SCCS Course Offerings

Course Description:
Introduction to theories of culture, race, and gender and the relations among them. Open to ACS, ETHN, POPC, and WS majors and minors or by permission of instructor.

Course Description:
Introduces students to modes of qualitative research commonly used in the fields of American culture studies, ethnic studies, popular culture, and women's studies. Focus on data gathering processes as well as data analysis. Open to ACS, ETHN, POPC, and WS majors and minors or by permission of instructor. Junior status required.

Course Description:
Regional, ethnic and economic aspects of American national experience as reflected in verbal, visual and material artifacts. Culture theory and models used to examine selected topics and problems. Required of all American culture studies majors.

Course Description:
Interdisciplinary exploration of race, ethnicity, class, gender and sexual orientation in the United States, emphasizing imaginative expressive forms, such as fiction, poetry, film and the visual arts.

Course Description:

This course is an introduction to the study of the comic books, graphic novels, and sequential art and storytelling in American popular culture.  It shall introduce students to some of the major topics, themes, creators, characters, and issues that have led to the creation of and continued success of the superhero genre.  We shall explore the role of heroism in our society and concepts dealing with race, ethnicity, gender, politics, and more as they are presented within the superhero context. 

Combined with POPC 3700/1001/77173

Course Description:
The course gives an examination into four of rock music's most prominent subcultures including rap, reggae, punk and heavy metal music.  This course gives a historical breakdown of these four genres and examines their cultural impact on popular music, popular culture and humanity. A series of films, 
music/sound recordings, websites and other media related to the genres will be analyzed from a historical and cultural point of view.
Combined with POPC 3800/1001/72095

Coure Descripion:
This course will consider the history and influence of college radio stations. Flowering in the 1970s and 80s, these stations championed media and information that was off the beaten path, living up to their noncommercial and educational missions. As such, they participated in the cultivation of an “alternative” culture that went mainstream in the 1990s and continued to influence American culture afterward. We will consider the media policies that led to the formation and adoption of college radio, the music, politics, and culture that defined it, and the changes wrought by the adoption of digital technologies such as music streaming services.

Course Description:
This gateway course to the field of Ethnic Studies introduces students to interdisciplinary analyses of race and ethnicity in the U.S. It explores the social construction and ideologies of race in colonial conquest, slavery, and immigration, and the intersections of race with other hierarchies such as class, gender, and sexuality. Approved for Distance Education. Students cannot take ETHN 1010 and ETHN 1920 or 1930 on the topic "Introduction to Ethnic Studies."

Course Description:
Latina/o experience in the United States: cultures, life experiences, and the limited political, education, socio-economic opportunities of this minority. Students cannot take ETHN 1100 and ETHN 1920 or 1930 on the topic "Introduction to Latina/o Studies."

Course Description:
An introduction to the history of black studies, tracing it from its origins in the social, cultural, and political struggles for human and civil rights to the various intellectual currents which have defined the field as a discipline. It places special emphasis on the United States but also considers key authors, historical figures, and social movements from the black Diaspora. Students cannot take ETHN 1200 and ETHN 1920 or 1930 on the topic "Introduction to African American Studies."

Course Description:
Similarities and differences of the various components of the Asian American category with reference to their individual histories and collective situation from the 19th century to the present. Students cannot take ETHN 1300 and ETHN 1920 or 1930 on the topics "Introduction to Asian American Studies."

Course Description:
An interdisciplinary examination of the Native American Diaspora in the context of European discovery and conquest. A general overview and comparative analysis of the diverse native people and cultures of North America, effects of colonialism and U.S. policy on Native American communities, federal Indian law and policy, and cultural negotiation. Students cannot take ETHN 1600 and ETHN 1920 or 1930 on the topic "Introduction to Native American Studies."

