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Fall 2021
Mar 28,2024
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AMER 100 - INDEPENDENT STUDY: AMERICAN STUDIES
Limited opportunities to enroll for course work on an Independent Study basis are available. A student interested in this option should obtain an Independent Study Registration Form from the Registrar, have it completed by the instructor and school dean involved, and return it to the Registrar's Office. Consult the current Schedule of Classes for policies concerning Independent Study.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Independent Study, Online Course

American Studies Department

AMER 198 - TRANSFER ELECTIVE
This course designation describes a transfer course from another institution where an equivalency to a Ramapo College course has not been determined. Upon convener evaluation, this course ID may be changed to an equivalent of a Ramapo College course or may fulfill a requirement .
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

AMER 199 - TRANSFER ELECTIVE
This course designation is used to describe a transfer course from another institution which has been evaluated by the convener. A course with this course number has no equivalent Ramapo course. It may fulfill a requirement or may count as a free elective.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

AMER 200 - INDEPENDENT STUDY: AMERICAN STUDIES
Limited opportunities to enroll for course work on an Independent Study basis are available. A student interested in this option should obtain an Independent Study Registration Form from the Registrar, have it completed by the instructor and school dean involved, and return it to the Registrar's Office. Consult the current Schedule of Classes for policies concerning Independent Study.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Independent Study, Online Course

American Studies Department

AMER 206 - ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICANS
Asian Pacific Americans is both an historical survey of the waves of immigration and settlement of Asian Pacific peoples in the United States from the 19th century to the present and a sampling of literary works that deal with their problems of identity, adjustment and assimilation. Through an anthology of readings as well as individual selections of fiction, the student is introduced to the feelings and thoughts of Asian Pacific ethnic groups whose numbers are rapidly increasing in American society.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
MJ-Amer-Race & Ethnicity, MJ-AMER-Multicultural Studies, OLD GE-INTERCULT NORTH AMERICA

AMER 214 - NATIVE AMERICANS
This course examines Native American lives, cultures, and communities from the era just before European contact to the present day. Through a series of case studies, we will explore how Native peoples adapted to, resisted, and shaped the changes brought by European and Anglo—American colonization of North America; survived US. policies of forced removal and acculturation; and redefined tribal nationhood and Indian identity in the twentieth century. We gain familiarity with the stories of specific Native individuals and communities, we will also ask: How have Native people been represented (or misrepresented) in American popular culture and academic scholarship? ls it possible for non—Native scholars to represent Native communities in ways that are ethical and accurate? And finally, what can past histories of Native America teach us about Native life, identity, and challenges in the present day? Through this course you will gain not only an introduction to the richness and diversity of Native American histories and cultures, but also a deeper understanding of the American past and present.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
MJ-Amer-Race & Ethnicity, MJ-AMER-Multicultural Studies, Gen Ed 18-Historical Prspctve, OLD GE-INTERCULT NORTH AMERICA

AMER 220 - COMICS AND AMERICAN CULTURE
This course studies the American comic strip and comic book, and will consider these forms in both aesthetic and historical/cultural contexts. The course will attempt to uncover the aesthetic principles of the comics. In this regard, comics will be treated like any artistic work. The course will also consider comics as reflections of the culture which produced them. Since their emergence in the 1930s, comic books have been attacked by educators, librarians, and parents. These public outcries and the comics themselves serve as unique entry points into the American psyche. In the 30s and 40s protesters argued that comics harmed children's eyesight and kept them from "real" literature. In the 1950s, comics were vilified as leading to juvenile delinquency. In the 1960s so called "underground comix" glorified the burgeoning drug culture. The course will look at these comics, as well as the newspaper editorials, senate reports, and psychological studies that followed them. By examining what children were reading and what parents tried to keep children from reading, the course will try to learn something about what America was at these periods and what America wished to be. Comics' emergence as a uniquely American art form is a window into America itself.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
OLD GE-INTERCULT NORTH AMERICA

AMER 225 - INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN STUDIES
This introductory American studies course examines what it means to be an American from a variety of social, political, and historical perspectives. Arranged chronologically and moving from Puritan New England to our current post-9/11 moment, the course takes up a series of topics that have been central to American cultural understanding and to the field of American studies, including war, revolution, law, immigration, and the frontier. Students will use a range of primary sources to consider these topics, including fiction, photographs, autobiographies, material objects, and film. As they learn how to practice the interdisciplinary method of American studies, they will also learn about the history of the field, using key primary and secondary documents to understand the different critical approaches that have dominated the field since its inception.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
Gen Ed 18-Historical Prspctve, OLD GE-INTERCULT NORTH AMERICA, WRITING INTENSIVE

