American Studies is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of society and culture in the United States, which traces its roots in the academy to the early twentieth century. At Connecticut College, the program has three related emphases: the study of race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and the critical examination of the role of the United States in the world. The American Studies major is affiliated with Unity House, the multicultural center at Connecticut College, the Center for the Critical Study of Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE), the Women’s Center, and the LGBTQ Center.
Requirements
The major consists of at least eleven courses, including four required courses. All courses in American Studies should be at the 200 level or higher with certain 100-level classes as listed below or as permitted by adviser or director.
Required Courses
One course from:
AMS 465: normally taken during the student’s senior year
One course in the study of race and ethnicity in the United States. Students may select:
One course in the study of gender and sexuality. Students may select:
Two courses from the lists below that treat the United States in Comparative, Transnational, Hemospheric, or Global Perspective (immediately below), and the list on Latin America or the Caribbean.
Courses that treat the United States in Comparative, Transnational, Hemospheric, or Global Perspective.
Courses on Latin America or the Caribbean
Requirements List
Also required are:
- Five courses from a single area of concentration at the 200 level or higher
- Thirty hours minimum of service learning, internship, fieldwork, or community service fulfilled under the auspices of a college certificate program, college course, Career Enhancing Life Skills (CELS) internship program, or Office of Volunteers for Community Service (OVCS) community activity.
Advisers: M. A. Borrelli, D. Canton, J. Downs, R. Flores, K. Gonzalez Rice, D. Kim, C. Stock
Critical Race and Ethnicity Concentration
This concentration explores the formation of racial and ethnic categories and identities over time, across geographic space, and within the cultures of the United States and its borderlands. It examines the political, economic, and social effects of these categories, as they are complicated by the forces of nationality, gender, sexuality, and class. It also explores the history of anti-racism and other social movements for freedom.
Students must choose five courses from the following list for this concentration:
ANT 482: formerly ANT 382
Expressive Arts and Cultural Studies Concentration
This concentration explores the ways in which diverse people in the United States have found meaning through literature, the arts, and popular culture. It also examines the ways texts and images have represented American identity both to Americans and to others in this hemisphere and around the world.
Students must choose five courses from the following list for this concentration:
Politics, Society, and Policy Concentration
This concentration focuses on the development of social and political theories and policies that have tried to identify difference in human society.
Students must choose five courses from the following list for this concentration:
| AHI 281/ANT 281 | CURRENT ISSUES MUSEUM STUDIES | 4 |
| AMS 450/HIS 450/CRE 450 | LATIN AMERICAN IMMIGRATION | 4 |
