The course explores the guiding principles, major institutions, and national politics of the American political order. The Founders' view of liberal democracy and of the three branches of our government (presented in the Federalist Papers) will provide the basis for consideration of the modern Supreme Court, presidency, bureaucracy, Congress, news media, and political parties and elections. The course concludes with Tocqueville's broad overview of American democracy and its efforts to reconcile liberty and equality. The themes of the course will be illustrated by references to current political issues, events, and personalities. Prerequisite: sophomore standing or permission of the instructor. Offered every year. This course is the same as PSCI 220D, listed in the political science curriculum.

The course explores the guiding principles, major institutions, and national politics of the American political order. The Founders' view of liberal democracy and of the three branches of our government (presented in the Federalist Papers) will provide the basis for consideration of the modern Supreme Court, presidency, bureaucracy, Congress, news media, and political parties and elections. The course concludes with Tocqueville's broad overview of American democracy and its efforts to reconcile liberty and equality. The themes of the course will be illustrated by references to current political issues, events, and personalities. Prerequisite: sophomore standing or permission of the instructor. Offered every year. This course is the same as PSCI 220D, listed in the political science curriculum.

This course will introduce students to the major theoretical writings about education--Dewey, Kozol, Ravitch and Freire. We will inquire about the "global achievement gap" and "cultural literacy"and interview teachers from a broad range of educational backgrounds--public, private, parochial, charter. The seminar will meet weekly with students engaged during the week in Moodle discussions about issues raised in the reading. Students will also have a high school experience in Cleveland, with an introductory day during October break and a ten day residency in early January. Credit only for attending all components of the course. Permission of the Instructor. Limited enrollment. Junior standing.

America is the great, ongoing experiment of modernity, a nation
thoroughly structured by all that is considered new in the Western world: liberal democracy,
science, technology, industry, capitalism. The colonization of America by Europe led to our
nation's status as a laboratory for political, social and artistic theories which otherwise may never
have been attempted. Although the USA is only a small part of the American continent, and there
is a long and rich human history that predates Europe's awareness of it, the focus of a
disproportionate amount of attention from Europe is on our relatively short history as a nation.
From the very beginning of the process, however, Europeans have viewed us and our country
with profound ambivalence. On the one hand, we are the territory upon which the dreams and
aspirations of the boldest visionaries can develop. On the other hand, Europeans justifiably fear
what can happen in a society which is so unencumbered by the authority exerted by previous
generations. The fear of America as a Frankenstein nation without the soul of tradition has been
the preoccupation of many of Europe's leading intellectuals over the last two hundred years. With every passing day, there are more and more others looking at us with ambivalence. As recent history has shown, America is not just a European obsession. Our ties to Europe have weakened in the last few decades, and we now find ourselves in a more multilateral geopolitical environment. The attack on the United States on September 11, 2001 was a brutal awakening for most Americans to the hostility that exists in many parts of the world, not only against our foreign policy, but against our very identity as a people. Is such hostility related to the European ambivalence toward America, or is it a new phenomenon, with separate historical and intellectual roots? This course will be conducted as a seminar. Each week, we will examine texts and films that center on a particular theme of European-American intellectual relations, the emerging complicated relationship between Islam and America, and the longstanding tension with Latin America. While this course will teach us much about our American identity by looking at our society through the eyes of others, it will also teach us as much if not more about these others themselves. Among the texts of European writers included in the seminar are works by Alexis de Tocqueville, Jean Baudrillard, Simone de Beauvoir, Bernard-Henri Levy. The texts of Middle Eastern writers include works by Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Sayyid Qutb among the Latin American authors are Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. We will also view and discuss several films by directors such as Wim Wenders, Aki Kaurismaki, Jean-Luc Godard, and Charlie Chaplin. No prerequisites. This course can count towards the major in French (Modern Languages or Area Studies) under certain conditions to be arranged with Prof. Guiney. Enrollment limited.

