American Studies
American Studies examines the history, culture, and society of the United States from a multidisciplinary, multicultural, and transnational perspective. Courses investigate the diverse peoples and ideas that have shaped the nation using an eclectic array of tools—from sociology and political science to history, literature, cultural and media studies. Our curriculum combines structure with latitude in course selection, enabling students to tailor their coursework to fit their personal interests and career goals.
Students may complete a Bachelor of Arts (BA) or a Bachelor of Sciences (BS) in American Studies, either with or without a Pre-Law emphasis. Degrees in American Studies require 48 hours of coursework in the field, including two required American Studies courses (6 credit hours), plus foundational courses in American literary and cultural studies (6 credit hours), American history (6 credit hours) and related humanities and social science courses (30 credit hours).
Students also have two minor options.
American Studies involves 3 hours in a required American Studies class (AMST 3223 Theories and Methods of American Studies), 9 hours of additional upper-division AMST-prefix courses, and 6 hours drawn from a list of upper-division courses with a focus relevant to the field of American Studies (18 hours total).
Truth and Reconciliation in the Americas involves one required course (AMST 3373 Comparative Truth and Reconciliation), 3 hours of internship (AMST 4990), and 9 hours drawn from a list of upper-division courses with a focus relevant to the topic of Truth and Reconciliation (15 hours total).
American Studies provides students with a well-rounded liberal arts education and the critical thinking and communication skills desired by today’s employers. Our students learn to conduct research, analyze information, speak clearly, write well, and share their knowledge in multiple media formats. Graduates have pursued successful careers in a variety of fields, including education, social work, journalism, media production, marketing, non-profit management, business, and the law. With its small class sizes and emphasis on analytical writing, American Studies is also the perfect preparation for the pursuit of advanced degrees in Literature, History, and the Law, among other areas. Students interested in applying to law school should consider the Pre-Law option in American Studies.
AMST 2103 Introduction to American Studies (DH)
Description: Introduction, via topical case studies, to some of the major themes, methods and materials used in the interdisciplinary study of American culture.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Diversity, Humanities
AMST 2513 Plantation to Plate: Sugar, Bananas, and Coffee in America (H)
Description: Considers the historical impact that three food commodities - bananas, sugar, and coffee - have had on producing and consuming societies in Latin American and the United States. Analyzes the way food influenced the formation of racial and gender identities and examines different moments when these commodities influenced foreign policy and politics. Same course as HIST 2513.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Humanities
AMST 2523 Dust Bowl (H)
Description: Examination of the Dust Bowl as: an ecological, economic, and human tragedy; cultural representations in film, literature, art, photography, and music; and a comparative example to study modern issues of ecology, water rights, and environmental justice in the southern plains and around the world. Same course as HIST 2523.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Humanities
AMST 3103 The History and Future of Work (H)
Description: What will work be like in the future? This course explores recent developments in work and the workplace. It draws on an array of. sources such as scholarship, journalism, memoirs, popular films, TV shows, and writings on the effects of technology on the labor market, workplace culture, and identity. Through these sources, the course will provide you with a roadmap to the future of work as well as a rich lens into ideas, cultural values, experience, and aesthetics relating to work.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Humanities
AMST 3223 Theories and Methods of American Studies
Description: In-depth introduction to the history, theories and methods of analysis used in American Studies scholarship.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
AMST 3253 Globalization and American Culture (H)
Description: Transmission, reception, and influence of American culture in one or more of the following: Europe, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East. The cultural history of globalization and American culture. Same course as HIST 4113.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Humanities
AMST 3303 Nations on the Move: Latin American Migration and Latinx Communities in the US (DH)
Description: Examines Latin American migration to the United States through a case study approach. Considers US foreign policy, questions of labor and economic motivations, political violence and persecution, changes in immigration law, environmental issues, histories of the process of migration, and the formation of new identities and transnational communities and activism in the United States. Same course as HIST 3303.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Diversity, Humanities
AMST 3313 Science, Technology and American Culture (H)
Description: American science and technology as systems of cultural representation, as communities of cultural practices, as mutually determined by other forms of cultural representation such as religion, social thought, art, architecture, literature, and music.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Humanities
AMST 3333 Crime, Law and American Culture (S)
Description: Study of crime, law and the legal system from a cultural perspective. Examine how race, gender, and social class play different roles in issues related to crime, law and the legal system.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Social & Behavioral Sciences
AMST 3373 Comparative Truth and Reconciliation in the Americas (D)
Description: Comparative study of truth and reconciliation in Oklahoma and beyond. Explores theories and practices of reconciliation in multicultural contexts. Emphasis on the relationship between past injustices and contemporary social problems. Possible topics might include the Tulsa Race Massacre, Native American boarding schools, and the internment or Japanese Americans in World War II.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Diversity
AMST 3423 American Popular Culture (H)
Description: History of American popular culture and its role in shaping social behaviors, beliefs, and relations, especially as regards issues of race, class, gender, sexuality and social power.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Humanities
