American Studies (AMS)

Discusses the fabricated image of Native Americans in American film history, the media process that perpetuates such images, and the resulting stereotypes; also covers the relationship to social movements and alternatives for overcoming stereotypes. This course is the same as DMS 100, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

The Asian American experience from the beginning of Asians' and Pacific Islanders' entry into North America in the eighteenth century to the present. Investigates this phenomenon in connection with national and transnational power relations, economic structures, and political realities. Also considers the construction of American identities in the United States and their impact on Asian American communities and individuals. Goals are to develop a historical and multi-cultural perspective on the Asian American experience, to enlarge students' capacities for analytical and critical thinking, and to achieve a better understanding of the diversity within Asian American communities and of Asian Americans' social status in North America. This course is the same as AS 110 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Introduces students to a variety of approaches that have been developed in American studies to assist understandings of how different people participate in this society and in the world. Also considers how experiences continue to shape present thinking and future possibilities.

This course explores the foundations/origins of Hip Hop Culture, making connections to current social problems as interpreted by the Hip Hop Generation. Using an interdisciplinary approach, students will interrogate issues of race, class, privilege and power in the context of what is now a global cultural phenomenon. This course is the same as AAS 117 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

This class introduces students to a range of critical insights into race, ethnicity, and identity. By critically engaging ethnicity from a comparative cultural perspective, our goal will be to begin to understand the political, social, and economic role of ethnicity in history and culture, while carefully considering how the intersections of race, gender, class, sexuality, generation, nationalism, and socio-political contexts reconfigure subjective experience and identity practices. This course is the same as AAS 199 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Examines patterned stories, sayings, designs, and ways of living that have been created and are continuously being recreated by groups of people; also investigates historical and social meanings of folklore. This course is the same as GGS 116, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Examines patterned stories, sayings, designs, and ways of living that have been created and are continuously being recreated by groups of people; also investigates historical and social meanings of folklore.

Topics vary according to faculty/instructors. This course is the same as GGS 126 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

The appropriation of lands and natural resources is fundamental to colonialism worldwide, much to the detriment of Indigenous peoples and their ancestral homelands. Indigenous communities are on the frontlines of social movements against the hyper-exploitation of the environment, while also working to manage and sustain their local ecosystems through land-based traditional knowledge and science. By developing an understanding of this political, social, and environmental landscape, this course will examine Indigenous approaches to natural resource management, decolonization of conservation policy, and the importance of Indigenous sovereignty and perspectives in addressing global sustainability concerns.

This course gives students an introduction to urban studies that is historical, transnational and multidisciplinary. Starting with basic concepts such as "what is a city in today's world?" it addresses some of the main analytical debates of the field today, including massive urban growth, urban inequality and segregation, the politics of urban space, suburban sprawl, ghettos, slums, and the explosion of informal settlements, gentrification, urban circulation systems, global cities and urban networks, and the promise and perils of cities for humans' relationship to the environment.

Studies the connection with all forms of life in evolutionary development and ecological processes. Also examines ecstatic experiences; social life before the domestication of plants, animals, and each other; and utopian thinking.

Introduces the lives, histories, cultures, and characters of Native American peoples of North America. Focuses on cultural assumptions and native visions of the land, the environment, and the spirit life.

Seneca is an unwritten language. The course presents the basic Seneca vocabulary for numerals, foods, geological features, the classification of society, and the classification of nature, and works up to reading myths and legends.

The one credit UB Seminar is focused on a big idea or challenging issue to engage students with questions of significance in a field of study and, ultimately, to connect their studies with issues of consequence in the wider world. Essential to the UB Curriculum, the Seminar helps transition to UB through an early connection to UB faculty and the undergraduate experience at a comprehensive, research university. This course is equivalent to any 198 offered in any subject. This course is a controlled enrollment (impacted) course. Students who have previously attempted the course and received a grade of F or R may not be able to repeat the course during the fall or spring semester.

