Department of American Studies

Introduction

The Department of American Studies is one of the oldest interdisciplinary programs at UNC–Chapel Hill, with roots in the study of folklore and the American South going back to the 1920s. A formal program in American studies was established in 1968. In the past two decades, the department has developed strengths in sub-fields within American studies including American Indian and Indigenous studies and Southern studies. The Department of American Studies has a tradition of vigorous teaching and an innovative curriculum that offers stimulating opportunities to study the diversity and influence of American peoples, institutions, texts, performances, and places. The department’s commitment to interdisciplinary approaches empowers students to value the nation’s complexity by engaging with a variety of historical, literary, artistic, political, social, cultural, legal, racial, ethnic, and ethnographic perspectives within and beyond the United States. American studies majors graduate with a comprehension of the dynamics of American cultures that prepares them to make a responsible and critical difference in the variety of professions they choose to pursue.

Advising

All majors and minors have a primary academic advisor from the Academic Advising Program. Students are strongly encouraged to meet regularly with their advisor and review their Tar Heel Tracker each semester. The department’s director of undergraduate studies works with current and prospective majors and minors by appointment. Further information on courses, opportunities, and honors theses may be obtained from the department’s website.

Graduate School and Career Opportunities

American studies provides a solid basis for a variety of career choices, including public service, business, teaching, museum curation, and journalism. It is an excellent liberal arts major that prepares students for graduate and professional school study in fields such as American history and literature. After receiving the baccalaureate degree, American studies majors have been accepted in law and business schools, which are interested in students with a broad, interdisciplinary undergraduate education. Additionally, students have designed pathways that have prepared them for graduate school in anthropology, communication, journalism, music, and folklore, as well as for planning careers in museum curation, public arts presentation, and music production.  

Professors

Daniel Cobb, Amanda Cobb-Greetham, Elizabeth Engelhardt, Sharon Holland, Blair Kelley, Timothy Marr.

Associate Professors

Gabrielle Berlinger1, Seth Kotch, Michelle Robinson, Patricia Sawin1.

Assistant Professors

Kelly Alexander, Ben Bridges, Antonia Randolph.

Adjunct Professors

Daniel Anderson (English and Comparative Literature), Fitzhugh Brundage (History), Maggie Cao (Art History), Claude Clegg (African, African American, and Diaspora Studies; History), Kathleen DuVal (History), Philip Gura (English and Comparative Literature), Glenn D. Hinson (Anthropology)1, Heidi Kim (English and Comparative Literature), Jocelyn Neal (Music)1, Michael Palm (Communication), Eliza Richards (English and Comparative Literature), Jane Thrailkill (English and Comparative Literature), Timothy Tyson (Center for Documentary Studies at Duke), Ariana Vigil (Women’s and Gender Studies).

Core members of the Folklore program

Affiliated Faculty

Anna Agba-Davies (Anthropology), María DeGuzmán (English and Comparative Literature), Candace Epp-Robertson (English and Comparative Literature), Rebecka Rutledge Fisher (English and Comparative Literature), Juliane Hammer (Religion), Jillian Hindterliter (Women's and Gender Studies), Danielle Hiraldo (Director, American Indian Center), Jordynn Jack (English and Comparative Literature), Martin Johnson (English and Comparative Literature), Scott Kirsch (Geography), Valerie Lambert (Anthropology), Hasan Melehy (Romance Studies), Danielle Purifoy (Geography), John Sweet (History), Lindsey Taillie (Nutrition), Matthew Taylor (English and Comparative Literature), Katherine Turk (History), Benjamin Waterhouse (History), Harry Watson (History), Molly Worthen (History).

Professors Emeriti

Robert Allen, Marcie Cohen Ferris, William Ferris, Peter Filene, Bernard Herman1, John Kasson, Joy Kasson, Daniel W. Patterson, Theda Perdue, Rachel Willis, Charles Gordon Zug.

Courses

AMST–American Studies

Undergraduate-level Courses

IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 53.  First-Year Seminar: The Family and Social Change in America.  3 Credits.  

This course uses changes in the American family over the past century as a way of understanding larger processes of social change. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, CI, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 54.  First-Year Seminar: The Indians' New Worlds: Southeastern Histories from 1200 to 1800.  3 Credits.  

This course uses archaeological and historical scholarship to consider the histories of the Southern Indians from the Mississippian period to the end of the 18th century.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, US, WB.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 54.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 55.  First-Year Seminar: Birth and Death in the United States.  3 Credits.  

This course explores birth and death as essential human rites of passage that are invested with significance by changing and diverse American historical, cultural, ethnic, and ethical contexts. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR, FC-KNOWING or FC-VALUES, RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: PH, CI, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 59.  First-Year Seminar: American Indian Art in the 20th Century.  3 Credits.  

This course examines 20th-century American Indian art within the context of critical topics in the field such as sovereignty, colonialism, modernity, modernism, gender, and representation.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, CI, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 60.  First-Year Seminar: American Indians in History, Law, and Literature.  3 Credits.  

This research seminar provides a grounding in American Indian law, history, and literature. Students will conduct research for presentation on Wikipedia.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR, FC-AESTH or FC-PAST.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 62.  First-Year Seminar: Mobility, Roads, NASCAR, and Southern Culture.  3 Credits.  

