Cary Cordova

Graduate standing required. Seminar designed to acquaint the graduate student with the nature and extent of materials for interdisciplinary research on American culture. Consent of instructor required.

Graduate standing required. Permission from instructor required.

The word “radical” encompasses a wide variety of meanings, including being different, “other,” new, extreme, awesome, and even of the Left. Radical suggests a “black sheep” quality, or an inability to fit into standard operating procedure. This course will use the word “radical” to examine the social positioning and history of Latinas/os in the United States. Specifically, we will use this framework to analyze the histories of Latinas/os who have gone against mainstream expectations, or who have challenged or critiqued the status quo in provocative and unexpected ways. The class will examine a wide range of radical representations, from “radical” activists like Emma Tenayuca, Luisa Moreno, Lolita Lebron, and Reies López Tijerina, to radical social movements like the Brown Berets and the Young Lords, to radical films like Salt of the Earth, to radical artists like Guillermo Gomez-Peña, Asco, and Raphael Montañez Ortiz. In looking at what is considered extreme, out of the ordinary, or unusual, the class is equally invested in what is appropriate, ordinary, traditional, and everyday.

Graduate standing required. Seminar designed to acquaint the graduate student with the nature and extent of materials for interdisciplinary research on American culture. Consent of instructor required.

Description

This class introduces students to the field of American Studies. The guiding objective of the class is to use interdisciplinary lenses – such as music, dance, material culture, and urban studies – to develop a more complex understanding of American culture. In this class, we will investigate select aspects of American culture using various methodological approaches. The course outline follows a semi-linear pattern in history, but is hardly comprehensive. We will look broadly at the tensions between individual identity formation and the many social constructions that operate in American culture. The class is loosely tied around the connection, or disconnection, of individuals with mass culture (music, in particular, but also cars, corporations, television, and even fashion).

This class is organized into three sections, starting with swing culture in the 1930s and 40s, shifting to the dynamics of popular music and culture from the 1950s to the 1980s (think girl groups, salsa, disco, and rap), and finally, looking at the politics of consumerism and globalization in our everyday lives. We will use these three modules to think critically about the relationship between the past and present, to examine the relationship between individual identity formation and the larger cultural zeitgeist, and to develop an understanding of how social inequalities, particularly guised through race, class, gender, and sexuality, infiltrate all areas of American life.

While mass culture often provides a context for making sense of the world, it also simplifies and negates a variety of more complex issues. Thus, if there is an overriding theme to the class, it is the concept of visibility versus invisibility. Who becomes the representative American? What is un-American? Who feels displaced, or invisible? How do ideologies of race, class, gender, and sexuality penetrate popular culture? And how have individuals responded? The goals of the course are to develop a more nuanced understanding of American culture and American Studies, to build critical thinking skills, and to generate new paradigms for looking at the world.   

As the popularity of Hollywood disaster films can attest, Americans relish the spectacle of disaster.  This course will examine “natural” and human-made disasters as key turning points in American history.  Whether fire, hurricane, toxin, or epidemic, moments of crisis frequently heighten the visibility of race, gender, and class inequalities, as well as propel, or retard social change.  This class requires students to question what is “natural,” to analyze the relationship between race and environmental policies, and to develop a historical view of disasters and American identities and transformations.  This class will engage with the politics of disasters, analyzing environmental contexts, grassroots activism, legislative policies, and approaches toward commemoration.  Possible topics to be covered include the Triangle Factory fire of 1911, the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, Love Canal, Three Mile Island, AIDS, the Los Angeles Riots of 1965 and 1992, The Chicago Heat Wave of 1995, and Hurricane Katrina (2005). 

Requirements

Class participation:            25%

Group Presentation:           10%

Paper #1:                        15%

Paper #2:                        20%

Final Paper:                      30%

Possible Texts

Eric Klinenberg, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago

Tony Kushner, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes

Erik Larson, Isaac’s Storm: A Man, A Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History 

Anna Deveare Smith, Twilight Los Angeles

Luis Alberto Urrea, The Devil’s Highway: A True Story

Donald Worster, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s, 25th Anniversary Edition

Julie Sze, Noxious New York: The Racial Politics of Urban Health and Environmental Justice

Description

This class introduces students to the field of American Studies. The guiding objective of the class is to use interdisciplinary lenses – such as music, dance, material culture, and urban studies – to develop a more complex understanding of American culture. In this class, we will investigate select aspects of American culture using various methodological approaches. The course outline follows a semi-linear pattern in history, but is hardly comprehensive. We will look broadly at the tensions between individual identity formation and the many social constructions that operate in American culture. The class is loosely tied around the connection, or disconnection, of individuals with mass culture (music, in particular, but also cars, corporations, television, and even fashion).

This class is organized into three sections, starting with swing culture in the 1930s and 40s, shifting to the dynamics of popular music and culture from the 1950s to the 1980s (think girl groups, salsa, disco, and rap), and finally, looking at the politics of consumerism and globalization in our everyday lives. We will use these three modules to think critically about the relationship between the past and present, to examine the relationship between individual identity formation and the larger cultural zeitgeist, and to develop an understanding of how social inequalities, particularly guised through race, class, gender, and sexuality, infiltrate all areas of American life.

While mass culture often provides a context for making sense of the world, it also simplifies and negates a variety of more complex issues. Thus, if there is an overriding theme to the class, it is the concept of visibility versus invisibility. Who becomes the representative American? What is un-American? Who feels displaced, or invisible? How do ideologies of race, class, gender, and sexuality penetrate popular culture? And how have individuals responded? The goals of the course are to develop a more nuanced understanding of American culture and American Studies, to build critical thinking skills, and to generate new paradigms for looking at the world.   

Description

This class introduces students to the field of American Studies. The guiding objective of the class is to use interdisciplinary lenses – such as music, dance, material culture, and urban studies – to develop a more complex understanding of American culture. In this class, we will investigate select aspects of American culture using various methodological approaches. The course outline follows a semi-linear pattern in history, but is hardly comprehensive. We will look broadly at the tensions between individual identity formation and the many social constructions that operate in American culture. The class is loosely tied around the connection, or disconnection, of individuals with mass culture (music, in particular, but also cars, corporations, television, and even fashion).

This class is organized into three sections, starting with swing culture in the 1930s and 40s, shifting to the dynamics of popular music and culture from the 1950s to the 1980s (think girl groups, salsa, disco, and rap), and finally, looking at the politics of consumerism and globalization in our everyday lives. We will use these three modules to think critically about the relationship between the past and present, to examine the relationship between individual identity formation and the larger cultural zeitgeist, and to develop an understanding of how social inequalities, particularly guised through race, class, gender, and sexuality, infiltrate all areas of American life.