The three credit UB Seminar is focused on a big idea or challenging issue to engage students with questions of significance in a field of study and, ultimately, to connect their studies with issues of consequence in the wider world. Essential to the UB Curriculum, the Seminar helps students with common learning outcomes focused on fundamental expectations for critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and oral communication, and learning at a university, all within topic focused subject matter. The Seminars provide students with an early connection to UB faculty and the undergraduate experience at a comprehensive, research university. This course is equivalent to any 199 offered in any subject. This course is a controlled enrollment (impacted) course. Students who have previously attempted the course and received a grade of F or R may not be able to repeat the course during the fall or spring semester.

Explores how the current expansion of the world market is overturning the seclusion of women in traditional societies and looks at the consequences of globalization on the lives of women throughout the world. Women in developing countries share common patterns of location and differentiation within the international division of labor. Examines how women are struggling to represent their identities in the midst of rapid changes in their societies. Examines why more and more women are becoming active in the international human rights movement. Looks at how women are attempting to shape the discourse of development in different regions of the world economy. Intended to develop a multidisciplinary approach to gender and more specifically, to understand how gender is constructed by political, economic, and cultural discourses in industrialized and industrializing societies, and to understand the differences between the lived experiences of women in these societies, the heterogeneous nature of women based on class, race, religion, and nationality, and how women's lives are changing in the context of the global economy.

Explores the experience of women of different race, class, and ethnic groups regarding changes in women's responsibilities in the family, participation in the labor force, and the development of new family forms. Illuminates contemporary issues regarding work, marriage, and family from a historical perspective. This course is the same as GGS 238, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

The black child in America has been adversely impacted by the unique history of African Americans, principally by the unusual circumstances created by slavery and institutional racism over the years. This course seeks to examine how such historical trauma has shaped the identity of this specific demographic. Through class readings, videos, and assignments we seek to interpret how historical trauma influences issues such as poverty, mental health, police interaction, employment, education, etc. The course does not require prior knowledge of African American Studies. This course is the same as AAS 264, and GGS 264, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Examines the various constructions of women's sexualities: heterosexual, bisexual, and lesbian. Readings from literature, feminist theory, queer theory, psychology and sociology in order to develop an understanding of how sexuality is constructed. Examines the impact of violence, gender, health, media reproduction, class, and race on women's sexualities.

Examines perspectives and philosophies of Native American writers. Provides insight into why the American Indian has a unique perspective on caring for what happens to the Earth.

Expression of meaning and linguistic concepts in a number of native languages of North America. This course is the same as LIN 275 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Introduces undergraduate students to some of the current difficulties facing Indigenous peoples in North America.

How can our ideas about early American, Native American, and Euroamerican peoples be expanded to include Indigenous voices and perspectives? What happens when we center the experiences of Native American peoples and nations in our discussions of early America? Do our understandings of the meaning of the term ¿colonial¿ shift when we look past the Revolutionary War to ask how the United States operates as a colonial power? Building on classic and recent scholarship in American Studies, History, and Native American and Indigenous Studies, Native Americans and the Colonial Problem introduces students to varied experiences of tribal nations navigating relationships with settler colonial societies in North America.

Explores that part of U.S. law that has dealt with the human and civil rights of African Americans (and by implication other racial ethnic groups in U.S. society: Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, etc.) We do this by examining the relevant legislation and U.S. Supreme Court decisions. However, where appropriate, decisions of the Executive branch made under various 'Executive Orders' are also considered. Any understanding and appreciation of U.S. constitutional democracy requires us to acknowledge the powerful role of race in the evolution of this democracy. Consequently regardless of the time period--the lives of all in the U.S. (of whatever color and sex) have been touched by the interaction between law and race. In Part One of the course we concentrate on an area of legal studies called 'Critical Race Theory,' where our concern is to explore the interaction of law and race from the perspective of issues such as culture, history, gender, identity, politics, class, the media, etc. In Part Two we examine the interaction between race and law from the perspective of the historical evolution of democracy in the U.S. This course is the same as AAS 293, GGS 285 and HIS 304 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Traces historical periods that affected Indigenous women's lives; emphasizes current laws and policies that have impacted their families and communities. This course is the same as GGS 301, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

