American Studies

This course investigates significant events that shaped American society and formed the United States from the colonial period to the end of the Vietnam War. The course covers the impact of the colonial legacy on the American self-government and development of a democratic society, the American Revolution and Republican ideology, the Industrial Revolution and Sectionalism, the Civil War and the end of slavery, the rise of Big Business and Corporatism, the World Wars and American Society, the United States and world revolutions, the decline of the American Empire. 

The course focuses on North American literature (USA and Canada) written in English, with a special emphasis on identity issues and the making of "national" literatures. Classic and funding texts are compared to outline the symbolic and mythological patterns that have shaped the US and the Canadian realities, from the European colonization till the end of the 19th century. In this class, literature is investigated through a constant dialogue with other arts, including media, cinema, photography, and the visual arts. The concepts of identity, memory, community, inner/outer landscape constitute the thematic paradigms to approach the evolving mentalities underpinning the evolution of complex identity processes in the so-called New World. This course features a series of guest scholars to encourage the dialogue between literature and civic society so to widen our knowledge of learning and training opportunities available nationally or internationally. The list of featured guests will be available when classes start. Students learn the literary history of the period at stake; they acquire useful literary tools to analyze fictional productions and question them in relation to the complex and heterogeneous North American realities.

This course will focus on the short detective fiction of Agatha Christie (1890-1976), the most successful twentieth-century author of detective novels. While Christie developed two well-known sleuths, Hercules Poirot and Miss Jane Marple, who featured in novels and whose cases have frequently been translated into the medium of film as well into more than 100 languages, this course will concentrate on the early short stories that were published in the 1920s and that predate the Miss Marple novels. Students will be introduced to the study of character and narrative, as well as the genre conventions of detective fiction, at the same time that they will be furnished with tools to understand the various techniques used in crime fiction. Particular attention will be devoted to reading Miss Marple as a moral standard against which aberrant behavior is tested by Christie. 

This course examines song writers and performers from the USA. In the process of studying American popular song lyrics, students will learn about such musical genres as “the blues,” “gospel,” “tin pan alley,” “folk,” “country,” and “rock and roll” as well as the elements of American history that give rise to each of these types of musical lyrics. Since one of the course elements is the relationship of musical lyrics to musical sound, we will spend considerable class time listening to popular songs , paying attention to the way a lyric’s meaning is conveyed through such elements as vocal style and musical arrangement.

This course examines American hemispheric history, society, and culture across North and South America. The course will introduce significant social and cultural developments in selected countries of the Americas. Topics will include indigenous - colonial relations; slavery and its legacies; the impact of modernity on society and culture; the struggle for civil rights in 20th and 21st centuries; wars and empire; immigration, forced migration and its impact on politics; globalization and neoliberal economics; and the rise of populist nationalism in the 21st century. 

Political economy describes the multifold interactions between the political and economic subsystem in a society and is studied by many different disciplines. This lecture series invites scholars and practitioners from economic history, economics, history, literature and sociology to present on different sectors and aspects of the American political economy. Topics range from labor to housing markets, from migration to the international dollar system and from social movements to racialized capitalism. The lecture provides students with a unique interdisciplinary introduction into current research into American political economy, from many JFKI scholars and beyond.

This is a special studies course involving an internship with a corporate, public, governmental, or private organization, arranged with the Study Center Director or Liaison Officer. Specific internships vary each term and are described on a special study project form for each student. A substantial paper or series of reports is required. Units vary depending on the contact hours and method of assessment. The internship may be taken during one or more terms but the units cannot exceed a total of 12.0 for the year.

This course has two main objectives: First, to introduce some essential features of American politics such as its political culture, the organization of its political system and political institutions, and the electoral logics that shape the contours of the state and the policies implemented. The second objective is to critically discuss key issues of today's U.S. political debate, such as political and party polarization, rising economic inequalities, and minorities and women rights.

This is an independent research course with research arranged between the student and faculty member. The specific research topics vary each term and are described on a special project form for each student. A substantial paper is required. The number of units varies with the student’s project, contact hours, and method of assessment, as defined on the student’s special study project form.

This course covers American historical and cultural developments from European colonization to the end of the 20th century. It studies both the internal developments in the United States and its growing importance in international politics. It offers a range of social, economic, and political perspectives on the American experience and develops students' understanding of the dominance of the United States in contemporary world history and culture.