This course examines how U.S. cultures are constructed, reinforced, and changed, and how those cultures act simultaneously at a given time. To help students develop skills in cultural analysis, lectures will contrast various methods and perspectives as they apply to the study of a particular year or decade. Topics will vary from semester to semester. This course may include discussion sections depending on available funding. Some versions of this course need four in-class contact hours because of the extensive use of media.

This interdisciplinary course explores the history of the United States since 9/11/2001. Using historical and cultural studies methods to study the recent past, we will take on the political, economic, social, technological, environmental and cultural changes that have remade America within our own lifetimes. This era has been characterized by an almost permanent state of crisis in which our democracy, our health and sanity, our jobs and relationships, and our planet all feel on the verge of collapse. The origins of this present crisis is our primary topic. Key subjects include the long war on terror, the financial crisis within global capitalism, race and the culture wars of the Obama era, America’s widening political polarization, and the impact of climate change on our bodies, landscapes and culture. Together, we will reconsider the history of a past that we have all somehow survived and must continue to live through.

Repeat Rules

Requirements class fulfills