American Studies 340 - Symposium in American Studies: Culture in Crisis

Topics course: According to a growing number of social theorists, and pretty much everybody else, we are living in an age of crisis. One of the critical tasks of our time is to develop interdisciplinary tools to analyze how environmental conditions, economic systems, technological developments, and political ideologies have sent us on a path of catastrophes: climate change, resource exhaustion, inequality, social fragmentation, and political repression. We examine how these conditions have shaped American culture (asking why news broadcasts, the entertainment industry, and social media respond to crises with distraction, disinformation, fear-mongering, and scapegoating), and explore efforts of artists and activists to theorize and devise creative and just alternatives in visual arts, fiction, essays, comedy, movies and music.

Instructor Permission. Limited to AMS majors Limited to juniors, seniors.