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American Studies

American Studies will teach you how to think expansively and critically about American culture. Our courses will allow you to understand the patterns of American culture as they have changed over time, and as they are reflected in the particular experiences of Americans from different regions, social classes, races, ethnicities, genders and national backgrounds. The major will immerse you in the subject of American culture, as well as in the interdisciplinary methods of American Studies, which seek insight through multiple perspectives on phenomena, events, or currents in American culture. You will be exposed to several disciplinary perspectives through the Contributing Courses and also to models for integrating such perspectives in the Core Course, the Introduction, and the Senior Symposium. Our major is designed to help you explore the borders of American nationality as well as the contexts in which the American experience has unfolded. Our faculty have a wide range of scholarly interests and are affiliated with the English, Women's Studies, Sociology, Religion and History Departments at Emory.

The major will emphasize the interdisciplinary study of cultural forms, practices, institutions, technologies, and social movements in American history and culture. Both individual courses and the program as a whole will give special attention to the interactions of gender, place and region, race and ethnicity, and social class as cultural patterns. While we take the United States as our primary field of reference, we do so understanding that the internal borders of region and the external borders of nation have changed over time. We thus encourage work that explores America as a place, a population, and a set of historical events, and we will encourage each major to include courses with a comparative dimension or ones that offer an international context for the development of American culture.

We seek to give students a broad base in the sweep of American history (in our introductory course and in the requirement of one other course in American History) and exposure to the way that different disciplines offer insight into American history (hence the requirement to take one contributing course in social science and one in humanities). In the core courses, students will choose from a range of deeply interdisciplinary courses as they learn to apply the basic models of the introductory course to a variety of events and social phenomena in American history. The senior symposium will function as a capstone seminar, one that will bring students to a certain level of sophistication about American Studies as a scholarly field. In that seminar, students will learn about the history of American Studies and participate in a research seminar around a common theme (such as the legacy of slavery or the Vietnam War).

American Studies began as an intellectual movement in universities and colleges and there are over two hundred American Studies programs in the United States (and even more abroad). It is therefore a degree that is recognizable to professional schools, graduate programs, and employers. It can prepare students for a wide range of careers: in law, business, teaching, journalism, the arts, philanthropy and museums. Our majors will be taught how to think critically about the complex social system in which they live, which is an exemplary way to combine a liberal arts education with vocational interests.

Visit the Program Website

Concentrations

Faculty

Director
Kim Loudermilk
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Peter Wakefield
Core
Matthew BernsteinJoseph CrespinoStephen CristTimothy DowdWalter KalaidjianGary LadermanValerie LoichotJonathan PrudeBenjamin ReissJohn StuhrAllen TullosKimberly Wallace-Sanders

Courses

AMST 100-Level Courses

Fall, spring. Variable topics related to the U.S. and the Americas that combine interdisciplinary perspectives and methods from the humanities and social sciences.

Credit Hours
3
GER
FS
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

AMST 200-Level Courses

An interdisciplinary, historically grounded introduction to scholarly approaches to the U.S. and the broader Americas, with emphasis on issues of class, ethnicity, gender, and cross-cultural studies. Prerequisite: ENGRD 223 Rhetorical Grammar (1 credit), which can be taken simultaneously.

Credit Hours
3
GER
HA
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

An interdisciplinary, historically grounded introduction to scholarly approaches to the U.S. and the broader Americas, with emphasis on issues of class, ethnicity, gender, and cross-cultural studies. Prerequisite: ENGRD 223 Rhetorical Grammar (1 credit), which can be taken simultaneously.

Credit Hours
4
GER
HAW
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

This course introduces students to the history of people of Asian ancestry in the United States, including immigrants, students, professionals, and refugees from East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Thematically, it investigates timely issues facing the Asian American community today.

Credit Hours
3
GER
SSE
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • HIST 228
  • EAS 228

An introduction to the study of popular culture--movies, pulp fiction, music, and television--in the context of historical analysis.

Credit Hours
3
GER
HSC
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • HIST 253

An introduction to the study of popular culture--movies, pulp fiction, music, and television--in the context of historical analysis.

