Course Descriptions | American & New England Studies

Woodsman driving pulpwood on the Kennebago River

ANE 599 American Contexts of Witchcraft

Tuesday, 4:10P-6:40P, L. Carroll

This course focuses on the figure of the witch and on representations of witchcraft in American contexts, ranging from the seventeenth century to the present. Course materials include legal documents, fiction, poetry, plays, visual artifacts, film, and essays. Central questions in the seminar address the ways in which witchcraft and witches serve as outsider images, reinforcing, extending, or resisting powerful social and cultural discourses, particularly those of gender, race and class. the course will also examine how witchcraft poses epistemological problems for those who seek to shape the narrative of the witch: witch hunters, prosecutors, apologists, and historians. The readings offer complex constructions of the witch as threat, enigma, healer - a nexus of unknowable powers. As well the course materials provide a range of institutional, public, private and personal responses to witch figures. The witch, considered in these ways, serves as a lens through which we might view some historical and contemporary ways of making knowledge.

ANE 610 Creating New England II

Wednesday, 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 628 New England and the Sea

Monday, 4:10P-6:40P, J. Conforti

This course will examine the role of the sea in shaping New England society, culture, and thought. The course will focus on the "new maritime history;" literary and artistic responses to the sea; the economic importance of the sea for recreation and for the fishing industry; and efforts to preserve and interpret the region's maritime heritage.

ANE 648 Domestic Architecture and American Culture

Wednesday, 7:00P-9:30P, D. Cassidy

This course will examine the physical form as well as the idea and image of "home" from the 17th through the 20th centuries. House designs and styles and their historic changes and diversity across class and geographic boundaries will be examined. Students will also analyze the idea of home in visual culture (paintings, prints, photography, popular illustration, film) and written texts (prose, architectural pattern books, advice books, magazines).

ANE 650 Native Peoples of North America

Thursday, 4:10P-6:40P, P. Erikson

This course will explore the historical and contemporary experience of native American peoples of North America in the context of cultural, political, and economic change at national and global levels. the course will focus on the Pomo people of California, the makah tribe of the Northwest coast, and the Abenaki of the eastern Woodlands to explore issues critical to the experience of native communities including, for example: missionization and boarding schools, globalization and economic development, artistry and cultural preservation, and human rights and self determination movements. Critical attention is paid to academic and popular conventions of "making knowledge" about native American peoples.

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.

American & New England Studies

Spring 2008 Course Offerings