American Studies (AMST)Arts and Sciences

Showing 62 results.

Course descriptions provided by the Courses of Study 2014-2015.

AMST 1101

This course is an introduction to interdisciplinary considerations of American culture. Specific topics may change from year to year and may include questions of national consensus versus native, immigrant ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session. 

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  5665 AMST 1101   LEC 001

AMST 1140

This course offers you a chance to become a more engaged member of the Ithaca community as part of your first-year writing experience. For two afternoons a week, Cornell students will engage with Ithaca ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   FWS Session.  Combined with: ENGL 1140WRIT 1400

  • 3 Credits Graded

  • 17810 AMST 1140   SEM 101

  • Student schedules must accommodate TR trips (3-5 PM) to Boynton Middle School.

AMST 1321

This class is a survey of music practices among Mexican communities both in Mexico and in the U.S. Taking contemporary musical practices as a point of departure, the class explores the historical, cultural, ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Choose one lecture and one discussion. Combined with: LATA 1321LSP 1321MUSIC 1321SPAN 1321

  • 3 Credits Graded

  • 15953 AMST 1321   LEC 001

  • 17881 AMST 1321   DIS 201

  • 17882 AMST 1321   DIS 202

AMST 1601

This course attends to the contemporary issues, contexts and experiences of Indigenous peoples. Students will develop a substantive understanding of colonialism and engage in the parallels and differences ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Choose one lecture and one discussion. Combined with: AIS 1110

  • 3 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  5527 AMST 1601   LEC 001

  •  5528 AMST 1601   DIS 201

  •  5529 AMST 1601   DIS 202

  •  7645 AMST 1601   DIS 203

AMST 1800

This course examines immigration as a major theme in U.S. history and culture. We will discuss immigration in different periods of our national history, and in different locations, from Boston and New ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Choose one lecture and one discussion. Combined with: HIST 1800LSP 1800

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 16198 AMST 1800   LEC 001

  • 16199 AMST 1800   DIS 201

  • 16200 AMST 1800   DIS 202

  • 16201 AMST 1800   DIS 203

  • 16202 AMST 1800   DIS 204

AMST 2000

Provides a broad introduction of modes of vision and the historical impact of visual images, visual structures, and visual space on culture, communication, and politics. The question of "how we see" is ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ARTH 2000COML 2000VISST 2000

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  7952 AMST 2000   LEC 001

AMST 2001

Educational historian Frederick Rudolph called Cornell University "the first American university," referring to its unique role as a coeducational, nonsectarian, land-grant institution with a broad curriculum ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ENGL 2999HIST 2005

  • 1 Credit Stdnt Opt

  •  7978 AMST 2001   LEC 001

AMST 2040

This course will introduce students to American literature from the Civil War to the present. We will consider a wide range of authors and literary movements while paying close attention to radical shifts ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ENGL 2040

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  5582 AMST 2040   LEC 001

AMST 2060

Some of the best novels of the last 50 years were written by people who were students or professors at Cornell. Reading a selection of these great Cornell novels, we will also be tracing the history and ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ENGL 2060

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 15460 AMST 2060   LEC 001

AMST 2105

The musical is a distinct and significant form of American performance. This course will consider the origins, development, and internationalization of the American musical and will emphasize ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  • 16391 AMST 2105   LEC 001

AMST 2108

This course explores Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) knowledge and its application across the disciplines and through time. In particular, it offers a glimpse into Cornell's local indigenous culture ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: AIS 2100ARTH 2101

  • 3 Credits Graded

  • 18183 AMST 2108   LEC 001

AMST 2251

Americans are conflicted about immigration.  We honor and celebrate (and commercialize) our immigrant heritage in museums, folklife festivals, parades, pageants, and historical monuments. We also build ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: HIST 2251LSP 2251

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 16210 AMST 2251   SEM 101

AMST 2260

In this class, we will examine how musicians working in such genres as rock, jazz, folk, classical, soul, and experimental music responded and contributed to the major themes of the 1960s in the US: the ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Choose one lecture and one discussion. Combined with: ASRC 2260MUSIC 2260

  • 3 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 15956 AMST 2260   LEC 001

