See History.

Courses of Study:
Major (B.A.)

Department website: http://www.brandeis.edu/departments/amer_studies/

American studies takes an interdisciplinary approach to the culture, society, politics, institutions, identities, thoughts, values, and behavior of Americans, in all their variety, and to the critical issues that confront the United States domestically and internationally. Using materials central to the disciplines of American studies--film, literature, popular and material culture, music, art and architecture, oral history, social and intellectual history--the major is designed to provide students with an educated awareness of the way the United States, viewed as a civilization, frames the lives, aspirations, and self-perceptions of its citizens. Typically, students who enroll anticipate careers in law, business, public service, communications, education, journalism, museum work, and teaching, at all levels. As the sponsor of the programs in legal studies, film studies, journalism, and environmental studies, the American studies major aims to provide a broad background to those areas and welcomes students who seek active engagement with the contemporary world through firm grounding in a sound liberal arts education.

Normally, students declare their major in their sophomore year and attempt to complete the three required courses (see below) by the end of the first semester of their junior year, or at the latest, the end of their junior year. Working with a departmental advisor, students are urged to develop a coherent selection of electives tailored to their particular interests and gifts. Because of the close working relationship between the department and its resident programs (law, film, journalism, environmental studies) students often offer several courses in joint satisfaction of their major (American studies) and their program. Students wishing to earn departmental honors must write a senior thesis in a full year course, AMST 99d. Special opportunities are available for supervised internships (AMST 92a,b). Many majors gain a valuable cross-cultural perspective on America by studying abroad in their junior year.

Jacob Cohen, Chair, American Studies; Director, Journalism Program
Culture and thought.

Joyce Antler
Women's history. Social history.

Mary Davis, Undergraduate Advising Head
Law and literature.

Thomas Doherty (Chair, Film Studies)
Film and culture.

Brian Donahue (Chair, Environmental Studies)
American environmental studies.

Henry Felt
Documentary film.

Richard Gaskins (Director, Legal Studies)
Law, social policy, and philosophy.

Laura Goldin
Environmental studies.

Eileen McNamara
Journalism, society, and politics.

Michael Socolow
Journalism. Communications history.

Daniel Terris
Literature and intellectual history.

Stephen Whitfield
Modern political and cultural history.

A. AMST 10a (Foundations of American Civilization). Normally, students will take 10a in their sophomore year and no later than the spring term of their junior year. Exceptions should be discussed with the student's advisor.

B. AMST 100a (Classic Texts in the American Culture to 1900). Normally, students will take 100a in their sophomore year and no later than in their junior year. Students may take 100a in their senior year only in the most unusual circumstances, with the approval of the department chair.

C. AMST 100b (Twentieth Century American Culture). After completing 100a, students must take 100b, normally in their sophomore or junior year.

D. Six (6) semester courses in American studies, chosen either from within the department or from other departments, with departmental approval.

E. To be eligible for departmental honors, seniors must enroll in AMST 99d (Senior Research) with departmental approval and participate in a year-long honors colloquium. AMST 99d does not satisfy other departmental requirements.

F. Not more than two courses satisfying a second major may be offered to complete the American studies major.

G. No course, whether required or elective, for which a student receives a grade below C- may be counted toward the major.

(1-99) Primarily for Undergraduate Students

AMST 10a Foundations of American Civilization
[ ss ]
Interpretations of the meaning of the myths, symbols, values, heroes and rogues, character ideals, identities, masks, games, humor, languages, expressive repertoire, and ideologies that are exhibited in the social, political, economic, and cultural history of the United States. Usually offered every year. Will be offered in the spring of 2003.
Mr. Cohen

AMST 15a Writing for the Media
[ ss ]
Core course for Journalism Program. Enrollment limited to 15.
A hands-on workshop designed to teach basic broadcast newswriting skills, as well as techniques for gathering, producing, and delivering radio and television news. Stresses the importance of accuracy. Issues of objectivity, point of view, and freedom of the press are discussed. Writing assignments will be written on deadline. Usually offered every year. Last offered in the spring of 2002.
Staff

