USC Course Catalogue

DEPARTMENT OF AMERICAN STUDIES & ETHNICITY

GRADUATE COURSE OFFERINGS ~ Fall 2011

Disclaimer:  The following list of courses is based on our best available information.  We do not guarantee instructor, courses, location and time are accurate.

CORE COURSES

AMST 500: Introduction to American Studies and Ethnicity (4)

An exploration of themes, theoretical influences, and methodological approaches current in American studies and Ethnic studies. Kondo,  2 - 4:50P M, KAP 150

AMST 590: Directed Research (2-8)

Office

AMST 599:  An Introduction to Geographic Information Systems

for American Studies  (4)

Geospatial technologies are becoming more ubiquitous in terms of their research usage, most recently including the humanities and social sciences as well as the more traditional science and biological science areas. This course will reflect this movement by teaching graduate students how to effectively include a GIS and mobile data collection devices as part of the graduate research tool kit. Curtis, TTh 12:30-1:50pm, AHF B57A

AMST 670: Interdisciplinary Research Seminar on Los Angeles (4)

Introduces students to issues of urban-based research concerning Los Angeles and guides students through the design and completion of a journal-quality research paper. Recommended preparation: graduate reading course on Los Angeles. 

Pulido, W 9-11:50am, KAP 460

AMST 700: Theories and Practices of Professional Development (4)

Jacobs-Huey, 2 - 4:50 M, GFS 210

OTHER COURSES OF INTEREST

AHIS 500: Methods and Theory of Art History (4)

Methodologies, theories and critical traditions that have shaped the discipline.  Emphasis will vary depending on faculty.  Required of all first-year M.A. and Ph.D. candidates.  Open to graduate or limited status in art history only. (Duplicates credit former FA 500)

Roberts, 9:30 – 12:20P, M, VKC 379

AHIS 515: Seminar in Contemporary Art

2 – 4:50P, W, VKC 379

ANTH 502: Contemporary Theory in Anthropology

The course focuses on current models, methods and issues in social anthropology, and has no prerequisite for graduate students.  It provides an anthropological and ethnographic perspective on key questions including colonial legacies, race, space, the culture concept, global issues, visual anthropology, the body, sex and gender, the material world, the spiritual world, modernity and critical science studies.

(American Studies students are welcome to enroll, but it would be best if they contacted me directly when they do so, since I will distribute a reading list over the summer.)  Hoskins, 2-4:50pm Wed, GFS 216

ANTH 562: The Practice of Ethnography (4)

Major approaches to ethnographic fieldwork are explored in classic cases.

Lutkehaus, 2 – 4:50P, T, GFS 220

COMM 620: Studies in Communication Theory: Nationalization and the Media

The course investigates the construction of national identities and nation-building as historically grounded media practices.  We will focus on a variety of media. Images and discourses that produce and/or situate national identity within hierarchies of power and exclusion.  The focus will be on the North American national identity, although we will also discuss exile cultures within the United States, as we the U.K. and Mexico.

CTCS 500: Seminar in Theory and Textual Analysis

Introduction to classical and contemporary film theory; exploration of their relationship to close textual analysis and filmic experimentation.

Keeling, 2 – 3:50P, Th, SCA 216

Keeling, 4 – 6:50P, Th  SCA 112

CTCS 510: Case Studies in National Media and/or Regional Media

Seminar on media’s impact in defining nation and/or region in specific cultural contexts.  Also addresses issues of exile, diaspora, transnationalism and globalism.  Departmental approval required.

Jewel, 10 – 11:50A, W, SCA 216

Jewel, 1 – 3:50P, W SCA 110

Boyd, 1 – 3:50P, W, SCA 216

Boyd, 4 – 5:50P, W, SCA 110

CTCS 518: Seminar: Avant-garde Film/Video

Aesthetic, historical and ideological issues in avant-grade film and video.  Cinema Lab fee $50.

James, 1 – 5:50P, M, SCA 310

CTCS 677: Cultural Theory

Seminar in theoretical approaches to cultural studies; focus on interdisciplinary research of media and audiences, covering a range of methods and theoretical frameworks; concentration varies.

James, 1 – 5:50P, T, SCA 316

CTCS 688: Seminar in Historiography

Seminar theories and methods of film and television history; focus on interpretation in history and reception studies.

Serna, 10 – 2:50P, W, SCB 104

EDPA 612: Qualitative Research Methods

2 – 4:50P, M, SOS B50

ENGL 501: History of Literary and Cultural Theory

The assumptions and practices of major theorist and theoretical schools from Plato to literary modernism.

Smith, Bruce Ray, 4:30-6:50P, M, VKC 204

COMM 620: Studies in Communication Theory: Black Popular Culture--Theory and Central Debates This course introduces a range of theoretical approaches and significant scholarship that examine black popular culture. We will explore the intersections between everyday life, black cultural production, mass media, and the broader political and historical contexts that have shaped the performance, aesthetics, and cultural politics of the African Diaspora. We will also consider key theoretical readings and approaches to studying culture, including ideology and hegemony theory, political economy, subcultural analysis, the politics of taste, and cultural representations of identity. By analyzing scholarship that problematizes race, gender, nationalism, cross cultural exchange, and the research imagination, this seminar will also interrogate ideas about globalization, performance, literary and artistic production, archival and ethnographic sources, notions of borders, print culture, language and translation, visual culture, aesthetics of beauty and sound, and evolving frameworks and spaces for the construction, articulation, and negotiation of identity, subjectivity, and power. Ultimately, this class will operate as a working seminar. It will consist not only of lectures, but of group discussions and as a space for students to share their own work. By the end of the course, students will produce a research paper that can be submitted for publication or presented at a conference.  Taj Frazier, 2-5pm, Thursday

ENGL 630: Studies in Gender

History and ideology of gender studies, feminist theory, gay and lesbian discourse, and other studies in feminism and masculinities in relation to literature.

Schor, Hilary, 2-4:20P, Th, THH 109

ENGL 660: Studies in Genre

History, transformation, and theory of genre,; studies in epic, lyric, drama, comedy, tragedy, the novel, biography, essay, and other forms.

Boone, 2-4:20, M, WPH 204

HIST 500: Introduction to Graduate Historical Studies

Techniques, theories, and sub-disciplines of history.

Halttunen, Karen, 9-11:30AM, M, SOS 250

HIST 620: Research Seminar on Modern Visual Culture

A research seminar focusing on Western visual culture since the mid-18th century. Recommended preparation: HIST 520

Bleichmar, Daniela, 2-4:50PM, T, Off Campus

HIST 655: Seminar in Western American History

Selected topics in the history of the American frontier and the West.

Deverell, William, 2-4:50pm Wed, SOS B50

PSYC 660: Seminar in Clinical Psychology

Selected topics in clinical psychology

Williams, Marian. 10-2PM, F, HRC 201

SOCI 552: Sex and Gender in Society

The social organization of gender in contexts of work, families, intimacy, sexuality, reproduction, violence.  Variations by race, ethnicity, social class.  Process of social change.

Messner, Michael. 9-11:50AM, W, KAP 345

SWMS 560: Feminist Theory

History of feminist theory and major perspectives of current feminist theory: liberal feminism, socialist/Marxist feminism, radical feminism, psychological feminism, spiritual feminism and ecological feminism.

Halberstam, Judith, 2-4:50PM, T, THH B10