| ANT 202/ES 203/AMS 202 | ARCHAEOLOGY OF NORTH AMERICA | 4 |
| ANT 234/BOT 234/ES 234 | S AMER CULTURES & ENVIRONMENT | 4 |
| ANT 330/CRE 330 | ANTHROPOLOGY OF TOURISM | 4 |
| ANT 350 | WORLDS OF FOOD | 4 |
| ECO 247 | URBAN & REGIONAL ECONOMICS | 4 |
| ECO 255 | BEHAVIORAL FINANCE | 4 |
| ECO 314 | ANTITRUST ECONOMICS/POLICY | 4 |
| ECO 326 | ECO HIS/HIS ECO THGHT II | 4 |
| ECO 402 | ECONOMICS OF DISCRIMINATION | 4 |
| ECO 409 | WOMEN AND WORK | 4 |
| EDU 223 | INTRO TO EDUCATIONAL STUDIES | 4 |
| EDU 313 | READING FOR JOY AND JUSTICE | 4 |
| ENG 242 | RACE AND LITERARY CRITICISM | 4 |
| ES 258/GOV 258 | U.S. ENVIRON POLICY/POLITICS | 4 |
| ES 493E | INDIG PEOP, SUST DEV&BIODIVR | 4 |
| ES 493U/GOV 493U | ENVIRON JUST IN GLOBL PERSP | 4 |
| GWS 224/CRE 224 | TRANSNATNL WOMEN'S MOVEMNTS | 4 |
| GOV 111 | U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS | 4 |
| GOV 205 | INSURGENCY & COUNTERINSURGNCY | 4 |
| GOV 212 | CONGRESS | 4 |
| GOV 214/PHI 244 | MODERN POLITICAL THOUGHT | 4 |
| GOV 215 | THE U.S. AND VIETNAM | 4 |
| GOV 221 | POLIT PARTIES,CAMPAIGNS,ELECT | 4 |
| GOV 228 | TERRORISM | 4 |
| GOV 250 | GENDER AND U.S. POLITICS | 4 |
| GOV 251/ES 251 | ENVIRON ACTIVISM/POL IMPACT | 4 |
| GOV 252 | US FOREIGN POLICY | 4 |
| GOV 258/ES 258 | U.S. ENVIRON POLICY/POLITICS | 4 |
| GOV 284 | POLITICS OF BUREAUCRACY | 4 |
| GOV 304 | AMERICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT | 4 |
| GOV 493Z/GIS 400 | THE IRAQ WAR | 4 |
| GWS 203 | INTRO TO QUEER STUDIES | 4 |
| GWS 207/AT 207 | BODY NARRATIVES, TECH, & MEDIA | 4 |
| GWS 224/CRE 224 | TRANSNATNL WOMEN'S MOVEMNTS | 4 |
| HIS 209/AMS 206/CRE 206 | THEOR, RACE, ETH & INDIGENEITY | 4 |
| HIS 214/AMS 214 | POLIT/CUL IN U.S.,1890 TO 1945 | 4 |
| HIS 215/AMS 215/CRE 215 | POLIT/CULT IN U.S. SINCE 1945 | 4 |
| HIS 218/AMS 218 | GLOBAL QUEER HISTORIES | 4 |
| HIS 248/AMS 248 | NARRATIVES OF ILLNESS | 4 |
| HIS 253/AFR 253 | AFRICA IN THE AMERICAS | 4 |
| HIS 304 | HIST OF HIP HOP MUSIC & CULTUR | 4 |
| HIS 313 | THE AMERICAN WEST SINCE 1890 | 4 |
| HIS 334/AMS 334 | HISTORICIZING 9/11 | 4 |
| HIS 341/AMS 341 | CRIME & PUNISHMNT IN U.S. HIST | 4 |
| HIS 450/AMS 450/CRE 450 | LATIN AMERICAN IMMIGRATION | 4 |
| HIS 467 | HIST/POL OF RACISM/PUBL HEALTH | 4 |
| HMD 103/AFR 104/GWS 102 | CHILD RIGHTS/PUBLIC POLICY | 4 |
| HMD 314/AFR 315 | MEDIA, SELF, AND SOCIETY | 4 |
| HMD 321/AFR 321/CRE 321/GWS 321 | CHILD/FAMIL MULTI-CUL SOC | 4 |
| HMD 414 | ELDER ABUSE | 4 |
| HMD 415/GWS 415 | SOC POLICY ANALYSIS URBAN AMER | 4 |
| PSY 206 | SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY | 4 |
| PSY 212/NEU 212 | DRUGS & BEHAVIOR | 4 |
| SOC 203/CRE 203 | IMMIGRATION IN URBAN CONTEXT | 4 |
| SOC 208/AFR 208/CRE 208/GWS 209 | RACE/GENDER AND THE MASS MEDIA | 4 |
| SOC 209 | SOCIOLOGY OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS | 4 |
| SOC 212/GWS 211 | SEX, GENDER AND SOCIETY | 4 |
| SOC 215 | DRUGS AND SOCIETY | 4 |
| SOC 223/CRE 223 | ETHNIC AND RACE RELATIONS | 4 |
| SOC 227 | LAW AND SOCIETY | 4 |
| SOC 293 | SOCIOLOGY OF INEQUALITY | 4 |
| SOC 310/CRE 310/AFR 310 | RACIAL IDENTITY IN AMERICA | 4 |
| SOC 364 | URBAN PROBLEMS | 4 |
| SOC 408 | MIDDLE CLASS MINORITIES | 4 |
| SPA 493G | SPANGLISH AS IDENTITY | 4 |
| THE 199/AMS 199/GWS 199 | CC:THEATR OF THE AIDS EPIDEMIC | 4 |
| THE 266/DAN 263/AMS 266/MUS 266 | CC: PERFORM DIFF AMER MUSICAL | 4 |
| or other courses with permission of advisor or director | |