AMERICAN STUDIES COURSE OFFERINGS 2021-2022

FALL  2021

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AMS200H1F: Introduction to American Studies
Instructor: Alexandra Rahr
Thursdays, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 60

This course is inspired by one central question – what is America and how do we study it?  To get at an answer, we’ll examine issues that have long animated the discipline of American Studies and the nation itself.  Is the ideal republic a teeming metropolis or rolling “fields of amber grain”?  Why does the frontier loom so large in the American imagination? What does it mean to be a nation and an empire?  We’ll tackle these questions and more by reading contemporary scholarship – such as Michelle Alexander’s work on mass incarceration – as well as historical texts – such as witness testimony from the 1692 Salem Witch Trials.  Throughout the course we’ll explore issues and ideologies central to the republic including racialization, exceptionalism, precarity and the changeable status of citizenship.  Required for majors and minors, but open to all who meet pre-requisites.

AMS310H1F / ENG365H1F: Approaches to American Studies: Contemporary American Fiction
Instructor: Scott Rayter
Mondays, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: American Studies (10 seats) + English (35 seats) = Total (45 seats)

How do contemporary American fiction writers deal with the politics of representation in their works, particularly in relation to identity—be it national, sexual, gender, ethnic, or racial—and within a larger postmodern context of questioning subjectivity itself?

AMS311H1F: Approaches to American Studies: Monumental Controversies: America’s Public Memorials
Instructor: Alexandra Rahr
Tuesdays, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 25

In cities across America, statues of Confederate heroes have recently come tumbling down.  Even in the dead of night, some removal crews wear masks to conceal their identities and protect them from retribution.  As the republic grapples with conflicting histories, this course will examine the politics of memorialization.  We’ll ask what gets remembered, by whom, for how long, and what form public commemoration takes.  Reading statues, plaques, monuments and museums, we’ll consider the relationship between memorialization and amnesia as we explore just how American memorials do the cultural work of remembering and forgetting.  To that end, we’ll consider the long and contentious history of American monument making: from the Mall in Washington D.C. to Alabama’s new monument to victims of lynching – all as we examine how public memorialization makes and unmakes American history.

AMS312H1F: Approaches to American Studies: Occupations, Insurrections, Massacres: Histories of Violence in the United States
Instructor: Francesca D’Amico
Wednesday, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 45

In 2001, on the eve of invading Afghanistan, President George W. Bush described the United States as “a peaceful nation.” History would suggest otherwise. Setting aside an almost unbroken chain of military engagments, both internal and external, since its founding revolution, the history of the United States is rife with violence. That violence might have taken the form of resistance against oppression; it may have been by the government against insurrections, real and perceived; it may have been outright massacres, whether of Indigenous people, striking workers, or African Americans. This course will examine those histories of violence and the discourses that have surrounded them, to better understand American Exceptionalism and its critics.

AMS313H1F / HIS378H1F: Approaches to American Studies: America in the 1960s
Instructor: Kelsey Kilgore
Fridays, 12:00 pm – 2:00pm; Enrollment Cap: American Studies (22 seats) + History (23 seats) = Total (45 seats)

A survey of one of the most turbulent decades in American history. Examines the political, social, economic, and cultural revolutions that transformed the face of America.

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WINTER  2022

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AMS210H1S / GGR254H1S: Concepts in American Studies: Geography USA
Instructor: Travis Bost
Thursday, 9:00 am – 11:00 am; Enrollment Cap: American Studies (25 seats) + Geography and Planning (95 seats) = Total (120 seats) 

After a short historical overview of the making of America, this course focuses on contemporary issues in American society, economy, politics, race, regional distinctions and disparities, urban development.

AMS300H1S: Theories and Methods in American Studies
Instructor: Alexandra Rahr
Tuesdays, 11:00 am – 1:00 pm, Tutorials 1-2 pm and 2-3pm; Enrollment Cap: 60

This class sets out to answer Henry Nash Smith’s field-defining question: ‘Can American Studies develop a method?’  As we explore exactly how to ‘do’ American Studies, we’ll read scholarship from a wide range of theorists across a variety of disciplines, including demography, history, political science, geography, literary studies, sociology and visual culture.  And because theory needs an object, this class pairs discussion of LGBTQI citizenship with the lurid covers of dime store novels, and analysis of Cold War geography with Lyndon Johnson’s infamous anti-nuclear ‘Daisy’ campaign ad.  We’ll also examine how scholars use techniques such as ethnography, quantitative analysis and close reading to illuminate the American experience.  By analyzing the methods, history and theories of American Studies, we’ll trace the invention of the field and explore controversial debates over the discipline’s future.  Required for majors and minors, but open to all who meet pre-requisites.

