Undergraduate Courses in American Studies*

American and Southern Studies 100. Introduction to American and Southern Studies. An interdisciplinary approach to American culture, character, and life. FALL, SPRING. [3] Boyd (American and Southern Studies), Griffin (Sociology).

American and Southern Studies 104. Men and Women in American Society. (Also listed as Sociology 104 and Women's Studies 104) This course focuses on ideas about masculinity and feminity and how these ideas carry with them inequalities in the distribution of power and resources available to men and women. We examine how gender permeates seemingly neutral aspects of everyday life--how we date, sexuality, family life, work relationships, political life, media images. FALL, SPRING. [3] Boyd (American and Southern Studies).

American and Southern Studies 115, 115W. Freshman Seminar [3].

American and Southern Studies 204. Self, Society, and Social Change. (Also listed as Sociology 204) Problems and prospects for individual participation in social change; volunteering, community service, and philanthropy; role of individuals and voluntary associations in social change. FALL. [3] Cornfield (Sociology).

American and Southern Studies 205. Development of the American Theatre. (Also listed as Theatre 204) A study of theatrical activity in the United States from the Colonial period to the present. The course will include the reading of selected plays. Prerequisite: sophomore standing and Theatre 100 and 115W. FALL. [3] J. Hallquist (Theatre). (Offered alternate years)

American and Southern Studies 210. Perspectives on the American Experience: Art and Literature. An interdisciplinary study of American cultural expression from the early national period to 1900, focusing on the interplay between art and literature. [3] (Not currently offered)

American and Southern Studies 212. Southern Literature. (Also listed as English 212) The works of southern writers from Captain Smith to the present. Topics such as the Plantation Myth, slavery and civil war. Agrarianism, and "post-southernism." Authors may include Poe, Twain,Cable, Faulkner, Welty, Percy Wright. SPRING. [3] Kreyling (English).

American and Southern Studies 220. Rhetoric of the American Experience: 1640-1865. (Also listed as Communication Studies 220) A criticial and historical examination of the methods and effects of public debate and other attempts to influence the attitudes, affective response, and behavior of the American people. Attention to the rhetorical features of selected issues and speakers from colonial time through the Civil War. FALL. [3] Morris (Communication Studies).

American and Southern Studies 221. Rhetoric of the American Experience: 1865 to the present. (Also listed as Communication Studies 221) A critical and historical examination of the methods and effects of public debate and other attempts to influence the attitudes, affective response, and behavior of the American people. Attention to the rhetorical features of selected issues and speakers from 1865 to the present. SPRING. [3] Morris (Communication Studies).

American and Southern Studies 222. Classical Tradition in America. (Also listed as Classical Studies 222) Influences of classical Greece and Rome on the literature, politics, architecture, and values of the United States from the colonial period to the present. [3] Wiltshire (Classical Studies). (Not currently offered)

American and Southern Studies 223. Women and Law. (Also listed as Sociology 224 and Women's Studies 224) History of laws subordinating women and efforts by feminists to achieve substantive and procedural equity. American historical examples augmented by comparative research. Examines employment law, laws making rape and domestic violence illegal, and tax law. [3] Steinberg (Women's Studies and Sociology). (Not currently offered)

American and Southern Studies 225. American Philosophy. (Also listed as Philosophy 222) A study of works of selected American philosophers from the colonial period to the present. SPRING. [3] Talisse (Philosophy).

American and Southern Studies 226. Gender, Race, and Class. (Also listed as African American Studies 226, Sociology 226, and Women's Studies 226) How different societies use the categories of gender, race, and class to make distinctions among their members. How these categories interesect and mediate one another and contribute to inequalities in the distribution of political power, social well-being, and material and symbolic resources. SPRING. [3] Boyd (American and Southern Studies).

American and Southern Studies 240. Topics in American Studies. Topics of special interest on American culture or society, as announced in the Schedule of Courses. May be taken three times for credit when topics vary. FALL, SPRING. [3].

American and Southern Studies 241. Rhetoric of Mass Media. (Also listed as Communication Studies 241) A study of the nature, effects, and reasons for the effects, ethics, regulation, and criticism of contemporary mass media communication. Political causes, news reporting, commercial advertising, and similar sources of the rhetorics are included. FALL. [3] Sloop (Communication Studies).

Amercian and Southern Studies 242. American Art to 1865. (Also listed as Art and Art History 240). Painting, sculpture, and architecture of the United States from Colonial times to 1865 wtih emphasis on iconography, social history, class, and gender. FALL. [3] Fryd (Art and Art History).

American and Southern Studies 243. American Art 1865 to 1945. (Also listed as Art and Art History 241). Painting and sculpture of the United States between the Civil War and the Second World War with emphasis on iconography, social history, class, and gender. SPRING. [3] Fryd (Art and Art History).

American and Southern Studies 247. American Political Culture. (Also listed as Political Science 247) Content, historical development, and political consequences of the American public's deeply rooted values concerning how the political system ought to work and the ends it ought to serve. Attention to regional variation. SPRING. [3] Pride (Political Science).

