|
|
Undegraduate Information
Program Overview
What is American Studies?
American Studies is an interdisciplinary field of culture studies that
encompasses topics and research methods in literature and language,
history and art history, media studies, and the social sciences, such as
anthropology and sociology.
The American Studies Major
The American Studies major is a 45 credit-hour interdisciplinary
opportunity that provides the undergraduate with a solid foundation in the
methods, topics and issues applicable to the investigation of American
society. The major also provides flexibility be enabling undergraduates
to pursue two fields of concentration in such areas as English, history,
sociology, journalism, government and politics, Afro-American studies,
women's studies, business and American society, popular culture, and
comparative culture studies.
Pursuing a disciplined approach to an open-ended course of study, majors
refine their writing and critical thinking. They develop skiills that are
important to today's society and the life of the mind: analyzing the
world and forming independent conclusions about complex concepts such as
race, class, gender, and the relationships between technology and society
in the social history of popular culture and ordinary life.
Requirements for the B.A. in American Studies
What can you do with an American Studies degree?
Honors Program in American Studies
Career Resources for American Studies
majors
Request Additional Information by Mail
Area Resources for American Studies majors
Requirements
Majoring in American Studies requires completion of 45 hours of
course work. Of that total, 21 hours (seven courses) are selected from
American Studies course offerings and must fulfill the following
distribution requirements:
AMST 201 Introduction to American
Studies (3 hours).
Required of all majors.
3-6 hours from among the following lower-division courses:
AMST 203 Popular Culture in America
AMST 204 Film and American Culture
Studies
AMST 205 Material Aspects of American
Life
AMST 206 Business and American Culture
Studies
AMST 207 Contemporary American
Cultures
AMST 211 Technology and American
Culture
AMST 212 Diversity in American Culture
AMST 330 Critics of American Culture (3
hours).
Required of all majors.
6-9 hours from among the following upper-division courses:
AMST 418 Cultural
Themes in America
AMST 426 Culture and
the Arts in America
AMST 428 American
Cultural Eras
AMST 429 Perspectives
on Popular Culture
AMST 432 Literature and
American Society
Note: variable content courses such as 418, 428 and 429 may be
taken for a maximum of six credit hours.
AMST 450 Seminar in American Studies (3 hours). Required of all
majors. The capstone course in the major, AMST 450 is generally the final
course that majors take in the department. Prerequisites: Senior standing
and completion of 9 hours in American Studies courses, including AMST 201
and AMST 330.
Other American Studies courses such as AMST 360 Fieldwork in
American Studies; the special topics numbers (298, 498); internships
(386); and the independent studies number (398) ordinarily do not fulfill
major requirements. Students wishing to use one of these courses towards
fulfillment of major requirements must have written approval from their
faculty advisor before registering for these courses.
Core Areas Requirement
The remaining 24 hours (eight courses) of the major are grouped in
two "core" areas, each consisting of 12 hours of course work taken in
other departments or programs. One of the two core areas must consist of
appropriately-grouped courses taken in one of the following: English
(American Literature); History (US History); Sociology/Anthropology;
Art/Architectural History; Media Studies. The other core area may be
taken in a second disciplinary core from the list above, or it may be an
interdisciplinary core consisting of courses from several departments or
programs. Interdisciplinary or thematic cores include: Afro-American
Studies, Women's Studies, Popular Culture, Personality and Culture, Ethnic
Studies, Comparative Culture, Material Culture, Folklore, Business and
Economic History, Government and Politics, Education, Philosophy,
Journalism, Cultural Geography. Because the choice and content of the two
core areas are crucial to the overall coherence of each student's program,
majors plan them in close consultation with a faculty advisor.
Note: of the overall total of 45 hours, at least 24 must be taken in
upper division (300/400 level) courses. Students must receive a grade
of
C or better in all courses offered in fulfillment of major requirements.
In addition to the requirements of the major, students must fulfill all
University and College requirements as set fourth in the Undergraduate
Catalog, the College of Arts and Humanities Mini Guide, and
the Schedule
of Classes. Majors are encouraged to discuss the fulfilling of these
other requirements with their advisor so as to achieve the greatest
possible coherence in their overall undergraduate program, and are
strongly encouraged to have a preliminary senior audit prior to
pre-registration for the senior year.
