Glossary
UW Bothell Course Descriptions
UW Seattle Course Descriptions
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T AMST 101 American Art, Place & Space (5) SSc/A&H
Explores the aesthetic, emotional and cultural power of scale, emptiness, grandeur, and congestion in American places employing interactive presentation/discussion formats. Examines unique aspects of "American" spaces through individual and collaborative experiments, including studio-based art, research, and investigation of the work of artists who inhabit, respond to, and represent "space."
View course details in MyPlan: T AMST 101
T AMST 120 Mythic America (5) A&H/SSc
Defines myths as stories and beliefs that help structure our experiences living and participating in American social, cultural, political, and economic structures. Studies myths through a variety of materials and readings might include myths of success, individualism, or education, including their contributions to ethnic, gender, and class constructions.
View course details in MyPlan: T AMST 120
T AMST 210 American Cultures and Perspectives: Class, Ethnicity, Gender, and Race (5) A&H/SSc, DIV
Introduces approaches and questions central to American Studies. Focuses on how perspectives on America have evolved over time, how artists, intellectuals, and others envision America's diverse cultures, and how social issues play a role in the making of American cultures and nationhood.
View course details in MyPlan: T AMST 210
T AMST 220 Introduction to Popular Culture (5) A&H
Explores genres and themes across 20th and 21st century U.S. popular culture. Emphasizes the practice and acquisition of the methodological tools needed to situate the interpretation of cultural text (literature, art, music, film, comics, and television) within historical and sociopolitical contexts.
View course details in MyPlan: T AMST 220
T AMST 250 Science Fiction in American Culture (5) SSc/A&H
Explores American experiences and spaces through analysis of science fiction, science fact and related approaches as they shed light on current experiences for identity, cultural difference and society. Focuses on the cultural experiences of fandom, images, products, technologies, the futures industry, the human/nonhuman and innovation, among others.
View course details in MyPlan: T AMST 250
T AMST 260 Introduction to Queer Studies (5) SSc, DIV
Introduces students to major concepts and questions in the interdisciplinary field of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer studies.
View course details in MyPlan: T AMST 260
T AMST 333 American Mama: Childbirth and Motherhood (5) SSc
Offers interdisciplinary look at childbirth and motherhood to consider how social, historical, and cultural forces shape our experiences of reproduction.
View course details in MyPlan: T AMST 333
T AMST 350 American Food Studies (5) SSc
Examines the experiences, meanings and roles of food in American cultures during the past and present. Explores topics commonly discussed in Food Studies by considering how forms of culture and social experiences relate to issues such as food-based tradition, community, ethics, identity, justice, and social struggle, among others. Course overlaps with: SOC 420.
View course details in MyPlan: T AMST 350
T AMST 410 Studies in U.S. Popular Culture (5) A&H
Examines how popular culture reflects and shapes our understanding of a key social issue. Emphasizes the critical interpretation of literature, art, music, film, television, and other media in historical and sociopolitical contexts. Also explores how evolving media technologies have affected popular representations of the chosen topic.
View course details in MyPlan: T AMST 410
T AMST 420 Drugs and U.S. Culture (5) SSc
Explores U.S. cultural frameworks of psychoactive drug use, development, marketing, and regulation as represented through the arts, popular culture, industry, criminal justice, healthcare, and public policy. Through critical examination of these discourses, considers the complex social politics of psychoactive substance in contemporary American lives.
View course details in MyPlan: T AMST 420
T AMST 430 Queer Performances (5) A&H, DIV
Examines how sexual identity is imagined and performed in artistic narratives and daily lives. Explores how American performances create and discuss sexual identities, including gay and lesbian identities. Students assess how sexual identity intersects with ethnicity and how theories of performativity shed light on American narratives.
View course details in MyPlan: T AMST 430
T AMST 440 Gender and American Childhood (5) SSc
Examines the ways in which femininity and masculinity are taught to children, and how gender shapes American culture. Analyzes cultural products such as movies, books, to understand how gender I constructed, how these constructions become cultural norms, and how these popular assumptions about gender impact our own lives.
View course details in MyPlan: T AMST 440
T AMST 450 Monstrous Imagination (5) A&H
Explores the role of the monstrous other in British and American culture. Examines the ideological dimensions of the monstrous as a means of understanding the social boundaries of human experience. Emphasizes the critical interpretation of literature, art, music, film, and television. Prerequisite: any 100-level, 200-level, or 300-level T AMST, T FILM, or T LIT course.
View course details in MyPlan: T AMST 450
T AMST 490 American Studies Capstone (5)
Revisits and frames issues previously raised to develop a more complex and nuanced understanding of American social issues within a global or transnational context. Supports students in developing and presenting their final projects. Prerequisite: T AMST 210; 10 credits of 300-400 level American Studies courses; either TCOM 353 or T WOMN 302, which may be taken concurrently.
View course details in MyPlan: T AMST 490
