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.