Diploma de Extensión en American Cultural Studies

American Cultural Studies is a one-year program that provides a critical and interdisciplinary overview of US culture(s) and histories.  Students explore and analyze various themes related to US society, past and present, and advance their English oral and writing skills.  As part of their final project (a creative writing project that engages with US history or culture), students also learn the basics of short-story writing.

Modules:

American Studies

The American Studies module introduces students to US social and cultural themes, as well as to the basics of the discipline of cultural studies and American studies. Students are introduced to the origins of cultural studies as a field of research, as well as to some of the concepts that have shaped its development.  Students also study American political values, American identities, race and ethnicity in US society and politics, the (changing) American family, American consumer culture and American exceptionalism. The goal of this module is to give students a basic set of conceptual tools to be able to think about the cultural matrix of the United States critically, and as a site where meanings are produced, identities and subjectivities are formed and power consolidated and/or contested.

Instructor: Mariela Carrasco (10 sessions) 

Creative Writing Workshop

The Creative Writing workshop module introduces students to the basic theoretical and practical components of writing in general and creative writing in particular, and provides hands-on training so that students can develop the skills necessary to complete the program’s final evaluation: a short story that articulates some aspect of American culture or history.  Throughout the semester, students will be exposed to the world of writing and creative writing.  The short stories written by students will be presented at the end of the semester in a special sharing session. 

Instructor: Sebastian Brett (10 sessions)

American Culture and History Through Literature and Film 

The American Culture and History Through Literature and Film module introduces students to the history of the United States through the analysis and discussion of short stories and films.  Students receive an overview of major epochs and events—focusing on the dominant paradigms that have shaped the American story. 

Instructor: Anthony Rauld (15 sessions)

American Speeches

This module explores key speeches given at key moments in history by American leaders.  Through close readings and case studies, students analyze the different uses of discourse, rhetorical devices, and other techniques in speeches delivered by important historical leaders in order learn how language can be used politically to manufacture or subvert consent. 

Instructor: Margarita Zuñiga (10 sessions)

African American History

The African American History module explores key events and themes that have marked the lives of generations of African Americans, including the transatlantic slave trade, Reconstruction and Jim Crow, the Civil Rights movement, and Black Lives Matter.

Instructor: Celia Cussen (10 sessions)

American Literature

The American Literature module is designed to introduce students to a variety of US authors and themes, focusing on visions that express, from distinctive points of view, what it means to be an American.  Students develop their capacity to engage intelligently and critically with literary works of art produced by American authors, including Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Shirley Jackson, Fannery O'Connor, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Raymond Carver, Joyce Carol Oates, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker, among others.

Instructors: Alida Mayne-Nichols and Andrés Ferrada (10 sessions)

Native American History 

The Native American History module reviews evidence of the first indigenous peoples to migrate and settle across the American continent and introduces the most recent archeological research on major pre-Columbian societies in North and Central America.  Students also examine the different phases of European conquest and colonization in the territories eventually incorporated into the United States, and their impact on Native American populations and cultures. 

Instructor: Daniel Stewart (8 sessions)

Journalism in the US: Then and Now

The Journalism in the US: Then and Now module explores the role of the press in American politics at different moments in history, with a special emphasis on how American journalism has changed over time from the early 20th century to the contemporary context.  Students learn about the major developments in the media and press by analyzing various news articles and sources linked to specific historical contexts, from the muckrakers to the post-truth Trump era.

Instructor: Pascale Bonnefoy (2 sessions) 

Final Project Language Workshop

The Final Project Language Workshop module consists of a series of workshop sessions that are designed to accompany students throughout the year during the development of their final creative writing project.  Students receive linguistic support in the writing of their final project; they also receive guidance with respect to the incorporation of cultural and historical elements into their short stories.   

Instructor: Margarita Zuñiga, Paula Cuadra, and Anthony Rauld (10 Sessions)

Requisitos

Inglés Avanzado (B2*)
*establecido con entrevista personal

Formas de pago

Se puede cancelar con los siguientes medios de pago:

• Transferencia bancaria a nombre de Universidad de Chile, RUT 60.910.000-1 Banco Santander, cuenta corriente 3980074-8.
• Sistema Webpay