A student looks at the other-worldly landscape of the Grand Canyon

American Studies looks at American culture through the lens of many disciplines. This includes the institutions, values, and beliefs that have shaped the experiences of U.S. residents. Core courses provide an introduction to the scholarly work in the field. Other courses draw from art history and religion to history, economics, and political science.

A student looks at the other-worldly landscape of the Grand Canyon

About American Studies

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 the American Studies Major

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.

Majors must complete 69 credits in the following general areas:

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

  • 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)
  • AMST 396 Junior Research Seminar (6 credits)
  • AMST 398 Advanced Research in American Studies (3 credits)
    In the fall, students take AMST 398. 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 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.
  • 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 in American Studies (3 credits)
    Taken in winter term of the senior year, along with AMST 399.
    • 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 essay and a collaborative, public facing presentation.
    • In extenuating circumstances, after discussion with the director, a student may pursue the individual research essay.

II. Survey Courses: 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.

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

  • HIST 116: Intro to Indigenous Histories, 1887-present
  • HIST 122: U.S. Women’s History to 1877 · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 123: U.S. Women’s History Since 1877 · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 125: African American History I: From Africa to the Civil War
  • HIST 126: African American History II
  • POSC 271: Constitutional Law I
  • POSC 272: Constitutional Law II

One-term course from a different department:

  • ARTH 160: American Art to 1940
  • ENGL 120: American Short Stories · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 215: Modern American Literature
  • ENGL 235: Asian American Literature · not offered in 2024-25
  • MUSC 126: Music in the American South Program: America’s Music · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 122: Politics in America: Liberty and Equality
  • RELG 140: Religion and American Culture · not offered in 2024-25

