Class Archive

31AC/1

Literature of American Cultures:
The Wild, Wild West-- California and the Politics of Possibility

TuTh 2-3:30

The Golden State – fast fame, endless sunshine, and gold in the ground. California has long occupied an iconic place in the American and global imagination as the land of limitless opportunity, utopian pinnacle of the promise getting ahead, m...(read more)

166AC/1

Special Topics in American Cultures:
Racial Joy

TTh 9:30-11

Is happiness possible in a world of ecological catastrophe, economic inequality, and racial oppression? This course will explore recent literature by Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian American writers and poets preoccupied with the nature of joy...(read more)

165AC/1

Special Topics in American Cultures:
American Humor and Fictions of Race

MWF 1-2

American humor practices have long been a means for bolstering fictions about race, ethnicity and identity, but they also have been a means for understanding, navigating, and challenging those fictions. This course will explore how a range of liter...(read more)

166AC/1

Special Topics in American Cultures:
Literature in the Age of Extremes, 1900-1945

Lectures TTh 10-11 + one hour of discussion section per week (sec. 101: F 9-10; sec. 102: F 10-11; sec. 103: F 11-12; sec. 104: F 12-1)

The aim of this course will be to capture the aesthetic and political extremes of the twentieth century’s first half. We will examine conflicting efforts to bridge the boundary between art and life against the backdrop of two world wars and e...(read more)

166AC/1

Special Topics in American Cultures:
American Hustle: Immigration, Ethnicity, and the American Dream; Or, Capitalism Kills

TWTh 4-6:30

This course, which constitutes a survey of ethnic American literature, asks about the desires, imagination, and labor that go into the American dream. What is the relationship between immigration and dreams of upward mobility in America? This cours...(read more)

31AC/1

Literature of American Cultures:
American Hustle: Race, Ethnicity, and Dreams of Getting Ahead

TTh 9:30-11

In this class, we are going to do and to talk about work: getting work, making it work, working the system.

This course, which constitutes a survey of ethnic American literature, asks about the desires, imagination, and labor that go into...(read more)

135AC/1

Literature of American Cultures:
American Hustle

Lectures TTh 4-5 in 140 Barrows + one hour of discussion section per week in 305 Wheeler (sec. 101: F 12-1; sec. 102: F 1-2)

This course, which constitutes a survey of ethnic American literature, asks about the desires, imagination, and labor that go into the American dream. What is the relationship between immigration and dreams of upward mobility in America? This cours...(read more)

165AC/1

Special Topics in American Cultures:
Ethnicity, Religion and Literature

TTh 11-12:30

This class will explore how 20^th- and 21^st-century American prose fictions have imagined the relationship between religion and ethnicity. Our first questions will be formal: How do different formal choices allow these writers ...(read more)

166AC/1

Special Topics in American Cultures:
Race and Ethnicity in Classical Hollywood Cinema

TWTh 3-5:30

An introduction to critical thinking about race and ethnicity, focused on films produced in Hollywood between the 1920s and 1960s. Themes include law and violence, kinship and miscegenation, captivity and rescue, passing and racial impersonation. W...(read more)

31AC/1

Literature of American Cultures:
Growing Up Funny

MWF 9-10

America, we are told, is a nation of immigrants—of people from other lands who travel here and “become” American. That's a tall order. But what of those who can never quite belong—the misfits, outliers and strangers in t...(read more)

166AC/1

Special Topics in American Cultures:
Race and Revision in Early America

Lectures MW 1-2 in 50 Birge + one hour of discussion section per week in various locations (sec. 101: F 1-2; sec. 102: F 2-3; sec. 104: Th 10-11; sec. 105: Th 2-3; sec. 106: Th 4-5)

In this course, we will read both historical and literary texts to explore how racial categories came into being in New World cultures, and how these categories were tested, inhabited, and re-imagined by the people they sought to define. Our s...(read more)

135AC/1

Literature of American Cultures:
Race, Class, & Disability in American Cultures: American Foundlings

Lectures MW 10-11 in 141 McCone + one hour of discussion section per week in different locations (sec. 101: F 10-11; sec. 102: F 12-1)

To start with, a general overview. This course will analyze the categories of “disability,” “race” and “ethnicity” critically. My aim in the class is to set up situations in which we can think about several of th...(read more)

170/1

Literature and the Arts:
Rhythm, Riot, Revolution

TTh 11-12:30

What allows language to inspire change? To what extent is the power of a word rooted in its perception as sound and rhythm, shaped and reshaped by the individual histories and trainings of those who hear it? In this class, we will break down some o...(read more)

135AC/1

Literature of American Cultures:
American Hustle—Immigration, Ethnicity, and the American Dream

TuWTh 12-2

This course, which constitutes a survey of ethnic American literature, asks about the desires, imagination, and labor that go into the American dream. What is the relationship between immigration and dreams of upward mobility in America? &nbsp...(read more)

166AC/1

Special Topics in American Cultures:
Race & Revision in Early America

Lectures MW 1-2 + one hour of discussion section per week (sec. 101: F 10-11; sec. 102: F 1-2; sec. 103: Thurs. 10-11; sec. 104: Thurs. 1-2; sec. 105: Thurs. 1-2; sec. 106: Thurs. 4-5)

In this course, we will read both historical and literary texts to explore how racial categories came into being in New World cultures, and how these categories were tested, inhabited, and re-imagined by the human actors they sought to define.&nbsp...(read more)

135AC/1

Literature of American Cultures

TuWTh 1-3:30

Taking contemporary American poetry as its central focus, this survey course will consider poetry from the last 18 years in relation to a number of concerns, debates, and questions by which we can critically engage a historical moment that continue...(read more)

166/3

Special Topics:
Black Science Fiction

TTh 3:30-5

This course addresses two genres—black fiction and science fiction—at their point of intersection, which is sometimes called Afrofuturism. The umbrella term “black fiction” will include texts that issue out of and specu...(read more)

166AC/1

Special Topics in American Cultures:
Race and Revision in Early America

TTh 12:30-2

In this course, we will read both historical and literary texts to explore how racial categories came into being in New World cultures and how these categories were tested, inhabited, and re-imagined by the human actors they sought to define. Our s...(read more)

166AC/1

Special Topics in American Cultures:
Literatures of the Asian Diaspora in America

MWF 1-2

This aim of this survey is two-fold: First, to interrogate the concept of nationhood and, particularly, what it means to be American.  Focusing on writings by and about peoples of Asian descent across the twentieth century and into the twenty...(read more)

31AC/1

Literature of American Cultures:
Immigrant Inscriptions

TTh 9:30-11

In this course we will consider a variety of texts—contemporary fiction, classic and new film, journalism, history, and cultural criticism—that help us explore the possibilities for writing the migrant self and experience. The shifting...(read more)

31AC/1

Literature of American Cultures:
Immigrant Inscriptions

TTh 11-12:30

In this course we will consider a variety of texts—contemporary fiction, classic and new film, journalism, history, and cultural criticism—that help us explore the possibilities for writing the migrant self and experience. The shifting...(read more)

31AC/1

Literature of American Cultures:
Immigrant Inscriptions

TTh 9:30-11

A few miles from UC Berkeley’s campus, positioned in the San Francisco Bay near Alcatraz, sits Angel Island, site of a California State Park and one-time “processing center” (1910-1940) for migrants crossing the Pacific into the ...(read more)

135AC/1

Literature of American Cultures:
Race and Ethnicity in American Cinema

MW 12-1 + discussion sections F 12-1

An introduction to critical thinking about race and ethnicity, focused on a select group of films produced between the 1910s and the 1970s. Themes include law and violence, kinship and miscegenation, captivity and rescue, passing and racial impers...(read more)

166AC/1

Special Topics in American Cultures:
Literatures of the Asian Diaspora in America

TTh 11-12:30

N31AC/1

Literature of American Cultures:
Democracy and Division

MTuTh 2-4

The United States Constitution refers to “We, the People,” as if it’s obvious who’s included in – and excluded from – that “we.” In fact, though, the reality has always been much messier. Fights over...(read more)

31AC/1

Literature of American Cultures:
Immigrant Inscriptions

TTh 3:30-5

This course will explore the varieties of ways in which migrants to the United States inscribe their experiences and subjectivities on the U.S. landscape. We will be interested in how narratives of race and ethnicity are constructed in the wake of...(read more)

166AC/1

Special Topics in American Cultures:
Race and Revision in Early America

TTh 2-3:30

In this course, we will read both historical and literary texts to explore how racial categories came into being in New World cultures and how these categories were tested, inhabited, and re-imagined by the human actors they sought to define.&nbsp...(read more)

135AC/1

Literature of American Cultures:
Race and Ethnicity in Hollywood Cinema

TTh 3:30-5 + M 6-9 films

An introduction to critical thinking about race and ethnicity, focused on a select group of films produced in the United States over the twentieth century. Major themes include law and violence, kinship and miscegenation, captivity and rescue, pas...(read more)

135AC/1

Literature of American Cultures:
Repression and Resistance

TTh 12:30-2

In this course we will analyze representations of repression and resistance in nine novels, three each from the following three cultural groups: Chicanos/Chicanas, African Americans, and Euro-Americans.  We will examine various forms of repre...(read more)

166AC/1

Special Topics in American Cultures:
Race and Performance

MW 3-4, + discussion sections F 3-4

                "Race is not only real, but also illusory. Not only is it common sense; it is also common...(read more)

N135/1

Literature of American Cultures:
Repression and Resistance

MTuTh 12-2

In this course we will analyze representations of repression and resistance in the fiction of three cultural groups: Chicanos/Chicanas, African Americans, and European Americans.  We will examine various forms of repression--social, physical,...(read more)

31AC/1

Literature of American Cultures:
Race and Ethnicity in Hollywood Cinema

MW 4-5:30 + film screenings Thurs. 7-10 P.M.