AMER 235 - THE AMERICAN ENVIRONMENT
Focusing on the North American continent and especially that part which became the United States, The American Environment focuses on two major themes: (1)the interaction of human beings and the natural world, and (2) the interaction between the political structure of the United States with issues of the natural environment. The course examines the land itself along with art, literature, material culture, and historic sites with a goal of answering questions about the role of the natural world in the creation of America. At the same time it asks how the environment became such a key idea and focus of government at all levels, and how environmental policy has been created over time. A major question is how the environment creates the state and how the state creates environmental policy. A major case study illustrating this will be how a state like New Jersey creates its water supply system and how federal policy influences it over time. Other topics include the creation of the Department of Environmental Protection and the creation of parks at every level of government and how all of this reflects a lengthy historical process of Americans coming to grips with what was once simply "nature" and what is now "the environment." Beginning with America before 1492, the course traces the history of the human relationship with the environment, how humans have thought about the natural world, and how that relationship and thinking have changed over time. It examines the many transformations--cultural, intellectual/religious, economic, political and technological--that have given rise to the era when environmental concerns have emerged as critical. Students will examine some of the classic environmental thinkers such as Alexander von Humboldt, George Perkins Marsh, Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold, and Gifford Pinchot along with the constitutional and legal basis of environmental policy. At least one field trip will be arranged. Traditional approaches to American life have tended to take the natural environment for granted while concentrating almost solely upon human activity. The American Environment attempts to take notice of the natural world as a central fact of all human activity--as both the setting for and the receiver of whatever humans do; not merely the stage, it is a major actor in the grand drama of human experience, a central force in every aspect of life and one that is ignored at the peril of distorting our understanding.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
MJ-AMER-Amer Politics & Soc., MJ-AMER- Amer History, MJ-AMER-Amer Politics, OLD GE-INTERCULT NORTH AMERICA

AMER 237 - AMERICAN EMPIRE
This course evaluates definitions and expressions of American empire from the late nineteenth century to the present day. We will discuss U.S. foreign relations history and changing global politics by analyzing key cultural developments related to events like the Spanish American War, World War II, Vietnam War, and our current post-9/ll era using a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives. This journey will confront us with contrasting ideas about political purpose and ethical responsibility around America’s place in the world as envisioned by policy makers, activists, intellectuals, and cultural producers. Underlying our conversations will be how categories like race, gender, class, and religion relate to visions of democracy, modernity, and intervention, as well as aesthetic qualities concerning cultural value. Also important will be diverse perspectives on global events, and comparing and contrasting views on, for example, the Iranian Revolution as yielded by U.S. spokespeople and their Iranian counterparts, or measuring how Vietnamese people remember the Vietnam War in contrast to Americans. Ultimately we will explore how everyday cultural forms such as film, music, literature, and protest movements have both contributed to and resisted American empire in the modern era. We will also discuss in detail the foreign contexts in which Americans intervened militarily, culturally, and economically, and the ways the United States changed internally as a result of these engagements (via refugees, immigrants, or migrants, for example).
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
MJ-Amer-Amer in the World, Gen Ed 2018, Gen Ed 18-Global Awareness, OLD GE-INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

AMER 241 - AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION
An assessment of the unique experience and contributions of African Americans to politics, religion, the arts, science, and history. The course will identify and analyze selected myths, issues, and challenges faced daily by African Americans in their struggle for dignity, self-determination, and justice.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
MN-AFR AMR STD-Hum & Culture, MN-AFR AMR STD-Hist & Pol Tht, MJ-Africana Studies, MN-Africana Studies

AMER 250 - PURSUING THE AMERICAN DREAM
The American Dream has long been a central feature of America's cultural understanding. For generations, Americans old and new have held fast to the belief that this is the land of opportunity, that upward mobility is available to everyone, and that hard work, ability, and maybe a little luck are all that are needed to achieve material success. This course focuses on the American Dream as expressed in literature, but it seeks to combine a literary approach with historical, art historical, and other approaches to the subject. Along the way we will gain insight into crucial questions for today: What are some of the constraints faced by people seeking to make better lives for themselves? Can we envision a society in which success and personal fulfillment are available to all?
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
MJ-AMER-Amer Literature, MJ-AMER-Amer Literature, MJ-AMER- Amer History, OLD GE-INTERCULT NORTH AMERICA