III. Topical Courses: 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.  
  • AMST 142: U.S. Latinx Identity and Representation: Cultures of Belonging
  • AMST 217: Race, Gender, and Sports in America
  • AMST 225: Beauty and Race in America · not offered in 2024-25
  • AMST 231: Contemporary Indigenous Activism · not offered in 2024-25
  • AMST 238: 9/11 and the War on Terror in American Culture
  • AMST 244: Approaches to Indigenous Studies · not offered in 2024-25
  • AMST 250: Asian American Reckonings
  • AMST 263: Ethics of Indigenous Engagement
  • AMST 269: Woodstock Nation
  • AMST 321: Indigenous Chicago: Indigenous Histories and Futures in Zhegagoynak
  • ARCN 112: Archaeology of Native North America
  • ARCN 211: Coercion and Exploitation: Material Histories of Labor · not offered in 2024-25
  • DANC 254: Jazz Dance: Roots and Grooves
  • ECON 262: The Economics of Sports · not offered in 2024-25
  • EDUC 330: Refugee and Immigrant Experiences in Faribault, MN · not offered in 2024-25
  • EDUC 338: Multicultural Education
  • EDUC 340: Race, Immigration, and Schools · not offered in 2024-25
  • EDUC 344: Teenage Wasteland: Adolescence and the American High School · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 211: Haunting the Margins of American Literature
  • ENGL 227: Imagining the Borderlands
  • ENGL 230: Studies in African American Literature: From the 1950s to the Present
  • ENGL 233: Writing and Social Justice
  • ENGL 234: Literature of the American South · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 235: Asian American Literature · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 239: Democracy: Politics, Race, & Sex in Nineteenth Century American Novels · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 241: Latinx Voices in the Age of Trump · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 248: Visions of California · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 252: Caribbean Fiction · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 253: Food Writing: History, Culture, Practice
  • ENGL 258: Playwrights of Color: Taking the Stage · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 352: Toni Morrison: Novelist · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENTS 210: Environmental Justice · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENTS 220: Sovereignty and Sustainability
  • GWSS 250: Politics of Reproductive Justice · not offered in 2024-25
  • GWSS 265: Black Feminist Thought · not offered in 2024-25
  • GWSS 289: Pleasure, Intimacy, Violence · not offered in 2024-25
  • GWSS 398: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Popular Culture
  • HIST 116: Intro to Indigenous Histories, 1887-present
  • HIST 122: U.S. Women’s History to 1877 · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 123: U.S. Women’s History Since 1877 · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 125: African American History I: From Africa to the Civil War
  • HIST 126: African American History II
  • HIST 202: Oral History Research Methods: Theory, Ethics, and Practice · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 203: American Indian Education · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 209: Slavery in the Atlantic World
  • HIST 211: Revolts and Resistance in Early America · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 212: The Era of the American Revolution · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 218: Black Women’s History · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 220: From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 228: Civil Rights and Black Power · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 301: Indigenous Histories at Carleton
  • HIST 316: Presenting America’s Founding · not offered in 2024-25
  • LING 140: Language in the U.S. · not offered in 2024-25
  • LING 145: Dialectology
  • MUSC 126: Music in the American South Program: America’s Music · not offered in 2024-25
  • MUSC 131: The Blues From the Delta to Chicago · not offered in 2024-25
  • MUSC 136: History of Rock · not offered in 2024-25
  • MUSC 232: Golden Age of R & B
  • PHIL 304: Decolonial Feminisms · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 122: Politics in America: Liberty and Equality
  • POSC 204: Media and Electoral Politics: 2024 United States Election
  • POSC 224: Political Campaigns & Electoral Behavior
  • POSC 271: Constitutional Law I
  • POSC 272: Constitutional Law II
  • POSC 273: Race and Politics in the U.S.
  • POSC 302: Subordinated Politics and Intergroup Relations
  • POSC 315: Polarization and Democratic Decline in the United States
  • POSC 339: LGBTQ Politics in America · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 355: Identity, Culture and Rights · not offered in 2024-25
  • PSYC 384: Psychology of Prejudice
  • RELG 212: Black Religious Thought · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 220: Justice and Responsibility · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 236: Black Love: Religious, Political, and Cultural Discussions · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 239: Religion & American Landscape · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 261: Race & Empire in American Islam
  • RELG 267: Black Testimony: Art, Literature, Philosophy · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 285: Islam in America: Race, Religion and Politics · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 114: Modern Families: An Introduction to the Sociology of the Family · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 125: Southeast Asian Migration and Diasporic Communities
  • SOAN 151: Global Minnesota: An Anthropology of Our State · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 206: Critical Perspectives on Work in the Twenty-first Century · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 225: Social Movements
  • SOAN 278: Urban Ethnography and the American Experience
  • SOAN 283: Immigration, Citizenship, and Belonging in the U.S.
