A2BK_SDUS History of the United States Seminar

Faculty of Education
Spring 2009
Extent and Intensity
0/0/24. 2 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Zdeněk Janík, M.A., Ph.D. (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Zdeněk Janík, M.A., Ph.D.
Department of English Language and Literature – Faculty of Education
Contact Person: Jana Popelková
Prerequisites (in Czech)
A2BP_SOZK Complex Exam || A2BK_SOZK Complex Exam || AJ2BP_SOZK Qualifying Exam
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The main topic of the course is Race and Membership in American History - membership not only as a sense of belonging to a group, but also as freedom and right to belong and to participate so as to live a full and decent life. In our course we are going to see how millions of Americans were fighting for this dream.
Main objectives can be summarized as follows:
1. To support students in a process of personalizing history and relating it to their own cultures and everyday experiences.
2. To focus students learning on a variety of perspectives on historical issues and to critically explore differing points of view on these issues.
3. To provoke students into questioning stereotypes and challenging racist attitudes.
4. To support students in their development of affirmative understanding of ethnic and cultural groups.
Syllabus
  • 1.Introduction: perception of history
  • 2.From Pre-Columbian to Colonial America
  • 3.Slavery
  • 4.The period of reconstruction
  • 5.Race and Democracy: scientific justification of racism
  • 6.Immigration
  • 7.Scientific Justification: From Darwin to Eugenics
  • 8.Eugenics and the power of testing
  • 9.The US Imperialism: White Man's Burden
  • 10.From the Roaring Economy to the Depression and New Deal
  • 11.The Cold war
  • 12.Fight for freedom and civil rights
Literature
  • Race and Membership in American History: Eugenics Movement. Massachusetts: Facing History and Ourselves Foundation, Inc., 2002. ISBN 0-9615841-9-K
  • CAMPBELL, Neil and Alasdair KEAN. American cultural studies : an introduction to American culture. 1st pub. London: Routledge, 1997, viii, 311. ISBN 041512798X. info
  • GORN, Elliot. Constructing the American Past. Harper-Collins, 1995. info
Assessment methods
Seminar; class attendance and participation, on-line tasks. a case study from American History.
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: every week.
Information on the extent and intensity of the course: 24 hodin.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2008.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/ped/spring2009/A2BK_SDUS