American Studies (AMST)Arts and Sciences

Showing 60 results.

Course descriptions provided by the Courses of Study 2016-2017.

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

  • 17536 AMST 1140   SEM 101

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

AMST 1146

America's suburbs aren't what they used to be. After being built out all through the 2000s, the past decade has seen suburbs remade by foreclosures, lifestyle centers, first-ring poverty, local governments ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   FWS Session. 

  • 3 Credits Graded

  • 17832 AMST 1146   SEM 101

  • For more information about First-Year Writing Seminars, see the Knight Institute website at http://www.arts.cornell.edu/knight_institute.

AMST 1312

This course examines the development and cultural significance of rock music from its origins in blues, gospel, and Tin Pan Alley up to alternative rock and hip hop. The course concludes with the year ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Choose one lecture and one discussion. Combined with: MUSIC 1312

  • 3 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  9190 AMST 1312   LEC 001

  •  9192 AMST 1312   DIS 201

  •  9193 AMST 1312   DIS 202

  •  9194 AMST 1312   DIS 203

  •  9195 AMST 1312   DIS 204

  •  9196 AMST 1312   DIS 205

  •  9197 AMST 1312   DIS 206

  •  9198 AMST 1312   DIS 207

  •  9199 AMST 1312   DIS 208

  •  9200 AMST 1312   DIS 209

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
  • 16926 AMST 1321   LEC 001

AMST 1585

This course will explore the relationship between sports and politics over the course of American history since the 19th century.  Sports and politics have come together surprisingly frequently in the ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Choose one lecture and one discussion. Combined with: HIST 1585

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 16863 AMST 1585   LEC 001

  • 16864 AMST 1585   DIS 201

  • 16865 AMST 1585   DIS 202

  • 16866 AMST 1585   DIS 203

  • 16867 AMST 1585   DIS 204

  • 16868 AMST 1585   DIS 205

  • 16869 AMST 1585   DIS 206

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: AIIS 1110

  • 3 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  5825 AMST 1601   LEC 001

  •  5826 AMST 1601   DIS 201

  •  5827 AMST 1601   DIS 202

  • 16832 AMST 1601   DIS 203

AMST 2000

This course will introduce you to the field of Visual Studies.  Visual Studies seeks to define and improve our visual relationship to nature and culture after the modern surge in technology and knowledge.  ... view course details

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

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  7863 AMST 2000   LEC 001

AMST 2016

This course is a seminar focused on a service-learning approach to understanding the history of neoliberal transformations of the global economy through the lens of an island (Jamaica) and a community ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ASRC 2006HIST 2006

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 17637 AMST 2016   SEM 101

    • MW
    • Baptist, E

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

  •  5877 AMST 2040   LEC 001

AMST 2220

This seminar will explore some of the major political and cultural trends in the United States,  from the era of the Democratic New Dealer, Franklin D. Roosevelt, through the era of the conservative Republican, ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: HIST 2220

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 17613 AMST 2220   SEM 101

AMST 2401

From the radical manifestos of revolutionaries to the satirical plays of union organizers, from new, experimental novels to poetry, visual art, and music, this course examines Latino/a literature published ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ENGL 2400LSP 2400

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 16221 AMST 2401   SEM 101

AMST 2423

How did some intoxicating substances come to be illegal, while others are socially accepted? What is the role and responsibility of the state in managing the use and abuse of drugs and alcohol? This seminar ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: HIST 2423

  • 4 Credits Graded

  • 17615 AMST 2423   SEM 101

AMST 2504

The election of Barack Obama to the presidency has raised new questions in the American debate on race, politics, and social science. Has America entered a post-racial society in which racism and inequality ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ASRC 2504GOVT 2604SOC 2520

  • 3 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  9952 AMST 2504   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

  • 17255 AMST 2581   LEC 001

  • 17257 AMST 2581   DIS 201

  • 17258 AMST 2581   DIS 202

  • 17259 AMST 2581   DIS 203

AMST 2650

This course will introduce students to the African American literary tradition. Through aesthetic and contextual approaches, we will consider how African American life and culture has defined and constituted ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ASRC 2650ENGL 2650

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  9003 AMST 2650   SEM 101

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

  •  7511 AMST 2655   LEC 001

AMST 2682

This lecture course explores the dramatic cultural, economic, and social upheavals in U.S. society during the 1960s and 1970s. It will primarily focus on the dynamic interactions between formal politics, ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Choose one lecture and one discussion. Combined with: HIST 2680

  • 4 Credits Graded

  •  9659 AMST 2682   LEC 001

    • MW Uris Hall 202
    • Kohler-Hausmann, J

  •  9660 AMST 2682   DIS 201

  •  9661 AMST 2682   DIS 202

  •  9790 AMST 2682   DIS 203

  •  9791 AMST 2682   DIS 204

AMST 2910

In her memoir Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston identified a conundrum familiar to many US-born children of Chinese immigrants when she asked: "What is Chinese tradition and what is the movies?" What ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: AAS 2910ENGL 2910