While mass culture often provides a context for making sense of the world, it also simplifies and negates a variety of more complex issues. Thus, if there is an overriding theme to the class, it is the concept of visibility versus invisibility. Who becomes the representative American? What is un-American? Who feels displaced, or invisible? How do ideologies of race, class, gender, and sexuality penetrate popular culture? And how have individuals responded? The goals of the course are to develop a more nuanced understanding of American culture and American Studies, to build critical thinking skills, and to generate new paradigms for looking at the world.    

Please check back for updates.

Description

This class introduces students to the field of American Studies. The guiding objective of the class is to use interdisciplinary lenses – such as music, dance, material culture, and urban studies – to develop a more complex understanding of American culture. In this class, we will investigate select aspects of American culture using various methodological approaches. The course outline follows a semi-linear pattern in history, but is hardly comprehensive. We will look broadly at the tensions between individual identity formation and the many social constructions that operate in American culture. The class is loosely tied around the connection, or disconnection, of individuals with mass culture (music, in particular, but also cars, corporations, television, and even fashion).

This class is organized into three sections, starting with swing culture in the 1930s and 40s, shifting to the dynamics of popular music and culture from the 1950s to the 1980s (think girl groups, salsa, disco, and rap), and finally, looking at the politics of consumerism and globalization in our everyday lives. We will use these three modules to think critically about the relationship between the past and present, to examine the relationship between individual identity formation and the larger cultural zeitgeist, and to develop an understanding of how social inequalities, particularly guised through race, class, gender, and sexuality, infiltrate all areas of American life.

While mass culture often provides a context for making sense of the world, it also simplifies and negates a variety of more complex issues. Thus, if there is an overriding theme to the class, it is the concept of visibility versus invisibility. Who becomes the representative American? What is un-American? Who feels displaced, or invisible? How do ideologies of race, class, gender, and sexuality penetrate popular culture? And how have individuals responded? The goals of the course are to develop a more nuanced understanding of American culture and American Studies, to build critical thinking skills, and to generate new paradigms for looking at the world.    

Requirements

Midterm Exam:                     25%

Final Exam:                             30%

Reading Response Papers:          10%

Discography:                         20%

Attendance and Participation:      15%

Please check back for updates.

Flag(s): Writing, Independent Inquiry

Description

As the popularity of Hollywood disaster films can attest, Americans relish the spectacle of disaster.  This course will examine “natural” and human-made disasters as key turning points in American history.  Whether fire, hurricane, toxin, or epidemic, moments of crisis frequently heighten the visibility of race, gender, and class inequalities, as well as propel, or retard social change.  This class requires students to question what is “natural,” to analyze the relationship between race and environmental policies, and to develop a historical view of disasters and American identities and transformations.  This class will engage with the politics of disasters, analyzing environmental contexts, grassroots activism, legislative policies, and approaches toward commemoration.  Possible topics to be covered include the Triangle Factory fire of 1911, the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, Love Canal, Three Mile Island, AIDS, the Los Angeles Riots of 1965 and 1992, The Chicago Heat Wave of 1995, and Hurricane Katrina (2005). 

Requirements

Class participation:     25%

Group Presentation:    10%

Paper #1:                    15%

Paper #2:                    20%

Final Paper:                 30%

Possible Texts

Eric Klinenberg, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago

Tony Kushner, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes

Erik Larson, Isaac’s Storm: A Man, A Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History 

Anna Deveare Smith, Twilight Los Angeles

Luis Alberto Urrea, The Devil’s Highway: A True Story

Donald Worster, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s, 25th Anniversary Edition

Julie Sze, Noxious New York: The Racial Politics of Urban Health and Environmental Justice

As the popularity of Hollywood disaster films can attest, Americans relish the spectacle of disaster.  This course will examine “natural” and human-made disasters as key turning points in American history.  Whether fire, hurricane, toxin, or epidemic, moments of crisis frequently heighten the visibility of race, gender, and class inequalities, as well as propel, or retard social change.  This class requires students to question what is “natural,” to analyze the relationship between race and environmental policies, and to develop a historical view of disasters and American identities and transformations.  This class will engage with the politics of disasters, analyzing environmental contexts, grassroots activism, legislative policies, and approaches toward commemoration.  Possible topics to be covered include the Triangle Factory fire of 1911, the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, Love Canal, Three Mile Island, AIDS, the Los Angeles Riots of 1965 and 1992, The Chicago Heat Wave of 1995, and Hurricane Katrina (2005). 

Requirements

Class participation:            25%

Group Presentation:           10%

Paper #1:                        15%

Paper #2:                        20%

Final Paper:                      30%

Possible Texts

Eric Klinenberg, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago

Tony Kushner, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes

Erik Larson, Isaac’s Storm: A Man, A Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History 

Anna Deveare Smith, Twilight Los Angeles

Luis Alberto Urrea, The Devil’s Highway: A True Story

Donald Worster, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s, 25th Anniversary Edition

Julie Sze, Noxious New York: The Racial Politics of Urban Health and Environmental Justice

Upper-division standing required. Students may not enroll in more than two AMS 370 courses in one semester.

Flag(s): Writing, Cultural Diversity

The word “radical” encompasses a wide variety of meanings, including being different, “other,” new, extreme, awesome, and even of the Left.  Radical suggests a “black sheep” quality, or an inability to fit into standard operating procedure.  This course will use the word “radical” to examine the social positioning and history of Latinas/os in the United States.  Specifically, we will use this framework to analyze the histories of Latinas/os who have gone against mainstream expectations, or who have challenged or critiqued the status quo in provocative and unexpected ways.  The class will examine a wide range of radical representations, from “radical” activists like Emma Tenayuca, Luisa Moreno, Lolita Lebron, and Reies López Tijerina, to radical social movements like the Brown Berets and the Young Lords, to radical films like Salt of the Earth, to radical artists like Guillermo Gomez-Peña, Asco, and Raphael Montañez Ortiz.  In looking at what is considered extreme, out of the ordinary, or unusual, the class is equally invested in what is appropriate, ordinary, traditional, and everyday.                 

Requirements

Participation:                           20%

Response Paper #1:                  10%

Response Paper #2:                  20%

Response Paper #3:                  20%

Final Research Paper:                30%

Possible Texts

Culture Clash, Culture Clash in America

Cherrie Moraga, Heroes and Saints and Other Plays

Luis Valdez, The Mummified Deer and Other Plays

Guillermo Verdecchia, Fronteras Americanas / American Borders

Darrel Enck-Wanzer, ed., The Young Lords, a Reader

Reies Lopez Tijerina, They Called Me "King Tiger": My Struggle for the Land and Our Rights

Upper-division standing required. Students may not enroll in more than two AMS 370 courses in one semester.