  • SOAN 288: Diversity, Democracy, Inequality in America · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 310: Sociology of Mass Incarceration · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 325: Sociology of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction · not offered in 2024-25
  • THEA 227: Theatre for Social Change · not offered in 2024-25
  • THEA 255: August Wilson: History and the Blues · not offered in 2024-25
  • 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. 
  • AFST 220: Color, Class, and Status in Black America
  • AMST 100: Walt Whitman’s New York City
  • AMST 142: U.S. Latinx Identity and Representation: Cultures of Belonging
  • AMST 215: Trains of Thought: Contemplating Local Commuter and Passenger Rail
  • AMST 231: Contemporary Indigenous Activism · not offered in 2024-25
  • AMST 263: Ethics of Indigenous Engagement
  • AMST 269: Woodstock Nation
  • ARTH 247: Architecture Since 1950 · not offered in 2024-25
  • ARTH 341: Art and Democracy
  • CAMS 225: Film Noir: The Dark Side of the American Dream · not offered in 2024-25
  • CAMS 270: Nonfiction
  • ECON 264: Health Care Economics
  • ECON 270: Economics of the Public Sector
  • ECON 271: Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment
  • ECON 273: Water and Western Economic Development · not offered in 2024-25
  • EDUC 245: School Reform: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow · not offered in 2024-25
  • EDUC 250: Fixing Schools: Politics and Policy in American Education
  • EDUC 330: Refugee and Immigrant Experiences in Faribault, MN · not offered in 2024-25
  • EDUC 340: Race, Immigration, and Schools · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 213: Being Queer in Nineteenth-Century America
  • ENGL 228: Banned. Censored. Reviled.
  • ENGL 230: Studies in African American Literature: From the 1950s to the Present
  • ENGL 233: Writing and Social Justice
  • ENGL 239: Democracy: Politics, Race, & Sex in Nineteenth Century American Novels · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 241: Latinx Voices in the Age of Trump · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENTS 210: Environmental Justice · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENTS 307: Wilderness Field Studies: Grand Canyon · not offered in 2024-25
  • GWSS 150: Working Sex: Commercial Sexual Cultures · not offered in 2024-25
  • GWSS 212: Foundations of LGBTQ Studies
  • GWSS 250: Politics of Reproductive Justice · not offered in 2024-25
  • GWSS 265: Black Feminist Thought · not offered in 2024-25
  • GWSS 289: Pleasure, Intimacy, Violence · not offered in 2024-25
  • GWSS 334: Feminist Theory · not offered in 2024-25
  • GWSS 398: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Popular Culture
  • HIST 116: Intro to Indigenous Histories, 1887-present
  • HIST 123: U.S. Women’s History Since 1877 · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 125: African American History I: From Africa to the Civil War
  • HIST 126: African American History II
  • HIST 202: Oral History Research Methods: Theory, Ethics, and Practice · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 205: American Environmental History
  • HIST 212: The Era of the American Revolution · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 213: Politics and Protest in the New Nation · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 220: From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 226: U.S. Consumer Culture · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 228: Civil Rights and Black Power · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 229: Working with Gender in U.S. History
  • HIST 230: Black Americans and the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 301: Indigenous Histories at Carleton
  • HIST 306: American Wilderness · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 308: American Cities and Nature
  • MUSC 126: Music in the American South Program: America’s Music · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 122: Politics in America: Liberty and Equality
  • POSC 204: Media and Electoral Politics: 2024 United States Election
  • POSC 205: Congress and the Presidency · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 209: Money and Politics · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 210: Misinformation, Political Rumors, and Conspiracy Theories · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 216: Politics in the Post-Truth Society · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 220: Politics and Political History in Film · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 224: Political Campaigns & Electoral Behavior
  • POSC 231: American Foreign Policy
  • POSC 240: At the Corner of Broadway and Main Street: The Contrasting Politics of Northfield and the Twin Cities · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 266: Urban Political Economy
  • POSC 269: I Did My Own Research: Information and Political Division in America · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 271: Constitutional Law I
  • POSC 272: Constitutional Law II
  • POSC 273: Race and Politics in the U.S.
  • POSC 302: Subordinated Politics and Intergroup Relations
  • POSC 315: Polarization and Democratic Decline in the United States
  • POSC 339: LGBTQ Politics in America · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 130: Native American Religions
  • RELG 140: Religion and American Culture · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 212: Black Religious Thought · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 219: Religious Law, Il/legal Religions
  • RELG 220: Justice and Responsibility · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 236: Black Love: Religious, Political, and Cultural Discussions · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 114: Modern Families: An Introduction to the Sociology of the Family · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 206: Critical Perspectives on Work in the Twenty-first Century · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 225: Social Movements
  • SOAN 252: Growing Up in an Aging Society
