Professors Taylor (English), Kessler (Political Science), and Creighton (History), Chair; Associate Professors Bruce (Religion), Fra-Molinero (Spanish), Eames (Anthropology), Kane (Sociology), Nero (Rhetoric), Carnegie (Anthropology), Hill (Political Science), Jensen (History), and McClendon (African American Studies and American Cultural Studies); Assistant Professors Williams (Music) and Smith (Education); Mr. Pope.L (Theater)

American cultural studies is an interdisciplinary program that seeks to understand the differences and commonalities that inform changing answers to the question: What does it mean to be an American? Courses offering diverse methods and perspectives help to explore how self-conceptions resist static definition, how cultural groups change through interaction, and how disciplines transform themselves through mutual inquiry. The courses in American cultural studies help provide a lens through which to view how groups of Americans see themselves and each other and how American institutions have constructed such differences as race, gender, class, ethnicity, and sexuality. Seen as such, the critical study of what it means to be American relies not on fixed, unitary, or absolute values, but rather on dynamic meanings that are themselves a part of cultural history. Respecting diverse claims to truth as changing also allows them to be understood as changeable.

Major Requirements. The major in American cultural studies requires ten courses in addition to a senior thesis. There are three required courses: an introduction to African American history or African American studies; a course introducing race, ethnicity, and gender as analytical categories; and a course introducing interdisciplinary methods of analysis. Seven courses in addition to the thesis are to be chosen from the list below. These electives should include advanced courses in at least two disciplines and constitute a coherent area of concentration. In addition, one course should study the African diaspora, one course should use gender as a primary category of analysis, and one course should have an experiential or fieldwork component. The sequence of courses should be discussed with the faculty advisor and approved by the fall semester of the junior year. All majors must complete a senior thesis (American Cultural Studies 457 and/or 458).

Pass/Fail Grading Option. There are no restrictions on the use of the pass/fail option within the major.

In addition to specific American Cultural Studies courses, the following courses from across the curriculum can be applied to the major:

African American Studies 140A. Introduction to African American Studies.
African American Studies 162. White Redemption: Cinema and the Co-optation of African American History.
African American Studies/Music/Women and Gender Studies 239. Black Women in Music.
African American Studies/Music 249. African American Popular Music.
African American Studies/Anthropology/Music 262. Ethnomusicology: African Diaspora.
African American Studies 390A. The Harlem Renaissance.
African American Studies/Music 399B. Junior–Senior Seminar in Ethnomusicology.

Anthropology 101. Social Anthropology.
Anthropology 234/Religion 261. Myth, Folklore, and Popular Culture.
Anthropology 250. Caribbean Societies.
Anthropology/African American Studies/Music 262. Ethnomusicology: African Diaspora.
Anthropology 322. First Encounters: European Discovery and North American Indians.
Anthropology 333. Culture and Interpretation.
Anthropology 335. The Ethnographers Craft.
Anthropology 347. New World Archeology.
Anthropology s20. Refugees and Resettlement.
Anthropology s21. Cultural Production and Social Context, Jamaica.
Anthropology s25. Ethnicity, Bilingualism, Religion, and Gender: Topics in Ethnographic Fieldwork.
Anthropology s32. Introduction to Archeological Fieldwork.

Art 283. Contemporary Art.
Art 288. Visualizing Race.
Art 361. Museum Internship.
Art s23. Art and Artists in New York.
Art s29. Just View It: Popular Culture, Critical Stances.
Art s32. The Photograph as Document.

Asian Studies 280. Ethnicity and Gender: United States, Japan, and Korea.

Dance 250. Twentieth-Century American Dance I.
Dance 252. Twentieth-Century American Dance II.
Dance s29A. Dance as a Collaborative Art I
Dance s29B. Dance as a Collaborative Art II.
Dance s29C. Dance as a Collaborative Art III.

Economics 220. American Economic History.
Economics 230. Economics of Women, Men, and Work.
Economics 310. Economic History of the Americas.
Economics 331. Labor Economics.
Economics 348. Urban Economics.
Economics s37. The Great Depression.

Education 231. Perspectives on Education.
Education 240. Gender Issues in Education.
Education/Sociology 242. Race, Cultural Pluralism, and Equality in American Education.
Education 350. Anti-Oppressive Education.
Education/Sociology 380. Education, Reform, and Politics.
Education s21. Perspectives on Education.

