Chair, Associate Professor: REGINA G. KUNZEL
Faculty 1999-2000: Professor: K. LEE. Associate Professors: KUNZEL, REINHARDT, WONG. Assistant Professors: BACON, BEAN, CARTER-SANBORN, KENT**, M. LEWIS. Lecturer: CLEGHORN. Part-time Lecturer: L. JOHNSON.
GENERAL PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
The American Studies Program uses interdisciplinary approaches to develop students' understanding of the complexity of the culture(s) usually labeled "American." Examining history, literature, and other forms of expression, we explore the processes of cultural definition as contested by diverse individuals and groups. We ask new questions about aspects of American life long taken for granted; we also use American culture as a laboratory for testing classic and contemporary theories about how cultures work.
NON-MAJORS, FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS, AND SOPHOMORES
American Studies 201 is open to non-majors including first-year students with Advanced Placement credit in American History. All elective courses are open to students who meet the requirements of the departments that sponsor those courses. American Studies 302 and 403 are open to non-majors with permission of the instructor.
RATIONALE FOR COURSE NUMBERING
The introductory course is offered at the 200 level to suggest the desirability of some preliminary training in college-level history, literature, sociology, or political science. The intermediate course, 302, is offered primarily for juniors, although it is open to sophomores who have had 201 and will be away from campus during the spring of their junior year. 300-level independent study courses are offered to upperclass students. 403 is designed for senior majors; it, like 302, is open to students who can demonstrate adequate preparation to the instructor.
THE MAJOR
Required major courses:
American Studies 201
American Studies 302
American Studies 403
Elective courses:
Eight courses: five should be chosen from one of the specialization fields listed below, the other three chosen from among any of the electives listed. Students are expected to take courses from at least two disciplines when choosing the courses that make up their specializations. Students are also required to take at least one course from a list of pre-1900 courses. Advanced Placement credit in appropriate areas, or departmental courses not listed here, may be substituted for electives in the major, with permission of the program chair.
THE DEGREE WITH HONORS IN AMERICAN STUDIES
Candidates for honors in American Studies will undertake a substantial, year-long independent project during their Senior year. All students who wish to write an honors thesis should consult with a prospective faculty advisor in the spring of their junior year. Applicants should have a solid record of work of high caliber, normally defined as maintaining at least a B+ average in courses taken for the major. Students writing honors theses will register for AMST 491, W030, and AMST 492. The awarding of honors will be determined by the American Studies Program Committee, based on the recommendation of the student's advisor and two other faculty readers.
ADVISING
All majors will be assigned a faculty advisor. Majors must meet with their advisor during the first week of classes during the fall semester and at the time of the spring semester registration period in order to have their courses and plans for the American Studies major approved. Both majors and non-majors are encouraged to talk at any time with the program chair or other affiliated faculty about the major.
AMERICAN STUDIES AND OTHER PROGRAMS
Students majoring in American Studies are encouraged to consider pursuing concentrations in Afro-American, Environmental, and Women's and Gender Studies. Many of the courses counted for those concentrations may also earn credit toward the American Studies major.
STUDY AWAY FROM WILLIAMS
We encourage students to pursue cross-cultural comparative studies. A major in American Studies can be combined with study away from Williams for a semester or a year if plans are made carefully. Many courses that will be approved for College credit may also count toward the American Studies major if their subject matter is American culture.
Students planning to be away in the junior year should have taken American Studies 201 before they leave; those away for junior-year spring term should take American Studies 302 in their sophomore year. Students should consult as early as possible with the chair or their advisor about their plans for fulfilling the requirements of the major.
SPECIALIZATION FIELDS
To provide focus for work in the major, each student will choose one of the Specialization Fields listed below and record this choice when registering for the major. (This commitment can be revised, in consultation with the chair.) At least five electives will be taken from among those designated to support a specialization field. In extraordinary cases, students who wish to do so may be permitted to design their own specialization field. Fulfillment of concentrations in Afro-American Studies, Environmental Studies, and Women's and Gender Studies may be used as the basis for individually designed specialization fields. All such arrangements must be approved by the American Studies Committee.
CULTURAL PRACTICES
Elective courses:
Cultural practices are the complex means by which peoples of the Americas express themselves, adopting, altering, and inventing artifacts, and social forms and practices.
