Course information

Course Description: As an academic discipline American studies today faces a world in which the specific cold-war logic of the American Century has ceased to exist in many of the arenas in which it used to be particularly effective: public diplomacy, popular culture, collective memory, urbanity. Whereas generations of scholars in our field took it for granted that American culture and American goods had a major, if conflicted role to play in the global campaign for democratization, this straightforward political instrumentalization of (cultural) production is today much less certain. When approaching American literature, culture, media, history, and politics as European and U.S. American academics in these times of massive right-wing recalibration, if not outright revolution, we believe that it is useful to better “ground” our scholarly analyses in the contexts in which they will be taking effect. This Spring Academy will take place in the shape of an excursion across the Dutch-German border, most likely in the month of March and it will include the participation of American and AURORA University Alliance scholars and students. It will be guided by a critical inquiry into Sustainable Development Goal 16 on Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/peace-justice/). Students are expected to develop a research project such as the final thesis and to develop it in the context of our continued discussion.

Description for the online twin offered to Aurora students: This year, RUDESA will include an important online component accessible to Aurora students only. Students will dive into and use online archives and sources, such as the Veterans History Project Collection that is digitally housed by the U.S. Library of Congress, to investigate the Battle of the Ruhr Pocket. During this enormous World War II battle, which occurred in April 1945, American and Canadian liberation forces encircled roughly 400,000 German troops in the Ruhr region, Germany’s industrial center. The Ruhr Pocket ended organized resistance against Allied forces on the Western Front. Students of the online course will prepare posters on their findings in the archives. The best will be submitted for exhibition at the annual conference of the Dutch American Studies Association in November 2026.

This class will allow students to improve their Information Literacy, Analysis, Oral and Written Communication, Teamwork, and Intercultural Knowledge competences.