Global America: Gender, Empire & Internationalism Since 1890
FGSS 216
Spring 2021 not offered
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This course explores the cultural history of America's relationship to the world across the long 20th century with particular attention to the significance of gender and sexuality. We will locate U.S. culture and politics within an international dynamic, exposing the interrelatedness of domestic and foreign affairs. While exploring specific geopolitical events like the Spanish-American War, World War I and II, and the Global Cold War, this course emphasizes the political importance of culture and ideology rather than offering a formal overview of U.S. foreign policy. How have Americans across the 20th century drawn from ideas about gender to understand their country's relationship to the wider world? In what ways have gendered ideologies and gendered approaches to politics shaped America's performance on the world's stage? How have geopolitical events impacted the construction of race and gender on the home front? In the most general sense, this course is designed to encourage students to understand American cultural and gender history as the product of America's engagement with the world. In so doing, we will explore the rise of U.S. global power as an enterprise deeply related to conceptions of race, sexuality, and gender. While reading key American studies texts in the history of the United States and the World, we will also examine films, political speeches, visual culture, music, and popular culture. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS FGSS |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (EDST)(FGSS) |
Major Readings:
Required Book
Inderpal Grewal, SAVING THE SECURITY STATE: EXCEPTIONAL CITIZENS IN TWENTY-FIRST
CENTURY AMERICA. Duke University Press, 2017 (~ $20-$26)
Suggested Books for Purchase:
Amy Kaplan, THE ANARCHY OF EMPIRE IN THE MAKING OF U.S. CULTURE. Harvard
University Press, 2005 (~ $13-$22)
Kristin Hoganson, CONSUMERS IMPERIUM: THE GLOBAL PRODUCTION OF AMERICAN
DOMESTICITY. The University of North Carolina Press, 2007 (~ $15-$25)
Adriane Lentz-Smith, FREEDOM STRUGGLES: AFRICAN AMERICANS AND WORLD WAR I.
Harvard University Press, 2009 (~ $12-$25)
Allan Bérubé, COMING OUT UNDER FIRE: THE HISTORY OF GAY MEN AND WOMEN IN
WORLD WAR II. University of North Carolina Press, 1990, 2005, 2010 (~ $8-$30)
Christina Klein, COLD WAR ORIENTALISM: ASIA IN THE MIDDLEBROW IMAGINATION,
1945-1961. University of California Press, 2003 (~ $15-$30)
Sara Fieldston, RAISING THE WORLD: CHILD WELFARE IN THE AMERICAN CENTURY.
Harvard University Press, 2015 (~ $12-$40)
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Examinations and Assignments:
Weekly Reading Response: 1-2 paragraph (350-400 word) reading response posted to Moodle by 8am the morning of class. Responses should identify the main interventions of the assigned readings but not merely summarize the readings. The purpose is not to convey reading comprehension but rather to begin formulating your own thoughts. Focus on making connections between readings, offering critique, responding to your classmates, and raising questions or concerns--especially those that you would like to see addressed in class. Because I will be relying on your reading responses to shape our class discussion, late submissions will not be counted.
Presentation: Students will each give one 10-minute informal presentation at the beginning of class (weeks to be assigned) in which the student brings in a primary source to share with the class and analyzes its relationship to the major themes of that week¿s assigned reading. You have a great deal of freedom in selecting your primary source. It may be historical or contemporary, and it may be something that was mentioned in one of the readings or something that you have found independently. Sources can be radio clips or songs, 2 commercials or advertisements, propaganda films or clips from a major motion picture. "archive.gov" and "loc.gov/collections" are great online database for finding primary sources. It is not required, but you are encouraged to meet with me or initiate an email discussion to go over your plans. Please note that you may be paired with a partner, in which case your presentation will extend to 15 minutes long with equal participation from both presenters.
Midterm Paper: 5-7 pages. From the course syllabus, select 1-2 primary sources and write a close reading that uses the source(s) to make an original analytical argument about the relationship between gender politics and U.S. foreign policy. Use at least one secondary source reading to help make your argument.
Final Paper: 10-12 pages. Final papers, offering original arguments about any dimension of the relationship between U.S. culture and U.S. global power, should include at least four secondary sources from course readings. While the final paper is not expected to be a complete independent research paper, students should engage a primary source or set of primary sources beyond those included in the course. |
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