AMERICAN CIVILIZATION COURSES
Fall 09
AMCV 0190K - The American War/Vietnam War: Politics, Struggle, and the Construction of History in the US/Vietnam
What Americans call the "Vietnam War," the Vietnamese remember as the "War of Resistance against the United States for National Salvation." This class explores two perspectives on a conflict which shaped the nations' political, social, and cultural landscapes. We focus on differences and similarities in Vietnamese and American interpretations of the origins, conduct and denouement of the war. We examine war memories through memoirs, monuments, movies, documentaries, magazines, and newspapers, as well as in foreign and domestic policies.
Associated Term: Fall 2009
Registration Dates: Apr 21, 2009 to Oct 06, 2009
Levels: Extra Credit Graduate, Undergraduate
Instructors: Chung Hong Nguyen (P)
Main Campus
Primary Meeting Schedule Type
1.000 Credits
1:00 pm - 2:20 pm |
TR |
J. Walter Wilson 402 |
AMCV 1010 - Introduction to American Studies: War and American Culture
An introduction to the interdisciplinary study of culture in the U.S. through four wars and their reverberations in American culture: the Spanish-American War, World War II, The Vietnam War, and the War in Iraq. During wartime, people from all walks of American life ask themselves "What are we fighting for?" and "Who is this "we," anyway?" Course material will include speeches, debates, essays, letters, memoirs, novels, cartoons, posters, paintings, advertising, photographs, music, and movies. Lectures and discussions.
Associated Term: Fall 2009
Registration Dates: Apr 21, 2009 to Oct 06, 2009
Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
Attributes: Diversity Perspectives, Liberal Learning
Instructors: Samuel Zipp (P)
Main Campus
Primary Meeting Schedule Type
1.000 Credits
1:00 pm - 1:50 pm |
MWF |
Watson (CIT) Center 165 |
AMCV 1250B - Gravestones and Burying Grounds
Students examine gravestones and burying grounds as primary documents in the study of American cultural history. Themes include the forms of written language and visual imagery in colonial New England, changing roles of women and minorities in society, historical craft practices, implications of stylistic change, attitudes towards death and bereavement, and the material evidence of discrete cultural traditions. Includes field trips.
Associated Term: Fall 2009
Registration Dates: Apr 21, 2009 to Oct 06, 2009
Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
Instructors: Robert P. Emlen (P)
Main Campus
Primary Meeting Schedule Type
1.000 Credits
10:30 am - 11:50 am |
TR |
Sayles Hall 005 |
AMCV 1520 - Technology and Material Culture in America: The Urban Built Environment
A slide-illustrated lecture course that examines the development of the urban landscape. Covers American building practices and the effects of human-made structures on our culture. Examines technological and behavioral aspects of architectural design and urban development. Topics include housing, factories, commercial buildings, city plans, transportation networks, water systems, bridges, parks, and waterfronts. A companion course to AMCV 1530.
Associated Term: Fall 2009
Registration Dates: Apr 21, 2009 to Oct 06, 2009
Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
Instructors: Patrick M. Malone (P)
Main Campus
Primary Meeting Schedule Type
1.000 Credits
2:00 pm - 2:50 pm |
MWF |
Salomon Center 001 |
AMCV 1610A - American Advertising: History and Consequences
Traces the history of American advertising, particularly in the 20th century, to understand the role advertising plays in our culture. Topics include the rise of national advertising, the economics of the advertising industry, the relation of advertising to consumption, the depiction of advertising in fiction and film, and broadcast advertising.
Associated Term: Fall 2009
Registration Dates: Apr 21, 2009 to Oct 06, 2009
Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
Attributes: Liberal Learning
Instructors: Susan Smulyan (P)
Main Campus
Primary Meeting Schedule Type
1.000 Credits
11:00 am - 11:50 am |
MWF |
Salomon Center 001 |
AMCV 1611A - Making America: Twentieth-Century U.S. Immigrant/Ethnic Literature
Examines the literature of first and second generation immigrant/ethnic writers from 1900 to the 1970's. Attempts to place the individual works (primarily novels) in their literary and sociocultural contexts, examining them as conscious works of literature written within and against American and imported literary traditions and as creative contributions to an ongoing national discourse on immigration and ethnicity.