This seminar looks at the culture, history, memories, and meanings of mobility for a diverse range of people in southern cultures. In particular, students will read and discuss books and articles by scholars on roads, cars, access, and diverse southern cultures.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR.
Making Connections Gen Ed: LA, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 65.  First-Year Seminar: North Carolina Black Feminisms.  3 Credits.  

Students will develop their own sense of Black feminist thought and practice through exploring the lives and works of several key Black feminist figures with ties to North Carolina: Harriet Jacobs, Anna Julia Cooper, Pauli Murray, Ella Baker, Nina Simone, Jaki Shelton Green, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Students will put these figures in context of Black feminist thought and will do hands-on activities that reflect Black feminist practices including poetry, dance, and painting.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR, FC-CREATE or FC-POWER.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 70.  First-Year Seminar: Language in the U.S.A.  3 Credits.  

The linguistic landscape of the United States in historical and contemporary perspective: American English dialects, language maintenance and shift among Native American and immigrant groups, language politics and policy.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: LING 70.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 75.  First-Year Seminar: Food and the Media.  3 Credits.  

This course examines how food representations establish, reproduce, and also counter cultural and social assumptions about individuals and communities. We will consider the impact of the history of advertising in America on our national food habits and practices, the issue of authenticity in food and its intersection with the American immigrant food experience, the complicated gender politics of resistance baking movements, and the literary voices that shape ideas about American food politics and ethics.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR, FC-CREATE or FC-POWER.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 89.  First Year Seminar: Special Topics.  3 Credits.  

Special topics course. Content will vary each semester. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 101.  This Place Called "America".  3 Credits.  

Interdisciplinary examination of two centuries of American culture, focusing on moments of change and transformation.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-PAST or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 102.  Myth and History in American Memory.  3 Credits.  

Examines the role of memory in constructing historical meaning and in imagining the boundaries of American cultural communities. Explores popular rituals, artifacts, monuments, and public performances. Previously offered as AMST 384.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING or FC-PAST.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, NA, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 110.  Introduction to the Cultures and Histories of Native North America.  3 Credits.  

An interdisciplinary introduction to Native American history and studies. The course uses history, literature, art, and cultural studies to study the Native American experience.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-PAST or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, NA, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: HIST 110.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 175.  Introduction to Food Studies: From Science to Society.  3 Credits.  

Introduction to food studies covering a variety of topics including how food was consumed over history, land use and aquaculture, food in the arts, food and culture in the American South, food politics, and nutrition science. Previously offered as ANTH 175.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-GLOBAL or FC-PAST.
Making Connections Gen Ed: GL, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: NUTR 175.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 201.  Literary Approaches to American Studies.  3 Credits.  

A study of interdisciplinary methods and the concept of American Studies with an emphasis on the historical context for literary texts.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: LA, NA, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 202.  Historical Approaches to American Studies.  3 Credits.  

A study of interdisciplinary methods and the concept of American studies with an emphasis on historical and cultural analysis.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-PAST or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 203.  Approaches to American Indian Studies.  3 Credits.  

Introduces students to the disciplines comprising American Indian studies and teaches them how to integrate disciplines for a more complete understanding of the experiences of American Indian peoples.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, NA, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 203.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 210.  This Place Called "The South".  3 Credits.  

An examination of both the mythical and real American South and its diverse peoples through the study of the region's archaeological, geographical, and environmental history integrated with the study of the region's sociology and its economic, political, intellectual, and religious history.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-PAST or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, NA, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 211.  Approaches to Southern Studies: The Literary and Cultural Worlds of the American South.  3 Credits.  

An examination of Southern cultural identity, literary imagination, and sense of place with an emphasis on the fiction, folklore, foodways, art, architecture, music, and material culture of the American South.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-KNOWING.
Making Connections Gen Ed: LA, NA, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 220.  On the Question of the Animal: Contemporary Animal Studies.  3 Credits.  

This course is an introduction to "animal studies," through animal rights, animal welfare, food studies, and the human/animal distinction in philosophical inquiry. We will read work from dog and horse trainers, and explore the history of the American racetrack. This course builds a moral and ethical reasoning skill set.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING or FC-VALUES.
Making Connections Gen Ed: PH, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 222.  The Death Penalty in American History.  3 Credits.  

This course explores the history of the death penalty in America between the colonial era and the present.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-PAST.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 225.  Comedy and Ethics.  3 Credits.  

This course explores the historical, sociocultural, and legal significance of 20th- and 21st-century comedy in the United States. We will consider comedy as public voice; examine how humor constructs and disrupts American identities; and discuss the ethics of the creative process, performance, and reception. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-VALUES.
Making Connections Gen Ed: PH, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 225L.  The Practice of Stand Up Comedy.  1 Credits.  

Students will learn and practice the art of stand up comedy via structured assignments, group workshops, live performances and conversations that build on topics introduced in AMST 225. Class size is limited to 15 students. Instructor permission required.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: HI-PERFORM.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Performing Arts.  
Requisites: Pre- or corequisite, AMST 225.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 231.  Native American History: The East.  3 Credits.  