AMS312H1S / POL379H1S: Approaches to American Studies: American Political Economy
Instructor: Nicole Wu
Mondays, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: American Studies (15 seats) + Political Science (55 seats) = Total (70 seats)

This course surveys key issues and topics in American political economy. It analyses how firms, interest groups, voters, political parties, and electoral institutions shape important policy outcomes. It also helps students make sense of contemporary issues such as deindustrialization, rural resentment, the backlash against globalization, and increasing political polarization.

AMS401H1S: Topics in American Studies: Climates in Crisis: America and its Environments
Instructor: Alexandra Rahr
Thursday, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 20

The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced that climate change is threatening several of its 2,000 Superfund sites – America’s worst toxic waste dumps – and they’re now in danger of leaking.  As the nation grapples with the long emergency of climate change, this class will examine American landscapes, from post-industrial disasters to iconic vistas like the Grand Canyon.  We’ll consider Thomas Jefferson’s beloved farmers – “the chosen people of God” – and Amazon warehouse workers, as we think about how the republic has celebrated, misused and even benignly ignored its ecosystems.  From suburban lawns to California’s Central Valley – which produces of half of America’s fruits and vegetables – and Frederick Law Olmsted’s grand vision for the nation’s urban parks, we’ll examine the republic’s past environments and future landscapes.

AMS403H1S / POL443H1S / POL2322H1S: Topics in American Studies: Land and Indigenous Politics
Instructor: Uahikea Maile
Tuesdays, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: American Studies (5 seats) + Political Science (10 + 10 seats) = Total (25 seats)

This course investigates Indigenous politics through land. We explore transnational Indigenous politics by focusing on material struggles over land. The course considers how global Indigenous land struggles are constituted through and cultivate relationships between Indigenous peoples, social ecologies, and more-than-human existents. As a seminar, we discuss Indigenous geontologies of land, water, and air across the Americas and in Oceania.

AMERICAN STUDIES COURSE OFFERINGS 2021-2022

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SUMMER 2020

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USA401H1F: Topics in American Studies: – Spin! Media, Marketing and Managing the Future
Instructor: Dan Guadagnolo
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 25

This course examines the marketing experts, public relations advisors, and image management consultants who make it their business to manage an uncertain future. It explores the histories behind the strategies these specialists have used to manage public perception and to inform public opinion about corporations, CEOs, politicians and more. By putting in conversation both classic public relations, marketing, and advertising texts and more recent work in these fields, we will examine how these professions have both succeeded and failed in accomplishing their work. In doing so, we will track how the rise of public relations, marketing, and image management transformed not only public life, but our collective sense of the past and future as well.

Prerequisite: At least two courses (2.0 FCEs) from the American Studies list of eligible courses, or by special permission of instructor.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities or Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

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FALL  2020

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USA200H1F: Introduction to American Studies
Instructor: Alexandra Rahr
Thursdays, 12:00 – 2:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 60 (Online Synchronous)

This course is inspired by one central question – what is America and how do we study it?  To get at an answer, we’ll examine issues that have animated the discipline of American Studies and the nation itself.  Is the ideal republic found in a teeming metropolis or in rolling “fields of amber grain”?  Why does the frontier loom so large in the American imagination? What does it mean to try to be a nation and an empire?  We’ll tackle these questions and more by reading contemporary scholarship – such as Michelle Alexander’s work on mass incarceration – as well as historical texts – such as witness testimony from the 1692 Salem Witch Trials.  Throughout the course we’ll explore issues and ideologies central to the republic including racialization, exceptionalism, precarity and the changeable status of citizenship.  Required for majors and minors, but open to all who meet pre-requisites.

