1999-2000
(file last updated: [7/6/1999 - 12:56:57])
See History.
(file last updated: [7/6/1999 - 12:56:57])
Objectives
An interdisciplinary approach to the myths, values, symbols, institutions, and behavior of the peoples of the United States and to the questions raised by the influence of the United States in shaping the modern world. The American studies major is designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the history and major features of American civilization. Students anticipating careers in law, business, public policy, communications, education, journalism, teaching, and careers as professors of American studies, history, and literature have typically enrolled in the department. As a sponsor of programs in law, journalism, film studies, and environmental studies, the department welcomes students who seek active engagement with the contemporary world through firm grounding in a sound liberal arts education.
How to Become a Concentrator
Normally students will declare their concentration in their sophomore year. Students are expected to develop an individual plan of study by the end of their sophomore year. Several clusters of courses in the fields of film studies, the environment, family, race and ethnicity, journalism, and legal studies are available to satisfy elective requirements. Seniors wishing to earn departmental honors must write a senior thesis in a full-year course, AMST 99d, taken with one of the faculty members in the department. Special opportunities can be provided for supervised field work and internships. Many concentrators study abroad in their junior year to gain a cross-cultural perspective.
Faculty
Joyce Antler, Chair
Women's history. Social history.
Jacob Cohen, Undergraduate Advising Head
Culture and thought.
Mary Davis
Law and literature.
Thomas Doherty (Chair, Film Studies)
Film and culture.
Brian Donahue (Chair, Environmental Studies)
American environmental studies.
Henry Felt
Documentary film.
Lawrence Fuchs
Ethnicity. Immigration history and policy. Family.
Richard Gaskins (Director, Legal Studies)
Law, social policy, and philosophy.
Laura Goldin
Environmental studies.
Eileen McNamara
Journalism, society, and politics.
Susan Moeller (Director, Journalism Program)
Media and culture. Political and international history.
Daniel Terris
Literature and intellectual history.
Stephen Whitfield
Modern political and cultural history.
Requirements for Concentration
A. AMST 10a (Foundations of American Civilization). Normally students will take 10a in their sophomore year and no later than the fall term of their junior year. Exceptions will be made by a student's advisor along with the approval of the chair.
B. AMST 100a (Classic Texts in the American Experience: Through the Civil War). Normally students will take 100a in their sophomore year and no later than their junior year. Students will not be permitted to take 100a in their senior year except in the most unusual circumstances, with the approval of the chair and the instructor.
C. Seven (7) semester courses in American studies, chosen either from within the department or from other departments, with departmental approval. At least one course of the seven must be an American history survey course, which must be pre-approved by the student's advisor.
D. To be eligible for departmental honors, seniors must enroll in AMST 99d (Senior Research) with departmental approval and participate in a year-long honors colloquium. AMST 99d cannot be counted to satisfy any other departmental requirement.
E. Not more than two courses satisfying the concentration may be offered to further satisfy the requirements of a second major.
F. No course, whether required or elective, for which a student receives a grade below C- may be counted toward the concentration.
Courses of Instruction
(1-99) Primarily for Undergraduate Students
AMST 10a Foundations of American Civilization
[ cl4 ss ]
Study of the myths, symbols, values, heroes and rogues, character ideals, identities, masks, games, humor, languages, ideologies, and expressive styles that have constituted American culture. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Cohen
AMST 15a Writing for the Media
(Formerly ENG 9b)
[ ss ]
Signature of the instructor required. Core course for Journalism Program. This course may not be repeated for credit by students who have taken ENG 9b in previous years.
A hands-on workshop designed to teach basic broadcast newswriting skills, as well as techniques for gathering, producing, and delivering radio and television news. Stresses the importance of accuracy. Issues of objectivity, point of view, and freedom of the press are discussed. Writing assignments will be written on deadline. Usually offered every year.
Staff
AMST 20a Environmental Issues
[ cl14 cl16 ss ]
A library intensive course.
An interdisciplinary overview of major environmental challenges facing humanity, including population growth; food production; limited supplies of energy, water, and other resources; climate change; loss of biodiversity; waste disposal and pollution. Students examine these problems critically and evaluate different ways of thinking about their causes and solutions. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Donahue
AMST 90a Independent Fieldwork
Signature of the instructor and the department chair required.