Covers the histories of American Indians east of the Mississippi River and before 1840. The approach is ethnohistorical.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING or FC-PAST.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, NA, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: HIST 231.  
AMST 233.  Native American History: The West.  3 Credits.  

Deals with the histories of Native Americans living west of the Mississippi River. It begins in the pre-Columbian past and extends to the end of the 19th century.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: HIST 233.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 234.  Native American Tribal Studies.  3 Credits.  

This course introduces students to a tribally specific body of knowledge. The tribal focus of the course and the instructor change from term to term. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING or FC-PAST.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, NA, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: HIST 234, ANTH 234.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 235.  Native America in the 20th Century.  3 Credits.  

This course deals with the political, economic, social, and cultural issues important to 20th-century Native Americans as they attempt to preserve tribalism in the modern world.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-PAST or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: HIST 235.  
AMST 246.  Indigenous Storytelling: Oral, Written, and Visual Literatures of Native America.  3 Credits.  

Offers a historically, politically, and culturally contextualized examination of Native America through oral, written, and visual storytelling. Covering a wide range of genres, including oral narratives, novels, and visual arts, this introductory course showcases the fluidity of Indigenous artistic forms and their continuing centrality in Native America.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: LA, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 248.  Intersectionality: Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Social Justice.  3 Credits.  

The first goal of this super course is to give students real tools for how to address multiple modes of difference and identity formations like race, gender, class, and sexuality.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: CI, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ENGL 248, POLI 248, WGST 249.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 251.  The Jewish American Experience.  3 Credits.  

A survey of the Jewish experience in the United States from colonial times to the present, that examines connections and disjunctures with the experiences of Jews in the Americas more broadly. Topics include the social patterns and communal constructs of the various Jewish immigrations; modes of political engagement; and the diverse cultural practices through which American Jews have shaped their identities.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-PAST or FC-POWER.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: JWST 251.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 252.  Muslim American Literatures and Cultures.  3 Credits.  

This course examines the diversity of Muslims in America and the variety of creative expression created throughout this long history of transcultural involvement.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-POWER, RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: LA, CI, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 253.  A Social History of Jewish Women in America.  3 Credits.  

This course examines the history and culture of Jewish women in America from their arrival in New Amsterdam in 1654 to the present and explores how gender shaped this journey.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-PAST or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, NA, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: JWST 253, WGST 253.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 255.  Difference and Power in American Culture(s).  3 Credits.  

This course examines a broad range of topics (race, class, sexuality, gender, and/or disability for example) that focus on power in the United States. We will move across a range of interdisciplinary sources and historical moments to understand who and what we are to one another in our national landscape.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, NA, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 256.  Anti-'50s: Voices of a Counter Decade.  3 Credits.  

We remember the 1950s as a period of relative tranquility, happiness, optimism, and contentment. This course will consider a handful of countertexts: voices from literature, politics, and mass culture of the 1950s that for one or another reason found life in the postwar world repressive, empty, frightening, or insane and predicted the social and cultural revolutions that marked the decade that followed.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: LA, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 257.  Melville: Culture and Criticism.  3 Credits.  

Investigates the significance of Herman Melville as a representative 19th-century American author. Includes issues of biography, historical context, changing reception, cultural iconography, and the politics of the literary marketplace.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH, RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: LA, CI, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 258.  Captivity and American Cultural Definition.  3 Credits.  

Examines how representations of captivity and bondage in American expression worked to construct and transform communal categories of religion, race, class, gender, and nation.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-PAST or FC-POWER, RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: LA, NA, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 259.  Tobacco and America.  3 Credits.  

Explores the significance of tobacco from Native American ceremony to the Southern economy by focusing on changing attitudes toward land use, leisure, social style, public health, litigation, and global capitalism.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-PAST or FC-VALUES.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, CI, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 265.  The Black Interior.  3 Credits.  

What aesthetics and politics do Black people produce when their gaze is turned inward? This course examines representations of the inner lives of African American people in media such as film, visual art, and music to understand the Black private sphere. This survey course is intended for intermediate level undergraduate students.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: LA, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 268.  American Cinema and American Culture.  3 Credits.  

Examines the relationship between cinema and culture in America with a focus on the ways cinema has been experienced in American communities since 1896.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 269.  Mating and Marriage in America.  3 Credits.  

Interdisciplinary examination of the married condition from colonial times to the present. Themes include courtship and romance, marital power and the egalitarian ideal, challenges to monogamy.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-PAST or FC-VALUES, RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, CI, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 275.  Food and American Culture.  3 Credits.  

In this course, we will explore the ways in which food shapes the politics and ethics of individuals and communities and is an increasingly important marker of social and cultural identities. Lessons for this course focus on the symbolic functions of food in the construction of personal, cultural, political, and community identity.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-POWER or FC-VALUES.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, GL, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 276.  Food and American Culture: What We Eat and Who We Are.  3 Credits.  

This course will take students on a journey through some of the key moments in "American" food studies and its beginnings across a range of disciplinary homes: the study of nutrition and food security; the study of food systems and the vocabularies that subtend them.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: CI, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 277.  America's Role in the Global Environment.  3 Credits.  