English 121G. Asian American Women Writers.
English 141. American Writers to 1900.
English 152. American Writers since 1900.
English 241. American Fiction.
English 250. The African American Novel.
English 294. Storytelling.
English 395B. Dissenting Traditions in Twentieth-Century American Literature.
English 395C. Frost, Williams, and Stevens.
English 395F. To Light: Five Twentieth-Century American Women Poets.
English 395K. African American Literary and Cultural Criticism.
English 395L/Women and Gender Studies 400B. Feminist Literary Criticism.
English/Women and Gender Studies 395S. Asian American Women Writers, Filmmakers, and Critics.
English s13. The Fin-de-Siècle in American Literature.
English s20. NewsWatch.
English s23. Beatniks and Mandarins: A Literary and Cultural History of the American Fifties.
English s25. Sociocultural Approaches to Childrens Literature.
English s37. Representing Labor in Fiction and Film.

First-Year Seminar 014. Slavery in America.
First-Year Seminar 153. Race in American Political and Social Thought.
First-Year Seminar 187. Hard Times: Economy and Society in the Great Depression.
First-Year Seminar 234. The U.S. Relocation Camps in World War II.
First-Year Seminar 245. América with an Accent.

French s35. French in Maine.

History 140. Origins of the New Nation, 1500–1820.
History 141. America in the Nineteenth Century.
History 142. America in the Twentieth Century.
History 144. The Social History of the Civil War.
History 181. Latin American History.
History 210. Technology in United States History.
History 240. Colonial America, 1660–1763.
History 243. African American History.
History 244. Native American History.
History 261. American Protest in the Twentieth Century.
History 271. The United States in Vietnam, 1945–1975.
History 280. Revolution and Conflict in the Caribbean and Central America.
History 288. Environment, Development, and Power in Latin America.
History 390C. Gender and the American Civil War: Abolition and Women's Rights.
History 390F. The American West.
History 390P. Prelude to the Civil Rights Movement.
History 390U. Colony, Nation, and Diaspora: Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic.
History s25A. Japanese American Relocation Camps.

Music/African American Studies/Women and Gender Studies 239. Black Women in Music.
Music 247. Jazz and Blues: History and Practice.
Music/African American Studies 249. African American Popular Music.
Music 254. Music and Drama.
Music/African American Studies/Anthropology 262. Ethnomusicology: African Diaspora.
Music/African American Studies 399B. Junior–Senior Seminar in Ethnomusicology.
Music s29. American Musicals on Film.

Political Science 115. American Government and Public Policy.
Political Science 118. Law and Politics.
Political Science 119. Cultural Politics.
Political Science 211. American Parties and Elections.
Political Science 214. City Politics.
Political Science 215. Political Participation in the United States.
Political Science 217. The American Presidency.
Political Science 227. Judicial Power and Economic Policy.
Political Science 228. Constitutional Freedoms.
Political Science 229. Race and Civil Rights in Constitutional Interpretation.
Political Science 230. The U.S. Congress.
Political Science 233. African American Politics.
Political Science 235. Black Women in the Americas.
Political Science 249. Politics of Latin America.
Political Science 276. American Foreign Policy.
Political Science 294. Political Thought in the United States.
Political Science 310. Public Opinion.
Political Science 322. American Legislative Behavior.
Political Science 325. Constitutional Rights and Social Change.
Political Science 329. Law and Gender.
Political Science 365A. Race and Ethnicity in Latin America.
Political Science 421. Congressional Internship.
Political Science 422. Social Justice Internships.
Political Science s19. Guerillas, Guns, and Ganja: What We See, What We Dont, and Why.
Political Science s21. Internships in Community Service.
Political Science s25. Labor, Class, Community Action.

Psychology/Sociology 210. Social Psychology.

Religion 217. Religion in the American Experience.
Religion 247. City upon the Hill.
Religion 255. African American Religious Tradition.
Religion 261/Anthropology 234. Myth, Folklore, and Popular Culture.
Religion 365B. W. E. B. Du Bois and American Culture.
Religion s24. Religion and the City.
Religion s27. Field Studies in Religion: Cult and Community.

Rhetoric 260. Lesbian and Gay Images in Film.
Rhetoric 265. The Rhetoric of Womens Rights.
Rhetoric 275. African American Public Address.
Rhetoric 386. Language and Communication of Black Americans.
Rhetoric 390. Contemporary Rhetoric.
Rhetoric 391A. The Rhetoric of Alien Abduction.
Rhetoric 391B. Presidential Campaign Rhetoric.
Rhetoric s30. Television Criticism: Prime-Time Women.

Sociology 120. Race, Gender, Class, and Society.
Sociology/Psychology 210. Social Psychology.
Sociology 220. Family and Society.
Sociology/Education 242. Race, Cultural Pluralism, and Equality in American Education.
Sociology 270. Sociology of Gender.
Sociology s20. Gender and Childhood.