Flag(s): Writing

This class introduces students to the field of American Studies. The guiding objective of the class is to use interdisciplinary lenses – such as music, dance, material culture, and urban studies – to develop a more complex understanding of American culture. In this class, we will investigate select aspects of American culture using various methodological approaches. The course outline follows a semi-linear pattern in history, but is hardly comprehensive. We will look broadly at the tensions between individual identity formation and the many social constructions that operate in American culture. The class is loosely tied around the connection, or disconnection, of individuals with mass culture (music, in particular, but also cars, corporations, television, and even fashion).

This class is organized into three sections, starting with swing culture in the 1930s and 40s, shifting to the dynamics of popular music and culture from the 1950s to the 1980s (think girl groups, salsa, disco, and rap), and finally, looking at the politics of consumerism and globalization in our everyday lives. We will use these three modules to think critically about the relationship between the past and present, to examine the relationship between individual identity formation and the larger cultural zeitgeist, and to develop an understanding of how social inequalities, particularly guised through race, class, gender, and sexuality, infiltrate all areas of American life.

While mass culture often provides a context for making sense of the world, it also simplifies and negates a variety of more complex issues. Thus, if there is an overriding theme to the class, it is the concept of visibility versus invisibility. Who becomes the representative American? What is un-American? Who feels displaced, or invisible? How do ideologies of race, class, gender, and sexuality penetrate popular culture? And how have individuals responded? The goals of the course are to develop a more nuanced understanding of American culture and American Studies, to build critical thinking skills, and to generate new paradigms for looking at the world.                   

Requirements

Midterm Exam:                               25%

Final Exam:                                    30%

Reading Response Papers:               10%

Discography:                                  20%

Attendance and Participation:           15%

Possible Texts

Course Reader

Partially fulfills legislative requirement in American History.

Flag(s): Cultural Diversity

Please check back for updates.

As the popularity of Hollywood disaster films can attest, Americans relish the spectacle of disaster.  This course will examine “natural” and human-made disasters as key turning points in American history.  Whether fire, hurricane, toxin, or epidemic, moments of crisis frequently heighten the visibility of race, gender, and class inequalities, as well as propel, or retard social change.  This class requires students to question what is “natural,” to analyze the relationship between race and environmental policies, and to develop a historical view of disasters and American identities and transformations.  This class will engage with the politics of disasters, analyzing environmental contexts, grassroots activism, legislative policies, and approaches toward commemoration.  Possible topics to be covered include the Triangle Factory fire of 1911, the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, Love Canal, Three Mile Island, AIDS, the Los Angeles Riots of 1965 and 1992, The Chicago Heat Wave of 1995, and Hurricane Katrina (2005). 

Requirements

Class participation:           25%

Group Presentation:          10%

Paper #1:                        15%

Paper #2:                        20%

Final Paper:                     30%

Possible Texts

Eric Klinenberg, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago

Tony Kushner, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes

Erik Larson, Isaac’s Storm: A Man, A Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History 

Anna Deveare Smith, Twilight Los Angeles

Luis Alberto Urrea, The Devil’s Highway: A True Story

Donald Worster, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s, 25th Anniversary Edition

Julie Sze, Noxious New York: The Racial Politics of Urban Health and Environmental Justice

Upper-division standing required. Students may not enroll in more than two AMS 370 courses in one semester.

Flag(s): Writing, Cultural Diversity

The word “radical” encompasses a wide variety of meanings, including being different, “other,” new, extreme, awesome, and even of the Left.  Radical suggests a “black sheep” quality, or an inability to fit into standard operating procedure.  This course will use the word “radical” to examine the social positioning and history of Latinas/os in the United States.  Specifically, we will use this framework to analyze the histories of Latinas/os who have gone against mainstream expectations, or who have challenged or critiqued the status quo in provocative and unexpected ways.  The class will examine a wide range of radical representations, from “radical” activists like Emma Tenayuca, Luisa Moreno, Lolita Lebron, and Reies López Tijerina, to radical social movements like the Brown Berets and the Young Lords, to radical films like Salt of the Earth, to radical artists like Guillermo Gomez-Peña, Asco, and Raphael Montañez Ortiz.  In looking at what is considered extreme, out of the ordinary, or unusual, the class is equally invested in what is appropriate, ordinary, traditional, and everyday.                 

Requirements

Participation:                            20%

Response Paper #1:                  10%

Response Paper #2:                  20%

Response Paper #3:                  20%

Final Research Paper:                30%

Possible Texts

Culture Clash, Culture Clash in America

Cherrie Moraga, Heroes and Saints and Other Plays

Luis Valdez, The Mummified Deer and Other Plays

Guillermo Verdecchia, Fronteras Americanas / American Borders

Darrel Enck-Wanzer, ed., The Young Lords, a Reader

Reies Lopez Tijerina, They Called Me "King Tiger": My Struggle for the Land and Our Rights

Upper-division standing required. Students may not enroll in more than two AMS 370 courses in one semester.

Flag(s): Writing

This class introduces students to the field of American Studies. The guiding objective of the class is to use interdisciplinary lenses – such as music, dance, material culture, and urban studies – to develop a more complex understanding of American culture. In this class, we will investigate select aspects of American culture using various methodological approaches. The course outline follows a semi-linear pattern in history, but is hardly comprehensive. We will look broadly at the tensions between individual identity formation and the many social constructions that operate in American culture. The class is loosely tied around the connection, or disconnection, of individuals with mass culture (music, in particular, but also cars, corporations, television, and even fashion).

This class is organized into three sections, starting with swing culture in the 1930s and 40s, shifting to the dynamics of popular music and culture from the 1950s to the 1980s (think girl groups, salsa, disco, and rap), and finally, looking at the politics of consumerism and globalization in our everyday lives. We will use these three modules to think critically about the relationship between the past and present, to examine the relationship between individual identity formation and the larger cultural zeitgeist, and to develop an understanding of how social inequalities, particularly guised through race, class, gender, and sexuality, infiltrate all areas of American life.

While mass culture often provides a context for making sense of the world, it also simplifies and negates a variety of more complex issues. Thus, if there is an overriding theme to the class, it is the concept of visibility versus invisibility. Who becomes the representative American? What is un-American? Who feels displaced, or invisible? How do ideologies of race, class, gender, and sexuality penetrate popular culture? And how have individuals responded? The goals of the course are to develop a more nuanced understanding of American culture and American Studies, to build critical thinking skills, and to generate new paradigms for looking at the world.                   