Using an interdisciplinary approach, this course explores the historical role and implications for the US and other nations with respect to transnational environmental issues including climate change, sustainability, and migration.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-VALUES.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, GL, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 278.  Crimes and Punishments.  3 Credits.  

This course explores the social history and culture of crime, deviant behavior, and punishment in America between the pre-revolutionary period and today. It traces the history of longstanding institutions; examines elements of American history from a criminal justice perspective; and seeks historical origins and continuities for contemporary problems.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-PAST or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, CI, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 284.  Visual Culture.  3 Credits.  

This course investigates how we make and signify meaning through images, ranging from art to advertising to graffiti, and provides the critical tools to understand the visual worlds we inhabit.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 287.  Introduction to American Legal Education.  3 Credits.  

Introduces students to how legal education is conducted in the United States by mimicking the "1L" experience, or first year in law school. It is broken into units that represent classes every law school teaches in the first year: contracts, property, torts, criminal law, civil procedure, and constitutional law.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING or FC-VALUES.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 289.  Jewish American Literature and Culture.  3 Credits.  

This course examines Jewish American literary works in various genres from the nineteenth century to the present day. Together, we will interpret and critique the aesthetic and moral "worldview" of each work while simultaneously situating these works in the historical and cultural contexts in which they were created.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ENGL 289, JWST 289.  
AMST 290.  Topics in American Studies.  3 Credits.  

Special topics in American studies.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: LA, NA.  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit; may be repeated in the same term for different topics; 12 total credits. 4 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 291.  Ethics and American Studies.  3 Credits.  

An interdisciplinary seminar in American studies addressing ethical issues in the United States.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: PH, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 292.  Historical Seminar in American Studies.  3 Credits.  

Topics in American history in American studies. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, NA.  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 12 total credits. 4 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 294.  American Studies Seminar on Aesthetic Perspective.  3 Credits.  

Topics in arts and literature from the perspective of American studies.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 12 total credits. 4 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 315.  Privacy and Surveillance in America.  3 Credits.  

This course explores crucial challenges to privacy by changing technological, governmental, and corporate practices of surveillance. We will explore how technological and biometric tools are employed to capitalize upon and control populations. We will examine constitutional rights and privacy laws as well as practices and protections that can enable us to become more ethical citizens in the digital age.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-POWER or FC-VALUES, RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: CI.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 317.  Adoption in America.  3 Credits.  

An interdisciplinary approach to the history of adoption and related practices in the United States, employing the provisions society has made for the welfare of children deemed to be orphans as a powerful lens into changing values and attitudes toward childhood, race, class, gender, reproduction, parenthood, and family.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-POWER or FC-VALUES.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 320.  Critical Issues and Theories in American Studies.  3 Credits.  

This course will move through prevalent critical theories in American Studies. Students will come away with advanced understanding of theoretical concepts and be able to ascertain both the advantages and pitfalls of their landscapes. Students will become familiar with critical race (postcoloniality and settler-colonialism, for example), feminist, "queer" theories, historical materialism, new materialism, political economy, just to name a few. Previously offered as AMST 420.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING or FC-POWER, RESEARCH.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 325.  Encountering Art in the Unexpected: Borderlands and Story in Contemporary American Visual Art.  3 Credits.  

This course focuses on the contemporary art and social change movement. We will learn how to use site-specific and performative art interventions to make invisible borders, boundaries, and other issues visible and innovatively to create engaged and sustained dialogue.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-CREATE or FC-GLOBAL.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: WGST 325.  
AMST 330.  del norte a norte: An American Songbook.  3 Credits.  

Through the examination of a variety of song cultures and its artistic and cultural expressions, we explore the interdisciplinary methods of American studies and contemporary approaches to the study of American society and cultures, with an emphasis on musical performance. In partnership with Carolina Performing Arts, students will learn about the sociocultural, aesthetic, and critical components of song cultures associated with social change, exploring identity, diversity, privilege, cultures, and justice while participating in community service.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, EE- Service Learning, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 336.  Native Americans in Film.  3 Credits.  

This course is about Hollywood's portrayal of Indians in film, how Indian films have depicted Native American history, and why the filmic representation of Indians has changed over time.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, NA, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 337.  American Indian Activism since 1887: Beyond Red Power.  3 Credits.  

This course seeks to understand how American Indian individuals and communities survived a century that began with predictions of their disappearance. To answer that question, we take a broad view of politics and activism, exploring everything from the radical protest to art and everyday forms of resistance.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-PAST or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 338.  American Indian Novel.  3 Credits.  

This course examines this art form's development by indigenous writers as a mode of storytelling that explores the continuing effects of settler colonialism upon indigenous peoples and foregrounds indigenous notions of land, culture, and community.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: LA, CI, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 339.  The Long 1960s in Native America.  3 Credits.  

An interdisciplinary exploration of Native America during the "long 1960s" (1954-1973), this course focuses on how American Indian experiences intersected with and diverged from those of non-native groups via topics such as the youth movement, women's rights, nationalism, civil rights, radical protest, and creative expression.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-PAST or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, CI, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 340.  American Indian Art and Material Culture through Interdisciplinary Perspectives.  3 Credits.  

