WesMaps - Wesleyan University Catalog 2024-2025       Summer Session       Winter Session       Home       Archive       Search
CS92PROD
Nationalism and National Identity in the United States: Jr. Colloquium
AMST 221
Fall 2024
Section: 01  

After decades of (seemingly) hegemonic globalization, recent events brought the issues of nationalism and national identity to the fore again. In this course, we will explore classic and new approaches to the nation state and the cultural phenomena associated with it. We will study the institutions, symbols, rituals, myths, and other elements that make up nationalism and national identity in the United States. We will investigate how different groups and communities in North America reinvent national culture, often creating clashing ideas of what the nation should be. From sports to literature, from holiday celebrations to federal legislation, from culinary to military operations, we will use a wide array of case studies to survey national culture. Our goal is to develop intellectual tools that will allow us to understand nationalism and national identity as contested, ever-shifting, and highly consequential parts of reality.

This course will take transnational and comparative approaches. We will investigate American national culture from the perspective of outsiders such as immigrants and colonized populations. We will also compare American nationalism with other nationalisms, including those of Western empires, non-Western nations, and even peoples without a nation state. These perspectives will help us better understand how global forces such as capitalism and imperialism shape national culture in the United States.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS AMST
Course Format: Lecture / DiscussionGrading Mode: Student Option
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Requirement for: None
Past Enrollment Probability: 90% or above

Last Updated on OCT-04-2024
Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions. Please include a url, course title, faculty name or other page reference in your email ? Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459