AMS 151: America and the World
Dr. Edward Tang
MWF 10:00-10:50
A broad survey of American culture formed by global, national, and regional influences. The first section, “World,” looks at the United States as a product and shaper of international movements, ideas, and cultures from 1500 to the present. The second section, “Nation,” examines the creation of a distinctly American identity between 1790 and 1890 that ultimately incorporated and reflected global issues. The third section, “Regions,” focuses on the South and other regions as contributors to and consequences of national and global interactions. Team taught by the entire AMS faculty, lectures will include topics on film, music, literature, art, sports, and other cultural artifacts. Offered spring semester.
AMS 203-001: Southern Studies
Thomas Carey
MWF 9:00-9:50 am
This discussion-based course introduces students to major texts and interdisciplinary methodologies in the field of Southern Studies. Traversing epochs from before the Civil War until after the Civil Rights Movement, we will scrutinize the interplay between course materials (autobiographies, fictional texts, historical accounts, and films) and major political, cultural, and social forces influencing the region and the nation.
AMS 203-002: Southern Studies
Thomas Carey
MWF 11:00-11:50 am
This discussion-based course introduces students to major texts and interdisciplinary methodologies in the field of Southern Studies. Traversing epochs from before the Civil War until after the Civil Rights Movement, we will scrutinize the interplay between course materials (autobiographies, fictional texts, historical accounts, and films) and major political, cultural, and social forces influencing the region and the nation.
AMS 207-001: Intro to Latinx Studies
Dr. Michael Innis-Jimenez
TR 11:00-12:15 pm
This course introduces students to the range of issues and analytical approaches that form the foundation of Latinx studies. By tracing the history of the Latinx concept in relation to key elements of life, such as time, space, identity, community, power, language, nation, and rights, students will develop understandings of the particular ways in which Latinx studies takes shape. Focus for the course will be on the largest Latino groups in the U.S.: those of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban and Dominican descent.
AMS 231-001: Contemporary America
Dr. Jeffrey Melton
MWF 11:00-11:50 am
This course explores American contemporary culture (late 1970s to early 2020s). The primary focus will be the 2000s, with the last quarter of the 20th-C providing essential context.
Students—together and individually—will choose themes and topics and determine specific content for most of the course. The course will establish key methods for studying American culture for students to apply to their preferred topics of critical interest. We will consider significant and persistent patterns in American culture and work to synthesize connections over time, contexts, and mediums.
Students will also need to justify why they are allowing the mullet back into the American scene.
AMS 280-001: American Pop Music
Dr. Eric Weisbard
TR 11:00-12:15pm
This course will tell the story of mainstream popular music in the United States from the arrival of rock and roll in the 1950s through to the present, including stops along the way for Top 40, soul, arena rock, country, punk, MTV, hip-hop, electronic dance music, American Idol, and the culture of streaming hits on YouTube and Spotify today. In addition to learning about different kinds of sounds, students will read work by artists, fans, and label people to think about how music shaped identity — the soundtrack of new groups emerging in American life.
AMS 336-001: Rock, Soul, Hip-Hop and Country
Dr. Eric Weisbard
TR 12:30-1:45 pm
After 1965, rock and roll became rock, representing the counterculture; rhythm and blues became soul, representing Black Power; and country music became the emotional voice of the post-Civil Rights white South. This class contrasts these three dominant American popular music genres, with particular emphasis on how race, but also gender, class, and region, came to invest certain sounds with charged social significance. Writing proficiency is required for a passing grade in this course. A student who does not write with the skill normally required of an upper-division student will not earn a passing grade, no matter how well the student performs in other areas of the course.
AMS 350-001: Honors Women in the South
Dr. Jolene Hubbs
TR 12:30pm-1:45pm
What insights into American experience do we gain by reading texts in which Southern women engage questions of gender, class, race, labor, and region? In this course, students will explore fictional and nonfictional prose by and about Southern women in order to examine how historical, cultural, and sociopolitical factors have shaped the lives and writings of women in the South. Writing proficiency is required for a passing grade in this course. A student who does not write with the skill normally required of an upper-division student will not earn a passing grade, no matter how well the student performs in other areas of the course.
AMS 380-001: Imagining the Indian
Dr. Leslie Odle
MWF 12:00pm-12:50pm
Native American imagery is widespread in American culture, from butter packaging to sports mascots and from children’s picture books to epic films. These depictions have embedded ideas about American Indians—often romanticized, stereotyped, or just inaccurate ideas—in the imaginations of millions of readers and film-goers. In this course, we will examine representations of Native Americans in art, writing, film, music, and more, ranging from early encounters between Natives and newcomers to contemporary pop culture. We’ll consider continuities and changes in how Indians have been imagined by outsiders, while also exploring Native self-representation in the face of cultural appropriation and stereotyping. We’ll explore a variety of methods and sources as we reflect on the pervasiveness of ideas about, and images of, Natives in American culture. Writing proficiency is required for a passing grade in this course. A student who does not write with the skill normally required of an upper-division student will not earn a passing grade, no matter how well the student performs in other areas of the course.
AMS 430-001: Alabama’s Black Belt
Jack Carey
M 2:00-4:30pm