Carleton College

American Studies (AMST)

Director: Professor Richard A. Keiser

Associate Director: Professor Beverly Nagel

Professor: Elizabeth McKinsey

Assistant Professor: Adriana Estill

 

Committee Members: Sharon Akimoto, Barbara Allen, Deborah Appleman, Peter Balaam, Susan Ridgely Bales, Robert E. Bonner, Laurel Bradley, Lawrence E. Burnett, Theodore Cateforis, Nancy J. Cho, Clifford E. Clark, Jr., Carol Donelan, Gregory G. Hewett, Anna Rachel Igra, Baird E. Jarman, Kirk Jeffrey, Mark T. Kanazawa, Stephen K. Kelly, Michael J. Kowalewski, Jerome M. Levi, Lance T. McCready, Michael McNally, Beverly Nagel, Annette Nierobisz, Kofi Owusu, Melinda Russell, Ronald W. Rodman, John F. Schott, William Terriquez, Robert G. Tisdale, Jenny Bourne Wahl, Ruth Weiner, Harry M. Williams, Serena R. 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 taught 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.

 

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 (Class of 2005)

      AMST 396 Junior Research Seminar (Class of 2006)

      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 (not offered in 2004-2005)

            One-term survey courses:

      ARTH 160 American Art to 1940 (not offered in 2004­2005)

      CAMS 135 History of American Film (not offered in 2004­2005)

      ECON 232 American Economic History (not offered in 2004­2005)

      ENGL 112 Introduction to American Literature

      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. Students must take courses from at least two groups. In order that majors acquire the research skills necessary to complete the major, one of these courses must be a 300-level course.

IV. Integrative Exercise: A senior may choose:

a. Essay or Project Option: a 35-40 page essay on an approved topic or an approved project (e.g., a critical documentary, radio narrative, web design project, performance piece, or service learning project) accompanied by a 15-20 page essay. Open only to students who enroll in AMST 400 winter term.

b. Examination Option: A written examination given early in spring term.

 

American Studies Courses

AMST 115. Introduction to American Studies: The Immigrant Experience Is America truly a nation of immigrants? What role has immigration played in the construction of an American identity? This course is a team-taught, comparative study of the experience of migrants and immigrants to America and other countries. We will use texts from history, literature, film, sociology, and other disciplines to help us investigate the following topics: the causes of emigration; acculturation and assimilation; changes in family structure and gender roles; discrimination; and ongoing debates about immigration policy in relation to national ideals and principles. 6 credits cr., RAD,ND, Fall—N. Cho, B. Nagel

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, Spring—D. Appleman, 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 2004-2005.

AMST 240. The Midwest and the American Imagination The history of American culture has always been shaped by a dialectic between the local and the universal, the regional and the national. The particular geography and history of the Midwest (the prairie, the plains, the old Northwest, Native Americans and white adventurers, settlers and immigrants) have shaped its livelihoods, its identities, its meanings. Focusing on the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this course will explore literature, art history, and the social and cultural history of the Midwest. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—E. McKinsey

AMST 287. Califonia Program: California Art and Architecture 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, Summer—C. Kowalewski

AMST 289. California Program: California Field Studies Students will participate in a number of field trips 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, Summer—M. Kowalewski

AMST 290. California Program: Directed Reading Students will do some preparatory reading on California history, literature and art before the seminar begins and then again throughout the program, in connection with field trips and guest speakers. 2 credits cr., S/CR/NC, ND, Summer—M. Kowalewski

AMST 310. Driving America? The Impact of the Automobile on U.S. Society Students will investigate the impact of the automobile on American society. We will use a multidisciplinary approach that will include the impact of the auto on political economy, the built landscape, our environment, music, film, literature and social capital. Students will be responsible for an interdisciplinary research paper. Seminar format. Prerequisites: American Studies 115. 6 credits cr., ND, Spring—R. Keiser

AMST 345. Theory and Practice of American Studies Introduction to some of the animating debates within American Studies from the 1930s to the present. We 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. Normally taken by majors in their junior year. 6 credits cr., ND, Winter—E. McKinsey

AMST 386. California Program: The Literature of California 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, and Blade Runner. English Group IV. 6 credits cr., AL, Summer—M. Kowalewski

AMST 396. Senior Seminar or Junior Research 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 work by students. For the class of 2005, 396 will be a senior seminar in the fall. For the class of 2006, 396 will be a Junior Research Seminar in the spring. In 2004-2005 the topics of these seminars will be: Not offered in 2004-2005.

