(Offered as AMST 368, BLST 368 and ENGL 368) History has long valorized passive, obedient, and long-suffering African American women alongside assertive male protagonists and savants. This course provides an alternative narrative to this representation by exploring the ways in which African American female characters, writers, and artists have challenged ideals of stoicism and submission. Using an interdisciplinary focus, we will critically examine transgression across time and space in diverse twentieth- and early twenty-first century literary, sonic, and visual texts.

(Offered as AMST 361, BLST 361, and ENGL 276) Through a close reading of texts by African American authors, we will critically examine literary form and technique alongside the representation of race, gender, sexuality, and class. Coupled with our explication of poems, short stories, novels, and literary criticism, we will explore the stakes of adaptation in visual culture. Students will analyze the film and television adaptations of twentieth-century fiction. Authors will include Toni Morrison, Lorraine Hansberry, Alice Walker, and Gloria Naylor.

(Offered as REL 334, AMST 331 and LLAS 234) From sanctuary cities and states to sanctuary campuses and churches, declarations of sanctuary sites have swept the nation in recent years. The U.S. Sanctuary Movement, established in 1982 to harbor Central American asylum seekers fleeing civil wars, has today assumed broader social implementations in the New Sanctuary Movement. Beginning with an examination of antecedents to the U.S.

Even though Hawai‘i is often referred to as the “Paradise on Earth,” the history of Hawai‘i is rife with the legacies of imperial ambitions of the United States.  This course examines the history of US occupation of Hawai‘i as a case study of US imperialism.  We will examine the history of the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy and the independent Hawaiian Kingdom, the subsequent annexation of Hawai‘i as a US territory, and finally the current status of Hawai‘i as the fiftieth state in the United States.  Topics of discussion include Native Haw

In its “Jewish Americans in 2020” analysis, the Pew Research Center reported that nearly three quarters of Jewish American adults felt that “being part of a Jewish community” was important to them. The study also found that definitions of Jewishness and Jewish communities extended beyond religion to include ancestry and culture. What terms have come to embody American Jewish experience? In what ways have Jewish communities been constituted? What fosters healthy and vibrant communities?

EDST 210/AMST209: The United States is in a moment of heightened conflict over what is taught in schools and universities and who should control those decisions. This course studies these “culture wars” in U.S. education in the present, and their historical antecedents in the past. Americans have long disagreed about how religion, sex, race, parental authority, gender, science, ethnicity, language, and free speech should feature in education, and this class will examine how schools became a central battleground in cultural disagreements.

Asians and Pacific Islanders are increasingly visible in the realms of American and global
competitive sports. These athletes, however, represent only the current state of the sports world
and its transnational nature. In this course, we will consider the longer histories from which these
athletes emerge: modern sports’ diffusion across and around the Pacific. A robust transnational
flow of athletes dates to the late nineteenth century and includes Hawaiian surfers and
swimmers, Chinese Ivy-League soccer stars, and barnstorming Asian baseball teams, as well as

(Offered as AMST 130 and BLST 130[D]) The hustle and flow of bodies, ideas, inequalities and solidarities is core to our increasingly globalized world. This course offers an introduction to the Americas as a transnational space. We will explore the interplay of race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, and nationality from interdisciplinary perspectives. We will draw examples from the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Students will learn through a variety of methods including textual analysis, feminist ethnography, archival research, and cultural studies.

(Offered as AMST-111 and ENGL-151) [Pre-1900] Drawing on a wide range of primary materials, and taking advantage of the ease of visiting the sites of many of the topics we study, this course offers an introduction to American Studies through an exploration of the Connecticut River Valley that stresses both the fascination of detailed local history and the economic, political, social, and cultural networks that tie this place to the world.

(Offered as AMST-111 and ENGL-151) [Pre-1900] Drawing on a wide range of primary materials, and taking advantage of the ease of visiting the sites of many of the topics we study, this course offers an introduction to American Studies through an exploration of the Connecticut River Valley that stresses both the fascination of detailed local history and the economic, political, social, and cultural networks that tie this place to the world.