America Unit (Liz)

Engage!
Watch Bill Maher “Michael Jackson is America” clip (available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efBKINY58Ho)

Primary
Read Frederick Jackson Turner’s “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” (available at: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/TURNER/
Another possibility: Randolph Bourne’s “Trans-National America” (available at: http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/rbannis1/AIH19th/Bourne.html)

Secondary
Read Richard Horwitz’s “Introduction” to American Studies Anthology

Reflect
Not sure of assignments just yet but this could easily be something that critically examines the three cultural texts above using key vocabulary/terms/theories from the texts (I’m thinking of a variety: America/n/ism, myth & symbol, essentialism, American Exceptionalism, trans-national(ism), cosmopolitanism, frontier, roots & routes, geographic, (geo)political, symbolic, etc.) Horwitz’s ending discussion of “culture” might be a good segue into the next unit on “Culture.”

Chris' unit

Engage:
The reading is Raymond Williams' Culture entry from Keywords, Anne Norton Smith's discussion of culture from 95 Theses, the first chapter of Rader's American Ways that deals with culture, and then some from Levine's Highbrow/Lowbrow.

this is basically contrasting images of female popular musicians:
Fiona Apple "Criminal"


Alanis Morrissette "you outta know"


Dixie Chicks "Goodbye Earl"


Shania Twain "Any Man of Mine"


Shania Twain "Man I feel like a woman"


Missy Elliott :"work it"


Jean Grae "My Story"




Primary:
Clifford Geertz, the Thick Description article, this handles the "develop cultural analytical skills" angle.
Then I would also have some reviews of the artists we looked at for the engage section from things like Rollingstone, Vibe, whatever.

Secondary:
Beverly Keel's essay Between Riot Girl and Quiet Girl: The New Women's Movement in Women's Music
Tricia Rose: either "Never Trust a Big Butt and a Smile" from the That's the Joint anthology, or the gender chapter from Black Noise

Reflection:
Since I think mine is the second unit, and the outline says this is to identify primary sources - what cultural objects do you want to study, I was thinking of having Tami Albin come in and give the "how do you get started with a research project" talk.

2 Quick comments/concerns

1. looks like all of us are using video clips (mine will be up shortly). Out of 8 classrooms since I started doing 100 only 3 have had the capability to show video. Depending on classrooms and what building they are in it's possible to get a media cart, but I don't think that's the case in some buildings we are all in. I can just see a potential problem (probably solveable) if one or more of us doesn't have a classroom that can do this. I technically have "media rooms," but if I had to teach one of these units this semester I'd be screwed (Cheryl saw my classrooms yesterday during my observation and so she knows this is a problem). Not having all of us able to do this would potentially create a ton of headaches and problems and inconsistencies among sections.

2. I like Stephanie's unit (I've only glanced, but it looks good) but like I said in that big long email: I know very little about religion. I had Sunday School over two decades ago and the only time I go to church is if I'm in a wedding party or are playing a gig. I've read the first half of Genesis. Honestly I could not tell you the difference between an Episcopalian, a Baptist, a Methodist, etc etc. I know Steph thought about using the denomination mission statement (or whatever it's called). Beyond reading those I have no extra knowledge to contextualize them. I just see potential that if students ask questions that go even a bit beyond the content I'm not going to be able to help them. I know this is supposed to be set up so that anyone can teach these sections, but speaking for myself, I feel honestly that I would be marginally competent at best to do a religion unit, or a sports unit, or whatever. I just fear that I'm gonna have to do a ton of extra homework just to feel competent, and even comfortable, teaching a religion unit (not a knock on Stephanie and her unit, just an observation that's based on my own experience)

Stephanie's closing unit

Engage:

Watch this clip of an interview with pastor Rick Warren (the guy who did the opening prayer at Obama's inauguration) talking about the need to resist one's impulses, even if they come from biological predisposition:



Next, this clip with Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, on using scripture to justify slavery, Christians changing their minds as the Holy Spirit leads them to different/better places:



Then finally, Jon Stewart and Bill Bennett mixing it up on gay marriage:



I'm still trying to figure out how we can talk about naturalizing and social constructions in relation to these clips. Seeing as this is potentially the wrap-up, we can hope that at this stage the students would have the skills to see how the speakers invoke concepts that they portray as irrefutably real and ahistorical: Warren is naturalizing maturity, character, “rightness” (“naturalizing” is sort of an ironic word in relation to this one, as the discussion is based on the idea that we must overcome “natural” impulses); Bennett naturalizes “family,” Stewart naturalizes “the human condition” and “progress”; we could probably even argue that Robinson naturalizes progress as well.