  • SOAN 288: Diversity, Democracy, Inequality in America · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 310: Sociology of Mass Incarceration · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 314: Contemporary Issues in Critical Criminology · not offered in 2024-25
  • THEA 227: Theatre for Social Change · not offered in 2024-25
  • 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. 
  • AMST 100: Walt Whitman’s New York City
  • AMST 215: Trains of Thought: Contemplating Local Commuter and Passenger Rail
  • AMST 321: Indigenous Chicago: Indigenous Histories and Futures in Zhegagoynak
  • ARCN 112: Archaeology of Native North America
  • ARTH 171: History of Photography · not offered in 2024-25
  • ARTH 240: Art Since 1945
  • ARTH 247: Architecture Since 1950 · not offered in 2024-25
  • ARTH 265: Architectural Studies in Europe Program: Urban Planning in Europe · not offered in 2024-25
  • ARTH 341: Art and Democracy
  • CAMS 225: Film Noir: The Dark Side of the American Dream · not offered in 2024-25
  • ECON 271: Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment
  • ECON 273: Water and Western Economic Development · not offered in 2024-25
  • EDUC 338: Multicultural Education
  • EDUC 344: Teenage Wasteland: Adolescence and the American High School · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 221: “Moby-Dick” & Race: Whiteness and the Whale · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 227: Imagining the Borderlands
  • ENGL 234: Literature of the American South · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 236: American Nature Writing · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 247: The American West · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 248: Visions of California · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 253: Food Writing: History, Culture, Practice
  • ENGL 288: California Program: The Literature of California · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 329: The City in American Literature · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 332: Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 352: Toni Morrison: Novelist · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENTS 210: Environmental Justice · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENTS 220: Sovereignty and Sustainability
  • ENTS 307: Wilderness Field Studies: Grand Canyon · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 126: African American History II
  • HIST 202: Oral History Research Methods: Theory, Ethics, and Practice · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 203: American Indian Education · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 205: American Environmental History
  • HIST 209: Slavery in the Atlantic World
  • HIST 228: Civil Rights and Black Power · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 229: Working with Gender in U.S. History
  • HIST 301: Indigenous Histories at Carleton
  • HIST 306: American Wilderness · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 308: American Cities and Nature
  • HIST 316: Presenting America’s Founding · not offered in 2024-25
  • LING 140: Language in the U.S. · not offered in 2024-25
  • LING 145: Dialectology
  • MUSC 115: Listening to the Movies · not offered in 2024-25
  • PHIL 304: Decolonial Feminisms · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 240: At the Corner of Broadway and Main Street: The Contrasting Politics of Northfield and the Twin Cities · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 273: Race and Politics in the U.S.
  • POSC 302: Subordinated Politics and Intergroup Relations
  • POSC 315: Polarization and Democratic Decline in the United States
  • RELG 130: Native American Religions
  • RELG 239: Religion & American Landscape · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 114: Modern Families: An Introduction to the Sociology of the Family · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 125: Southeast Asian Migration and Diasporic Communities
  • SOAN 151: Global Minnesota: An Anthropology of Our State · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 206: Critical Perspectives on Work in the Twenty-first Century · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 214: Neighborhoods and Cities: Inequalities and Identities
  • SOAN 252: Growing Up in an Aging Society
  • SOAN 278: Urban Ethnography and the American Experience
  • SOAN 310: Sociology of Mass Incarceration · not offered in 2024-25
  • 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. 
  • AMST 100: Walt Whitman’s New York City
  • AMST 142: U.S. Latinx Identity and Representation: Cultures of Belonging
  • AMST 217: Race, Gender, and Sports in America
  • AMST 225: Beauty and Race in America · not offered in 2024-25
  • AMST 238: 9/11 and the War on Terror in American Culture
  • AMST 250: Asian American Reckonings
  • AMST 260: Sexuality in American Film since 1945 · not offered in 2024-25
  • AMST 269: Woodstock Nation
  • ARTH 171: History of Photography · not offered in 2024-25
  • ARTH 240: Art Since 1945
  • ARTH 247: Architecture Since 1950 · not offered in 2024-25
  • ARTH 341: Art and Democracy
  • CAMS 187: Cult Television and Fan Cultures
  • CAMS 215: American Television History · not offered in 2024-25
  • CAMS 216: American Cinema of the 1970s · not offered in 2024-25
  • CAMS 225: Film Noir: The Dark Side of the American Dream · not offered in 2024-25
  • CAMS 258: Feminist and Queer Film Theory
  • CAMS 270: Nonfiction
  • CAMS 340: Television Studies Seminar · not offered in 2024-25
  • DANC 254: Jazz Dance: Roots and Grooves
  • DANC 266: Reading the Dancing Body
  • ECON 262: The Economics of Sports · not offered in 2024-25
  • EDUC 344: Teenage Wasteland: Adolescence and the American High School · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 120: American Short Stories · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 211: Haunting the Margins of American Literature
  • ENGL 213: Being Queer in Nineteenth-Century America
  • ENGL 215: Modern American Literature
  • ENGL 221: “Moby-Dick” & Race: Whiteness and the Whale · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 227: Imagining the Borderlands
  • ENGL 228: Banned. Censored. Reviled.