The equivalent of four full semester course credits. Students are expected to devise a detailed plan of study for one semester with the help of two faculty members. This plan is then submitted to the department for its approval. Approval depends on the department's resources in supporting the student's plan as well as the student's competence and plan excellence. Approval is rare. Usually offered every year.
Staff
AMST 90b Independent Fieldwork
See AMST 90a for special notes and course description. Usually offered every year.
Staff
AMST 97a Readings in American Studies
Enrollment limited to juniors and seniors. Signature of the instructor required.
Independent readings, research, and writing on a subject of the student's interest, under the direction of a faculty advisor. Usually offered every year.
Staff
AMST 97b Readings in American Studies
See AMST 97a for special notes and course description. Usually offered every year.
Staff
AMST 99d Senior Research
Enrollment limited to seniors. Signature of the instructor and the department chair required.
Seniors who are candidates for degrees with departmental honors should register for this course and, under the direction of a faculty advisor, prepare a thesis. In addition to regular meetings with faculty advisors, seniors will participate in an honors colloquium, a seminar group bringing together the honors candidates and members of the American studies faculty. Usually offered every year.
Staff
(100-199) For Both Undergraduate and Graduate Students
AMST 100a Classic Texts in the American Experience: Through the Civil War
[ wi ss ]
Preference given to American studies concentrators. Signature of the instructor required.
Various visions of America will be explored. Of special concern will be the ways the individual's inner life is conceived or expressed in relation to the new society and nation-building of the 18th and 19th centuries. Usually offered every year.
Staff
AMST 100b Classics in American Civilization: The Twentieth Century
[ ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
Explores the common texture of American life--in work, families, social relations, regional settings, and politics. Attention will be paid to the influence of the democratic temper in mediating the competing claims of egalitarianism and individualism. Usually offered every year.
Staff
AMST 101a American Environmental History
[ ss ]
Provides an overview of the relationship between nature and culture in North America. We cover Native Americans, the European invasion, the development of a market system of resource extraction and consumption, the impact of industrialization, and environmentalist responses. Current environmental issues are placed in historical context. Usually offered in odd years.
Mr. Donahue
AMST 102a Women and the Environment and Environmental Justice
[ ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
Focuses on the profound and unique roles women have played in preserving and enhancing the natural environment and protecting human health. Students explore a wide range of environmental issues from the perspective of women and examine how women have been the driving force in many of the key strides toward improving our environment. Also covers the legal and ethical issues embodied in environmental justice concerns. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Goldin
AMST 103a The American Experience: Approaches to American Studies
[ ss ]
Students examine the many meanings of the American experience by exploring the sources, subjects, and methodologies used in the practice of American studies. In the classroom and on field trips, students use such resources as fiction and poetry, photography and painting, oral history and music, and architecture and the natural landscape to enlarge their knowledge and understanding of American history and contemporary society. Highly recommended for students intending to write theses and those considering graduate school. Usually offered in even years.
Staff
AMST 104b The Ecology of Community: Knowing Your Place
[ ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
This course develops skills for community environmental history. Students research the ecological history of Watertown, Waltham, and Weston--once a single town. We employ archival records, and use GIS mapping software to create layers of a community map of land-use history and landscape ecology. Usually offered in even years.
Mr. Donahue
AMST 105a The Eastern Forest: Paleoecology to Policy
[ ss ]
Can we make sustainable use of the Eastern Forest of North America while protecting biological diversity and ecological integrity? We explore the forest's ecological development, the impact of human cultures, attitudes toward the forest, and our mixed record of abuse and stewardship. Usually offered in odd years.
Mr. Donahue
AMST 111a Images of the American West in Film and Culture
[ cl13 ss ]
Explores how motion picture images of the West have reflected and shaped American identities, ideologies, and mythologies. Through a variety of films--silent, "classic," and "revisionist"--and supplementary readings, we examine the intertwined themes of progress, civilization, region, nation, democracy, race, gender, and violence. Usually offered every fourth year. Last offered in the fall of 1997.
Staff
AMST 112b American Film and Culture of the 1950s
[ cl13 ss ]
Traces the decline of classical Hollywood cinema and the impact of motion pictures on American culture in the 1950s, especially Hollywood's representations of the Cold War. Students learn methods of cinematic analysis to conduct cultural historical inquiry. Usually offered every fourth year. Last offered in the spring of 1999.