  • 16533 AMST 2260   DIS 201

  • 16534 AMST 2260   DIS 202

AMST 2560

This course examines the widespread perception and the varied responses to the notion that the American K-12 education system is failing to adequately prepare its students. We review the structure of the ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: PAM 2550

  • 3 Credits Graded

  • 17463 AMST 2560   LEC 001

AMST 2581

This lecture course serves as an introduction to the historical study of humanity's interrelationship with the natural world. Environmental history is a quickly evolving field, taking on increasing importance ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Choose one lecture and one discussion. Combined with: BSOC 2581HIST 2581

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 16515 AMST 2581   LEC 001

  • 16516 AMST 2581   DIS 201

  • 16517 AMST 2581   DIS 202

  • 16518 AMST 2581   DIS 203

AMST 2600

Both oral and written, Native literatures of the U.S. comprise a critical commentary on a range of ongoing issues facing the international community: the environment, sustainability, gender, capitalism, ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: AIS 2600ENGL 2600

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  8852 AMST 2600   SEM 101

AMST 2620

This course will introduce both a variety of writings by Asian North American authors and some critical issues concerning the production and reception of Asian American texts. Working primarily with novels, ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: AAS 2620ENGL 2620

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  7740 AMST 2620   LEC 001

AMST 2655

Exploration and analysis of the Hispanic experience in the United States. Examines the sociohistorical background and economic, psychological, and political factors that converge to shape a Latino group ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: DSOC 2650LSP 2010SOC 2650

  • 3-4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  7483 AMST 2655   LEC 001

AMST 2660

One thing many Americans think they know is their Indians: Pocahontas, the First Thanksgiving, fighting cowboys, reservation poverty, and casino riches. Under our very noses, however, Native American history ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: AIS 2660HIST 2660

  • 4 Credits Graded

  •  7546 AMST 2660   LEC 001

AMST 2680

Nearly half a century ago, the civil rights movement, the Cold War, and Vietnam stimulated critiques and alternative lifestyles that changed American society forever. What can the experiences of young ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ENGL 2680

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 15465 AMST 2680   LEC 001

AMST 3010

Who are 'the poor' in the United States? Who are the largest recipients of federal welfare and entitlement spending? Why is there an unprecedented simultaneous increase in wealth and poverty in the United ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ARTH 3010VISST 3010

  • 4 Credits GradeNoAud

  • 17403 AMST 3010   SEM 101

AMST 3032

This course will examine the "age of democratic revolutions" in the Americas from the perspective of the Black Atlantic. During this momentous era, when European monarchies were successfully challenged ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ASRC 3031HIST 3031LATA 3031

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 16554 AMST 3032   LEC 001

AMST 3060

Focuses on the social history of American workers and the role of organized labor in American life since the 1960s. Course themes often center on the complexities of social class in the United States. ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ILRLR 3060

  • 4 Credits GradeNoAud

  • 16580 AMST 3060   LEC 001

AMST 3065

Immigration discourse and policy has played a central role in shaping the modern American nation-state, including its composition, values, and institutions. This course begins in the late nineteenth century, ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ILRLR 3065LATA 3065LSP 3065

  • 4 Credits GradeNoAud

  • 16625 AMST 3065   LEC 001

    • TR Ives Hall 215
    • Martinez-Matsuda, V

AMST 3131

A general-education course to acquaint students with how our legal system pursues the goals of society. The course introduces students to various perspectives on the nature of law, what functions it ought ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: GOVT 3131LAW 4131

  • 4 Credits Graded

  • 17227 AMST 3131   LEC 001

AMST 3142

This class is intended to provoke some hard thinking about the relationship of committed "outsiders" and advocates of change to the experience of crime, punishment, and incarceration and to the men we ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: GOVT 3142

  • 3-4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 15638 AMST 3142   SEM 101

  • Prerequisite:participation as a Teaching Assistant in the CPEP program in Auburn or Cayuga or work in a juvenile or other correctional facility.

