Interdisciplinary Arts 0276 - Photos, Facts, and Fictions

This is a research course for intellectuals who are artists and artists who are intellectuals. The course has two goals: (First) To investigate life in the U.S., 1890-1910, an era whose inequities and injustices, prejudices and subversions, panics and disasters eerily resemble our own. Students will sift through collections of archival photographs and an array of primary and secondary written documents to carry out their investigations. Photographs will come from on-line, archival collections; newspapers and novels published during the era will serve as primary written sources. (Second) To teach students how to discover and then use visual and written documents to build image/text sequences that, like scenes from documentary films, tell true stories about an era that gave birth to what now passes for modern life. To achieve both goals will require intensive primary and secondary source research as well as immersion in large collections of archival photographs. Students who have studied American history and literature before will do well in this course.

Culture, Humanities, and Languages Independent Work Multiple Cultural Perspectives Writing and Research In this course, students are expected to spend at least eight to ten hours a week of preparation and work outside of class time. This time includes reading, writing, research.