What's going on here?

Hello and welcome to the ongoing class blog for the course "The Modern American West" at the Universität Potsdam. The goal of this blog is to present the work of my students, who will spend Winter Semester 2012 studying the literature and culture of the modern American West with me. In order to enrich and expand our class discussions, I have assigned my students to look to the popular culture of Germany (or Europe more broadly) for representations of the American West and to present them here. I have asked them to "curate" these artifacts of popular culture: alongside the item itself -- be it song, film, advertisement, etc. -- they are to explain the ideas of the American West they see reflected in the artifact and then to discuss how these ideas relate to the larger themes of our course.

I look forward to what is to come in the ensuing weeks and months. One of the great pleasures of teaching for me has always been how much I can also learn from my students, and I have high hopes that this project will offer me new glimpses into the notions of the American West which still circulate around the world.

Enjoy!