Requirements

Midterm Exam:                               25%

Final Exam:                                    30%

Reading Response Papers:               10%

Discography:                                  20%

Attendance and Participation:           15%

Possible Texts

Course Reader

Partially fulfills legislative requirement in American History.

Flag(s): Cultural Diversity

Visual culture is an enormously amorphous category, potentially encompassing every aspect of the visual in our lives.  The potential breadth of the category is part of its appeal and unruliness.  In its categorical efforts to dismiss notions of high and low culture, discouraging disciplinary boundaries, it also lumps together fine art with television, film with material culture, and photography with the built environment.  Thus, is there a method for the study of visual culture? And how can this perspective illuminate our understanding of how culture operates? 

This class is particularly geared toward thinking about the margins, as opposed to the mainstream, of visual culture.  This “reframing” is not so much about the popularity of the medium, but rather, more about how the visual corroborates, reifies, or challenges “othering” constructions of race, gender, and sexuality.  How is “the other” framed through visual culture?  How do social inequalities and constructions of difference emerge through visual representation?  And alternatively, how does the visual offer a site of resistance and protest?  This class invites students to participate in a dialogue on the historiography, diverse methodology, and theoretical praxis of visual culture as a field of study, with a particular emphasis on visual representation as a means of mapping race, class, gender, and sexuality.

Possible Texts

Leo R. Chavez, Covering Immigration: Popular Images and the Politics of the Nation (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001).

Philip J. Deloria, Indians in Unexpected Places (University of Kansas Press, 2006).

Erica Rand, The Ellis Island Snow Globe (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005).

Cherise Smith, Enacting Others: Politics of Identity in Eleanor Antin, Nikki S. Lee, Adrian Piper and Anna Deavere Smith (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011).

Craig Wilkins, The Aesthetics of Equity: Notes on Race, Space, Architecture, and Music (University of Minnesota Press, 2007).

As the popularity of Hollywood disaster films can attest, Americans relish the spectacle of disaster.  This course will examine “natural” and human-made disasters as key turning points in American history.  Whether fire, hurricane, toxin, or epidemic, moments of crisis frequently heighten the visibility of race, gender, and class inequalities, as well as propel, or retard social change.  This class requires students to question what is “natural,” to analyze the relationship between race and environmental policies, and to develop a historical view of disasters and American identities and transformations.  This class will engage with the politics of disasters, analyzing environmental contexts, grassroots activism, legislative policies, and approaches toward commemoration.  Possible topics to be covered include the Triangle Factory fire of 1911, the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, Love Canal, Three Mile Island, AIDS, the Los Angeles Riots of 1965 and 1992, The Chicago Heat Wave of 1995, and Hurricane Katrina (2005). 

Requirements

Class participation:     25%

Group Presentation:    10%

Paper #1:                   15%

Paper #2:                   20%

Final Paper:                30%

Possible Texts

Eric Klinenberg, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago

Tony Kushner, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes

Erik Larson, Isaac’s Storm: A Man, A Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History 

Anna Deveare Smith, Twilight Los Angeles

Luis Alberto Urrea, The Devil’s Highway: A True Story

Donald Worster, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s, 25th Anniversary Edition

Julie Sze, Noxious New York: The Racial Politics of Urban Health and Environmental Justice

Upper-division standing required. Students may not enroll in more than two AMS 370 courses in one semester.

Flag(s): Writing, Cultural Diversity

The word “radical” encompasses a wide variety of meanings, including being different, “other,” new, extreme, awesome, and even of the Left.  Radical suggests a “black sheep” quality, or an inability to fit into standard operating procedure.  This course will use the word “radical” to examine the social positioning and history of Latinas/os in the United States.  Specifically, we will use this framework to analyze the histories of Latinas/os who have gone against mainstream expectations, or who have challenged or critiqued the status quo in provocative and unexpected ways.  The class will examine a wide range of radical representations, from “radical” activists like Emma Tenayuca, Luisa Moreno, Lolita Lebron, and Reies López Tijerina, to radical social movements like the Brown Berets and the Young Lords, to radical films like Salt of the Earth, to radical artists like Guillermo Gomez-Peña, Asco, and Raphael Montañez Ortiz.  In looking at what is considered extreme, out of the ordinary, or unusual, the class is equally invested in what is appropriate, ordinary, traditional, and everyday. 

Requirements

Participation:                  20%

Response Paper #1:        10%

Response Paper #2:        20%

Response Paper #3:        20%

Final Research Paper:     30%

Possible Texts

Culture Clash, Culture Clash in America

Cherrie Moraga, Heroes and Saints and Other Plays

Luis Valdez, The Mummified Deer and Other Plays

Guillermo Verdecchia, Fronteras Americanas / American Borders

Darrel Enck-Wanzer, ed., The Young Lords, a Reader

Reies Lopez Tijerina, They Called Me "King Tiger": My Struggle for the Land and Our Rights

Upper-division standing required. Students may not enroll in more than two AMS 370 courses in one semester.

Flag(s): Writing

Description

 This class introduces students to the field of American Studies. The guiding objective of the class is to use interdisciplinary lenses – such as music, dance, material culture, and urban studies – to develop a more complex understanding of American culture. In this class, we will investigate select aspects of American culture using various methodological approaches. The course outline follows a semi-linear pattern in history, but is hardly comprehensive. We will look broadly at the tensions between individual identity formation and the many social constructions that operate in American culture. The class is loosely tied around the connection, or disconnection, of individuals with mass culture (music, in particular, but also cars, corporations, television, and even fashion).

This class is organized into three sections, starting with swing culture in the 1930s and 40s, shifting to the dynamics of popular music and culture from the 1950s to the 1980s (think girl groups, salsa, disco, and rap), and finally, looking at the politics of consumerism and globalization in our everyday lives. We will use these three modules to think critically about the relationship between the past and present, to examine the relationship between individual identity formation and the larger cultural zeitgeist, and to develop an understanding of how social inequalities, particularly guised through race, class, gender, and sexuality, infiltrate all areas of American life.

While mass culture often provides a context for making sense of the world, it also simplifies and negates a variety of more complex issues. Thus, if there is an overriding theme to the class, it is the concept of visibility versus invisibility. Who becomes the representative American? What is un-American? Who feels displaced, or invisible? How do ideologies of race, class, gender, and sexuality penetrate popular culture? And how have individuals responded? The goals of the course are to develop a more nuanced understanding of American culture and American Studies, to build critical thinking skills, and to generate new paradigms for looking at the world.                   