This is certainly a place where we could bring in hegemony and the “natural” authority of normativity. We get a glimpse here into how religion is used in political discourse to appeal to the notion of a reality that is above and beyond the political fray of the discussion. This begs the question of what political function that “higher reality” is serving. That question, it seems to me, touches on just about every thematic area we've identified as being important to AMS 100.

Primary:

Cheryl and I talked about the possibility of using some denominational position statements here (such as confessions of faith and the like), discussing how we might see such documents as a genre, and how that genre can be characterized. At this point the only such documents I'm familiar with are Mennonite ones, but I'll go digging. What often strikes me about these documents is how much they reflect the fractious political process of negotiation that goes into them, even if they are transparently trying to project unity. This is a good opportunity to challenge our students' analytical chops and push them to read beyond the text itself.

Secondary:

Have them read two chapters of Dawne Moon's God, Sex, and Politics: Homosexuality and Everyday Theologies: “Debating Homosexuality” and “The Problem of Politics in Church.”

Discussion points:

--Moon makes a very nuanced argument about politics that differs considerably from the stance taken by the Christians whom she interviews. This is a good opportunity for them to both identify an argument and to sort out the author's interpretation of the issues at hand from the opinions of her interviewees (whom she quotes extensively). Having just taught these chapters, I'm finding that students have a surprising among of trouble sorting out who is arguing what.

--Talk about ethnographic methods and use of ethnographic evidence. How does the ethnographer position herself? Why do we need to understand anything about who the ethnographer is to interpret what she is telling us?

--Talk about contradictions and how they are embedded in what we so often think of as common sense (with a nod to Gramsci, if they end up reading him in Will's unit). The people in Moon's study draw on what they see as a commonly-understood separation between religion and politics. But Moon identifies how their very strategies of conflict avoidance (because they associate conflict with politics, and want to disassociate from that) perpetuate their conflicts.

--Moon's informants display a desire to be “unmarked” by politics when they are in a religious context. But the practical manifestation of this desire is a disassociation from difference. (“I have gay friends, but I don't make a big deal out of it. What they do in the bedroom is their business.”) Do we associate difference with “politics,” and thus with conflict? Hegemony and normativity again here—the normative has power because it is unmarked/invisible. So it doesn't get blamed for conflict, and in this context, that's a source of power.

Reflection:

Moon briefly identifies her methods as poststructuralist and uses Foucault in her description of power, and thus politics, as ubiquitous in human relations. Fortunately, she makes this pretty clear and gets it out of the way quickly. Again, seeing as this is the closing unit, presumably the students have already been doing some poststructuralist analysis, though I doubt we should make a big deal of calling it that. Instead, this might be a moment to say, Hey! Here she's doing what we've been doing all semester! Or something like that.

How might we take Moon's analysis of politics and apply it to other cultural material? How does this analysis tie in with all our big concepts: culture, power, difference?

Unit on Power by Will Bishop

Engage:

Watch Fats Domino perform "Ain't That a Shame" in the 1956 film Shake, Rattle, and Rock!:



Watch this clip of a cover of the same song by Pat Boone (who will serve as our cultural whipping boy):



Ask students what differences they notice in the performances? If Fat's Domino wrote the song and performed the original recording, why was Pat Boone's version recorded? (Explain that Boone's song was a huge hit and gained mass mainstream radio airplay before Fats Domino's.)

Watch a clip of Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti":




And now the same song by our main man Pat:



Again ask for student responses to performances. Ask why they think radio stations and record companies may have preferred to produce and play Boone over Fats Domino and Little Richard. Initiate discussion on racial difference, hierarchy and power.

Explain that, partially due to the popularity of Boone's songs Fats Domino and Little Richard eventually gained mainstream popularity. Then show this Little Richard performance in the films Don't Knock the Rock, instructing students to pay attention to the racial dynamic:



Ask students why they think there is such a racial difference between the performers and the audience? Who appears to have more power here?

Primary:

Read these excerpts from two book chapters from David P. Szatmary's Rockin' in Time: A Social History of Rock and Roll :



This reading provides a nice socio-cultural backdrop for the early years of rock and roll. Talks about the economy of its production and addresses the issue of race.

