Program Overview

American Studies Program

The American Studies program at Fairfield University offers a comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach to the study of American culture, history, and society. The program provides students with a deep understanding of the complexities and diversity of the American experience, from the colonial era to the present day.

Course Offerings

The program offers a wide range of courses that explore various aspects of American culture, including:

• AMST 2201: Roots of American Culture: An introduction to the study of American culture, examining the diverse experiences, intellectual traditions, and cultural touchstones that make American life a rich and fascinating object of study.
• AMST 3980: Internship: An internship program that allows students to gain on-site experience in a wide variety of fields, including law, marketing, and magazine publishing.
• AMST 3990: Independent Research Project: A senior-year research paper written under the supervision of participating faculty members, integrating different intellectual disciplines in the design and execution of the project.
• AMST 5401: Critical Issues in American Studies: A graduate seminar that provides an introduction to the field of American Studies, using key books and essays to familiarize students with the diverse cultural and intellectual traditions that have created the American experience.
• AMST 5405: Values and Ethics: Social Justice in America: A course that explores the experiences of individuals and social movements in American culture who have found meaning in their lives and ways to make a difference in their worlds.
• AMST 5406: Power, Politics, and Institutions in the United States: A course that focuses on a specific political institution or institutions that illustrate larger dynamics and aspects of power, politics, and institutions within the American experience.
• AMST 5407: America and the World: A course that considers the idea of America as shaped trans-nationally in relation to the world beyond its borders, exploring themes such as American exceptionalism, colonialism, imperialism, and globalization.
• AMST 5408: Immigration, Ethnicity, and Race in United States History: A seminar that examines the history of U.S. immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries, situating the United States within the context of global migration patterns and economic development.
• AMST 5409: The Radical Imagination: A course that addresses the ways in which dominant narratives of U.S. national identity have been sustained by "social imaginaries" and the ways in which those narratives are challenged by the "radical imagination" in wide-ranging contexts.
• AMST 5410: Gender in American Society: A course that introduces students to the theories, methods, and concepts of the interrelated fields of Women's Studies and Gender Studies, Masculinity Studies, and Sexuality Studies.
• AMST 5453: American Popular Entertainments and Social History: A course that examines critical live entertainment forms that flourished in the years between the conclusion of the Civil War and the end of the 1920s, exploring the social history of America through popular entertainments.
• AMST 5461: American Civil War: A course that employs the interdisciplinary method of learning in examining the American Civil War, using standard historical texts and focusing on the sometimes confusing and contradictory versions of the War depicted in literature, photography, feature films, and other modes of expression.
• AMST 5471: Introduction to Native American Studies: A course that explores a range of genres, including autobiography, novels, short stories, film, and poems, by American Indian writers and filmmakers from the 18th through 21st centuries.
• AMST 5479: Islam in America: A course that treats the history of Muslims in America from the early 19th century to the present, exploring topics such as the basic tenets of Islam, changing and diverse religious traditions and ideas, and concerns about prejudice and unfair treatment.
• AMST 5483: America in the 1930s: A course that acquaints students with the complexities of the 1930s, a decade during which the changes in the economic and political sectors provided the matter for American cultural life.
• AMST 5484: Battle Over Family Values in American Politics: A course that examines family as an evolving American political and cultural ideal, investigating changes and continuities in American family politics through the twentieth century.
• AMST 5486: Health and Healing in America: A seminar that explores the idea of America through the lens of major themes in the history of health and medicine from the colonial era to contemporary America.
• AMST 5488: Frontier in American Culture: A course that investigates the ideological underpinnings of the frontier myth and its consequences, as well as alternative conceptualizations of the frontier, particularly as a "rhizomatic" space where cultures meet and grapple with one another.
• AMST 5501: Fine Art vs. Anti-Art: 1917 to 1967: A course that examines the artistic debates and ideological struggles manifested by American art during the 50 years from WWI to Vietnam.
• AMST 5502: American Master Artists and Their Times: A course that focuses on a selection of American Masters who came to define the American experience as visual innovators reflecting and transforming their times.
• AMST 5511: Poetry in America: A survey of major developments in American poetry from the mid-19th century to the late years of the 20th century, emphasizing the poems of Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, T. S. Eliot, and Langston Hughes.
• AMST 5521: Inventing Themselves: African-American Women in U.S. History: A course that focuses on African-American women as subjects and agents of pivotal importance within the family, community, and labor force.
• AMST 5522: Crises and Turning Points in United States Foreign Relations, 1776 to 2009: A seminar that explores crises and turning points in U.S. Foreign Relations from the American Revolution to 9/11, the Iraq War, Afghanistan, and up to the present.
• AMST 5531: History of Jazz: A course that traces the development of American jazz from its origins in Black musical traditions, addressing topics such as the roots of jazz in ragtime, blues, work songs, and march music.
• AMST 5532: History of Rock: A course that surveys the musical and social trends that resulted in the emergence of rock and roll as an important musical and cultural force in America.
• AMST 5541: Jews and Judaism in America: A course that explores the religious, cultural, social, economic, and political diversity that exists among American Jews, as well as distinctive beliefs, concerns, and experiences that continue to unite them.
• AMST 5551: Women: Work and Sport: A course that concentrates on the varying experiences of women in the workplace and on the playing field, analyzing sex segregation and sex integration as complex historical and contemporary processes.
• AMST 5561: Ethnic American Perf & Society: A course that explores the social, political, economic, and cultural forces that have shaped the United States via the themes, perspectives, and production choices expressed in its ethnic drama and performance.
• AMST 5562: American Drama and Society: A course that explores the social, political, and economic forces that have shaped the United States via the themes and perspectives expressed in its drama.
• AMST 5900: Special Topics (Shell): A course that allows for topics in American Studies not currently among the program's offerings to be offered once or to allow a professor the opportunity to "test drive" a course for the first time.
• AMST 5990: Independent Study: A course that allows students to arrange for independent study with a professor willing to serve as a tutor and under whose direction they will write a research paper of approximately fifty pages.
• AMST 5999: American Studies Graduate Project: A course that is the culminating component of the MA program in American Studies, where students undertake a major research project focused on an approved American Studies topic under the guidance of a faculty mentor.