AMST 250 - American Empire, Culture and Labor

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

What is empire? How has it shaped our world order? Is the idea and reality of America possible without it? This course examines the formation and reproduction of US empire through the relationship between the culture of American exceptionalism and the labor that carries out its attendant imperial projects. We explore how ideas about race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class mobility rationalized the spread of U.S. power through popular culture and public discourse as well as the diverse perspectives of the people whose labor both perpetuated and resisted US imperial expansion through multidisciplinary texts and methods. Students gain theoretical tools to better understand key terms like ideology, hegemony, and discourse in how they function in service of and against American empire. Amy Chin.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS