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  • AMST 301: Theories and Methods in American Studies

    3.00 Credits
    Williams College

    This course aims to provide a "how to" of American Studies from an integrative, multiracial, and socio-cultural perspective. Taking American culture as a site for testing classic and contemporary theories about how cultures work, the Junior Seminar in American Studies serves as an introduction to resources and techniques for interdisciplinary research. Students will be exposed to and experiment with a wide range of current theoretical and methodological approaches employed in American Studies and contributing disciplinary fields, and in the process gain a working competence in all four tracks of the major (Space and Place; Comparative Studies in Race, Ethnicity and Diaspora; Arts in Context; and Critical and Cultural Theory). The goal of the course is not only for students to develop knowledge of main currents in the field of American Studies but also to become practitioners through a series of assignments that will permit students to exercise their newfound skills. Students will thus, for instance, develop rhetorical analyses, gather ethnographic data, and "read" assorted spaces and buildings, as the class explores such problems or topics as national narratives, ethnoracial formations, the American prison system, and the circulation of commodities. Prerequisite:    AMST 201, junior or senior standing, or permission of the instructor
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  • AMST 303: Race and Abstraction

    3.00 Credits
    Williams College

    Minority artists--writers and visual artists mainly and, to a lesser degree, musicians--face a difficult "double bind" when creating works of art: the expectation is that they, like their racially marked bodies, will exhibit their difference by means of concrete signifiers (details, tropes, narratives, themes) of racial difference. Thus, the work is judged primarily in terms of its embodied sociological content (material, empirical) and not by "abstract" standards of aesthetic subtlety, philosophical sophistication, and so on. At the same time, in the popular and academic imaginary, minority subjects and artists poets occupy a single abstract signifying category--homogeneous, undifferentiated, "other," marginalized, non-universal--while "unmarked" (white) artists occupy the position of being universal and individual at once. The irony, of course, is that, say, an African American poet's being read as an abstract signifier does not mean that the black subject or writer is seen as capable of engaging in abstract ideas. This course will ask questions about the problem of race and abstraction by looking at the work of various writers, visual artists and musicians--including Will Alexander, Cecil Taylor, David Hammons--as well as critics. We will pay particular attention to formally experimental works. Prerequisite:    At least one previous literature or art or music class would be helpful
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  • AMST 306: Queer of Color Critique

    3.00 Credits
    Williams College

    This advanced seminar introduces students to queer of color critique, a mode of queer theory emphasizing diverse experiences, geographies, and epistemologies that also foregrounds the intersection of sexual and racial constructs. We will examine the history of this line of critique, exploring how and why it became a necessary intervention into the then still emerging field of queer studies. In addition to theoretical works, we also examine literary and cinematic works that exemplify and enact queer of color critique. We will read major works by those individuals who established the discipline, thereby surveying works from a variety of fields including critical race studies, literary theory, anthropology, feminist/womanist studies, ethnic studies, postcolonial studies, area studies, and others. Much of this early work in queer of color critique is North American in context, but we will also explore more recent scholarship that deals with transnational contexts and applications and examine how queer of color critique contributed to the emergence of transnational queer studies. A key feature of this course will be its uniquely dialogic structure that will allow a variety of diverse authors and artists to appear virtually to answer questions about their published work as well as some emerging scholars in the field who will share their experiences finding their way into this area of study and how they developed research and artistic projects. This course meets the requirements of the Exploring Diversity Initiative in that it focuses on empathetic understanding, power and privilege, and critical theorization, especially in relation class, gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity in both the US and global comparative contexts.
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  • AMST 307: Neoliberalism: A Key Concept for Our Times

    3.00 Credits
    Williams College

    Neoliberalism is, in essence, the belief that unencumbered market mechanisms will maximize prosperity and happiness. Over the past thirty years this idea has come to shape the global economy, the ways governments function, and how individuals understand themselves and their relations with other people in their lives. However, political movements around the world have challenged these principles -- pointing to growing wealth inequality, environmental destruction, and negative cultural changes that have followed the implementation of neoliberal policies. This interdisciplinary course will provide students with a detailed understanding of the concept and these ongoing debates. We will begin by tracing the rise of neoliberal thinking in the fields of economics and public policy. We will then explore its impact on American society, relying on sociological accounts of changes in welfare provision and education, as well as analyses of the political implications of reality television shows. Anthropological studies will help us assess neoliberalism's effects on the Global South. The course will conclude by looking at political movements resisting neoliberalism and asking whether the current economic crisis marks the end of this policy agenda and mode of governance.
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  • AMST 313: Gender, Race, Beauty, and Power in the Age of Transnational Media

    3.00 Credits
    Williams College

    This lecture and discussion course focuses on the politics of personal style among U.S. women of color in an era of viral video clips, the 24-hour news cycle, and e-commerce sites dedicated to the dermatological concerns of "minority" females. With a comparative, transnational emphasis on the ways in which gender, sexuality, ethno-racial identity, and class inform standards of beauty, we will examine a variety of materials ranging from documentary films, commercial websites, poetry and sociological case studies to feminist theory. Departing from the assumption that personal aesthetics are intimately tied to issues of power and privilege, we will engage the following questions: What are the everyday functions of personal style among women of color? Is it feasible to assert that an easily identifiable "African-American," "Latina," or "Asian-American" female aesthetic exists? What role do transnational media play in the development and circulation of popular aesthetic forms? How might the belief in personal style as a tactic of resistance challenge traditional understandings of what it means to be a "feminist" in the first place? Readings include works by Julie Bettie, Rosalinda Fregoso, Tiffany M. Gill, Margaret L. Hunter, Linda Leung, Lisa Nakamura, Catherine Ramirez, Felicity Schaefer-Grabiel, and Sandra K. Soto, among others. Prerequisite:    LATS 105, AFR 200, AMST 201, WGSS 101 or permission of the instructor
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  • AMST 315: Blackness 2.0: Race, Film and New Technologies

