American Studies Program — Cross-Listed Courses

An interdisciplinary treatment of conceptions and practices of child nature and nurture in the United States, viewed in the context of American culture and history. The course begins with an historical overview of child life in America, with special attention to Puritan New England, nineteenth-century industrialization and urbanization, and twentieth-century trends. In treating contemporary childhood, the course examines mainstream patterns of the middle and working classes, both rural and urban; African-American child and family life; child enculturation among selected American Indian groups; child and family life among Hispanic Americans; the importance of gender as a variable in childhood experience; the growing importance of formal institutions such as schools, youth organizations, and medical institutions as environments for the young. Children’s own cultural constructions, in the form of games and folklore, are also considered. The course concludes with an examination of selected contemporary policy issues affecting children, such as child abuse, medical intervention, day care, and the Children’s Rights movement.
Diversity Area: United States.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST 310
Television in American Life

The American experience with television and its cultural, political, and economic implications. Topics include technological innovation, entrepreneurship, the changing cultural content of “prime-time” programming, and public broadcasting cable system capabilities. (Offered only in the summer session.)
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST L311 (WOST L311)
American Oral History

This course explores oral history interviewing, texts, and films, within the context of efforts to create a representative social and cultural history of the US. Students design individual or group oral history projects, to capture the experiences and perspectives of people formerly regarded as “unhistorical”—in particular, women, working class people, ethnic/racial minorities, and gays and lesbians. This course satisfies the research requirement for women’s studies majors.
Prerequisites: Junior standing; one women’s studies course, or one American studies course.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST 335
Music and Politics

This course treats popular music as a social indicator, examining the relationship between popular music and various social issues, problems, and movements. It is organized thematically, addressing such topics as racism, sexism, censorship, social change, consciousness raising, and the impact of globalization. The course draws on historical and contemporary readings at the intermediate and advanced levels. There is extensive use of audio and video recordings to explicate various themes and issues.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST 340
Mexico and the United States

A study of the way North Americans have imagined Mexicans and Mexicans have imagined themselves. Representatives of Mexican social, intellectual, and cultural movements are examined along with North American visitors, writers, politicians, and commentators. Particular emphasis on women, indigenous and regional figures in four periods: Colonial, mid-19th century, early 20th century, and the present.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST L349 (HIST L349)
Cold War: Rise and Fall

This course examines the shifting US and Russian images of each other during the rise and fall of the Cold War. It focuses in particular on the way that issues of difference play out in the US/Soviet/Russian encounter, and on the emergence of public perceptions which linked struggles for racial, gender, and social equality with Communism and its agents.
Distribution II Area: Humanities.
Diversity Area: International.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST L350 (AFRSTY L350)
Race, Class, and Gender: Issues in US Diversity

This course deals with the interrelationship of race, class and gender, exploring how they have shaped the experiences of all people in the United States. Focusing on race, class and gender as distinct but interlocking relationships within society, the course examines both the commonalities and the differences that different historical experiences have generated.
Diversity Area: United States.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST L352 (ENGL/AFRSTY L352)
Harlem Renaissance

This course focuses on major texts of the Harlem Renaissance within contexts of modernism, history, and the development of an African American literary tradition. The course will examine how literature creates and represents real and “imagined” communities and will explore the diverse and often contradictory roles that literature plays in shaping, resisting, and reinforcing cultural discourses.
Prerequisites: ENGL 101/102, and ENGL 200 or 201 or 206 or 235 or AFRSTY 100; or permission of the instructor.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST 353
Latino/a Border Cultures

An introduction to the field of border studies, this course investigates the linguistic, cultural and historical meanings of the concept of “border” for several Latino/a groups, particularly Puerto Ricans, Mexican Americans, and Cuban Americans. While attending to the distinct histories of the groups in question, the course also looks for cultural and artistic links which connect Latino people.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST L355
Black Popular Culture

This course requires students to engage with Black/African diasporic cultural products intended for a mass audience. The macro-contents of American and global consumer capitalism and the micro- categories of ethnicity, gender, and sexualities are used as a framework for the critical analysis of production, consumption, and reception of African American popular culture in the US and abroad.
2 Lect Hrs, 1 Disc Hr, 3 Credits

