The List of Weekend Seminars Offered in Spring 2008
Supervisor
Dr A. Graff
Dr Z. Kwiecień
Dr A. Kondratowicz
Dr J. Dubrow
Dr E. Grzeszczyk
Prof. dr C. Bates
Prof. dr D. Jones
Prof. dr W. Glass
Dr M. Gajda-Łaszewska
Dr G. Kość
Dr Paweł Frelik
Catalog
Number
S 102
S 104 PL
S 106
S 109
S 111
S 112
S 114
S 118
S 119
S 121
S 122
Available places
0
4
5
11
3
10
11
1
1
13
12
S102
Dr Agnieszka Graff
American Literature and Culture.
This seminar focuses on constructions of race and gender in the American literary
tradition. For instance, we might examine selected works by African American
writers, as well as critical debates concerning the construction of race in canonical
works by White authors (such as Stowe, Twain, Melville or Faulkner). Thesis topics
on a range of 19th and 20th century writers, as well as theoretical and cultural debates
are welcome. The instructor’s interests include also the history of the women’s
movement in the USA, debates within feminist theory, and selected areas of popular
culture.
S 104 PL
Dr Zbigniew Kwiecień
M.A. theses will deal chiefly with the various aspects of American diplomatic
history. Preference is given to the period up to the 1950s but this does not exclude
later decades.
S 108
Dr Andrzej Kondratowicz
Economic Issues
Students with and without formal degrees in economics are welcome. Theses must
concern the American economy, but can be comparative (e.g.: looking at small firms
in the USA and the EU), as well as interdisciplinary (e.g.: the image of the American
businessman in soap operas of the last 20 years).
S 109
Dr Joshua Kjerulf Dubrow
Sociological Perspectives on Contemporary American Culture
This seminar focuses on cultural aspects of contemporary American society viewed
from a sociological perspective. Topics that reflect instructor interests include:
Sociological Conceptions of Culture; Political Culture after September 11, 2001;
Issues in Inequality - Race and Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality, Social Class and
the American Elite, and Intersectionality; Sport and Society; and Religion and
Community. M.A. theses concerning these and related topics are welcome, as are
interdisciplinary approaches in theory and methods. While sociological inquires may
take many forms, I encourage M.A. students to ask interesting and important
questions, situated in social theory and that use appropriate methods.
S 111
Dr Ewa Grzeszczyk
American Society and Culture and Americanization of Polish Popular Culture
This seminar focuses on the sociology of American culture, especially contemporary
phenomena. The second area of study is the Americanization of contemporary Polish
popular culture, which is visible in a number different areas such as: fashion, popular
music, movies, different television genres based on American models, changes in
university education, fast-food restaurants, food ways, the fashion of reading selfhelp books and undergoing therapy, fitness, corporate culture, advertising, shopping
malls, multiplexes, cartoons, American holidays, the way the cities look, and finally
the American influence on the Polish language. The seminar combines the cultural
and the sociological approach; students are encouraged to use methods of
qualitative sociology (e.g. interviews or participant observation).
S 112
Prof. dr Clifford Bates
American Politics
The instructor has interests in the following topics: American Political History
(especially topics dealing with the American Founding, the Civil War, the Progressive
Period and the New Deal, and various Presidents and statesmen); American political
thought and the influence and sources of Western political philosophy upon American
political and constitutional thought; U.S. Constitutional Law and how it shapes and
defines American politics; the nature, character, and processes of American political
institutions (Congress, Presidency, the Federal Departments and Agencies, the
Courts and the States).
S 114
Prof. dr David Jones
American Law, Business, and Foreign Policy
The instructor’s research interests span the interface of American, European Union,
and Chinese law, business and public administration including foreign policy, foreign
trade policy, and international organizations.
S 118
Prof. dr William Glass
American Social History
The instructor is most interested in topics in American social history from 1940 to the
present, particularly how the themes of race, class, gender, and ethnicity have
shaped the development of American society and culture. Additionally, similar topics
from earlier in American history will be welcome.
S 119
Dr Małgorzata Gajda-Łaszewska
American Media and Society
The seminar will focus on the research of American media as an institution both
shaping and shaped by a variety of forces: commercial, political, cultural. Their
evolution from local to global tools of communication and expression together with
the issues of representation of different aspects of life will be the subject of our study.
Media involvement in military conflicts and their role as promoters of America
interests abroad are the areas of particular interest to the instructor, yet this does not
restrict in any way a range of
S121
Dr Grzegorz Kość
Interdisciplinary Methods in American Literary Studies
This seminar reviews a series of different methods used today for the analysis of
texts and their contexts. We will examine various new tools and strategies deployed
by American critics to interpret all kinds of cultural materials, literary and visual. We
will look at, among other things, ethnographic analyses of romance readership, New
Historicist interpretations of popular novels and literary inquiries into the conventions
of photography and portraiture. Practical rather than theoretical in its tenor, the
course is designed to encourage students to think more creatively about their own
prospective dissertations. It will promote interdisciplinarity and innovation, and will
encourage students to think of research projects running across disciplines, periods,
aesthetic movements, and genres. The seminar should be useful for those who plan
to write not just about literary texts--be it fiction or poetry—but also about visual
materials like photographs or films by applying methods derived from or related to
literary criticism.
subjects for students’ projects.
S122
Dr Paweł Frelik
American Visual Narrative
In the late 20th century much of story-telling has become evacuated into visual media,
the Hollywood and independent cinema constituting the best-established tradition.
Next to it, however, a range of other practices has emerged in which the traditional
elements of narrativity are combined with the so-called “new media.”
The seminar will focus on texts, in which story-telling engages images – both static
and moving. We will investigate the ways in which visual, verbal and other aspects
co-exist and interact within such texts as well as the relationship between the
form/production of such texts and the stories they tell. In most cases, the selected
texts also engage various issues of American-ness and America – these, too, will be
addressed during seminar discussions.
The texts to be discussed include such narrative forms as codex-based fiction
utilizing graphics, innovative layout and non-standard typography, comic books and
graphic novels, electronic hypertexts/cybertexts, and videogames.
Considering probable novelty of the material for many students, the first semester will
be structured around “case studies” which will help familiarize seminar participants
with the discourses of narrative forms and the strategies of dealing with such texts.
The two subsequent semesters will be devoted to more detailed, close readings of
American visual narratives as well as to the development of M.A. theses. Research
topics from outside the seminar focus may also be accepted. Other possible areas
include experimental/postmodern American fiction, so-called popular literatures, and
literatures of the fantastic.
No previous experience of graphic narratives, hypertexts and videogames is
necessary but it needs to be remembered that texts in question may challenge preconceived notions of story-telling – open-mindedness and willingness to become
acquainted with narratives forms burdened with certain general-public prejudice (as
in “all comics are stupid” or “videogames are a waste of time”) is necessary. Basic
computer literacy will also be an asset.