Requirements

Midterm Exam:                               25%

Final Exam:                                    30%

Reading Response Papers:               10%

Discography:                                  20%

Attendance and Participation:           15%

Possible Texts

Susan Douglas, Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media

Course Reader

Partially fulfills legislative requirement in American History.

Flag(s): Cultural Diversity

Description        

As the popularity of Hollywood disaster films can attest, Americans relish the spectacle of disaster.  This course will examine “natural” and human-made disasters as key turning points in American history.  Whether fire, hurricane, toxin, or epidemic, moments of crisis frequently heighten the visibility of race, gender, and class inequalities, as well as propel, or retard social change.  This class requires students to question what is “natural,” to analyze the relationship between race and environmental policies, and to develop a historical view of disasters and American identities and transformations.  This class will engage with the politics of disasters, analyzing environmental contexts, grassroots activism, legislative policies, and approaches toward commemoration.  Possible topics to be covered include the Triangle Factory fire of 1911, the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, Love Canal, Three Mile Island, AIDS, the Los Angeles Riots of 1965 and 1992, The Chicago Heat Wave of 1995, and Hurricane Katrina (2005). 

Requirements

Class participation:     25%

Group Presentation:    10%

Paper #1:                    15%

Paper #2:                    20%

Final Paper:                 30%

Possible Texts

Eric Klinenberg, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago

Tony Kushner, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes

Erik Larson, Isaac’s Storm: A Man, A Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History 

Anna Deveare Smith, Twilight Los Angeles

Luis Alberto Urrea, The Devil’s Highway: A True Story

Donald Worster, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s, 25th Anniversary Edition

Julie Sze, Noxious New York: The Racial Politics of Urban Health and Environmental Justice

Upper-division standing required. Students may not enroll in more than two AMS 370 courses in one semester.

Flag(s): Writing, Cultural Diversity

Description

The word “radical” encompasses a wide variety of meanings, including being different, “other,” new, extreme, awesome, and even of the Left.  Radical suggests a “black sheep” quality, or an inability to fit into standard operating procedure.  This course will use the word “radical” to examine the social positioning and history of Latinas/os in the United States.  Specifically, we will use this framework to analyze the histories of Latinas/os who have gone against mainstream expectations, or who have challenged or critiqued the status quo in provocative and unexpected ways.  The class will examine a wide range of radical representations, from “radical” activists like Emma Tenayuca, Luisa Moreno, Lolita Lebron, and Reies López Tijerina, to radical social movements like the Brown Berets and the Young Lords, to radical films like Salt of the Earth, to radical artists like Guillermo Gomez-Peña, Asco, and Raphael Montañez Ortiz.  In looking at what is considered extreme, out of the ordinary, or unusual, the class is equally invested in what is appropriate, ordinary, traditional, and everyday.                 

Requirements

Participation:                            20%

Response Paper #1:                  10%

Response Paper #2:                  20%

Response Paper #3:                  20%

Final Research Paper:                30%

Possible Texts

Culture Clash, Culture Clash in America

Cherrie Moraga, Heroes and Saints and Other Plays

Luis Valdez, The Mummified Deer and Other Plays

Guillermo Verdecchia, Fronteras Americanas / American Borders

Darrel Enck-Wanzer, ed., The Young Lords, a Reader

Reies Lopez Tijerina, They Called Me "King Tiger": My Struggle for the Land and Our Rights

Upper-division standing required. Students may not enroll in more than two AMS 370 courses in one semester.

Flag(s): Writing

Description

 This class introduces students to the field of American Studies. The guiding objective of the class is to use interdisciplinary lenses – such as music, dance, material culture, and urban studies – to develop a more complex understanding of American culture. In this class, we will investigate select aspects of American culture using various methodological approaches. The course outline follows a semi-linear pattern in history, but is hardly comprehensive. We will look broadly at the tensions between individual identity formation and the many social constructions that operate in American culture. The class is loosely tied around the connection, or disconnection, of individuals with mass culture (music, in particular, but also cars, corporations, television, and even fashion).

This class is organized into three sections, starting with swing culture in the 1930s and 40s, shifting to the dynamics of popular music and culture from the 1950s to the 1980s (think girl groups, salsa, disco, and rap), and finally, looking at the politics of consumerism and globalization in our everyday lives. We will use these three modules to think critically about the relationship between the past and present, to examine the relationship between individual identity formation and the larger cultural zeitgeist, and to develop an understanding of how social inequalities, particularly guised through race, class, gender, and sexuality, infiltrate all areas of American life.

While mass culture often provides a context for making sense of the world, it also simplifies and negates a variety of more complex issues. Thus, if there is an overriding theme to the class, it is the concept of visibility versus invisibility. Who becomes the representative American? What is un-American? Who feels displaced, or invisible? How do ideologies of race, class, gender, and sexuality penetrate popular culture? And how have individuals responded? The goals of the course are to develop a more nuanced understanding of American culture and American Studies, to build critical thinking skills, and to generate new paradigms for looking at the world.                   

Requirements

Midterm Exam:                               25%

Final Exam:                                    30%

Reading Response Papers:               10%

Discography:                                  20%

Attendance and Participation:           15%

Possible Texts

Susan Douglas, Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media

Course Reader

Partially fulfills legislative requirement in American History.

Flag(s): Cultural Diversity

Description:

As the popularity of Hollywood disaster films can attest, Americans relish the spectacle of disaster.  This course will examine “natural” and human-made disasters as key turning points in American history.  Whether fire, hurricane, toxin, or epidemic, moments of crisis frequently heighten the visibility of race, gender, and class inequalities, as well as propel, or retard social change.  This class requires students to question what is “natural,” to analyze the relationship between race and environmental policies, and to develop a historical view of disasters and American identities and transformations.  This class will engage with the politics of disasters, analyzing environmental contexts, grassroots activism, legislative policies, and approaches toward commemoration.  Possible topics to be covered include the Triangle Factory fire of 1911, the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, Love Canal, Three Mile Island, AIDS, the Los Angeles Riots of 1965 and 1992, The Chicago Heat Wave of 1995, and Hurricane Katrina (2005). 