USA311H1F: Approaches to American Studies: Epidemic: The History and Culture of American Contagion
Instructor:  Alexandra Rahr
Tuesdays, 2:00 – 4:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 25 (Online Synchronous)

From the smallpox epidemic which ravaged the nation during the Civil War and led to the emergence of new burial practices, to the AIDS crisis which galvanized LGBTQ+ politics, American history and culture has been shaped by epidemic.  This class will examine the history, rhetoric and politics of these outbreaks.  We’ll read Susan Sontag’s reflections on the stigma of sickness in Illness as Metaphor, study the emergence of the telethon as a key fundraising and education apparatus, and explore techo-modern innovations such as the iron lung – which saved the lives of thousands of children infected with polio.  Throughout the course, we’ll interrogate America’s disease cultures and consider how the republic imagines pandemic, ‘public’ health, individual rights, risk and contagion in times of fatal communicability.

USA312H1F / SMC301H1F / POL378H1F: Approaches to American Studies: Trump and the Election
Instructor: Sam Tanenhaus 
Thursdays, 3:00 – 5:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 30 spots-American Studies / 138 spots-SMC / 30 spots-Political Science (Total=198) (Online Synchronous)

The 2020 presidential election will be one of the most important in modern U.S. history, as the public decides whether to give President Donald Trump a second term after a first term marked by controversy and partisan dispute that has been reflected in and indeed intensified by media responses. The election, and the sharp conflict between and within the Republican and Democrat parties, and between their nominees for President, is sure to increase the pressures on political media and its role in reporting, interpreting, and even shaping events in a democracy of more than 300 million citizens. In this course, we will examine various aspects of the relationship between Trump and the Media across the full range of platforms – from legacy print media (books, magazines, newspapers) to cable TV and radio as well as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Our goal is to gain a better understanding of Trump.

USA313H1F / POL377H1F: Approaches to American Studies: Truth, Reconciliation, and Settler Colonialism
Instructor:  Uahikea Maile
Tuesdays, 6:00 – 8:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 15 spots-American Studies / 55 spots-Political Science (Total=70) (Online Synchronous)

This course examines settler colonialism in reconciliation policies and their regimes of truth. We explore theories and critiques of settler colonialism through the truth and reconciliation commission. A comparative study in Indigenous politics, the class engages truth, reconciliation, and settler colonialism in Canada, South Africa, Hawai‘i, and elsewhere.

USA403H1F / POL433H1F: Topics in American Studies:  Presidential Politics in America
Instructor:  Lawrence LeDuc
Mondays, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 8 spots-American Studies / 16 spots-Political Science (Total=24) (Dual Delivery)

The November 2020 presidential election will be a major event in shaping the future direction of American government and politics. In the first part of this course, we will examine the events leading up to the election, the unique characteristics of U.S. political institutions, and the issues and dynamics of the campaign. Following the election, we will analyze the outcome and consider its implications for the direction of US public policy over the next four years and the potential significance of political changes in the United States in world affairs.

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WINTER  2021

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USA300H1S: Theories and Methods in American Studies
Instructor: Alexandra Rahr
Thursdays, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm, Tutorials 12-1 pm and 1-2 pm; Enrollment Cap: 60 (Online Synchronous)

This class sets out to answer Henry Nash Smith’s field-defining question: ‘Can American Studies develop a method?’  As we explore exactly how to ‘do’ American Studies, we’ll read scholarship from a wide range of theorists across a variety of disciplines, including demography, history, political science, geography, literary studies, sociology and visual culture.  And because theory needs an object, this class pairs discussion of LGBTQI citizenship with the lurid covers of dime store novels, or analysis of Cold War geography with Lyndon Johnson’s infamous anti-nuclear ‘Daisy’ campaign ad.  We’ll also examine how scholars use techniques such as ethnography, quantitative analysis and close reading to illuminate the American experience.  By analyzing the methods, history and theories of American Studies, we’ll trace the invention of the field and explore controversial debates over the discipline’s future.  Required for majors and minors, but open to all who meet pre-requisites.

USA310H1S: Approaches to American Studies:  Man of the People: Populism and Demagoguery in American Culture
Instructor:  Alexandra Rahr
Tuesdays,  11:00 am – 1:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 25 (Online Synchronous)

The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Barack Obama and thousands of tweeters have all called Donald Trump a populist and a demagogue.  But what do these terms mean – in both the American present and the American past?  This class will examine the figure of the demagogue and the ideology of populism, considering how appeals to ‘the people’ mobilize rage and resentment in American politics.  We’ll delve into the history of these movements and leaders – both left and right – from Alexander Hamilton’s fears of demagoguery to Occupy Wall Street’s fizzle to Luke Bryan’s pick-up truck anthems.  Along the way we’ll interrogate the techniques which pit the ‘average American’ against corrupt institutions and privileged elites and ask just what emerges in the aftermath of a populist movement.

