American Studies Major

Degree Requirements: Bachelor of Arts with a major in American studies

Required courses:

An interdisciplinary approach to the study of America's heritage and the distinguishing features of the American mind and character.
† indicates a required course


At least one of:

This course will offer a critical investigation of the role of popular culture in American life. From Tin Pan Alley to hip-hop, from fast food to pro wrestling, popular culture shows an increasing influence on American economic, social, and political life, and has become central in helping to define American identity and even reality itself. We all participate in popular culture in some way, and this course will give students the chance to explore its meanings and importance in their lives and in American culture.
A survey of American intellectual history and cultural criticism ranging from Puritanism and Enlightenment Rationalism to multiculturalism, feminism, and post-modernism.
This course will explore both the historical origins and development of the cultural ideal of democracy in the United States. By focusing on the cultural ideal of democracy, it will seek to understand the impact and meaning of democracy in America beyond that of political institutions alone. It will include readings and discussions in history, literature, politics, and cultural anthropology.
An examination of the social, political, economic and cultural upheaval of the 1960s and 1970s in the historical context.
This course explores the lives of those individuals living with a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer identity (LGBTQ) and the relationship these individuals have with those around them. Exploration of the historical and contemporary implications of living with an LGBTQ identity, how these identities develop, the struggle for civil rights and legal protections, and how various factors such as the AIDS crisis, the media, religion, and others impact LGBTQ persons will also be explored.
A study of American science and technology and their interrelations with economic, cultural, political and intellectual developments.
This team-taught, interdisciplinary course will critically examine how films reflect, construct, and question the dominant image and understanding of the American identity.
This course will explore the relationship between religion and politics in the United States. It will include an examination of the role religion played in the founding vision of our nation's democracy, as well as the important separation between church and state that has been achieved over the course of our nation's history. With this historical backdrop in mind, special emphasis will then be given to the ascendancy of the religious right in recent electoral politics.
This class offers you a chance to familiarize yourself with the variety of ethnic, racial, gender, and sexual groups and identities in the U.S. You will gain or enhance your intellectual framework for understanding and appreciating diversity. It also will prepare you to survive and thrive in our complex and challenging world. The course relies on history, literature, and cultural studies and will be challenging but also fun.
This number designates a special topics course in the disciplinary perspectives component of the General Education Program. Faulty may make use of this opportunity to design a course outside normal departmental offerings. The course selection booklet that appears before registration each semester will describe individual courses in this category. A student may petition the director of general education to substitute another course in the curriculum for an approved course in any component of the program.

Three other AMS courses.


At least 2 (and no more than five) classes outside of the major on topics related to U.S. culture.
Courses will be chosen in consultation with the advisor and must relate to some aspect of American culture.
Possible courses include:

This course explores the cultural and theoretical underpinnings of the contemporary art world. Focusing on the past three decades, the course examines those key elements that define art today, such as the art market, the media, controversy and debate, new modes of practice, and the rising context of the global. By tracing the diverse narratives that inform the art world, the student will understand how contemporary art and architecture generate meaning, and what methods and theories are employed in critiquing emerging forms.
This team-taught course is offered in coordination with the College's annual colloquium series. Specific topics are announced at the time of registration
Survey of selected major American authors from the colonial period to about 1900. Usually offered every semester.
A survey of selected major American authors from 1900 to the present. Usually offered every semester.
The major events and developments in America from Columbus to the Civil War, with emphasis on the creation of a distinctive American society from the interaction of different cultures, ethnic groups, and ideas. Major themes include the transformation of European cultural ideas in colonial America and the impact of republican ideology, democratization, and the spread of the market economy between the Revolution and the Civil War.
American history from 1865 until the present. Students learn about important themes in recent history such as law and order, native land rights, protest movements, foreign policy and its critics, and the rise of corporate power and its economic and political consequences.
This course uses the current presidential election as a case study from which students can analyze the history of American parties and elections. The course will use political science concepts such as realignment and dealignment to study the rise and fall of the various "party systems" in American history, and will attempt to place the current presidential election within its historical context.
An analysis of American military institutions from Old World tradition to the post-Persian Gulf era with emphasis on the U.S. Army.
An in-depth study of why Americans declared their independence and how they won the Revolution and worked to build a republic in a hostile world of monarchies. Particular attention is paid to major issues on which historians of the period disagree.
A study of how sectional divisions over slavery led to a bloody war and reshaped American society.
This course offers students a chance to explore the origins, histories, institutions, and current practices of the American aristocracy. Students will learn about how the very rich families that currently enjoy enormous hereditary wealth obtained and maintain their fortunes. Students will also investigate the histories and current policies of the institutions that protect and promote the wealthy such as corporations, the stock market, and government.
A survey of philosophical thought in the United States from colonial period to present, with emphasis on the work of Peirce, James, and Dewey.
This course provides a survey of key developments, institutions, and issues in American politics. Topics include the ideas that shaped the original American political system, the presidency; Congress and federal courts; the operation of political parties and interest groups; domestic and foreign policy debates; and contemporary issues such as civil rights and affirmative action.
This course uses the current presidential election as a case study from which students can analyze the history of American parties and elections. The course will use political science concepts such as realignment and de-alignment to study the rise and fall of the various "party systems" in American history, and will attempt to place the current presidential election within its historical context.
This course describes the public policy process and analyzes various areas of substantive domestic policy at the national level. Topics covered include budgeting and taxation, education, health, welfare, and the environment.
The aim of this course is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the political operations of the U.S. Congress and the presidency and the extent to which they cooperate and compete with each other for influence in the political system.
This course examines key theories and contexts that shape American foreign policy strategy and important questions of foreign policy politics. It exposes students to foreign policy strategy as the means by which U.S. national interests and policies are formulated and to foreign policy politics as the roles played by institutions and actors within the foreign policymaking process.
This course will examine contemporary conflict and the use of force in world politics. It introduces two schools of thought (security studies and strategic studies) and examines theories and concepts used to understand contemporary global security.
This course uses key cases to study important doctrines established by the Supreme Court with regard to civil rights and civil liberties. Students will examine the Court's rulings concerning the establishment and free exercise of religion, protection of freedom of speech and of the press, privacy rights (abortion and sexual freedom), the rights of the accused in the criminal justice system, and the law governing racial or sexual discrimination. The course places particular emphasis on various forms of textual interpretation used by individual justices to apply the Constitution in deciding cases and writing opinions.
Governmental institutions, characteristics of state and local political systems and the major inter-governmental problems in state and local relations with federal government.
A study of the origin and development of religious expression in America. Special emphasis will be given to issues of religious diversity.
This course explores the relationship between religion and politics in the United States. It will include an examination of the role religion played in the founding of our nation's democracy, the important separation between church and state that has been achieved over the course of our nation's history, and the ascendancy of the religious right in recent electoral politics.
Introduction to both physical and cultural anthropology including human evolution, human variation, and cross-cultural analysis and comparison.