American Studies (AMST)

An exploration of significant questions and integrative concepts in American Studies, their grounding in the process of scientific discovery and application, and their broader relevance to society. Designed for first-year students. Although topics vary, the courses also seek to improve students’ communication skills beyond the written word.

An exploration of a specific topic in American Studies. A grade of C- or better fulfills the COLL 150 requirement. Although topics vary, the courses emphasize academic writing skills, reading and analysis of texts, and discussion.

Over the past half century, scholarship and public debate have brought to light aspects of the United States that were often hidden, dismissed and even suppressed. The many communities and peoples whose lives made up the US were not equally represented in narratives about “America,” and often saw their stories distorted when not ignored. Rethinking America considers key ideas, beliefs and themes in past and contemporary American experience. With a wide array of sources and methods, diverse voices, and numerous perspectives, we investigate core ideas and debates that have defined and contested America over time. Considering neglected and once dismissed perspectives helps us better ask and answer contemporary questions and more importantly, cultivate broad understanding and empathy. This course serves as an Introduction to American Studies - the interdisciplinary investigation in the US and "America" and the peoples whose lives have made up them both.

This course introduces and examines forms of popular culture that emerged after 1865. It considers popular culture within the context of social, political, and economic changes In the U.S., such as migration, Industrialization, technology, and globalization of capitalism.

This course introduces students American Studies via the movies. It will orient students to the forms, techniques and history of film, while at the same time, examining how cinema, America's most popular and powerful entertainment, both reflected and participated in social, cultural, and political upheavals from the late 19th century to the 1960s.

An overview of American medicine from the 18th century to the present. Subjects include the changing understanding of disease; the social role of the physician; and society’s response to such public health crises as cholera and AIDS.

This course examines the social and cultural history of Americans at war from the latter part of the 17th century to the present. Course readings will concentrate on primary sources: fiction, memoirs, and historical accounts drawn from three centuries of American experiences in combat.

The course introduces students to the study of American culture through history, popular culture, multiple media, and scientific literature concerned with sexualities in America. The course will also show how normative sexualities are articulated distinctly depending on race, class, ethnicity, immigrant status, and other factors related to specific American communities.

This course will explain the chronology of African American experience by exploring the landscapes across which it has traveled the fields, rivers, trains, steamboats, diners, both the rural and urban spaces of America and beyond. The course will examine some of the major themes, problems, events, structures, and personalities, paying particular attention to how African Americans themselves shaped their experiences and how movement informs those experiences. Each class will engage in a close examination of a variety of primary sources, including: autobiographies, fiction, film, speeches, music, and visual art.

Using 19th and 20th century American fiction, laws, decisions and social, historical and legal scholarship, this course will explore the legal and cultural history of "miscegenation" in the United States."

An interdisciplinary, historical survey of experiments with and quests for the ideal society, from New England Puritan settlements and alternative religious and secular communities to nineteenth-century reform and religious movements, speculative fiction, urban planning, and countercultural communes.

This course explores American popular music in the mid 20th century. We trace its origins in the movements, struggles, and relationships of African Americans, immigrants, workers, rural and urban residents. Through close listening, viewing and reading, we will understand both their global roots and domestic impact, with great attention to the role of music in American social life, where it touched millions with its humanity and power - soul. We will study many genres, including jazz ,R&B, soul, gospel, country, rock & roll, folk and more.

Selected topics in the study of American Studies.

The course aims to increase students understanding of the rich complexity of American life by studying multi-ethnic American literature and culture. We will explore some of the theoretical problems associated with race and ethnicity. For the most part, however, we will work outward from certain key texts, pursuing the questions that emerge in and from them. We will consider such matters as the evolution of immigration law, the problems of identity and dual identity, and the question of assimilation versus cultural separatism. We will also emphasize the achievement of these texts as literary documents that need to be understood as responding to local cultural practices even as they speak more broadly to Americans as a whole.

Selected topics in the study of American culture. Recent topics have included: The Idea of Race, Harlem on Seine, Acting Asian American, Music of the United States, Immigration and Religion, Women and Religion in America, Colonial Cities. May be repeated for credit.

Health Inequality Across the Americas challenges nation-state conceptions of health and community to advance students’ understanding of inequality in an interconnected, global world. Students will learn to engage health issues theoretically and sociologically, with critical perspectives on a variety of measures and methodologies that demonstrate human and social difference, perpetuate and challenge inequalities.

By exploring theoretical, methodological and historical approaches to a range of cultural materials, students will critically engage with how American Studies and its related disciplinary fields have addressed the politics and culture of national identity in the U.S. (Non-majors may enroll only by permission of the instructor.)

Selected topics in the study of American Studies.

In this course students will learn a variety of interdisciplinary methods--e.g., oral history collection, archival research, material cultural analysis--for doing American Studies research. They will then apply these methods practically to the study of Williamsburg in the 20th century. (Non majors may enroll with consent of instructor.)

An interdisciplinary examination of 19th- and 20th-century southern texts within the cultural context of self-conscious regionalism. Emphasis is on the interaction between literature and the social configurations of slavery, abolitionism, southern nationalism, racism, traditionalism, and the civil rights movement.

Selected topics in the study of American studies. Recent topics have included: The Museum in America, Hip Hop Culture and History, Literature of the Caribbean, Death and Dying in America, Collecting and Exhibiting Culture. May be repeated for credit.

A program of extensive reading, writing, and discussion in a special area of American Studies for the advanced student. Students accepted for this course will arrange their program of study with an appropriate faculty advisor.

Selected topics in the study of American Studies.

Students admitted to Honors study in American Studies will be enrolled in this course during both semesters of their senior year. Each candidate will be responsible for (a) formulating a program of study in consultation with a faculty advisor; (b) preparation and presentation of an Honors essay two weeks before the last day of classes, spring semester; (c) satisfactory performance in a comprehensive oral examination which focuses on the subject matter of the Honors essay. Students who wish to write an honors essay in the senior year must write a brief proposal outlining the project. This proposal must be approved by the faculty advisor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the semester before work on the project begins. For College provisions governing the Admission to Honors, see catalog section titled Honors and Special Programs.

Students admitted to Honors study in American Studies will be enrolled in this course during both semesters of their senior year. Each candidate will be responsible for (a) formulating a program of study in consultation with a faculty advisor; (b) preparation and presentation of an Honors essay two weeks before the last day of classes, spring semester; (c) satisfactory performance in a comprehensive oral examination which focuses on the subject matter of the Honors essay. Students who wish to write an honors essay in the senior year must write a brief proposal outlining the project. This proposal must be approved by the faculty advisor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the semester before work on the project begins. For College provisions governing the Admission to Honors, see catalog section titled Honors and Special Programs.

This course is designed to allow students to gain knowledge through experience in a setting relevant to the study of America. Students will be supervised by a faculty advisor. The internship includes readings in related areas of theory and research as assigned by the supervising faculty. Permission from the Director of Undergraduate Studies is required as is the completion of the Internship form from the Dean of Undergraduate Studies.