USA312H1S: Approaches to American Studies: Advertising, Politics and Popular Culture
Instructor: TBA
Wednesday, 3:00 – 5:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 45 (Online Synchronous)

What is a brand? This American Studies class examines how marketers, merchandisers, and other commercial experts have constructed brands and brand strategies, from the rise of mass magazines in the early twentieth century to contemporary social media platforms today. We will explore theories of consumer desire, market research, and the design strategies which advertising and marketing professionals have used to develop both the idea of brands and brands themselves—looking at both successful, well-recognized brands and brands that dramatically failed. This course looks at the branding process for consumer products and celebrities and politicians alike, to understand how brand consciousness figures into our day to day decision making.

USA402H1S / HIS1802HS / HIS404H1S: Topics in American Studies:  Slavery in North America
Instructor:  Max Mishler
Thursdays, 1:00 – 3:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 7 spots-American Studies / 8 spots-History Undergraduate / 5 spots-History Graduate (Total=20) (Online Synchronous)

Slavery has existed in many human societies throughout history. Beginning in the sixteenth century, European empires pioneered a new system of racial chattel slavery predicated on enslaving Native Americans and the transportation of enslaved African captives to plantation zones in the Americas. This course examines the history of slavery in British North America and the United States (c. 1619-1865). We will explore both the Atlantic and domestic slave trades; Indigenous and Atlantic slaveries; the codification of racial difference that accompanied slavery’s expansion; gender and the reproduction; enslaved people’s lives and politics; the economic history of slavery; the politics of slavery in the United States (1776-1865); and the destruction of chattel slavery during the Civil War (1861-65). We will conclude by taking up what Saidiya Hartman calls the afterlives of slavery in post-war American history.

USA403H1S / POL443H1S: Topics in American Studies: Land and Indigenous Politics
Instructor: Uahikea Maile
Tuesdays, 2:00 – 4:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 8 spots-American Studies / 15 spots-Political Science Undergraduate / 10 spots-Political Science Graduate (Total=33) (Online Synchronous)

This course examines Indigenous politics through land. We explore transnational Indigenous politics by focusing on how land struggles are animated by and cultivate relationships between Indigenous communities and their social ecologies. Discussing geontologies of land, water, and air, the seminar is oriented around material struggles over and relationalities with a sacred mountain, lakes and rivers, the atmosphere, and more.

AMERICAN STUDIES COURSE OFFERINGS 2019-2020

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SUMMER 2019

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USA401H1F: Topics in American Studies: Social Inequality and Education
Instructor: Lance McCready
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 25

This course examines the ways in which social inequality begets educational inequality, and how educational inequality reproduces social inequality in broader society. Drawing primarily from sociological scholarship, the course will review some of main academic debates on the nature of links between social and educational inequality in the United States and in some cases, for comparative purposes, Canada and the Caribbean region. Students will engage these debates by studying classic and contemporary theories and case-study research in these areas. Students will come to recognize the structural forces of inequality in neighborhoods and schools, and how those forces contribute to unequal opportunities, experiences, and achievement outcomes for students along lines of race/ethnicity, class, gender, and citizenship status. Specific topics to be covered include neighborhood and school segregation, culture, networks, stereotypes, and immigrant assimilation patterns. Graded course requirements include participation in small group discussions, autobiographical reflection, quantitative reasoning assignment and critical film review.

Prerequisite: At least two courses (2.0 FCEs) from the American Studies list of eligible courses, or by special permission of instructor.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities or Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations

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USA494H1F/S – Independent Studies / USA495Y1 – Independent Studies

Distribution Requirement: Humanities or Social Science
Breadth Requirement: None

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Fall 2019

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USA200H1F: Introduction to American Studies
Instructor: Alexandra Rahr
Thursdays, 2:00 – 4:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 60

Students in this course will examine the politics, history, and culture of the United States through a selection of “keywords” from the field of American Studies (i.e. nation, frontier, race, gender, memorials, etc.). Through a critical analysis of primary readings from American Studies scholars, as well as other academic and contemporary writing, we will interrogate and problematize the keywords in question. A central focus of our analysis will be the social, cultural, and political contexts surrounding our keywords, as well as their representation in mediated texts. The instructor will also provide a material “object of the week” which functions as a fun and engaging entry point into the issues and debates related to the week’s topic. The object and its significance will be discussed and debated by the students in conjunction with the instructor.