AMER 298 - TRANSFER ELECTIVE
This course designation describes a transfer course from another institution where an equivalency to a Ramapo College course has not been determined. Upon convener evaluation, this course ID may be changed to an equivalent of a Ramapo College course or may fulfill a requirement.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

AMER 299 - TRANSFER ELECTIVE
This course designation is used to describe a transfer course from another institution which has been evaluated by the convener. A course with this course number has no equivalent Ramapo course. It may fulfill a requirement or may count as a free elective.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

AMER 300 - INDEPENDENT STUDY: AMERICAN STUDIES
Limited opportunities to enroll for course work on an Independent Study basis are available. A student interested in this option should obtain an Independent Study Registration form from the Registrar, have it completed by the instructor and school dean involved, and return it to the Registrar's Office. Consult the current Schedule of Classes for policies concerning Independent Study.
0.000 TO 5.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 5.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Independent Study, Online Course

American Studies Department

AMER 305 - INSIDE AMERICA
What is going on inside contemporary America? In New England? In California? In the rural heartland? The central concern of this course is the politics, economics, and social life of the American states and regions. The states are the building blocks of American federalism and are significant policy-making arenas. Students will write a significant term paper and participate in a seminar-like format. Special attention will be devoted to the domestic impact of the changing global order and the politics of economic growth versus environmental protection.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
MJ-AMER-Amer. Regionalism, MJ-AMER-Advanced Cat Elective, OLD GE-INTERCULT NORTH AMERICA

AMER 306 - CULTURES OF THE AMERICAN LEFT
This course examines cultural expressions of American left wing radicalism in the 20TH and 21ST centuries. By tracing changing definitions of dominance and resistance in punctuated eras of Left activism, we will assess the history of numerous creative expressions and their relationship to social movements and dissent politics. Lining our discussions will be themes like racism and sexism, economic inequality and homophobia, and the ways in which different individuals and groups have struggled against stereotypes and the status quo in domestic and international ways. Ultimately, we will endeavor to answer the questions: Why are Mark Twain, Emma Goldman, Malcolm X, Talib Kweli, or Angela Davis oppositional figures in U.S. history? What makes photographs, literature, monuments, or music vehicles for dissent locally as well as globally?
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
MJ-AMER-Amer Politics & Soc., MJ-Amer-Race & Ethnicity, OLD GE TOPICS SOCIAL SCIENCE, WRITING INTENSIVE

AMER 307 - TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE IN AMERICA
Technology has had a profound influence on the formation of modern American culture. This course explores the different, and often contested, meanings technology has had for people living between the dawn of the industrial age and the present. The course draws on a variety of sources, including fiction, poetry, painting, and photography.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
MJ-AMER-Amer Politics & Soc., MJ-AMER- Amer Thought & Value, MJ-AMER-Advanced Cat Elective, OLD GE-INTERCULT NORTH AMERICA, TS-Sch Core- SCP Category, WRITING INTENSIVE

AMER 309 - HOLOCAUST AND MEDIA
An examination of the Holocaust as viewed by the media. Over the last 20 years, films and television have increasingly dealt with the Holocaust and other genocides. This course will study the Holocaust, its place in history, and its impact on contemporary life and culture as represented in the media. Within this context, it will delve into the relationship between "Hollywood" and the global cinema.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
MJ-Amer-Race & Ethnicity, MJ-AMER- Amer Thought & Value, MJ-AMER-Advanced Cat Elective, OLD GE-INTERCULT NORTH AMERICA

AMER 310 - U.S. RELATIONS TOWARD AFRICA
This course introduces students to the history of United States foreign relations toward nations and entities in sub-Saharan Africa and its Diaspora--the Caribbean and Latin America. It will focus on the historical reasoning behind the decision-making of U.S. foreign policy toward Africa and its Diaspora. Policies toward African nations in the past were influenced by the Monroe Doctrine, social issues such as race and gender, the Big Stick and Dollar Diplomacy, the Good Neighbor Policy, the Cold War and national security, the presence of the United Nations, the African American struggle for civil and human rights, and college student movements. The course will begin with the 1821 United States establishment of Liberia, address U.S. imperial aspirations in the Caribbean at the turn of the 20th century, and culminate with the 1980s student movements that agitated for U.S. corporations to divest from South Africa. Moreover, time will be allotted in the last portion of the course to address recent U.S. foreign policy issues toward Africa and its Diaspora.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
MN-AFR AMR STD-Hist & Pol Tht, MJ-Africana Studies, MN-Africana Studies, MJ-Amer-Race & Ethnicity, MJ-Amer-Amer in the World, MJ-AMER-America in the World, MJ-AMER-Advanced Cat Elective, OLD GE-INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