Watch performances of Chuck Berry like "Maybellene":



Or Jerry Lee Lewis like "Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On":



And of Elivs Presley like "Hound Dog":



Compare and contrast the career of Elvis and Jerry Lewis with Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, and Pat Boone, with attention to race, geography, and class with regards to each musician. What role did each play in the increasing the popularity of rock and roll music? Why were they able (or not) to play these roles? Who held the power in the production and marketing of the music?

Secondary:

Read "Hegemony" from Cultural Theory: Key Concepts:



Then read "Hegemony, Intellectuals, and the State" by Antonio Gramsci:



Map out the social power structure of early rock and roll we've been discussing. Then apply Gramsci's terms to create a parallel "abstract" map. Introduce vocabulary terms "hegemony", "hegemonic", "dominant/leading group", "subordinate group," "concession/compromise"

Reflect:

Review hegemony framework and discuss other situations where such power exists. Discuss the possibility of a subordinate group making cultural change in an area of society or culture when a hegemony is held. Is it possible? Examples?

Discuss the role "hegemonic" ideas, styles, ideologies, discourses, etc. play in our society.

Maybe watch part of The Cosby Show episode "Theo and the Joint" (1985), instructing students to look for whether and how the TV show reinforces or subverts or society's hegemonic ideas about family, drug use, race, class, etc.

Pete's "Difference" unit, revised

After working with Cheryl on the learning objectives for each unit, I revised my own unit to fit more easily into that structure. Here's what I came up with.

Since this unit will come after most of the others, it can refer easily back to "America," "culture," and "power," and even "freedom," (if that is what we use with Foner's lecture). I see the overall aim of this unit as complicating norms about America's unity in difficult times.

Engage
Watch/listen to Toby Keith's song, "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)," an example of the normative idea that "all Americans were united after 9/11." The song's line, "We'll put a boot up your ass / that's the American way" is often read as favoring the invasion of Iraq after the 9/11 attacks.



I'd contrast that with the Black Eyed Peas' "Where is the Love?" which expresses more uncertainty about the U.S.'s invasion and critiques the government for not adequately explaining the reasons behind those military actions.



Follow this with a discussion/lecture about the vocabulary term/topic for this unit, "difference." Download my notes for that here. A discussion of "multiculturalism" as a way that difference is "managed" may also help.

Primary
Listen to/watch the Dixie Chicks' "Not Ready to Make Nice," out the same year as Keith's and BEP's songs, about their refusal to back down from their anti-war stance, despite pressure from their fans, the banning of their song from corporate-owned country radio stations, the public burning of their cd's (at events organized by those same radio stations), death threats, and a publicity battle with Toby Keith. Some news clips or interviews would be helpful here. There is also a documentary about these incidents that might be worth watching.



Read and/or listen to Amiri Baraka's poem, "Somebody Blew Up America," which deals with 9/11 and race.

Might also listen to/watch Brad Paisley's "American Saturday Night," another, more recent (2010) example of country music celebrating a unified notion of "America" through consumerism.



It might be useful to discuss and/or read about country music and patriotism, using an entry from the Encyclopedia of American Studies or a scholarly article. This would help identify "genre" a bit.

Secondary
Read George Lipsitz's epilogue to Footsteps in the Dark: The Hidden Histories of Popular Music, entitled "Long Waves After 9/11," which deals with Keith, the Dixie Chicks, and BEP, normative expressions of America, and resistance to those norms via notions of difference. I will post a scan of this later.

Reflection
I'm not sure yet what the specific objectives are yet for this class meeting. At this point in the semester, they will be working on drafts of their projects, which they've been formulating and researching since the first unit. Maybe this will become clearer when we discuss the other units.

Preparing your units for Wed, April 14th

Pete and Cheryl met to talk about how to build learning objectives into the units. In the second seminar meeting, we imagined that we would link learning objectives to units as a whole. However, as Pete and Cheryl talked about it, they realized that the learning objectives should be linked to the iterable parts of each unit.

Below is a working draft that links learning objectives (from the white board map that AMS 900 created at our second meeting) to unit meetings. Alongside the learning objectives, we posed questions as if addressing students, in an effort to communicate better what we envision.

We call the form of each unit a "routine" (following Calder) and the iterable segments (e.g., engage, primary, etc.) "unit meetings." Think about how to shape your routine so that each unit meeting targets these learning goals or proposes other goals.

Engage:

• Identify norms - what do we see, hear, understand, etc.?
• Build vocabulary - here are words that you can use (e.g., America, culture, power, difference, etc.)--and that are current in American studies--to think critically and talk about what you see, hear, understand, etc. ?

Primary:

• Identify and distinguish genres - what are we looking at, listening to, reading, etc.?
  