USA310H1F / HIS389H1F: Approaches to American Studies: Mass Incarceration in the United States
Instructor: Max Mishler
Wednesdays, 1:00 – 3:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 23 spots-American Studies / 23 spots-History (Total=46)

The United States is home to five percent of the world’s population but twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners, including a disproportionate number of African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans. This vast carceral archipelago generates significant profits for private corporations while exacerbating government deficits and wreaking havoc in those communities targeted by systematic policing and imprisonment. It has also provoked public and scholarly debates about the history, ethics, and function of incarceration in the United States. In this course, we will consider the rise of contemporary mass incarceration from an interdisciplinary perspective that draws upon history, sociology, and legal scholarship.

Sample Texts: Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010); James Forman, Locking up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America (2017); Torrie Hester, Deportation: The Origins of U.S. Policy (2017); Laleh Khalili, Time in the Shadows: Confinement and Counterinsurgencies (2012); Khalil Muhammad, The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern America (2010).

USA313H1F / POL379H1F: Approaches to American Studies: Civil Liberties in the United States
Instructor: Connor Ewing
Thursdays, 1:00 – 2:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 15 spots-American Studies / 55 spots-Political Science (Total=70)

This course offers a survey of American constitutional law in the area of civil liberties. The general domains of doctrinal development to be covered include: fundamental rights; freedoms of speech, press, and assembly; freedom of (and freedom from) religion; rights to privacy and autonomy; the guarantees of due process and equal protection of the laws; sexual and familial rights; and economic and socio-economic rights (or their absence). To make sense of the jurisprudential developments in each of these areas, the course will also take account of broader trends in legal history, social transformation, and constitutional interpretation.

USA400H1F / HIS404H1F: Topics in American Studies: Choosing War: U.S. Experiences
Instructor: Ronald Pruessen
Tuesdays, 12:00 – 2:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 9 spots-American Studies / 9 spots-History (Total=18)

The United States has gone to war regularly over the past two centuries and this course will consider how decisions to do so have changed — or not changed — over time. Key case studies will include the War of 1812, the Mexican War (1846-48), the Spanish-American-Cuban War (1898), World War I (1917-18), World War II (1941-45), the Korean War (1950-53), Vietnam (1954-73), and Iraq and Afghanistan in the early 21st century.

USA401H1F: Topics in American Studies: Fight the Power: A History of American Protest Movements
Instructor: Alexandra Rahr
Tuesdays, 2:00 – 4:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 22

America was born from protest, but the nation’s tradition of rebellious critique was only beginning when settlers took up arms against the British and made a republic out of a colony. Starting with the Declaration of Independence and continuing through the #MeToo movement, this course will examine the many texts and long history of American public dissent. Along the way, we’ll read Harriet Jacobs’ abolitionist memoir, meet Tim O’Brien’s traumatized soldier in the Vietnam War collection The Things We Carried, and consider the digitization of protest in Black Lives Matter. Throughout the class we’ll explore precisely how dissent is articulated, and examine techniques including moral suasion, agitprop and sentimentalism.

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WINTER 2020

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USA300H1S: Theories and Methods in American Studies
Instructor: Alexandra Rahr
Thursdays, 2:00 – 4:00 pm, Tutorials 4-5 pm and 5-6 pm; Enrollment Cap: 60

This course, required for majors and minors, but open to all who have met the prerequisites, explores a range of approaches to the field of American Studies. Students will be introduced to some of the many ‘theories and methods’ that have animated the field of American Studies, including historical methods; formal analysis of visual and literary texts; and key concepts, such as commodity chain analysis; ‘race,’ ‘commodity,’ ‘gender,’ ‘diaspora,’ and ‘affect.’