Analyzes material culture created by Native artists throughout the United States and portions of Canada. Examines the role of art and artists and how material culture is studied and displayed. Students study objects, texts, and images, exploring mediums such as painting, sculpture, basket making, beadwork, and photography.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 341.  Digital Native America.  3 Credits.  

This is a project-based course that explores settler colonial appropriations of American Indian knowledge. Students then use new technologies as a means of engaging in the digital re-representation and return of this knowledge. Instructor and topics vary.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 345.  Issues in the Indigenous World.  3 Credits.  

This course will explore the Indigenous world in various settler colonial contexts. We will come to understand the communities who claim Indigenous status, commonalities among Indigenous peoples, and differences that create important distinctions in places like the U.S. Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. We will also learn how Indigenous peoples around the world continue to respond to various aspects of colonialism, including but not limited to law and policy, representation, art, and human rights.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: BN, EE- Study Abroad, GL.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 352.  The Asian American Experience.  3 Credits.  

The course addresses the history and sociology of Asian immigration and experience in the United States, as well as the formation of diasporic identities among Asian Americans.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-PAST or FC-POWER, RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, NA, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ASIA 350.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 353.  Southeast Asian North Carolina.  3 Credits.  

Drawing from Asian American Studies and Asian Studies, the course explores the political histories and lived experiences of Southeast Asians and Southeast Asian Americans in North Carolina. Students will consider issues relevant to NC Southeast Asian communities such as food justice, labor organizing, mental health support, anti-racism work, transnational connections, etc. Course materials will include both written academic works and first-person narrative accounts from local community members.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-POWER.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ASIA 353.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 354.  Asian American Graphic Form.  3 Credits.  

This course will survey Asian American graphic form: written and/or drawn works from the late 1900s to present. We will begin by considering orientalism in both American popular culture and modernist aesthetics. We will then examine works by Asian American writers and artists in a range of mediums including graphic memoir and novels, comics, animation, manga and anime, illustrated books, zines, textual art, and visual poetry.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 365.  Women and Detective Fiction: From Miss Violet Strange to Veronica Mars.  3 Credits.  

Traces the origins of detective fiction and major developments in the history of the genre with a focus on women authors and protagonists. Examines literary texts including fiction and film, with close attention to historical and social contexts and to theoretical arguments relating to popular fiction, genre studies, and gender.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: LA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 371.  LGTBQ Film and Fiction from 1950 to the Present.  3 Credits.  

An interdisciplinary seminar that explores stylistic choices and representational modes available to LGTBQ artists in the United States since 1950. We will relate shifts in cinematic and literary representations and aesthetic strategies to developments in political, social, and economic life.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 375.  Critical Issues in Contemporary Food Studies.  3 Credits.  

Students explore, analyze, and research the politics and ethics of major food debates in contemporary American culture, including the history of the National School Lunch program, the proposed Universal Basic Income's effect on the restaurant business, and public food/body shaming. Studying, discussing in depth, and forming their own opinions on these debates allows students to apprehend the myriad ways in which food is embedded in local, regional, national, and global narratives and identities. Restricted to Food Studies Minors and American Studies majors.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, US.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, AMST 275 or NUTR 175.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: FOLK 375.  
AMST 390.  Seminar in American Studies.  3 Credits.  

Seminar in American studies topics with a focus on historical inquiry from interdisciplinary angles.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, NA.  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit; may be repeated in the same term for different topics; 12 total credits. 4 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 392.  Radical Communities in Twentieth Century American Religious History.  3 Credits.  

How the language, ideas, and cultural products of religious outsiders responded to and influenced mainstream ideas about what American religious communities could and should look like in terms of gender, race, economics, and faith-based practices.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING or FC-PAST.
Making Connections Gen Ed: PH, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 396.  Independent Study in American Studies.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the department. Directed reading under the supervision of a faculty member.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 12 total credits. 4 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 398.  Service Learning in America.  3 Credits.  

Explores history and theory of volunteerism and service learning in America. Includes a weekly academic seminar and placement in a service learning project.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: HI-SERVICE.
Making Connections Gen Ed: CI, EE- Service Learning.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  

Advanced Undergraduate and Graduate-level Courses

AMST 410.  Senior Seminar in Southern Studies.  3 Credits.  

We will engage such topics as race, immigration, cultural tourism, and memory to consider conceptions of the South. Students will research a subject they find compelling and write a 20- to 25-page paper.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, EE- Mentored Research, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 439.  Meaning and Makers: Indigenous Artists and the Marketplace.  3 Credits.  

This course examines how indigenous artists have negotiated, shaped, and pursued markets and venues of display ranging from "fine" art markets, galleries, and museums to popular markets associated with tourism.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, CI, GL.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 440.  American Indian Poetry.  3 Credits.  

This course explores the relation of American Indian poetry and music in English to the history and culture of indigenous communities and their relation to the United States.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: LA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 475.  Documenting Communities.  3 Credits.  

Covers the definition and documentation of communities within North Carolina through research, study, and field work of communities. Each student produces a documentary on a specific community. Previously offered as AMST 275. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, CI, EE- Field Work.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 483.  Seeing the USA: The Film Director as Public Intellectual.  3 Credits.  

Examines the ways in which visual works - paintings, photographs, sculpture, architecture, film, advertising, and other images - communicate the values of American culture and raise questions about American experiences.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 486.  The Jewish South: Race, Region, and Religion.  3 Credits.  