Requirements (Pending Finalized Syllabus):

Class participation:           25%

Group Presentation:          10%

Paper #1:                        15%

Paper #2:                        20%

Final Paper:                     30%

Possible Texts:

Eric Klinenberg, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago

Tony Kushner, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes

Erik Larson, Isaac’s Storm: A Man, A Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History 

Anna Deveare Smith, Twilight Los Angeles

Luis Alberto Urrea, The Devil’s Highway: A True Story

Donald Worster, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s, 25th Anniversary Edition

Julie Sze, Noxious New York: The Racial Politics of Urban Health and Environmental Justice

Upper-division standing required. Students may not enroll in more than two AMS 370 courses in one semester.

Flag(s): Writing, Cultural Diversity

Description

This class introduces students to the field of American Studies.  The guiding objective of the class is to use interdisciplinary lenses such as history, literature, material culture, music, art, and film to develop a more complex understanding of American culture.  In this class, we will investigate select aspects of American culture using various methodological approaches.  The course outline follows a semi-linear pattern in history, but is hardly comprehensive.  We will look broadly at the tensions between individual identity formation and the many social constructions that operate in American culture. The class is loosely tied around the connection, or disconnection, of individuals with mass culture (music, in particular, but also dance, film, television, and even fashion)                 

While popular culture often provides a context for making sense of the world, it also simplifies and negates a variety of more complex issues.  Thus, if there is an overriding theme to the class, it is the concept of visibility versus invisibility.  Who becomes the representative American?  What is un-American?  Who feels displaced, or invisible?  How do ideologies of race, class, gender, and sexuality infiltrate popular culture?  And how have individuals responded?  The goals of the course are to develop a more nuanced understanding of 

American culture and American Studies, to build critical thinking skills, and to generate new paradigms for looking at the world.

Possible Texts

Susan Douglas, Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media

Course Reader

Partially fulfills legislative requirement in American History.

Flag(s): Cultural Diversity

Description
“Latinidad is now a keyword in the emerging field of Latino Studies; it is an analytical concept that signifies a category of identification, familiarity, and affinity.  In this sense, latinidad is a noun that identifies a subject position (the state of being Latino/a) in a given discursive space.  Latino/a identity refers to the specific positioning of peoples of Latin American and Caribbean descent living in the United States, a historical location with particular historical foundations, hemispheric linkages, and global projections. … Latinidad, however, does not denote a single discursive formation but rather a multiplicity of intersecting discourses enabling different types of subjects and identities and deploying specific kinds of knowledge and power relations.”
–    Agustin Lao Montes

“Latinidad” is a provocative, practically boundless term.  It provides a viable way to describe the confluence of Latina/o cultures, to orchestrate pan-ethnic political alliances, to designate space (local and transnational), and to cultivate the arts.  Simultaneously, Latinidad smoothly homogenizes.  Any defining characteristic is fodder to delineate target markets, propel empty political campaigns, and capitalize on a demographic.  In fact, the media frequently represents Latina/os as a market opportunity, or a threat to the fabric of the nation.  Thus, Latinidad serves as a conceptual link across multiple divides.  This class applies the plural “Latinidades” as a way of highlighting the fluidities and tensions in the discourse.

In this class, we will examine Latinidades in various forms, juxtaposing individual, community, and popular expressions, especially music, with the objectives of corporations, governments, and the culture industries.  Moreover, we will put Latina/o Studies in conversation with American Studies, looking specifically at shared disciplinary approaches and methodological borders.  This class will build students’ historiographic understanding of the fields and guide students through individual research projects.

Possible Texts
Leo Chavez, The Latino Threat: Constructing Immigrants, Citizens, and the Nation (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008).
Arlene Davila, Latinos Inc.: The Marketing and Making of a People (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001).
Ruth Glasser, My Music is My Flag: Puerto Rican Musicians and Their New York Communities 1917-1940 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995).
Josh Kun, Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005).
Agustin Laó-Montes and Arlene Dávila, eds., Mambo Montage: The Latinzation of New York (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001).
Anthony Macias, Mexican American Mojo: Popular Music, Dance, and Urban Culture in Los Angeles, 1935-1968 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2008).
Deborah Paredez, Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009).

Course Description:

Cultural Studies encourages deconstructing the world in order to see how certain structures, discourses, and symbols have patterned our lives. For instance, how does the language we speak every day enforce certain ideologies?  Or how do the images we encounter in the world impact human behavior?  Or how do maps reflect cultural values?  By throwing a spotlight on dominant forces and ideologies, Cultural Studies is invested in exposing inequalities and disturbing the status quo. 

The field of Cultural Studies has been influential in many different academic disciplines, including Mexican American Studies.  We will use this seminar as an opportunity to examine how Cultural Studies and Mexican American Studies have converged or diverged, as well as consider their different relationships to American Studies and Latina/o Studies.  This class is an opportunity to question all aspects of culture, but it is specifically designed for students to analyze evocations of Mexican American culture and identity.  This seminar is organized into four uneven and overlapping sections entitled, “Discourse,” “Representation,” “Everyday Life,” and “Popular Culture.”  We will use these modules to consider the ways that language, visual culture, material culture, and music can create avenues for, or barricades against, understanding Mexican American culture. 

Assigned readings will train students to analyze culture, to critique academic theories, to define methodologies of study, and to decode what they most take for granted.  The final class assignment will be to produce a work of cultural analysis using the tools developed in our classroom.  Our objective is to become skilled analyzers of culture who take nothing for granted.  This is a challenging class that requires a commitment to reading the assigned texts (which vary in level of difficulty), to fully participating in class discussions, and to writing meaningful cultural analysis.  Through the readings, class discussions, and research projects, students not only will build an understanding of the complexity of Mexican American identity and culture, but they also will engage with issues of social justice, decolonization, and power.

Required Texts:

William Nericcio, Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2007).

Deborah Paredez, Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009).

• Both books are available for purchase at the University Co-op. They will also be placed on library reserve at PCL.

Course Reader available at I.T. Copies, located at 512 W. Martin Luther King Blvd., Austin, TX 78701.  The phone is 512-476-6662.   [From campus, walk south on Guadalupe past the Dobie, make a right on MLK Blvd., and walk two more blocks to the corner of MLK and Nueces (across the street from Jimmy John’s).]

Additional Readings: Any announcements or additional readings will be posted on the class’s Blackboard website (seems best accessed using Internet Explorer as your browser).  For added convenience, I will make many of the course reader articles available as PDFs on Blackboard.  However, please note that it is much cheaper to buy the course reader than it is to print the articles, and you are always expected to bring your personal copy of the assigned readings to class.  Laptops are discouraged in this classroom.

