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Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

Hieronder staan het programma en de vakomschrijvingen van Ma Noord-Amerikastudies Klik op de naam van een vak in een schema om naar de omschrijving te gaan.

Periode	Type	Code	Naam	Taal	ECTS	Uren
» Jaar 1 (Ma American Studies)
semester I	verplicht	LAX041M10	Politics & Culture 21st Century US	Engels	10	3
	verplicht	LAX042M10	Borders and Boundaries in Am. Studies	Engels	10	3
	verplicht	LAX043M10	Reading \| Public \| Protest	Engels	10	3
semester II	verplicht	LAX999M20	Master's Thesis American Studies	Engels	20	variabel
	keuze	LAX000M10	Masterstage American Studies	Engels	10	variabel
	keuze	LAX045M10	Rural America	Engels	10	variabel
	keuze		Study Abroad	Engels	10	variabel

Opmerkingen	1. Students have the option to replace the second semester Research Seminar with an MA Internship (10 ECTS), which is to be carried out during the second semester, in principle in the U.S. or the Americas. 2. Pending availability of exchange places, eligible students have the option to do additional course work during the second semester at one of the institutions in the Americas with which the degree program has a formal exchange agreement. Students doing course work in America will in principle complete the equivalent of 3 research seminars at 400 level or higher.

Toon korte vakomschrijvingen

Borders and Boundaries in Am. Studies

LAX042M10

We will consider borders and boundaries not only of nations, but of time periods (before and after X, Y or Z), between people (haves and have nots, for example), cultures, economies, etc.

Faculteit	Letteren
Voertaal	Engels
Coordinator	dr. A.M. Martinez
Docent(en)	dr. A.M. Martinez
Onderwijsvorm	werkcollege
Toetsvorm	actieve participatie, essay, wekelijkse opdrachten
ECTS	10

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Master's Thesis American Studies

LAX999M20

Faculteit	Letteren
Voertaal	Engels
Coordinator	dr. A.M. Martinez
Docent(en)	diverse docenten dr. T. Jelfs dr. A.M. Martinez dr. M.E. Messmer
Onderwijsvorm	zelfstudie (begeleid)
Toetsvorm	scriptie
ECTS	20
Entreevoorwaarden	BA American Studies obtained and admission to the MA programme (check the degree programme’s Teaching and Examination Regulations), after passing 3 Research Seminars
Opmerkingen	80% Compulsory attendance in seminars. Students are expected to participate actively in discussions during seminars and to duly carry out all assignments in and outside class.

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Masterstage American Studies

LAX000M10

De stage biedt studenten de mogelijkheid praktijkervaring op te doen in een buitenuniversitaire omgeving en zich te oriënteren op de arbeidsmarkt. De stage wordt gelopen bij een instelling, organisatie of bedrijf in binnen- of buitenland. De student wordt geacht op basis van inhoudelijke specialisatie, interesse en vaardigheden, in beginsel zelf te zoeken en te solliciteren naar een stageplaats

Faculteit	Letteren
Voertaal	Engels
Coordinator	dr. T. Jelfs
Docent(en)	dr. T. Jelfs
Onderwijsvorm	praktische oefening
Toetsvorm	stageverslag
ECTS	10
Entreevoorwaarden	Bachelor obtained and admission to the MA program (check the degree program’s Teaching and Examination Regulations), after passing 3 Research Seminars
Opmerkingen	Extensive general information about the master placement can be found on: The Student Portal - Career(useful links, placement jobs, events) - Master's Placement about procedures, placementcoordinators, forms for registration, placementplan, evaluation and grants. www.rug.nl/let/mobilityoffice www.rug.nl/let/careerstrategy The desk of the Mobility Office is open daily between 1.00-4.00 p.m located at the same spot as the desk of the Office for Student Affairs. Information about office hours is available via the Student Portal-Career-Master's Placement. Useful literature: Esther Haag: Internship Guide, Work Placements Step by Step. 2013. The Hague: Eleven International Publishing. ISBN 978-94-90947-88-0 (E-book: 978-94-6094-675-2).