ANSO 202 Coming of Age
ANSO 311 Modern and Postmodern Culture
ANSO 387 Propaganda
ANSO 402 Senior Seminar: Culture and Violence
Anthropology 207 North-American Indians
ArtH/Environmental Studies 201 American Landscape History
ArtH/Environmental Studies 252 Campuses
ArtH 264 American Art and Architecture, 1600 to Present
ArtH 304/Environmental Studies 324 American Transport History
ArtH/Environmental Studies 305 North-American Suburbs
ArtH 306/Environmental Studies 326 North-American Dwellings
ArtH 307/Environmental Studies 327 The North-American Park Idea
ArtH 352 Topics in American Art: The Crisis of Victorian Painting
ArtH 403 The American House
ArtS/Women's and Gender Studies 306 Practicing Feminism: A Study of Political Activism (Deleted 1999-2000)
English 111 Thinking and Writing About Television
English 117 American Cinema in the 70s: The Other American Renaissance
English/American Studies 209 American Literature: Origins to 1865
English/American Studies 210 American Literature: 1865-Present
English/American Studies 218 Introduction to U.S. Latina and Latino Writing
English/Women's and Gender Studies 219 Introduction to Literature by Women
English/American Studies 220 Introduction to African-American Writing
English/AMS 231T Literature of the Sea
English/American Studies 338 Literature of the American Renaissance
English 341 American Genders, American Sexualities
English 342 Postcolonial Literature
English 347 Henry James
English 349 American Modernism of the 1920s
English 350 Reading Wright to Morrison (Deleted 1999-2000)
English 352 American Realism
English 354 Contemporary American Poetry
English/Literary Studies 355/American Studies 403 Theorizing Whiteness
English 357 Contemporary American Fiction
English 364 Classic Hollywood Cinema
English 370 Truth and Lives (Deleted 1999-2000)
English 371 Feminist Theory and the Representation of Women in Film
English 376/ArtS 384 Documentary Technologies
English 377 Suicides and Survivors
English 385 Indian Fictions
English/ArtS 387 American Gothic Video
French 215 The Fashioning of Fashion: Theory and Practice
History 102 Power and Popular Culture in Modern Mexico
History 114 Families and Social Change: An Introduction to the Study of Private Life
History 115 The Great Depression: Culture, Society, and Politics in the 1930s
History 242 The "Good War:" World War II and American Culture and Society
History/American Studies 246 Cultural Encounters in the American West
History 301B Autobiography as History: An American Character?
History 303/Religion 225 Afro-American Religious History (Deleted 1999-2000)
History 315 The Civil Rights Movement (Deleted 1999-2000)
History 317 Intellectual Traditions of Chicano Nationalism
History 318 The Black Radical Tradition in America
History 319 Politics and Culture in Colonial America
History/American Studies 320 Adolescence in America
History/Women's and Gender Studies 324 Women in the United States Since 1870
History 327 (formerly 355T) Major Themes in the History of Native America
History/Women's and Gender Studies 344 The History of Sexuality in America
History 361 Salem Witchcraft
History/American Studies 364 Imagining Urban America, Three Case Studies: Boston, Chicago, and L.A.
History 366T W. E. B. Du Bois (Deleted 1999-2000)
History 369 Methods in Latino Studies: Community, Family, and Identity Formation
History 375/Religion 226 Twentieth-Century American Religious Movements (Deleted 1999-2000)
History 385T Inventing Gender: America 1600-1850
History of Science 240 Technology and Science in American Culture
Literary Studies 111 Introduction to Cultural Studies: Traveling Fictions-Encountering the Other Through Tourism, Time Travel, Exile
Literary Studies 215/Spanish 205 The Latin-American Novel in Translation
Music 111 Popular Music: Revolutions in the History of Rock
Music 114 American Music
Music 122 Afro-American Music
Music 130 History of Jazz
Music 140 Introduction to the Music of Duke Ellington
Music 141 Introduction to the Music of John Coltrane
Music 212 Jazz Theory and Improvisation
Political Science 212 Mass Media in American Politics
Political Science 239 Political Thinking About Race: Resurrecting the Political in Contemporary Texts on the Black Experience
Political Science/American Studies 332 Fugitive Identities: Slavery and the Boundaries of American Politics
Religion 225/History 303 Afro-American Religious History (Deleted 1999-2000)
Religion 226/History 375 Twentieth-Century American Religious Movements (Deleted 1999-2000)
Religion 283 Introduction to the Semiotics of Culture
Sociology 215 Crime in the Streets
Sociology 368 Technology and Modern Society
Theatre 210 Multicultural Performance
Theatre/American Studies 211 Topics in African-American Performance: Theatre, Film, and Dance of the Harlem Renaissance
Theatre 213T Paul Robeson: Visible Man
POWER, POLITICS, AND BELIEF
Any political or social movement is ultimately based on a set of beliefs about what the world is, or ought to be. This specialization examines American society in terms of its underlying belief system and ideologies, how these are translated into political, institutional, and cultural life, and how they shape the nature and distribution of power in society.
