Minor in American Studies

Students on Summer 2018, Fall 2018, or Spring 2019 requirements AMSTMIN

Requirements

The minor requires at least 15 credit hours, including the requirements listed below.

Introductory course. One (1) course:
- AMST-A 100 What Is America?
AMST-A 100 What Is America?
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Explores ideas about citizenship, national identity, and the social contract in the broader Americas. What makes us "Americans?" How do we define "America?" How does national identity compete with and relate to other forms of identity, such as social status or class, religious association, gender and sexuality, and racial or ethnic description?
- Summer 2025CASE AHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE AHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Summer 2025CASE DUScourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE DUScourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE DUScourse
Intermediate course. One (1) course:
- AMST-A 150 Introduction to Native American and Indigenous Studies
- AMST-A 200 Comparative American Identities
- AMST-A 201 U.S. Movements and Institutions
- AMST-A 202 U.S. Arts and Media
- AMST-A 203 American Cultures, Global Connectivities
- AMST-A 204 Race in American Art
- AMST-A 205 American Radicalism and Dissent
- AMST-A 275 Indigenous Worldviews in the Americas
- AMST-A 298 Special Topics in Arts and Humanities for American Studies
- AMST-A 299 Special Topics in Social and Historical Studies for American Studies
AMST-A 150 Introduction to Native American and Indigenous Studies
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Introduction to Native American and Indigenous cultures, literature, history, arts, values, lifeways, spirituality, and social and political institutions. Focuses on global and hemispheric elements including North America.
- Summer 2025CASE DUScourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE DUScourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
AMST-A 200 Comparative American Identities
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Examines the formation of legal, social, cultural, and economic identities within the United States and within U.S.-controlled territories. Who counts as "American?" To what ends have citizens and non-citizens assumed, claimed, or refused "American" identity? This course employs a comparative frame in considering elite and subordinated classes (and/or genders, races, ethnicities, sexualities); institutional and countercultural forms of self-definition; official history and alternative acts of collective memory.
- Summer 2025CASE AHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE AHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Summer 2025CASE DUScourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE DUScourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE DUScourse
AMST-A 201 U.S. Movements and Institutions
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Study and analysis of a social movement, an institutional structure, or an otherwise clearly delimited arena of social regulation and public activity. Constructing, deconstructing, reconstructing an object of social study. Topics vary.
Repeatability
May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
- Summer 2025CASE DUScourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE DUScourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
AMST-A 202 U.S. Arts and Media
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Interdisciplinary approaches to a cultural genre (e.g., science fiction, pop art, jazz), discourse (e.g., individualism, family values, globalization) or medium (e.g., comics, television, the Internet). Constructing, deconstructing, reconstructing an object of cultural study. Recent topics have included Images of the Body, Jazz and Cultural Hierarchy, and Youth Cultures.
Repeatability
May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
- Summer 2025CASE AHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE AHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE AHcourse
AMST-A 203 American Cultures, Global Connectivities

Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Hamburgers, Hollywood, Hip-hop. Explores what gets defined as typically "American" and why. Considers how contending cultural perspectives on "America" serve to distinguish it from or connect it to other nations. Each topic analyzes specific cultural practices and products to locate U.S. and non-U.S. places in global contexts.
Repeatability
May be repeated with a different topic for up to 6 credit hours.
AMST-A 204 Race in American Art
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Examines representations of racial identity in American visual culture from the colonial period through the present with a particular focus on evolving conceptions of Native American, African American, European American, Latino, and Asian American identities.
- Summer 2025CASE AHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE AHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE AHcourse
- Summer 2025CASE DUScourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE DUScourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE DUScourse
AMST-A 205 American Radicalism and Dissent
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Explores the political, cultural and intellectual history of radical social movements in the U.S., including abolitionism, feminism, anarchism, socialism, communism, civil rights, black liberation, gay rights, antiwar protest, and the 1960s New Left, and examines the contributions these movements made to the diversity of American life and thought.
- Summer 2025CASE DUScourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE DUScourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
AMST-A 275 Indigenous Worldviews in the Americas
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
A survey of some basic aspects of indigenous lifeways in the Americas, this course introduces comparative cultural analysis, providing a foundational course for those interested in thinking about how others think and how we think about otherness. Students will examine mythology, ritual, health, art, and philosophy within the context of colonialism and globalization.
- Summer 2025CASE DUScourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE DUScourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE DUScourse
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
AMST-A 298 Special Topics in Arts and Humanities for American Studies
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Study and analysis of a single, closely focused American studies topic within arts and humanities. Topics vary from semester to semester. Focuses on the refinement of students' skills in writing, interdisciplinary interpretation, analytical reasoning, discussion, and research related to the study of fine arts, literature, film, and popular culture.
Repeatability
May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
- Summer 2025CASE AHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE AHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE AHcourse
AMST-A 299 Special Topics in Social and Historical Studies for American Studies
Credits
3
Prerequisites
None
Description
Study and analysis of a single, closely focused American studies topic within social and historical studies. Topics vary from semester to semester. Focuses on the refinement of students' skills in writing, interdisciplinary interpretation, analytical reasoning, discussion, and research related to the study of public policy, political, economic, and social realities.
Repeatability
May be repeated with a different topic for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
- Summer 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Spring 2025CASE SHcourse
  
  Fall 2024CASE SHcourse
Advanced courses. At least three (3) American Studies courses at the 300–499 level for a minimum of 9 credit hours.
Minor GPA, Hours, and Minimum Grade Requirements.
1. At least 9 credit hours in the minor must be completed in courses taken through the Indiana University Bloomington campus or an IU-administered or IU co-sponsored Overseas Study program.
2. At least 9 credit hours in the minor must be completed at the 300–499 level.
3. Except for the GPA requirement, a grade of C- or higher is required for a course to count toward a requirement in the minor.
4. A GPA of at least 2.000 for all courses taken in the minor—including those where a grade lower than C- is earned—is required.
5. Exceptions to minor requirements may be made with the approval of the department's Director of Undergraduate Studies, subject to final approval by the College of Arts and Sciences.