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Politics & Culture 21st Century US

LAX041M10

Inspired by Hannah Arendt's 1972 essay collection, Crises of the Republic, this course examines the ways in which the still-young 21st century might or might not be usefully characterized as one in which the United States has found itself afflicted by a succession of crises, from the national security crisis ushered in by the attacks of 9/11 to the global financial crisis that began in 2007-08 and the ongoing "constitutional crisis" that some have argued the Trump presidency has precipitated.

We will study specific 21st century crises in detail, but also explore and seek to problematize the history and theory of crisis as a concept, while investigating the ways in which different forms of narrative culture, including novels, films and TV series, have represented various "crises" of the 21st century U.S.

Faculteit	Letteren
Voertaal	Engels
Coordinator	dr. T. Jelfs
Docent(en)	dr. T. Jelfs
Onderwijsvorm	werkcollege
Toetsvorm	werkstuk(ken), actieve participatie, onderzoekswerkstuk
ECTS	10
Entreevoorwaarden	Bachelor obtained and admission to the MA programme (check the degree programmes Teaching and Examination Regulations).
Opmerkingen	80% Compulsory attendance in seminars. Students are expected to participate actively in discussions during seminars and to duly carry out all assignments in and outside class.

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Reading | Public | Protest

LAX043M10

This seminar is about the public sphere and its special relation to reading and readership. It will introduce students to a range of theories about what the public is and does, how it comes into being and acts, how it can erode or even cease to exist. These theories will be explored in tandem with literary texts that were especially successful in mobilizing a reading public. One of our main interests in this course is to examine the impact that certain forms of protest writing had on shaping and transforming the American democracy. Moreover, we want to explore how this impact is to a significant degree the work of institutional and media networks in which these texts are embedded.

Our course material will include theories by Jürgen Habermas, Micheal Warner, Nancy Fraser and Pierre Bourdieu; slave narratives by Frederick Douglass und Harriet Jacobs; protest novels such as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Richard Wright’s Native Son; manifestos by W.E.B. Du Bois, Alain Locke und Langston Hughes; protest essays by James Baldwin and Ta-Nehisi Coates; publicity photographs, a television debate and a documentary film.

This course is reading intense! Please make sure that you have ample time to prepare each week’s reading assignments. A course-pack will be made available at the beginning of the semester. Please purchase Richard Wright’s Native Son and Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me, both of which we will read in their entirety and which are not included in the course-pack. Furthermore, I strongly recommend purchasing Frederick Douglass’s A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, both of which will also be read in their entirety.

Faculteit	Letteren
Voertaal	Engels
Coordinator	prof. dr. L.C. Bieger
Docent(en)	prof. dr. L.C. Bieger
Onderwijsvorm	werkcollege
Toetsvorm	opdrachten, deeltoets(en), essay
ECTS	10
Entreevoorwaarden	None
Opmerkingen	80% mandatory attendance. Students are expected to participate actively in discussions during seminars and to duly carry out all assignments.

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Rural America

LAX045M10

What is going on in the U.S. countryside? This seminar explores the culture and politics of rural America. The countryside has always been an inherently contested space; at the end of the nineteenth century, prairie socialists fought against capitalist exploitation in states like North Dakota and Oklahoma. Communism gained a foothold among farmers in northeastern Montana during the 1920s. Up until this day, the South has been a perennial battleground in the fight for civil rights. Since the 1970s, globalization and outsourcing have severely impacted rural economies, for instance Appalachia. Oil and gas development threaten Louisiana’s wetlands and affected communities on the Gulf Coast. More recently, environmentalism, gender issues, and LGBTQ rights became prominent factors in rural politics. We will study these subjects and representations of the countryside in music, literature, and film, at times from a comparative perspective. Conservatism undoubtedly characterizes rural America, but it is often also a locus of radical progressive action and queer culture. The interaction between these forces – traditionalism versus radicalism and defiance – is a central theme of this course.

Faculteit	Letteren
Voertaal	Engels
Coordinator	dr. M. Zwiers
Docent(en)	dr. M. Zwiers
Onderwijsvorm	werkcollege
Toetsvorm	actieve participatie, essay, wekelijkse opdrachten
ECTS	10
Entreevoorwaarden	Bachelor obtained and admission to the MA program (check the degree program's Teaching and Examination Regulations).
Opmerkingen	More literature to be announced. 80 percent compulsory attendance in seminars. Students are expected to participate actively in discussions during seminars and to duly carry out all assignments in and outside class.

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