• Develop cultural analytic skills - how do we look, listen, read?
  

Secondary:

• Understand argument - what do others think about the cultural texts examined in this unit?
  
• Discern use of sources - what kinds of evidence do they use to make their argument?

Reflection (Historical consciousness, synthesis, knowledge production. This is a cumulative segment of the routine):

• Find an area of interest - what kinds of cultural material would you be willing to think about critically?
• Identify primary sources - what cultural objects do you want to study?
• Identify secondary sources - what do others think about your area of interest and/or cultural object(s)?
• Reflect on your research - what have you learned? what questions do you still have?
  
• Articulate an informed opinion - what do you think now about the cultural objects that you studied?
  

Plenary session (these are provisional, we are out of steam):

• Culture matters!
• Understand complexity
• Grasp intersectionality
• Problematize and denaturalize culture
• Do AMS!

Will's Reading

Click here to download a pdf of the reading for Will's unit on power.

All,



I tried to do a cool blog post about the materials I have found helpful in teaching about "power," but 'm not quite as clever as Pete and my attempt was a miserable failure. I'm pretty good at email, though, so here are some links to and attachments of readings that have been somewhat successful as aides in teaching the concept of "hegemony" to AMS 100 students.



Here is a link to a definition/introduction to the term from Cultural Theory: Key Concepts on Google Books, that I have students read first:



http://books.google.com/books?id=nyzORR-xYMIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Hegemony+Cultural+Theory:+Key+Concepts&source=gbs_similarbooks_s&cad=1#v=onepage&q=Hegemony&f=false



After reading that breif passage, I have them read from Gramsci's essay "Hegemony, Intellectuals, and the State", hoping that if thye undrstood that more approachable definition, that they might be able to pick out and understand some important concepts from the original. Here's a Google Books link to the piece:



http://books.google.com/books?id=LZ7mHdAVajYC&pg=PA210&dq=hegemony+intellectuals+and+the+state&hl=en&ei=F4GpS5fHOpv4MdGbzM4B&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=hegemony%20intellectuals%20and%20the%20state&f=false



Then I use the early days of rock and roll to talk about the way the "dominant/leading cultural group" (represented by big record labels and radio stations with their ties to big business and somewhat weaker ties to institutions like the governmnet and the church, as well as the general populous of middle-class adults, all of whose approval they relied upon to some degree) struggles and compromises with potentially threatening "suboridinate cultural groups" (here, musicians and consumers--often young people, and frequently from the working class and racial margins--with their heavily rhythmic, occasionally sexual music) in order to retain their position of power and cultural leadership.



I have attached a chapter form David Szatmary's book Rockin' in Time: A Social History of Rock and Roll that covers that period. I assigne this to students to give them the historical context and some background about the artists and the music business so they can exploreand discuss how the hegemony framework might be applicable to this situation.



Along with this information, I of course have them listen to music from some of the more prominent artists from the time including the working-class, black pioneers; the working class, southern, white musicians that grew up around the raw ingredients of rock and roll (black blues and gospel, as well as country music); and some middle-class, white pretenders hired by record copanies to cash-in on the new rock and roll sound.



Little Richard--Tutti Frutti, Good Golly Miss Molly



Chuck Berry--Maybellene, Johnny B. Goode



Pat Boone--Tutti Frutti, Ain't That a Shame



Elvis--That's All Right Mamma, Hound Dog, It's Now or Never



Jerry Lee Lewis--Whole Lot of Shaking Goin' On, Great Balls of Fire



Richie Valens-- La Bamba



(I provide a link to last.fm on my Blackboard site, but I don't think that will work for you guys, because you aren't in my class. Hopefully you've heard some of these songs.)



Now, if you read through all that, thanks. If not, don't sweat it too much; I think I get to explain some of my methods during our meeting tomorrow.



Later,



Will

Material on "Difference"

You can't attach files (other than image files) to Blogger posts, but I uploaded my outline to another site for you to download. Here it is:

Pete's Difference outline

It's a lecture/intro to the concept of "difference."

Primary and Secondary Sources
To watch the trailer for Ken Burns' Jazz, click here (it's basically the first five minutes of the series). Click on "Watch the video trailer" to view. RealPlayer required.

George Lipsitz's chapter on Jazz (secondary source) can be read at Google Books here.

Horace Tapscott's oral history of jazz in LA (primary source) can be found at Google Books here.

The Black Rock Coalition website is here.

