AMST 203:  Popular Culture in America

         Welcome to the Summer 2004 online version of AMST 203, Popular Culture in America.  We shall be exploring various dimensions of the production and consumption of popular culture practices, both historical and contemporary, in the United States.  One simple premise of this course is that whether conceived of as peoples' systems of shared meanings, attitudes, and values or as the texts and practices of everyday life, popular culture performances and artifacts are "made."  Popular culture forms thus reveal much about who past generations think they were, who we think we are, and who we think others are and were.  A second premise underlying this course is that in their popular culture activities, people create culture and society.  In other words, in practices such as music, sports, reading, TV watching, and more -- even t-shirt wearing! -- people actively engage and re-interpret cultural messages and values, economic activity, institutions, and the very social relationships that underlay local, national, and international communities.  With these premises in mind, we shall explore a range of popular culture practices, both past and present, and, hopefully, leave this course thinking differently about both the construction and the significance of popular culture.

Syllabus url:   http://www.wam.umd.edu/~nlstruna/AMST203sum04syllabus.html
WebChat url:   http://www.otal.umd.edu/webchat/sum04/amst203.html

         This course is online, except for book readings, and all discussions, assignments, and thinking exercises (my alternatives to lectures) are provided for asynchronous involvement.  This means that each student can read the assigned chapters and articles, work through the thinking exercises and questions, and contribute to the chats any time of day or night!  There are set dates for when projects and quizzes are to be emailed to me, so please read through the course requirements and grading section carefully.
 

         Summer session I is a six-weeks term, and I have laid out the topics and required readings by week.  You need to get the three books and follow the syllabus (or links at the bottom of this page) for access to weekly thinking exercises and questions, other online material, and each week's chats.  Please check the online syllabus often; it will change, as I upload thinking exercises, links to online sites, and additional information.  Updated links for the thinking exercises, which will incorporate questions about the readings, will usually appear at the beginning of a given week.  What will not change on the syllabus are reading assignments in the books and the nature of the requirements.  You will also get more information about projects/papers on the requirements page later.  I will send out quizzes via coursemail, and to be included in this mailing list, your correct email must be registered through Testudo.  You can submit your quiz responses and the projects to me via email.  Once the summer term begins, weekly webchats can be accessed at http://www.otal.umd.edu/webchat/sum04/amst203.html.

         I know that I shall miss meeting students face-to-face.  For me, getting to know people has always been a big part of the fun of teaching.  So, I encourage each of you, if you so desire and are physically on campus, to set up an appointment.  I'd like to meet you -- one-on-one -- and, besides, personal conversations can be very helpful to you and to me.  If you want to talk in person, just let me know, and we'll try to find a common time.  I'll generally be on campus weekly on either Monday or Tuesday.  The other three days are my state archives research days.

          I hope each of you succeeds in this course and that you learn a good bit about popular culture as an arena of serious academic study.  To help you think about "doing" this course and how an online environment may, for you, present different opportunities and challenges than a traditional classroom, here are some suggestions and some of my working assumptions.

• Keep up!!!  If you haven't done a UMCP summer session course, let alone one online, you may be surprised to find out how easily you can get behind.

 
• Use the scheduling freedom apparent in this online course wisely!  There's nobody looking over your shoulder (or your desk) to remind you that something's due or that you should be reading a particular chapter or set of pages.

 
• This is a 3-credit course that is the equivalent to a traditional full semester course.  This means you'll do essentially the same "amount" of work in six weeks that you'd do in fifteen weeks!  In effect, semester reading assignments get put into fewer and denser topics.  What does differ are the project assignments.  The compressed time frame virtually forces me to define projects/papers differently than I would in a regular semester, and it makes you complete project/paper 2 (which is a term project) in a much shorter span of time.

 
• Check the syllabus at least a couple of times a week.   It will change, and you are responsible for the thinking exercises, announcements, etc. that I add to it!!!

 
• Study groups can be helpful, if you're able to meet with other students.  Please use the first week chat to raise the possibility if you're interested, and all of you who might be interested can organize something via email.

 
• If you have questions, please do ask them!!  If you have a question about a reading that you don't understand or have some thought you'd like to contribute, feel free to put it on webchat.  You can also ask questions of me via email.  No question about the material -- no matter how small or "dumb" you may think it is -- should go unasked.  Consider this, too:  when you ask your question, you're likely doing someone (or others) in the class a favor -- because he/she had the same question and didn't ask it!!!  Also, I can help you if I know what it is that you don't know or understand, but I can't help you if you keep your "unknowns" to yourself.