Associated Term: Fall 2009
Registration Dates: Apr 21, 2009 to Oct 06, 2009
Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
Attributes: Diversity Perspectives
Instructors: Richard Alan Meckel (P)
Main Campus
Primary Meeting Schedule Type
1.000 Credits
2:30 pm - 3:50 pm |
TR |
Wilson Hall 305 |
AMCV 1611O - Early American Film
American film-making from its origins as a technological amusement to the period of classic Hollywood cinema. Particular attention given to representations of gender, race, and ethnicity with comparisons to the evolution of European film. The Birth of a Nation (1915) by by D. W. Griffith will be a key text in dialogue with African-American director Oscar Micheaux's Within Our Gates (1920).
Associated Term: Fall 2009
Registration Dates: Apr 21, 2009 to Oct 06, 2009
Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
Instructors: Beverly Haviland (P)
Main Campus
Primary Meeting Schedule Type
1.000 Credits
9:00 am - 10:20 am |
TR |
Sayles Hall 005 |
AMCV 1612I - Women on the Move: Gender, Sexuality and Migration
This course looks at the experiences of migrant women through the lens of gender and sexuality. It addresses the constitution of gender and sexuality in the process of women¿s migration, analyzes the ways that society disciplines migrant women via the control of their gender and sexuality, and lastly identifies the ways that women utilize gender and sexuality to negotiate the various structural inequalities they confront in the process of migration. This course situates our discussion of gender and sexuality in the institutions of the state, labor market, family and community.
Associated Term: Fall 2009
Registration Dates: Apr 21, 2009 to Oct 06, 2009
Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
Instructors: Rhacel S. Parrenas (P)
Main Campus
Primary Meeting Schedule Type
1.000 Credits
8:30 am - 9:50 am |
MW |
Smith-Buonanno Hall G01 |
AMCV 1700E - What Does a Woman Want? Psychoanalysis, Literature and Desire
Freud asked his famous question: "What does a woman want?" after years of clinical practice and theoretical speculation. Woman's desire remained a mystery to him, but the attempt to solve it has given rise to a rethinking of human sexuality, of gender, of social structures, and of creativity. We will read foundational texts by Freud and by feminist disciples and critics as well as literary and filmic texts that critique theories and practices of gender.
Associated Term: Fall 2009
Registration Dates: Apr 21, 2009 to Oct 06, 2009
Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
Instructors: Beverly Haviland (P)
Main Campus
Primary Meeting Schedule Type
1.000 Credits
4:00 pm - 6:20 pm |
R |
Rockefeller Library 412 |
AMCV 1903W - The Boy Problem: Male Adolescence as Social Pathology
Focusing on the beginning, middle, and especially concluding decades of the 20th century, this course examines the ways in which both expert and popular discourse in the US have conflated male adolescence with social pathology and have constructed an image of the teenage boy as both symptomatic of and responsible for the nation's ills. Particular attention will be paid to issues of gender, race, and class. Primary source readings and original research will be emphasized.
Associated Term: Fall 2009
Registration Dates: Apr 21, 2009 to Oct 06, 2009
Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
Instructors: Richard Alan Meckel (P)
Main Campus
Primary Meeting Schedule Type
1.000 Credits
3:00 pm - 5:20 pm |
W |
Sayles Hall 105 |
AMCV 2010 - Introduction to Interdisciplinary Methods
Introduction to interdisciplinary studies required of all first-year graduate students in American civilization. Graduate students from other departments may enroll with permission of the instructor.
Associated Term: Fall 2009
Registration Dates: Apr 21, 2009 to Oct 06, 2009
Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
Instructors: Ralph E. Rodriguez (P)
Main Campus
Primary Meeting Schedule Type
1.000 Credits
4:00 pm - 6:20 pm |
R |
Rockefeller Library 206 |
AMCV 2520 - American Studies: Professional Issues in American Studies
Examines the methodological and theoretical underpinnings of current and past American studies scholarship. Enrollment limited to graduate students with preference given to American Civilization graduate students.
Associated Term: Fall 2009
Registration Dates: Apr 21, 2009 to Oct 06, 2009
Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
Instructors: Susan Smulyan (P)
Main Campus
Primary Meeting Schedule Type
1.000 Credits
TBA |
TBA |
TBA |
AMCV 2550C - Advanced Seminar on Asian American History
Advanced seminar on Asian-American history, diaspora studies and globalization.