AMER 311 - AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY AND VISUAL CULTURE
This course examines the role of photography in American culture from its invention up to the present. This interdisciplinary course combines history, art history, and the study of visual culture to develop an in-depth understanding of how photographic images can be “read,” how they “talk” and how they are used for a multiplicity of purposes. We will examine how images have “written” America’s history and identity (but often as fiction). A photograph, we will always remind ourselves, does not “illustrate” reality, and yet it has a special claim to reality, which gives it power. Issues of race, class and gender will shape our readings and class discussions, as will an awareness of the changing status of the photograph in American culture, as it claims the status of “art” in one moment, and of “fact” the next. Each semester will focus in part on photography’s role on defining an American region, such as “New York City, Photographed,” “Defining Rural America” or “Suburbia.” This regional theme will vary by semester. This is cross listed with ARHT-311.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
MJ-Amer-Amer Regionalism, CA-School Core as of 2014 fall, OLD GE-TOPICS ARTS&HUMANATIES, WRITING INTENSIVE

AMER 312 - AMERICAN SUBURBIA
This course is an upper-division exploration of the American suburban landscape as it manifests in American culture, politics, commerce, and art. Topics within include the pathologies of suburbia as well as its strengths, and suburban phenomena are seen through the lenses of literature, voting patterns, environmentalism, race and ethnicity, and mobility.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
MJ-Amer-Amer Regionalism, OLD GE TOPICS SOCIAL SCIENCE

AMER 313 - MUSEUMS IN AMERICA: HISTORY, ART AND SOCIETY
This course begins with the premise that the United States has, from its inception, attempted to represent itself, and thereby become itself, through its museums. From ]efferson’s "Indian Hall” to Peale’s Museum, to the Smithsonian museums of today, the United States has used museums to forge national identity and national pride. The study of museums and similar institutions, as they develop over the long nineteenth century and into our own times, is the study of the development of a society of exhibition and display, but also of how these institutions, so influential in our own times, came into existence. Two site visits to NYC museums are included in the curriculum. This course is cross listed, and is a part of the Art History (ARHT-313) and American Studies (AMER-313 programs.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Lecture/Online, Online Course

American Studies Department

AMER 315 - CLASS IN AMERICA
This course will focus on the formation and elaboration of class identities in America from the end of the 18th century to the middle of the 20th century. We will explore a number of topics, including the different conceptions of class relations, the rise and fall of working-class radicalism, ideals of class mobility, the expansive nature of the middle class, and the ways in which race, class, and gender have been inextricably linked. The materials for the course will include a number of primary documents -- including novels, short stories, photographs, and paintings -- as well as a selection of recent secondary works. The course will conclude with a study of contemporary issues of class in America.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
MJ-AMER-Amer Politics & Soc., MJ-AMER- Amer Thought & Value, MJ-AMER-Advanced Cat Elective

AMER 316 - GENDER, RACE & AMERICAN POLITICS
When the American political system was created, one's gender and race were the principal factors used to determine who was granted full citizenship rights. White men were allowed to vote without question and became the most priviledged and powerful citizens in the new nation. Yet, that arrangement was questioned from the start as marginalized groups -- including women of all races -- pushed for equal citizenship and voting rights. This course examines their struggle for political and legal equality by analyzing how both gender and race have impacted American politics and ideas about citizenship over time. We focus on women's participation, or lack thereof, in politics from colonial times through present day. Our goal is to explore how women's political engagement over time has highlighted cultural tensions related to race, motherhood, family life, sexuality, work, and the meaning of citizenship. The class concludes by discussing the historical 2008 presidential election -- in which former U.S. Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama battled for the Democratic nomination -- in order to connect the tensions that contest exposed to what we have studied over the semester. This is cross-listed with HIST-316.
0.000 TO 3.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 3.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Lecture/Online, Online Course

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
MJ-AMER-Gender & Sexuality, WRITING INTENSIVE

