American Studies Senior Seminar
Studies in American Culture: Fear, Comfort, Risk
Fall 2007

Prof. Christopher Wilson    (If you would like to see my home page, click here )

Carney 435      617-552-3719
http://www2.bc.edu/~wilsonc/626.html

Office Hours:

Mon. 2-3 (no appointment necessary)
Wed. 1-3 (no appointment necessary)
Thursday 3:15-4:30, but by appointment only
Friday 11-12  (no appointment necessary)
You can email me by clicking here:   wilsonc@bc.edu

This interdisciplinary seminar will examine journalists and cultural critics who use nonfiction forms (and film)--exposé, reportage, monograph, memoir or autobiography--to describe the place of fear, comfort, and risk in American post-industrial society. That is, we will focus on writers who describe the pleasures and risks of class enclaves and underground economies; who speak about working for Wal-Mart or the home security industry; who analyze the consuming of mass fantasies of fear and terrorism; and more. Our particular focus will be how Americans define or confront fears, manage risks, describe what gives them comfort or makes them feel safe: in their homes, their leisure activities, and their workplaces.

Other topics we will cover:

• the rise of the "service" economy, and its effects on labor, consumption, and public space;
• 21st century suburban life: what's new about the way suburban life is designed and experienced? what utopian desires for comfort and ease does a suburb express? what anxieties? how does the suburb, or suburban sprawl, negotiate the natural world, the desires of suburban inhabitants, and fears of outsiders?
  
• the place of class, ethnicity, gender and race in defining "home" in an increasingly mobile, transnational economy;
• how ideals of comfort, beauty, and aesthetic pleasure have negotiated new demands for security (e.g. "homeland security") in the post 9/11 world, and vice-versa;
• how fears, risk and risk-takers (in the stock market, corporate life, terrorism) are represented in contemporary mass culture and everyday news;
  
• how shifting strategies of crime and risk management (identity theft, video surveillance, private incarceration) at the margins of social order intersect with practices at the center(s) of American culture.

To expand upon these topics, after weeks of common reading, students will pursue a journalistic research essay on a topic of their own choosing.  

This is the American Studies senior seminar, and is primarily restricted to graduating seniors who have minored in American Studies. Other students may be admitted by permission of the instructor.  Student papers from this course are eligible for the American Studies program Randall Prize in American literature and culture.

Course Requirements

1. Class Attendance and Participation (35%), including an in-seminar oral presentation. Since we meet only once a week, students are expected to be at every seminar. Adn because we put a premium on in-class conversation, no student can expect a "A" level final grade without consistent preparation and participation.  This includes occasional, ungraded one-page response papers or "postings" in preparation for class discussion.
2. One 4-5 pp. paper (25%)
   
3. Final Journalistic Essay (40%) of 15-18  pages, for inclusion in a shared class reader printed after the semester is done.  
plus the viewing of two films on your own:  "Little Children" and "The Smartest Guys in the Room."  (I'm also suggesting you see "The Truman Show" if you haven't already.) All these films can be rented in DVD format).

Books:

1. Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed
2. Cristina Rathbone, A World Apart
3. Sharon Zukin, The Cultures of Cities
   
4. Mike Davis, Ecology of Fear
5. Jane Jeong Trenka, The Language of Blood
   
6. David Denby, American Sucker
    

Calendar for Fall 2007

PROLOGUE:  American Spaces/ American Writing

Sept. 10   Opening Day
Discussion of Karen Karbo, "Goodnight Moon," and

• D.J. Waldie essay on Suburban sets in Hollywood (W)  
  
• Lucia Zedner, "Neither Save Nor Sound? The Perils and Possibilities of Risk" (W)
• Barry Glassner, "Crime in the News" (W), a chapter from The Culture of Fear  (R)
• Sharon Zukin, either "Learning from Disney" from The Cultures of Cities, or from Landscapes of Power, the chapter entitled "Disney World: The Power of Facade/The Facade of Power"(W)
• -and-
• the exhibition entitled "Comfort:  Reclaiming Place in a Virtual World" (picture book on reserve; text on WebCT)

•   Tom Vanderbilt, "Mickey Goes to Town" (W)
•   Russ Ryman, "Back to the Future:  Disney Reinvents the Company Town" (W)
•   Andrew Ross,  The Celebration Chronicles, selections (W)
•   Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins,  Celebration, USA  (W)

•    Kristin Hill  Maher, "Borders and Social Distinction in The Global Suburb" (W)
•     Selections from Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck, Suburban nation : the rise of sprawl and the decline of the American Dream /   (W):  the chapters entited:  "The Physical Creation of Society," "Sprawl and the Developer," and "Victims of Sprawl" (all W)

• Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed
  

• Sharon Zukin, The Cultures of Cities, chapters 1, 4 and 5:  ""Whose Culture? Whose City"; "High Culture and Wild Commerce in New York City"; and "Artists and Immigrants in New York City Restaurants," all on (W)    
• Alex Chasin, "Class and Its Close Relations:  Identities and Women, Servants and Machines" (W)
• Eric Schlosser, from Reefer Madness (R), chapter title of same name (W)
• Recommended:  David Denby, "A Fine Romance" (W)
• Recommended:  David Rieff, "The Stoicism of Maids"  (W)
  

HOME/LAND INSECURITIES

Oct. 29  Victims R US

• James Hay, "Designing Homes to Be the First Line of Defense" (W)
• Terry Smith, from The Architecture of Aftermath, the chapter entitled "WTC Fast Forward" (W)
•  Ian Loader, "Consumer Culture and the Commodification of Policing and Security" (W)
• listen to an interview with Tom Perrotta by clicking here
  
