Susan Carruthers
university of Warwick
Susan Carruthers is a professor in American Studies at the University of Warwick, where she has taught since 2017. Her work focuses on representations of war and the ways in which individuals, and societies more broadly, make sense of conflict and its aftermath. She is the author of several books, including The Good Occupation, The Media at War, Cold War Captives and Winning Hearts and Minds. Her expertise in the media and war, cold war culture, and colonial counterinsurgency spans the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Modules
These websites are very comprehensive. I taught the first module this spring-- with everything online-- so all the lectures had to be recorded. These recordings are on the website. Both contain full lists of weekly readings and seminar discussion questions, together with links to the assignments.
In terms of what worked particularly well assessment-wise, for the first module, students seem to respond very favorably to the assignment that involved producing a primary source study guide aimed at high school students. Some were incredibly creative-- with one student even producing an animated film! For the second module, students seemed to enjoy the role-playing aspect built into the policy position paper assignment, with some choosing to adopt positions alien to their own views. The shorter self-reflective component allowed them to explain the logic behind their choices, and I was really impressed by how thoughtful these commentaries were.
I've found that my Warwick students have been extremely enthusiastic about all of these offerings, and they've attracted large numbers of women into the study of war and conflict.
War, Sex and Gender in the United States: from the Civil War to World War II
War has played a central role in shaping politics, society, and culture in the United States since its inception. This 15 CATS second-year option module explores the multiple ways in which war has both drawn on and reconfigured American gender constructs in consequential ways, some more durable than others. Organised around three thematic blocs, the module will examine martial processes that sought to remodel masculinities and femininities over the decades between the Civil War and the end of World War II (1861-1945).
The structure of the module encourages students to interrogate how gender norms have been manipulated to build support for conflict and in the name of sustaining morale; how various forms of war work have been gendered (and how normative ideas about who should perform what roles in wartime have evolved over time); and, finally, how processes of postwar reconstruction-- mourning, demobilisation and rehabilitation-- have often sought to resuscitate traditional gender identities, though without always succeeding. Over the course of the module, we will probe the ways in which war generates not only pressures for conformity but also resistance, analysing how ethnicity, class, sexuality, and race have complicated the wartime expectations and experiences of many non-elite Americans.
Seminar discussion will focus not only on historical scholarship but also a wide array of primary source materials, including newspaper and magazine stories, films, and popular song.
Sex and the US Military: From the Cold War to the War on Terror
Since World War II, the military has loomed large in the United States: significant not only for its war-waging functions and budgetary claims but as a parallel welfare state. The site of intense political contestation, the US armed forces have also formed a battleground in contests over sex, sexual violence, and sexuality: the focus of this 15 CAT module. Organised into three parts, this 15 CATS second-year option module will explore different facets of sex - as a problem and resource - for the US military over the decades from World War II to the Biden presidency.
Students will first consider the ways in which (heterosexual) sex has been construed, implicitly or more explicitly, as a "reward" for men's military service, and the consequences of this sexual prerogative for militarized communities in the United States as well as overseas. The second section of the module assesses how women have been recruited into and deployed by the US military since 1945, examining debates over women's inclusion in combat roles and how gender has been "weaponized" in the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The module concludes by analyzing questions of sexual violence, homosexuality and transgender inclusion (or exclusion) in the military. The goal is to historicize present-day struggles over who is permitted to serve - in which capacities, and under what terms - in various branches of the US military.