AMST 20a Environmental Issues
[ ss ]
An interdisciplinary overview of major environmental challenges facing humanity, including population growth; food production; limited supplies of energy, water, and other resources; climate change; loss of biodiversity; waste disposal and pollution. Students examine these problems critically and evaluate different ways of thinking about their causes and solutions. Usually offered every year. Will be offered in the fall of 2002.
Mr. Donahue

AMST 92 a or b Internship in American Studies
Signature of the instructor required.
Off-campus work experience in conjunction with a reading course with a member of the department. Requires reading and writing assignments drawing and amplifying the internship experience. Only one internship course may be submitted in satisfaction of the department's elective requirements. Usually offered every year.
Staff

AMST 97a Readings in American Studies
Enrollment limited to juniors and seniors. Signature of the instructor required.
Independent readings, research, and writing on a subject of the student's interest, under the direction of a faculty advisor. Usually offered every year.
Staff

AMST 97b Readings in American Studies
See AMST 97a for special notes and course description. Usually offered every year.
Staff

AMST 99d Senior Research
Enrollment limited to seniors. Signature of the instructor and the department chair required.
Seniors who are candidates for degrees with departmental honors should register for this course and, under the direction of a faculty advisor, prepare a thesis. In addition to regular meetings with faculty advisors, seniors will participate in an honors colloquium, a seminar group bringing together the honors candidates and members of the American studies faculty. Usually offered every year.
Staff

(100-199) For Both Undergraduate and Graduate Students

AMST 100a Classic Texts in the American Culture to 1900
[ wi ss ]
Preference given to American studies majors. Signature of the instructor required.
Various visions of America from the earliest colonization through the Civil War are explored. Of special concern will be the ways the individual's inner life is conceived or expressed in relation to the new society and nation-building of the 18th and 19th centuries. Usually offered every year. Will be offered in the fall of 2002.
Staff

AMST 100b Twentieth-Century American Culture
[ ss ]
Prerequisite: AMST 100a.
The democratization of taste and the extension of mass media are among the distinguishing features of American culture in the 20th century. Through a variety of genres and forms of expression, in high culture and the popular arts, this course traces the historical development of a national style that came to exercise formidable influence abroad as well. Usually offered every year. Will be offered in the spring of 2003.
Staff

AMST 101a American Environmental History
[ ss ]
Provides an overview of the relationship between nature and culture in North America. Covers Native Americans, the European invasion, the development of a market system of resource extraction and consumption, the impact of industrialization, and environmentalist responses. Current environmental issues are placed in historical context. Usually offered every second year. Will be offered in the spring of 2003.
Mr. Donahue

AMST 102a Women, the Environment, and Social Justice
[ ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
Focuses on the profound and unique roles women have played in preserving and enhancing the natural environment and protecting human health. Students explore a wide range of environmental issues from the perspective of women and examine how women have been a driving force in key efforts to improve our environment. Also further explores the legal, ethical, and social issues embodied in environmental racism and classism. Usually offered second year. Will be offered in the spring of 2003.
Ms. Goldin

AMST 103a The American Experience: Approaches to American Studies
[ ss ]
Students examine the many meanings of the American experience by exploring the sources, subjects, and methodologies used in the practice of American studies. In the classroom and on field trips, students use such resources as fiction and poetry, photography and painting, oral history and music, and architecture and the natural landscape to enlarge their knowledge and understanding of American history and contemporary society. Highly recommended for students intending to write theses and those considering graduate school. Usually offered every fourth year. Last offered in the fall of 1998.
Staff

AMST 104b Brandeis and Its Environs: The Geographic Analysis of Your Community

[ ss ]
Signature of the instructor required. A library intensive course.
Learn how to know--and map--the place where you live. Develops skills for community environmental research. Intensive training in the use of GIS mapping software, while investigating ecological, historical, and other natural and cultural aspects of Brandeis, Waltham, and the surrounding environment. Usually offered every second year. Last offered in the spring of 2002.
Mr. Donahue