• Log-in page: https://courses.utexas.edu/webapps/login/

Course Requirements & Assignments:

Attendance & Participation: (20% of final grade)  

• Because class participation is considered a key element of this class, attendance will be noted each day.  You can expect your grade to suffer if you have more than three unexcused absences.  However, I am asking for more than just attendance.  You should make a sincere effort to participate and show me that you have done the reading, or are actively involved.  A variety of classroom exercises will ensure you are up-to-date with readings and contributing to class discussion. I look for quality of insights shared versus sheer quantity of comments made. 
• Tips for participation: As you read, think about what you might add to our discussion. What ideas are driving the reading?  How is the argument supported?  Consider not just your personal reaction, but the big picture questions and contradictions.  Come to class with questions for discussion or with related ideas to make connections. 
• QUIZZES: I do pop reading quizzes.  They are not hard if you have done the reading.  Come to class prepared.  I do not give make-up quizzes.  For quizzes, I grade using the following symbols: + (excellent); ü+ (good);   ü (acceptable);  ü- (poor);  — (failed).  In establishing your final grade on the quizzes, I will take into account your overall performance in the class and your best quiz grades. 

Writing Assignments (70%):

• Papers are due at the start of class on the due date.  Papers should be typed, double-spaced, in Arial or Times New Roman 12-point font with 1-inch margins.  Guidelines for the writing assignments will be provided at a later date, as noted on the syllabus. If you are absent the day a writing assignment is due, you can e-mail the assignment to me before class, or pass it to a fellow student to guarantee no late penalty.  Extensions on graded assignments will be granted only in the case of a medical or family emergency, or if you have official documented University of Texas business outside of campus.  You must notify me before the due date.  Failure to do so will result in the automatic subtraction of a letter grade.  Assignments turned in late without an allowable excuse will lose one letter grade for each day past the due date
  
  
  • Paper #1 – On Discourse (~5 pages) (20%)
  • Paper #2 – On Visual Representation (~5 pages) (20%)
  • Paper #3 –On Cultural Analysis (~10-12 pages) (30%)
    • Topic is student’s choice with professor’s approval

• UT Undergraduate Writing Center:  Students are encouraged to take advantage of the University Writing Center located on the second floor of the Flawn Academic Center, room 211.  Skilled writers will help you develop your essays from brainstorming to final revision.  It is a great service, so take advantage.  [http://uwc.utexas.edu/home]

Discussion Leading (5%)

• Once over the course of the semester, students will be assigned as part of a group to lead our class discussion of the texts.  While your added insights will be welcome, your main objective is to spur discussion throughout the classroom using the assigned texts.  Your use of audio-visual materials to generate discussion is required.  Plan for no more than 30 minutes.
  
  

Individual Presentations (5%): 

• Each student is required to deliver an individual presentation (~15 minutes) at the end of the semester based on your cultural analysis paper. 

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY WILL NOT BE TOLERATED: Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarism (the unauthorized appropriation of another’s work – including from Websites – in one’s own written work offered for credit) and collusion (the unauthorized collaboration with another person in preparing college work offered for credit). When quoting from or paraphrasing a source, you must include COMPLETE CITATIONS.  BE ADVISED that I have a history of fact checking sources.  If you are unsure how to cite a text, you can use the following web site: <http://lib.utexas.edu/students/tags.html?tag=citations>.  Acts of plagiarism will be dealt with in accordance to the University policies and referred to appropriate administrators. Visit the following link for the University’s statement on plagiarism: <http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/acint_student.php>

Students with disabilities: The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic adjustments for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259; or http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/ssd/

Syllabus Subject to Change

Course Schedule

WEEK ONE

Tuesday, Jan. 19            Introduction to Course.

Thursday, Jan. 21          Making Sense of Cultural Studies – Histories and Methodologies

Ziauddin Sardar and Borin Van Loon, Excerpt, Introducing Cultural Studies (Icon Books UK / Totem Books USA, 2003), 3-41.

George Lipsitz, “Con Safos:  Can Cultural Studies Read the Writing on the Wall?” in The Chicana/o Cultural Studies Reader, ed., Angie Chabram-Dernersesian (New York: Routledge, 2006), 47-60.

WEEK TWO

Tues., Jan. 26     Disciplinary Objectives

 Stuart Hall, “Cultural Studies and its Theoretical Legacies” in Cultural Studies. Ed. Lawrence. Grossberg, Cary Nelson, and Paula Treichler (New York: Routledge, 1992), 277-286.

George Lipsitz, “In the Midnight Hour: American Studies in a Moment of Danger,” American Studies in a Moment of Danger (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001), 3-30.

Thurs., Jan. 28     DISCOURSE: Speaking the Same Lenguaje

George Mariscal, “Can Cultural Studies Speak Spanish?” in The Chicana/o Cultural Studies Reader, ed., Angie Chabram-Dernersesian (New York: Routledge, 2006), 61-80.

Frances R. Aparicio, “On Sub-Versive Signifiers: U. S. Latina/o Writers Tropicalize English Author(s),” American Literature, Vol. 66, No. 4 (Dec., 1994), 795-801.

WEEK THREE

Tues., Feb. 2

IN CLASS: DISCUSSION GROUP #1

Rosario Castellanos, “Language as an Instrument of Domination,” The Rosario Castellanos Reader, ed., Maureen Ahern (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1988), 250-253.

Gloria Anzaldúa, “How To Tame A Wild Tongue,” Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza (San Francisco: Aunt Lute Press, 1987), 53-64.

José Antonio Burciaga, “All the Things I Learned in School Weren’t Necessarily True,” Drink Cultura: Chicanismo (Santa Barbara, CA: Joshua Odell Editions, 1993), 36-40.

José Antonio Burciaga, “Spanish Names,” Spilling the Beans (Santa Barbara, CA: Joshua Odell Editions, 1993), 97-101.

Manuel Muñoz, “Leave Your Name at the Border,” The New York Times, August 1, 2007.

Thurs., Feb. 4      Deconstructing The Media

IN CLASS: Paper #1 Assigned

Jonathan Xavier Inda, “Foreign Bodies: Migrants, Parasites, and the Pathological Nation,” Discourse, 22.3, Fall 2000, 46–62.

WEEK FOUR

Tues., Feb. 9

IN CLASS: DISCUSSION GROUP #2

 Leo Chavez, “Introduction: Discourses on Immigration and the Nation,” and “A Lexicon of Images, Icons, and Metaphors for a Discourse on Immigration and the Nation,” Covering Immigration: Popular Images and the Politics of the Nation (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001), 1-18; 53-81.

Thurs., Feb. 11    REPRESENTATION

 Stuart Hall, “The Work of Representation,” in Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, ed., Stuart Hall (London: Sage Publications, 2003), 13-63.

