Integrating Project Seminar (395-0-21)

Topic

International Perspectives on the US

Instructors

Michael Jerome Angland

Meeting Info

Annenberg Hall G28: Tues, Thurs 9:30AM - 10:50AM

Overview of class

International Perspectives and Ethnographies of the US

What does it mean to be an American? What makes the US as a nation? Where does American culture end and global culture begin? Are common ways of thinking about class, race, politics, and the environment in the US distinctly American, or part of global conversations? This course encourages undergraduate students to think about what makes American society American by engaging with critical writing by non-American observers of the US. While people in many parts of the world grow up following media, popular culture, and politics from several countries, US citizens often have less exposure to non-American ideas about society and more limited perspective on what makes their country distinctive. By sharing critical perspectives on what makes the US unique, the course encourages US-based scholars to pursue a more productive intellectual engagement with both the US and other parts of the world.

During the first half of the course, participants will read critical writing about the US by international scholars and discuss them via reading responses and class discussions. Readings focus on ethnographic writing by observers from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa but also include perspectives from other genres and disciplines. Weekly reading themes include: is there an American national character; is the US racial system local or global; is the US part of a "West"; and is the US a nation. A provisional list of authors includes Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Gilles Deleuze, Tony Judt, Edward Said, Sayyid Qutb, and Loic Wacquant. During the second half of the course, students will pursue an independent research project in a region and discipline of their choice. They will write a research proposal reflecting, as scholars in a US institution, on how much their research questions are situated in relation to an American norm or American concerns.

Class Attributes

Attendance at 1st class mandatory