How long has diversity been a concern of higher education? Does diversity proceed from the top down in an organization, or from the bottom up? How diverse is current -day Kenyon compared with the College of the past? This seminar will seek answers to these and other questions through readings in the history of American higher education and the particular history of Kenyon, along with readings in the histories of exclusion and inclusion of minority groups – among them African and Asian Americans; gays, lesbians, and the transgendered; Jews and Muslims; Latinos; the physically handicapped – here at the College and on other campuses. Students will make extensive use of the Kenyon archives and other offices. For their final projects , students will conduct oral histories and research in order to develop a clear picture of the history of diversity in a specific segment of the College or the local community.

The Honors Program in American studies entails a two-semester sequence of independent work integral to the elective-study program in the major, taken during the senior year. Prerequisite: permission of the American studies faculty.

This seminar will probe specific problems in modern European and contemporary art. Focusing upon a theme, artist, or movement, the course will provide a forum for the in-depth study of the methods of art historical research. Discussion of weekly readings, classroom presentations, and research papers will be required. Topics taught under this course number in the past: Twentieth Century Women in the Visual Arts; Modern Sculpture Seminar; Modernism/Postmodernism; Women and Modernism; All the World's a Fair: The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. Prerequisite: ARHS 111 or equivalent.

This course is a thematic survey of United States history from European conquest through the Civil War. Through lectures, discussions, and readings, students will examine the nation's colonial origin, the impact of European conquest on the native peoples, the struggle for national independence, and the formation of a national government. The second half of the course will focus on the making of a modern democratic nation. Topics will include the expansion of the market economy, chattel slavery, and the factory system. The course will also examine early urbanization, the rise of egalitarianism, westward expansion, the Second Great Awakening, the first women's movements, and the abolition of slavery. The course concludes with an account of the Civil War and the Lincoln administration. No prerequisites. Fulfills history major and minor premodern requirement. This course is the same as AMST 101D, listed in the American Studies Program.

In August 1619, "twenty and odd negars" were traded for food by the crew of a Dutch sailing vessel. That commercial transaction represented the first recorded incident of a permanent African presence in America. Over the next 146 years, this population of Africans would grow to create an African-American population of over four million. The overwhelming majority of this population was enslaved. This course will be an examination of those enslaved millions and their free black fellows--who they were, how they lived, and how the nation was transformed by their presence and experience. Particular attention will be paid to the varieties of African-American experience and how slavery and the presence of peoples of African descent shaped American social, political, intellectual, and economic systems. Students will be presented with a variety of primary and secondary source materials; timely and careful reading of these sources will prepare students for class discussions. Students will be confronted with conflicting bodies of evidence and challenged to analyze these issues and arrive at conclusions for themselves. Fulfills the history major and minor premodern requirement.

This course will examine the circumstances and factors leading to World War II and to the U.S. entry into the war. The course will focus on the disruption of the world order through the rise of German, Japanese, and Italian imperialism. The course will analyze the effect of the worldwide economic depression of the 1930s. Other topics include the military strategies and conduct of the war, its impact on the home front, and its long-term effects on U.S. foreign policy.

As the dividing line between "early modern" and "modern" European history, the French Revolution has often stood as the moment when the Old Regime was definitely brought low by social change. As a period of intense centralization and nationalism, the French Revolution has also been seen as accelerating political developments already underway. This advanced seminar will explore both interpretations of this definitive event in French and European history by asking whether the French Revolution constitutes a break or a continuation with what came before. Utilizing primary and secondary sources - including literature, art, and film - we will explore key developments of the French Revolution from its origins in the eighteenth century to the fall of Napoleon's Empire. Topics will include the Enlightenment, the Terror, the Haitian Revolution, revolutionary culture, gender and sexuality, and Napoleon. This course is recommended for students who have taken at least one course in European history, French, or eighteenth-century intellectual history or political thought. Students without such background are welcome to enroll, but should contact the instructor. This course fulfills the history department premodern distribution requirement and the history department distribution for America/Europe.