Spanish 215. Readings in Spanish American Literature.
Spanish 245. Social Justice in Hispanic Literature.
Spanish 250. The Latin American Short Story.
Spanish 264. Contemporary Mexican Women Writers.
Spanish 342. Hybrid Cultures: Latin American Intersections.

Theater 225. The Grain of the Black Image.
Theater 226. Minority Images in Hollywood Film.

Women and Gender Studies 100. Introduction to Women's Studies.
Women and Gender Studies 201. African American Women and Feminist Thought.
Women and Gender Studies/African American Studies/Music 239. Black Women in Music.
Women and Gender Studies 266. Gender, Race, and Science.
Women and Gender Studies 267. Blood, Genes, and American Culture.
Women and Gender Studies/English 395S. Asian American Women Writers, Filmmakers, and Critics.
Women and Gender Studies 400B/English 395L. Feminist Literary Criticism.

Courses
220. Fieldwork in American Cultural Studies. Central to the Program in American Cultural Studies is the examination of and engagement with diverse American communities. Students in this course come to know something of this diversity through fieldwork and experiential learning in Maine. The course begins with the study of Batess own cultures, using exercises in home-based ethnography, material culture analysis, and archives in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library. In cooperation with the Center for Service-Learning, students then move beyond the Bates periphery to work in service-oriented settings in the state. Besides extensive fieldwork, students participate in weekly seminar discussions, and prepare a research paper relevant to their community experience. Enrollment limited to 12. M. Creighton.

237. Multicultural Education. An examination of the cultural and political dimensions of multicultural education as an academic and intellectual undertaking. Students explore how social divisions on the basis of unequal access and control of cultural institutions and instruments reproduce and affirm conditions of domination. Yet, the cultural resistance movements offer new alternatives to the dominant culture. Recommended background: courses in the social sciences and humanities. Open to first-year students. J. McClendon.

240. Cultural Politics in African American Studies. This course addresses the relationship between political culture and cultural politics within African American studies. Particular attention is paid to the contending theories of cultural criticism. Cornel West, Molefi Asante, Patricia Hill Collins, Angela Davis, bell hooks, Maramba Ani, and Henry Lewis Gates Jr. are some of the theorists under review. Recommended background: Political Science 119 or significant work in political science, American cultural studies, or African American studies. This course is the same as Political Science 240. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 50. J. McClendon.

250. Interdisciplinary Studies: Methods and Modes of Inquiry. Interdisciplinarity involves more than a meeting of disciplines. Practitioners stretch methodological norms and reach across disciplinary boundaries. Through examination of a single topic, this course introduces students to interdisciplinary methods of analysis. Students examine what practitioners actually do and work to become practitioners themselves. Prerequisite(s): any two courses in women and gender studies, African American studies, or American cultural studies. This course is the same as African American Studies 250 and Women and Gender Studies 250. Enrollment limited to 40. R. Herzig.

339. Africana Thought and Practice. This seminar examines in depth a broad range of black thought. Students study the various philosophical problems and the theoretical issues and practical solutions offered by such scholar/activists as W. E. B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah, Claudia Jones, C. L. R. James, Leopold Senghor, Amilcar Cabrah, Charlotta Bass, Lucy Parsons, Walter Rodney, and Frantz Fanon. Recommended background: a course on the Africana world, or a course in philosophy or political theory. This course is the same as Political Science 339. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 15. J. McClendon.

348. Race and Ethnicity in America. An investigation of how race and ethnicity as cultural and political categories in the United States are materially anchored in specific sets of social relations. Of particular import is the concept of whiteness as a racial category, and its connection to racism and national oppression. What social groups are excluded from the racial category of white and how they are consequently excluded from American nationality? Enrollment limited to 15. J. McClendon.

360. Independent Study. Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair is required. Students may register for no more than one independent study per semester. Staff.

457, 458. Senior Thesis. Under the supervision of a faculty advisor, all majors write an extended essay that utilizes the methods of at least two disciplines. Students register for American Cultural Studies 457 in the fall semester and for American Cultural Studies 458 in the winter semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both American Cultural Studies 457 and 458. Staff.

Short Term Units
s18. African American Culture through Sports. Sports in African American culture have served in a variety of ways to offer a means for social, economic, cultural, and even political advancement. This unit examines how sports have historically formed and contemporaneously shape the contours of African American culture. Particular attention is given to such questions as segregation, gender equity, cultural images, and their political effects for African American athletes and the black community. In addition to the required and recommended readings, lectures, and discussions, videos and films are central to the teaching and learning process. This unit is the same as Political Science s18. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. J. McClendon.

s50. Independent Study. Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair is required. Students may register for no more than one independent study during a Short Term. Staff.