American Studies

Take advantage of our Summer 2008 course offerings in American Studies.

ENG 831 - The House of the Seven Gables: Text, Memory, History & Place
Tuesdays & Thursdays from 4:30-7:30 p.m.
Instructors: Elizabeth Duclos-Orsello & Arthur Riss

The course will explore the relationship between Hawthorne's novel The House of the Seven Gables and its historical, political, and social context. Course materials and projects will combine methods and insights from the fields of literature, history, gender studies, critical race theory, and cultural geography. You will undertake projects directly related to the interpretive possibilities of the historic Turner-Ingersoll mansion, aka "The Gables." Some meetings will be held at The House of the Seven Gable.
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ENG 831 - Special Topics in American Literature - Institute on Transatlantic Women Writers
June 23-27 from 8:30am - 4:30pm
Instructor: Nancy Lusignan Schultz

This course will explore the transatlantic contexts of several nineteenth century American women writers. Class activities will include discussion of assigned readings, guest lectures, and field trips. Readings will include works by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Margaret Fuller, as well as selected other poets and writers.

• This course may be taken as a 3-credit elective in the English MA and MAT programs.
• You have the option to sign up to travel to England. You may also register for and attend the Transatlantic Women Writers conference, "Transatlantic Women: Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers in Great Britain, Ireland, and Europe" in Oxford, UK, July 16-19, 2008. The Oxford Conference is a gathering of international scholars who will be presenting papers on Harriet Beecher Stowe, Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Margaret Fuller and others. More information about the conference.
• You also have the option to build on your work in this course by registering for an on-line version of ENG725, taught by Prof. Lisa Mulman, during Summer Session II. For more info on this option, please contact Professor Mulman at lmulman@salemstate.edu. ENG725 is a required course in the MA in English program.

For more information about this course contact Nancy Schultz at nschultz@salemstate.edu.
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HIS 709 - Institute in Local History: A Republic of Letters
June 16-20 from 8:30am - 4:30pm
Instructors: Dane Morrison & Kimberly Alexander of the Strawbery Banke Museum

Using Michael Warner's seminal study, A Republic of Letters, as a text and theme, this course will explore communities of learning in early America. Focusing on public institutions such as schools, libraries, athenaeum, marine societies, museums, and mechanics and agricultural societies, as well as media such as newspapers and lectures, we will examine questions such as: How did educational institutions bring together communities of learning in early America? How did they support the development of towns, states, and the nation? What role did they play in the formation of a national identity? This weeklong Institute in Local History will explore these questions. Using Salem as text and site, we will engage in lectures, discussions, and walking tours from a variety of experts in history, literature, and material culture.
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HIS 722 - Topics in Legal History Mondays & Wednesdays from 6:30 - 9:30pm Instructor: Paul Marsella

This course is a history of major substantive and procedural themes in the development of American Law since colonial times. Major topics include Economic Regulation vs. Freedom of Contract; Race, Gender and Special Preference; Theories of "Entitlement"; and Reform of Tort Liability.
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HIS 912 - Seminar in Early American History: Slavery & New England
Tuesdays from 6:30 - 9:30pm
Instructors: Brad Austin & Jamie Wilson

This course will explore the many ways racial slavery influenced the development of New England from the 1600s through the Civil War. We will examine the role New England merchants played in the Atlantic slave trade, the multiple ways New England's economy depended on slavery in other regions, the attempts to establish slavery within the borders of New England, the process of gradual emancipation, and the rise of the abolitionist movement. If you are interested in the importance of slavery in American or World history you would benefit from this course.
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IDS 763 - Topics in American Studies: Letters & Learning in Early America
July 28-August 1 from 8:30am - 4:30pm
Instructors: Dane Morrison & Kimberly Alexander of the Strawbery Banke Museum

Drawing on the scholarship of the past two decades on ‘the history of the book,' this course will explore the functions and meanings of writing and reading in early America. Focusing on private writings, such as diaries, journals, and letters, and on the experience of reading, we will examine questions such as: What was the importance of writing and reading for ordinary people in early America? How much time did people commit to these activities; when and under what conditions; and what purposes did these activities fulfill for them? Using the Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH, as text and site, we will engage in lectures, discussions, and walking tours from a variety of experts in history, literature, and material culture.
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IDS 763 - Topics in American Studies: American Musical Film
July 14-18 from 8:30am - 4:30pm
Instructor: Gail Sheehan

American Musical Film will emphasis the genre's representation of race, ethnicity and gender, introducing students to a variety of critical approaches for analyzing the stylistic and thematic aspects of Hollywood musicals. Selected films will be "read": (1) To explore the phenomenon of intertextuality in both "studio era" and "post modern" film musicals; (2) to study the relationship between image and sound; (3) to recognize the significance and influence of several iconic performers (and performances) in the development of the film genre; (4) to identify several conventions of the musical film (e.g.,"overnight" sensation, "passed along" song, song migration, dream sequence, and aggregation); and (5) to examine the appropriation of African and African American cultures and the marginalization of African American performers in the history of the genre.
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