Associated Term: Fall 2009
Registration Dates: Apr 21, 2009 to Oct 06, 2009
Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
Instructors: Robert George Lee (P)
Main Campus
Primary Meeting Schedule Type
1.000 Credits
3:00 pm - 5:20 pm |
M |
Wilson Hall 106 |
AMCV 2650 - Introduction to Public Humanities
This class, a foundational course for the MA in Public Humanities with preference given to American Civilization graduate students, will address the theoretical bases of the public humanities, including topics of history and memory, museums and memorials, the roles of expertise and experience, community cultural development, and material culture.
Associated Term: Fall 2009
Registration Dates: Apr 21, 2009 to Oct 06, 2009
Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
Instructors: Steven D. Lubar (P)
Main Campus
Primary Meeting Schedule Type
1.000 Credits
3:00 pm - 5:20 pm |
W |
Sayles Hall 005 |
AMCV 2653 - Public Art: History, Theory, and Practice
The course offers an opportunity for RISD and Brown students to work together to understand how public art is shaped by ideas of community and audience, to discover the creative possibilities in the growing field of public art, to understand the changing nature of public art, and to question how it is shaped by ideas of community and audience. We will study the history of public art in America and Europe beginning in the early 20th century, and look at the ways public art administration and practice have evolved over this time, changing with pivotal events. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required.
The course offers an opportunity for RISD and Brown students to work together to understand how public art is shaped by ideas of community and audience, to discover the creative possibilities in the growing field of public art, to understand the changing nature of public art, and to question how it is shaped by ideas of community and audience. We will study the history of public art in America and Europe beginning in the early 20th century, and look at the ways public art administration and practice have evolved over this time, changing with pivotal events. Enrollment limited to 12. Instructor permission required.
Associated Term: Fall 2009
Registration Dates: Apr 21, 2009 to Oct 06, 2009
Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
Main Campus
Primary Meeting Schedule Type
1.000 Credits
1:00 pm - 5:50 pm |
M |
Sayles Hall 012 |
AMCV 2670 - Practicum in Public Humanities
Practicums in public humanities provide practical, hands-on training that is essential for careers in museums, historic preservation, and cultural agenices. Students will work with faculty to find appropriate placements and negotiate a semester's or summer work, in general a specific project. Available only to students in the Public Humanities M.A. program.
Associated Term: Fall 2009
Registration Dates: Apr 21, 2009 to Oct 06, 2009
Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
Main Campus
Primary Meeting Schedule Type
1.000 Credits
1:00 pm - 5:50 pm |
M |
Sayles Hall 012 |
AMCV 2690 - Public Humanities Institutions: A Systems Perspective
What does it take to run a public humanities institution? This course explores the "behind the exhibits" systems of planning, administration, governance, revenue generation, finance and marketing. Throughout the course, students will explore the challenges/tensions that develop between fulfilling the mission and developing sustainable organizations.
Associated Term: Fall 2009
Registration Dates: Apr 21, 2009 to Oct 06, 2009
Levels: Graduate, Undergraduate
Instructors: Steven D. Lubar (P)
Main Campus
Primary Meeting Schedule Type
1.000 Credits
TBA |
TBA |
TBA |
Spring 2010
AMCV 0190M - From P.T. Barnum to Second Life: American Identities in the Museum
American museums attract 850 million visitors annually--far more than the 140 million attending professional sports--and serve as collectors, preservers, interpreters, and promoters of culture. Drawing on recent scholarship, the course is an interdisciplinary exploration of museums as sites where class, race, ethnicity, citizenship, and other forms of identity are constructed and contested. From Barnum's outrageous hoaxes to virtual museums, we'll examine case studies, go on field trips, and analyze visual, material, and textual evidence.
Associated Term: Fall 2009
Registration Dates: Apr 21, 2009 to Oct 06, 2009
Levels: Extra Credit Graduate, Undergraduate
Instructors: Clarissa J. Ceglio (P)
Main Campus
Primary Meeting Schedule Type
1.000 Credits
2:30 pm - 3:50 pm |
TR |
J. Walter Wilson 501 |