Mr. Doherty
AMST 113a American Film and Culture of the 1940s
(Formerly AMST 165b)
[ cl13 ss ]
This course may not be repeated for credit by students who have taken AMST 165b in previous years.
Examines the nature of classical Hollywood cinema and the impact of motion pictures on American culture in the 1940s, especially Hollywood's representations of World War II. Students learn methods of cinematic analysis to conduct cultural historical inquiry. Usually offered every fourth year. Last offered in the spring of 1998.
Mr. Doherty
AMST 113b American Film and Culture of the 1930s
(Formerly AMST 161b)
[ cl13 ss ]
This course may not be repeated for credit by students who have taken AMST 161b in previous years.
Traces the rise of Hollywood sound cinema and the impact of motion pictures on American culture in the 1930s, especially Hollywood's representations of the Great Depression. Students learn methods of cinematic analysis to conduct cultural historical inquiry. Usually offered every fourth year. Last offered in the spring of 1997.
Mr. Doherty
AMST 114a American Film and Culture of the 1920s
(Formerly AMST 155b)
[ cl13 ss ]
This course may not be repeated for credit by students who have taken AMST 155b in previous years.
Traces the rise and fall of silent Hollywood cinema and the impact of motion pictures on American culture in the 1920s, especially Hollywood's role in the revolution in morals and manners. Students learn methods of cinematic analysis to conduct cultural historical inquiry. All films are screened with a music score or live piano accompaniment. Usually offered every fourth year. Will be offered in the spring of 2000.
Mr. Doherty
AMST 114b American Individualism
[ ss ]
Through various major works, central dilemmas of the American experience will be examined: the ambition to transcend social and individual limitations and the tension between demands of self and the hunger for community. Usually offered in odd years.
Mr. Whitfield
AMST 118a Gender and the Professions
[ cl15 ss ]
Enrollment limited to 30.
Explores gender distinctions as a key element in the organization of professions, analyzing the connections among sex roles, occupational structure, and American social life. Topics include work culture(s) compatible with sexual harassment, pay equity, the "mommy" and "daddy" tracks, and dual-career families. Among the professions examined are law, medicine, teaching, social work, nursing, journalism, business, and the clergy. Usually offered in even years.
Ms. Antler
AMST 120b Film Theory and Criticism
[ cl35 hum ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
A course for students with some preliminary background in film studies, providing a forum not only to see and to interpret films but to master the ways films are seen and interpreted. Classic Hollywood cinema will be examined. Usually offered in even years.
Mr. Doherty
AMST 121a The American Jewish Woman: 1890-1990s
[ cl36 ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
Surveys the experiences of American Jewish women in work, politics, religion, family life, the arts, and American culture generally over the last 100 years, examining how the dual heritage of female and Jewish "otherness" shaped their often conflicted identities. Usually offered in odd years.
Ms. Antler
AMST 123b Women in American History: 1865 to the Present
[ cl36 ss ]
A historical and cultural survey of the female experience in the United States with emphasis on issues of education, work, domestic ideology, sexuality, male-female relations, race, class, politics, war, the media, feminism, and antifeminism. Usually offered in even years.
Ms. Antler
AMST 124b American Love and Marriage
[ cl11 ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
Ideas and behavior relating to love and marriage are used as lenses to view broader social patterns such as family organization, generational conflict, and the creation of professional and national identity. Usually offered in even years.
Ms. Antler
AMST 128b History as Theater
[ cl42 ss ]
Combining two disciplines in an unusual way, the course aims to put history on the stage, creating a history of the present tense through the public witnessing of theater. After a study of the traditions and techniques of documentary drama, the class will construct its own documentary drama based on a particular episode in our national life. Usually offered in even years.
Ms. Antler
AMST 130b Television and American Culture
[ ss ]
An interdisciplinary course with three main lines of discussion and investigation: an aesthetic inquiry into the meaning of television style and genre; a historical consideration of the medium and its role in American life; and a technological study of televisual communication. Usually offered in odd years.
Mr. Doherty
AMST 131b News on Screen
[ ss ]
This course on moving image reportage will trace the history of news on screen from the silent cinema to the age of cable. Motion picture documentaries, newsreels, screen magazines, network news reports, televised events, and broadcast journalism will be the occasion for an inquiry into journalistic practice in the media of film and television. Usually offered in odd years.
