Deals with the development and interrelationship of American views on individualism, nature, science, technology, democracy, ethnicity, and the American dream. Readings begin with the Puritans and end with contemporary essayists. Deals with the development and interrelationship of American views on individualism, nature, science, technology, democracy, ethnicity, and the American dream. Readings begin with the Puritans and end with contemporary essayists.
Pre-Req: 42.101/102 College Writing I and College Writng II
A study of literary selections dealing with traditions of family life, the individual, and social change.
This course surveys the history of women in the British North American
colonies and United States with a special focus on social and economic
change. It examines women as a distinct group but also attends to divisions
among them, particularly those based on class, ethnicity/race, and regional
diversity. Course themes include concepts of womanhood, the development and
transgression of gender roles, unpaid work and wage labor, social reform and
women's rights activism, as well as changing ideas and practices with
respect to the female body.
A survey of fiction and poetry by Beat Movement authors, including Lowell native Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Herbert Huncke, Gregory Corso, and Lawrence Ferlinghett
This course introduces students to the history of the field of American Studies. To this end, students read major critical works from the 1920s to the present in order to map the shifting tenets, methodologies, and unstated assumptions of the field. The course focuses on seminal moments in U.S. history which are also transformative moments in the field.
An upper-level survey covering African American literature from slave narratives through contemporary literature. Authors covered typically include Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Ann Petry, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, and Lucille Clifton.
A required seminar for American studies majors normally taken during the second semester of the junior year or during the senior year. Students undertake a research project leading to the writing of a major paper with a theme that combines more than one discipline.
Selected Authors
An investigation of a topic using an interdisciplinary approach and leading to the writing of a majorpaper. The course provides an opportunity for a student to work closely with an instructor on atopic of special interest.
Allows students an opportunity to combine their formal education with an off campus project. After developing a proposal for the practicum under the guidance of an instructor, the student spends a portion of his or her time working with persons engaged in business, the arts, museums, the professions, community service, or government. The coordinator for American studies maintains a file of organizations that accept students.