This course explores ethnicity in the South and focuses on the history and culture of Jewish Southerners from their arrival in the Carolinas in the 17th century to the present day.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-PAST or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, CI, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: JWST 486.  
AMST 487.  Early American Architecture and Material Life.  3 Credits.  

This course explores, through lecture and discussion, the experiences of everyday life from 1600 through the early 19th century, drawing on the evidence of architecture, landscape, images, and objects.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 489.  Writing Material Culture.  3 Credits.  

A reading seminar that examines multiple critical perspectives that shape the reception and interpretation of objects, with a particular emphasis on things in American life.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-KNOWING.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 493.  Internship.  1-3 Credits.  

Permission of the department and the instructor. Internship. Variable credit.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: HI-INTERN.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Academic Internship.  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 6 total credits. 6 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 498.  Advanced Seminar in American Studies.  3 Credits.  

Graduate or junior/senior standing. Examines American civilization by studying social and cultural history, criticism, art, architecture, music, film, popular pastimes, and amusements, among other possible topics.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, NA.  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit; may be repeated in the same term for different topics; 9 total credits. 3 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 510.  Federal Indian Law and Policy.  3 Credits.  

This course gives an introduction to the American government's law and policy concerning tribal nations and tribal peoples. We examine a number of legal and political interactions to determine how the United States has answered the "Indian problem" throughout its history and the status of tribal peoples and nations today.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 511.  American Indians and American Law.  3 Credits.  

This course explores the history of Native interaction with the American legal system in order to understand how the law affects Native peoples and others today. Students are encouraged (but not required) to take AMST 510 before enrolling in this course.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 512.  Race and American Law.  3 Credits.  

This class will explore the intersection between race and American law, both in a historical and contemporary context. It will ask how both of these major social forces have informed and defined each other and what that means for how we think about race and law today.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 671.  Introduction to Public History.  3 Credits.  

Introduces the theory, politics, and practice of historical work conducted in public venues (museums, historic sites, national parks, government agencies, archives), directed at public audiences, or addressed to public issues.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, EE- Mentored Research, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: HIST 671.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 691H.  Honors in American Studies.  3 Credits.  

Directed independent research leading to the preparation of an honors thesis and an oral examination on the thesis. Required of candidates for graduation with honors in American studies who enroll in the class once permission to pursue honors is granted.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Mentored Research.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 692H.  Honors in American Studies.  3 Credits.  

Directed independent research leading to the preparation of an honors thesis and an oral examination on the thesis. Required of candidates for graduation with honors in American studies who enroll in the class once permission to pursue honors is granted.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Mentored Research.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  

CHER–Cherokee

Undergraduate-level Courses

CHER 101.  Elementary Cherokee Language I.  3 Credits.  

Provides an introduction to speaking, listening, reading, and writing in the Cherokee language. This course is part of an ongoing effort to revitalize Cherokee--an endangered language indigenous to North Carolina. Students will acquire basic conversational Cherokee and learn to read and write the Sequoyah syllabary.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: FL.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Global Language: Level 1.  
CHER 102.  Elementary Cherokee Language II.  3 Credits.  

This course expands on skills from CHER 101. We will begin reading longer texts in the Cherokee syllabary and learn to produce more complex narrative structures. Students will move toward discussing others around them, with an eye toward discussing the general world.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: FL.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, CHER 101; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Global Language: Level 2.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoCHER 203.  Intermediate Cherokee Language I.  3 Credits.  

This course reviews and deepens grammatical knowledge from CHER 101 and 102. We will increase extemporaneous speaking and produce new written texts in the Cherokee syllabary. Students will discuss the world around them in addition to the self and others.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: GLBL-LANG.
Making Connections Gen Ed: FL.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, CHER 102; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Global Language: Level 3.  
CHER 204.  Intermediate Cherokee Language II.  3 Credits.  

This course completes the study of basic Cherokee grammar. We will polish conversational fluency and proficiency, read and create new texts in the Cherokee syllabary. Students will discuss current events and offer opinions.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: FL.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, CHER 203; permission of the instructor for students lacking the prerequisite.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Global Language: Level 4.  
CHER 305.  Phonetics and General Linguistics.  3 Credits.  

Introduction to linguistics; the Cherokee sound system from a phonetic and allophonic view; grammatical categories, morphology, syntax.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisite, CHER 204.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Global Language: Level 5.  

FOLK–Folklore

Undergraduate-level Courses

IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 77.  First-Year Seminar: The Poetic Roots of Hip-Hop: Hidden Histories of African American Rhyme.  3 Credits.  

What are the roots of hip-hop's masterful rhymes and tongue-tripping flow? This seminar explores hip-hop's poetic prehistory, looking to the rhyming and oral poetics that have long defined African American experience. In so doing, we'll uncover hidden histories of everyday eloquence and explore spoken/sung poetry's role in marking cultural identity. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR, FC-AESTH or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 89.  First-Year Seminar: Special Topics.  3 Credits.  

Special topics course. Content will vary each semester.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FY-SEMINAR.
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit; may be repeated in the same term for different topics; 6 total credits. 2 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
FOLK 130.  Anthropology of the Caribbean.  3 Credits.  