AMST 3200

Historical archaeology attempts to bring textual and archaeological data to bear on questions of the past. In practice this can mean many different approaches, including some that are not traditionally ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  • 15866 AMST 3200   LEC 001

AMST 3360

Explores major American playwrights from 1900 to 1960, introducing students to American theatre as a significant part of modern American cultural history. We will consider the ways in which theatre has ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ENGL 3360PMA 3757

  • 4 Credits Graded

  • 16405 AMST 3360   LEC 001

AMST 3402

This course is about being Black throughout the Atlantic world. What constitutes Blackness? What experiences, cultural understandings and social problems shape the identities of people of African descent? ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  • 16990 AMST 3402   SEM 101

AMST 3405

This course explores research on race, ethnicity and language in American education. It examines historical and current patterns of school achievement for minoritized youths. It also examines the cultural ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •  9095 AMST 3405   LEC 001

AMST 3430

A survey of the turning point of US. history: The Civil War (1861-1865) and its aftermath, Reconstruction (1865-1877). We will look at the causes, the coming, and the conduct, of the war, and the way in ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Choose one lecture and one discussion. Combined with: HIST 3430

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 18197 AMST 3430   LEC 001

  • 18198 AMST 3430   DIS 201

  • 18199 AMST 3430   DIS 202

  • 18200 AMST 3430   DIS 203

  • 18201 AMST 3430   DIS 204

AMST 3520

No description available. view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: AAS 3515HIST 3515

  • 4 Credits Graded

  • 18625 AMST 3520   SEM 101

AMST 3525

Twentieth-century poetry has been closely identified with what Ezra Pound famously termed the challenge to "Make It New." Yet the question of just what "making it new" might mean was hotly contested throughout ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ENGL 3525

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 15471 AMST 3525   SEM 101

AMST 3581

What role should imaginative arts play in debates about transnational migration, one of the principal factors re-shaping community and communication today?  Focusing on literature and film from the late ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  • 16379 AMST 3581   SEM 101

    • TR Uris Hall 204
    • Adelson, L

      Haenni, S

AMST 3590

This course provides a critical historical interrogation of what Black Marxism author Cedric Robinson called "the Black Radical Tradition." It is designed to introduce students to some of the major currents ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ASRC 3590HIST 3590

  • 4 Credits Graded

  • 16659 AMST 3590   LEC 001

AMST 3690

Poverty is an ongoing issue in the United States, and has intensified since the recession of 2008. As such, poverty has disproportionately affected women and underrepresented racial and ethnic communities. ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ENGL 3690FGSS 3691

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 15477 AMST 3690   SEM 101

AMST 3740

Art and everyday life in nineteenth and early-twentieth century America with emphasis on Anglo-European traditions. Considers democratic cultures and identities through topical units: the Peale family ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ARTH 3740VISST 3740

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  7843 AMST 3740   LEC 001

AMST 3742

This course will examine a variety of voices in contemporary African American poetry, focusing on works produced in the decades following the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. We will consider how ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ASRC 3740ENGL 3740

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 15480 AMST 3742   SEM 101

AMST 3744

"America Becomes Modern" offers an upper-level survey of major themes in American history between 1877 and 1917. The course will have a lecture/discussion format; student participation is highly valued ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Choose one lecture and one discussion. Combined with: HIST 3740

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 16750 AMST 3744   LEC 001

  • 16751 AMST 3744   DIS 201

  • 16752 AMST 3744   DIS 202

AMST 3854

No description available. view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: CRP 3854GOVT 3494

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • Topic: Social Justice& Urban Issues:Case of Washington,DC

  •  7659 AMST 3854   LEC 080

  • Taught in Washington, DC.

AMST 3860

Examines the experience of black Americans from the start of the Great Migration just before World War I. Topics include the effects of migration on work experiences and unionization patterns, the impact ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  • 16641 AMST 3860   LEC 001

AMST 3980

No description available. view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session. 

  • 1-4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  5666 AMST 3980   IND 601

    • TBA
    • Staff

AMST 3990

No description available. view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session. 

  • 1-4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  5667 AMST 3990   IND 601

    • TBA
    • Staff

AMST 4021

American conservative thought rests on assumptions that are strikingly different from those made by mainstream American liberals.  However, conservative thinkers are themselves committed to principles ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: GOVT 4021

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 15667 AMST 4021   SEM 101

AMST 4080

No description available. view course details

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Syllabi: none
  • 17873 AMST 4080   SEM 101

AMST 4112

President Barack Obama was elected in 2008 amid hopes of his supporters that the United States would address numerous pressing domestic policy issues. In this course, we assess Obama's first term, examining ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: GOVT 4112

  • 4 Credits Graded

  • 15672 AMST 4112   SEM 101

AMST 4194

What is distinctive about American Shakespeare? Is it merely a less confident cousin of its more prestigious UK relative; or does it have a character of its own? What is currently happening with 'American ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ENGL 4291PMA 4190

  • 4 Credits Graded

  •  8682 AMST 4194   LEC 080

  • Taught in Washington, DC.

