Carleton College

American Studies (AMST)

Director: Professor Michael J. Kowalewski

Associate Director: Associate Professor Richard Keiser

Professor: Elizabeth McKinsey

Assistant Professor: Adriana Estill

Committee Members: Sharon Akimoto, Barbara Allen, Deborah Appleman, Peter Balaam, Laurel Bradley, Lawrence Burnett, Theo Cateforis, Nancy J. Cho, Clifford E. Clark, Jr., Carol Donelan, Anna Rachel Igra, Baird Jarman, Kirk Jeffrey, Mark Kanazawa, Richard A. Keiser, Stephen K. Kelly, Jerome M. Levi, Lance T. McCready, Michael McNally, Beverly Nagel, Annette Nierobisz, Kofi Owusu, Melinda Russell, Ronald W. Rodman, John Schott, Lauren Soth, William Terriquez, Robert E. Tisdale, Jenny Bourne Wahl, Ruth Weiner, Harry M. Williams, Serena Zabin

This program is designed to encourage and support the interdisciplinary study of American culture. It draws upon the expertise of faculty in various disciplines and strives to understand the institutions, values, and beliefs that have shaped the experiences of U.S. residents. Recognizing the diverse and pluralistic nature of our society, the American Studies program enables the student to construct an interdisciplinary major around topics of the student's own choice such as urban studies, ethnicity, media, religion, gender roles, environmental thought or some other aspect of the American experience. The program supports interdisciplinary courses conducted by Carleton faculty and it brings to campus nationally known visiting artists and scholars under the auspices of the Fred C. Andersen Foundation.

Requirements for a Major:

American Studies is an interdisciplinary major which a student constructs from offerings in two or more departments of instruction. To major in American Studies students must fill out an application form that can be obtained in the American Studies office in Goodsell Observatory. The form asks students to specify the general topic or focus of the major and the disciplines which seem most appropriate for study of that topic. In the winter of their junior year, students will be asked to secure the signatures of two faculty, one from each of the supporting disciplines, who will agree to supervise their Integrative Exercise.

Majors must complete 66 credits (eleven courses) in the following general areas:

I. Core Courses: Each student must complete all four of these:

      AMST 115: Introduction to American Studies

      AMST 345: Theory and Practice of American Studies

      AMST 396: Senior Seminar in American Studies

      AMST 400: Colloquium and Integrative Exercise in American Studies

Beginning with the Class of 2006, 115 will be a prerequisite for 345 and 396

II. Survey Courses:

Students must take three survey courses. Two of these three survey courses should be part of a two-term sequence in one department. The third survey course should be a one-term course in a different department.

      Two-term survey courses:

      HIST 120-121: American Social History

      HIST 220-221: African American History I and II

      HIST 222-223: U.S. Women's History

      POSC 271-272: Constitutional Law I and II

            One-term survey courses:

      ARTH 160: American Art to 1940 (not offered in 2003­2004)

      ECON 232: American Economic History (not offered in 2003­2004)

      ENGL 112: Introduction to American Literature

      MEDA 135: History of American Film (not offered in 2003­2004)

      POSC 122: Politics in America: Liberty and Equality

      RELG 140: Religion and American Culture

III. Topical Courses: Each student must take four courses that deal with elements of the American experience that he or she has determined are central to a particular focus within the major. Courses that will fulfill this requirement are listed under three groups. No more than one of these courses may be a 100-level course. (Survey courses above and beyond those used to satisfy the required one-term and two-term sequences may count as a Topical Course.) No more than two Topical Courses may be from the same group. In order that majors acquire the research skills necessary to complete the major, one of these courses must be a 300-level course.

 

American Studies Courses

AMST 115. Introduction to American Studies: "Placing" Identities This course will examine the different spaces that inform the production of U.S. identities. We will think about the ways the construction of neighborhoods (urban or suburban) affects our sense of place, ethnicity, and community; we'll consider the impact that border geographies, whether physical or cultural, have on national imaginings; we shall look at contemporary cultural expressions of small town vs. big city life and consider what they feature as particular and unique about Americanness. 6 credits cr., RAD,ND, Winter—A. Estill, R. Keiser