AMER 317 - AMERICAN CRIME FICTION&FILM
For most of the 20th century, "hard-boiled" crime fiction and Film Noir have had a pervasive influence on American fiction, film, and culture. This course will explore the significance and transformations of Noir by looking at hard-boiled fiction and film. This class will consider, among other things, the roles power, class, race, and gender play in these texts. We will read works by Modern- and Post-modern authors like Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, William Faulkner, James Cain, Jim Thompson, Chester Himes, Patricia Highsmith, William Moncure March, Walter Mosely, James Ellroy, and Paul Auster. We will watch and discuss films like THE MALTESE FALCON, WHITE HEAT, KISS ME DEADLY, A TOUCH OF EVIL, and PULP FICTION. Some films will be screened in class, but most will be left on library reserve for independent viewing.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
MJ-AMER-Amer Artistic Express, MJ-AMER-Advanced Cat Elective, OLD GE-TOPICS ARTS&HUMANATIES

AMER 320 - LOUISIANA: CULTURE AND HISTORY
Since 1803, Louisana has been a case study of how closely the United States is linked to cultures and countries around the globe. While Louisana is often famous for its "creole" cooking and culture, any attempt to define the word "creole" immediately shows just how complex Louisiana history and culture truly are. Often considered the "birthplace of jazz" Louisiana is also home to other unique musical cultures, including Cajun and Zydeco music produced by the Cajuns (descendants of the Acadians from Canada) and the Afro-Creoles (descendants of slaves brought in, often by refugees from the Haitian Revolution). In this course, we will study the history of Louisiana and some of its distinct cultural contributions, including Cajun music and Zydeco, as well as New Orleans' Second Line tradition and Mardi Gras Indians. We will read historical and literary texts, and watch movies that help to contextualize this material. We will consider the differences of how Louisianans represent themselves, and whether/how those representations are related to mainstream stereotypes about the state and its people. Throughout the semester, we will take special care to consider the influences of other nations and cultures.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
MN-AFR AMR STD-Hum & Culture, MJ-Africana Studies, MN-Africana Studies, MJ-Amer-Amer Regionalism, OLD GE-INTERCULT NORTH AMERICA

AMER 322 - AMERICAN ART I: CONTACT TO 1865
This course provides a critical introduction to ther painting, sculpture, photography, and popular visual culture of North America from contact to about 1865. We examine examples of visual arts and related activities from first contact between Europeans and Indigenous people through the early Colonial, the Revolutionary, Federal, and Civil War periods. Along this trajectory, we will study some of the major developments in painting, photography, architecture and sculpture. Among the themes we will return to what repeatedly will be the changing roles of the fine arts and of the broader visual culture in constructing American identities; the role of visual culture in defining the meanings of race, class, and gender; the key ideological frameworks of American antebellum culture, from Enlightenment-based conceptions of nature and natural history to abolitionism to Manifest Destiny. This course has been Cross-Listed with ARHT-322.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Lecture/Online, Online Course

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
MJ-Amer-Artistic Expression, MJ-AMER-Amer Artistic Express, CA-School Core as of 2014 fall, OLD GE-INTERCULT NORTH AMERICA, WRITING INTENSIVE

AMER 325 - READING AMERICAN REGIONS
This course will examine how writers and artists in the United States defined and took great interest in distinctive American regions during the period roughly from the end of the Civil War through the 1920s. The course will focus on American regional fiction, placing that fiction in a broader historical context and considering it alongside photographs, prints, and paintings. Along the way, we will read recent critical analyses of American literary regionalism, in order to understand how scholars have treated the authors and subjects taken up in the course. Among the authors we will read are Bret Harte, Maurice Thompson, Sarah Orne Jewett, Thomas Nelson Page, Charles Chesnutt and Sherwood Anderson. More broadly, we will consider how literature can both reflect and produce social and cultural priorities, and how regionalism and globalism--expressed both artistically and politically--have gone hand in hand in America.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
MJ-Amer-Amer Regionalism, MJ-AMER-Amer. Regionalism, OLD GE-INTERCULT NORTH AMERICA

AMER 327 - AMERICAN ART 1865-1945
This course covers seven decades of American art, beginning with the generation of American artists active during and immediately after the Civil War and ending with an examination of the interrelationships between the artistic trends of the thirties, industrial design, and consumer culture. Central to this course's investigation of American art will be the study of the impact of the following historical phenomena: immigration (both internal and external), WWI, industrialization, urbanization, economic crises, and radical politics in America. We'll also look at how American art worked both for and against dominant racial, class and gendered identities. We will study paintings, sculpture, photography, graphic arts, and popular visual forms including print culture, film, and other media. Classes will combine lecture and discussion, and students will also work in groups on homework assignments focused on challenging readings. Homework is assigned for most classes and at least two visits to NYC museums are required. This course is cross listed with ARHT325.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
MJ-Amer-Artistic Expression, CA-School Core as of 2014 fall, WRITING INTENSIVE