  • ENGL 230: Studies in African American Literature: From the 1950s to the Present
  • ENGL 233: Writing and Social Justice
  • ENGL 234: Literature of the American South · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 235: Asian American Literature · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 236: American Nature Writing · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 239: Democracy: Politics, Race, & Sex in Nineteenth Century American Novels · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 241: Latinx Voices in the Age of Trump · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 247: The American West · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 248: Visions of California · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 253: Food Writing: History, Culture, Practice
  • ENGL 258: Playwrights of Color: Taking the Stage · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 288: California Program: The Literature of California · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 332: Faulkner, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 352: Toni Morrison: Novelist · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENTS 307: Wilderness Field Studies: Grand Canyon · not offered in 2024-25
  • GWSS 150: Working Sex: Commercial Sexual Cultures · not offered in 2024-25
  • GWSS 398: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Popular Culture
  • HIST 122: U.S. Women’s History to 1877 · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 211: Revolts and Resistance in Early America · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 220: From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Black History and/in Film · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 226: U.S. Consumer Culture · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 229: Working with Gender in U.S. History
  • HIST 306: American Wilderness · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 308: American Cities and Nature
  • HIST 316: Presenting America’s Founding · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 320: The Progressive Era?
  • MUSC 115: Listening to the Movies · not offered in 2024-25
  • MUSC 126: Music in the American South Program: America’s Music · not offered in 2024-25
  • MUSC 131: The Blues From the Delta to Chicago · not offered in 2024-25
  • MUSC 136: History of Rock · not offered in 2024-25
  • MUSC 232: Golden Age of R & B
  • MUSC 341: Music in the American South Program: Rock Lab and Lab · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 204: Media and Electoral Politics: 2024 United States Election
  • POSC 216: Politics in the Post-Truth Society · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 220: Politics and Political History in Film · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 355: Identity, Culture and Rights · not offered in 2024-25
  • PSYC 384: Psychology of Prejudice
  • RELG 140: Religion and American Culture · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 232: Queer Religions · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 267: Black Testimony: Art, Literature, Philosophy · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 285: Islam in America: Race, Religion and Politics · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 344: Lived Religion in America
  • SOAN 114: Modern Families: An Introduction to the Sociology of the Family · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 252: Growing Up in an Aging Society
  • THEA 227: Theatre for Social Change · not offered in 2024-25
  • THEA 255: August Wilson: History and the Blues · not offered in 2024-25
  • 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 · not offered in 2024-25
  • AMST 238: 9/11 and the War on Terror in American Culture
  • ARTH 240: Art Since 1945
  • ECON 262: The Economics of Sports · not offered in 2024-25
  • ECON 264: Health Care Economics
  • ECON 271: Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment
  • ECON 273: Water and Western Economic Development · not offered in 2024-25
  • EDUC 330: Refugee and Immigrant Experiences in Faribault, MN · not offered in 2024-25
  • EDUC 340: Race, Immigration, and Schools · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 221: “Moby-Dick” & Race: Whiteness and the Whale · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 235: Asian American Literature · not offered in 2024-25
  • ENGL 252: Caribbean Fiction · not offered in 2024-25
  • GWSS 150: Working Sex: Commercial Sexual Cultures · not offered in 2024-25
  • GWSS 398: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Popular Culture
  • HIST 209: Slavery in the Atlantic World
  • HIST 211: Revolts and Resistance in Early America · not offered in 2024-25
  • HIST 213: Politics and Protest in the New Nation · not offered in 2024-25
  • MUSC 339: Music and Humanitarianism · not offered in 2024-25
  • PHIL 304: Decolonial Feminisms · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 122: Politics in America: Liberty and Equality
  • POSC 216: Politics in the Post-Truth Society · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 220: Politics and Political History in Film · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 231: American Foreign Policy
  • POSC 269: I Did My Own Research: Information and Political Division in America · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 274: Covid-19 and Globalization · not offered in 2024-25
  • POSC 355: Identity, Culture and Rights · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 212: Black Religious Thought · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 243: Native American Religious Freedom · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 261: Race & Empire in American Islam
  • RELG 285: Islam in America: Race, Religion and Politics · not offered in 2024-25
  • RELG 289: Global Religions in Minnesota · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 125: Southeast Asian Migration and Diasporic Communities
  • SOAN 151: Global Minnesota: An Anthropology of Our State · not offered in 2024-25
  • SOAN 283: Immigration, Citizenship, and Belonging in the U.S.