Theories and examples of how Caribbean people live, act, and see themselves within various cultural, social, economic, and political contexts across time. Attention to North American views of the Caribbean.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, BN, GL.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 130.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 202.  Everyday Cultures: Folklore in America.  3 Credits.  

An introduction to the study of creativity and aesthetic expression in everyday life, considering both traditional genres and contemporary innovations in the material, verbal, and musical arts.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-KNOWING.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ENGL 202, ANTH 202.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 254.  U.S. Historical Geographies.  3 Credits.  

A study of selected past geographies of the United States with emphasis on the significant geographic changes in population, cultural, and economic conditions through time. Previously offered as FOLK/GEOG 454. (GHA)

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-PAST.
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: GEOG 254.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 310.  Fairy Tales.  3 Credits.  

A study of fairy tales as historical artifacts that reveal the concerns of their times and places, as narrative structures capable of remarkable transformation, and as artistic performances drawing upon the expressive resources of multiple media, intended to challenge conventional presuppositions about the genre.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: LA, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ENGL 310.  
FOLK 334.  Art, Nature, and Religion: Cross-Cultural Perspectives.  3 Credits.  

This cross-cultural study of art focuses on the forms, images, and meanings of paintings, drawings, and carvings produced by the Diyin Dine'é (Navajo), the Dogon (Mali, West Africa), and the Haida, Kwagiutl, Tlingit, and Tshimshian (northwest coast of North America).

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 334.  
FOLK 340.  Southern Styles, Southern Cultures.  4 Credits.  

A journey into hidden worlds of southern meaning, exploring the region from the experiential lens of African Americans and the South's indigenous peoples, as a way of rethinking the question, "What does it mean to be a Southerner?" Students will explore focused issues each semester through intensive, group-based field work projects.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, EE- Field Work, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 340.  
FOLK 342.  African-American Religious Experience.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor. An introduction to the diversity of African American beliefs, experiences, and expressions from the colonial era to the present. Exploration will be both historical and thematic.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: RELI 342, ANTH 342.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 370.  Southern Legacies: The Descendants Project.  4 Credits.  

In this Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) class, students will explore the legacy of racial terrorism in North Carolina. Students will search archival sources to discover the family histories of lynching victims, tracing those families to the present, interviewing their descendants, and working with communities to build public awareness of - and perhaps public memorials to - the victims of racial violence.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-POWER, RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, EE- Field Work, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 370.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 375.  Critical Issues in Contemporary Food Studies.  3 Credits.  

Students explore, analyze, and research the politics and ethics of major food debates in contemporary American culture, including the history of the National School Lunch program, the proposed Universal Basic Income's effect on the restaurant business, and public food/body shaming. Studying, discussing in depth, and forming their own opinions on these debates allows students to apprehend the myriad ways in which food is embedded in local, regional, national, and global narratives and identities. Restricted to Food Studies Minors and American Studies majors.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, US.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, AMST 275 or NUTR 175.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: AMST 375.  

Advanced Undergraduate and Graduate-level Courses

IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 424.  Ritual, Festival, and Public Culture.  3 Credits.  

This course explores rituals, festivals, and public cultural performances as forms of complex, collective, embodied creative expression. As sites of popular celebration, conflict resolution, identity definition, and social exchange, they provide rich texts for folkloristic study. We consider how local and global forces both sustain and challenge these forms.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING or FC-VALUES, RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, EE- Field Work.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 424.  
FOLK 428.  Religion and Anthropology.  3 Credits.  

Religion studied anthropologically as a cultural, social, and psychological phenomenon in the works of classical and contemporary social thought. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 428, RELI 428.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 429.  Culture and Power in Southeast Asia.  3 Credits.  

The formation and transformation of values, identities, and expressive forms in Southeast Asia in response to forms of power. Emphasis on the impact of colonialism, the nation-state, and globalization.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-GLOBAL or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, BN, GL.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 429, ASIA 429.  
FOLK 455.  Ethnohistory.  3 Credits.  

Integration of data from ethnographic and archaeological research with pertinent historic information. Familiarization with a wide range of sources for ethnohistoric data and practice in obtaining and evaluating information. Pertinent theoretical concepts will be explored.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 455.  
FOLK 470.  Medicine and Anthropology.  3 Credits.  

This course examines cultural understandings of health, illness, and medical systems from an anthropological perspective with a special focus on Western medicine.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 470.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 472.  Traditions in Transition: Jewish Folklore and Ethnography.  3 Credits.  

This seminar examines Jewish stories, humor, ritual, custom, belief, architecture, dress, and food as forms of creative expression that have complex relationships to Jewish experience, representation, identity, memory, and tradition. What makes these forms of folklore Jewish, how do source communities interpret them, and how do ethnographers document them? Previously offered as FOLK 380/FOLK 505/JWST 380/JWST 505.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-KNOWING, RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, EE- Field Work, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: JWST 472.  
FOLK 473.  Anthropology of the Body and the Subject.  3 Credits.  

Anthropological and historical studies of cultural constructions of bodily experience and subjectivity are reviewed, with emphasis on the genesis of the modern individual and cultural approaches to gender and sexuality.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 473.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 476.  Graffiti, Gods, and Gardens: Urban Folklore.  3 Credits.  