ANSO 387 Propaganda
ArtS/Women's and Gender Studies 306 Practicing Feminism: A Study of Political Activism (Deleted 1999-2000)
Economics 208 Modern Corporate Industry
Economics 209 Labor Economics
Economics 220 American Economic History
Economics 237 The Economics of Inequality and Poverty
Economics 355 Feminist Economics
Economics 386 The Economics of Inequality
English/American Studies 218 Introduction to U.S. Latina and Latino Writing
English/American Studies 220 Introduction to African-American Writing
English 341 American Genders, American Sexualities
English 342 Postcolonial Literature
English/American Studies/Women's and Gender Studies 346 Women of Color in the U.S.: Public and Private Culture
English/Literary Studies 355/American Studies 403 Theorizing Whiteness
History 101 America in the 1960s (Deleted 1999-2000)
History 102 Power and Popular Culture in Modern Mexico
History 104 Slavery in the American South
History 115 The Great Depression: Culture, Society, and Politics in the 1930s
History 227 Comparative American Immigration History
History 242 The "Good War:" World War II and American Culture and Society
History 243 America from San Gabriel to Gettysburg: 1492-1865
History 244 A History of the United States Since 1865
History/American Studies 246 Cultural Encounters in the American West
History 248 Twentieth-Century American Politics (Deleted 1999-2000)
History 261 African-American History Through Emancipation
History 262 African-American History From Reconstruction to the Present
History 288 Modern Latin America, 1822 to the Present
History 303/Religion 225 Afro-American Religious History (Deleted 1999-2000)
History 304 American Labor History (Deleted 1999-2000)
History 305 Revolution in Twentieth-Century Latin America
History 308 Studies in American Social Change
History 311 History of the Old South
History 312 History of the New South
History 313 The Rise of American Business
History 314 History of Modern Brazil, 1822 to the Present
History 315 The Civil Rights Movement (Deleted 1999-2000)
History 317 Intellectual Traditions of Chicano Nationalism
History 318 The Black Radical Tradition in America
History 319 Politics and Culture in Colonial America
History 321 Gender and Community in Early America
History/Women's and Gender Studies 324 Women in the United States Since 1870
History 326 Rise and Fall of the Mexican Revolution
History 327 (formerly 355T) Major Themes in the History of Native America
History 328 Gender and History in Latin America
History 354T The Anglo-American World in the Eighteenth Century: War, Society, and Politics, 1700-1775
History 360 Civil War and Reconstruction
History 361 Salem Witchcraft
History 366T W. E. B. Du Bois (Deleted 1999-2000)
History/American Studies 368T The Politics and Rhetoric of Exclusion: Immigration and its Discontents
History 375/Religion 226 Twentieth-Century American Religious Movements (Deleted 1999-2000)
History 386 The American Revolution
History of Science 240 Technology and Science in American Culture
Political Science/American Studies 100S Politics and Freedom
Political Science 101 (section 02) Moral and Political Reasoning
Political Science 201 (formerly 110) Power, Politics, and Democracy in America
Political Science 207 Political Elections
Political Science 208 The Politics of Family Policy
Political Science 209 Poverty in America
Political Science 211 Public Opinion and Political Behavior
Political Science 212 Mass Media in American Politics
Political Science 214 (formerly 313) Congressional Politics Today
Political Science 215 Campaigns and Elections (Deleted 1999-2000)
Political Science 216 Constitutional Law II: Individual Rights
Political Science 218 Presidential Politics
Political Science 219 Constitutional Law I: Structures of Power
Political Science 222 The Cold War and After: American Foreign Policy Since 1945 (Deleted 1999-2000)
Political Science 230 American Political Thought
Political Science 234 Democracy (Deleted 1999-2000)
Political Science/Women's and Gender Studies 237 Sex, Gender, and Political Theory
Political Science 239 Political Thinking about Race: Resurrecting the Political in Contemporary Texts on the Black Experience
Political Science 311 The Personal and the Political in Practice: Gender, Sexuality, and Political Power in America
Political Science 312 Southern Politics
Political Science 315 American Political Parties
Political Science 316 Public Policymaking in the U.S.