AMST 105a The Eastern Forest: Paleoecology to Policy
[ ss ]
Can we make sustainable use of the Eastern Forest of North America while protecting biological diversity and ecological integrity? We explore the forest's ecological development, the impact of human cultures, attitudes toward the forest, and our mixed record of abuse and stewardship. Usually offered every second year. Last offered in the fall of 2001.
Mr. Donahue

AMST 106b The Pleasures and Perils of Eating: Food and Farming in America
[ ss ]
American food is abundant and cheap. Yet many eat poorly, and some argue our agriculture may be unhealthy and unsustainable. Students explore food issues and the history of American farming, and design a pleasing food system. Usually offered every second year. Last offered in the spring of 2002.
Mr. Donahue

AMST 111a Images of the American West in Film and Culture
[ ss ]
Explores how motion picture images of the West have reflected and shaped American identities, ideologies, and mythologies. Through a variety of films--silent, "classic," and "revisionist"--and supplementary readings, we examine the intertwined themes of progress, civilization, region, nation, democracy, race, gender, and violence. Usually offered every fourth year. Last offered in the fall of 1997.
Staff

AMST 112b American Film and Culture of the 1950s
[ ss ]
Traces the decline of classical Hollywood cinema and the impact of motion pictures on American culture in the 1950s, especially Hollywood's representations of the Cold War. Students learn methods of cinematic analysis to conduct cultural historical inquiry. Usually offered every fourth year. Last offered in the spring of 1999.
Mr. Doherty

AMST 113a American Film and Culture of the 1940s
[ ss ]
Examines the nature of classical Hollywood cinema and the impact of motion pictures on American culture in the 1940s, especially Hollywood's representations of World War II. Students learn methods of cinematic analysis to conduct cultural historical inquiry. Usually offered every fourth year. Will be offered in the spring of 2003.
Mr. Doherty

AMST 113b American Film and Culture of the 1930s
[ ss ]
Traces the rise of Hollywood sound cinema and the impact of motion pictures on American culture in the 1930s, especially Hollywood's representations of the Great Depression. Students learn methods of cinematic analysis to conduct cultural historical inquiry. Usually offered every fourth year. Last offered in the spring of 2001.
Mr. Doherty

AMST 114a American Film and Culture of the 1920s
[ ss ]
Traces the rise and fall of silent Hollywood cinema and the impact of motion pictures on American culture in the 1920s, especially Hollywood's role in the revolution in morals and manners. Students learn methods of cinematic analysis to conduct cultural historical inquiry. All films are screened with a music score or live piano accompaniment. Usually offered every fourth year. Last offered in the fall of 2000.
Mr. Doherty

AMST 118a Gender and the Professions
[ ss ]
Enrollment limited to 30.
Explores gender distinctions as a key element in the organization of professions, analyzing the connections among sex roles, occupational structure, and American social life. Topics include work culture(s) compatible with sexual harassment, pay equity, the "mommy" and "daddy" tracks, and dual-career families. Among the professions examined are law, medicine, teaching, social work, nursing, journalism, business, and the clergy. Usually offered every second year. Last offered in the spring of 2001.
Ms. Antler

AMST 120b Film Theory and Criticism
[ hum ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
A course for students with some preliminary background in film studies, providing a forum not only to see and to interpret films but to master the ways films are seen and interpreted. Classic Hollywood cinema will be examined. Usually offered every second year. Will be offered in the spring of 2003.
Mr. Doherty

AMST 121a The American Jewish Woman: 1890-1990s
[ ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
Surveys the experiences of American Jewish women in work, politics, religion, family life, the arts, and American culture generally over the last 100 years, examining how the dual heritage of female and Jewish "otherness" shaped their often conflicted identities. Usually offered every second year. Will be offered in the fall of 2002.
Ms. Antler

