CCS Course Offerings

Course Description:
Introduction to theories of culture, race, and gender and the relations among them. Open to ACS, ETHN, POPC, and WS majors and minors or by permission of instructor.

Course Description:
Introduces students to modes of qualitative research commonly used in the fields of American culture studies, ethnic studies, popular culture, and women's studies. Focus on data gathering processes as well as data analysis. Open to ACS, ETHN, POPC, and WS majors and minors or by permission of instructor. Junior status required.

Course Description:
Regional, ethnic and economic aspects of American national experience as reflected in verbal, visual and material artifacts. Culture theory and models used to examine selected topics and problems. Required of all American culture studies majors.

Course Description:
Interdisciplinary exploration of race, ethnicity, class, gender and sexual orientation in the United States, emphasizing imaginative expressive forms, such as fiction, poetry, film and the visual arts.

Course Description:
This class focuses on popular music of the “digital era,” or roughly the 1980s on––the time when digital technologies were widely adopted in both production and consumption of music, culminating in our current landscape of downloading and streaming. We will cover a variety of topics, including: what technologies were actually used, and to what effect; how the music industry reacted (or didn’t) to these changes; how laws and copyright set the context for these reactions; how the production (and thus the sound) of music changed; and how the consumption of music (that is, practices of listening) changed.

Coure Descripion:
The course gives an examination into four of rock music's most prominent subcultures including rap, reggae, punk and heavy metal music.  This course gives a historical breakdown of these four genres and examines their cultural impact on popular music, popular culture and humanity. A series of films,music/sound recordings, websites and other media related to the genres will be analyzed from a historical and cultural point of view. Crosslisted with POPC 3800/1001/12751.

Coure Description:
This course is an introduction to the study of the comic books, graphic novels, and sequential art and storytelling in American popular culture.  It shall introduce students to some of the major topics, themes, creators, characters, and issues that have led to the creation of and continued success of the superhero genre.  We shall explore the role of heroism in our society and concepts dealing with race, ethnicity, gender, politics, and more as they are presented within the superhero context.  This class will rely on a mixture of lecture and discussion of the material we are reading.  Students are encouraged to actively participate in our discussion and analysis.  The emphasis of the course will be to get students to think critically about the issues that are raised in the readings and class discussions.  We shall consider why this genre, which was once viewed merely as juvenile, disposable “literature,” has had such a profound impact upon our popular culture.with POPC 3700/1001/17233

Coure Description:
Three centuries of changing American attitudes and actions toward the natural environment, the rise of the conservation movement, and the development of an ecological perspective with HIST 3385/1001/13143.

Course Description:
This gateway course to the field of Ethnic Studies introduces students to interdisciplinary analyses of race and ethnicity in the U.S. It explores the social construction and ideologies of race in colonial conquest, slavery, and immigration, and the intersections of race with other hierarchies such as class, gender, and sexuality. Approved for Distance Education. Students cannot take ETHN 1010 and ETHN 1920 or 1930 on the topic "Introduction to Ethnic Studies."

Course Description:
Latina/o experience in the United States: cultures, life experiences, and the limited political, education, socio-economic opportunities of this minority. Students cannot take ETHN 1100 and ETHN 1920 or 1930 on the topic "Introduction to Latina/o Studies."

Course Description:
An introduction to the history of black studies, tracing it from its origins in the social, cultural, and political struggles for human and civil rights to the various intellectual currents which have defined the field as a discipline. It places special emphasis on the United States but also considers key authors, historical figures, and social movements from the black Diaspora. Students cannot take ETHN 1200 and ETHN 1920 or 1930 on the topic "Introduction to African American Studies."

Course Description:
Similarities and differences of the various components of the Asian American category with reference to their individual histories and collective situation from the 19th century to the present. Students cannot take ETHN 1300 and ETHN 1920 or 1930 on the topics "Introduction to Asian American Studies."

Course Description:
An interdisciplinary examination of the Native American Diaspora in the context of European discovery and conquest. A general overview and comparative analysis of the diverse native people and cultures of North America, effects of colonialism and U.S. policy on Native American communities, federal Indian law and policy, and cultural negotiation. Students cannot take ETHN 1600 and ETHN 1920 or 1930 on the topic "Introduction to Native American Studies."

Course Description:
This class offers a broad introduction to creative and critical writings by writers from Africa and the African Diaspora. The readings were either written in English or translated into English. Topics under study include the Harlem Renaissance, the Negritude and Pan-Africanist movements, cultural hybridization, elements of narrative in African and African Diaspora literature including history, culture, race, class, and gender. This course fulfills the BGP requirements for the Humanities and the Arts as well as the International Perspectives. Combined with ROCS 2200/1001/16815

Course Description:
In this course on African American cultural traditions we will examine African American culture—and its production and the products that have emerged—and draw connections to how these forms of expression served as “creative responses” to the historical moment.

