Theories of American Culture: An Ethnographic Approach

This course draws on readings in anthropology and ethnography to explore a basic question: What do we really mean when we speak of "American culture"? Rather than seek a singular definition, we will read accounts of everyday life in recent American history that will help us to appreciate how life across the varied social and economic spaces of the US is differently shaped by such forces as racial violence, militarism, environmental injustice, socioeconomic marginalization, gendered violence, neoliberal labor regimes, addiction, and empire. What forms of life, what different Americas, are created by such forces?