Here's Maureen Mahon's essay on the BRC at Google Books

Here's Living Colour's video for "Cult of Personality":


Here's Fishbone's video for "Party at Ground Zero":


Here is a live performance of TV on the Radio's "The Wrong Way":

Possible Intro material

I was thinking about what to do to engage our students on the first day of AMS 100 in the fall, and what came to mind was El Vez. His work, as a homosexual, Mexican American Elvis impersonator, engages all of the big themes we came up with at our last meeting. And he's fun to watch. Here's a live video of his "Star Spangled Banner/C.C. Rider":


There's also this great clip from a documentary on Elvis impersonators, in which El Vez articulates in a minute and a half all of our themes: America, how culture works, power, and difference:


And for context, here's Elvis' performance of the "American Trilogy":

Concept Map from 3/10 Meeting

I took this photo of our concept map from the 3/10 meeting. I thought it would be useful to see how we started to work with topics and learning outcomes. Click on the photo for a larger version.

AMS 100 Redesign Plan (Working draft of 10 March 2010)

For March 24, follow the syllabus and post to the blog.

Course Units and Learning Outcomes:

America – Historical consciousness, problematizing norms - Liz

Culture – Understanding complexity, vocabulary, culture matters - Chris

Difference - Understanding norms not as natural but as socially and culturally constructed - Pete

Power - Difference and Inequality at the levels of the individual, group, nation, and world – Will

Closing - Niki and Stephanie

Note:

Cheryl will work with Registrar to change lecture to Mondays before 3pm or after 7pm, space lectures apart throughout the semester rather than frontloading all of them, and change MW sections to WF

Stephanie's Topics and Goals

Here are my topic ideas:

Culture: I present my students with several definitions of culture and we discuss the merits and limits of each. The goal here is not to arrive at an airtight definition (as if), but to get them thinking about what people actually mean when they invoke that concept, particularly the concept of “American culture,” and to understand that the meaning isn't fixed.

Power: In a Foucauldian sense, I suppose (sorry, he's on my desk at the moment)--I look for ways to make the normally invisible aspects of power visible and to give my students to tools to look critically at the discourses that prop up the order of things (yes, I told you it was Foucauldian).

I like power as a central concept for reasons similar to those that Pete brought up for the “race, class, gender” trinity; I'd like students to leave the class with the capacity to spot “naturalization” when it happens. I introduce a few power-related terms that I hope give them a few tools to do this; hegemony and normativity are the biggies.

Categories of difference: I think I got this straight off our AMS website at one point. Encompassed here are race, class, gender, sexuality, religious orientation, disability—which ones we emphasize the most probably depends to a large extent on the material that we choose.

I suppose a big goal here is to give them a vocabulary that allows them to talk meaningfully about these categories and how they create identity and experience, without resorting to essentialist ideas. I try to work against the tendency that some students have, once we start deconstructing and talking about social formations, to throw up their hands and decide that they have no means of talking about these categories without getting in trouble.

Chris's topics and learning outcomes

Here they go:



Learning outcomes: (straight from my current syllabus)

-develop good college level study skills and habits

-identify, understand, summarize and analyze an author's main argument

-to synthesize several different argument's into coherent concepts and wholes

-to construct opinions and arguments by reading and analyzing various course materials

-to improve writing and critical thinking skills

-to learn about the field of American Studies by examining its history, evolution and by employing the various methods used to examine American culture that American Studies scholars use

-to think about American culture, American popular music and musicians as being connected and interrelated to, and influenced by race, gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality, geography, politics, etc

The first five learning outcomes are important to me because for the most part I've taught freshmen, so I feel that these things are important to get freshmen doing right out of the gate, especially if it's fall semester. They are also good things to continue to reinforce with sophomores and older students who are not from disciplines - such as the hard sciences - where these kinds of learning outcomes may not be common.



Topics:
The main topics directly relate to the last two learning outcomes. Since this is an introduction to the field of AMS you can't do this class without addressing the field of AMS in general. The last learning outcome is based on many of the major themes and topics that I see in AMS. I particularly focus on race and gender and base most of my class around those and then add in the other categories such as class, etc when appropriate. I think Pete's statement about why he does gender and race - something about changing how we think about those things and realizing that they are not fixed categories - that's really good and he put it better than I could, and I try to do the same things as well.

I also build most of the class around American popular music because that's my personal focus and interests, but I do it in such a way that I can address the major themes, topics and approaches that we do in American studies.

Ok, I think that's about it.