AMST 123b Women in American History: 1865 to the Present
[ ss ]
A historical and cultural survey of the female experience in the United States with emphasis on issues of education, work, domestic ideology, sexuality, male-female relations, race, class, politics, war, the media, feminism, and antifeminism. Usually offered every third year. Last offered in the fall of 2000.
Ms. Antler

AMST 124b American Love and Marriage
[ ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
Ideas and behavior relating to love and marriage are used as lenses to view broader social patterns such as family organization, generational conflict, and the creation of professional and national identity. Usually offered every second year. Will be offered in the spring of 2003.
Ms. Antler

AMST 130b Television and American Culture
[ ss ]
An interdisciplinary course with three main lines of discussion and investigation: an aesthetic inquiry into the meaning of television style and genre; a historical consideration of the medium and its role in American life; and a technological study of televisual communication. Usually offered every second year. Will be offered in the fall of 2002.
Mr. Doherty

AMST 131b News on Screen
[ ss ]
Combines an investigation of the history of broadcast journalism in America with practical training exercises in broadcast writing and Web production. Examines changes in the media landscape over the years and the legal and ethical issues facing contemporary broadcast journalists. Usually offered every second year. Will be offered in the fall of 2002.
Mr. Socolow

AMST 132b International Affairs and the American Media
[ ss ]
Analyzes and assesses United States media coverage of major international events, personalities, and perspectives. The course is designed to introduce students to the international events over the past three decades as they have been interpreted by American journalists and media instructors and to challenge students to evaluate the limitations and biases of this reportage. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

AMST 134b The New Media in America
[ ss ]
Analyzes the social and cultural adaptation of new media in American history. Examines the ways Americans have thought about and accepted new methods of mass communications in the 20th century. Usually offered every year. Will be offered in the spring of 2003.
Mr. Socolow

AMST 135b The History and Principles of Photojournalism
[ ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
Designed to introduce students to U.S. history as it has been recorded by photojournalists and to challenge students to evaluate the limitations and biases of this history in images. The course will analyze the major personalities, policies, institutions, and the technological advances in photojournalism since the mid-19th century, and will examine these within the context of historical changes in American society, government, and the media itself. Usually offered every second year. Last offered in the summer of 2001.
Staff

AMST 137b Journalism in Modern America
[ ss ]
Enrollment limited to 30. Core course for Journalism Program.
Examines what journalists have done, how their enterprise has in fact conformed with their ideals, and what some of the consequences have been for the republic historically and in contemporary terms. Usually offered every year. Will be offered in the fall of 2002.
Mr. Whitfield

AMST 138b Reporting Contemporary America
[ ss ]
Signature of the instructor required. Core course for Journalism Program.
Introduces students to the practice of news reporting for print media and links theory and history to the working craft of journalism. Trains students in the fundamentals of newsgathering and writing and provides an opportunity to practice those skills in conditions simulating a newsroom. A concern for ethics, balance, and accuracy is stressed in all assignments. Usually offered every second year. Last offered in the fall of 2000.
Staff

AMST 139b Reporting on Gender, Race, and Culture
[ ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
An examination of the news media's relationship to demographic and cultural change, and of how journalistic ideologies influence the coverage of women and various ethnic and cultural groups. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

AMST 140b The Asian-American Experience
[ ss ]
Enrollment limited to 25.
An examination of the political, economic, social, and familial adaptation of Asian-Americans to American society from the mid-19th century to the present. Patterns of acculturation will be analyzed in relation to many factors in American society in addition to the composition, size, skills, and cultural values of the newcomers and their progeny. Usually offered every year. Last offered in the spring of 2002.
Staff

AMST 141b The Native American Experience
[ ss ]
Enrollment limited to 20.