AMST 396. The Cradle Will Rock: Theater and Society in Twentieth-Century America We will study a selection of plays and producing companies, most of them committed to social and artistic change, that range from the end of World War I to the height of the AIDS epidemic. This period spans the aftermath of both World Wars, the Great Depression, McCarthyism and Vietnam. Our object will be 1) to discern connections between the plays and the major events of their period, and 2) to study the social as well as the artistic agendas of the most important of the producing groups. Prerequisite: AMST 345 or permission of the instructor. 6 credits cr., AL, Spring—R. Weiner

AMST 396. Beauty Matters: Raced Beauty in the United States This course examines the production of beauty values and ideals for women of color in the United States during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Historical, literary, psychological, cultural, and sociological literatures help us understand the beauty politics unique to women of color. We will pay special attention to contemporary mass media's influence in the determination of community aesthetics and in the economy of beauty. Prerequisite: AMST 345 or permission of the instructor 6 credits cr., ND, Fall—A. Estill

AMST 396. Senior Seminar: The Sublime in America Through the lens of late eightteenth-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 nineteenth 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. Prerequisite: AMST 345 or permission of the instructor. 6 credits cr., ND, Fall—E. McKinsey

AMST 400. Colloquium and Integrative Exercise The colloquium will meet as a research seminar, providing a structured environment for seniors working on approved essays or projects 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—Staff

 

Topical Courses:

Group I

AFAM 233 A Study of the Harlem Renaissance through Literature, Music and Dance

AMST 287 California Program: California Art and Architecture

AMST 386 California Program: The Literature of California

AMST 396 The Cradle Will Rock: Theater and Society in the Twentieth Century

ARTH 160 American Art to 1940 (not offered in 2004­2005)

ARTH 222 History of Photography

ARTH 240 Art Since 1945

ARTH 245 Modern Architecture(not offered in 2004­2005)

ARTH 247 Architecture Since 1950 (not offered in 2004-2005)

ARTH 249 Object Lessons: Material Culture and American History

CAMS 135 History of American Film (not offered in 2004­2005)

CAMS 227 Open the Box: Studies in Television (not offered in 2004­2005)

CAMS 228 Rethinking the Fifties Through Film, Television and Photography (not offered in 2004­2005)

CAMS 229 Outsiders Cinema: Fiction Film

CAMS 234 Film Noir: The Dark Side of the American Dream (not offered in 2004­2005)

CAMS 252 Understanding New Media (not offered in 2004­2005)

CAMS 280 The Cinema of Stanley Kubrick (not offered in 2004­2005)

CAMS 281 The Cinema of Martin Scorsese (not offered in 2004­2005)

CAMS 282 Hitchcock: The Classic Films (not offered in 2004­2005)

CAMS 283 Capra and Wilder: Sweet and Sour (not offered in 2004­2005)

DANC 114 Black Dance: An Historical Survey (not offered in 2004­2005)

ENGL 112 Introduction to American Literature

ENGL 117 African American Literature

ENGL 119 Introduction to U.S. Latino/a Literature (not offered in 2004­2005)

ENGL 230 African American Autobiography (not offered in 2004­2005)

ENGL 231 From Memory to Memoir: The Art of the Personal Narrative

ENGL 234 Southern Literature

ENGL 235 Asian American Literature (not offered in 2004-2005)

ENGL 236 American Nature Writing(not offered in 2004­2005)

ENGL 237 American Indian Literature

ENGL 241 Language Thieves: Women in American Poetry

ENGL 280 Crafts of Writing: Creative Non-fiction

ENGL 330 Literature of the American West

ENGL 331 American Transcendentalism

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

ENGL 334 Studies in American Literature: The Postmodern American Novel(not offered in 2004­2005)

ENGL 336 Romance to Novel: Poe, Hawthorne, James

ENGL 339 Contemporary American Playwrights of Color

ENGL 340 Major Modernist Poets (not offered in 2004­2005)

ENGL 341 Contemporary Poetry (not offered in 2004­2005)

ENGL 342 Contemporary Latino/a Poetry (not offered in 2004­2005)

ENGL 395 American Long Poems

ENGL 395 Vladimir Nabokov

MUSC 115 Music and the Media (not offered in 2004­2005)

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 2004­2005)

MUSC 136 History of Rock

MUSC 137 Spiritual Hymns and Gospel Music: Aspects of the African-American Musical Traditions (not offered in 2004­2005)

MUSC 244 Native American Music (not offered in 2004­2005)

SPAN 245 Hybrid Cultures: Introduction to U.S. Latino Literature (not offered in 2004­2005)

Group II

AMST 239 Introduction to Asian American Studies (not offered in 2004­2005)

HIST 119 Frontiers in Early America (not offered in 2004­2005)

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

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

HIST 195 American Environmental History

HIST 200 The Zen of Asian and Western Woodworking (not offered in 2004­2005)

HIST 212 The American Revolution (not offered in 2004­2005)

HIST 213 The Early American Republic (not offered in 2004­2005)

HIST 214 Civil War Era 1846-1877

HIST 218 History, Memory, and the Vietnam War (not offered in 2004­2005)

HIST 220 African American History I (not offered in 2004­2005)

HIST 221 African American History II

HIST 222 U.S. Women's History to 1877

HIST 223 U.S. Women's History Since 1877

HIST 226 U.S. Consumer Culture

HIST 227 History of the American West (not offered in 2004­2005)

