Spring 2009 Course Offerings
ANE 610 Creating New England II
Tuesday, 4:10P-6:40P, K. Ryden
The second part of the required core sequence, this course continues the examination of New England regional identity from the mid-19th century to the present. Topics include: the colonial revival; New England's working class and ethnic heritage; nostalgia; the regional revival of the 1920s and 30s; and regional identity and consumer culture.
ANE 633 The Mapping of New England
Monday, 4:10P-6:40P, M. Edney
A study of the history of construction and use of cartographic representations of New England and Maine, to the end of the 19th century. The baskic theme running through the course is that of cartographic literacy and commercialism: who used the maps and for what purposes? The course is structured around those cartographic modes (specific combinations of geographic knowledge, technological practices, social institutions, and cultural expectations) which have been relevant for New England. The scope of teh course will expand to address, when necessary, more general issues in European and Northern American cartographic history.
ANE 635 Art and New England Culture
Wednesday, 4:10P-6:40P, D. Cassidy
This course will examine painting, prints, and photography from the 17th through the 19th centuries; it will focus on New England art and its place in American art history. Students will study style and subject matter and their relation to literature, thought and social history. Central to this course is the consideration of how region is "imaged" in the visual arts and how these images shape regional and national culture. Topics include "reading" colonial portraits; landscape painting and the commodificaiton of nature; race, ethnicity and regional types; Winslow Homer and the masculinization of region; and imaging the New England woman at the turn of the century.
ANE 650 Top of the World: Northern Regions and American Culture
Thursday, 4:10P-6:40P, P. Erikson
This course will explore Northern regions and the ida of "the North" have been central to American society since the 18th century. This course will consider some of the major historic events and cultural processes that have defined the American relationship to Arctic and Sub-Arctic peoples and landscapes. We will consider the diverse ways that Americans have experienced the North from military officers to miners, from sealers to sailors, and from painters to pilots. Readings, assignments, filmas and at least one field trip will address topics such as: Alaskan statehood and the Gold Rush, North Atlantic whaling, the race for the North Pole, "strategic" military interests, popular representations of the Arctic and Sub-Arctic, and contemporary implications of climate change.
ANE 670 Museums and Public Culture
Tuesdays, 7:00P-9:30P, P. Erikson
This course will examine the role of museums, preservationists, and collectors in shaping cultural identities and public memories in 19th-and 20th-century America. Topics will include: ethnographic collections and displays, fine arts museums and patrons, traditions of human display (such as 19th-century "freak shows"), history, anthropological and natural history museums, festivals, living history sites, and the narrative role of collections, artifacts and museum design. This will be a blended course with on-line and in-class instructional times.
ANE 685 Reading and Research
Open to advanced students with exceptional records in the program, this course offers opportunities for reading and research under the direction of a faculty member. The approval of the ANES Curriculum Committee is required. This course may be taken only once.
ANE 687 Internship
Open to qualified students with exceptional records in the program; required for students in the Public Culture and History track. Internships are by application to the ANES Curriculum Committee. Participating organizations include: Portland Museum of Art, Old York Historical Society, Pejepscot Historical Society, and Maine Historical Society.
ANE 690 Project
Completion of a two-semester project that may be an independent project or that may combine independent study and work in a historical society, a museum, a cultural organization, or other public or private institution. In consultation with an advisor, the student defines and develops the project in relation to his or her particular interest in American and New England Studies.
ANE 695 Thesis
The product of original research, the thesis should embody an interdisciplinary combination of approaches and/or materials.
PPM Muskie School Course Descriptions
For students in the Public History and Culture Track, see the Muskie School of Public Service's course descriptions in non-profit management.