AMST 360
Work, Society, and Culture in Modern America

This course has a double focus: the history of work in the modern US, and the cultural representations (fiction, movies, television, music, and others) that people have made of their working lives. All manner of work—from domestic service to farm labor—is considered. Above all, this course examines how work functions as a “way of life” in American cultural history.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST L372 (ENGL L372)
American Women Writers and American Culture

This course examines the significant contribution that women writers have made to the creation and development of an American national literature and culture. Points of emphasis include studying representative writers from different historical periods; examining the structures, forms, themes, concerns, and cultural contexts of individual works, as well as tendencies; and examining the relation of women’s writing to American culture.
Diversity Area: United States.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST 375
Best Sellers in American Society

“Best sellers” have shaped American views of science and nature; molded American business behavior; affected Americans’ notions of the past and their expectations of the future; and shaped public perceptions of gender, class, race, and ethnicity. In this course, we will read popular works, both fiction and nonfiction, published over the past century and a half and discuss the ways in which these books have influenced our images of our society and ourselves. The best sellers we will examine are those which were extremely popular with large sections of the public and/or influential in changing public opinion on major social issues. Readings for the course include Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Gone with the Wind, The Power of Positive Thinking, Silent Spring, The Feminine Mystique, and the novels of Stephen King.
Distribution II Area: Humanities.
Diversity Area: United States.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST L376 (WOST L376)
Women of Color

This course offers interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives on a variety of theories, themes, and issues related to the experiences of women of color in both U.S. and global contexts. It examines the genealogies, practices, and agendas of women of color “feminisms,” and promotes a dialogue about the interactive impact of race, class, and gender on women’s lives.
Distribution II Area: Humanities.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST L377 (ENGL L377)
Irish-American Literature and Culture

Studies of Irish-American culture during that century between the great famine and the Kennedy presidency. Emphasis is given to the connections between ethnic and literary cultures. Special concern for Irish-American fiction: Farrell, O’Hara, O’Connor. Further readings in ethnic history: Handlin and Shannon; biography and autobiography: Riordan, Dunne, McCarthy; Drama: O’Neill.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST L383 (SOCIOL L383)
Men’s Lives in the U.S.

An investigation in the contemporary U.S. of the experiences of men and the social construction of masculinities, as they emerge in various realms of experience (family, work, college, sexuality, war, imprisonment) and in conjunction with other constructed identities (social class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation). We will consult various theories on gender and examine a range of perspectives on “men’s issues.”
Distribution II Area: Social and Behavioral Sciences.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits
Mr Schaefer, Ms Disch

AMST 393 (HIST 393)
The Social History of American Women

This course provides a general social history of women in the United States and the institutions that governed their lives-the family, sexual and reproductive practice, child-raising practices, the social organization of work, and control over the means of production.
Diversity Area: United States.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST L394 (WOST L394)
Women in US Social Movements

A selective survey of the motivations, strategies, experiences, and accomplishments of US women who have been activists in a variety of social movements during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Students have the opportunity to do a research project on an activist in any of several movements, including, among others, anti-slavery, birth control, civil rights, gay and lesbian liberation, labor, peace, socialism, suffrage, temperance, and women’s liberation.
Diversity Area: United States.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

Capstone Courses

Please note: The prerequisites for capstone courses are ENGL 101 and 102, junior standing, two American studies courses, or permission of instructor.

AMST 405
The Immigrant Experience

Through letters, essays, autobiography, fiction, film, oral and written history, the course explores the historical and cultural issues raised by native-born Americans (Anglos) and immigrants (Aliens) who were involved during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in defining the sometimes agonizing process of becoming an American. Representative documents reveal a variety of conflicting views about the process and meaning of Americanization: from the defensive essays of Anglo-Saxon supremacists, through Jane Addams’ sensitive witness of immigrant life, the letters, diaries and accounts of immigrants, and two works of immigrant fiction.
Diversity Area: United States.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST 410
Cultural History of U.S. Media