AMST 127. Introduction to U.S. Latino/a Studies This course will survey the field of Latino/a Studies, juxtaposing it to Chicano, Caribbean and Latin American Studies in order to trace the historical, methodological, and paradigmatic conflicts that led to its institutionalization. How does the lens of U.S. Latino/a Studies help us to examine heterogeneous and changing Latino communities? How are the "Latin Boom" of the entertainment industry and the recent demographic shift that places Latinos as the "majority minority" related? A selection of texts from a variety of disciplines (including history, the social sciences, literature, music, and the visual arts) will inform our discussions. 6 credits cr., RAD,ND, Fall—A. Estill

AMST 239. Introduction to Asian American Studies This team-taught course is designed as an interdisciplinary study of Asian American identities and cultures. We will address the diversity and fluidity of Asian American experiences through an examination of history, social sciences, literature, and film. Students of all majors and backgrounds are welcome to enroll. 6 credits cr., RAD,ND, Not offered in 2003-2004.

AMST 287. Califonia Program: California Art and Architecture Cross-listed with ENTS 287. An in-depth study of how California painting, photography and architecture embody the state's evolving social, cultural, and environmental concerns. The course will include discussions with California artists and art historians, and visits to museums and galleries. Art and artists studied will include: native rock art; paintings by Bierstadt, Nahl, the California Impressionists, the Society of Six, Diebenkorn and urban spray-can muralists; photography by Adams, Weston, Lange, and Misrach; the imagery of commercial culture (lithographs; advertisements; orange crate labels); and architecture by Maybeck, Morgan, and the Greene Brothers. 6 credits cr., ND, Not offered in 2003-2004.

AMST 289. California Program: California Field Studies Students will participate in a number of fieldtrips dealing with California's history, literature, and environment. Sites visited will include Yosemite, Sutter's Fort, the Modoc Lava Beds, California Indian Museum, Teatro Campesino, Hearst Castle and Catalina Island. Students will also complete an Oral Culture Project. 4 credits cr., S/CR/NC, ND, Not offered in 2003-2004.

AMST 345. Theory and Practice of American Studies An introduction to some of the animating debates within American Studies from the 1930s to the present. This course will study select themes, theories, and methodologies in the writings of a number of scholars in the field and try to understand 1) the often highly contested nature of debates about how best to study American culture; and 2) how various theories and forms of analysis in American Studies have evolved and transformed themselves over the last seventy years. The course is not designed to be a fine-grained institutional history of American Studies, but a vigorous exploration of some of the central questions of interpretation in the field. This course will normally be taken by majors in their junior year. 6 credits cr., ND, Winter—M. Kowalewski

AMST 386. California Program: The Literature of California Cross-listed with ENGL 386,ENTS 386. An intensive study of writing and film that explores California both as a place (or rather, a mosaic of places) and as a continuing metaphor­whether of promise or disintegration­for the rest of the country. Authors read will include Jack London, John Muir, Raymond Chandler, Nathanael West, Robinson Jeffers, John Steinbeck, Jack Kerouac, Joan Didion, Gary Snyder, and Maxine Hong Kingston. Films will include Sunset Boulevard, Chinatown, The Grapes of Wrath, Zoot Suit, L.A. Confidential, and Blade Runner. 6 credits cr., AL, Not offered in 2003-2004.

AMST 396. The Sublime in America Through the lens of late 18th-century European aesthetic ideas (particularly "the Sublime"), we will examine American literature, art history, cultural and intellectual history and explore the development of American national identity and American exceptionalism in the early national period and the early 19th century. Writers may include Irving, Cooper, Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, and Whitman, and painters Cole, Church, Bierstadt, Heade, and Lane will be included; major themes will be attitudes toward American landscape, American character, and concepts of American nationhood and its destiny in the pre-Civil War period. 6 credits cr., ND, Fall—E. McKinsey

AMST 396. Senior Seminar in American Studies An interdisciplinary course taught by a single member of the American Studies faculty, designed to introduce students to theories and methods in American Studies as they relate to a particular topic of inquiry. The course will encourage students to explore the various, sometimes conflicting ways in which a cultural or political phenomenon has been interpreted by a number of different disciplines. The course will include both primary and secondary texts, and will involve significant research for students preparing to work on the senior integrative exercise in the following term. This seminar will normally be taken by majors in their senior year. In 2003-2004 the topic of this seminar will be: Not offered in 2003-2004.