American Studies Minor

The American Studies minor offers students the opportunity to complement their major field  with an interdisciplinary focus on American culture. Minors develop interdisciplinary skills and  habits of mind in core American Studies courses (AMST 115, AMST 345) and choose a set of  electives from one of our American Studies thematic streams: Race, Ethnicity, and Indigeneity;  Democracy, Activism, and Class; Space and Place; Production and Consumption of Culture;  America in the World. The majority of these electives come from disciplinary departments,  including OCS programs, offering students the opportunity to connect disparate disciplines  within the thematic focus of their chosen stream. The American Studies minor invites students  into a deeper awareness of the social inequities that have shaped our society as well as a  recognition of the historical and cultural resources we have that empower us to change our world  for the better.

American Studies Minor Requirements

42 credits, including: 

  • AMST 115 (6 credits). This class introduces students to both the topics and approaches to  American Studies. We find that our majors (and others) refer to it frequently as they  move through other AMST courses. 
  • AMST 345 (6 credits). American Studies Methods. Besides the deep dive into methodology  that this class provides, it is also a key part of our community building. 
  • One HIST course with a focus on U.S. history. 
  • At least three courses that fulfill a single AMST stream (18 credits). The three courses must come from at least two different  departments. See the lists here  under “topical courses.”
    • Race, Ethnicity, and Indigeneity
    • Democracy, Activism, and Class; Space and Place 
    • Production and Consumption of Culture; and America in the World
  •  In addition to number 4, one 300-level advanced topical course in AMST or within the  chosen stream (6 credits) (excluding AMST 345).

American Studies Courses

  • AMST 100 Walt Whitman’s New York City

    "O City / Behold me! Incarnate me as I have incarnated you!" An investigation of the burgeoning metropolitan city where the young Walter Whitman became a poet in the 1850s. Combining historical inquiry into the lives of nineteenth-century citizens of Brooklyn and Manhattan with analysis of Whitman’s varied journalistic writings and utterly original poetry, we will reconstruct how Whitman found his muse and his distinctively modern subject in the geography, demographics, markets, politics, and erotics of New York.

  • AMST 115 Introduction to American Studies

    This overview of the “interdisciplinary discipline” of American Studies will focus on the ways American Studies engages with and departs from other scholarly fields of inquiry. We will study the stories of those who have been marginalized in the social, political, cultural, and economic life of the United States due to their class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, citizenship, and level of ability. We will explore contemporary American Studies concerns like racial and class formation, the production of space and place, the consumption and circulation of culture, and transnational histories.

  • AMST 142 U.S. Latinx Identity and Representation: Cultures of Belonging

    Popular culture and mass media serve as key sites of identity formation. In this course we will examine U.S. Latinx identity formation by focusing on three case studies: Selena Quintanilla, the singer; telenovelas; and the Disney films Coco and Encanto. These case studies will help us explore how transnationalism, intergenerational knowledge and trauma, and civic and cultural belonging contribute to the shaping of U.S. Latinx collective identities. We will attend to the particular processes of production and reception as we study how audiences engage with cultural producers both in private and in public (notably on social media).

  • AMST 215 Trains of Thought: Contemplating Local Commuter and Passenger Rail

    Meeting with mass-transit professionals, urban planners, and community organizers to discuss contemporary rail policy, students in this seminar will search local archives and develop public-facing informational materials about the Dan Patch Corridor, which passes through Northfield. This rail line was identified by MnDOT in 1998 as the most feasible southbound commuter-rail route for the Twin Cities. From 2002 until 2023, however, the state legislature prohibited it from further transportation studies. Meanwhile, grassroots rail advocates proposed reestablishing long-distance passenger service from Minneapolis to Kansas City. What are the arguments for and against reviving rail services? What does the community think?