American and Southern Studies 250. Senior Tutorial. Supervised readings, joint discussions, and independent research on a topic related to the American experience, to be selected in consultation with the director of American Studies. Open only to juniors and seniors. FALL, SPRING. [3] Staff.

American and Southern Studies 258. The South in American Culture. (Also listed as Sociology 258) The changing relationship between the South and the rest of the country and its effects on understandings and definitions of the South and changes in southern social structures and patterns, race relations, and economic and political institutions. SPRING. [3] Griffin (Sociology).

American and Southern Studies 260. Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers. (Also listed as English 260 and Women's Studies 260) Themes and forms of American women's prose and poetry, with the emphasis on alternative visions of the frontier, progress, class, race, and self-definition. Authors include Child, Kirkland, Fern, Jacobs, Harper, Dickinson, and Chopin. [3] (Not currently offered)

 American and Southern Studies 263. African American Literature. (Also listed as African American Studies 263 and English 263) Examination of the literature produced by African Americans. May include literary movements, vernacular traditions, social discourses, material culture, and critical theories. SPRING. [3] Smith McKoy (English).

American and Southern Studies 267. Desire in America: Literature, Cinema, and History. (Also listed as English 267 and Film Studies 267) The influence of desire and repression in shaping American culture and character from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. [3] (Not currently offered)

American and Southern Studies 268a. America on Film: Art and Ideology. (Also listed as English 268a) American culture and character through film, film theory, and literature.FALL. [3] Girgus (English).

American and Southern Studies 268b. America on Film: Performance and Culture. (Also listed as English 268b) Film performance in the construction of identity and gender; social meaning and narrative, public image and influence in America. [3] (Not currently offered)

American and Southern Studies 270. The Frontier in Early America: War and Cultural Interaction. (Also listed as History 270) Frontiers in North America, 1500-1763. War, trade, and cultural exchange among the native, British, French, and Spanish residents of North America. The meaning of cultural frontiers and cycles of peace and war in borderlands. [3] (Not currently offered)

American and Southern Studies 277. Asian American Literature. (Also listed as English 277) Examines the diversity of Asian American literary production with specific attention to post-1965. Focus on topics such as gender and sexuality, memory and desire, and diaspora and panethnicity in the context of aesthetics and politics of Asian American experience. [3] (Not currently offered)

American and Southern Studies 278. History of Appalachia. (Also listed as History 278) The region from first European intrusions to the present. Frontier era white-indigenous contact, antebellum society and economy, relations with the slave South, the Civil War and postwar politics, increasing social strainings, industrialization and labor conflict, poverty, and outmigration. Examination of mountain culture, tourism, and the construction of the "hillbilly" image. [3] Carlton (History). (Not currently offered)

American and Southern Studies 280a-280b. Internship, Research, Reading, and Training. Under faculty supervision, students intern in public or private organizations, conduct background research and reading, and submit a research paper at the end of the semester during which the internship training is complete. Background reading and research will be completed in 280a concurrently with the completion of internship training, 208b; a minimum of 3 hours of 280a must be completed, independent of hours taken in 280b. 280a: Interenship, research, and reading. FALL, SPRING, SUMMER. (Variable credit: 1-6]. 280b: offered on a pass/fail basis only and must be taken concurrently with 280a. FALL, SPRING, SUMMER. [Variable credit: 1-9] Staff.

American and Southern Studies 281. The United States and the Vietnam War. (Also listed as History 281) Origins of American involvement, the reasons for escalation, and the Vietnamese response to intervention. The impast on America's domestic politics, the growth of the anti-war movement, and the economic, social, and cultural effects of the conflict. [3] (Not currently offered)

American and Southern Studies 289a-289b. Independent Readings and Research. Independent readings and/or research on approved topics relating to American society and culture. [Variable credit: 1-3 each semester, not to exceed a total of 6 in 289a-289b combined] Staff.

American and Southern Studies 295. Undergraduate Seminar in American Studies. Advanced reading, research, and writing in a particular area of American and Southern Studies. May be taken no more than two times, and not twice from the same professor. Limited to juniors and seniors with preference given to American and Southern Studies majors. FALL, SPRING. [3]

American and Soutern Studies 298. Senior Honors Research. Acquisition, reading, and analysis of primary source research material. Open only to senior honors students. FALL. [3] Staff.

American and Soutern Studies 299. Senior Honors Thesis. Writingan honors thesis under the supervision of the thesis adviser. SPRING. [3] Staff.

American and Southern Studies 310. Topics in American Culture and Character. Topics as announced in the Schedule of Courses. May be repeated twice for credit when topics vary. FALL. [3] (Not currently offered)

*The above list of courses is illustrative, not definitive, and may contain inaccuracies. For a list of courses offered in the academic year, please refer to the appropriate semester's "Schedule of Courses," and for major requirements, CPLE requirements and courses that satisfy them, please refer to the most recent Vanderbilt University Undergraduate Catalog.