250 Introduction to American Studies I (3)
This course is the first half of the year long, required introductory course in American Studies. It is also open to all undergraduates. It focuses on works and authors, from the turn-of-the century to the present, who are generally considered part of the American Studies canon and emphasizes understanding what America is/was according to these writers. The course is grounded in questions of citizenship, civic responsibility, ethics, character, progress and westward expansion. It will also look at the place of distinct disciplines (political science, English, anthropology, history, sociology, communication studies) in grappling with many of these questions. The course will introduce students to American Studies as an area of study and interdisciplinary scholarship as a methodological tool. Offered: Fall Semester.
251 Introduction to American Studies II (3)
This course is the second half of the year long, required introductory course in American Studies. It is also open to all undergraduates. Students will be expected to locate themselves within American Studies as an area of study and will be pushed to think critically about the field by looking at the work of scholars in Cultural History, Media Studies, Regional Studies, Black Studies, Public History, Critical Legal Studies, Women's Studies and American Studies in an international context. Students will also be encouraged to place this scholarship in dialogue with that from the first semester in order to look at the boundaries of a field that is constantly changing. Prerequisite: AS250 Offered: Winter Semester.
300C American Social Film: Silver Screen and the American Dream (3)
This course will combine American social history and American film history. Using Hollywood entertainment films, the course will look at Hollywood as an indicator of social, political and economic conditions in the United States from the early 1900s to the late 1950s. The main topics are war and the threat of war, poverty and affluence, racial tensions, censorship, and political zealotry. A paper is required and a social history textbook, a film history textbook, a play by Arthur Miller, and a collection of articles constitute core readings. This course is offered as a cluster with Communication Studies 400CD.
301 American Stds: IS/Tutorial: Themes in the American Popular Arts (4)
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. Prerequisites: Concurrent enrollment in American Studies 302P and 303PW. Offered: On demand.
302 Survey Of American Studies (4)
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. Prerequisite: Concurrent enrollment in American Studies 303PW. Offered: On demand.
303WI Methods & Problems in American Studies (4)
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 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.
340 Seminar: Critical Issues in American Culture (3)
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. Prerequisites: None. Offered: Every Fall semester.
340P American Material Culture: The 1950s (4)
This course will focus on the period of American culture from demobilization after World War II to the end of the 1950s--an era particularly well-suited to employing material culture resources as evidence. Students will be required to write a term paper or do a material culture project.
341 American Material Culture: Objects and Images (4)
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. Offered: Fall
342 American Material Culture: Museums (4)
This course will focus on local institutions that use material culture in their presentation of history and the American experience. Offered: Fall
350 Medical Humanities and American Studies (3)
This course uses biological science and technology as the lens to focus a study of American Culture. Through a series of case studies, we will examine some of the ways biological science and technology shape and are shaped by American culture. Far from a "value free" terrain, science has been linked with much that American values, such as material success, progress and morality. Technological changes have also been essential in the evolution of many institutions that are central to the daily lives of Americans (such as the household and the workplace). Over the course of the semester, we will explore specific issues concerning the social history of disease in American culture, science and technology as cultural practice, and the meaning of race and gender in relations to science and technology. Prerequisite: None. Offered: On demand.
375 Censorship and Popular Culture in America (3)
The First Amendment to the Constitution states that "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech or the press." The American experience, however, is that controversial books, radio and television programs, motion pictures, and, most recently, the Internet have been subjected to various types of censorship. This course will study the censorship of popular culture in America.
380 Decade of Dissent: The 1960s (3)
The social movements and conflicts that developed during the 1960s continue to define American culture in the 1990s. Questions of racial and gender equity, a greater willingness to challenge authority, concerns about the environment, and a new openness about issues of sexuality all developed during the Sixties and remain as arenas of debate today. This course will examine the origins, contexts, and major themes of these social and cultural movements.
400 Special Studies (1-3)
Pertinent courses from academic units throughout campus may be cross-listed with this course and applied to the major's requirements in American Studies. Prerequisite: None. Offered: Fall, Winter, Summer.
430 American Studies Internship (1-6)
Internship opportunities for advanced students involved in community and campus activities. Students must receive approval of the Director or Assistant director of American Studies prior to enrollment. No more than 6 credit hours can be taken. Prerequisites: None. Offered: Fall, Winter, Summer.
440WI Senior Seminar (3)
Students enrolling in this course will produce an interdisciplinary research paper under the direction of the instructor in cooperation with other American Studies faculty. and peer review with other American Studies students. Prerequisite: American Studies 400 Offered: Fall/Winter/Summer
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