Survey of Native American history and culture with focus on the social, political, and economic changes experienced by Native Americans as a result of their interactions with European explorers, traders, and colonists. Usually offered every third year. Last offered in the spring of 2001.
Staff

AMST 143a War and the American Imagination
[ ss ]
Enrollment limited to 30.
Explores how American culture and society--as investigated through novels, plays, poetry, photography, painting, television, and film--mediate wartime experiences. The concentration will be on the American "art of war" from the Civil War to the present. Usually offered every second year. Last offered in the spring of 2001.
Staff

AMST 149a On the Edge of History
[ ss ]
Examines how visionaries, novelists, historians, social scientists, and futurologists in America, 1888-2000, have imagined and predicted America's future and what those adumbrations-correct and incorrect-tell us about our life today, tomorrow, and yesterday when the predictions were made. Usually offered every second year. Will be offered in the fall of 2002.
Mr. Cohen

AMST 155a American Individualism
(formerly 114b)
[ ss ]
This course may not be repeated for credit by students who have taken AMST 114b in previous years. Enrollment limited to 30.
Through various major works, central dilemmas of the American experience will be examined: the ambition to transcend social and individual limitations and the tension between demands of self and the hunger for community. Usually offered every second year. Will be offered in the fall of 2002.
Mr. Whitfield

AMST 156b America in the World
[ ss ]
Designed to elucidate how the United States--as a promise, as a dream, as a cultural projection--has interacted with the rest of the world (but primarily with Europe). Focuses less on the flow of people than on the flow of ideas, less on the instruments of foreign policy than on the institutions that have promoted visions of democracy, individual autonomy, power, and abundance. Usually offered every second year. Will be offered in the spring of 2003.
Mr. Whitfield

AMST 160a U.S. Immigration History and Policy
[ ss ]
Enrollment limited to 25.
An examination of the economic, political, and ideological factors underlying immigration policy in U.S. history, especially since 1965. Analysis of contemporary immigration, refugee and asylum issues, and of problems of immigrant acculturation today. Usually offered every third year. Last offered in the fall of 2000.
Staff

AMST 163b The Sixties: Continuity and Change in American Culture
[ ss ]
Analysis of alleged changes in the character structure, social usages, governing myths and ideas, artistic sensibility, and major institutions of America during the 1960s. What were the principal causes and occasions for the change? Usually offered every second year. Will be offered in the fall of 2002.
Mr. Cohen

AMST 167b The Cultural Work of Religion in America
[ ss ]
Examines the roles of religion in the adaptation of ethnic and racial cultures to one another in the United States, and to the mainstream American culture. Topics include the ways in which Americans used their religious institutions to assimilate newcomers and to contain those they defined as the "other," the religions of immigrants, and the responses of immigrants and Americans to religious pluralism. Usually offered every year. Last offered in the spring of 2002.
Ms. Farmelant

AMST 169a Ethnicity and Race in the United States
[ ss ]
Enrollment limited to 16.
Consideration of the experience of Native Americans, Euro-Americans, African-Americans, Latino-Americans, and Asian-Americans and distinctive patterns of racial and ethnic American pluralism and unity. Usually offered every second year. Last offered in the fall of 2001.
Staff

AMST 170a The Idea of Conspiracy in American Culture
[ ss ]
Consideration of the "paranoid style" in America's political and popular culture and in recent American literature. Topics include allegations of "conspiracy" in connection with the Sacco and Vanzetti, Hiss, and Rosenberg cases; anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism; Watergate and Irangate. Usually offered every second year. Will be offered in the fall of 2002.
Mr. Cohen

AMST 175a Violence in American Life
[ ss ]
Studies of the use of terror and violence by citizens and governments in the domestic history of the United States. What are the occasions and causes of violence? How is it imagined, portrayed, and explained in literature? Is there anything peculiarly American about violence in America? Usually offered every second year. Will be offered in the spring of 2003.
Mr. Cohen