What is the relationship between distinctive features of urban environments and the expressive forms found in those settings? This course explores the impact of the urban setting on folk traditions. We examine how people transform urban spaces into places of meaning through storytelling, festival, ritual, food, art, music, and dance.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-POWER, RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, EE- Field Work, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 480.  Vernacular Traditions in African American Music.  4 Credits.  

Explores performance traditions in African American music, tracing development from African song through reels, blues, gospel, and contemporary vernacular expression. Focuses on continuity, creativity, and change within African American aesthetics. Previously offered as FOLK 610/AAAD 432.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, EE- Field Work, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: AAAD 480.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 481.  Jewish Belonging/s: The Material Culture of Jewish Experience.  3 Credits.  

What makes an object "Jewish"? This seminar examines how we think about, animate, repurpose, and display "Jewish" objects in the public realm, cultural institutions, religious spaces, and the home. We consider how makers and users negotiate objects' various meanings within the domains of prayer, performance, entertainment, and exhibition. The class curates a final group exhibition of Jewish material culture based on original fieldwork.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-CREATE, RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, EE- Field Work, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: JWST 481.  
FOLK 484.  Discourse and Dialogue in Ethnographic Research.  3 Credits.  

Study of cultural variation in styles of speaking applied to collection of ethnographic data. Talk as responsive social action and its role in the constitution of ethnic and gender identities.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, CI, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 484, LING 484.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 487.  Everyday Stories: Personal Narrative and Legend.  3 Credits.  

Oral storytelling may seem old-fashioned, but we tell true (or possibly true) stories every day. We will study personal narratives (about our own experiences) and legends (about improbable, intriguing events), exploring the techniques and structures that make them effective communication tools and the influence of different contexts and audiences.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-KNOWING.
Making Connections Gen Ed: CI, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ENGL 487.  
FOLK 490.  Topics in Folklore.  3 Credits.  

Topics vary from semester to semester.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit; may be repeated in the same term for different topics; 12 total credits. 4 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
FOLK 495.  Field Research.  3 Credits.  

Research at sites that vary.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit; may be repeated in the same term for different topics; 12 total credits. 4 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
FOLK 496.  Directed Readings in Folklore.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the department. Topic varies depending on the instructor.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 12 total credits. 4 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 502.  Myths and Epics of the Ancient Near East.  3 Credits.  

An examination of Babylonian, Canaanite, Egyptian, Hittite, and Sumerian texts from the prebiblical era, focusing on representative myths, epics, sagas, songs, proverbs, prophecies, and hymns. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-PAST.
Making Connections Gen Ed: LA, WB.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: RELI 502.  
FOLK 537.  Gender and Performance: Constituting Identity.  3 Credits.  

Examines the culturally and historically variable ways in which individuals constitute themselves as cis- or transgendered subjects, drawing upon extant expressive resources, modifying them, and expanding options available to others. Performance of self as the product of esthetically marked or unmarked, everyday actions.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, GL.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 537, WGST 438.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 562.  Oral History and Performance.  3 Credits.  

This course combines readings and field work in oral history with the study of performance as a means of interpreting and conveying oral history texts. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: HI-PERFORM.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Performing Arts.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: COMM 562, HIST 562, WGST 562.  
FOLK 571.  Southern Music.  3 Credits.  

Explores the history of music in the American South from its roots to 20th-century musical forms, revealing how music serves as a window on the region's history and culture.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: HIST 571.  
FOLK 587.  Folklore in the South.  3 Credits.  

An issue-oriented study of Southern folklore, exploring the ways that vernacular artistic expression (from barns and barbecue to gospel and well-told tales) come to define both community and region.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
FOLK 670.  Introduction to Oral History.  3 Credits.  

Introduces students to the uses of interviews in historical research. Questions of ethics, interpretation, and the construction of memory will be explored, and interviewing skills will be developed through field work.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, CI.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: HIST 670.  
FOLK 675.  Ethnographic Method.  3 Credits.  

Intensive study and practice of the core research methods of cultural and social anthropology.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, CI.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 675.  
FOLK 688.  Observation and Interpretation of Religious Action.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor. Exercises (including field work) in learning to read the primary modes of public action in religious traditions, e.g., sermons, testimonies, rituals, and prayers.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, EE- Mentored Research.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 688, RELI 688.  
FOLK 690.  Studies In Folklore.  3 Credits.  

Topic varies from semester to semester.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit; may be repeated in the same term for different topics; 12 total credits. 4 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 691H.  Honors Project in Folklore.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor. For honors candidates. Ethnographic and/or library research and analysis of the gathered materials, leading to a draft of an honors thesis.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Mentored Research.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 692H.  Honors Thesis in Folklore.  3 Credits.  

Writing of an honors thesis based on independent research conducted in FOLK 691H. Open only to senior honors candidates who work under the direction of a faculty member.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Mentored Research.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, FOLK 691H.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  

Department of American Studies

Visit Program Website

204 Greenlaw Hall, CB# 3520

(919) 962-5481

Chair

Patricia Sawin

sawin@unc.edu

Director of Undergraduate Studies

Tim Marr

amstdus@unc.edu