AMST 400. Colloquium and Integrative Exercise The colloquium will meet as a research seminar, providing a structured environment for seniors working on their integrative exercise in American Studies. It will build upon the research experience of the senior seminar, and prepare students for the independent production of theses or performances to satisfy the college "comps" requirement. Students will be evaluated for this course upon completion of the senior integrative exercise. They will be required to give a public presentation on their research during the spring term. 6 credits cr., S/NC, ND, Winter—M. Kowalewski

Topical Courses:

Group I

AFAM 233: A Study of the Harlem Renaissance through Literature, Music and Dance (not offered in 2003­2004)

AMST 287: California Program: California Art and Architecture (not offered in 2003­2004)

AMST 386: California Program: The Literature of California (not offered in 2003­2004)

ARTH 160: American Art to 1940 (not offered in 2003­2004)

ARTH 222: History of Photography

ARTH 240: Art Since 1945

ARTH 245: Modern Architecture (not offered in 2003­2004)

ARTH 247: Architecture Since 1950

DANC 114: Black Dance: An Historical Survey

ENGL 112: Introduction to American Literature

ENGL 117: African American Literature

ENGL 119: Introduction to U.S. Latino/a Literature

ENGL 230: African American Autobiography

ENGL 231: From Memory to Memoir

ENGL 234: Southern Literature

ENGL 235: Asian American Literature

ENGL 236: American Nature Writing (not offered in 2003­2004)

ENGL 237: American Indian Literature (not offered in 2003­2004)

ENGL 242: 20th-Century American Drama (not offered in 2003­2004)

ENGL 330: Literature of the American West (not offered in 2003­2004)

ENGL 332: Studies in American Literature: Faulkner, Hemingway and Fitzgerald

ENGL 334: Studies in American Literature: The Postmodern American Novel

ENGL 339: Contemporary American Playwrights of Color

ENGL 340: Major Modernist Poets (not offered in 2003­2004)

ENGL 341: Contemporary Poetry

ENGL 342: Contemporary Latino/a Poetry

ENGL 395: Literature, Authority and Social Change

ENGL 395: Moby-Dick and Its Contexts

ENGL 395: Toni Morrison: Nobel Laureate

MEDA 135: History of American Film (not offered in 2003­2004)

MEDA 227: Open the Box: Studies in Television

MEDA 228: Rethinking the Fifties Through Film, Television and Photography

MEDA 229: Outsiders Cinema: Fiction Film (not offered in 2003­2004)

MEDA 234: Film Noir: The Dark Side of the American Dream

MEDA 252: Understanding New Media

MEDA 280: The Cinema of Stanley Kubrick (not offered in 2003­2004)

MEDA 281: The Cinema of Martin Scorsese (not offered in 2003­2004)

MEDA 282: Hitchcock: The Classic Films (not offered in 2003­2004)

MEDA 283: Capra and Wilder: Sweet and Sour (not offered in 2003­2004)

MUSC 115: Music and the Media (not offered in 2003­2004)

MUSC 130: History of Jazz

MUSC 131: From the Delta to Memphis

MUSC 132: Music of the 1960s

MUSC 133: Bluegrass and Country-Western Music (not offered in 2003­2004)

MUSC 136: History of Rock

MUSC 137: Spiritual Hymns and Gospel Music: Aspects of the African-American Musical Traditions

MUSC 244: Native American Music (not offered in 2003­2004)

SPAN 245: Hybrid Cultures: Introduction to U.S. Latino Literature (not offered in 2003­2004)

Group II

AMST 127: Introduction to U.S. Latino/a Studies

AMST 239: Introduction to Asian American Studies (not offered in 2003­2004)

HIST 119: Frontiers in Early America (not offered in 2003­2004)

HIST 120: Rethinking the American Experience: American Social History 1607-1865

HIST 121: Rethinking the American Experience: American Social History 1865-1945

HIST 190: Technology in American History (not offered in 2003­2004)

HIST 195: American Environmental History

HIST 200: The Zen of Asian and Western Woodworking (not offered in 2003­2004)

HIST 212: The American Revolution

HIST 213: The Early American Republic

HIST 214: Civil War Era (not offered in 2003­2004)

HIST 218: History, Memory, and the Vietnam War

HIST 220: African American History I

HIST 221: African American History II

HIST 222: U.S. Women's History to 1877 (not offered in 2003­2004)

HIST 223: U.S. Women's History Since 1877 (not offered in 2003­2004)

HIST 227: History of the American West (not offered in 2003­2004)

HIST 229: Gender and Work in U.S. History

HIST 279: American Intellectual History (not offered in 2003­2004)

