AMST 295 Topics in American Studies

Latino/a Experience:

This course will explore the history and experience of Latino/a immigrants in the United States paying particular attention to how race ethnicity identity politics class and gender influence the lives of Latino/a immigrants. We will also examine how they have influenced historical developments in different regions of the country especially in terms of U.S. demographics. 

Black Literary History and the Archive: 

Black Literary History and the Archive Description: How do we resurrect the lives of people who were considered unimportant those whose contributions were dismissed and buried? What does the existing historical archive tell us about what is considered valuable and about what constitutes "memory"? This class examines the lives of two of the most important nineteenth-century Black women writers Harriet Jacobs and Harriet Wilson as a means to develop the tools of literary recovery. As we expand the contours of the historical canon we will also reflect on our own sense of the scope and shape of African American historical memory and the ways in which we organize history. How do we interpret religion resistance and labor activities that that fall "outside" of the most recognized narratives about African American experience? This class will take on these larger questions as we also engage in archival work in newspapers census records and beyond. 

African American Literature: Race/Gender/Sexuality: 

This course is designed as a survey of African American literature. We will examine a multitude of genres including oral forms (spirituals ballads work songs) poetry fiction drama and essays by authors such as Phillis Wheatley David Walker Sojourner Truth Frederick Douglass Booker T. Washington Ida B. Wells W.E.B. DuBois Langston Hughes Nella Larson Zora Neale Hurston Jean Toomer Jessie R. Faucet Claude McKay Richard Wright Ralph Ellison James Baldwin Ann Petry and Gwendolyn Brooks. Beyond strictly a "greatest hits" or "major authors" course this class will also consider the ways African American writers interrogate complex categories of personal identity which requires an in-depth investigation into the intersections of race gender sexuality and socioeconomic class. Through lectures class discussions and student presentations we will highlight the critical impact of African American literature on American culture.