Politics and Activisms

This course explores major themes in the history of the United States since the Second World War. The themes include ones that most Americans know something about (such as the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War) and developments that many people take for granted (like the rise of the supermarket and the diner). Readings include historical documents produced by individuals from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences?Harry Truman, Betty Friedan, and Fidel Castro, for instance?as well as scholarship written by professional historians. The goal of the course is to help students understand the rough and varied texture of U.S. history and how scholars use evidence to make judgments about the past.

This course asks the question, `How can artists cross the street without leaving their art behind?? This class hopes to raise issues of citizenship, creativity, collaboration, community, environment, and the changing roles of artists at the end of the twentieth century and the start of the twenty-first. Students study historical and contemporary examples of how artists have found the time, space, and resources to do and present their work, and how they make alliances with other artists and other communities to achieve professional, cultural, and political goals. Students help plan curricular innovations at SAIC and participate in related activities such as visiting artists programming. They explore the possibility, in part through on-site visits, of establishing or strengthening ties between SAIC and various communities throughout Chicago. Students further develop course themes through substantial written assignments and through applications of these ideas in their studio practice. The goal of the course is to give students the motivation, knowledge, and tools to take an active role as citizens in a multicultural democratic society.

This course examines both the explanation and justification of central concepts and ideas in political thought. These include, but are not limited to, nature and scope of political (governmental) authority in its various forms (e.g., democracy, monarchy, and dictatorship), social contract theories, citizenship, nationalism, cultural pluralism, political obligations, civil disobedience, revolutions, and terrorism. Readings range from historical to contemporary sources.

What should every citizen know about media and their relation to contemporary society? What approaches can best prepare us to function effectively as critics, activists, scholars, teachers, artists, managers, and producers in an increasingly global, digital, and competitive landscape? What critical issues and questions should we grapple with? What resources are required and available for social action? These are some of the questions that we address in this seminar and laboratory that examines media and their relationships to society and culture. Students are encouraged to design new media based initiatives and to share projects already in progress.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, nearly every newscast dealing with Cuba seems to recite the same theme: 'Castro's Cuba: The End of the Dream,' 'Cuba Alone,' and 'Cuba: Forbidden Paradise.' However, Americans have been predicting the fall of this charismatic leader for over three decades and over eight American presidencies. Yet Castro has remained in power and the drama continues. The Cuban Revolution is one of the most remarkable examples on record of the ability of one individual to make history. To misunderstand Fidel Castro is to misunderstand the revolution. This course will seek to explain the Cuban Revolution by examining such topics as the Bay of Pigs, the 1962 Missile Crisis, the Russian connection, the Social/Cultural Revolution, and the New World Order through a Cuban perspective. Resource materials for this course include films, novels, music, contemporary news accounts, and guest speakers.