American Studies

This course examines the cultural production of the 1960s in the United States, a period of enormous socio-cultural and political change. Topics include: New Journalism; the Civil Rights Movement; politicization of rock and roll; student protests; the Summer of Love; Vietnam; rioting in Chicago 1968; Hunter Thompson and the Hell's Angels; Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

This course approaches Cinematic Chinatown intersectionally by situating it within cultural, social, political, and economic contexts, and addressing its relationship to racialized capitalism, labor, citizenship, identity, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, disability, inequality, globalization, transnationalism, diaspora, and colonialism, and intertwined with the production, circulation, and utility of Cinematic Chinatown as text, image, sound, space, artifact, technology, and discourse--Chinatown as a commodified sign. Key objectives include the analysis and critical interrogation of the function (social, political, economic, cultural, etc.) of Cinematic Chinatown within varying networks of power relations, the discussion of theoretical frameworks and concepts related to the representations of Chinatown within the field of cultural studies and media studies, a better understanding of the global flow and consumption of images and its effects on a planetary, globalized, transnational scale, and an understanding of how this affects our own imagination of Othered spaces here in Germany.

This course explores the history of the United States from the end of World War I to the present day. It is made up of four thematic sections which focus on: the state and political development; gender and sexuality; the US and the world; and race and ethnicity. Throughout, students focus on historiographical questions that occupy scholars and interrogate change and continuity in political and social ideology during the 20th and 21st centuries. As the course progresses students develop a keen understanding of the interconnected nature of these overarching themes in American life and use this to assess particular events or thematic issues in their broader context. By the end of the course, students have a solid factual understanding of the United States since 1920, a critical understanding of the historical processes that have shaped the country over the past hundred years, and the ability to construct more nuanced analyses of the US past and present.

The new twenties of today bear more than a passing resemblance to the Jazz Age that F. Scott Fitzgerald so memorably chronicled. The role of literature itself, on the other hand, has in the meantime changed dramatically. At the centennial of the full arrival of Anglo-American literary Modernism (The WASTELAND and ULYSSES headline the literary milestones published in 1922) this seminar revisits Fitzgerald's oeuvre, guided by the central question: In what way does Fitzgerald, an author tied to a particular era like few others, speak to our own time and predicaments today? The course explores Fitzgerald's life and works in his own context first—against the social and cultural history of the interwar period—and then engage his novels and short fiction through a number of critical lenses and close readings, including Marxist and intersectional approaches (focused on class, race, and gender), ecocriticism, and affect theory, along themes ranging from addiction and celebrity, to masculinity and fascism.

This course introduces key concepts and methods in the study of American society, culture, and history through the lens of science fiction film and television. How do cultural works mediate the historical development of state power, categories of social difference, and our everyday understandings of political belonging and conflict?

The study focuses on prominent works of American science fiction: The Twilight Zone (1960, 1961), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Blade Runner (1982), Night of the Living Dead (1968), and Get Out (2017). These primary source materials will anchor our critical engagement with keywords in American Studies scholarship: nation, America, immigration, globalization, ethnicity, Orientalism, Asian, whiteness, white, Black, empire, state, racialization, diversity, and labor. Altogether, this course will familiarize us with the ideas that matter most for studying the United States through social, cultural, and political economic perspectives, while developing an analytical toolkit for narrative and film that you can use in a range of academic settings.

Students in this course should expect to watch one film every two weeks and to read five to 15 pages of American Studies scholarship every week. Students with or without prior study in American history and culture are welcome to take this class.

The course examines key themes in the history of black nationalism in America from the 19th century until the mid-1970s, with some attention to post-1970s developments. Key issues include defining black nationalism, examining bases of support, and explaining the shifting appeal of black nationalism. Accordingly the course investigates different forms of black nationalism, including racial solidarity, cultural nationalism, religious nationalism, and pan-africanism.