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 16432 AMST 2910   SEM 101

AMST 3002

This course presents an overview of the law regarding civil rights and civil liberties. But the law is only part of our focus. Rights do not spring into existence simply because a judge pounded a gavel ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Choose one lecture and one discussion. Combined with: GOVT 3002

  • 4 Credits Graded

  • 16502 AMST 3002   LEC 001

  • 16624 AMST 3002   DIS 201

  • 18052 AMST 3002   DIS 202

  • 18584 AMST 3002   DIS 203

  • 18585 AMST 3002   DIS 204

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: ART 3810ARTH 3010VISST 3010

  • 4 Credits GradeNoAud

  • 16936 AMST 3010   SEM 101

AMST 3020

Hip Hop Brooklyn. Hipster Brooklyn. Immigrant Brooklyn. Brownstone Brooklyn. This course borrows from hip hop's notion of "representing" to explore popular and cultural understandings of race and place ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ANTHR 3020ASRC 3020

  • 4 Credits Graded

  • 16439 AMST 3020   SEM 101

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

  •  8724 AMST 3065   LEC 001

    • TR Ives Hall 217
    • 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 Stdnt Opt

  • 16151 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

  • 1-4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 18418 AMST 3142   SEM 101

AMST 3155

Prisons are social and political institutions governed by local, state and national policies. They have a profound influence on American society, especially on our political community.  They amplify inequality ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Choose one lecture and one discussion. Combined with: GOVT 3152

  • 4 Credits Graded

  • 16770 AMST 3155   LEC 001

  • 17091 AMST 3155   DIS 201

  • 17092 AMST 3155   DIS 202

  • 17093 AMST 3155   DIS 203

  • 17094 AMST 3155   DIS 204

  • 18562 AMST 3155   DIS 205

  • 18563 AMST 3155   DIS 206

  • 18564 AMST 3155   DIS 207

  • 18565 AMST 3155   DIS 208

AMST 3420

"We're undone by each other. And if we're not, we're missing something," writes Judith Butler in Precarious Life. Can our mutual vulnerability serve as the basis for political intervention and social justice? ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Choose one lecture and one discussion. Combined with: FGSS 3400GOVT 3401LSP 3401

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 17155 AMST 3420   LEC 001

  • 18275 AMST 3420   DIS 201

  • 18276 AMST 3420   DIS 202

AMST 3530

Drawing on both historical and contemporary readings, this course seeks to reflect on the political and ideological legacies that offer contextualization for the rise of Donald Trump as the leader of the ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ASRC 3520HIST 3502

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 17644 AMST 3530   LEC 001

AMST 3580

In this course, we'll be reading literature—primarily novels—produced by hemispheric American women writers of the mid- to late twentieth-century.  We will look at how these writings articulate concerns ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: AAS 3580ENGL 3580FGSS 3581

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 15929 AMST 3580   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
  • 16373 AMST 3581   SEM 101

  • University Course. Taught in English.

AMST 3590

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

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

  • 4 Credits Graded

  •  8726 AMST 3590   LEC 001

AMST 3612

The American Revolution was a war fought by European settlers against England that ended the colonial domination of these settlers in the founding of the United States. But the settlers were themselves ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ENGL 3612

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 15934 AMST 3612   SEM 101

AMST 3661

The course asks you to think about the role of fiction in producing a sense of history, politics, and culture in the nineteenth-century United States. In particular, we will think about the relations among ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ENGL 3660

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 15936 AMST 3661   SEM 101

AMST 3678

A historical introduction to democratic theory through the writings of its greatest thinkers and their critics. Beginning with a study of the theory and practice of democratic rule in ancient Athens, we ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: CLASS 3675GOVT 3675

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 16488 AMST 3678   LEC 001

AMST 3703

The common perception of ethnicity is that it is a "natural" and an inevitable consequence of cultural difference. "Asians" overseas, in particular, have won repute as a people who cling tenaciously to ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: AAS 3030ANTHR 3703

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 17022 AMST 3703   LEC 001

AMST 3732

When an African and an African American meet, solidarity is presumed, but often friction is the result. In this course, we will consider how Africans and African Americans see each other through literature. ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ASRC 3742ENGL 3742

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 15952 AMST 3732   SEM 101

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

  • 17555 AMST 3742   SEM 101

AMST 3809

The 10 years from 1967 to 1976 were an extraordinary time both in the history of American politics and in the history of American film. In the same period that the country was rocked by the Vietnam War, ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: GOVT 3809

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  9113 AMST 3809   LEC 001

AMST 3854

This course addresses pertinent issues relative to the subject of regional development and globalization. Topics vary each semester. view course details

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

  • 4 Credits Graded

  • Topic: Growth and Development

  •  7641 AMST 3854   LEC 080

  • Taught in Washington, DC. This is part of the Cornell in Washington program.

AMST 3870

Whether buying at a general store, shopping at a department store, or loitering at a mall, consumption has always formed an important part of the American experience. More than just commodities bought ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: HIST 3870ILRLR 3870

  • 4 Credits GradeNoAud

  • 17024 AMST 3870   LEC 001

AMST 3911

This course reviews the changing political relations between science, technology, and the state in America from 1960 to the present. It focuses on policy choices involving science and technology in different ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: GOVT 3091STS 3911

  • 4 Credits Graded

  • 16240 AMST 3911   LEC 001

  • Enrollment limited to Senior, Junior and Sophomore students.