HIST 301: Contact and Frontiers in Early America (not offered in 2003­2004)

HIST 305: Topics in American Environmental History

HIST 322: The Civil Rights Movement in America, 1942-1965

HIST 324: The Concord Intellectuals (not offered in 2003­2004)

HIST 345: Atlantic Revolutions, France and America (not offered in 2003­2004)

HIST 381: History, Memory and Black Atlantic: Ghana and the United States

HIST 382: History, Memory and Black Atlantic: On-site in Ghana and Revisited

HIST 395: United States in Depression and War 1929-1945

HIST 395: Topics in African American History (not offered in 2003­2004)

HIST 395: The Progressive Era (not offered in 2003­2004)

RELG 130: Native American Religions

RELG 135: Introduction to African American Religion

RELG 140: Religion and American Culture

RELG 239: Religion and the American Landscape

RELG 243: Native American Religious Freedom

RELG 246: Healing and Religion in America (not offered in 2003­2004)

RELG 248: Religions in the Borderlands

RELG 322: Christian Feminist Theologies (not offered in 2003­2004)

RELG 344: Lived Religion in America

Group III

ECON 232: American Economic History (not offered in 2003­2004)

ECON 262: The Economics of Sports (not offered in 2003­2004)

ECON 271: Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment (not offered in 2003­2004)

ECON 273: Water and Western Economic Development

ECON 275: Law and Economics

ECON 395: Economics of Land, Water and Environment

EDUC 260: Gender, Sexuality and Schooling

EDUC 264: Middle School and the Young Adolescent

EDUC 270: Brown Vs. Board of Education: Decision and Legacy

EDUC 336: History of African American Education (not offered in 2003­2004)

EDUC 338: Multicultural Education

EDUC 344: Youth, Culture, and Schooling in American Society

EDUC 353: Schooling and Opportunity

ENTS 265: Environmental Justice

POSC 122: Politics in America: Liberty and Equality

POSC 201: National Policymaking (not offered in 2003­2004)

POSC 204: Media and American Politics: Special Election Edition (not offered in 2003­2004)

POSC 205: Congress and the Presidency (not offered in 2003­2004)

POSC 206: The American Courts (not offered in 2003­2004)

POSC 207: Urban Politics

POSC 215: Federalism, State and Local Politics (not offered in 2003­2004)

POSC 231: American Foreign Policy

POSC 252: American Political Thought (not offered in 2003­2004)

POSC 257: American Environmental Thought

POSC 262: Environmental Policy and Politics (not offered in 2003­2004)

POSC 269: U.S. and U.K. Philanthropy: Politics, Policy, and Practice (not offered in 2003­2004)

POSC 271: Constitutional Law I

POSC 272: Constitutional Law II

POSC 305: Issues in American Democracy (not offered in 2003­2004)

POSC 306: Urban Racial and Ethnic Politics (not offered in 2003­2004)

POSC 308: Poverty and Public Policy

POSC 309: The American Presidency

POSC 311: Topics in Constitutional Law (not offered in 2003­2004)

POSC 312: American Political Culture and Values: Special Election Edition(not offered in 2003­2004)

POSC 314: Money in Politics (not offered in 2003­2004)

POSC 318: The American Farm (not offered in 2003­2004)

POSC 329: Vietnam War and American Policy (not offered in 2003­2004)

POSC 349: Race Theory: Contemporary Approaches

POSC 351: Political Theory of Martin Luther King, Jr.

POSC 352: Political Theory of Alexis de Tocqueville (not offered in 2003­2004)

POSC 353: Feminist and American Separatist Movements (not offered in 2003­2004)

POSC 355: Contemporary Feminist Thought

POSC 359: Social Capital: Critical and Cross-Cultural Perspectives

POSC 367: Suburbanization in America

PSYC 384: Psychology of Prejudice (not offered in 2003­2004)

SOAN 220: Class, Power and Inequality in America

SOAN 221: Law and Society (not offered in 2003­2004)

SOAN 222: Work and Occupations in Contemporary Society (not offered in 2003­2004)

SOAN 259: Comparative Issues in Native North America (not offered in 2003­2004)

SOAN 281: Race and Ethnicity in the United States and China

SOAN 302: Anthropology and Indigenous Rights

SOAN 303: Criminology: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives (not offered in 2003­2004)

SOAN 320: Schooling and Opportunity in American Society