AMST 4300

The Milman Seminar: Baseball in American Culture. Through a reading of fiction and nonfiction, we examine the role of baseball as it has shaped and reflected the attitudes and values of Americans. (Novels ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session. 

  • 4 Credits Graded

  • 17223 AMST 4300   SEM 001

AMST 4306

Topic for spring 2015: Mass Culture in the Great Depression. This seminar explores public art and popular entertainments as the means for everyday people to politically engage or escape the Great Depression ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ARTH 4761VISST 4761

  • 4 Credits GradeNoAud

  • 16446 AMST 4306   SEM 101

AMST 4313

Now let us begin.  Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world. The course will begin from the declaration made by Martin Luther King, Jr. that the struggle ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ENGL 4313

  • 4 Credits Graded

  •  8963 AMST 4313   SEM 101

AMST 4393

In 1850 American politicians banded together cross-regionally, passed a Fugitive Slave Law and breathed a sigh of relief, thinking they had once again dodged the slavery issue that threatened disunion. ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ASRC 4393HIST 4393HIST 6393

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 16738 AMST 4393   SEM 101

AMST 4402

This course will explore how women are portrayed in hip hop music and culture, addressing women both as consumers and producers. We will draw on texts that analyze misogyny in hip hop music and music videos, ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  • 17204 AMST 4402   SEM 101

AMST 4585

This seminar will provide a survey of the history of American political thought, with emphasis placed on four significant periods: Puritan New England, the Revolution and Founding, Abolition and Civil ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: GOVT 4585

  • 4 Credits Graded

  • 16489 AMST 4585   SEM 180

  • Taught in Washington, DC.

AMST 4610

Topic for spring 2015: U.S. Art of the 1960's view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ARTH 4600

  • 4 Credits Graded

  • Topic: US Art in the 1960's

  •  8779 AMST 4610   SEM 101

AMST 4661

This senior research seminar offers students the opportunity to engage the vibrant history of the Great War for Empire (also known as the Seven Year's War, and the French and Indian War) from multiple ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: HIST 4661

  • 4 Credits Graded

  •  8874 AMST 4661   SEM 101

AMST 4944

This course explores the philosophical concept of biopolitics and its diverse translations and/or adaptations across multiple disciplines and across the globe (Africa, Far East, South East Asia, and the ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  • 18417 AMST 4944   SEM 101

    • W Uris Hall 394
    • Diabate, N

      Traisnel, A

AMST 4990

This course brings together the fields of sound, popular music, and performance studies in order to investigate how "racial common sense" has been constituted at various moments in U.S. cultural history. ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: MUSIC 4333PMA 4964SHUM 4993

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 17021 AMST 4990   SEM 101

AMST 4994

No description available. view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session. 

  • 4 Credits Graded

  •  5669 AMST 4994   IND 601

    • TBA
    • Staff

AMST 6210

Historical archaeology attempts to bring textual and archaeological data to bear on questions of the past. In practice this can mean many different approaches, including some that are not traditionally ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  • 15869 AMST 6210   LEC 001

AMST 6308

This seminar examines the relationships between consciousness and the body, as leading thinkers on Caribbean colonial and postcolonial conditions have posited them. Readings will be organized around three ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ASRC 6308LATA 6308ROMS 6308

  • 4 Credits Opt NoAud

  • 17953 AMST 6308   SEM 101

AMST 6424

This course examines the role that both law and language, as mutually constitutive mediating systems, occupy in constructing ethnoracial identity in the United States. We approach the law from a critical ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ANTHR 6424LAW 7231LSP 6424

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 15875 AMST 6424   SEM 101

AMST 6472

In June 2013, in the space of a week, the Supreme Court ruled on affirmative action, the legacy of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). While the first two decisions ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  • 17931 AMST 6472   SEM 101