USA311H1S: Approaches to American Studies: American Capitalism
Instructor: Dan Guadagnolo
Wednesdays, 3:00 – 5:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 45

American Studies offers a powerful set of tools with which to study race, gender, sexuality or class in daily life. This course joins those to studies of large institutions or forces of economic power, such as corporations, global capitalism, global race, and empire. The class will draw methods and analytic approaches from across the field of American Studies to consider how we might develop a toolkit for thinking, researching, and writing about capitalist economic ideas as culturally embedded, regulated, and produced. We will explore perspectives offered by American Studies scholars trained in communications, science and technology studies, literature, anthropology, sociology, history, musicology, and visual studies, bridging both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Students will be introduced to classic texts as well as to more recent work that examines the social, cultural, environmental, gendered, and ethical aspects of economic life under U.S. capitalism.

USA400H1S: Topics in American Studies: The End of the World as we Know It: America’s Love Affair with Apocalypse
Instructor: Alexandra Rahr
Tuesdays, 2:00 – 4:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 25

A 2014 study revealed that Americans are much more sunnily positive than Europeans – a finding that seems to confirm the longstanding stereotype of the optimistic American. Yet since its earliest days, the republic has also been troubled – and thrilled – by fears that the end is nigh. This course will examine the persistence of apocalyptic visions in American history and culture. We’ll listen to the cult classic album Sounds of American Doomsday Cults, Vol 14, read Jonathan Edwards’ famous hellfire sermon ‘Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God’ and watch the pop satire of ‘The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.’ While analyzing the relationship between Armageddon and exceptionalism, we’ll also consider exactly what apocalyptic narratives reveal about the republic – particularly in an era of environmental crisis that might just presage a new kind of end times.

USA402H1S / CIN432H1S: Topics in American Studies: Graphic!
Instructor: Nic Sammond
Mondays and Tuesdays, 1:00 – 3:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 7 spots-American Studies

This is a course in vernacular media. It is interested in exploring the longstanding and constantly changing relationship between print and other forms of media, including film, radio, television and more recent online platforms. Conepts like “convergence culture” and “transmedia storytelling,” as useful as they are for describing our current intermediated lives, aren’t new. This course explores a long history of intermediality in which popular cultural forms – comics, cartoons, films, radio programs, etc. – become forums for exploring important social, cultural, and political ideas considered too “lowbrow” for more refined forms of cultural practice and production.

USA403H1S / POL433H1S: Topics in American Studies: American Political Development
Instructor: Connor Ewing
Mondays, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 8 spots-American Studies / 16 spots-History (Total=24)

This course explores the substance and nature of American political development. It will begin by examining the methodology, mechanisms, and patterns of American political development from the founding to the present. Emphasis will be placed on divergent perspectives on the nature of political development, particularly narratives of continuity and discontinuity. The course will also address the following topics: the Constitution and the founding; political economy, trade, and industrialization; bureaucracy and administration; citizenship and inclusion; race and civil rights; law and legal development; political institutions; and political parties.

AMERICAN STUDIES COURSE OFFERINGS 2018-2019

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SUMMER 2018

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USA403H1F: Topics in American Studies: American Tragedy: Guns & Mass Shootings in US History
Instructor: Jooyoung Lee
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00 – 4:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 25

Columbine. Newtown. Aurora. Virginia Tech. San Bernardino. Orlando. Las Vegas. Parkland...Recent American history is filled with examples of deadly mass shootings.  How and why do these shootings seem to happen with such frequency?  What can be done to stop them?  And how do these tragedies redefine American identity and culture?  In this course, we’ll examine case studies of deadly mass shootings, the history of the gun control and gun rights debates, the American love affair with firearms, and the most promising policy ideas (from inside and outside of the US) aimed at preventing and eliminating mass shootings altogether. My goal is for you to leave this course armed with a critical understanding of the causes and consequences of mass shootings in the United States.

