Keywords in American Studies

1 credits · Undergraduate

Inspired by Raymond Williams’ classic text, Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, and the recent Keywords of American Cultural Studies (Burgett and Hendler), this course will provide a short and focused introduction to central terms and debates in American Studies. The goal is: (1) to enable each student to develop a critical understanding of a key concept such as “Race,” “Representation,” “Class,” and “Democracy': (2) allow students to become familiar with some of the major scholarly works on the keyword; and (3) introduce students to the kind of interdisciplinary inquiry that characterizes our American Studies program.