HIST 229 Gender and Work in U.S. History (not offered in 2004­2005)

HIST 279 American Intellectual History (not offered in 2004­2005)

HIST 305 Topics in American Environmental History: American Public Lands Policy

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

HIST 324 The Concord Intellectuals (not offered in 2004-2005)

HIST 345 Atlantic Revolutions, France and America (not offered in 2004­2005)

HIST 381 History, Memory and Black Atlantic: Ghana and the United States (not offered in 2004­2005)

HIST 382 History, Memory and Black Atlantic: On-site in Ghana and Revisited (not offered in 2004­2005)

HIST 395 West African History: Comparative Slavery

HIST 395 Imperial America 1876-1904

HIST 395 Feminist Movement

RELG 130 Native American Religions (not offered in 2004­2005)

RELG 131 Native Traditions of the Southwest

RELG 135 Introduction to African American Religion (not offered in 2004­2005)

RELG 140 Religion and American Culture

RELG 239 Religion and the American Landscape (not offered in 2004­2005)

RELG 243 Native American Religious Freedom (not offered in 2004­2005)

RELG 246 Healing and Religion in America (not offered in 2004­2005)

RELG 248 Religions in the Borderlands (not offered in 2004­2005)

RELG 277 Religion and Ecology in North America

RELG 322 Gender and God-Talk: Christian Feminist Theologies

RELG 343 Children and Religion in America

RELG 344 Lived Religion in America (not offered in 2004­2005)

Group III

AMST 310 Driving America? The Impact of the Automobile on U.S. Society

AMST 396 Beauty Matters: Raced Beauty in the U.S.

ECON 232 American Economic History (not offered in 2004­2005)

ECON 262 The Economics of Sports

ECON 271 Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment

ECON 273 Water and Western Economic Development (not offered in 2004­2005)

ECON 275 Law and Economics

EDUC 260 Gender, Sexuality and Schooling

EDUC 264 Middle School and the Young Adolescent (not offered in 2004­2005)

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

EDUC 336 History of African American Education (not offered in 2004­2005)

EDUC 338 Multicultural Education

EDUC 344 Youth, Culture, and Schooling in American Society (not offered in 2004­2005)

EDUC 353 Schooling and Opportunity In American Society

ENTS 300 Practical Conservation

POSC 122 Politics in America: Liberty and Equality

POSC 201 National Policymaking

POSC 204 Media and American Politics: Special Election Edition

POSC 205 Congress and the Presidency (not offered in 2004­2005)

POSC 206 The American Courts

POSC 207 Urban Politics (not offered in 2004­2005)

POSC 212 American Political Development: Civil War-New Deal

POSC 215 Federalism, State and Local Politics (not offered in 2004­2005)

POSC 231 American Foreign Policy

POSC 252 American Political Thought

POSC 257 American Environmental Thought (not offered in 2004­2005)

POSC 262 Environmental Policy and Politics

POSC 269 U.S. and U.K. Philanthropy: Politics, Policy, and Practice (not offered in 2004-2005)

POSC 271 Constitutional Law I (not offered in 2004­2005)

POSC 272 Constitutional Law II (not offered in 2004­2005)

POSC 305 Issues in American Democracy

POSC 306 Urban Racial and Ethnic Politics (not offered in 2004­2005)

POSC 308 Poverty and Public Policy

POSC 309 The American Presidency (not offered in 2004­2005)

POSC 311 Topics in Constitutional Law

POSC 312 American Political Culture and Values: Special Election Edition (not offered in 2004­2005)

POSC 314 Money in Politics (not offered in 2004­2005)

POSC 318 The American Farm (not offered in 2004­2005)

POSC 329 Vietnam War and American Policy

POSC 346 Spies, Rogues and Statesmen: Intelligence and the Formation of Foreign Policy

POSC 349 Race Theory: Contemporary Approaches (not offered in 2004­2005)

POSC 351 Political Theory of Martin Luther King, Jr. (not offered in 2004­2005)

POSC 352 Political Theory of Alexis de Tocqueville

POSC 353 Feminist and American Separatist Movements

POSC 355 Contemporary Feminist Thought: Identity, Culture and Rights (not offered in 2004-2005)

POSC 359 Social Capital: Critical and Cross-Cultural Perspectives (not offered in 2004­2005)

POSC 367 Suburbanization in America (not offered in 2004­2005)

PSYC 384 Psychology of Prejudice

SOAN 220 Class, Power and Inequality in America (not offered in 2004­2005)

SOAN 221 Law and Society

SOAN 222 Work and Occupations in Contemporary Society

SOAN 224 The Gender Matrix (not offered in 2004­2005)

SOAN 259 Comparative Issues in Native North America

SOAN 281 Race and Ethnicity in the United States and China (not offered in 2004­2005)

SOAN 302 Anthropology and Indigenous Rights (not offered in 2004­2005)

SOAN 303 Criminology: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives