IDS 2000 - This Grand Experiment: An Introduction to American Studies (3)

When Offered: Fall
GEN ED: Integrative Learning Experience (Theme: “American Culture: Past and Present”)
Since the 1930s, scholars have been studying the core values and ideas that define American (U.S.) culture. American Studies scholars integrate ideas and methods from a diverse array of disciplines in examining what it is that makes this place and its people “American.” In this course, students will review the roots of American Studies and the concepts of exceptionalism, multiculturalism, and transnationalism, which have characterized how U.S. culture is perceived both here and abroad. Embedded in these concepts are physical, economic, political, and demographic characteristics that have historically defined and continue to define “America.”