Political Science 318 The Voting Rights Act and the Voting Rights Movement
Political Science 319 The First Amendment
Political Science/American Studies 332 Fugitive Identities: Slavery and the Boundaries of American Politics
Political Science 338 American Legal Philosophy
Political Science 410 Senior Seminar in American Politics
Religion/History 221 American Religious History
Religion/History 224 North-American Catholic History
Religion/Environmental Studies 276 Grounding the Sacred: Religion and Ecology in the United States
Religion 277 Apocalypses: Varieties of Millennial Discourse
Sociology 203 Social Inequality
Sociology 206 Religion and the Social Order
Sociology 210 The Construction of Social Problems
Sociology 215 Crime in the Streets
Sociology 218 Law and Modern Society
Sociology 265 Drugs and Society
SPACE AND PLACE
This route focuses on the human landscape and the built environment. Courses listed below variously undertake the reading of geographical regions, patterns of habitation, imagined spaces, property relations and/or artifacts.
ANSO 311 Modern and Postmodern Culture
Anthropology 103 Pyramids, Bones, and Sherds: What is Archaeology?
Anthropology 207 North-American Indians
Anthropology 215 Secrets of Ancient Peru: Archaeology of South America
Anthropology 217 Mesoamerican Civilizations
Anthropology/EXPR/Religion 273 Sacred Geographies
ArtH/Environmental Studies 252 Campuses
ArtH 264 American Art and Architecture, 1600 to Present
ArtH 304/Environmental Studies 324 American Transport History
ArtH/Environmental Studies 305 North-American Suburbs
ArtH 306/Environmental Studies 326 North-American Dwellings
ArtH 307/Environmental Studies 327 The North-American Park Idea
ArtH 403 The American House
Economics/Environmental Studies 238 The Regions of America
English 115 The Space of Literature
English 342 Postcolonial Literature
Environmental Studies 101 Humans in the Landscape
EXPR 242/ArtS 212 Cyberscapes
EXPR 252 Service, Community, and Self
Geosciences 105 Geology Outdoors
Geosciences 201/Environmental Studies 205 Geomorphology
Geosciences/Environmental Studies 208 Water and the Environment
Geosciences 253 Baja (Deleted 1999-2000)
Geosciences 404 Geology of the Appalachians (Deleted 1999-2000)
History 227 Comparative American Immigration History
History 263 Inter-American Relations (Deleted 1999-2000)
History/Environmental Studies 306 Urban Theory
History 311 History of the Old South
History 312 History of the New South
History 328 History of Canada (Deleted 1999-2000)
History 333 United States Foreign Relations to 1920 (Deleted 1999-2000)
History 334 United States Foreign Relations since 1920 (Deleted 1999-2000)
History/American Studies 364 Imagining Urban America, Three Case Studies: Boston, Chicago, and L.A.
History 381 The Ghetto from Venice to Harlem
Literary Studies 111 Introduction to Cultural Studies: The Traveling Fictions-Encountering the Other Through Tourism, Time Travel, Exile
Philosophy 251 Utopia, Dystopia (Deleted 1999-2000)
Political Science 312 Southern Politics
Political Science 317/Environmental Studies 307 Environmental Law
Political Science 335 The Public Sphere
Political Science 349T Cuba and the United States
Religion/Environmental Studies 287 Inhabiting Nature: Religious, Philosophical, and Sociological Perspectives
Sociology 215 Crime in the Streets
RACE AND ETHNICITY
This specialization takes up the question of American identities as those are determined and sometimes confounded by racial and ethnic difference. How has difference within the American "community" been defined, and by whom? What have been the real historical, cultural, economic, and social effects of these discursive definitions?