AMST 3473 Race, Gender, and Ethnicity in American Film (D)
Description: A survey of race, gender, and ethnicity as they have been represented in American films. Same course as ENGL 3473.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 2 Lab: 2 Contact: 4
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lab, Lecture, Combined lecture and lab
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Diversity
AMST 3503 Television and American Society (DH)
Description: Examination of television within the social and cultural context of the US. Looks at the aesthetic and industrial practices that shape representation on TV and the effects of those practices, particularly for socially disempowered groups. Same course as ENGL 3503.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Diversity, Humanities
AMST 3513 Film And American Society (H)
Description: Examination of the US film in its social, political, economic, and cultural contexts. Topics may include the history of US film production, distribution and consumption; Hollywood film genres; independent cinema; the star system; and/or representations of historical events, political issues, or social groups in US film.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Humanities
AMST 3550 The Arts and American Society
Description: Interdisciplinary study of major figures, trends, themes, periods, and modes of representation in American thought and cultural expression. Emphasis on the relationship between the arts and social, political, and historical context. Examples include Realism, American Modernism, Regionalism, American Postmodernism, the City and the Country, the Other, Nationalism, Time, and Space. Topics vary by semester. Offered for fixed credit, 3 credit hours, maximum of 6 credit hours.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
AMST 3653 The Body in American Culture (DH)
Description: The body and its impact on American culture examined through a survey of diverse cultural productions and social practices. Examine the intersections of ideas of embodiment with discourse of race, class, gender, sexuality, disability, and nationalism. Same course as HIST 4193.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Diversity, Humanities
AMST 3673 History Of American Art (DH)
Description: Visual arts in America from the Colonial period to present. Major styles, ideas and uses of material in architecture, painting, sculpture and design. Same course as ART 3663.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Diversity, Humanities
AMST 3683 Introduction to Digital Humanities
Description: Introduction to issues and tools involved in digital knowledge production. Students will create hands-on projects using readily available digital tools. Basic familiarity with computers and word processing will be helpful, but no expertise is needed.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
AMST 3723 Cultural History of American Sports (DH)
Description: Examines the role of sports in American cultural history; analyzes issues of class, ethnicity, gender, nationalism and race; interprets the importance of athletic heroes, fans, performance, and rituals; evaluates amateur, collegiate, Olympic, and professional institutions.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Diversity, Humanities
AMST 3753 African American Arts and Culture (DH)
Description: An exploration of the history, practice, and significance of African American arts and culture. Topics might include black visual, literacy, filmic, musical, and street arts, artists, and movements. Approaches may be comparative or transnational. Same course as AFAM 3753.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Diversity, Humanities
AMST 3803 War In American Culture (H)
Description: Study of war and its impact on American culture through an examination of diverse cultural productions and social practices. Emphasis on the circulation of common (and contested) representations of war within American visual, literary, and memorial culture.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Humanities
AMST 3813 Readings in the American Experience (DH)
Description: Life in the New World from the colonial to the postmodern era using a multiplicity of interdisciplinary texts that demonstrate the emergence and ongoing evolution of distinctive American identities. Same course as ENGL 3813.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Diversity, Humanities
AMST 3823 U.S. as Business Culture (DH)
Description: Examines American business in relation to political, social and cultural phenomena, emphasizing the implications of business for race, class, gender and nation. Themes considered may include business literature, advertising, film, documentary, and other forms of popular and visual culture. The course examines changes in business and business culture over time, and offers students opportunities to synthesize sources that are not usually considered together.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Diversity, Humanities
AMST 3843 War and Memory in America (H)
Description: Examines the ways in which Americans have remembered and commemorated war from the American Revolution to the Global War on Terror. Topics include the creation and perpetuation of memory from both soldiers and civilians, the portrayal of war in popular culture, and the challenges of commemorating and memorializing America's militant past. Same course as HIST 3843.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Humanities
AMST 3863 Disability in America (DH)
Description: Examines the history of disability in American culture. Considers evolving ideas about disability and the status of disabled people in American society. Topics include disability and the law; eugenics; the disability rights movement; representations of disability in popular culture; and intersecting ideas about disability, race, gender, and class. Same course as HIST 3863.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Diversity, Humanities
AMST 3950 Special Topics in American Studies (DH)
Description: Special topics in American culture and society with an emphasis on race, class, gender, sexuality and other forms of diversity. Topics will vary, but all courses will emphasize both historical and contemporary examples and include analytical research and writing. Offered for fixed credit, 3 credit hours, maximum of 6 credit hours. 3 credit course, maximum of 6 credit hours.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Diversity, Humanities
AMST 3980 Inquiry in American Studies
Description: For students interested in pursuing a research or reading project. Open to honors students in American Studies and to others by permission of the program head. Offered for variable credit, 1-3 credit hours, maximum of 9 credit hours.
