Professor Mary Ellen Jones (English), Director
The American Studies Program is an interdisciplinary program designed to offer the student an opportunity to study American culture in its broadest sense from a variety of perspectives. Each American Studies major is required to develop an individual program that provides breadth of knowledge about a variety of American cultural characteristics, an understanding of American history, and depth of knowledge about a particular aspect of American culture. Breadth of knowledge is acquired through course requirements that introduce the discipline of American Studies, explore American history, and fit five categories that describe particular aspects of American culture in greater detail. The major is able to deepen the knowledge of a particular aspect of American culture by taking either a research course or a readings course in American Studies. A list of topics (by no means exhaustive) that might be explored in the context of either a research or readings course includes African American culture, Native-American culture, gender issues in American culture, American culture in a global context, the fine and performing arts in the context of American culture, rural and urban studies in America, and the nature of American material and technological culture.
Courses in American studies are drawn from various departments and fit the following categories:
Human Diversity in American Culture
These courses focus on differing races, ethnic groups, religious
groups, gender differences, and differences in sexual preference within
the United States. Many view the United States as special insofar as
the nation has been forged by people from many different
backgrounds. Courses in this category examine the very American
interactions among diverse peoples with emphasis on identity,
dominance, and plurality.
Americans and Their Natural Environment
These courses focus on the relationship between the geography
and ecology of the United States and American culture. Special
emphasis is given to the way American culture has cultivated a
particular response to natural phenomena. There are historical and
philosophical reasons for the unusual interest in natural phenomena in
the United States that courses fulfilling this goal examine.
American Culture Studies
Courses in this category focus on the prominence of popular
culture in the United States as a result of the growth of a middle class.
Much of what the middle class has helped to generate as cultural
artifacts shows a separation that divides popular culture from high
culture. Yet, courses fulfilling this goal often explore the complex
relationships between high culture and popular culture in the United
States. Courses can fulfill this goal by examining the cultural
movements (folk art, for example) that are significant to the broader
American culture.
Individualism and Community in America
These courses focus on the dichotomy between self-reliance and
the pursuit of self-interest versus the seeming compulsion for
conformity that has been widespread in the United States. Courses
could explore the distinction between individualism expressed in a
positive, laudable way (e.g. rugged individualism) and individualism as
a form of deviance. Community could also be cast in positive and
negative terms.
The United States in Cross Cultural Perspective
These courses examine what people outside the United States
perceive as American and what Americans perceive as foreign.
American culture has been both idealized and vilified by non-
Americans over time just as Americans are guilty of the same behavior
with respect to foreign cultures. Americans are stereotyped by
foreigners just as Americans stereotype them. Courses that fulfill this
goal would focus on the ideals and stereotypes, and their origins, that
define the United States from a global perspective and that define the
foreign from an American perspective.
Research in American Studies
Through these courses, students explore American culture, learn to
apply the skills of critical analysis to such things as artifacts,
documents and technology, and learn about regional differences in
culture. One example of an approach that courses fulfilling this goal
take is to use Springfield as a laboratory to acquaint the student with
the dynamic character of Springfield as a frontier town and later as an
agricultural and industrial center.
Requirements for Major
American Studies 100: Introduction to American Studies, United States History
I (History), United States History II (History), and either American Studies
400: Readings in American Studies or one of the courses in the Research in American
Studies category. A student must take at least five additional courses (20 semester
hours) drawn from at least three of the following areas: Human Diversity in
American Culture, Americans and Their Natural Environment, American Culture
Studies, Individualism and Community, or The United States in Cross-Cultural
Perspective. Two of these courses (eight semester hours) must be at the 300
level or above. Successful defense of the senior thesis serves as the comprehensive
examination in American Studies.
Requirements for Minor
American Studies 100: Introduction to American Studies; United States History
I (History) or United States History II (History); 12 additional semester hours
in American Studies with at least four hours taken in 300-level courses.
100 H. An Introduction to American Studies. 4 semester hours
Introduction to the study of American culture using methods drawn from cultural anthropology and from other disciplines such as history, literature, philosophy, and the social and natural sciences. The course begins by defining and outlining the basic elements of culture, then develops more complex concepts of culture such as ethnocentrism, cultural relativism, values, universalism, artifacts and idiosyncratic behavior. The content in this course necessarily varies regularly. Writing intensive. Every year.
400. Readings in American Studies. 4 semester hours.
Directed readings course in American Studies topics, which involves the writing of literature surveys and oral presentation of topics under study. Writing intensive.
490. Research in American Studies. 4 semester hours.
Writing intensive. Every year.
491. Internship. Variable credit.
499. Honors Thesis/Project. Variable credit.
Prerequisites: 3.50 GPA, permission of the Department Chairperson.
