2023-24 Courses: American Studies
AMST1110 - Introduction to Environmental and Social Justice
Subject Code
AMST
Course Number
1110
Long Title
Introduction to Environmental and Social Justice
Description
An introduction to the socially and politically constructed values directing Americans’
attitudes toward nature, science and technology and to the impacts of those attitudes
on built and natural environments regionally, nationally and globally. Meets New Mexico
General Education Curriculum Area 4: Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Credits
3
Grade Mode
Standard
May the course be repeated for credit?
No
Course Level
Lower division undergraduate (100-2999)
Gen Ed Areas & Diversity
Area IV: Social and Behavioral Sciences
AMST1120 - Introduction to Gender, Sexuality and U.S. Empire
Subject Code
AMST
Course Number
1120
Long Title
Introduction to Gender, Sexuality and U.S. Empire
Description
While Gender Studies is truly a vast field of inquiry, there is great symmetry in
the ways in which feminist scholars have been engaged with questions as to how disciplinary
apparatuses and discourses shape and construct "gender." This course will begin with
the process of peeking into this exciting scholarship, focusing on the "intersectional
ties" of identity-that is, how gender has been produced in and through other categories
of identity, such as race, class, sexuality, and nation. While there are numerous
ways to structure such a course, this course will maneuver through the field of Gender
Studies with an eye toward feminisms, race, and U.S. Empire through processes of incarceration,
colonialism, and war). In this course, we will explore how the "intersectional ties"
of identities have been constructed within a range of institutions, discourses, and
processes, such as law, medicine, popular culture, nationalism, colonialism, and empire.
Throughout, we will pay close attention to how discourses normalize certain types
of identities, practices, and behaviors, and mark others as deviant or unnatural.
And, of course, we will look for strategies to contest these productions. This will
necessarily place us within key debates in feminist studies of power, agency, activism,
and justice at the individual, community, national, and transnational levels, and
allow us to end the course by interrogating the role of Gender Studies in regard to
current U.S. occupation in the Middle East and Native America. This course will provide
a strong foundation for you to pursue studies in feminist, queer, critical race, and
postcolonial theories.
Credits
3
Grade Mode
Standard
May the course be repeated for credit?
No
Course Level
Lower division undergraduate (100-2999)
Gen Ed Areas & Diversity
UNM Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Power Requirement
AMST1130 - Introduction to Politics in Popular Culture
Subject Code
AMST
Course Number
1130
Long Title
Introduction to Politics in Popular Culture
Description
This course considers a range of theoretical approaches to the study of popular culture,
including cultural studies and feminist theory as well as key concepts and key debates
in the study of popular culture. It explores the ways popular culture is implicated
in the formation of social determinants such as ethnicity, race, gender, class, and
sexuality and conversely, how these social determinants are implicated in the formation
of popular culture. The course also considers the ways in which popular culture serves
as a site of ongoing political struggle. The aim of the course is to provide students
with a critical vocabulary to make sense of broader significance and relevance of
popular culture--why popular culture matters. To accomplish this, we will investigate
a number of popular expressive forms including magazines, fandom, digital music, and
hip hop. May be repeated for credit with permission from AMST undergraduate advisor.
Credits
3
Grade Mode
Standard
May the course be repeated for credit?
No
Course Level
Lower division undergraduate (100-2999)
AMST1140 - Introduction to Critical Race and Indigenous Studies
Subject Code
AMST
Course Number
1140
Long Title
Introduction to Critical Race and Indigenous Studies
Description
This course offers an introduction to the field of American Studies through an interdisciplinary
examination of race, class and ethnicity in the United States and in a global context.
Using a schedule of keywords, we will engage a range of central themes and concerns.
We will examine histories of injustice, and resistance to injustice. Readings and
assignments encourage students to notice the privilege and oppression at the core
of U.S. society. The class will challenge the widely accepted assumption that we as
a nation have moved beyond race and racism. Through readings, films, online sources,
and our assignments, this course aims to increase our knowledge of inequality in our
society, and the impact of those inequities on various societies and individuals.
Meets New Mexico General Education Curriculum Area 4: Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Credits
3
Grade Mode
Standard
May the course be repeated for credit?
No
Course Level
Lower division undergraduate (100-2999)
Gen Ed Areas & Diversity
Area IV: Social and Behavioral Sciences
AMST1150 - Introduction to Southwest Studies
Subject Code
AMST
Course Number
1150
Long Title
Introduction to Southwest Studies
Description
This course introduces the complex histories, social issues, and cultural experiences
of peoples of the southwestern United States. Course materials and discussions also
demonstrate the possibilities of interdisciplinary study of regional American culture.
It is multicultural in content and multidisciplinary in methodology. We will examine
cross-cultural relationships among the peoples of the Southwest within the framework
of their expressions and experiences in art, culture, religion; social and political
economy. Meets New Mexico General Education Curriculum Area 5: Humanities.
Credits
3
Grade Mode
Standard
May the course be repeated for credit?
No
Course Level
Lower division undergraduate (100-2999)
Gen Ed Areas & Diversity
Area V: Humanities
UNM Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Power Requirement
AMST2996 - Topics
Subject Code
AMST
Course Number
2996
Long Title
Topics
Description
A course exploring a topic not covered by the standard curriculum but of interest
to faculty and students in a particular semester.
Credits
1 - 6
Grade Mode
Standard
May the course be repeated for credit?
Yes
How many hours can the course be repeated?
99
Course Level
Lower division undergraduate (100-2999)