Undergraduate Minor: Undergraduates
The minor in American Studies provides training in interdisciplinary thinking, analytical writing, and comparative cultural studies.
- This interdisciplinary minor equips students to better
- evaluate the methods and approaches of any particular discipline;
- make connections between different objects of study; and
- open up new areas of inquiry or innovative perspectives on familiar topics.
- Students learn not only how to answer questions related to their areas of study, but how to keep asking better questions and thus to generate rich, new possibilities for creative activity.
- The minor stresses the diversity of United States cultures. This comparative approach to diverse populations, histories, and traditions within the nation complements our emphasis on the international dimensions of American life. Students are encouraged to understand local and national phenomena as embedded in larger social and economic systems to explore how American cultural forms and practices have been and continue to be shaped by the movement of people, ideas, commodities, and resources across national borders.
All American Studies classes emphasize analytical writing, or the ability to define issues, develop their implications, and propose interpretations in persuasive, expository prose.
Requirements
Students must be admitted to an undergraduate degree program in another department at Indiana University prior to requesting admission to the American Studies undergraduate minor program.
- 15 credit hours total
- AMST Course Requirements
- AMST-A100 What is America? (3 cr. hrs.) A&H
- AMST-A200 Comparative American Identities (3 cr. hrs.) A&H or
- AMST-A201 U.S. Movements & Institutions (3 cr. hrs.) A&H or
- AMST-A202 U.S. Arts & Media (3 cr. hrs.) A&H
- Additional Course Requirements may be fulfilled by AMST courses or cross-listed courses
- Two 200 level (or higher) courses
- Two 300 level (or higher) courses
Students may cross-count one course in the minor with the major.
Contact amst @ indiana.edu (Paula Cotner) to schedule a meeting with the Advisor and/or to request the Admission form.
