Grad seminar in race and racism

Grad. students will all want to check out Tanya Golash-Boza's seminar for spring, which will provide outstanding interdisciplinary background in the study of race and racism. She says:

In “Contemporary Race and Racisms,” we will read in history, sociology, anthropology, and ethnic studies about the formation of the idea of race and the reproduction of racial hierarchies at the individual and institutional levels. By beginning with the creation of the idea of race in the seventeenth century by Enlightenment scholars, we will learn how the idea of race was created by Europeans, and, consequently, was created to benefit Europeans. Students also will perceive that the benefits accrued to Europeans and their descendants through racial ideologies is constant – even as the idea of race changes over the centuries. This class has at its core the importance of the idea of race in the contemporary United States. We will focus on themes such as mass incarceration, color-blind racism, racial inequality in the education system, racial differences in wealth and income, and how race, class, gender and sexuality work together to define social boundaries in our society.

Readings will include:
Audrey Smedley (2007) Race in North America
Stephen Gould (1996) Mismeasure of Man
Ian Haney-Lopez (2006) White by Law
Matthew Frye-Jacobson (1999) Whiteness of a Different Color
Omi and Winant (1986) Racial Formations
Oliver and Shapiro (2006) Black Wealth/White Wealth
Michele Alexander (2010) The New Jim Crow
Devah Pager (2009) Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration
Ann Arnett Ferguson (2001) Bad Boys
Prudence Carter (2007) Keepin’ It Real
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva (2009) Racism without Racists
Patricia Hill Collins (2005) Black Sexual Politics.

Asian Women in Diaspora

Our colleague Ayu Saraswati has passed on the flyer for her course, which will be a great one for AMS majors interested in these transnational questions of identity and gender. Click on the image to see it big.

Spring courses available

The American Studies course guide for spring 2011 can now be accessed as a pdf here. Check this space for additions, flyers, etc.

Places available in honors course

There are still seats open in AMS 112 American Identities- Honors for fall. This will be an outstanding opportunity to work in a small-class setting with veteran AMS instructor Dr. Ray Pence. Click on the flyer for more.

AMS 550 in the summer- focus on sport

AMS majors will know that 550 is the capstone course in our program. AMS 550 provides every student with experience in doing research, and incorporates material on a particular theme depending on the instructor of the course. This summer, AMS 550 will be offered with the theme "Sports and American Culture," taught by Will Bishop. Since the fall section of AMS 550 is about full, if you are planning on graduating in 2010-11, you should seriously consider taking 550 in the summer. Click the flyer for details.

Study popular music this summer

More details on our summer offerings: doctoral student Pete Williams will be teaching AMS 100, which he calls the "popular music edition":

This course will introduce you to four major topics common to American Studies—nation, culture, difference, and power—as they relate to American popular music, past and present. Our studies of jazz, rap, country, rock, reggae, banda, punk, and other music will highlight the ways America is, and has always been, a continual negotiation among disparate voices, an interplay of dominant and marginal sounds that produces both harmony and discord. We’ll look at the many ways music plays into struggles over just what America is and just who is an American. You’ll be asked to participate through discussion, readings, short writing assignments, and a group project.

Click the flyer for more!

Chancellor Emeritus to teach for AMS

Chancellor Emeritus Robert Hemenway has joined the AMS faculty to offer a course this fall in Sport and Higher Education! Seating is extremely limited. Click the flyer for more.

New graduate course: US Ethnography

This new seminar on contemporary ethnographic research in the United States is open to all graduate students at KU. Ben Chappell, an anthropologist on the AMS faculty, has developed this course to help students prepare for their own field studies, write up completed research, or engage the ethnographic literature in an interdisciplinary project. Click the flyer for more.

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

AMS maintains a strong relationship with the program in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. This summer we will cross-list two courses taught by our graduate students in WGSS. Milton Wendland will offer Lesbian and Gay Cultures in the U.S. at the Edwards campus- click the flyer above for more. Back in Lawrence, Chris Robinson will offer Gender in American Popular Music. Chris says:

This course will examine the importance of, and the roles that gender, femininity and masculinity have played in shaping numerous aspects of 20th Century American popular music. We will study gender in relation to hip hop and rap, rock, country music, jazz, blues, and other genres. Central to this course will be how gender roles and perceptions are socially constructed and perpetuated in American culture. The intersectionality of race and gender will also play a central part in this course. This course will also place gender, masculinity and femininity in social and historical context. Power, politics and economics also play crucial roles in shaping the discourse surrounding musicians, their music, and American cultural conceptions of gender. This interdisciplinary course will draw on methods, disciplines and approaches including history, musicology, gender and race theory, English, African American Studies, Jazz Studies, semiotics and material culture studies.

Both courses are listed as AMS 344.

AMS rolling out new courses

Students and friends of AMS, be sure to check this space for announcements of new courses for the coming academic year.

Graduate Seminar in American Art and Culture

Once again, AMS is fortunate to offer a graduate course from renowned scholar and Hall Distinguished Professor of American Art and Culture Charles C. Eldredge. Click the flyer for details, and please contact the Professor for admission to this class.

Transnational Experience in American Literature

Joyce and Elizabeth Hall Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Culture Susan K. Harris pursues the theme of "transnational experience" through diverse periods, literary genres, and ethnic groups in her course on immigrant literature for Fall 2010. Open to undergraduate or graduate students. Click the flyer for more.

Literature of the South at either Lawrence or Edwards campus

New for fall 2010- we will be offering Cheryl Lester's AMS 696 Literature of the South as a "bi-cam" course- click on the flyer for a bigger view. The bi-cam format means that the course will be taught on the Lawrence campus, but linked to the Edwards campus via webcam. Whichever campus is closer, don't miss this chance to delve into the conflicted cultural and political history of the American south through literature.

Open to graduates and undergraduates!

New opportunities for Intro to AMS

We have opened two new sections of AMS 100-Introduction to American Studies. This is a principal course in Humanities, and a major requirement. The new sections follow an unusual schedule by meeting Mondays and Fridays only, and are taught by AMS doctoral student Stephanie Krehbiel. Stephanie's focus for the course will be to

use the lens of religion to explore some of these themes prevalent in American Studies. Using material ranging from ethnography to fiction, we will examine the role that religion plays in shaping individual identity, group identity, and our understanding of the meaning of America.

Enroll! Tell your friends!

Graduate Writing Courses available

Grad students, don't miss these opportunities:

Graduate Writing Support Program courses offered Spring 2010:

GS 700: Thesis and Dissertation Writing Class
GS 710: Thesis and Dissertation Tutorials
GS 720: Grant Proposal Writing
GS 730: Professional Publications
GS 750: Professional Writing
GS 750: Professional Writing for SPED students

Applied English Center courses offered Spring 2010:

ESLP 124: Professional Writing for Graduate Students
AEC 082: Classroom Communication for International Teaching Assistants

More info here: http://web.ku.edu/~gwsp/