The course explores the guiding principles, major institutions, and national politics of the American political system. The Founders' view of liberal democracy and of the three branches of our government (presented in the Federalist Papers) will provide the basis for consideration of the modern Supreme Court, presidency, bureaucracy, Congress, news media, and political parties and elections. The course concludes with Tocqueville's broad overview of American democracy and its efforts to reconcile liberty and equality. The themes of the course will be illustrated by references to current political issues, events, and personalities. Prerequisite: sophomore standing or PSCI 101Y. Offered every year. This course is the same as AMST 200D, listed in the American Studies Program.

The course explores the guiding principles, major institutions, and national politics of the American political system. The Founders' view of liberal democracy and of the three branches of our government (presented in the Federalist Papers) will provide the basis for consideration of the modern Supreme Court, presidency, bureaucracy, Congress, news media, and political parties and elections. The course concludes with Tocqueville's broad overview of American democracy and its efforts to reconcile liberty and equality. The themes of the course will be illustrated by references to current political issues, events, and personalities. Prerequisite: sophomore standing or PSCI 101Y. Offered every year. This course is the same as AMST 200D, listed in the American Studies Program.

This course studies various views of the policymaking process in our national government and considers the different stages of policymaking, including how problems are defined, how new proposals emerge, and how certain solutions make it onto the national agenda and are debated before adoption, altered during implementation, and subsequently evaluated. We will also consider the role of politicians, experts, and bureaucrats in policymaking, study why specific policies were adopted, and debate whether these were the best possible policies. This course will analyze the policymaking process through case studies such as welfare reform, education, and national health insurance. This course is one of the required foundation courses for the Public Policy Concentration and is also open to other upperclass students. This course can be used to complete the requirement in American politics for political science majors. Prerequisite: sophomore standing. Offered every year.

This introductory course explores the collective foundations of individual identity within the American experience. In what sense is the self essentially social? How are changes in identity attributable to the organization of experience throughout life? What are the effects of gender, race, and social class on consciousness? How have changes in American industrial capitalism shaped the search for self-worth? In what ways have science and technology altered our relationship to nature? What challenges to identity are posed by emerging events in American history, including immigration and the African Diaspora? How has the very advent of modernity precipitated our preoccupation with the question: "Who am I?" Situated as we are in a farming community, we will consider these questions of identity through an examination of local rural society. Students will conduct group research projects to connect our ideas to everyday life. Prerequisites: first- and second-year students only. Offered every year.

This mid-level course will examine social movements as attempts to bring about social change through collective action. The major goals of the course are: (1) to acquaint students with the sociological literature on social movements; (2) to examine the development, life cycle, and impact of several important social movements in the United States; (3) to examine issues of race, class, and gender within social movements; and (4) to develop students' skills in thinking sociologically about social discontent and social change. Substantively the course focuses primarily on U.S. social movements from the 1960s through today. This course also includes a service-learning component. Each student will work with a community agency two to three hours per week. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level) or permission of instructor. This course is the same as AMST 229D, listed in the American Studies Program. This course may be counted toward the major in American studies. Offered every two years.

This mid-level course focuses on the American legal system's effect on racial, ethnic, and minority groups in the United States as well as on the manner in which such groups have influenced the state of the "law" in this country. It is intended to stimulate critical and systematic thinking about the relationships among American legal institutions and selected racial, ethnic, and minority populations. The class will examine various social and cultural conditions, as well as historical and political events, that were influenced in large part by the minority status of the participants. These conditions will be studied to determine in what ways, if any, the American legal system has advanced, accommodated, or frustrated the interests of these groups. Through exposure to the legislative process and legal policymaking, students should gain an appreciation for the complexity of the issues and the far-reaching impact that legal institutions have on the social, political, and economic condition of racial, ethnic, and minority groups in America. The primary requirement of this course is completion of a comprehensive research project. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course (100 level) or permission of instructor. This course may be counted toward the law and society concentration, African diaspora concentration and the American studies major.