American Studies (AMST)
Director: Professor Michael J. Kowalewski
Associate Director: Associate Professor Richard Keiser
Professor: Elizabeth McKinsey
Pre-Doctoral Fellow: Wilson ValentÃn-Escobar
Committee Members: Sharon Akimoto, Barbara Allen, Deborah Appleman, Laurel Bradley, Lawrence Burnett, 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, Jennifer C. Manion, 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 spring 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: Methods in American Studies
AMST 396: Senior Seminar in American Studies
AMST 400: Colloquium and Integrative Exercise in American Studies
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.
II. Survey Courses:
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 2002-2003.)
One-term survey courses:
ARTH 160: American Art to 1940
ECON 232: American Economic History
ENGL 112: Introduction to American Literature
MEDA 135: History of American Film
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: The Immigrant Experience A team-taught, comparative study of the experience of migrants and immigrants to America and other countries. The course will investigate such general topics as the causes of emigration; acculturation and assimilation; changes in family structure and gender roles; the role of religion; discrimination; the representation of ethnic and racial groups in literature and film, and the dilemmas of creating an equitable federal immigration policy. 6 credits cr., RAD,ND, Spring—C. Clark, B. Nagel
AMST 127. Introduction to Latina/o Studies What is Latina/o Studies? How is it distinct and similar to Latin American Studies? How are they "remapping" the Americas? What impact are Latinos having upon the U.S. urban landscape? How are Latinos constructed in the popular media? Utilizing an interdisciplinary framework, this course will discuss the emergence of Latina/o studies in the academy and its relationship to community activism. In addition, we will analyze how different Latina/o popular cultural expressions, such as music, mural art, sport, theatre, and film are used to construct a collective Latino identity and consciousness. Guest speakers and multi-media presentations will complement in-class discussions. 6 credits cr., RAD,ND, Fall—W. Valentín-Escobar
AMST 129. Latina/o Popular Music in the Age of Globalization Cross-listed with SOAN 129. This course is designed to analyze the recent national and global "Latino music boom" within a historical, inter/pan-Latino, and cultural studies perspective. While once contained within marginal locations, markets, and venues, Main-Street America is now listening and dancing to music performed by Carlos Santana, Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, and Marc Anthony. Moreover, Latino music has also traversed the Pacific, European, West African and Middle-Eastern soundscapes. During the course of the term, we will critically analyze the globality and the globalizing of Latina/o popular music(s) within and beyond the U.S. as well as interrogate its impact on Latino communities. 6 credits cr., SS, Spring—W. Valentín-Escobar
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., ND, Spring—S. Akimoto, N. Cho
AMST 320. Diasporic Musical Cultures Cross-listed with SOAN 321. This seminar will analyze various Afro-Latino musical genres of the Circum-Atlantic Caribbean and its Latina/o Diaspora, including salsa, merengue, bachata, bomba, plena, boogaloo, Latin jazz and rap. Employing interdisciplinary perspectives, we will read and discuss various theories of popular music proceeded by a comprehensive examination of some of the key texts in the field of Latina/o popular music. A background in cultural and Latino studies will be helpful. Guest Speakers, multi-media presentations, and if possible, a field trip will complement in-class discussions. 6 credits cr., SS, Spring—W. Valentín-Escobar
AMST 345. Methods in 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 methods 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, Spring—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 metaphor--whether of promise or disintegration--for 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 2002-2003.
AMST 396. Seminar in American Studies: Postmodern America An intensive interdisciplinary exploration of contemporary American popular culture in the context of current social, economic, and technological changes. We will examine contemporary society and manners through the lens of advertising, television shows, journalism, popular music, movies, documentaries, and spectacle events. We will see how such topics are illuminated by novelists, sociologists, historians, economists, geographers, and cultural studies theorists. Our goal as a class will be to develop standards suitable for critically assessing representations of contemporary society. Prerequisite: American Studies 345. 6 credits cr., ND, Fall—M. Kowalewski
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 2002-2003 the topic of this seminar will be: Not offered in 2002-2003.
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. 6 credits cr., S/NC, ND, Winter—R. Keiser
Topical Courses:
Group I
AFAM 233: A Study of the Harlem Renaissance through Literature, Music and Dance
AMST 386: California Program: The Literature of California (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
ARTH 160: American Art to 1940 (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
ARTH 222: History of Photography
ARTH 240: Art Since 1945
ARTH 245: Modern Architecture
ARTH 247: Architecture Since 1950 (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
ENGL 112: Introduction to American Literature
ENGL 117: African American Literature
ENGL 230: African American Autobiography
ENGL 234: Southern Literature
ENGL 235: Asian American Literature (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
ENGL 236: American Nature Writing (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
ENGL 237: American Indian Literature
ENGL 242: Twentieth-Century American Drama
ENGL 330: Literature of the American West
ENGL 332: Studies in American Literature: Faulkner, Hemingway and Fitzgerald (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
ENGL 334: Studies in American Literature: The Postmodern American Novel (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
ENGL 335: Studies in Nineteenth-Century American Liteature: American Writers Abroad
ENGL 336: Studies in American Literature: Major American Authors 1850-1920
ENGL 337: African American Novelists in Context (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
ENGL 339: Contemporary American Playwrights of Color
ENGL 340: Major Modernist Poets (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
ENGL 341: Contemporary Poetry
ENGL 386: California Program: The Literature of California (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
ENGL 395: First Person Singular?
