Key Methods in American Studies

obligatory courses

This course familiarizes students with methodologies employed in four main areas of American Studies: US society, culture, history and politics.

This introductory course in methodology is co-taught by a team of instructors, with three class meetings dedicated to each field. Students will read key theoretical texts as well as examples of research employing particular methods. Core concepts, controversies and methods of doing research in of the four areas (society, culture, history and politics) will be examined and discussed.

Ott, Robert, and Brian Mack. Critical Media Studies: An Introduction. 2nd edition. Wiley-Blackwell, 2014. Chapter 6: Cultural analysis. 134–161.

Rosalind Gill, “Discourse” in The Craft of Criticism, edited by Michael Kackman and Mary Celeste Kearney (New York: Routledge, 2018), 23-32.

Edgar Cabanas and Eva Illouz, “Introduction”, Manufacturing Happy Citizens (Cambridge, Polity Press, 2019), 1-7.

Judith Lorber, “Night to His Day” (from: Paradoxes of Gender)

Emily Martin, “The Egg and the Sperm. How Science has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male Female Roles”, Signs 16(3), 1991: 485-501.

Patricia Hill Collins, “Mammies, Matriarchs, and Other Controlling Images” in Black Feminist Thought (New York: Routledge, 1990), 67-78.

Peter Stearns, “Why Study History,” American Historical Association (1998)

Anna Furay and Kathleen Salevouris, The Methods and Skills of History (Selections: Chapter 2: “History as Reconstruction”; Chapter 3: “Continuity and Change”; Chapter 9: “Evidence”)

Anna Green, Kathleen Troup. The Houses of History: A Criticial Reader in Twentieth-Century History and Theory (New York: NYU Press, 1999)(SELECTIONS)

Julie Roy Jeffery, “Women in the Southern Farmers’ Alliance: A Reconsideration of the Role and Status of Women in the Late Nineteenth-Century South,” Feminist Studies 3, no. 1/2 (Autumn 1975): 72-91,

Paul E. Johnson, “The Modernization of Mayo Greenleaf Patch: Land, Family, and Marginality in New England, 1766-1818,” The New England Quarterly, 55, no. 4 (Dec., 1982): 488-516.

Fraser Harbutt, “American Challenge, Soviet Response: The Beginning of the Cold War, February-May, 1946,” Political Science Quarterly, 96, no. 4 (Winter, 1981-1982): 623-639.

Stephen Van Evera, Guide to Methods for Students of Political Science (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997).

Anthony Weston. A Rulebook for Arguments. 5th Edition (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing, 2017).

Upon completion of the course, the student:

KNOWLEDGE:

Understands:

- the terminology and research methods used in American Studies, particularly in the disciplines of history, political science, sociology, and cultural and religious studies.

- selected traditions, research schools, and directions of development in various humanities and social science disciplines (history, cultural and religious studies, political science, sociology) applied in American Studies research on the United States.

- the interdisciplinary paradigm of American Studies research used for studying society, culture, politics, and history in the United States.

SKILLS:

Can:

- explain and analyze the course of cultural processes and phenomena in the United States using selected research methods employed in American Studies research on the USA.

SOCIAL COMPETENCIES:

Is prepared:

- to utilize interdisciplinary knowledge from history, political science, sociology, and cultural and religious studies regarding the United States to formulate their own opinions.

1. Standard university attendance rules apply: students have the right to 2 (two) absences in the semester without explanation.

2. Reading of assigned texts and active participation in class discussion are expected.

3. A written test will be administered in the final week of classes. (multiple choice questions, and short open questions) - 60% of the final grade.

4. Depending on the instructor, points for in-class participation or assignments, such as pop-up quizzes, short presentations, assignments to submit online or in papaer - 40%.