Liz's AMS 100 Topics & Learning Outcomes

After looking over my syllabus I found that I explicitly list five “topics” (race, class, gender, nation, and power). I also imply in the course description that the course will tackle at least two additional topics: “America/American” and “culture” (this could also probably include American Studies as a discipline). So, taking into consideration what others have already posted here are my topics:

1) America/American

2) culture

3) race, class, gender (This “grouping” may include nation, power, dis/ability, ethnicity, sexuality, etc. as Pete pointed out below. Like Will, I also consider discussions/analysis of power to be a large topical component of the course however I would probably “group” that as a subtopic to each of these three major topics (if that makes any sense). If I broadened this list to five I would maybe list identity and power as the additional two “topics.”

I would also argue that my learning outcomes could be applied to all the topics. These are in no particular order.

1) Understand the complexity and develop a working vocabulary of the above topics

2) Exhibit critical thinking skills (to do this I would argue that this involves developing a “historical consciousness”)

3) Demonstrate quality reading comprehension, research, and writing

AMS 100 Topics and Outcomes with Will Bishop

Topics

The term "topic" is maybe a little tricky. Or perhaps I'm just a bit dumb. In any case the things I have chosen here aren't all necessarily topics in the sense that we cover them as two week unit. In some cases, these are items that appear and reappear throughout the semester. But I guess I see them as central "topics" because they guide the direction and content of the course. (Of course, Pete's selections are major topics in my class. I picked different topics on purpose.) Here goes:

-social construction

This, for me, is sort of required background knowledge to discuss the issues of race, class, gender, and difference or "otherness" in general

-power (I focus on the concept and analytical framework of hegemony, other concepts and framework are certainly valid)

Again, this topic is pertinent to our favorite topics, but I feel touching on a little bit of theory and abstraction is good experience for young students and gives them a little taste of what we do as American studies scholars.

-American history

If we are going to "read," analyze, and discuss specific texts, I feel it is important to make sure students have a basic knowledge of U.S. cultural history, the context in which the texts were created and received. Students should have most of this knowledge from high school American history, but we all know how that goes. Also, I find that taken a specific social and cultural approach to history is helpful for students who have mostly only had "straight history" thus far.

Learning Outcomes

Social Construction:

-develop an understanding of the notion that social expectations and behaviors frequently the product of culture rather than "nature" or "biology"

-demonstrate the ability to identify, analyze, and discuss examples of social construction in a variety of cultural texts

Power:

-acquire a working vocabulary or terms relating to Gramsci's concept of hegemony

-demonstrate the ability to apply the "hegemony" framework to variety of historical situations and texts

American history:

-demonstrate a basic understanding of the major social and cultural changes and trends in the United States from 1865 to the present

-acquire a working vocabulary of historical terminology used to describe and discuss said social and cultural changes and trends

-demonstrate the ability to contextualize a variety of cultural texts in this acquired historical knowledge

Pete's Teaching Topics and Learning Outcomes

Topics:

I'll start with the big three: race, class, and gender. These could be separate topics, but my outcomes are the same for all three.

Outcomes:
Students should demonstrate:

• a broad knowledge of the changing definitions of "race," "class," and "gender" throughout history
• an understanding of the complex debates surrounding these terms more recently in American Studies
• an understanding of how these terms work in American culture
  

I could have chosen a number of other terms that get listed with the big three: nation, dis/ability, ethnicity, sexuality, etc. But I thought I'd start with these. (In fact, in my own teaching, I focus much more on race, gender, and nation than I do class.) And I could have just as easily chosen "identity" or "culture" as topics, too.

Importance:
For undergraduates being introduced to American Studies, an understanding of the use of these terms is crucial. Just about everything I have read in graduate school (and a good bit of what I read as an undergraduate) engages one or more of these terms explicitly or implicitly; from my experience, they are a part of the language of academia in the humanities. An understanding of these terms will help students recognize them when they come up in future courses and conversation.

I have found that most undergraduates, and a good portion of the general public, tend to think of race, class, and gender as fixed categories (even if we experience them as not so fixed); thus, students can dismiss conversations about them as needlessly combative or uncomfortable. A broad historical look at race, class, and gender shows them to be fluid categories, whose definitions change with (even while they define) social relations at different moments in history. A look at recent debates about these terms is intended to offer models for engaging in well-informed conversation, as well as allow for the possibility of these terms remaining fluid and always up for debate. These conversations often happen in culture, and so understanding how a song can be "about" race or a hairstyle "about" gender helps students engage in their world as they also participate in these debates.

Climbing Up the Golden Stairs - Ramblers (1933)

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