Credit Hours
4
GER
HSCW
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • HIST 253W

Seminars arranged around current issues and controversies in American culture. May be repeated as topic changes. .

Credit Hours
1 - 4
GER
None
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

Seminars arranged around current issues and controversies in American culture. May be repeated as topic changes .

Credit Hours
1 - 5
GER
CW
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

AMST 300-Level Courses

Explores the variety of traditional musical cultures in the United States, their historical and geographical influences on each other, and their influences on contemporary popular music.

Credit Hours
3
GER
HAPE
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • HIST 359

Examines the history if the sport from its nineteenth-century beginnings to the present day, including its engagement with changing social realities and persistent social myths.

Credit Hours
3
GER
HAP
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

Examines the history if the sport from its nineteenth-century beginnings to the present day, including its engagement with changing social realities and persistent social myths.

Credit Hours
4
GER
HAPW
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

This course examines the interaction of race relations and ordinary leisure of movie-going from 1895-1996. Attention to the business of distribution and the content of film shown in segregated venues.

Credit Hours
3
GER
HAP
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

African Americans, Indians, Irish, and Jews in recent American history. Explores patterns of immigration and the limits of assimilation. Also treats anti-ethnic reactions such as racism and anti-Semitism.

Credit Hours
3
GER
HSCE
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • HIST 348

Specialized courses in American culture and history. May be repeated for credit when topic varies.

Credit Hours
1 - 4
GER
None
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

Specialized courses in American culture and history. May be repeated for credit when topic varies.

Credit Hours
1 - 5
GER
CW
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

Intermediate level workshop in writing and researching Southern Georgia's Civil Rights history.

Credit Hours
4
GER
HSCW
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • ENGCW 385RW
  • AAS 387RW
  • HIST 387RW

The "South" has played a central role in our national imagination.This course explores the ways in which certain stereotypes suchas Southern Bell, Mammy, Southern Gentleman, Jezebel, and Uncle Tom remain relevant across the decades.

Credit Hours
3
GER
HAPE
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • AAS 388

AMST 400-Level Courses

An advanced interdisciplinary treatment of American culture issues, historical events or eras, or literature. The ILA and AMST programs support interdisciplinary inquiry of the Americas across Emory College of Arts and Sciences; this course will be frequently cross-listed with other departments.

Credit Hours
1 - 4
GER
None
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

An advanced interdisciplinary treatment of American culture issues, historical events or eras, or literature. The ILA and AMST programs support interdisciplinary inquiry of the Americas across Emory College of Arts and Sciences; this course will be frequently cross-listed with other departments.

Credit Hours
1 - 5
GER
CW
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

IDS 491 senior seminar serves as the capstone experience for all each class of interdisciplinary undergraduate scholars. Students write and present a portion of their senior project, read contemporary debates about interdisciplinarity, and design a shared unit of interdisciplinary study.

Credit Hours
3
GER
HAP
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • IDS 491

IDS 491 senior seminar serves as the capstone experience for all each class of interdisciplinary undergraduate scholars. Students write and present a portion of their senior project, read contemporary debates about interdisciplinarity, and design a shared unit of interdisciplinary study.

Credit Hours
4
GER
HAPW
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
  • IDS 491W

Fall, spring. Prerequisite: permission of the director of undergraduate studies. Open only to honors candidates in their senior year. Independent research, culminating in the thesis. .

Credit Hours
4
GER
XA
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

Fall, spring. Prerequisite: permission of the director of undergraduate studies. Open only to honors candidates in their senior year. Independent research, culminating in the thesis.

Credit Hours
1 - 8
GER
XAW
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

Credit variable. Prerequisite: permission of the director of undergraduate studies. Opportunity to integrate the theory and practice of studying American culture and history.

Credit Hours
1 - 6
GER
None
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

Credit variable. Prerequisite: permission of instructor and the director of undergraduate studies. Study of an area not covered in regular course offerings.

Credit Hours
2 - 4
GER
None
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None

Credit variable. Prerequisite: permission of instructor and the director of undergraduate studies. Independent research and writing on a topic associated with the area of concentration in the major, undertaken with faculty supervision.

Credit Hours
2 - 4
GER
XA
Requisites
None
Cross-Listed
None