ENGL 395: Vladimir Nabokov
ENGL 395: Toni Morrison: Nobel Laureate
MEDA 135: History of American Film
MEDA 227: Open the Box: Studies in Television (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
MEDA 228: Rethinking the Fifties Through Film, Television and Photography (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
MEDA 229: Outsiders Cinema: Fiction Film (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
MEDA 234: Film Noir: The Dark Side of the American Dream (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
MEDA 252: History of New Media
MEDA 280: The Cinema of Stanley Kubrick
MEDA 281: The Cinema of Martin Scorsese
MEDA 282: Hitchcock: The Classic Films (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
MEDA 283: Capra and Wilder: Sweet and Sour
MUSC 115: Music and the Media
MUSC 130: History of Jazz
MUSC 131: From the Delta to Memphis (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
MUSC 133: Bluegrass and Country-Western Music
MUSC 137: Spiritual Hymns and Gospel Music: Aspects of the African American Musical Traditions (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
MUSC 244: Native American Music (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
MUSC 330: Jazz History Seminar (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
SPAN 245: Hybrid Cultures: Introduction to U.S. Latino Literature
THEA 241: American Drama of the Last Decade
THEA 254: African American Drama
Group II
AMST 127: Introduction to Latina/o Studies
AMST 239: Introduction to Asian American Studies
HIST 119: Frontiers in Early America (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
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 2002-2003.)
HIST 200: The Zen of Asian and Western Woodworking (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
HIST 212: The American Revolution
HIST 213: The Early American Republic
HIST 214: Civil War Era
HIST 217: From Ragtime to Football, U.S. History in the 1890's (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
HIST 218: History, Memory, and the Vietnam War (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
HIST 219: Postwar U.S. 1945-1975 (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
HIST 220: African American History I (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
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: Race and Gender in the American South (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
HIST 227: History of the American West
HIST 228: American Indian History: Removal to Present (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
HIST 229: Gender and Work in U.S. History (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
HIST 279: American Intellectual History
HIST 301: Contact and Frontiers in Early America
HIST 322: The Civil Rights Movement in America, 1942-1965 (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
HIST 324: The Concord Intellectuals (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
HIST 345: Atlantic Revolutions, France and America (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
HIST 395: Topics in African American History
HIST 395: The Progressive Era
RELG 130: Native American Religions
RELG 140: Religion and American Culture
RELG 239: Religion and the American Landscape (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
RELG 243: Native American Religious Freedom
RELG 246: Healing and Religion in America (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
RELG 322: Christian Feminist Theologies
RELG 344: Lived Religion in America
Group III
AMST 129: Latina/o Popular Music in the Age of Globalization
AMST 320: Diasporic Musical Cultures
ECON 232: American Economic History (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
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 2002-2003.)
ECON 275: Law and Economics
ECON 395: Advanced Topics in Sports Economics
EDUC 260: Gender, Sexuality and Schooling
EDUC 336: History of African American Education
EDUC 338: Multicultural Education
EDUC 344: Youth, Culture, and Schooling
EDUC 353: Schooling and Opportunity
EDUC 375: American Children: The Poor and the Privileged (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
ENTS 265: Environmental Justice from North Carolina to India (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
POSC 122: Politics in America: Liberty and Equality
POSC 201: National Policymaking
POSC 204: Media and American Politics (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
POSC 205: Congress and the Presidency
POSC 206: The American Courts
POSC 207: Urban Politics (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
POSC 215: Federalism, State and Local Politics
POSC 225: Readings in American Politics (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
POSC 231: American Foreign Policy
POSC 252: American Political Thought
POSC 257: American Environmental Thought (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
POSC 262: Environmental Policy and Politics
POSC 269: U.S. and U.K. Philanthropy: Politics, Policy, and Practice
POSC 271: Constitutional Law I (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
POSC 272: Constitutional Law II (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
POSC 305: Issues in American Democracy
POSC 306: Urban Racial and Ethnic Politics
POSC 308: Poverty and Public Policy (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
POSC 309: The American Presidency
POSC 311: Topics in Constitutional Law
POSC 312: American Political Culture and Values: Special Election (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
POSC 314: Money in Politics
POSC 318: The American Farm
POSC 329: Vietnam War and American Policy
POSC 351: Political Theory of Martin Luther King (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
POSC 352: Political Theory of Alexis de Tocqueville
POSC 353: Feminist and American Separatist Movements (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
POSC 357: Toqueville: Topics (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
POSC 359: Social Capital: Critical and Cross-Cultural Perspectives
POSC 367: Suburbanization in America (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
PSYC 384: Psychology of Prejudice
SOAN 221: Law and Society
SOAN 222: Work and Occupations in Contemporary Society
SOAN 259: Comparative Issues in Native North America (Not offered in 2002-2003.)
SOAN 302: Anthropology and Indigenous Rights
SOAN 303: Criminology: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives