Spring 2018

Research Methods in American Culture

Listed in: American Studies, as AMST-468

Formerly listed as: AMST-68  |  ENGL-95  |  HIST-83

Faculty

Robert T. Hayashi (Section 01)

Description

This course aims to provide a "how to" of American Studies from an integrative, multiracial, and socio-cultural perspective. It also takes on the task of surveying the development of American Studies as an interdisciplinary field, while paying attention to the theoretical concerns and bodies of work that have influenced American Studies scholars over the last half century. Students will be exposed to and experiment with a wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches, gain a working competence in debates and approaches, and study a range of  materials--visual, literary, print, digital, audio--via a traditionally interdisciplinary American Studies praxis. In the process they will develop rhetorical analyses, gather ethnographic data, and do close readings of assorted texts, spaces, and buildings. We will read the recent American Studies: A User's Guide by Philip J. Deloria and Alexander I. Olson, in addition to several model monographs that represent central issues in studies of American culture and history and will learn library research, archival research, and legal research skills. Students will complete a "work-in-progress" presentation as part of a public mini-conference, as well as an annotated bibliography, and a research prospectus.  Speaking and writing attentive.

Limited to 18 students.  Open to juniors and seniors as a research seminar; underclassmen admitted only with consent of the instructor.  Spring semester.  Professor Hayashi.

AMST 468 - L/D

Section 01
Th 01:00 PM - 04:00 PM CHAP 210

ISBN Title Publisher Author(s) Comment Book Store Price
The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America Oxford University Press Marx, Leo Amherst Books TBD
Trace: Memory, HIstory and the American Landscape Counterpoint Savoy, Lauret Amherst Books TBD
Noxious New York: The Racial Politics of Urban Health and Environmental Justice MIT Press Sze, Julie Amherst Books TBD
The Last Best Place: Gender, Family, and Migration in the New West Stanford University Press Schmalzbauer, Leah Amherst Books TBD
Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Grown, 1820-2000 Vintage Hayden, Dolores Amherst Books TBD
Blue Colonial Copper Canyon Press Roderick, David Amherst Books TBD
Wisconsin Death Trip University of New Mexico Press Lesy, Michael Amherst Books TBD
American Studies: A User's Guide University of California Press Deloria, Phillip Amherst Books TBD

These books are available locally at Amherst Books.

Offerings

Other years: Offered in Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2023