We will examine cultural texts in various forms (film, images, poetry, music, biography and autobiography) created by or about African Americans.  This course is designed to take a chronological and thematic approach in its examination of African American Cultural traditions, often revisiting new forms of expression that have changed to respond to a particular moment. We will also consider gender, class, and region in our analysis of cultural traditions.  For this semester, the theme we will be exploring is “I am not your problem?”

Course Description:
Native American Folklore  - Folk traditions reflect cultural identity, as well as mythic and historical experiences. This class explores Native American beliefs, oral stories, games, dances, celebrations, and traditional art forms, drawn from different tribes and regions to better understand Indigenous ideology, cultural practices, and ethnic diversity. Combined with POPC3250/1001/17232

Course Description:
This course offers a focused examination of racial, ethnic, and gendered representations as they have appeared within the context of popular culture and mainstream media in the United States. It critically investigates the history of a wide range of stereotypes within the context of theatre, film, music, television, and radio, analyzing the social and ideological processes and practices that have given them such widespread currency since the nation's founding.

Course Description:
This course explores how race, gender, class, sexuality, and religion intersect and converge in shaping the lives of women of color in the United States. It emphasizes the diversity of experience of women of color as they resist and contest the material and cultural constraints that limit them. The course also focuses on women of color as agents of social and political change, and provides perspectives on the ways in which women of color shape and define American institutions and society.
Combined course with WS3050/1001/11522 and WS3050/1002/17251

Course Description:
The course examines the transborder culture of Mexico and U.S/Mexico Borderlands (La Frontera) in the 20th century, emphasizing community, identity, migration, politics, and other facets of the culture. The course will utilize interdisciplinary methodologies to contextualize the transborder culture of La Frontera.

Course Description:
This class will examine the evolution of the African American image in film over the last century. We will pay particular attention to the role of Black directors, writers, and performers in challenging popular white views of Blackness and using film to highlight larger issues around race. Across different genres and time periods, we will analyze the ways that film drew upon and shaped Black culture in the United States.

Course Description:
Through sociological, anthropological, fictional, and theoretical writings on and by African women, we examine some historical, cultural, national, and global forces and how they operate to impact women's contemporary experiences in various African countries/societies. We also study the ways African women have influenced and influence various forces in their societies and elsewhere. We conclude by looking at gender as an effective tool for analysis of socio-economic processes and matters in national and global contexts. Combined with WS3440/101W/15865

Course Description:
Examines the intersections of race and gender within global and national contexts of indigenous societies. Women's lives in indigenous societies are examined in relation to their historical and contemporary realities. Combined with WS3000/1011/13716

Course Description:
This is course examines the social-cultural, political, and economic transformation in Africa during the period of European invasion, conquest, and colonization in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Selected themes such as African traditional institutions, the effects and abolition of the slave trade, legitimate commerce, European colonial invasion, African resistance, imposition of colonial rule, rise of nationalism, restoration of independence as well as other issues and problems in colonial Africa, will be explored. Besides introducing the students to the study of Africa, this course will review the impact of both the pre-colonial and colonial experiences and the subsequent political independence in shaping the structures of modern Africa. Combined with HIST4027/101W/17152 and HIST 5820/501W/17156

Course Description:
In the recent past, immigration stories related to refugees, the undocumented, the DACA recipients, and labor shortages among the highly skilled and low wage workers as a result of immigration policy have drawn attention to multiple facets of contemporary U.S. immigration. This class on contemporary migration draws attention to some of the above issues in depth. The course begins with an introduction to the theories of migration and subsequently provides a brief overview of the U.S. immigration policies, particularly the Hart-Cellar Act of 1965, and the problems associated with it. Throughout the course, students will explore issues related to migration from Central American nations, which send the largest number of migrants to the U.S. Students will examine the role of migrant labor within specific industries. In addition, the course draws attention to contemporary immigration to Ohio and the various local/ regional initiatives welcoming immigrants to Ohio. Students will also look at the challenges migrants face. Overall, the course helps students understand the connections between local, national and global developments, and the ways decolonization, global economy, and transnationalism shapes immigration in contemporary times.
Throughout the semester, students will read academic articles, migrant narratives, newspaper stories, documentaries, and reports on specific aspects of immigration. Students will analyze immigration and Census data. Students will also be encouraged to contextualize immigration in relation to their own family, community, neighborhood, and the region.  

