Jewish American Pop Culture in the summer

Check out this intensive summer course, good for your popular culture concentration or general mind expansion. Professor Henry Bial, author of Acting Jewish: Negotiating Ethnicity on the American Stage and Screen, presides. Here is his description of the course:



AMS 344 / THR 380 / JWSH 300 -- Jewish American Pop Culture
MTWRF 11:30 am - 1:30 pm -- June 7 - July 1 (first four weeks of Summer session)

This course explores the dramatic and theatrical strategies used by Jewish American writers, directors, and actors to negotiate Jewish identity on the American stage and screen over the last 100 years. In addition to discussing the functions of these specific representations, we will also examine the performance-driven quality of identity in general. In what ways can Jewishness be viewed as a theatrical construction, both on and off the stage and screen? Our primary objects of study will be drawn from film and television, but we will also consider theatre, music, stand-up comedy, and the internet. Specific titles under consideration may include: Fiddler on the Roof, Seinfeld, Oklahoma!, The Jazz Singer, Family Guy, Annie Hall, Diary of Anne Frank, Angels in America, The Hebrew Hammer, The Goldbergs, Death of a Salesman, Gentleman’s Agreement, Licensed to Ill, A Serious Man, The Nanny.

New AMS 332 online-- take it this summer from wherever

This summer our very own Ray Pence is offering AMS 332-United States in Global Context in a new, online form. This is a core course in our major and meets a social science distribution requirement. Work at your own pace, and from a distance if you're not in Lawrence. If you are self-motivated and need AMS 332, consider taking the online version. Dr. Pence's description:

UNITED STATES IN GLOBAL CONTEXT ONLINE (USGCO)

AMERICAN STUDIES – SOCIOLOGY 332

SUMMER 2011 (8 week session, June 7 – July 29 2011)

Teacher: Ray Pence, Ph.D.

USGCO looks at how war shapes relationships among the United States and other nations. The course covers a sixty-year period starting with the Cold War and continuing to the present Wars on Terror.

Although war is the main course theme, this is not a class about military battles and strategies. Nor is the class a survey that requires comprehensive knowledge of all major leaders and events during the period under study.

Instead, USGCO looks at historical, social, and cultural impacts of these wars on individuals and groups in the US and elsewhere. Here is a sample of topics:

· Cold war competition between the US and former Soviet Union to “hunt Nazi scientists”

· Impact of the Korean War on 1950s America and on video games of the 21^st century

· Cuba’s sex industry in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union

· Martin Luther King, Jr. and his opposition to the Vietnam War

· Vietnam in the 21^st century: A country, not a war

· The importance of music and poetry in understanding the Vietnam War

· Media portrayals of Pat Tillman in Afghanistan and Jessica Lynch in Iraq

· How US soldiers in Iraq use music and photography to cope with wartime

· The specificity and significance of women soldiers’ experiences in Iraq

· Barack Obama’s perspectives on Afghanistan before and after becoming President

All readings and resources USGCO will be available online. There are no books or supplies to purchase.

Students will write four papers, each with a 500-word minimum.

The course has two exams: a midterm based on the first two units and a final based on the third and fourth units.

Students may work through the course at their own pace but must complete tasks in the sequence they are presented.

To qualify for taking the midterm exam, students must complete their papers for Units 1 and 2.

To qualify for taking the final exam, students must complete the midterm exam and their papers for Units 3 and 4.

New Course- Black Men in America

AMS professor and undergraduate director Randal Jelks is offering a new course in the fall, focusing on Black Men in America. Click the flyer for more!

power: on/off

History of the Black Power Movement

Another great offering from our friends downstairs at Bailey Hall: African and African American Studies will offer the History of the Black Power Movement taught by Shawn Alexander. This course is available to both advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Look for it under AMS 696. Click the image for a flyer.

Hip-hop Studies

AAAS professor and friend of AMS Tony Bolden is offering a course in hip-hop studies this fall, which will be crosslisted with AMS 696. This course is open to both undergraduate and graduate students- click the image for a flyer.

Gender & Popular Music this summer

More detail on Chris Robinson's summer course:

WGSS 396: Studies in Gender and American Popular Music
Notions of what it means to be a man or woman, what is considered masculine or feminine, and a musician’s gender, sexuality and race dictate not only how a musician constructs and perceives his or her own music and image, but also how the American public, their fans and the music industry perceive and accept or disavow the musician and their music. 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. Central to this course will be how gender roles and perceptions have been socially constructed and perpetuated in American culture. The intersectionality of race and gender will also play a central part in this course. As common gender paradigms change over time this course will place gender, masculinity and femininity in social and historical context to better understand the cultural processes at work. In addition to gender, power, politics and economics play crucial roles in shaping the discourse surrounding musicians, their music, and American cultural conceptions of gender. This interdisciplinary course will draw on disciplines, methods and approaches that include history, musicology, gender and race theory, English, African American Studies, Jazz Studies, semiotics and material culture studies.

More summer course options

AMS will cross-list two courses with Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies taught by our very own graduate students, Rachel Vaughn and Chris Robinson. Look for these as sections of AMS 344 on the summer schedule:

Rachel will teach Public Health, Sanitation & the Body in the June term, ending July 1. The class meets daily from 2:10-4:20.

Chris will teach Gender & Popular Music during the July term, from July 5-27. This course meets from 4:10-7:00 Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday only, at the Edward Campus in the Kansas City area.

Either course would be an excellent addition to a related AMS major concentration- don't forget, you can also get junior-senior hours while treating yourself to instruction from some of American Studies' finest.

AMS 100 available for summer

Funding has been approved for a full slate of summer courses at AMS, including the lover-level cores. Get started or catch up on the major requirements, or get your Humanities distribution credit with AMS 100 Introduction to American Studies. Click the flyer for a closer look at GTA Jordan Wade's version of the course.

AMS will be offered in two sections- one that meets only June 7-July 1, and the other that meets only in July. Each course meets for two hours a day.

For more summer offerings, check http://classes.ku.edu.

Art and Popular Culture of Kansas

Continuing the tradition of innovative, interdisciplinary cross-lists, AMS is proud to add to our schedule a collaboration by an all-star team of affiliated facutly members including Charles Eldredge (History of Art), Chuck Berg (Film and Media Studies), and Jonathan Earle (History).

"Art and Popular Culture of Kansas" will be offered in fall, Mondays from 2:30 to 5:00 under the AMS 696 number. Click the flyer for a closer view.

New Course- Film Noir

Once again for fall 2011, Film and Media Studies faculty member and friend of AMS Ron Wilson will expand our offerings with a cross-listed course, Film Noir. Here's what Dr. Wilson has to say about the topic:

Murder. Lust. Greed. These are just some of the themes that characterize film noir, one of the most resilient genres in the history of cinema. And yet film noir—a category of film associated with a cycle of films that emerged in the 1940s—is defined by more than just such themes; it’s also characterized by a particular visual style and narrative structure that reflect the social, political, and cinematic context of the period. In this course we will watch a variety of noir films in order to consider film noir’s literary roots, its cinematic antecedents, its status as a genre and its enduring appeal. Questions about genre, visual style, narrative form, sexuality, gender, and American national identity will inform readings, lectures, and discussions.The course meets Mondays from 2:00-5:20.

Find it on the schedule under AMS 696.