AMST 3980

Affords opportunities for students to carry out independent research under appropriate supervision. Each student is expected to review pertinent literature, prepare a project outline, conduct the research, ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session. 

  • 1-4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  5956 AMST 3980   IND 601

    • TBA
    • Margulies, J

AMST 3990

Individualized readings for junior and senior students. Topics, requirements, and credit hours will be determined in consultation between the student and the supervising faculty member. view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session. 

  • 1-4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  •  5957 AMST 3990   IND 601

    • TBA
    • Staff

AMST 4030

A close study of three major 20th century poets (Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore) who together developed a distinctly American strain of modern poetry, one focused on the pleasures ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ENGL 4030ENGL 6030

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • Topic: Wallace Stevens, W Carlos Willams, Marianne Moore

  • 16995 AMST 4030   SEM 101

AMST 4032

Latinos are a greater presence in American society and political life than ever before.   Students in this course will explore themes such as immigration, political incorporation, inter-ethnic relations ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: GOVT 4032LSP 4032

  • 4 Credits Graded

  •  9526 AMST 4032   SEM 101

  • Government Seniors/Juniors given preference.

AMST 4175

The period between around 1870 and World War I was an era of unprecedented global interconnectedness. Telegraph wires, steamships, and railways crossed oceans and continental frontiers, fundamentally changing ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: HIST 4175NES 4675

  • 4 Credits Graded

  • 17899 AMST 4175   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

  • 18316 AMST 4194   LEC 001

  • Taught in Washington, DC.

AMST 4220

This course looks at the philosopher John Locke as a philosopher of dispossession. There is a uniquely Lockean mode of missionization, conception of mind and re-formulations of the 'soul' applied to dispossess ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  • 18258 AMST 4220   SEM 101

AMST 4410

This engaged-learning course offers students a unique chance to gain valuable experience collaborating with a social justice organization in New York City. The class will impart proficiency in the research ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  • 17605 AMST 4410   SEM 101

AMST 4516

We will undertake an in-depth study of racial inequality and its relationship to schooling. The course content is centered primarily on the schooling challenges facing Black, Latino, Asian, and Native ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ASRC 4516ASRC 6516SOC 4520

  • 4 Credits Graded

  •  9955 AMST 4516   SEM 101

AMST 4521

This seminar will investigate the narrative uses of history and memory in US fiction, focusing particularly on the impact of gender on these representations. How do US writers use history in their fiction, ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ENGL 4521FGSS 4521

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 16257 AMST 4521   SEM 101

AMST 4548

This course will focus on the array of perspectives offered in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament on such contemporary social issues as: immigration; abortion rights, surrogate childbirth, gay marriage, ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: JWST 4548NES 4548RELST 4548

  • 4 Credits Graded

  • 18480 AMST 4548   SEM 101

AMST 4600

Herman Melville is one of America's most trenchant social, political, and economic critics. Our study of Melville's fiction will analyze his critique of central national and international issues the effects ... view course details

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

  • 4 Credits Stdnt Opt

  • 16259 AMST 4600   SEM 101

AMST 4705

This course explores nightlife as a temporality that fosters countercultural performances of the self and that serves as a site for the emergence of alternative kinship networks.  Focusing on queer communities ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  • 18460 AMST 4705   LEC 001

AMST 4771

This course examines Indigenous art, new media and film from three distinct interrelated perspectives of aesthetics/theory, technology and history/culture. The relationship between technology and tradition ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  • 17221 AMST 4771   SEM 101

AMST 4994

To graduate with honors, AMST majors must complete a senior thesis under the supervision of an AMST faculty member and defend that thesis orally before a committee. Students interested in the honors program ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session. 

  • 4 Credits Graded

  •  5959 AMST 4994   IND 601

    • TBA
    • Staff

AMST 6220

This course looks at the philosopher John Locke as a philosopher of dispossession. There is a uniquely Lockean mode of missionization, conception of mind and re-formulations of the 'soul' applied to dispossess ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  • 18260 AMST 6220   SEM 101

AMST 6322

This graduate seminar will explore major currents in historical writing about African-American life and culture in the twentieth century. Focusing on social, intellectual, and labor history, we will identify ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  •   Regular Academic Session.  Combined with: ASRC 6322HIST 6322

  • 4 Credits Graded

  • 17900 AMST 6322   SEM 101

AMST 6410

This engaged-learning course offers students a unique chance to gain valuable experience collaborating with a social justice organization in New York City. The class will impart proficiency in the research ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  • 17607 AMST 6410   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

  • 17070 AMST 6424   SEM 101

AMST 6771

This course examines Indigenous art, new media and film from three distinct interrelated perspectives of aesthetics/theory, technology and history/culture. The relationship between technology and tradition ... view course details

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Syllabi: none
  • 17225 AMST 6771   SEM 101