American Life and Institutions 1.S3.EPC.36
Course objectives:
The main aim of the course is to familiarise the students with key facts regarding American Life and Institutions in the modern times.
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Course content:
Major thematic focus of the course will fall on such issues as American spaces (utopias, dystopias and the ground in between); checks and balances: different branches of power, including executive, legislative power and the judiciary; multiculturalism; elections; the position of the United States on the international stage and its relations with other countries; major legislative acts; the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and the pervasive recurrence of gun violence in the last twenty years; the genesis of the Democratic and Republican party; religion; education; American Universities and campuses; American economy: various economic theories and the most recent economic crisis.
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Methods of instruction/ forms of classroom activity:
multimedia presentation, discussion, pair-work, group work, ICT tools/MSTeams
Field of study
Student workload
Study level
Education profile
Type of course
The semester in which the subject is carried out
Mode
Course coordinators
Term 2022/23-L: | Term 2023/24-L: | Term 2024/25-L: |
Learning outcomes
Learning outcomes acc to PRK 2019
Knowledge
Student knows and understands
1. economic, political and institutional facts referring to American Life and Institutions in the modern times (k_W06/ P6S_WG)
2. principles of functioning of American institutions, systems, norms and values (k_W09/P6S_WK)
Skills
Student can
3. create and read English-language texts and prepare elaborate presentations relating to American Life and Institutions in the modern times (k_U04/P6S_UK)
Social competences
Student is ready to
4. participate in various forms of cultural life in and engaged and creative way (k_K04/P6S_KO)
Assessment criteria
Forms of evaluation of learning outcomes
1. Active participation in class - 20% of the final grade (outcome 1,2,3,4)
2. Student presentations - 30% of the final grade (outcome 1,2,3)
2. Final written test - 50% of the final grade (outcome 1,2)
Pass at 60% of the final grade
Bibliography
Reading list
Bordman, M. In The USA.
Bromhead, Peter. Life in Modern America. New Edition. - Harlow: Longman, 1988.
Fiedler, Eckhard. America in Close-up. Harlow : Longman, 1995.
Gołębiowski, Marek. Dzieje kultury amerykańskiej. Warszawa : Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 2007.
Lewicki, Zbigniew. Historia cywilizacji amerykańskiej : era sprzeczności: 1787-1865.
Warszawa : Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, 2010.
--------. Historia cywilizacji amerykańskiej: era tworzenia: 1787-1865. Warszawa : Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, 2010.
--------. Historia cywilizacji amerykańskiej. Tom 3. Warszawa : Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, 2012.
Steveneson, Douglas K. American Life and Institutions. Stuttgart : Ernst Klett Verlag, 1997.
Supplementary reading
Diniejko, A. An Introduction to The United States of America.
Falk, R. Spotlight on The USA.
Fine, S., & Brown, G. The American Past.
Foner, Eric. American History Now.
Meikle, Jeffrey L. American Plastic: A Cultural History.
Morrison, S.E. The Oxford History of the American People.
Murolo, Priscilla. From the Folks Who Brought You the Weekend: A Short, Illustrated History of Labor in the United States.
O’Callaghan, B. An Illustrated History of The USA.
Tiersky, E. and Tiersky, M. The USA: Customs and Institutions.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: