1. Carlos Camargo American Studies
AS-10AC INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN STUDIES:
IMAGINED COMMUNITIES: RHETORICS OF PLACE, NATION & IDENTITY
Outline:
The aim of this course is to introduce students to theories, methods & the intellectual history of the
critical analysis of American culture, and to provide a socio-literary conceptual map of the discipline
of American Studies. Through a series of multicultural & interdisciplinary readings of “classics” in
the field and short extracts from key writers, we will look at different ways in which the American-ness
of the USA has been experienced, analyzed and criticized from the perspective of the experiences of
African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans past and present
Interdisciplinary Study Skills & Modes of Inquiry Fostered:
As the course covers a wide range of historical and theoretical perspectives, students need to develop
three key skills in tackling the reading each week. In short: analyze, summarize, synthesize & criticize.
The first is to define and analyze precisely what the writer is saying—Type I (Factual) Inquiry. The
next step is to summarize in a clear and concise fashion the claims being made so that Students will
work out where each writer fits on the map of ideas—Type II (Opinion) Inquiry. And the final stage
is to engage critically with the argument—Type III (Judgment) Inquiry. Students will need to work
out whether they will agree with what is being said, and to develop their own informed position.
Students will do this by identifying logical flaws in arguments and commitments, as well as by testing
a theory against examples and counter-evidence. Students will also need to think about the things
that aren’t being said: the assumptions the writers make but don’t announce or acknowledge, and the
things they take for granted—Type IV (Ideological) Inquiry.
Key Readings:
Many of the readings for the first half of course are in the Baym et al., eds, Norton Anthology of
American Literature, 5th edition, vols. I & II. Along with readings from “classics” in American
Sociology, Anthropology & Political Science and selections from among the texts below:
o Neal Campbell and Alasdair Kean, American Cultural Studies: An Introduction
o John Hartley and Roberta Pearson, eds, American Cultural Studies: A Reader
o Gordon Hutner, American Literature, American Culture
o David A. Hollinger and Charles Capper, The American Intellectual Tradition
o David Murray, ed., American Cultural Critics
o A Miscellany of “classics” from the American Cinema: From Birth of a Nation to Minority Report
Course Syllabus & Thematic Overview:
o Week 1: Introduction to What Is American about America? —One Latin American’s View
o Week 2: American Exceptionalism: Dreams of the One, the Few, & the Many
o Week 3: Character and Culture: From How the Other Half Lives to Born in the U.S.A.
o Week 4: Field Research--Folklore Collection (Qualitative analysis & Human Subject)
o Week 5: Myth & Symbol School: Or, How I got Hooked on Heimert, Rogin & a White Whale
o Week 6: The Frontier: American Adams, Tonto & the Regeneration Through Violence
o Week 7: Field Study Practicum-On Place (Cognitive Mapping & Saturation Reporting)
o Week 8: The Color Line: Racial Formations & De-Formations in the U.S.
o Week 9: Beyond the Melting Pot: Hanging Together in Post-Ethnic America
o Week 10: Modernity and Mass Culture: Consumption, Commodity Culture & Celebrity
o Week 11: Field Study: Material analysis of culture (Object Biography & Bibliography)
o Week 12: Cultural Studies: Film as Cultural History, Collective Fantasy & Commerce
o Week 13: Postmodernism: Return of the Subject/Suspect after 9/11
o Week 14: Globalization: The Four Horse Men of Capital—Life, Liberty, Equality & Happiness
o Week 15: Field Study: Material analysis of culture (Object Biography & Critical Bibliography)
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2. Carlos Camargo American Studies
o Week 16: Final Exam & Term Paper Due
AMERICAN STUDIES 102: EXAMINING U.S. CULTURES IN PLACE
THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER:
A SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL HISTORY OF THE BORDERLANDS
Outline:
This course traces and examines the social, economic, and political organization and representation
of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. We will trace an analytical trajectory from conflict and contestation
to cooperation and integration among border actors, keeping in mind that while conflict
characterizes the history of the interactions among border actors since the 17th century, the growing
social interdependence and economic integration of border life in the 20th century will also need to
be analyzed and theorized. Focusing on the cultural and social formations of Anglo-Americans,
Native Americans, and Mexican Americans in a dynamic contact zone, this course also explores the
continuities and discontinuities in popular and academic representations of the border experience
from the disciplinary perspectives of Latin American Studies, History, Geography, Sociology, Urban
Studies, and Political Science. Our analysis of the border phenomenon and experience will include a
study of the public policy, ethnohistory, literary productions, and filmic responses of diverse cultures
in transition.
