American Studies Major

Degree Requirements: Bachelor of Arts with a major in American studies

Required courses:

An interdisciplinary approach to the study of America's heritage and the distinguishing features of the American mind and character.
A capstone course organized around a major theme or issue in the American experience. Themes and issues vary from year to year as the seminar rotates among faculty in several academic departments. Students are able to integrate their educational experience and implement further the interdisciplinary methodology in a holistic approach to a topic or subject. 3 credits.
† indicates a required course


At least one of:

A historical survey of American music emphasizing stylistic developments and illustrative musical examples from colonial times to the present. Includes American musical theater, jazz, folk and popular styles.
This course will offer a critical investigation of the role of popular culture in American life. From Tin Pan Alley to hip-hop, from fast food to pro wrestling, popular culture shows an increasing influence on American economic, social, and political life, and has become central in helping to define American identity and even reality itself. We all participate in popular culture in some way, and this course will give students the chance to explore its meanings and importance in their lives and in American culture.
A survey of philosophical thought in the United States from colonial period to present, with emphasis on the work of Peirce, James, and Dewey.
A survey of American intellectual history and cultural criticism ranging from Puritanism and Enlightenment Rationalism to multiculturalism, feminism, and post-modernism.
This course will explore both the historical origins and development of the cultural ideal of democracy in the United States. By focusing on the cultural ideal of democracy, it will seek to understand the impact and meaning of democracy in America beyond that of political institutions alone. It will include readings and discussions in history, literature, politics, and cultural anthropology.
An examination of the social, political, economic and cultural upheaval of the 1960s and 1970s in the historical context.
This course incorporates a variety of approaches to working class studies: historical, sociological, cultural, and political. The primary focus of the class will be on the US, but some comparisons to other countries will be made to help highlight what is specifically American about our class system.
This course will introduce students to the complexities of the African-American experience in the past and present. It will survey how the black experience, thought and culture has been shaped and fractured by economics, politics, class, gender, and national origin. The basic disciplinary approach to the subject will be historical, but will include the analysis of black culture, notably writing and music.
This course is designed to address a broad spectrum of issues related to the psychology of gender. Of central importance is the examination of empirical findings related to gender differences and similarities in biological, behavioral, cognitive, social, and emotional domains. The course will also involve a critical examination of the meaning of gender in the field of psychology and in the broader society.
This course explores the lives of those individuals living with a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer identity (LGBTQ) and the relationship these individuals have with those around them. Exploration of the historical and contemporary implications of living with an LGBTQ identity, how these identities develop, the struggle for civil rights and legal protections, and how various factors such as the AIDS crisis, the media, religion, and others impact LGBTQ persons will also be explored.
A study of American science and technology and their interrelations with economic, cultural, political and intellectual developments.
This team-taught, interdisciplinary course will critically examine how films reflect, construct, and question the dominant image and understanding of the American identity.
This course offers students a chance to explore the origins, histories, institutions and current practices of the American aristocracy. Students will learn about how the very rich families that currently enjoy enormous hereditary wealth obtained and maintain their fortunes.
An introduction to art from 1650 to the present day. The course offers a critical grounding in selected themes with an emphasis on cultural history and stylistic change. Includes painting, architecture, film, photography, and sculpture.
This course will explore the relationship between religion and politics in the United States. It will include an examination of the role religion played in the founding vision of our nation?s democracy, as well as the important separation between church and state that has been achieved over the course of our nation?s history. With this historical backdrop in mind, special emphasis will then be given to the ascendancy of the religious right in recent electoral politics.
This class offers you a chance to familiarize yourself with the variety of ethnic, racial, gender, and sexual groups and identities in the U.S. You will gain or enhance your intellectual framework for understanding and appreciating diversity. It also will prepare you to survive and thrive in our complex and challenging world. The course relies on history, literature, and cultural studies and will be challenging but also fun.

Three other AMS courses.