This course explores the politics of everyday life in the Americas, with a special focus on the history of food and eating in the Americas. It takes food as a lens through which to understand the history of nation building and immigration in the Americas, with a special focus on race, class, gender and identity. This course will help student hone their critical eye by analyzing a wide range of food related texts, images, and other media from the 19th century into the present, including cookbooks, literature, blogs, TV and films. Students will also study the food they make, cook, eat and discard as the product of history and also the means by which social, political and national identity are made and unmade.

Considers black presence and black heritage within Latin American culture, viewed through literature, films, art, and the theatre. Also explores stereotypes in arts and the mass media. This course is the same as AAS 318, CPM 319, LLS 308, and HMN 318 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Examines lifestyle and emerging cultural personality of Puerto Ricans raised on the mainland, as well as Puerto Rican dynamics' role in American social and cultural change. This course is the same as LLS 303 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Explores the many religious experiences developed from the blending of Christian, African, and Indian cultures in the Caribbean. Although the principle focus is on Voudou and Santeria many less known religions of the region are also explored through a multidisciplinary perspective. This course is the same as APY 325 and LLS 325 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

This course studies writing by women across a variety of periods and genres, with focus on the historical and cultural context of women's lives. A: "Twentieth-Century Women Writers Study" treats writing of twentieth-century women, attending to its differences from and connections to earlier periods and mainstream traditions. B: "U.S. Women Writers" explores U.S. women's writing as it participates in mainstream literary and rhetorical traditions and creates its own counter-traditions. The course may include women's autobiographies, speeches, essays, letters, captivity and slave narratives, poetry, fiction and drama from a variety of periods. This course is the same as AMS 335 and GGS 335 and course repeat rules will apply.

This course is about some of the most difficult problems our cities face today and allows students to engage in some of the most creative solutions to those problems. The course will begin with an introduction to inequalities of wealth and power in American cities, as well as segregation, joblessness, educational crisis, and urban environmental degradation. Then students will meet with leaders from our own city to talk about ways to solve these problems, and will collaborate in projects whose highest goal is to spark an urban revival across America.

A diaspora is not merely a spreading of a particular people, but literally a forced dispersal, touched off by some great cataclysmic event or process. Africa has experienced no fewer than two such processes (both at the hands of Europe): the slave trade and imperialism (or colonialism). These diasporas have profoundly shaped the world we live in today, though Africa and its diasporas have largely been treated as an afterthought in the study of world history. One major goal of this course is to study the processes of the African diasporas to understand how Africans and their descendants have impacted world history-a world historical agency that has generally been ignored or denied. Another major goal of this course concerns the understanding not so much of the past but of our world today. This course is the same as AAS 358 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Reviews the health care system in the U.S. and its treatment of women. Content includes a history of health care and the changing definition of "health", the current roles of women in this system, and the intersection of the legal system on women's bodies and women's health. Women in the 1970's and beyond started examining the politics of health care, which exploded into the millennium such as cost containment and restriction of services through managed care; newer and more expensive technologies; growing consumer dissatisfaction with the current system; and trends towards holistic and alternative care outside of the "mainstream" health care system. Develops an analysis of the current system with a rational plan for improving health care for all women. Addresses the roles that women have played in relation to health and health care, the history of women as healers, the shift to women as patients and consumers, and women as workers, both paid and unpaid, in the system of care. This course is the same as GGS 360, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of African American Studies, its relationship to other disciplines, and to social science research methodology. Students read the classic literature in the field and prepare annotated bibliographies. Topics covered may include slavery, colonialism, urbanization and migration, gender and gender construction, and intellectual movements. This course is the same as AAS 320 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Individually designed program of reading, research, or skills development in close association with an instructor.