Course Description:

Course Description:
This seminar will examine the long struggle for equal voting rights in American history across racial and ethnic lines. While the main emphasis will be on suffrage rights for African Americans, we will also examine how other groups were affected by these movements. Particular attention will be given to the impact of restrictions on full political participation; efforts to challenge racist voting restrictions; intersectional approaches to the voting rights of women of color; and contemporary issues around ballot access. 

Combined with HIST 3913 1002 77320

Course Description:
The histories of American societies are entangled with the history of slavery and built on the backs of enslaved people. The attempted settlement of Europeans throughout the American continent and the surrounding islands might have been but a blip in history without sufficient labor with which to settle the land. Beginning with indigenous people and later moving to Africans transported to the colonies, European settlement in almost all of the Americas relied on slave labor to build these new colonies and sustain the nations that emerged. However, slavery varied throughout the region. Climate, soil, and geography (amongst other things) meant that, while slavery was a normal part of American cultures, it often looked very different depending on location and in different time periods. Regardless of the circumstances, however, African peoples and people of African descent were dehumanized to chattel, endured the depravities and violence of enslavement and, even when free, were deeply affected by the system of slavery that surrounded them. This course will examine the history of slavery in the Americas from both the experience of enslaved people (which includes free and freed people of color) and the institutions invested in their enslavement.

Combined with HIST 3153 101W 76341  

Course Description:
This course offers a focused examination of racial, ethnic, and gendered representations as they have appeared within the context of popular culture and mainstream media in the United States. It critically investigates the history of a wide range of stereotypes within the context of theatre, film, music, television, and radio, analyzing the social and ideological processes and practices that have given them such widespread currency since the nation's founding.

Course Description:
Mexican American culture in the U.S. Topics include family structure and roles, religion, education, and immigration, among other topics.

Course Description:
An exploration of women's lives and experiences in global/local contexts. Emphasis on analytical and methodological frameworks to examine different histories, activism, borders, and ideologies shaping women's lives. Focus on Third World Critiques of Western feminism in relation to social, economic, and political structures of race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender and class. Prerequisite: Any ETHN 1000-level course, ETHN 2010, ETHN 3050 or any WS course. Credit allowed only for ETHN 3130 or WS 3130. Approved for Distance Education.

Combined with WS 3130

Course Description:

This course examines the social-cultural, political and economic transformation that occurred in Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Themes such as precolonial African traditional institutions, the slave trade, societies and revolutions, legitimate commerce, European imperialism, colonial rule, nationalism, decolonization and neo-colonialism will be considered. This course develops advanced research and writing skills by the creation of a project based on the critical analysis of primary and secondary sources. Credit allowed only for one of HIST 4027, ETHN 4027. Approved for distance learning.

Combined with HIST 4027 101W 77321

Course Description:
Basic theories and approaches to the scholarly study of popular culture, including various media, folklore, and everyday life.

Course Description:
Some of the ways in which mass media (TV, film, recording industry, print, radio) have affected modern American culture. Media relationships and interactions.

Course Description:
Basic theories of approaches to 20th century and 21st century African-American popular culture. Trace ways black popular culture has shaped and is shaped by national and global contexts. Examine relationship of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class. Provide an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the significance of black popular culture in contemporary U.S. and global societies. Approved for distance education.

Course Description:
Study and collecting of folklore; ballads, myths, tall tales, heroes, folk medicines, superstitions, proverbs and crafts.

Course Description:
Popular film as mass entertainment medium; Hollywood studios, popular film formulae, genres, relationships between popular films and movie-going audience; viewing of appropriate films. Extra fee.

Course Description:
Relationship between music world and listening-viewing audience; musical styles, trends in popular music, popular performers and entertainers and what they reveal about popular culture; appropriate music listening. Approved for Distance Education.

Course Description:
Examination of the movement of popular culture around the world and the balance of global and local influences on cultural products and practices, the effects of the movement of people around the globe through travel and migration, and the ways that individuals and communities negotiate regional specificity and global assimilation. Approved for distance education.