Prerequisite: At least two courses (2.0 FCEs) from the American Studies list of eligible courses, or by special permission of instructor.
Distribution Requirement: Humanities or Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions

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USA494H1F/S – Independent Studies / USA495Y1 – Independent Studies

Distribution Requirement: Humanities or Social Science
Breadth Requirement: None

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Fall 2018

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USA200H1F: Introduction to American Studies
Instructor: Alexandra Rahr
Thursdays, 12:00 – 2:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 60

Students in this course will examine the politics, history, and culture of the United States through a selection of “keywords” from the field of American Studies (i.e. nation, frontier, race, gender, memorials, etc.). Through a critical analysis of primary readings from American Studies scholars, as well as other academic and contemporary writing, we will interrogate and problematize the keywords in question. A central focus of our analysis will be the social, cultural, and political contexts surrounding our keywords, as well as their representation in mediated texts. The instructor will also provide a material “object of the week” which functions as a fun and engaging entry point into the issues and debates related to the week’s topic. The object and its significance will be discussed and debated by the students in conjunction with the instructor.
USA200H1F Syllabus

Distribution Requirements: Humanities, Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

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USA310H1F / HIS389H1F (L0501): Approaches to American Studies: Mass Incarceration in the United States
Instructor: Max Mishler
Wednesdays, 1:00 – 3:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 20 spots–American Studies / 25 spots–History (Total = 45)

The United States is home to five percent of the world’s population but twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners, including a disproportionate number of African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans. This vast carceral archipelago generates significant profits for private corporations while exacerbating government deficits and wreaking havoc in those communities targeted by systematic policing and imprisonment. It has also provoked public and scholarly debates about the history, ethics, and function of incarceration in the United States. In this course, we will consider the rise of contemporary mass incarceration from an interdisciplinary perspective that draws upon history, sociology, and legal scholarship.

Sample Texts: Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (2010); James Forman, Locking up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America (2017); Torrie Hester, Deportation: The Origins of U.S. Policy (2017); Laleh Khalili, Time in the Shadows: Confinement and Counterinsurgencies (2012); Khalil Muhammad, The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern America (2010).

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USA311H1F / SMC301H1: Approaches to American Studies: Trump and the Media
Instructor: Sam Tanenhaus
Thursdays, 3:00 – 5:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 30 spots–American Studies / 168 spots–SMC (Total = 198)

The election of President Donald Trump has transformed the relationship between the presidency and the press. But what has been the larger impact on American democracy? We will look for answers by examining a broad range of political journalism – legacy print publications, network and cable news, and newer forms of digital and social media.

Prerequisite: At least two half courses (1.0 FCE) from the American Studies list of eligible courses or USA300H1.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities, Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations

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USA313H1F / POL379H1: Approaches to American Studies: Civil Liberties in the United States
Instructor: Connor Ewing
Fridays, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 15 spots–American Studies / 55 spots–Political Science (Total = 70)

This course offers a survey of American constitutional law in the area of civil liberties. The general domains of doctrinal development to be covered include: fundamental rights; freedoms of speech, press, and assembly; freedom of (and freedom from) religion; rights to privacy and autonomy; the guarantees of due process and equal protection of the laws; sexual and familial rights; and economic and socio-economic rights (or their absence). To make sense of the jurisprudential developments in each of these areas, the course will also take account of broader trends in legal history, social transformation, and constitutional interpretation.

Prerequisite: At least two half courses (1.0 FCE) from the American Studies list of eligible courses or USA300H1.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities, Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

Distribution Requirement Status: Humanities or Social Science
Breadth Requirement: None

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Winter 2019

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USA300H1S: Theories and Methods in American Studies
Instructor: Alexandra Rahr
Thursdays, 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm, Tutorials 2-3 pm and 3-4 pm; Enrollment Cap: 60

This course, required for majors and minors, but open to all who have met the prerequisites, explores a range of approaches to the field of American Studies. Students will be introduced to some of the many ‘theories and methods’ that have animated the field of American Studies, including historical methods; formal analysis of visual and literary texts; and key concepts, such as commodity chain analysis; ‘race,’ ‘commodity,’ ‘gender,’ ‘diaspora,’ and ‘affect.’
USA300H1S Syllabus

Distribution Requirement: Humanities or Social Science
Breadth Requirement: None

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AMERICAN STUDIES COURSE OFFERINGS 2017-2018

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SUMMER 2017

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USA400H1F: Topics in American Studies: Gun Violence in America
Instructor: Jooyoung Lee
Mondays and Wednesdays 4:00 – 6:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 20

This course will introduce you to three iconic case studies in American gun violence. First, we will examine theories of school-rampage shootings, with a particular emphasis on the Columbine School Shootings. Next, we will look at a decades-long gang war between the Crips and Bloods in “South Central” Los Angeles. Third, we will revisit the Zodiac Killings, the most infamous unsolved serial murder case in U.S. history. These three case studies will provide the empirical foundations for in-depth analyses of guns, violence, masculinity, mental health, policing, and the lived experiences of victims. We will also think broadly about policies that could prevent these tragedies from happening again.

