Bookpackers

ENGL-373g “Telling America’s Story”

In May 2027 Andrew is launching a new USC Maymester class set on location in Washington, DC.

This class will be different from Andrew’s regular Bookpacking offerings. The focus will be on US history and the way we tell the national story.

Our primary text will be the city itself. Washington, DC, is the place where the USA most powerfully explains itself. Over four weeks on location, we will explore the civic spaces, monuments, museums and neighborhoods of the nation’s capital, reading the city as a composite of constructed national narratives.

We will examine how competing visions of America - celebratory, critical and everything in between - are built into exhibitions, memorials and public spaces. We will meet curators, investigate the histories these places choose to remember and forget, and consider new attempts to reshape the capital by an administration promoting American exceptionalism.

Throughout, the class will ask whether a shared national story is still possible, and if so, what it might look like. By setting competing narratives in dialogue - celebratory and critical, exclusionary and expansive - we will practice reading the past from multiple perspectives and imagine more holistic ways of telling America’s story. The aim is not to arrive at a single, final answer, but to cultivate the historical empathy required to navigate a fractured landscape of memory.

ENGL-373g “Telling America’s Story” is a GE-B class, open to all undergraduates at USC. You don’t need to be an English or History major to enroll. What you need is curiosity, a willingness to question assumptions (including your own), and a passion to explore the nature of this nation in all its flaws and possibilities.

The class will be held in Washington, DC, between Monday May 17th and Friday June 11th.

Tuition costs for Maymester classes are covered in your Spring allocation. Students pay for airfares, and four weeks’ accommodation in Washington, DC (USC student lodging is available). Enrollment is by D Clearance. Apply as part of Spring Semester registration.

For any other questions, you can contact Andrew directly at chater@usc.edu.