Course Description:
This course will examine the ways in which ethnicity and race, as signifiers of difference and power, have been a critical means by which a sense of self and belonging in new and native places have been negotiated, challenged, and/or recreated. We will explore ethnicity and race in multiple and shifting contexts—at home and elsewhere, in journeys in-between, and during periods of national and global crisis. We are interested in the histories and global processes— such as slavery and colonialism—that shape or inform ethnic and racialized identities; the fluidity of identities; conceptualizations of home and homeland; the ways in which cultures travel; the contests over "authentic” identities; and the creolizing processes by which new communities are formed “at home” and elsewhere.

Course Description:
Through the lens of Latin@ gender and sexuality, we will address the role of NAFTA in relation to immigration, the rise of maquilas in border towns like Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, the rampant exploitation of and violence against female laborers, as well as strategic and creative manifestations of resistance. Through critical engagement with scholarly texts and film, we will explore “fronteras alternativas” or the idea of alternative borders, in relation to narco cultura, machism@, and queer Latin@ visibilities. Combined with WS4550/1001/17259

Course Description:
Basic theories and approaches to the scholarly study of popular culture, including various media, folklore, and everyday life.

Course Description:
Some of the ways in which mass media (TV, film, recording industry, print, radio) have affected modern American culture. Media relationships and interactions.

Course Description:
Basic theories of approaches to 20th century and 21st century African-American popular culture. Trace ways black popular culture has shaped and is shaped by national and global contexts. Examine relationship of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class. Provide an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the significance of black popular culture in contemporary U.S. and global societies. Approved for distance education.

Course Description:
Study and collecting of folklore; ballads, myths, tall tales, heroes, folk medicines, superstitions, proverbs and crafts.

Course Description:
This spring 2023 course, POPC 2310 Black Women, American Television, and (In)Visibility, will focus on the images and experiences of African-American women and girls on American television from 1950 to the present. Using the theme of invisibility/visibility, the course will explore the presence and absence of Black women on-screen and off-screen as reflective of their social status in American society. This course will be taught by Dr. Angela Nelson (anelson@bgsu.edu) on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4-5:15PM.

Course Description:
This course is an introduction to the topic of popular film. From cinema’s earliest days, movies delighted, entertained, dismayed, or sometimes shocked audiences – but always reflected something of the world in which they were made and the people who made them. Popular films are artifacts of their time and studying these films from a cultural and critical perspective offers students the opportunity to be part film critic, part cultural studies scholar, and part historian. The purpose of this course is to explore the development of film as a medium that incorporated current events, technological advances, social movements, cultural trends, and often critiques into reflections of society. This purpose will be fulfilled through lecture, discussion, the assigned materials, and film viewing. It should be noted that some of the material in this course may be adult in nature. This course is offered in both fall and spring semesters.

Course Description:
Relationship between music world and listening-viewing audience; musical styles, trends in popular music, popular performers and entertainers and what they reveal about popular culture; appropriate music listening. Approved for Distance Education.

Course Description:
Native American Folklore  - Folk traditions reflect cultural identity, as well as mythic and historical experiences. This class explores Native American beliefs, oral stories, games, dances, celebrations, and traditional art forms, drawn from different tribes and regions to better understand Indigenous ideology, cultural practices, and ethnic diversity. Combined with ETHN 3000/1001/17062

Course Description:
This course is an exploration and examination of American mythologies on film. Myths of many types fuel our connection to our country’s history, national identity, and prevailing cultural narratives. In this course we will identify and interrogate several of them. These will range from tall tales to myths about our nation’s foundations, expansion, and continued influence. The purpose of this course is to explore some of the many myths of our country, their origins, and their celebration or challenging on film. This purpose will be fulfilled through lecture, discussion, reading the assigned materials, and film viewing. It should be noted that some of the material in this course may be adult in nature.

Course Description:
In popular imagination and discourse, youth culture is both demonized and glamorized. While society makes teenagers the focus of concern, alarm, and scrutiny, it rarely takes their voices seriously. In this course, we will study the roles, images, representations, and experiences of youth in the context of contemporary America, taking historical and international perspectives into account as well.  How do media, institutions, and the general public perceive, constrain, and exploit teenagers? How do young people use, modify, and create cultural traditions—and how do they incorporate and reflect the popular media in their traditions? As youth have increasingly represented themselves through emerging technologies, how have the dynamics of power and communication changed? What ethnographic tools and strategies do researchers use to discover and better understand phenomena in youth culture?