Key Readings:
o Timothy J. Dunn. The Militarization of the U.S.-Mexico Border, 1978-1992: Low-Intensity Conflict
Doctrine Comes Home. Austin: CMAS Books, 1996.
o Lawrence Herzog. Where North Meets South: Cities, Space, and Politics on the U.S.-Mexico Border. Austin,
TX: CMAS, 1990.
o Oscar J. Martinez. Troublesome Border. Tucson, AZ: U of Arizona Press, 1988.
o Oscar J. Martinez. Border People: Life and Society in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. Tucson, AZ: University
of Arizona Press, 1994.
o Oscar J. Martinez, ed. U.S. Mexico Borderlands: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Wilmington,
DE: Scholarly Resources, 1996.
o Frederick B. Pike. The United States and Latin America: Myths and Stereotypes of Civilization and Nature.
Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1992.
o Donald E. Worcester. The Apaches: Eagles of the Southwest. Norman, OK: U of Oklahoma Press, 1979.
o COURSE READER
Documentaries and Films:
o The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (1988): V/C #999:252 ((105 min.)
o Chulas Fronteras (1976): V/C #1304 (58 min.)
o Del mero corazon = Straight from the heart ((1976): V/C #1303 (28 min.)
o Geronimo and The Apache Resistance (1988): V/C #1531 (58 min.)
o The Global Assembly Line (1986): V/C #1580 (58 min.)
o Leaving Home / We Do the Work (1990s): V/C #2626 (60 min.)
o The Nine Nations of North America (1987): V/C #1328 (70 min.)
Course Syllabus & Thematic Overview (each unit represents 2 class sessions):
o Unit 1: Economic and Cultural Perspectives on the “American” Borderlands
o Unit 2: History, Ethnohistory & the Tindeh
o Unit 3: Introduction to Borderlands Ethnography
o Unit 4: The Ideological Nature & Project of American Studies and Latin American Studies
o Unit 5: Modernization & Urbanization along the International Boundary
o Unit 6: The Militarization of the Border, 1970s-1990s
o Unit 7: The 21st
Century City: Fortress L.A.--Mistress of the Cadillac Desert
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3. Carlos Camargo American Studies
o Unit 8: Assessment—Mid-term Exam, Final Exam and Research Paper
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4. Carlos Camargo American Studies
AMERICAN STUDIES 110-AC
THE BUSINESS OF AMERICA: MAKING MONEY, CITIZENS, & $EN$E
Outline:
This course traces and examines the social, economic, and political organization and symbolic
representation of the “Making of Americans” & U.S. Nationalism & Citizenship as “the business of
America” throughout the life-course of the Republic. The practical, theoretical and methodological
foci of this course are an interdisciplinary exploration of the "American," as both subject and object
of representation and analysis within and across diverse U.S. literary and cultural traditions. We will
trace an analytical trajectory from conflict and contestation to cooperation and integration among
historical actors in North America and the Western Hemisphere, keeping in mind that while conflict
characterizes the history of the interactions among historical agents & actors since the 16th century,
the growing social interdependence and economic integration of U.S. & global life in the 20th
century will also need to be analyzed and theorized as we step into the 21st.
Focusing on the cultural and social formations of Anglo-Americans, Native Americans, and Mexican
Americans in a dynamic contact zone (i.e. The “New” World), this course also explores the
continuities and discontinuities in popular and academic representations of the “American”
experience & mission from the disciplinary perspectives of American & Cultural Studies, History,
Geography, Sociology, and Political Science. Our analysis of the “the business of America” as a
discursive formation, a constellation of metaphors and symbols surrounding the phenomenon and
experience of life in the industrial and post-industrial 20th century United States (America=U$), will
include a study of the public policy, ethno-history, literary productions, and the filmic responses of
diverse “American” cultures in transition.
