Department of American Studies

American Arts, Literature, and Popular Culture

Students in this concentration examine artistic creations to discover how they are shaped by cultural preconceptions, norms, and standards, and how in turn these expressive forms affect ongoing developments in cultural life. This concentration thus emphasizes skills in the formal analysis of artistic artifacts, historical inquiry, and cultural contextualization.

Check regularly with the Department of American Studies for updates on new courses, relevant special topics courses, and other relevant courses. No more than two courses may be applied from a single department outside American Studies. [Updated 11/10/10]

Current Courses from American Studies:

45:50        Food in America
45:60        Sex and Popular Culture in the Postwar U.S.
45:75        American Popular Music
45:84        Sport and Film
45:89        American Political Humor
45:102      Black Popular Music
45:115      American Culture of the 1930s
45:123      American Literature and History
45:129      African American Cinema and Culture
45:140      American Subcultures
45:150      Topics in American Cultural Studies: Black Popular Culture
45:151      American Business Cultures
45:152      Fairs and Amusement Parks
45:155      Performing America Queerly
45:156      Arts in America
45:157      Gender on Stage
45:193      American Photography

Current Courses from Other Departments:

1H:66        Introduction to American Art
1H:85        Intro. to American Architecture
1H:104     American Indian Art
1H:163     American Renaissance and the Gilded Age
1H:168     American Print Culture
1H:170     Modernism and Early 20th Century American Art
8G:01        American Lives
8G:05/149:05 Literatures of Native American Peoples
8G:011      Literature and Sexualities
8G:013      Literatures of Latinos/as in the U.S.
8:52/131:52 Literature, Culture and Women
8:55          American Poetry
8:56          American Literary Classics
8:57          American Novel Before 1900
8:58          American Novel After 1900
8:59          American Short Story
8:69/129:69 Selected African American Authors
8:82          Latino/a Studies
8:83          Topics in African American Lit.
8:86          Topics in Asian American Literature
8:87          Selected American Authors Before 1900
8:88          Selected American Authors After 1900
8:105        Literature and Culture of 19th Century America
8:106        Literature and Culture of 20th Century America
8:108        Literature and culture of Amer Before 1800
8:115        Literatures of the American Peoples
8:116/129:116 African American Literature I
129:117/8:117 African American Literature II
8:118        Jewish American Literature
8:133        Inter-American Studies
8:135        Topics in American Literature
8:137        African American Autobiography
8:139        Topics in American Literature II
8:141        Literature and Culture of America Before 1800
8:154        American Regional Literatures
8160         African American Literary/Rhetorical Criticism I
8:162/129:162 Midwest African American Lit & Culture
8:180        American Drama Before 1945
8:185/149:185 Native American Autobiography
8:190        Topics in Book History: American Book History
8:196        American Novel Since 1945
8:197/49:117 American Drama Since 1945
16A:133 American West in Film
16A:139 The Social History of American Baseball
25:141      History of Jazz
35:174      Latino/a Popular Culture
36:048      The Rise of Electronic Media
36:51        Politics of Polular Culture
36:65        Television Criticism
36:83        Cultural History of Radio
36:150      Cultural History of Advertising
36:151      Cultural History of Television
48:01        Introduction to Film Analysis
48:10        Contemporary Cinema
48:20        US Film
48:23        Documentary Film
48:52        Gender and Film
49:190      African American Theater I
49:191      African American Theater II
131:163    US Minority Women Writers
149:168    American Indians in the Arts