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: