Major Requirements – American Studies

Major Requirements – 69 Total Credits

American Studies is an interdisciplinary major which a student constructs from offerings in two or more departments of instruction. Students take both core courses in the field of American Studies and additional courses from one of five broad, thematic streams (listed below). This theme will both provide additional structure and points of comparison and a foundation for a comprehensive exercise.

Core Courses – Required 12 credits

AMST 115: Introduction to American Studies (6 credits), this a prerequisite for AMST 345 and AMST 396.
AMST 345: Theory and Practice of American Studies (6 credits)

Survey Courses – Required 18 credits

Students must take three survey courses. Two of these courses must come from a single department. Students will also take a one-term survey course from a different department. Because the entire range of these survey courses is not offered every year, students should consult the online catalog and plan accordingly.

American Studies Two-Term Survey Courses – Required Two Courses

Two courses from a single department (two-term sequence):

HIST 114: Indigenous Histories, Time Immemorial to 1887
HIST 116: Intro to Indigenous Histories, 1887-present (not offered 2025-26)
HIST 122: U.S. Women’s History to 1877
HIST 123: U.S. Women’s History Since 1877
HIST 125: Roots and Resistance: Africa to the U.S. Civil War (not offered 2025-26)
HIST 126: Black Freedom: Reconstruction to #BlackLivesMatter
HIST 220: From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film (not offered 2025-26)
POSC 271: Constitutional Law I
POSC 272: Constitutional Law II

American Studies One-Term Survey Courses – Required One Course

One-term course from a different department:

ARTH 160: American Art to 1940 (not offered 2025-26)
ENGL 215: Modern American Literature (not offered 2025-26)
ENGL 235: Asian American Literature
MUSC 126.01: America’s Music (26/SP)
POSC 122: Politics in America: Liberty and Equality
RELG 140: Religion and American Culture (not offered 2025-26)

Topical Courses – Required 24 credits

Each student must take twenty-four credits that deal with elements of the American experience from one of the thematic streams below. Courses that will fulfill this requirement are listed under each group. No more than six of these credits may be from 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.) Students must take courses from at least two departments. In order that majors acquire the research skills necessary to complete the major, six of these twenty-four credits must be at the 300-level.

Race, Ethnicity and Indigeneity

What is the relationship between race and ethnicity and U.S. cultures? Students will look at these questions in a comparative and interdisciplinary framework. Concentrators in this area should take a combination of courses that will allow them to comparatively assess the experiences of at least two ethno-racial groups in America.

Democracy, Activism, and Class

How does a longstanding American Studies emphasis on engaged scholarship reveal the relationships of politics, capitalism and power? This theme investigates the emergence of social groups and their political struggles at the local and national levels emphasizing the themes of power, inequality, and social justice.

Space and Place

How is space organized, and how do people make place? This includes the study of natural and built environments; local, regional, national and transnational communities; and international and inter-regional flows of people, goods, and ideas.

Production and Consumption of Culture

How do people represent their experiences and ideas as culture? How is culture transmitted, appropriated and consumed? Students will examine the role of artists and the expressive arts, including literature, visual arts and performance as well as that of consumers and producers.

America in the World (Migration, Borderlands, and Empire)

How is the society and culture of the United States shaped by the historical and contemporary flows of people, goods and ideas from around the world? In turn, students will also focus on the various ways in which both colonial America and the United States have shaped the world.

AMST 225: Beauty and Race in America
AMST 238: 9/11 and the War on Terror in American Culture (not offered 2025-26)
AMST 283: American Immigration (not offered 2025-26)
ARTH 240: Art Since 1945
ECON 262: The Economics of Sports
ECON 264: Healthcare Economics (not offered 2025-26)
ECON 271: Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment
ECON 273: Water and Western Economic Development (not offered 2025-26)
EDUC 340: Race, Immigration, and Schools (not offered 2025-26)
ENGL 235: Asian American Literature
GWSS 397: Decolonial Feminisms (not offered 2025-26)
HIST 209: Slavery in the Atlantic World (not offered 2025-26)
HIST 211: Revolts and Resistance in Early America (not offered 2025-26)
HIST 213: Politics and Protest in the New Nation
PHIL 304: Decolonial Feminisms (not offered 2025-26)
POSC 122: Politics in America: Liberty and Equality
POSC 231: American Foreign Policy (not offered 2025-26)
POSC 274: Covid-19 and Globalization (not offered 2025-26)
RELG 243: Native American Religions and Law
RELG 261: Race & Empire in American Islam (not offered 2025-26)
RELG 289: Global Religions in Minnesota (not offered 2025-26)
SOAN 125: Southeast Asian Migration and Diasporic Communities
SOAN 283: Immigration, Citizenship, and Belonging in the U.S.

Junior Seminar Course – Required 6 credits

AMST 396: AIDS in America (6 credits)

Advanced Research Course – Required 3 credits

AMST 398: Advanced Research in American Studies (3 credits)

In the fall, students take AMST 398: Advanced Research in American Studies. This course provides readings and assignments that help students develop an understanding of how to do independent work in a field and what it takes to collectively draft a syllabus on an American Studies topic. The course provides feedback and support as students put together an interdisciplinary syllabus (pitched at the level of a 300-level class) around an American Studies theme. This syllabus serves as their comps proposal.

Senior Seminar and Integrative Exercise – Required 6 credits

AMST 399: Senior Seminar in American Studies (3 credits)
This course provides structure and support to students by fostering advanced skills in American Studies research, critical reading, writing, and presentation. Students get feedback on the crafting of substantiated and rigorous interdisciplinary arguments.

AMST 400: Integrative Exercise Colloquium (3 credits)
Taken in winter term of the senior year, along with AMST 399: Senior Seminar in American Studies.
- Colloquium Comps: The American Studies comprehensive exercise takes place over Fall and Winter terms and is a colloquium process that yields an individual 12-15 pp individual essay and a collaborative, public facing presentation.
- In extenuating circumstances, after discussion with the director, a student may pursue the individual research essay.