  • AMST 217 Race, Gender, and Sports in America

    How have American sports made visible discourses about race and gender? How do Americans who engage with sports—both as spectators and participants—imagine athletics when viewed through raced and gendered lenses? How do sports reflect assumptions about race and gender? Examining moments in the history of American athletics both from the distant and more recent pasts, students in this course will explore those issues while training a precise, critical eye on American culture and society. Key discussions will center on questions of the athletic body, integration, privilege and inequality, protest, power, and commercialism.

  • AMST 225 Beauty and Race in America

    In this class we consider the construction of American beauty historically, examining the way whiteness intersects with beauty to produce a dominant model that marginalizes women of color. We study how communities of color follow, refuse, or revise these beauty ideals through literature. We explore events like the beauty pageant, material culture such as cosmetics, places like the beauty salon, and body work like cosmetic surgery to understand how beauty is produced and negotiated.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • AMST 231 Contemporary Indigenous Activism

    Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island and the Pacific Islands are fighting to revitalize Indigenous languages, uphold tribal sovereignty, and combat violence against Indigenous women, among many other struggles. This course shines a light on contemporary Indigenous activism and investigates social justice through the lens of Indian Country, asking questions like: What tools are movements using to promote Indigenous resurgence? And what are the educational, gendered, environmental, linguistic, and religious struggles to which these movements respond? Students will acquire an understanding of contemporary Indigenous movements, the issues they address, and the responsibilities of non-Native people living on Indigenous lands.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • AMST 238 9/11 and the War on Terror in American Culture

    An exploration of how the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001 and the subsequent War on Terror impacted American culture. We will focus on issues of both form (the elements determining the look and feel of post-9/11 artwork) and content (the social and moral concerns driving post-9/11 culture). Shared texts will include novels, short stories, poetry, music, art, and films. Particular attention will be paid to themes such as race and racism, religion and religious discrimination, immigration and xenophobia, debates over American exceptionalism, critiques of American capitalism, the “death of irony,” attempts to define “truth,” and the spread of conspiracy theories. 

  • AMST 244 Approaches to Indigenous Studies

    Indigenous Studies is both a body of content knowledge and a research methodology. This course provides an overview of the history of exploitative research dynamics between universities and Indigenous peoples while exposing students to alternative methodologies that center Indigenous perspectives and research priorities. Students will discuss what it means to be an ethical research partner as they learn about decolonizing and Indigenous research strategies. This course brings together ideas from history, anthropology, law, public health, education, literature, art, and social work to evaluate studies relating to Indigenous peoples for their methods, contributions, and ethics.

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • AMST 250 Asian American Reckonings

    As both targets of racism and beneficiaries of privilege, Asian Americans defy easy categorization. In a timely intervention, Cathy Park Hong, in her 2020 essay collection Minor Feelings, undertakes an “Asian American Reckoning.” Following Hong’s lead, this five-week course will reckon with Asian America in its most vexing aspects. Through an exploration of memoir, cultural criticism, poetry, fiction, and film/media, we will think hard about questions of privilege and discrimination, interracial politics, settler colonialism, and transnational ties. Grappling with the past and looking towards the future, this course asks: What does it mean to be Asian American?

  • AMST 260 Sexuality in American Film since 1945

    This five-week class uses feature-length films to examine debates around sexuality in the United States since the end of World War II. Designed to allow students to develop both a deeper understanding of modern American gender & sexual history as well as a fuller appreciation for film as a rich, historically-contingent artform. Explores a number of themes, including but not limited to: sexual identity, gender identity, censorship, racial politics and racism, class anxieties, cultural production, trans experiences, and representation. Will include films like Some Like it Hot (1959), The Graduate (1967), Philadelphia (1993), and Tangerine (2015).

