AMST 630 Cultural Policy - Course Fall '15

This course, constructed around proactive student-participation, examines the historical backdrop and contemporary development of cultural policy in the United States, especially in relation to the practical problem of achieving cultural equity within the public and private institutions of a continuously-evolving multi-cultural political democracy and intersections with growing transnational cultural identities. Special attention is paid to the cultural democracy citizen-protagonists’ dynamics and policy projects of certain periods and to interactions between the official cultural institutions and various racial and ethnic groups, of cultural areas and regions and of socio-economic classes---including gender identity and sexual identity policies.

Reading, lecture-discussion and illustrative cultural materials embrace intellectual and artistic strategies reflected in the graphic and plastic arts, dance, music, literature and various segments of popular culture. Analytical perspectives draw upon the disciplines of history, cultural heritage policy, anthropology, folklore, and political science/Participatory Democracy.