Prerequisite: At least two courses (2.0 FCEs) from the American Studies list, or by special permission.
Distribution Requirement Status: Humanities or Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations

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USA494H1F/S – Independent Studies / USA495Y1 – Independent Studies

Distribution Requirement Status: Humanities or Social Science
Breadth Requirement: None

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FALL 2017

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USA200H1F: Introduction to American Studies
Instructor: Alexandra Rahr
Tuesdays, 2:00 – 4:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 60

Students in this course will examine the politics, history, and culture of the United States through a selection of “keywords” from the field of American Studies (i.e. nation, frontier, race, gender, memorials, etc.). Through a critical analysis of primary readings from American Studies scholars, as well as other academic and contemporary writing, we will interrogate and problematize the keywords in question. A central focus of our analysis will be the social, cultural, and political contexts surrounding our keywords, as well as their representation in mediated texts. The instructor will also provide a material “object of the week” which functions as a fun and engaging entry point into the issues and debates related to the week’s topic. The object and its significance will be discussed and debated by the students in conjunction with the instructor.
USA200H1F Syllabus

Distribution Requirements: Humanities, Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Society and its Institutions (3)

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USA310H1F / HIS378H1F: Approaches to American Studies: America in the 1960s
Instructor: Michael Savage
Fridays 2:00 – 4:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 40 spots – History / 30 spots – American Studies (Total = 70)

A survey of one of the most turbulent decades in American history. Examines the political, social, economic, and cultural revolutions that transformed the face of America.
USA310H1F Syllabus

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USA311H1F: Approaches to American Studies: Globalization & Economic Development in the USA
Instructor: Shiri Breznitz
Wednesdays, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 45

This seminar challenges you to open your mind and ask crucial questions regarding economic development on the regional, state, and federal levels in today’s global economy. Students will acquire improved understanding and critical insight about different perspectives of economic development and the interpretation of economic development problems. The course will also examine national and international trends, including issues of competitiveness, technological change, and globalization that influence regional and local economic development. Ongoing concerns of job creation, quality of jobs, and equity in economic development will also be relevant to our discussion.
USA311H1F Syllabus

Prerequisite: At least two half courses (1.0 FCE) from the American Studies list of eligible courses or USA300H1.
Distribution Requirements: Humanities, Social Science
Breadth Requirements: Creative and Cultural Representations

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USA312H1F: Approaches to American Studies: Man of the People: Populism and Demagoguery in the Age of Trump
Instructor: Alexandra Rahr
Thursdays, 12:00 – 2:00 pm; Enrollment Cap: 45

Both The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have called Donald Trump a populist, while The Economist and Barack Obama have similarly deemed the president a demagogue.  But what do these terms mean—in both the American present and the American past? This class will examine the figure of the demagogue and the ideology of populism, considering how appeals to ‘the people’ mobilize rage and resentment in American politics. We will examine the historical and contemporary texts of these movements and leaders—both left and right—from Alexander Hamilton’s fears of demagoguery to Occupy Wall Street to Donald Trump’s speeches and tweets. Along the way we will interrogate the techniques which pit the common American against putatively corrupt institutions and privileged elites.
USA312H1F Syllabus

Distribution Requirement Status: Humanities or Social Science
Breadth Requirement: None

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WINTER 2018

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USA300H1S: Theories and Methods in American Studies
Instructor: Alexandra Rahr
Thursdays, 12:00 – 2:00 pm, Tutorials 2-3 pm and 3-4 pm; Enrollment Cap: 60

This course, required for majors and minors, but open to all who have met the prerequisites, explores a range of approaches to the field of American Studies. Students will be introduced to some of the many ‘theories and methods’ that have animated the field of American Studies, including historical methods; formal analysis of visual and literary texts; and key concepts, such as commodity chain analysis; ‘race,’ ‘commodity,’ ‘gender,’ ‘diaspora,’ and ‘affect.’
USA300H1S Syllabus

Distribution Requirement Status: Humanities or Social Science
Breadth Requirement: None