    Not offered in 2024-25

  • AMST 263 Ethics of Indigenous Engagement

    This course explores ethical questions raised in academic civic engagement with Indigenous Nations, communities, and organizations. How might curricular, co-curricular, and institutional engagement proceed “in a good way”? How can we interrupt a history of extractive relationships between academic institutions and Native peoples? How should partnerships reflect Indigenous sovereignty and work from meaningful overlaps between academic and Indigenous priorities? What is the right relationship between scholarship and advocacy? How can Indigenous knowledges, values, and pedagogies reshape academic inquiry? These questions will be explored through case studies, conversations with Indigenous partners, and structured reflection on student's varied engagement experiences.

  • AMST 269 Woodstock Nation

    “If you remember the Sixties, you weren’t there.”  We will test the truth of that popular adage by exploring the American youth counterculture of the 1960s, particularly the turbulent period of the late sixties. Using examples from literature, music, and film, we will examine the hope and idealism, the violence, confusion, wacky creativity, and social mores of this seminal decade in American culture. Topics explored will include the Beat Generation, the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, LSD, and the rise of environmentalism, feminism, and Black Power. 

  • AMST 321 Indigenous Chicago: Indigenous Histories and Futures in Zhegagoynak

    Before Chicago as we know it today existed, many Indigenous nations had long standing relationships with this place. They knew it as Zhegagoynak, Gaa-zhigaagwanzhikaag, Zhigaagong, Šikaakonki, Shekâkôheki, Sekakoh, and Guušge honak, among others. This course emerges from four years of community-engaged curriculum development and examines Chicago histories through five themes: Chicago's lands and environment, Chicago as a Native place, Chicago as a place of convergence, activism and resistance in Chicago, and community-driven education movements in Chicago. Drawing from History, American Studies, Education, and Indigenous Studies, students will also examine how research and curricula can center Indigenous perspectives and sources.

  • 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 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. 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 and minors in their junior year.

  • AMST 396 Producing Latinidad

    As Arlene Dávila points out in Latinos Inc, Latinidad—the term that names a set of presumably common attributes that connects Latinxs in the U.S.—emerges in part from communities but, importantly, is developed heavily by the media, advertising, and other political and social institutions, including academia. In this course we consider how ideas and imaginings of who Latinxs are and what Latinidad is develop within political spaces (the electorate, the census), in local places, and through various media, including television, advertising, and music. We will consider how individual writers and artists contribute to the conversation. Throughout, we will engage with social and cultural theories about racial formation, gender, and sexuality.

  • AMST 398 Advanced Research in American Studies

    This seminar introduces advanced skills in American Studies research, focusing on the shaping and proposing of a major research project. Through a combination of class discussion, small group work and presentations, and one-on-one interactions with the professor, majors learn the process of imaging, creating, and preparing independent interdisciplinary projects as well as the interconnections of disparate scholarly and creative works.

    • Fall 2024
    • S/CR/NC
    • 3
    • No Exploration
    • Student has completed any of the following course(s): AMST 345 – Theory and Practice of American Studies with a grade of C- or better.

    • CL: 300 level
    • Michael McNally 🏫 👤
  • AMST 399 Senior Seminar in American Studies

    This seminar focuses on advanced skills in American Studies research, critical reading, writing, and presentation. Engagement with one scholarly talk, keyed to the current year’s comps exam theme, will be part of the course. Through a combination of class discussion, small group work and presentations, and one-on-one interactions with the professor, majors learn the process of crafting and supporting independent interdisciplinary arguments, no matter which option for comps they are pursuing. Students also will learn effective strategies for peer review and oral presentation.

    • Winter 2025
    • 3
    • No Exploration
    • Student has completed any of the following course(s): AMST 345 – Theory and Practice of American Studies with a grade of C- or better.

    • Michael McNally 🏫 👤
  • AMST 400 Integrative Exercise Colloquium

    The American Studies comprehensive exercise takes place over Fall and Winter terms and is a colloquium process that yields an individual 12-15 pp essay and a collaborative, public facing presentation.

    • Winter 2025
    • S/NC
    • 3
    • Student must have completed AMST 396 and is in AMST program and senior priority.

    • Michael McNally 🏫 👤