Intellectual & Conceptual Aims:
The course aims to introduce students to the interrelationship between diverse American
populations, cultural traditions, institutions, resources, and economic agents during the process of
North American economic development & integration from 1776 to the present within the context
of the U.S. polity. A thematic approach is adopted to explain the “Business of America,” the
principal focus being the influences that shaped the development of social institutions, social identity,
and business enterprises at various periods in American social, cultural & economic history.
Concomitantly, the effects of the growth of big business, monopoly capital, labor and in the mobility
of other factors of production on the evolving nature of capitalist production and distribution that
have led to the ascendancy of the U.S. as “global hegemon” will also be considered.
Course Content & Structure:
The course will consist of 45 contact hours and will be delivered using lectures, independent student
screenings of A/V materials on reserve and ad-hoc workshops. Lectures will introduce the thematic,
conceptual & chronological issues involved in explanations of American nationalism, identity
structures, social formations, economic performance and business development.
Course Syllabus & Thematic Overview (each unit represents 2 class sessions):
o Unit 1: National Myths, Ideologies & Lies: Narratives of Self & Nation in the U.S. Racial State
o Unit 2: The Making of “Americans”: Identity Formation in the Shadow of the Commodity
o Unit 3: Manifest Destinies: Perspectives on American Socio-Political Development
o Unit 4: We the People: Telling Stories of Nation, Self & Other—Socialization & Being-in-Time
o Unit 5: Americans: A Collision of Histories
o Unit 6: The Internationalization & Militarization of the U.S. Homeland
o Unit 7: The 21st
Century City: Miami—Capital of Nuestra America
o Unit 8: Assessment—Mid-term Exam, Final Exam and Research Paper
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5. Carlos Camargo American Studies
AS102-AC AMERICAN CULTURES IN TIME:
1964: THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF TIME IN AMERICA
Outline:
1964 as Analytical Topoi: This course will concentrate on American social, cultural, and political history of the
1960s, with thematic and analytical primacy given to artifacts, events, texts, people, ideas and collective dreams
& delusions anchored in 1964. The course will offer a thematic and interdisciplinary approach to American
Studies and an in-depth, hands-on seminar series on archival methods in collaboration with the Teaching
Library, Media Services and the Bancroft & Doe Libraries. Readings will address such issues as popular
politics, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement and race relations, Feminism, student revolt, and the
Counter-Culture.
Through weekly readings & monthly library workshops, the class will follow the history of the 1960s from the
optimism of the Kennedy years to the frustration and anger that marked the end of the decade through the
prism of 1964. We will attempt to recover the variety of events and movements that stirred passions during the
sixties, and will seek to understand their legacy today (at a time when that legacy is being debated/debased by
scholars, politicians, and pundits). Consequently, much of our attention will be given to the social, political, and
cultural forces at work during 1964 as reflective of an era, and we will, in particular, zero in on the experiences
of ordinary Americans. Historical historiography and archival work will focus on events related to:
Key Readings:
o Archival 1964 materials in Course Reader and at the respective libraries: mandatory attendance at
orientation lab for each library used during term.
o John Andrew, The Other Side of the Sixties: Young Americans for Freedom and the Rise of Conservative Politics
o Christian Appy, Working-Class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam
o Wini Breines, Community and Organization in the New Left: The Great Refusal
o David Burner, The Torch is Passed: The Kennedy Brothers and American Liberalism
o David Burner, Making Peace With the 60s
o Martin Duberman, Stonewall
o Sara Evans, Personal Politics: Roots of Women's Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement & the New Left
o Jay Stevens, Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream
Course Syllabus & Thematic Overview:
o Unit 1: Camelot and the Promise of American Liberalism
o Unit 2 : The Civil Rights Movement
o Unit 3: The New Left
o Unit 4: The Vietnam War
o Unit 5: The Counterculture
o Unit 6: Women's Liberation
o Unit 7: Gay Liberation
o Unit 8: Alternative Sixties History
o Unit 9: Legacy
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6. Carlos Camargo American Studies
o Unit 10: Assessment of archival and bibliographic research and Research Project & Collection
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7. Carlos Camargo American Studies
o Unit 10: Assessment of archival and bibliographic research and Research Project & Collection
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