, and evangelical movements; the rise of film, radio, and television; the growth of consumerism, suburbia, and urban ghettos; the advent of Cold War anticommunists and Beat Generation rebels; changing perceptions of gender, race, religion, and sexuality; the long 1960s; the civil rights, women’s liberation, and neoconservative movements; as well as war’s impact on American culture.

This course was recently rescheduled, so check the latest time.

Bring the Funk in Spring 2010

American Studies is delighted to cross-list a new course from a new member of the KU faculty, Anthony Bolden's Theory and Practice of Funk (AMS 696/AAAS 523/AAAS 723). Meeting Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:00-4:15, this course can be taken for undergraduate or graduate credit. Here's how Prof. Bolden describes the course:

A multi-disciplinary course that examines the conceptual foundations of the theory and practice of funk. Employing a wide array of materials, including dance criticism, musicology, literature, and interviews, we will examine the aesthetic characteristics, philosophical principles, and performance practices associated with funk. Although most people tend to conceptualize funk in terms of the dance bands of James Brown, Sly Stone, George Clinton, and others, the earliest references to funk in English came from blues dancers and musicians near the turn of the twentieth century, and there is evidence to suggest that funk is a concept that survived the Middle Passage. As such, funk (or the funk impulse) is a fundamental element of virtually all black musical genres; it predates such terms as hot, swing, and soul, which seem to be synonyms of funk. How do we, then, account for the privileged space that funk occupies in the history of black vernacular performance? How do we document its presence and examine its cultural impact? Important clues can be found in the area of dance. And since the funk impulse is reflected most vividly in kinetic expression, especially dancing, the class will adopt George Clinton’s premise that if it makes you move your feet, “it’s the Funk.” Beginning with traditional African religions, we will examine the central role dancing played in possession rituals, and devote considerable attention to manifestations of this impulse in spirituals, blues, swing, soul, funk, and hip hop.

AMS majors who are pursuing a concentration that needs a little more funk in it should consult their advisors about whether this course would fit. You may contact Prof. Bolden for more information.

Last minute graduate addition!

AMS is cross-listing one more graduate seminar for this fall- AMS 998 Sociology of Race. Jessica Vasquez, our friend in the Sociology Department, will bring her expertise in theories of race and the Latino/a experience in the U.S. to this seminar. If you are a grad student in need of another class, don't miss it!

Graduate Course Available for Fall

AMS 803 Research Methods in American Studies
Program in American Studies, KU
Prof. Ben Chappell
Mondays, 4:30-7:00 pm.
Requires: graduate standing

A limited number of seats for non-AMS students are available in this course, which is a core requirement for the MA and PhD in American Studies. The course is a critical and theoretically informed consideration of qualitative methods in interdisciplinary cultural research. Taught by an anthropologist, the course emphasizes issues raised by ethnography-- that is, the epistemological, political, and ethical questions that come up when the subjects of cultural inquiry are living human beings, and the process of inquiry places the researcher in relationship with them. More generally, our concern is how to design a project such that the actual practice of research responds to the motivating questions in ways that are significant, appropriate, and feasible. Assignments are geared toward giving students practice in the professional genres of academic writing, including conference papers and proposals for research funding. The course is recommended for graduate students pursuing research in area studies, cultural studies, and other disciplinary or interdisciplinary formations across the humanities and social sciences.

Research seminar focuses on social movements

AMS 550, Research Seminar, is the capstone course of the AMS major. The course combines a topical focus reflecting the instructor's expertise with individual projects that allow students to pursue advanced research in their own areas of interest. This fall the course will focus on struggles for equality and justice in American history with the theme "Social History and Social Movements." Dr. Ray Pence, a graduate of the KU Ph.D. program will be your guide. Majors, don't miss this chance to satisfy a graduation requirement while developing your research skills and exploring how history has been not only written, but made. For permission numbers, contact the AMS office.