Mr. Doherty
AMST 132b International Affairs and the American Media
[ ss ]
This course will analyze and assess United States media coverage of major international events, personalities, and perspectives. The course is designed to introduce students to the international events over the past three decades as they have been interpreted by American journalists and media instructors and to challenge students to evaluate the limitations and biases of this reportage. Usually offered in odd years.
Staff
AMST 135b The History and Principles of Photojournalism
[ cl35 ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
The course is designed to introduce students to U.S. history as it has been recorded by photojournalists and to challenge students to evaluate the limitations and biases of this history in images. The course will analyze the major personalities, policies, institutions, and the technological advances in photojournalism since the mid-19th century, and will examine these within the context of historical changes in American society, government, and the media itself. Usually offered in odd years.
Staff
AMST 137b Journalism in Modern America
[ ss ]
Signature of the instructor required. Core course for Journalism Program.
Examines what journalists have done, how their enterprise has in fact conformed with their ideals, and what some of the consequences have been for the republic historically and in contemporary terms. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Whitfield
AMST 138b Reporting Contemporary America
[ wi ss ]
Signature of the instructor required. Core course for Journalism Program.
Introduces students to the practice of news reporting for print media and links theory and history to the working craft of journalism. Trains students in the fundamentals of newsgathering and writing and provides an opportunity to practice those skills in conditions simulating a newsroom. A concern for ethics, balance, and accuracy is stressed in all assignments. Usually offered every year.
Staff
AMST 139b Reporting on Gender, Race, and Culture
[ cl7 ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
An examination of the news media's relationship to demographic and cultural change, and of how journalistic ideologies influence the coverage of women and various ethnic and cultural groups. Usually offered in even years.
Staff
AMST 140b The Asian-American Experience
[ ss ]
Enrollment limited to 25.
An examination of the political, economic, social, and familial adaptation of Asian-Americans to American society from the mid-19th century to the present. Patterns of acculturation will be analyzed in relation to many factors in American society in addition to the composition, size, skills, and cultural values of the newcomers and the progeny. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Fuchs
AMST 143a War and the American Imagination
[ ss ]
Enrollment limited to 30.
Explores how American culture and society--as investigated through novels, plays, poetry, photography, painting, television, and film--mediate wartime experiences. The concentration will be on the American "art of war" from the Civil War to the present. Usually offered in odd years.
Staff
AMST 149a On the Edge of History
[ ss ]
Examines how visionaries, novelists, historians, social scientists, and futurologists have imagined and predicted America's future and what those adumbrations tell us about our life today, tomorrow, and yesterday when the predictions were made. Usually offered in even years.
Mr. Cohen
AMST 150b The Family in the United States
[ cl11 ss ]
Enrollment limited to 25.
Characteristics and consequences of family life seen in biological, cross-cultural, and historical perspectives. Also, an analysis of the impact of American culture on Irish, Italian, Jewish, Asian, and African-American families. Usually offered in even years.
Mr. Fuchs
AMST 156b America in the World
[ ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
Designed to elucidate how the United States--as a promise, as a dream, as a cultural projection--has interacted with the rest of the world (but primarily with Europe). Focus will be less on the flow of people than on the flow of ideas, less on the instruments of foreign policy than on the institutions that have promoted visions of democracy, individual autonomy, power, and abundance. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Whitfield
AMST 160a U.S. Immigration History and Policy
[ cl18 ss ]
Enrollment limited to 16.
An examination of the economic, political, and ideological factors underlying immigration policy in U.S. history, especially since 1965. Analysis of contemporary immigration, refugee and asylum issues, and of problems of immigrant acculturation today. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Fuchs
AMST 163b The Sixties: Continuity and Change in American Culture
[ ss ]
Analysis of alleged changes in the character structure, social usages, governing myths and ideas, artistic sensibility, and major institutions of America during the 1960s. What were the principal causes and occasions for the change? Usually offered in even years.
Mr. Cohen
AMST 169a Ethnicity and Race in the United States
[ cl10 ss ]
Enrollment limited to 16.
