Comparative Studies 4921 Intersections: Approaches to Race, Gender, Class, and Sexuality
TuTh 3:55PM – 5:15PM | Enarson 254 | Wendy Smooth
Examines intersections of race, gender, class, and sexuality in various sites within American culture (e.g., legal system, civil rights discourse, social justice movements). Not open to students with credit for 545, or AfAmAst 4921 (545), or WGSSt 4921 (545). Cross-listed in AfAmASt 4921 and WGSSt 4921.
Comparative Studies 4990 Senior Seminar in Comparative Studies
MoWe 11:10AM – 12:30PM | Hagerty Hall 451 | David Horn
This course is the capstone course for majors in Comparative Studies, and its main goal is to develop and refine research and writing skills. We will consider what it means to conduct research, how to go about it, the role of the researcher or research team, and the writing process.
The course is organized as a research and writing workshop. The main task of this course will be to revise and expand an essay that you have previously written (such as a paper that you wrote for a course or a chapter of an honors thesis). This essay will be your starting point for developing an extended research project. You will receive feed-back from your peers and myself throughout the quarter. Materials with guidelines concerning the writing and research process will be posted on Carmen.. Prereq: 3990 (398), and 500 or 4000-level course in CompStd, and Senior standing, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for 598.
Comparative Studies 6391 Approaches to Comparative Cultural Studies II
We 2:15PM - 5:00PM | Hagerty Hall 451 | Philip Armstrong
The course offers an introduction to the theoretical and methodological debates informing comparative cultural studies. The weekly readings and class discussions are organized around a series of key concepts, including: knowledge/discipline; race/ethnicity; gender/sexuality; history/narrative/representation; discourse/language; comparative modernities; science/technology; community/social relations; anthropology/ethnography; folklore/culture/popular culture; nation/(post-)colonialism, comparative mythology/political anthropology; religion/belief/faith; identity/alterity. Each concept will be explored in terms of its historical, genealogical, disciplinary, and contemporary implications. Invited lectures and discussions by faculty from Comparative Studies and other departments serve to demonstrate how the texts studied in the course actively shape both individual research projects as well as various disciplinary and inter-disciplinary fields of study.
Comparative Studies 7380 Theorizing America
Th 2:15PM – 5:00PM | Hagerty Hall 451 | Miranda Martinez
In this interdisciplinary seminar we will explore varied cultural, political and theoretical constructions of "America," examining what it is, has been and promises to be. We will examine how constructions of America take shape through struggles around terms such as citizenship, nationalism, sexuality, race, ethnicity, consumerism, and class. We will also examine “American Exceptionalism” and discuss its staying power in the American imagination, despite diminished mobility and lowered expectations in the daily life of millions of Americans. The impact of transnationalism, globalization and America’s imperial power will be considered, as we critically compare the theoretical and material "America" with its hemispheric counterpart, "the Americas".
Comparative Studies 8872 Seminar in Religious Studies
Tu 2:15PM – 5:00PM| Hagerty Hall 451 | Isaac Weiner
What is “spirituality”? Why has it become such a pervasive term in contemporary American culture, used to describe phenomena as varied as yoga, chaplaincy, and Oprah? What do people mean when they describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious”? How does the “spiritual” relate to other critical categories like religion, race, gender, science, politics, capitalism, and the secular?
This graduate seminar will explore these questions from a variety of vantage points. We will adopt a genealogical approach, considering how the meaning of “spirituality” has developed over time through its shifting intersections with other categories. We will then consider a range of sites and settings, including many often deemed “secular,” in and through which spiritual discourses and practices have developed, such as commerce, medicine, popular media, and law and governance. The class will include a comparative dimension, but will focus especially on the U.S. context. Readings will include primary and secondary texts on issues like religious liberalism, the rise of psychology, secularism and secularization, consumerism, media, and globalization. In the end, students will produce an article-length research paper.
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Comparative Studies 8890 Colloquia, Workshops, and Departmental Seminars
Tu 11:00AM - 2:00PM | Hagerty Hall 451| Theresa Delgadillo
Departmental workshop, colloquium, or seminar. Topics vary. Repeatable to a maximum of 9 cr hrs or 9 completions. This course is graded S/U.