This capstone course will explore the historical emergence of selected media: the Penney Press in the 1830s, film 1896-1932, radio 1928-1960, and television 1948-1977. Examining these media in the period of emergence will show how each relied on and challenged prior forms of conveying information and telling stories, reshaping boundaries between fictional and the real.
Prerequisites: Junior-level standing and three American Studies courses, or permission of the instructor.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST 420
Special Topics

Various seminars in the study of American culture will be offered once or twice under this heading. Topics change from year to year and are announced before the beginning of each semester.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST 435
Music and 20th Century American Literature

An investigation into the meanings and practices of manhood in the contemporary United States as these emerge in various realms of experience—family, work, war, imprisonment. An exploration of relationships between literature and popular musical forms in twentieth-century American culture. Through a program of paired readings in fiction, essay, and poetry, and listenings in blues, Tex-Mex, country, rock and other genres, students consider the ways in which writers have invoked music formally, atmospherically, and thematically in their work. Uses biographies, autobiographies, and ethnographies in seeking to understand the diversity of masculinities; and consults anthropological and interdisciplinary theories of gender for further insight. Student research and writing are emphasized.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST L436 (ART L436)
The American Suburb

This course traces the history of the American suburb during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, emphasizing the changing social and physical character of suburban development. It investigates the relationship between design and society through the study of such topics as the nature of domesticity, the technologies of housekeeping, the impact of the automobile, and the suburb in the American imagination.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST 440
US in Global Context

An exploration of American responses to key events of the 20th century in light of non-US (and non-mainstream US) perspectives that frequently focused on very different issues and priorities. The course considers public, media/arts, and official reactions to struggles for colonial independence, to World War II, and to the “proxy battles” that were characteristic of the Cold War. The “public” that is studied includes women as well as men, and people from a variety of social classes and racial/ethnic backgrounds. Non-US media perspectives include England, Ireland, India, Israel, Cuba, and Russia. The course, relies—to the extent possible—on the use of primary sources; participants consider how to use them sensitively and with a measure of sophistication. The course is intended to provide a vehicle for integrating the various methods of study of US history and culture encountered in previous course work.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST L470 (ENGL L470)
New England Literature and Culture (D)

A study of the New England literary tradition from about 1850 to the near present. How have writers and critics contested their differing versions of native grounds and reinvented the New England idea in their works? Consideration of such topics as Native American culture, Puritanism and Transcendentalism, slavery and Abolitionism, immigration and ethnicity, nationalism and regionalism, industrialization, and popular culture.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST L471 (ENGL L471)
The City in American Literature and Culture (D)

A study of physical, social, and cultural aspects of the American city, as reflected and constructed in architecture, the arts (literature, film, music, visual arts), and theory. The course focuses on four historical periods: the mid-19th century, the turn of the century, the mid-20th century, and the present; and includes a capstone research project.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST L476 (ANTH L476)
Current Issues in Native America

A seminar focusing on the lives of modern Native Americans, on and off reservations. Topics for reading, discussion, and original research include law, politics, economic development, public health, education, and the arts. Each student compiles and presents a comprehensive case study on a subject relevant to one of the seminar themes.
Prerequisites: AMST L270 (ANTH L270) or permission of instructor.
Diversity Area: United States.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST 478, 479
Independent Study

Advanced students may conduct independent research under the supervision and guidance of members of the faculty.
Hrs by Arrangement, 1-3 Credits

AMST 490, 491
Internship in American Studies

Part-time experience in an appropriate business, government, public advocacy, or non-profit institution, supervised by an on-site supervisor and an American Studies Program faculty advisor. Bi-weekly conferences with faculty advisor and written/audio-visual work are required. For full details, see the American Studies Student Handbook
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST 498
Honors

To be eligible for honors work in American studies a student must be doing a major in American studies and must have a cumulative average of at least a 3.3 in the program, and an overall grade-point average of at least 3.0. The student defines and writes the Honors project with the help of an American studies faculty advisor and enrolls in AMST 498-499. For full details, see Student Handbook.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

AMST 499
Honors

See AMST 498.
3 Lect Hrs, 3 Credits

Graduate Courses

Some graduate-level courses in American studies are open to undergraduates. Please contact the program office for further information.