Anthropology 207 North-American Indians
Anthropology 216 Native-Peoples of Latin America
Economics 237 The Economics of Inequality and Poverty
English/American Studies 218 Introduction to U.S. Latina and Latino Writing
English/American Studies 220 Introduction to African-American Writing
English 341 American Genders, American Sexualities
English 342 Postcolonial Literature
English 350 Reading Wright to Morrison (Deleted 1999-2000)
English/Literary Studies 355/American Studies 403 Theorizing Whiteness
English 385 Indian Fictions
History 102 Power and Popular Culture in Modern Mexico
History 104 Slavery in the American South
History/American Studies 111 Topics in Asian-American History
History 211 Puerto Ricans in the United States
History 225 The Caribbean from Slavery to Independence: A Comparison of Empires
History 227 Comparative American Immigration History
History/American Studies 246 Cultural Encounters in the American West
History/American Studies 250 Introduction to U.S. Latino Studies
History 261 African-American History Through Emancipation
History 262 African-American History From Reconstruction to the Present
History 288 Modern Latin America, 1822 to the Present
History 303/Religion 225 Afro-American Religious History (Deleted 1999-2000)
History 308 Studies in American Social Change
History 311 History of the Old South
History 312 History of the New South
History 315 The Civil Rights Movement (Deleted 1999-2000)
History 317 Intellectual Traditions of Chicano Nationalism
History 318 The Black Radical Tradition in America
History 326 Rise and Fall of the Mexican Revolution
History 327 (formerly 355T) Major Themes in the History of Native America
History 331 Comparative Asian-American History, 1850-1965
History 332 Contemporary Issues in Recent Asian-American History, 1965-Present
History 343 An Intellectual History of Southwestern Indians
History 351 Slavery, Capitalism, and Revolution: The Impact of the New World on Europe, 1700-1900
History 355 Comparative Slavery and Race Relations in Latin America
History 358 The Chinese-American Experience
History 360 Civil War and Reconstruction
History 366T W. E. B. Du Bois (Deleted 1999-2000)
History/American Studies 368T The Politics and Rhetoric of Exclusion: Immigration and Its Discontents
History 369 Methods in Latino Studies: Community, Family, and Identity Formation
History 381 The Ghetto from Venice to Harlem
Literary Studies 111 Introduction to Cultural Studies: Traveling Fictions-Encountering the Other Through Tourism, Time Travel, Exile
Music 122 Afro-American Music
Music 130 History of Jazz
Political Science 101 (section 02) Moral and Political Reasoning
Political Science 213 Theory and Practice of Civil Rights Protest
Political Science 233/AAS 220 Beyond Double Consciousness: Gunnar Myrdal and the Construction of Race as Dilemma
Political Science 246 Contemporary Mexican Politics
Political Science 249 Latin-American Politics
Political Science 312 Southern Politics
Political Science 318 The Voting Rights Act and the Voting Rights Movement
Political Science/American Studies 332 Fugitive Identities: Slavery and the Boundaries of American Politics
Political Science 344 Rebels and Revolution in Latin America
Political Science 349T Cuba and the United States
Psychology 341 Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Sociology 103 Behind the Rhetoric of Race: Race, Ethnicity, and Public Policy
Sociology 203 Social Inequality
Sociology 220 Ethnicity
Theatre 210 Multicultural Performance
Theatre/American Studies 211 Topics in African-American Performance: Theatre, Film, and Dance of the Harlem Renaissance
Theatre 213T Paul Robeson: Visible Man
PRE-1900 COURSES
ArtH 264 American Art and Architecture, 1600 to Present
Economics 220 American Economic History
English/American Studies 209 American Literature: Origins to 1865
English/American Studies 338 Literature of the American Renaissance
History 104 Slavery in the American South
History 227 Comparative American Immigration History
History 243 America from San Gabriel to Gettysburg: 1492-1865
History/American Studies 246 Cultural Encounters in the American West
History 261 African-American History Through Emancipation
History 287 The Formation of Latin-American Societies to 1826
History 304 American Labor History (Deleted 1999-2000)
History 311 History of the Old South
History 319 Politics and Culture in Colonial America
History 333 United States Foreign Relations to 1920 (Deleted 1999-2000)
History 351 Slavery, Capitalism, and Revolution: the Impact of the New World on Europe, 1700-1900
History 354T The Anglo-American World in the Eighteenth Century: War, Society, and Politics, 1700-1775
History 357 The U.S. Congress (Deleted 1999-2000)
History 361 Salem Witchcraft
History 385T Inventing Gender: America 1600-1850
History 386 The American Revolution
History of Science 240 Technology and Science in American Culture
Political Science 230 American Political Thought
Political Science/American Studies 332 Fugitive Identities: Slavery and the Boundaries of American Politics