Consideration of the experience of Native Americans, Euro-Americans, African-Americans, Latino-Americans, and Asian-Americans and distinctive patterns of racial and ethnic American pluralism. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Fuchs
AMST 170a The Idea of Conspiracy in American Culture
[ cl21 ss ]
Consideration of the "paranoid style" in America's political culture and in recent American literature. Topics include allegations of "conspiracy" in connection with the Sacco and Vanzetti, Hiss, and Rosenberg cases; anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism; Watergate and Irangate. Usually offered in odd years.
Mr. Cohen
AMST 175a Violence in American Life
[ cl6 ss ]
Studies of the use of terror and violence by citizens and governments in the domestic history of the United States. What are the occasions and causes of violence? How is it imagined, portrayed, and explained in literature? Is there anything peculiarly American about violence in America? Usually offered in odd years.
Mr. Cohen
AMST 180b Topics in the History of American Education
[ ss ]
Examines major themes in the history of American education, including changing ideas about children, childrearing, and adolescence; development of schools; the politics of education; education and individual life history. Usually offered in odd years.
Ms. Antler
AMST 183b Sports and American Culture
[ ss ]
How organized sports have reflected changes in the American cultural, social, and economic scene, and how they have reflected and shaped the moral codes, personal values, character, style, myths, attachments, sense of work and play, fantasy, and reality of fans and athletes. Usually offered in odd years.
Mr. Cohen
AMST 185b The Culture of the Cold War
[ ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
The seminar addresses American political culture from the end of World War II until the revival of liberal movements and radical criticism. Attention will be paid to the specter of totalitarianism, the "end of ideology," the crisis of civil liberties, and the strains on the pluralistic consensus in an era of anti-communism. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Whitfield
AMST 186a Topics in Ethics, Justice, and Public Life
[ ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
Introduces a significant international ethics or social justice theme and prepares students to integrate academic and community work during an internship. Special attention is given to comparative issues between the United States and other nations and regions. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Terris and Staff
AMST 187a The Legal Boundaries of Public and Private Life
[ cl44 ss ]
Signature of the Legal Studies Program administrator required.
Confrontations of public interest and personal rights across three episodes in American cultural history: post-Civil War race relations, progressive-era economic regulation, and contemporary civil liberties, especially sexual and reproductive privacy. Critical legal decisions examined in social and political context. Usually offered in even years.
Mr.Gaskins
AMST 188b Justice Brandeis and Progressive Jurisprudence
[ cl20 ss ]
Enrollment limited to 25.
Brandeis's legal career serves as model and guide for exploring the ideals and anxieties of American legal culture across the 20th century. Focus on how legal values evolve in response to new technologies, corporate capitalism, and threats to personal liberty. Usually offered in odd years.
Mr. Gaskins
AMST 191b Environmental Research Workshop
[ ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
Uses the Brandeis campus as model laboratory for applied environmental study, research, and implementation of environmentally beneficial initiatives. Students analyze the environmental impact of human activities within the existing legal, political, and social structure; learn basic research strategies for auditing and assessing the effect of these activities; and contribute to the overall understanding of the environmental impact of the Brandeis community on its surroundings. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Goldin
AMST 196d Film Workshop: Recording America
[ ss ]
Does not participate in preenrollment. Signature of the instructor required. Admission by consent of the instructor on the basis of an interview. It is preferred that students concurrently take an American studies course.
The training of students in audiovisual production to explore aspects of American urban society. Production format will include video, slide, tape, and audio. Students should be prepared to create a documentary during this course. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Felt
AMST 199b American Character in Cross-cultural Perspective: Seminar
[ ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
A critical review and evaluation of various approaches to the problematic concept of "national character." Special emphasis on how "American character" has been said to contrast with the character of other nations/cultures: Japan, China, India, Mexico, Australia, France, Russia, and Canada. Usually offered every third year. Last offered in the summer of 1995.
Mr. Cohen
Cross-Listed Courses
American Health Care: A System in Crisis
Advertising and the Media
Political Packaging in America
The Media and Public Policy
Literary Journalism: The Art of Feature Writing
Introduction to Law
American Health Care: Law and Policy
Sex Discrimination and the Law
Law and Social Welfare: Citizen Rights and Government Responsibilities
Marriage, Divorce, and Parenthood
Law and Letters in American Culture
Law, Technology, and Innovation
Environmental Law and Policy
Libel and Defamation, Privacy and Publicity
Foundations of American Pragmatism