At least 2 (and no more than five) classes outside of the major on topics related to U.S. culture.
Courses will be chosen in consultation with the advisor and must relate to some aspect of American culture.
Possible courses include:
A survey of selected major American authors from the colonial period to about 1900. Usually offered fall semester.
A survey of selected major American authors from about 1900 to the present. Usually offered spring semester.
The major events and developments in America from Columbus to the Civil War, with emphasis on the creation of a distinctive American society from the interaction of different cultures, ethnic groups, and ideas. Major themes include the transformation of European cultural ideas in colonial America and the impact of republican ideology, democratization, and the spread of the market economy between the Revolution and the Civil War.
American history from 1865 until the present. Students learn about important themes in recent history such as law and order, native land rights, protest movements, foreign policy and its critics, and the rise of corporate power and its economic and political consequences.
This course uses the current presidential election as a case study from which students can analyze the history of American parties and elections. The course will use political science concepts such as realignment and dealignment to study the rise and fall of the various "party systems" in American history, and will attempt to place the current presidential election within its historical context.
An analysis of American military institutions from Old World tradition to the post-Persian Gulf era with emphasis on the U.S. Army.
This course will introduce students to the complexities of the African American experience in the past and present. It will survey how the black experience, thought and culture has been shaped and fractured by economics, politics, class, gender, and national origin. The basic disciplinary approach to the subject will be historical, but will include the analysis of black culture, notably writing and music.
The role and status of women in American society from the colonial period to the present. It emphasizes the ways that women's paid and unpaid labor has shaped their status and role in the family, society, and the economy.
An in-depth study of why Americans declared their independence and how they won the Revolution and worked to build a republic in a hostile world of monarchies. Particular attention is paid to major issues on which historians of the period disagree.
A study of how sectional divisions over slavery led to a bloody war and reshaped American society.
This course offers students a chance to explore the origins, histories, institutions, and current practices of the American aristocracy. Students will learn about how the very rich families that currently enjoy enormous hereditary wealth obtained and maintain their fortunes. Students will also investigate the histories and current policies of the institutions that protect and promote the wealthy such as corporations, the stock market, and government.
A survey of philosophical thought in the United States from colonial period to present, with emphasis on the work of Peirce, James, and Dewey.
This course provides a survey of key developments, institutions, and issues in American politics. Topics include the ideas that shaped the original American political system, the presidency; Congress and federal courts; the operation of political parties and interest groups; domestic and foreign policy debates; and contemporary issues such as civil rights and affirmative action.
This course uses the current presidential election as a case study from which students can analyze the history of American parties and elections. The course will use political science concepts such as realignment and dealignment to study the rise and fall of the various "party systems" in American history, and will attempt to place the current presidential election within its historical context.
This course describes the public policy process and analyzes various areas of substantive domestic policy at the national level. Topics covered include budgeting and taxation, education, health, welfare, and the environment.
An examination of the Congress as an institution undergoing dynamic change; emphasis upon recruitment of legislators, institutional and informal rules, the committee system, and legislative procedures.
Both the institution of the presidency and the person of the president will be examined from a number of analytical perspectives. Some of the specific topics we will be covering include: presidential history; the relationship between the presidency and the public via campaigns and elections, public opinion, the mass media, political parties, and interest groups; the presidential institution and the psychological elements of presidents; inter-branch relations among the presidency, Congress, and the courts; and the presidency and domestic, economic, and foreign policymaking.
This course offers a two-part examination of American foreign policy. The first part will be an extensive survey of U.S. foreign policy from its inception as a nation through today. A critical theme will be the U.S. tradition of unilateralism, not isolationism. The second part will examine the policy-making process itself, focusing on the multiple actors and cross-cutting interests that comprise U.S. foreign policy decision-making. Writing process.
The course will examine all areas in which contemporary U.S. Security Policy is formulated and implemented. The overall goal of the course is for students to develop their abilities to interrelate the concepts and substance of U.S. security.
This course uses key cases to study important doctrines established by the Supreme Court with regard to civil rights and civil liberties. Students will examine the Court's rulings concerning the establishment and free exercise of religion, protection of freedom of speech and of the press, privacy rights (abortion and sexual freedom), the rights of the accused in the criminal justice system, and the law governing racial or sexual discrimination. The course places particular emphasis on various forms of textual interpretation used by individual justices to apply the Constitution in deciding cases and writing opinions.
The dynamics of the electoral process in the United States, with emphasis on the role of parties, public opinion and interest groups.
Governmental institutions, characteristics of state and local political systems and the major inter-governmental problems in state and local relations with federal government.
A study of the origin and development of religious expression in America. Special emphasis will be given to issues of religious diversity.
This course explores the relationship between religion and politics in the United States. It will include an examination of the role religion played in the founding of our nation's democracy, the important separation between church and state that has been achieved over the course of our nation's history, and the ascendancy of the religious right in recent electoral politics.
Introduction to both physical and cultural anthropology including human evolution, human variation, and cross-cultural analysis and comparison.