American Studies Undergrad Courses & Curriculum
AMST 101: America and the World
This course introduces first-year Purdue students to the field of American Studies. The course asks students to imagine how they are or are not “American,” and what being “American” means to the rest of the world. The course takes a transnational approach to the study of life in America, focusing on the experience of people who, like most Americans, come from someplace else.
“America and the World” also seeks to give ‘voice’ to the many people who come in and out of the United States as migrants, immigrants, workers, family members. To capture these voices, the course studies personal writings, poetry, letters, songs, essays, autobiographies and histories, many written by ordinary Americans.
Students will be challenged in the course to think about their own social location in the United States---that is, where they see themselves fitting into American society. This means examining different forms of citizenship---cultural, legal, sexual---that do or do not make Americans a ‘united’ people. Finally, the course examines the idea of American exceptionalism---the idea often promoted by its leaders that America is a unique country with a special mission to help or “save” the world or democracy.
The goal of the course is to give students the chance to see themselves in a panoramic view of American and world history, and to give them a deeper understanding of how people’s lived experiences in the United States---of their race, gender, sexuality, class---produce themes and ideas about the meaning of America and its place in the world.
AMST 201: Introduction to American Studies
This course introduces undergraduate students to the interdisciplinary study of "America" as a place, a political and social idea, a set of values and traditions, and a people. The course enables students to study America through the diversity of its ideas, texts, objects, institutions, practices, and histories as well as the complex social and political relationships that have shaped and continue to shape the world to which they belong.
The course's interdisciplinary emphasis challenges students to explore the nation's complexity and the dynamics of its national culture and countless subcultures from multiple vantage points and through multiple media.
In AMST 20100, students are introduced to a holistic approach to the study of America in a problem-based course. That is to say, the problem provides the structure for the course rather than the requirements of any one discipline.
Throughout the course, students will read scholarship from a variety of disciiplines so they can begin to recognize the different modes of analysis that might be applied to the same subject. AMST 20100's readings and research will focus on topics representative of both faculty expertise and emergent directions in American Studies scholarship.
While the content of the course will vary according to these criteria, each section of AMST 20100 will share the desire to view America from multiple points of inquiry rather than from the perspective of a single discipline. By drawing on a broad range of knowledge from the humanities and social sciences, the course provides students with a wide-ranging, yet disciplined exploration of problems that cross the boundaries of traditional academic fields and reflect the diversity of the American experience.
AMST 301: Perspectives on America
This course builds on expertise gained in AMST 20100 and encourages students to practice American Studies scholarship and writing at a more advanced level.
AMST 30100's readings and research concentrate on topics representative of both faculty expertise and emergent directions in American Studies scholarship. While the content of the course will vary according to these criteria, each section of AMST 30100 will share the desire to view America from multiple points of inquiry rather than from the perspective of a single discipline.
By drawing on a broad range of knowledge from the humanities and social sciences, the course provides students with a wide-ranging, yet disciplined exploration of problems that cross the boundaries of traditional academic fields and reflect the diversity of the American experience.
AMST 490: Interdisciplinary Senior Capston Project
Since American Studies exists at the intersection of disciplines, the undergraduate major culminates with an interdisciplinary senior capstone project (AMST 49000). In their senior year, majors enrolled in AMST 49000 will develop a senior thesis or project on a subject of their choice. Ideally, this thesis or project will emerge from and provide the capstone to the student's self-directed area of concentration within American Studies.
The senior thesis or project is intended to provide students with the opportunity to develop an extended analysis of a significant problem, and to shape the essay into a finished piece of scholarly work. AMST 490 is designed to give students a sense of competence and confidence in framing, exploring, and completing an explicitly interdisciplinary project.
AMST 49000 will be similar in format to undergraduate independent studies in CLA. Students will select individual project advisers on the basis of their academic interests and their familiarity with the faculty members. Individual project advisers should be familiar with the student and qualified to oversee and evaluate the student's senior thesis or project.
Students in AMST 49000 will arrange to meet regularly with individual project advisers who will specify the precise requirements for the course. All project advisers and capstone projects must be approved by the Director of Undergraduate Studies before they can be applied toward the major.
Students in AMST 49000 will work with individual project advisers who will assign the final course grade upon completion of the capstone project or thesis. AMST 49000 may not be taken before students have completed the American Studies foundation requirements (AMST 20100 and AMST 30100) and most of their area of concentration classes.
Although students will be strongly encouraged to fulfill their AMST 49000 requirement through the completion of a senior thesis or project, students may also substitute an additional AMST 30100 AND one additional elective from Requirement B in place of AMST 49000. The option to substitute coursework for the capstone will provide seniors who have difficulty identifying individual project advisers with an alternative path to graduation.
Areas of Concentration
All American Studies majors must decide upon an area of concentration within the eighteen hours of elective courses required for Part B of the major. Students may choose from over a dozen already articulated areas of concentration or construct their own. The area of concentration should be designed in consultation with and approved by the AMST Director of Undergraduate Studies. The AMST Director of Undergraduate Studies may approve courses not listed below to be counted for the major's Area of Concentration if the student proposes a compelling and rigorous plan of study. All 500-level and variable title/credit courses require the permission of the faculty offering the course and the AMST Director of Undergraduate Studies before they can be applied to the American Studies major.