Course Description:
Study and analysis of nonverbal folklife; theory and methods of analysis of such forms of expressive folk culture as arts, crafts, architecture, foodways, festivals, customs and folk rituals; emphasis on modes of description and analysis commonly used by folklorists to understand and explain such materials.

Course Description:
Intensive study of a single folk group or the folklore of a specific region (e.g., Women's Folk Culture, Folklore of the Great Lakes Region, etc.). Emphasis on the function of various types of folklore within the group or region. May be repeated once if content clearly differs.

Course Description:

This course is an introduction to the study of the comic books, graphic novels, and sequential art and storytelling in American popular culture.  It shall introduce students to some of the major topics, themes, creators, characters, and issues that have led to the creation of and continued success of the superhero genre.  We shall explore the role of heroism in our society and concepts dealing with race, ethnicity, gender, politics, and more as they are presented within the superhero context. 

Detective, science fiction, western, mystery, best sellers, poetry, magazine fiction. Prerequisite: any 2000-level literature course or permission of instructor.

Course Description:
The course gives an examination into four of rock music's most prominent subcultures including rap, reggae, punk and heavy metal music.  This course gives a historical breakdown of these four genres and examines their cultural impact on popular music, popular culture and humanity. A series of films, music/sound recordings, websites and other media related to the genres will be analyzed from a historical and cultural point of view.
Combined with ACS3000/1001/75243

Course Description:
This course will teach students about the most common ways that violence is represented in narratives of detection, and how these representations (as well as the realities of crime) are shaped by inequalities of race, class, gender, and sexuality.Combined with WS 4000 101W 76362

Course Description:
Interdisciplinary survey of the new scholarship on women. Emphasis on the interconnectedness of gender, class and ethnicity in women's experiences and viewpoints. Approved for distance education.

Course Description:
Exploration of a range of topics and issues emerging in the interdisciplinary area of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender/Transexual) Studies.  Course engages in cultural and textual analysis as well as consideration of specific components of LGBT Studies, including (1) major concepts and theories, (2) political, economic, and social constructs which institutionalize homophobia and heterosexism, (3) diversity issues within LGBT communities, and (4) the impact of LGBT scholarship on specific academic disciplines.

Course Description:
Women's creativity and cultural production in the visual, literary and performing arts, and their relationships to broader cultural issues, including cross-cultural perspectives. Prerequisite: WS 2000 or consent of instructor.  Approved for Distance Education.

Course Description:
This course explores how race, gender, class, sexuality, and religion intersect and converge in shaping the lives of women of color in the United States. It emphasizes the diversity of experience of women of color as they resist and contest the material and cultural constraints that limit them. The course also focuses on women of color as agents of social and political change, and provides perspectives on the ways in which women of color shape and define American institutions and society. Credit allowed only for one of ETHN 3050 or WS 3050.
Combined with ETHN 3050

Course Description:
An exploration of women's lives and experiences in global/local contexts. Emphasis on analytical and methodological frameworks to examine different histories, activism, borders, and ideologies shaping women's lives. Focus on Third World critiques of Western feminisms in relation to social, economic, and political structures of race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, and class. Prerequisite: Any WS course, any ETHN 1000-level course, ETHN 2010, or ETHN 3050. Credit allowed only for ETHN 3130 or WS 3130. Approved for distance education.
Combined course with ETHN 3130

Course Description:
An interdisciplinary examination of violence against women, including etiology and intervention, in the US and globally. Feminist and cultural perspectives will be used to interpret the research on interpersonal violence.

Course Description:
This course will teach students about the most common ways that violence is represented in narratives of detection, and how these representations (as well as the realities of crime) are shaped by inequalities of race, class, gender, and sexuality.

Combined with POPC 4600 101W 77171  

Course Description:
This course examines mass media as work place, cultural forum, and the force of social change for women, men, and sexual minority groups. Junior standing required. No credit for both MDIA 4670 / MC 5670 and WS 4670.

Combined with MDIA 4670/MC5670