ARHU-American Studies

Topic Five: Television

What are your thoughts about the representations of gays and lesbians on television? Discuss this topic within the context of the article "The Family and Television" and the exhibition "Not that there is Anything Wrong with That." Read about the "Gay and Lesbian Channel," airing next month: http://www.gmax.co.za/look04/05/26-USgaytv.html. Any thoughts?

Topic Five: Consumerism

In our blog discussions, many of you have condemned the excesses of modern consumerism. Yet on your Real Estate assignment, almost all of you indicated that you were desirous of upscale housing of one sort or another. Where does the truth lay?

Topic 4: Student Lounge

Let's continue our ongoing discussion on traditional gender roles within the context of Celebrating The Family. What are your thoughts on the presumably traditional white wedding? Has modern feminism changed the wedding ritual? How has reality television brought the traditional white wedding to new heights? Is this desacrilization of the marital ritual a by product of post-sentimentality, as described by Pleck? You can use examples from recent celebrity weddings, i.e. Star Jones.

Topic 4: Quinceanera & the Bar/Bat Mitzvah

What is your opinion of the elaborate coming-of-age rituals that are recent inventions, including the extravagant Quinceanera. Visit a website that descirbes the recent innovation of faux Bar/Bat Mitzvahs that are sweeping elite suburban communities? Any thoughts? http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/articles/2004/06/11/community/editor/ydet0206.t.

Topic 4: The Christian Home

Some of the domestic advice literature we have read so far has concerned itself with the “moral” or “Christian home.” Currently, we as a country are engaged in a national discourse on "family values," with neo-conservative and Evangelical Christians holding considerable sway. According to this week's readings, would you say that the U.S. is a Christian nation and that the government in power should have carte blanche to legislate morality from the perspective of its own fundementalist interpretation of Christianity? Also, is Christmas privileged as a National Holiday above other religious celebrations? Is there a clear separation of Church and State?

Topic 4: Thanksgiving

How does Thanksgiving create the fiction of a shared national identity and unity? Do you believe Thanksgiving should be a holiday that is celebrated in the public schools? I have been told that the UMD Daycare Center does not acknowledge Thanksgiving in deference to Native Americans? Do you agree with this policy?

Topic Three: Student Lounge

We’ve already had some interesting discussions on gender and domesticity. Let’s see if we can continue to ruminate on this subject. In your experience, do both boys and girls play house? If so, how might their role playing differ? Have assigned gender roles changed significantly since the beginnings of the women’s movement in the 1960s? What are your thoughts about the newly identified "metrosexual"?

Topic Three: The Ideal Home?

Authors of American domestic advice literature and architecture have made the
argument for the past 150 years that there is a strong correlation between the “correct” physical environment of the home and its surrounds and the "proper" rearing of children. Would you agree or disagree taking into consideration the cultural categories of class, race, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality? Also, Designing Domesticity refers to large suburban estates as McMansions. Do you consider this a fair appellation? What is your opinion on gated communities and suburban sprawl.

Topic Three: "A More Perfect Union"

Considering that I jumped the gun with the Tenement Museum, let’s continue our discussion on the melting pot. This time also factor in the website “A More Perfect Union.” Do you think that such an injustice could happen today in America? Has anyone read “The Plot Against America” by Philip Roth that is now on the "best seller" list? Are there other examples from current events or other sources that you have encountered?

Topic Two: Student Lounge

Certain celebrities have recently taken to wearing a red wrist band to identify with a specific ethnic group. Please clarfiy and explain how this relates to the construction and performance of identity. What are your thoughts about an individual or group asssuming another cultural community's identity for his/her/its own purposes? What does it mean to be an insider and an outsider? Think in terms of material culture: clothes, food, fashion, music (i.e. Emenem), etc. Consider race, class, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality (ie. gay or straight).

Topic Two: Prof. C

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, let’s call him Prof. C., states in “Why We Need Things” that ethnographic research indicates that “the selves of men are much more often expressed through active instrumental objects such as television sets, stereos, power tools, sports equipment, vehicles, and cameras. Women, on the other hand, mention significantly more ofen things that express a concern for nurturance and conservation--houseplants, plates, glass, photographs, textiles, and sculptures." Do you agree or disagree with this representation of stereotypical gender roles? You can reflect back to ideas presented in Topic 1, make reference to other texts from Topic 2, and/or introduce thoughts relating to your own life experiences

Topic Two: The Tenement Museum

According to the representations presented on the Tenement Museum's website, would you say that the US is a melting pot? What are your thoughts on the tension between cultural assimilation and cultural preservation? Discuss this concept within the context of the material culture depicted through the virtual tour. Refer to photographs, stories of families who lived at 97 Orchard Street, and any other relevant documentation or commentaries. Also, why is it that legislation with "teeth" has not eradicated slum housing?

Topic One: Student Lounge

Martha Stewart is currently making her home in a West Virginia jail. Why do you think this has become such a big news story, and do you have a particular position on Martha’s imprisonment?

Take this conversation wherever you wish, or bring up a different topic of interest. Other than posting a potential question, this lounge is off bounds to me.

Topic One: Coffee or Tea

For Topic One you were assigned a website that analyzed the material culture of the coffee cup and associated coffee rituals. Why do you think that we do not have Tea Houses in the US? What are the rituals associated with tea drinking in your own material worlds? For example, my grandmother, who immigrated from Russia, drank tea out of a glass with a cube of sugar in her mouth.

Topic One: Critical Thinking

In the "Critical Thinking Practices" listed under "Additional Resources" on the homepage, you were asked to read 2 different takes on prisoner abuse of Iraqi detainees. Prisons are also homes, albeit not of ones choosing. Consider the opinions stated in the two articles and voice your own position on the “housing” and treatment of war detainees. What does this discussion have to do with material culture?