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The American Studies Program

The American Studies program engages students in examination of the culture and society of the United States, past and present. As a nation born of immigration and encounter, the United States has always embraced diverse racial and ethnic groups in mutual encounter and conflict. It has also undergone endless change, through transformations wrought by geographical expansion, democracy, industrialization, urbanization, and the pressures of war and international politics. These forces ranged from the forcible removal of Native Americans from their lands, and enslavement of Africans, to the most intimate realms of life, such as the relations between men and women in the home and attitudes toward the body.

Yet, in the midst of these large movements of history, many Americans have forged distinctive cultures–ways of thinking, feeling and acting–that express their basic values and give meaning to their institutions and everyday social practices. Such cultures reflect, in part, the different experiences of people, according to their race, gender, and class. But they may also attest to Americans’ participation in a larger ideological heritage, shaped by ideals of democracy and equality that have been affirmed in major political movements, such as the American Revolution, and articulated in art, literature, music, and films.

The American Studies program offers an opportunity to explore the commonalities and differences among Americans through an interdisciplinary course of studies. All students are expected to develop a solid grounding in history as a basis and context for their other investigations of American life. Working closely with their advisor, students will assemble a set of courses, designed both to represent the diversity of cultures and social forms within the United States and to pursue significant themes or questions in depth. In developing the major, students may also take up comparative perspectives on the United States, considering, for example, African American life within the context of the black diaspora, or the American experience of industrial capitalism as a variant on a general model in the West.

Programs and Course Descriptions

Programs

• American Studies, BA
• American Studies, Minor

Courses

• AMST 100 - Critical Questions in American Studies
• AMST 201 - American Popular Culture and Modern America
• AMST 202 - Introduction to American Studies: Cinema and the Modernization of U.S. Culture, 1914-1945
• AMST 203 - Introduction to American Studies: American Medicine: A Social and Cultural History
• AMST 204 - The American Way of War
• AMST 205 - Sexuality In America
• AMST 206 - Black Popular Culture in the Americas: From the Folk to the New Hip Hop
• AMST 207 - Black Movement and Migrations
• AMST 208 - Dis/Ability Studies
• AMST 209 - Interracialism: Race, Literature and the Law
• AMST 210 - Utopia in America
• AMST 225 - Archaeological Field Methods
• AMST 240 - The History of Modern Dance
• AMST 241 - History of American Vernacular Dance
• AMST 271 - Popular Music in the United States
• AMST 273 - History of Jazz
• AMST 341 - Artists and Cultures
• AMST 343 - American Ethnic Literature and Culture
• AMST 350 - Topics in American Culture
• AMST 370 - Junior Seminar: America and the Americas
• AMST 410 - Williamsburg Documentary Project
• AMST 425 - Advanced Archaeological Field Methods
• AMST 445 - The Making of a Region: Southern Literature and Culture
• AMST 470 - Topics in American Studies
• AMST 480 - Independent Study
• AMST 495 - Honors
• AMST 496 - Honors
• AMST 498 - Internship

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