American Dreams: Ethnographic Perspectives on the United States

This seminar explores major themes in and ethnographically grounded perspectives on the academic study of the United States. We will do so primarily (although not exclusively) through the disciplinary lenses available to us through the study of Cultural Anthropology and Sociology. However, the primary goal of this course is to contribute to the growth of each student as an academic writer, reader, thinker, and speaker. To this end, we will undertake a range of writing projects, with consistent attention throughout to revision, and we will work to deepen students’ reading, critical thinking, and speaking skills in class as well. We will also emphasize the development of a grounded, productive writing process for each student. The aim of these linked emphases are to support students’ emergence into college-level academic life.\ud We will consider the following questions, and others that emerge as we proceed. While most people would agree that the United States is a “diverse” country in many ways, this course asks the question: what does American “diversity” really mean? What does it mean to be “American” when the United States includes people of so many different ethnic, racial, religious, and socioeconomic groups, such varying lifestyles, immigrants from around the globe, regional differences, and such divergent political experiences and opinions? What, if anything, do these various groups have in common as Americans? Where and how do members of various groups interact in American society, and with what consequences? Who gets to decide what counts as legitimately “American” and what kinds of counter-discourses emerge in response? Ultimately, what separates and unifies a nation with so many different kinds of American dreams?\ud This course will offer students opportunities to explore diverse ways of being, feeling, and identifying as American (or understanding American-ness) through an ethnographically- based exploration of various American sub-cultural groups. While the course will focus primarily on helping students to master various aspects of academic writing and speaking at the college level, we will also contextualize our ethnographic reading with other kinds of sources that are intended to enrich, push, and complicate our understanding of the United States as a diverse nation. As background for building this understanding, we will learn about ethnographic research methods as a source of data on which to base our developing knowledge of the United States, and students will have the opportunity use these methods a bit as well