Credit hours: 1-3
Contact hours: Lecture: 1-3 Contact: 1-3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
AMST 4103 The Death Penalty in America (S)
Description: This course is designed to examine problems and issues related to the death penalty in the United States, including the history of capital punishment, important Supreme Court decisions, how the various jurisdictions (state and federal) deal with capital cases, the comparative costs of incarceration and execution, miscarriages of justice in capital cases and how the criminal justice responds to these issues. Same course as HIST 4203 and SOC 4103.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Social & Behavioral Sciences
AMST 4453 Black Geographies & Memorialization in the Landscape (DH)
Prerequisites: Junior or senior standing or consent of instructor.
Description: How and why have African American people sought to memorialize their history in public places? How have Black counterpublics shaped discourse on memorials to African American history? What has this discourse done to the field of landscape and memory studies? To explore these questions, this course is organized around memory in the landscape as it relates to black geographies, including, for example, slavery, the Civil War, civil rights, and the Tulsa Race Massacre in the United States. Approaches may be comparative or transnational. Same course as AFAM 4453 and GEOG 4453. May not be used for degree credit with GEOG 5453.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Diversity, Humanities
AMST 4553 Gender in America (DH)
Description: Cultural, societal and political reflections of American men and women from the colonial era to the present. Examination of the women’s movements and their opponents. Exploration of changing notions of masculinity and femininity. Same course as HIST 4553.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Diversity, Humanities
AMST 4593 America in International Perspective (H)
Prerequisites: HIST 1103 or lower-division survey course in U.S. History, any period.
Description: A transnational interpretation of American history from the colonial era to the present day. Uses a variety of interdisciplinary sources to place the history of the United States within a comparative, global framework. Same course as HIST 4593.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
General Education and other Course Attributes: Humanities
AMST 4910 American Period Seminar
Description: In-depth study of a particular period or era in American historical experience. Examples include The Ragtime Era, The Jazz Age, The Great Depression, The Postwar Era, The Civil Rights Movement, and Post Modern America. Topics vary by semester. Offered for fixed credit, 3 credit hours, maximum of 6 credit hours.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
AMST 4973 Senior Seminar in American Studies
Prerequisites: AMST 3223.
Description: Writing of senior thesis based on original research and its analysis and evaluation or completion of independent project based on practical community experience.
Credit hours: 3
Contact hours: Lecture: 3 Contact: 3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Lecture
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
AMST 4990 Internship
Description: An internship opportunity which combines independent study and practical fieldwork experience focusing on a particular problem or topic related to America culture and experience. (Examples: Internship in Archival Fieldwork, Material Culture Fieldwork, Museum Management, Sound Recordings and Native American Heritage Site). Offered for variable credit, 1-3 credit hours, maximum of 6 credit hours.
Credit hours: 1-3
Contact hours: Contact: 1-3 Other: 1-3
Levels: Undergraduate
Schedule types: Independent Study
Department/School: Dean of Arts & Science
John Kinder, PhD (History)—Director and Associate Professor
CORE FACULTY
Professor: Stacy Takacs, PhD (English); William Decker, PhD (English); Bin Liang, PhD (Sociology)
Associate Professor: John Kinder, PhD (History); Louise Siddons, PhD (Art History); Lindsey Smith, PhD (English)
Teaching Assistant Professor: David Gray, PhD (History/OSU Tulsa); Reanae McNeal, PhD (Interdisciplinary Programs)
AFFILIATE FACULTY
Regents Professor: Dennis Preston, PhD (English)
Professor: Richard Frohock, PhD (English); Lisa Lewis, PhD (English); Rebekah Herrick, PhD (Political Science); Ken Kiser, PhD (Sociology); Jean Van Delinder, PhD (Sociology)
Associate Professor: Jeff Menne, PhD (English); Rebecca Sheehan, PhD (Geography); Danny Adkison, PhD (Political Science)
Assistant Professor: Andrew Belton, PhD (English); Lisa Hollenbach, PhD (English); Laura Arata, PhD (History); Richard Boles, PhD (History); Holly Karibo, PhD (History); Sarah Foss, PhD (History); Brandy Wells, PhD (History); Douglas Miller, PhD (History)
Teaching Assistant Professor: Jen Murray, PhD (History)