AMER 390 - TOPICS:
The descriptions and topics of this course change from semester-to-semester, as well as from instructor-to-instructor. Prerequisite: varies with the topic offered. AMER 390 LOUISIANA: CULTURE AND HISTORY. Ever since 1803, Louisiana has been a case study of how closely the United States is linked to cultures and countries around the globe. While Louisiana is often famous for its "creole" cooking and culture, any attempt to define the word "creole" immediately shows how complex Louisiana history and culture truly are. Often considered the "birthplace of jazz," Louisiana is also home to other unique musical traditions, including Cajun and Zydeco music produced by the Cajuns (descendants of the Acadians from Canada) and the Afro-Creoles/Creoles of Color. In this course, we will study the history of Louisiana and some of its distinct cultural contributions. We will read historical and literary texts, and watch movies that help to contextualize some of this material. Throughout the semester, we will take special care to consider the influences of other nations and cultures on Louisiana as we explore its unique place in these United States. AMER 390 AMERICAN HOLIDAYS AND CELEBRATIONS. Holidays and ritual celebrations have been an integral aspect of American culture. How Americans have celebrated holidays and the very holidays we observe have changed dramatically over time. This course examines how Americans have observed holidays and what these celebrations reveal about American social life. A close examination of holidays gives us a window into understanding larger currents in American society. We will look at how American holidays have evolved, what their potential roots are in other cultures, and how they are often contested terrain between groups of Americans from different races, classes, ethnic groups, genders, and age cohorts.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

AMER 398 - TRANSFER ELECTIVE
This course designation describes a transfer course from another institution where an equivalency to a Ramapo College course has not been determined. Upon convener evaluation, this course ID may be changed to an equivalent of a Ramapo College course or may fulfill a requirement.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

AMER 399 - TRANSFER ELECTIVE
This course designation is used to describe a transfer course from another institution which has been evaluated by the convener. A course with this course number has no equivalent Ramapo course. It may fulfill a requirement or may count as a free elective.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

AMER 400 - INDEPENDENT STUDY: AMERICAN STUDIES
Limited opportunities to enroll for course work on an Independent Study basis are available. A student interested in this option should obtain an Independent Study Registration Form from the Registrar, have it completed by the instructor and school dean involved, and return it to the Registrar's Office. Consult the current Schedule of Classes for policies concerning Independent Study.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Independent Study, Online Course

American Studies Department

AMER 401 - AMERICAN STUDIES INTERNSHIP
Internships are available at a wide variety of historical sites located within commuting distance of the Ramapo College campus, including the Hermitage, Ringwood Manor, the American Labor Museum of Paterson and Historic Hudson Valley. Students will engage in archival research, educational program planning and the development and implementation of museum exhibits.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

AMER 410 - THE AMERICAN STUDIES SEMINAR
The American Studies Seminar serves as a "capstone course" for students completing the American studies major. The topics and descriptions vary according to the instructor, but each course will have students focusing on a specific topic, reading and discussing important secondary studies on that topic, and engaging in their own interdisciplinary study using a variety of primary and secondary sources. The course culminates in a substantial reserach project that gives students a chance to synthesize and advance work as American studies scholars. AMERICAN HISTORY, AMERICAN VISUAL CULTURE: examines American history from the perspective of visual culture. Arranged chronologically, the course considers the many ways in which social and political issues in America have been framed and debated in visual terms. The course will range across a variety of visual sources--including paintings, prints, photographs, and film--and will culminate in a substantial research project. The selected readings will engage students with central issues in the field of visual culture studies, and with important recent works in American visual culture.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Online Course, Seminar

American Studies Department

Course Attributes:
WRITING INTENSIVE

AMER 498 - TRANSFER ELECTIVE
This course designation describes a transfer course from another institution where an equivalency to a Ramapo College course has not been determined. Upon convener evaluation, this course ID may be changed to an equivalent of a Ramapo College course or may fulfill a requirement.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department

AMER 499 - TRANSFER ELECTIVE
This course designation is used to describe a transfer course from another institution which has been evaluated by the convener. A course with this course number has no equivalent Ramapo course. It may fulfill a requirement or may count as a free elective.
0.000 TO 4.000 Credit hours
0.000 TO 4.000 Lecture hours

Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule Types: Hybrid, Lecture, Online Course

American Studies Department


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Release: 8.7.2.4