AMST 180b Topics in the History of American Education
[ ss ]
Examines major themes in the history of American education, including changing ideas about children, childrearing, and adolescence; development of schools; the politics of education; education and individual life history. Usually offered every second year. Will be offered in the spring of 2003.
Ms. Antler

AMST 183b Sports and American Culture

[ ss ]
How organized sports have reflected changes in the American cultural, social, and economic scene, and how they have reflected and shaped the moral codes, personal values, character, style, myths, attachments, sense of work and play, fantasy, and reality of fans and athletes. Usually offered every second year. Last offered in the fall of 2001.
Mr. Cohen

AMST 185b The Culture of the Cold War
[ ss ]
Addresses American political culture from the end of World War II until the revival of liberal movements and radical criticism. Attention will be paid to the specter of totalitarianism, the "end of ideology," McCarthyism, and the crisis of civil liberties, and the strains on the pluralistic consensus in an era of anti-communism. Usually offered every year. Will be offered in the fall of 2002.
Mr. Whitfield

AMST 186a Topics in Ethics, Justice, and Public Life
[ ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
Introduces a significant international ethics or social justice theme and prepares students to integrate academic and community work during an internship. Special attention is given to comparative issues between the United States and other nations and regions. Usually offered every year. Last offered in the spring of 2002.
Mr. Terris and Staff

AMST 187a The Legal Boundaries of Public and Private Life
[ ss ]
Signature of the LGLS program administrator required.
Confrontations of public interest and personal rights across three episodes in American cultural history: post-Civil War race relations, progressive-era economic regulation, and contemporary civil liberties, especially sexual and reproductive privacy. Critical legal decisions examined in social and political context. Usually offered every second year. Last offered in the fall of 2001.
Mr.Gaskins

AMST 188b Justice Brandeis and Progressive Jurisprudence
[ ss ]
Signature of the LGLS program administrator required.
Brandeis's legal career serves as model and guide for exploring the ideals and anxieties of American legal culture across the 20th century. Focus on how legal values evolve in response to new technologies, corporate capitalism, and threats to personal liberty. Usually offered every second year. Will be offered in the fall of 2002.
Mr. Gaskins

AMST 191b Greening the Ivory Tower: Researching and Improving the Brandeis
Environment
[ ss ]
Signature of the instructor required.
Uses the Brandeis campus as model laboratory for applied environmental study, research, and implementation of environmentally beneficial initiatives. Students analyze the environmental impact of human activities within the existing legal, political, and social structure; learn basic research strategies for auditing and assessing the effect of these activities; and contribute to the overall understanding of the environmental impact of the Brandeis community on its surroundings. Usually offered every year. Will be offered in the fall of 2002.
Ms. Goldin

AMST 196d Film Workshop: Recording America
[ ss ]
Does not participate in early registration (April and October). Signature of the instructor required. Admission by consent of the instructor on the basis of an interview. It is preferred that students concurrently take an American studies course.
The training of students in audiovisual production to explore aspects of American urban society. Production format will include video, slide, tape, and audio. Students should be prepared to create a documentary during this course. Usually offered every year. Will be offered in the fall of 2002.
Mr. Felt

HS 104b
American Health Care

JOUR 103b
Advertising and the Media

JOUR 104a
Political Packaging in America

JOUR 107b
The Media and Public Policy

JOUR 110b
Ethics in Journalism

JOUR 112b
Literary Journalism: The Art of Feature Writing

JOUR 125b
Journalism of Crisis

LGLS 10a
Introduction to Law

LGLS 114a
American Health Care: Law and Policy

LGLS 120a
Sex Discrimination and the Law

LGLS 121b
Law and Social Welfare: Citizen Rights and Government Responsibilities

LGLS 126b
Marriage, Divorce, and Parenthood

LGLS 127b
Law and Letters in American Culture

LGLS 129b
Law, Technology, and Innovation

LGLS 132b
Environmental Law and Policy

LGLS 137a
Libel and Defamation, Privacy and Publicity

PHIL 74b
Foundations of American Pragmatism