Bulletin 2000-2002
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American Studies

Director Professor Rowland A. Sherrill, Religious Studies

Professors David Bodenhamer, History; C. Conrad Cherry, Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture; Jonathan Eller, Peirce Project; Bernard Friedman (Emeritus), History; Ralph D. Gray (Emeritus), History; Nathan Houser, Philosophy; Christian Kloesel, English; Patrick McGeever, Political Science; Paul Nagy, Philosophy; David Papke, Law and Liberal Arts; Robert Payton, (Emeritus), Philanthropic Studies; Rowland A. Sherrill, Religious Studies; Jan Shipps (Emerita), History

Associate Professors Carol Brooks Gardner, Sociology; Mel Plotinsky (Emeritus), English; Samuel A. Roberson, Herron School of Art; Jane Schultz, English; Marianne Wokeck, History

Program of the Center for American Studies

The field of American studies operates on the principle that the sum of culture is more than its separate parts. It works across a broad spectrum of disciplines to offer integrating perspectives on American experience, thought, and expression. In this respect, American studies is decidedly interdisciplinary in its approaches, but at the same time it is very much a field to itself, generating its own lines of inquiry concerning the American cultural mosaic.

Minor in American Studies

The minor in American studies offers its students the opportunity to understand the American experience in a broader context than is usually possible through the study of a single discipline. More specifically, it provides students with courses that focus on matters that have been traditionally at issue in the study of American civilization and culture. Required are two general courses (A301 and A302) that treat the broad questions of American identity and American community. These will provide underpinnings for the remaining 9 credit hours of course work. A special feature of this program is the senior tutorial, which gives students the opportunity to engage in in-depth research under the guidance of an American studies faculty member.

Students enrolled in the American studies minor program will be required to complete 15 credit hours of upper-level course work, including the senior tutorial, which attempts to synthesize the other courses and the student’s particular interests in the field of American studies. As a prerequisite, students must complete History H105 and H106 or provide evidence of knowledge of a general outline of the history of the United States; however, these courses do not count toward minor credit. A student’s minor program will be developed in consultation with American studies faculty members and the student’s American studies advisor. The student will be required to complete the following program:

  1. A301 The Question of American Identity (3 cr.)

  2. A302 The Question of American Community (3 cr.)

  3. Two additional courses at the 300 or 400 level offered under the American studies rubric or cross listed in American Studies (6 cr.)

  4. A499 Senior Tutorial (3 cr.)

Courses

A103 Topics in American Studies (1-3 cr.) Interdisciplinary consideration of various American studies topics sometimes coordinated with symposia and/or conferences sponsored by the IUPUI Center for American Studies. A103 cannot be counted as credit toward an American studies minor.

A301 The Question of American Identity (3 cr.) Is American culture unified or does it consist of a potpourri of more or less distinct cultures? Beginning with the 1600s but emphasizing the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this course explores classic texts in American culture, seeking to locate the terms of American unity in the midst of obvious diversity.

A302 The Question of American Community (3 cr.) What are the varieties and forms of American social life? This course will explore the manner in which Americans, from Puritan times through the later decades of the twentieth century, have structured and experienced social life in rural, urban, and suburban settings.

A303 Topics in American Studies (1-3 cr.) Interdisciplinary consideration of various American studies topics.

A304 The Transformation of America 1960-1980 (3 cr.) America in the years from John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan. An examination of such topics as the myth of Camelot, the civil rights movement and the subsequent black uprising, Vietnam and its aftermath, the rise of counterculture, campus unrest and the student movement, the road to Watergate and the retreat into narcissism, the pervasive influence of television, and the rise of neo-conservatism. Also, consideration of the literature: modernism and fabulism in fiction, social and cultural criticism, and the new journalism in nonfiction.

A499 Senior Tutorial in American Studies (3 cr.) This course provides students with the opportunity to pursue particular interests in American studies on topics of their choices and to work in a tutorial relationship with an American studies faculty member. In this course of directed study, students will be required to produce research projects for filing in the library.

 

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