American Studies Course Descriptions

Fall, spring. Variable topics that combine interdisciplinary perspectives and methods from the humanities and social sciences.

Fall, spring. An interdisciplinary, historically grounded introduction to contemporary approaches to American studies scholarship, with emphasis on issues of class, ethnicity, gender, and cross-cultural studies.

Fall, spring. Examination of American identities, with particular attention to the experience of immigrants and the ways that issues of race ethnicity religion, gender, and class complicate and enrich the formulation of American identity.

An approach to the study of individuals in society. The use of practical experiences in life history research in ethnographic context with supportive cross-cultural readings in life cycle theory and life history studies.

Techniques for studying American objects, artifacts, the built environment and patterns of behavior in everyday life. Includes practical experience in analyzing material culture.

Spring. 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.

Spring. 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.

Fall. 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.

Fall. This course offers and introduction to the history of the metropolitan region and to the techniques, methods, and sources utilized in the interpretation of urban places.

Fall. This course examines the visual aspects of mass media, popular culture, and technology; concentrates on the period from the development of photography to the present.

Seminar focusing on diversity within the black American experience via case studies of Jamaicans, Haitians, Nigerians, Trinidadians, Cubans, Ghanaians, Afro-Puerto Ricans, Cape Verdeans, Ethiopians, and Somalis living in the United States.

This course examines the impact of immigration on American culture with special focus on the idea of America as a melting pot, immigration legislation, and cinematic and fictional representations of the immigrant experiences/assimilation.

(Same as History 348) African Americans, Indians, Irish, and Jews in recent American history. Explores patterns of immigration and the limits of assimilation. Also treats antiethnic reactions such as racism and anti-Semitism.

Seminar exploring the social construction of race comparatively and transnationally, especially the status of the descendants of enslaved Africans and mixed-race individuals in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Fall. Examines issues of form and content, production and reception, in film, art, prose, and poetry about the Asian American experience.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

Fall, spring. 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.