WEEK FIVE

Tues., Feb. 16
DUE: Discourse Assignment #1

Anupam Chander, “Flying the Mexican Flag in Los Angeles,” 75 Fordham Law Review, Vol. 75, 2006-2007, 2455-2467.

Thurs., Feb. 18
William Nericcio, Preface, “Backstory,” and “Seductive Hallucinations, Gallery One,” Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2007), pp 1-38.

WEEK SIX

Tues., Feb. 23

William Nericcio, “Chapter Two: When Electrolysis Proxies for the Existential: A Somewhat Sordid Meditation on What Might Occur if Frantz Fanon, Rosario Castellanos, Jacques Derrida, Gayatri Spivak, and Sandra Cisneros Asked Rita Hayworth Her Name at the Tex[t]-Mex Beauty Parlor,” Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2007), pp. 81-110.

Thurs., Feb. 25
IN CLASS: Paper #2 – on Visual Culture – assigned. 

William Nericcio, “Chapter Three: Autopsy of a Rat: Sundry Parables of Warner Brothers Studios, Jewish American Animators, Speedy Gonzales, Freddy López, and Other Chicano/Latino Marionettes Prancing About Our First World Visual Emporium; Parable Cameos by Jacques Derrida; and, a Dirty Joke,” Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2007), pp. 111-152.

WEEK SEVEN

Tues., Mar. 2
IN CLASS: DISCUSSION GROUP #3

Chon Noriega, “‘The Stereotype Must Die’: Social Protest and the Frito Bandito,” Shot in America: Television, The State, and the Rise of Chicano Cinema (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2000), 28-50.

Nicole M. Guidotti-Hernandez, “Dora The Explorer: Constructing ‘Latinidades’ and the Politics of Global Citizenship,” Latino Studies 2007, 5, (209–232).

Thurs., Mar. 4
Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, “Rasquachismo: A Chicano Sensibility,” in Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985, eds., Richard Griswald del Castillo, Teresa Mckenna, and Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano (Los Angeles: Wight Art Gallery, 1991),155-162.

Ruben Trejo, “Chicano Humor in Art: For Whom the Taco Bell Tolls” in From the Inside Out: Perspectives on Mexican and Mexican-American Folk Art, eds., Karana Hattersley-Drayton, Joyce M. Bishop, and Tomás Ybarra-Frausto (San Francisco, CA: The Mexican Museum, 1989), 86-91.

Tere Romo, “The Chicanization of Mexican Calendar Art,” The Interpretation and Representation of Latino Cultures: Research and Museums Conference Documentation, (Smithsonian Institution: Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives, 2003), http://latino.si.edu/researchandmuseums/presentations/romo.html.

WEEK EIGHT

Tues., Mar. 9     EVERYDAY LIFE

DUE: Paper #2: On Visual Culture

Ben Highmore, “Questioning Everyday Life,” The Everyday Life Reader, ed., Ben Highmore (London: Routledge, 2002), 1-34. 

Thurs., Mar. 11

IN CLASS: Paper #3, On Cultural Analysis, assigned.

Renato Rosaldo, “After Objectivism,” in The Cultural Studies Reader, ed., Simon During (New York: Routledge, 1993), 104-117.

Leonor Xochitl Perez, “Transgressing the Taboo: a Chicana's voice in the Mariachi World,” in Chicana Traditions: Continuity and Change, Norma E. Cantu and Olga Najera-Ramirez, eds. (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2002), 143-163.

WEEK NINE

Tues., Mar. 16              SPRING BREAK

Thurs., Mar. 18            SPRING BREAK

WEEK TEN

Tues., Mar. 23     POPULAR CULTURE: Reading Material Culture

IN CLASS: DISCUSSION GROUP #4

Jennifer Domino Rudolph, “Identity Theft: Gentrification, Latinidad, and American Girl Marisol Luna,” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, 34:1 Spring 2009, 65-91.

Curtis Marez, “The Homies in Silicon Valley: Figuring Styles of Life and Work in the Information Age,” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 31:2 Fall 2006, 139-148.

Thurs., Mar. 25

Assignment: Material Culture Day

WEEK ELEVEN

Tues., Mar. 30     Deconstructing Popular Culture in the Borderlands

IN CLASS: Onda Latina Archive

José David Saldívar, “Introduction: Tracking Borders,” Border Matters: Remapping American Cultural Studies (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997), 1-14.

Sonia Saldivar-Hull, “Reading Tejana, Reading Chicana,” Feminism on the Border: Chicana Gender Politics and Literature (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press), 1-26.

Thurs., Apr. 1     What Does the Border Sound Like?
IN CLASS: DISCUSSION GROUP #5

Josh Kun, “What Is an MC If He Can't Rap to Banda? Making Music in Nuevo L.A.,” American Quarterly; 56. 3 (2004): 741-758.

Victor Hugo Viesca, “The Battle of Los Angeles: The Cultural Politics of Chicana/o Music in the Greater Eastside,” American Quarterly, 56.3 (2004): 719-737.

WEEK TWELVE

Tues., Apr. 6

Michelle Habell-Pallán, “Bridge Over Troubled Borders: The Transnational Appeal of Chicano Popular Music,” The Travels of Chicana and Latina Popular Culture (New York: New York University Press, 2005), 181-204. 

Thurs., Apr. 8      Selenidad y Latinidad

Deborah Paredez, “Introduction” and “Chapter One: Sountracks of Selenidad: ‘Disco Medley’ and ‘Como la Flor,’” Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009), 1-55. 

WEEK THIRTEEN

Tues., Apr. 13

Deborah Paredez, “Chapter Two: Colonial Past, Tejano Present: Civic Maintenance at Selena’s Memorial,’” Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009), 56-94. 

Thurs., Apr. 15
Deborah Paredez, “Chapter Three: Selena Forever, Latino Futures,’” and “Chapter Four: Becoming Selena, Becoming Latina,” Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009), 95-154. 

WEEK FOURTEEN

Tues., Apr. 20
Deborah Paredez, “Chapter Five: ‘Como la Flor’ Reprised: Queer Selenidad,” and “Epilogue,’” Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009), 155-192. 

Guest Speaker: Deborah Paredez  

Thurs., Apr. 22

Class Summary

Evaluations

WEEK FIFTEEN

Tues., Apr. 27              STUDENT FINAL PRESENTATIONS

Thurs., Apr. 29            STUDENT FINAL PRESENTATIONS

WEEK SIXTEEN

Tues., May. 4               STUDENT FINAL PRESENTATIONS

Thurs., May. 6             STUDENT FINAL PRESENTATIONS

                                    CULTURAL ANALYSIS PAPER DUE

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.