    3.00 Credits
    Williams College

    Media theorists have raised three key questions regarding representations of race (or the lack thereof) within contemporary media forms: (1) Is race a liability in the 21st century where utopian forecasts suggest a race-free or `post-race' future" (2) Is there more to new media and race than assumptions about a 'digital divide'? (3) Are race distinctions truly eliminated with digital technologies? In this course we will respond to these questions by investigating the nuanced ways that race becomes constructed in popular media forms. Although we will largely focus on representations of blackness in modern film, we will also explore the implications of `new' medias and technologies upon the categories of race, gender, and sexuality. We will, for example, consider how avatar-based social and entertainment medias become viable forums for conceptualizing race, and whether or not these formats are somehow `better' spaces in which racialized `bodies' can exist. Additional discussion topics may include: how racial discourses in the `real world' are (or are not) reshaped and redefined in the virtual world; blogosphere politics; social networking; gaming and the virtual world; activism on the web; and fandom in the twitter era.
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  • AMST 318: California: Myths, Peoples, Places

    3.00 Credits
    Williams College

    "Now I wish you to know about the strangest thing ever found anywhere in written texts or in human memory...I tell you that on the right-hand side of the Indies there was an island called California, which was very close to the region of the Earthly Paradise." As far as we know, the name "California" was first written in this passage by Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo, ca. 1510. Within a few decades, it came to be placed first on the peninsula of Baja California and then upon a region stretching up the Western coast of North America. What aspects of this vision are still drawn upon in how we imagine California today? How did certain narratives of California come to be, who has imagined California in certain ways, and why? What is the relationship between certain myths, the peoples who have imagined them, and the other peoples who have shared California dreams? In this course, we will examine some of the myths that surround California by looking at a few specific moments of interaction between the peoples who have come to make California home and the specific places in which they have interacted with each other. Of special interest will be imaginations of the Spanish missions, the Gold Rush, agricultural California, wilderness California, California as "sprawling multicultural dystopia," and California as "west of the west."
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  • AMST 320: Dangerous Bodies: Black Womanhood, Sexuality & Popular Culture

    3.00 Credits
    Williams College

    Whether presented as maternal saints, divas, video vixens, or bitches, black female celebrities navigate a tumultuous terrain in popular culture. This course considers the ways that black female celebrities such as Oprah, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Beyonce, Janet Jackson, and Michelle Obama negotiate womanhood and sexuality, and the popular landscapes through which we witness that negotiation. It also engages contemporary black feminist scholarship, which most frequently presents the presentation of black female bodies in popular media forms as exploitive. We will review historical stereotypes of black women in popular media forms, discuss the history of the "politics of respectability" within black culture, engage black feminist responses to these types, and examine theoretical approaches to assess social constructions of womanhood and sexuality. We will also consider provocative questions relevant to discussions of contemporary black sexual politics: Should we view these women as feminists? Are they merely representatives of cultural commodification and control of black women's bodies? Do these women best exemplify the reiteration of problematic characterizations? Are they positive models for demonstrating female empowerment, agency, or "fierceness?" This course explores the histories of representation of black female figures in popular culture, and in so doing, troubles contemporary considerations of black womanhood and sexuality. This course is part of the Gaudino Danger Initiative.
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  • AMST 321: Theories of U.S. Power

    3.00 Credits
    Williams College

    Is it true that the U.S. remains the most powerful country in the world due to the combination of noble values that its citizens hold dear? What does "American Freedom" mean at a time when the U.S. has the highest rate of incarceration in the world? This course is designed to introduce students to different theories of "power" and how it functions in the contemporary world, using the United States as a case study. Beginning at the domestic level, we will explore how the U.S. has remained relatively politically stable despite deep racial divisions and polarizations of wealth. Are residents simply satisfied with their lives? Are they intimidated or physically prevented from seeking change? Or is control maintained in more subtle ways having to do with how we view ourselves and interpret the world? Moving to the international scale, we will analyze whether the United States should be deemed an empire, ways in which the country's economic and military influence has been justified, and how its position in the global economy and system of states is changing. Throughout, we will question how these forms of domestic and international power may be linked. The course will pair challenging theoretical texts with accessible accounts of historical events or processes that exemplify the forms of power under examination. Using texts drawn from history, political science, philosophy, and American Studies, students will develop an understanding of key terms such as class, racial projects, hegemony, governmentality, citizen-subjects, colonialism, the world-system, and transnational states.
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  • AMST 323: Comic Lives: Graphic Novels & Dangerous Histories of the African Diaspora

    3.00 Credits
    Williams College

    This course explores how the graphic novel has been an effective, provocative and at times controversial medium for representing racialized histories. Drawing on graphic novels such as Jeremy Love's Bayou and Ho Che Anderson's King: A Comic Biography, this course illustrates and critiques multiple ways the graphic novel commingles word and image to create more sensorial access into ethnic traumas, challenges and interventions in critical moments of resistance throughout history. Students will practice analyzing graphic novels and comic strips, with the help of critical essays, reviews and film; the chosen texts will center on Africana cultures, prompting students to consider how the graphic novel may act as a useful alternate history for marginalized peoples. During the course, students will keep a journal with images, themes and reflections and will use Comic Life software to create their own graphic short stories based on historical and/or autobiographical narratives. This course is part of the Gaudino Danger Initiative.
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