2008-2009 Catalog - Virginia Wesleyan College

HISTORY113Marx, including August Bebel, Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg,and Geog Lukacs. Includes an analysis ofsocialist/communist feminism, aesthetics, literary theory,and home furnishing. Investigates the historical applicationof socialist theory to the political world from the midnineteenthcentury, to the Russian Revolution, to thecollapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe in the1990s. Prerequisite: sophomore/junior/senior status.Offered in selected Winter Sessions.400 The Civil Rights Movement (3)A seminar consisting of intensive reading and discussionof selected classic and cutting-edge scholarship on theAfrican-American freedom struggles of the 20th century.We work from the premise that the roots of the Civil RightsMovement stretch back long before the 1954 Brown v.Board of Education decision and that its achievements andcontinuing struggles remain central to understanding therole of race in American society today. Topics of studyinclude the early campaigns of the NAACP; thesignificance of the Great Depression and World War II inaccelerating the struggle for racial justice; the role ofgrassroots activism in the 1950s and 1960s; civil rightsefforts outside of the South; and the interwovenrelationship of the “Civil Rights” and “Black Power”movements. This is a reading and writing intensive historyseminar. Prerequisites: senior status and either HIST 113,114, or 115.405 “Born to Shop?” The Historyof Modern Consumer Culturein the U.S. (3)(I)Is the American Dream for sale? The history ofconsumer culture in the United States during the 20thcentury is examined. It is often said that we live in aconsumer society, but seldom do we stop to consider whatthis actually means or how it came to be. In tracing thishistory, scholars grapple with such questions as: How hasconsumerism helped to shape American culture in the 20thcentury? Has consumer culture primarily been oppressiveor liberating? How does consumer culture shape and reflectpersonal and group identity, whether based on gender, class,ethnicity, race, or nationality? These and other questions areexamined through readings, films, and primary sources.Prerequisite: senior status or consent. Offered spring ofeven-numbered years.412 America Since 1920 (3)Political, economic, and social conditions duringprosperity and depression, war and peace. Emphasis onconflict and adjustment of traditional American concepts toan urbanized and mechanized society. Prerequisite: seniorstatus. Offered fall of even-numbered years.415 Diseases, Pirates, and Slavesin the Atlantic World (3)(H) WIntroduces students to the major topics and themesarising from the innumerable connections that existedbetween peoples who crisscrossed the Atlantic Oceanbetween 1500 and 1800. Students examine topics such asencounter, environment, migration, piracy, slavery, andrevolution in Africa, Europe, North America, and SouthAmerica. Prerequisite: senior status or consent. Offeredspring of even-numbered years.417 History of the Old South (3)An intensive study of life, politics, culture, economics,gender, and race throughout the different areas of theAmerican South between the early colonial era and thecoming of the Civil War. Covers, among many other topics,cultural and political developments of life in the uniquecontext of the Antebellum South; the experience of thefrontier, mountain, Tidewater, piedmont, and Gulf Coast;the complex relationship between Black, White and NativeAmericans; the notion of Southern honor; the interplay ofsectionalism, radicalism, Southern nationalism, andexpansionism; and the experience of plantation life formaster and slave. This advanced-level class also putsconsiderable effort into analyzing an array of differenthistoriographical interpretations and schools of thought onthe history of the Old South. Prerequisite: senior status orconsent. Offered fall of odd-numbered years.418 History of the New South (3) (H) WAn intensive study, discussion, and evaluation of life,politics, culture, economics, gender, and the race questionthroughout the many different areas of the American Southbetween the end of Reconstruction and the end of WorldWar II. We will cover, among many other topics, theshifting legacies of the Civil War and of Reconstruction, theJim Crow segregation system, New South ideology, and thelife and working experiences of the people of the South. Asthis is an advanced-level class, we also put considerableeffort into analyzing an array of different historiographicalinterpretations and schools of thought on the history,meaning, and memory of the New South. Prerequisite:three semester hours in history and senior status or consent.425 Brother Can You Spare A Paintbrush?The Arts Projects of the WPA (1) (3) (I)(Winter Session)During the 1930s the U.S. federal government spent500 million dollars on the arts. These New Deal initiatives,a small part of the Works Progress Administration’s effortsto alleviate massive Depression-era unemployment, fundedvisual artists, writers, musicians, directors, and actors.Thousands of creative projects and administrativedocuments related to WPA arts are available digitally inonline archives. Taking advantage of these sources, studentsembark upon intensive research and analysis of the artsprograms of the WPA, examining these projects’ cultural,social, and political significance in the context of one of themost dynamic and fascinating periods in modern Americanhistory. As a major portion of this course, students alsocreate New Deal-style art, individually and in groups,which is presented to the campus community at the end ofthe Winter Session. Prerequisite: senior status. Offered inselected Winter Sessions.