Internships
Information on internships is available in the American Studies
office or from the Career
Center (Internships/Summer
Positions). Internships
in government, business, and cultural institutions (e.g. museums,
libraries, historical societies) are readily available. To be eligible
for an internship through the department, students must be American
Studies majors and should have at least a 3.0 overall GPA. Students
accepted for an internship are expected to meet with their faculty sponsor
to draw up a contract for the internship, outlining its terms and
specifying the nature of the written research project that the student
will submit for academic credit.
Why become an American Studies major?
There is a great academic and professional potential in American
Studies.
Please take a look at the following list of what you can do with an AMST
degree and what skills and knowledge you gain by majoring in American
Studies.
- Institutions that typically hire American Studies
majors:
-
4-year colleges and universities;
community colleges;
secondary schools;
broadcasting industry;
magazines and newspapers;
public relations firms;
government agencies;
museums;
local, state, and national archives;
corporations.
- Emerging Fields:
-
New media technologies (Internet, World Wide Web);
Study of race, gender, and ethnicity;
study of careers and professions in American society;
American society in a global context.
- Where to showcase your talents:
-
Writing for newspapers, magazines, and journals; internships at museums
and in the broadcasting industry; contributing to online journals.
- Graduate/Professional:
-
M.A./Ph.D. in American Studies, English, Sociology, Anthropology,
Geography, or History;
J.D. in Law;
M.A. in Journalism and Social Work;
Master's degrees in Historic Preservation and Science, Technology, and
Society programs;
M.A. in Museum Studies
- Important Skills:
-
Research, writing, and communication skills;
knowledge of computer software, Internet;
a critical intelligence reading elite artists, institutions, everyday
artifacts, and popular culture.
- Related majors:
-
History, English, Women's Studies, Afro-American Studies; Journalism,
Sociology, Anthropology; Government and Politics; Art History; Comparative
Literature.
Honors Program in American Studies
The American Studies Honors Program offers the gifted student a variety of
challenging and rewarding interdisciplinary avenues:
Teaching innovation provided by a department that has recently
pioneered in establishing "American Cultures," a College Park Scholars
program devoted to cultural diversity, and in utilizing the AT&T Teaching
Theater to introduce the World Wide Web and other dimensions of
computerization into the classroom.
Honors-designated sections of upper-level courses taught by our
Core Faculty, one of the largest in the United States, and by our
distinguished Affiliated Faculty representing a number of disciplines from
both the arts and humanities and the behavioral and social sciences.
Areas of concentration that enable the student to pursue clearly
defined disciplines (American History, American Literature, Journalism,
Art/Architecture, Sociology/Anthropology) and to explore other
interdisciplinary programs on campus -- Women's Studies and Afro-American
Studies -- as well as to design individual avenues such as Race and
Ethnicity or Science, Technology and Society.
Independent Study with a member of the Core of Affiliate Faculty
that may include a research grant or teaching assistantship awarded by the
Dean of Undergraduate Studies or an internship drawing from the resources
of, for example, a government agency, museum, or broadcasting company in
the Baltimore-Washington area.
Participation in the American Studies graduate program that may
take the form of enrolling in a graduate seminar devoted to sophisticated
research and cultural theory and/or of attending weekly colloquia, which
range from theoretical debates to practical career goals, organized by our
graduate student community.
Senior thesis research, directed by a member of the Core or
Affiliate Faculty, that encourages the student to investigate the rich
resources of the Washington-Baltimore area that may not only include major
research institutions such as the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress and
the National Archives, but also ethnographic field work of the study of
material culture in urban and suburban neighborhoods.
Career opportunities that encompass such diverse avenues as law,
museum curatorships, secondary and college education, the foreign service,
government agencies, the mass media, the application of the liberal arts
to the corporate world.
For additional information, contact Dr. Myron Lounsbury,
Director of Undergraduate Studies, American Studies, 1102 Holzapfel Hall,
301-405-1359
(ml36@umail.umd.edu).
Request Additional Information to be
sent to you
|
|
