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AMER-ST 301
American Stds: Is/Tutorial: Themes In The American Popular Arts
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This course uses the popular arts as an entree to the examination of stereotypes in American life, to a better understanding of challenges to tradition, and to assessing the consequences of conflict that have resulted from cultural pluralism. This is a modified independent study course. Students are exposed to some of America's best-known literature, films and music. Instructional audio tapes and traditional literature about American Culture show the relevance of examples of popular art to broader themes.
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Credits: 4 hours
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AMER-ST 302
Survey Of American Studies
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This course offers a look at changes and continuities in American life from the era of British colonization to the present. It emphasizes philosophical, scientific and creative ideas that have had lasting effects, changing social structure, the factors that determine lifestyle, and the consequences of the national preoccupation with pluralism and consensus. The course also covers the main features of American political history.
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Credits: 4 hours
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AMER-ST 303
Methods & Problems In American Studies
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This course examines four topics that are important in American culture; each topic is approached from a different methodological perspective. The topics (problems) are related to cultural resources in the Kansas City area (such as a museum exhibit or a library research collection) and may change from semester to semester. Methods of problem solving are determined by the topic; however, students should expect to participate in oral history, interpretation of material culture, and traditional archival research and document analysis. Prerequisite: Concurrent enrollment in AMER-ST 302P. Offered: On demand.
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Credits: hours
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AMER-ST 340
Seminar: Critical Issues In American Culture
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An interdisciplinary seminar which will examine various cultural topics relevant to understanding contemporary issues in American society. Students will write individual research papers as well as offer critiques of each other's work.
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Credits: 3 hours
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AMER-ST 341
American Material Culture: Objects And Images
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This course will examine American cultural and social history from earliest times to the present, with a special emphasis on the ways artifacts and visual images can provide information and insight about the American experience.
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Credits: 4 hours
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AMER-ST 342
American Material Culture: Museums
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This course will focus on local institutions that use material culture in their presentation of history and the American experience.
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Credits: 4 hours
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AMER-ST 410
The American Conception Of Evil: Historical And Cultural Contexts
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This interdisciplinary course may focus on time periods in American history where the concept of evil has played a crucial role in determining public attitudes and policy, as well as the Western European roots of those attitudes. The course may focus on several broad time periods and topics: Western Europe before Columbus and during the initial years of contact between Europeans and Native Americans; Puritan New England, including the Salem witch trials; indentured servitude and slavery among Africans and other racial minorities; the Progressive Era; World War II, especially the experiences of American liberators of the conentration camps, the Japanese American internment experience, and the decision to use the atomic bomb; and Post WWII, especially the Cold War, the Vietnam War, 9/11, and contemporary hate groups.
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Credits: hours
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AMER-ST 411
The American Conception Of Evil: Readings In Primary Sources
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This interdisciplinary course is a companion to AMER-ST 410P and may focus on understanding documents from the listed time periods in light of their original contexts, as well as developing an understanding of the roots of contemporary definitions of evil. Selections may include Puritan captivity narratives, diary entries, sermons, fiction, poetry, oral histories, WPA interviews with former slaves, films, television shows, and other appropriate materials.
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Credits: hours
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