Course Description:
The course gives an examination into four of rock music's most prominent subcultures including rap, reggae, punk and heavy metal music.  This course gives a historical breakdown of these four genres and examines their cultural impact on popular music, popular culture and humanity. A series of films,music/sound recordings, websites and other media related to the genres will be analyzed from a historical and cultural point of view. Combined with ACS 3000/1003/17055

Course Description:
This course will unpack the Bollywood film industry over the past century. As popular culture, Bollywood has formulas, narrative strategies, genres, and stock characters that differ from those we see in Hollywood. By examining the cultural context in which the films are created and consumed, students will learn about how the Indian state and dominant culture have affected what is seen on screen during different eras. Gender expectations, caste assumptions, and religious underpinnings have informed the films created in this popular industry. We focus mainly on Hindi-language films out of Mumbai, but will also address regional and diasporic films. In addition to the context and content of Bollywood films, the students will learn about the economics and processes of the industry including discussions of financing, unions, and studios. In addition to readings, students will be required to watch a number of films. Combined with ASIA 4700/1001/16071

Course Description:
This course will teach you about the influence of comedy on American culture. We’ll look at representations of race, class, sexuality, and gender in many different types of comedy, from the earliest sitcoms to recent stand-up, mockumentaries, and digital series. We’ll be asking what makes comedy funny or unfunny, and when is it helpful or harmful in addressing prejudice?

Course Description:
with WS4000/1002/17265

Course Description:
Interdisciplinary survey of the new scholarship on women. Emphasis on the interconnectedness of gender, class and ethnicity in women's experiences and viewpoints. Approved for distance education.

Course Description:
Examines the intersections of race and gender within global and national contexts of indigenous societies. Women's lives in indigenous societies are examined in relation to their historical and contemporary realities. Combined with ETHN 3610/1001/17064

Course Description:
This course explores how race, gender, class, sexuality, and religion intersect and converge in shaping the lives of women of color in the United States. It emphasizes the diversity of experience of women of color as they resist and contest the material and cultural constraints that limit them. The course also focuses on women of color as agents of social and political change, and provides perspectives on the ways in which women of color shape and define American institutions and society. Credit allowed only for one of ETHN 3050 or WS 3050.
Combined with ETHN 3050/1001/11254 and ETHN 3050/1002/17063

Course Description:
Through sociological, anthropological, fictional, and theoretical writings on and by African women, we examine some historical, cultural, national, and global forces and how they operate to impact women's contemporary experiences in various African countries/societies. We also study the ways African women have influenced and influence various forces in their societies and elsewhere. We conclude by looking at gender as an effective tool for analysis of socio-economic processes and matters in national and global contexts. Combined with ETHN 3440/101W/15849.

Course Description:
Histories of Queer Activism will explore two key questions:  (1) What constitutes activism and queer activism in particular? (2) What results have different activist strategies had in changing political and cultural practices?   In considering these questions focus will be primarily on U.S. cultural practices.

Course Description:
How is language gendered? Raced? Classed? How are the experiences of those marginalized by the dominant culture represented within the dominant culture’s language? How do those misrepresented or under-represented in dominant cultural discourse respond from empowered spaces? This multi-genre course will investigate how language both constructs and negotiates identity.  The range of novelists, graphic novelists, storytellers, poets, and performance artists may include Carmen Machado, Leslie Marmon Silko, Toni Morrison, Louise Erdrich, Alice Walker, Alison Bechdel, Alana Troyana (aka “Carmelita Tropicana”), Kate Bornstein, Jeanette Winterson, Adrienne Rich, Natasha Trethewey, and Suheir Hammad, to name a few. We will consider critical perspectives from 1970s French feminist theorists (Cixous, Wittig, etc.) to feminist epistemologies (Collins, Anzaldúa, Minh-ha, etc.) to postmodern “disidentifications” (Muñoz). With ENG 4230/1001/17131 and ENG 4230H

Course Description:
with POPC 4600/1003/17235

Course Description:
Through the lens of Latin@ gender and sexuality, we will address the role of NAFTA in relation to immigration, the rise of maquilas in border towns like Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, the rampant exploitation of and violence against female laborers, as well as strategic and creative manifestations of resistance. Through critical engagement with scholarly texts and film, we will explore “fronteras alternativas” or the idea of alternative borders, in relation to narco cultura, machism@, and queer Latin@ visibilities. Combined with ETHN 4550/1003/17235

Course Description:
Interdisciplinary exploration of the complex cultural, ethical, and political issues surrounding human reproduction in the U.S. and globally, emphasizing the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, race, and socioeconomic status. We will be learning and discussing the social dimensions of reproductive health, including menstruation, pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, contraception, STI/STDs, sexual pleasure and problems, menopause.  Our course will be center the experiences of marginalized populations, including women of color, immigrants, LGBTQI people, and people with disabilities.