• Recommended:  Eric Schlosser, "A Grief Unlike Any Other" (W)
• Recommended:  Setha M. Lowe, "The Edge and the Center: Gated Communities and the Discourse of Urban Fear"
• 
  

• Mike Davis, The Ecology of Fear, selections:  Chapter 1 & 2 & 3; then read Chapters 6 & 7.
• Recommended:  Jennifer Price, LA Weekly essay on The Los Angeles River (W)

• Gary T. Marx, "Soft Surveillance: The Growth of Mandatory Volunteerism in Collecting Personal Information--Hey Buddy Can You Spare a DNA?"  (W)
• Bilge Yesil, "Watching Ourselves:  Video Surveillance, Urban Space, and Self-Responsibilization" (W)
• Elizabeth A. Stanko, "Victims R US:  The Life History of 'Fear of Crime' and the Politicization of Violence"  (W)

• David Denby, American Sucker, selections:  "An Introductory Note," Chapters 1-17 (to 167), Chapters 23-25, and then pp. 298-to the end.    

• Trenka, The Language of Blood  (entire)
  

• Cristina Rathbone, A World Apart  (entire)  

Links to BC's On Line Data Bases:

• Web Site Devoted to the "New New Journalism"
  
• FACSNET / A Reporter's Tool Kit
• The Atlantic Monthy On Line
• New York Times
• American Spectator
• The Economist
• Harper's
• The Nation
• The National Review
• Salon.com
  
• American Studies Web
• U.S. Census Bureau Statistics on Poverty
• Vietnam Veterans Home Page
• Crime News Clearinghouse
• Center for Constitutional Rights

• ---

Some Convenient Links in American Studies

Course Policies:

1.    Class attendance at every seminar is required.  Excessive, unexcused absence can lower your overall course grade--and, in some cases, be grounds for failing the course altogether.  If there is a  good reason why you have had to miss a class, please tell me in advance, and for illness, just bring me a signed medical slip and your absence won't be counted.    

2.      Class participation will account for about 35% of your grade.  Generally, I try to use your class participation as a measure of how well you have read and understood the assignments, and again, only consistent participants can expect an "A" for the semester.  Conversely, your participation cannot lower your overall average. That is, if your participation reflects strong reading skills, consideration for others' viewpoints,  and consistent contributions to the flow of discussion, your  class "average" from your papers can easily be boosted at  the close of the semester--indeed, well beyond the weight of this 35%  guideline.  Days on which you "kick off" class or guide discussion will not be graded on the spot, but added into your overall in-class performance.

3.      When you submit a paper, it should be neatly typed or word- processed and double-spaced, preferably on both sides of the  paper so that we can save a few trees.  In addition, you are required  to keep either a xerox or carbon copy.  That way, if your paper  is lost, you can simply re-submit your copy.  I'm sorry to say that I cannot accept email submissions.

 4.      Papers are due on the assigned dates.  My rule is that I allow  24 hours leeway without penalty; after that, you will be penalized  about 1/3 grade for every part of 24 hours the paper is late.   The idea of this "leeway" period is that you should never miss  a class in order to type a paper; come to class, and turn the  paper in later.  Any paper submitted after 6 days will automatically be assigned an "F."

5.    Everyone should feel that office hours are for "hashing out" class discussions, lectures, and the progress of the course  generally.  If you feel confused, bored, unchallenged, or otherwise distressed, please come see me.  If my office hours don't fit  your schedule, just talk to me in class about setting up another time. Small groups are welcome, and most welcome are discussions about the ideas of the course. I'm also open to conversations on email, but please don't use this or my voicemail as a substitute for a conference, particularly about planning your papers.  Given the sheer volume of messages and the differences between your schedule and mine, I can't also respond to messages that request an urgent "call back."  And "But I left a message on your voice mail" isn't an excuse for anything, in your social life or mine  (except for class absences you anticipate, which I appreciate).
 

6.  As the university regulations on Academic Integrity state, "Students at Boston College are expected to have high standards of integrity. Any student who cheats or plagiarizes on examinations or assignments is subject to dismissal from the College. Cases involving academic integrity shall be adjudicated according to the policies and procedures of the appropriate school or college." It should go without saying, simply as a matter of fairness to everyone who participates in this class, that I take such matters quite seriously. All students are required to read the university guidelines on integrity at the start of the course. To see those guidelines, click here.

7.    This course, like any other that you might take, emphasizes improving your writing.  To that end, three things:  

•     I use a "correction guide" adapted from a handbook by Diana Hacker--a sheet which I will also hand out (though see the link below).   If you're confused by some of the symbols I use in the margins to correct your papers, you can also consult Hacker (which can also be bought in the Bookstore); 
•   I will be structuring in intervals to submit draft sections of your final paper;
• and it goes without saying I would also be happy to discuss your writing with you in conference.
  

In addition, however, we will be aiming for a more journalistic voice for you in this seminar; for that reason, I would hope that you approach different writers as potential models for your own work.  

WRITING LINKS THAT ARE INTENDED TO HELP YOU WITH  THE KIND OF WRITING UNDERTAKEN IN THIS COURSE:

Six Conventions It's Good to Know for Standard College Papers   [Download the PDF]

Documenting a Nonfiction Essay Like the Final One for this Course

Alas, My own Pet Peeves:  Ten Suggestions in Writing a Critical Essay  [Download the PDF]

If you have any comments on this page, please send them to: wilsonc@bc.edu .