An introduction to critical thinking about race and ethnicity, focused on a select group of films produced in the United States between the 1910s and 1970s. Major themes include law and violence, kinship and miscegenation, passing and racial imper...(read more)

166AC/1

Special Topics in American Cultures:
Race and Revision in Early America

TTh 9:30-11

In this course, we will read both historical and literary texts to explore how racial categories came into being in New World cultures and how these categories were tested, inhabited, and re-imagined by the human actors they sought to define. Our ...(read more)

N135/1

Literature of American Cultures

MTuTh 4-6P

This course will analyze the categories of “disability,” “race” and “ethnicity” critically. “Disability” as an identity category is always raced, whether we attend to that intersection or not, and peo...(read more)

31AC/1

Literature of American Cultures:
Immigration, Ethnicity, and the Popular Imagination

MWF 1-2

Why, in United States culture, are the varieties of blackness understood differently from the varieties of whiteness? Why are categories of Asian identities parsed differently from either? And how do the histories of immigration to the US produce t...(read more)

166AC/1

Special Topics in American Cultures

TTh 2-3:30, + film screenings Mondays 7-10 P.M., 160 Kroeber

An introduction to critical thinking about race and ethnicity, focused on a select group of films produced in the United States between the 1920s and 1980s. Major themes include law and violence, kinship and miscegenation, passing and racial impers...(read more)

135AC/1

Literature of American Cultures:
Race and Performance in the 20th c. U.S.

TTh 12:30-2

165AC/1

Special Topics in American Cultures:
Mixed Fictions

MW 4-5:30

N135/1

Literature of American Cultures:
Race, Ethnicity, and Disability in American Cultures

MTuTh 4-6

This course will analyze the categories of “disability,” “race” and “ethnicity” critically. “Disability” as an identity category is always raced, whether we attend to that intersection or not, and peo...(read more)

N135/2

Literature of American Cultures:
Three California Cultures -- Literature, Film, and Comedy

MTuTh 4-6

This American Cultures course focuses on California representations of Chicana/o, Chinese American, and African American culture in literature and film (and some comedy!). Thanks to the media industry, which circulates its representations worldwide...(read more)

166AC/1

Special Topics in American Cultures: Race and Revision in Early America

TTh 11-12:30

150AC/1

Senior Seminar in American Cultures:
Fictions of Los Angeles

TTh 2-3:30

166AC/1

Special Topics in American Cultures:
Race and Performance in the 20th-Century U.S.

MWF 11-12

31AC/1

Literature of American Cultures:
Passing

TTh 12:30-2

135AC/1

Literature of American Cultures:
Native American, African American, and European American Literature, 1865-1917

MWF 10-11

135AC/1

Literature of American Cultures:
Race, Ethnicity, and Disability in American Cultures

TTh 2-3:30

135AC/1

Junior Coursework:
Literature of American Cultures: Race, Ethnicity, and Disability in American Cultures

MWF 1-2

135AC/1

Upper Division Coursework:
"Repression and Resistance

Gonzalez, Marcial"

MW 3-4, plus one hour of discussion section per week (all sections F 3-4)

165AC/1

Special Topics:
Special Topics in American Cultures: Captivity in America

TTh 2-3:30

165AC/1

Special Topics:
Special Topics in American Cultures: Captivity in America

TTh 11-12:30

135AC/1

Upper Division Coursework:
Literature of American Cultures: Literature of Resistance and Repression

MWF 11-12

31AC/1

Lower Division Coursework:
Literature of American Cultures: Exceptional Bodies --Disability, Race, Ethnicity and Medicine in American Cultures

TTh 12:30-2

135AC/1

Upper Division Coursework:
Literature of American Cultures: American Fictions of Self-Formation

TTh 12:30-2

166AC/1

Special Topics in American Cultures:
Racial Modernity

TTh 12:30-2

135AC/1

Upper Division Coursework:
Literature of American Cultures: Visibility and Invisibility in 20th-Century American Narrative Literature

MWF 12-1