Department of American Studies

JOY KASSON, Chair

Professors

Robert Allen, Robert Cantwell, William Ferris, Philip Gura, Bernard Herman, John Kasson, Joy Kasson, Theda Perdue.

Associate Professors

Daniel Cobb, Marcie Cohen Ferris, Glenn Hinson, Timothy Marr, Patricia Sawin, Rachel Willis.

Assistant Professors

Tol Foster, Jay Garcia, Katherine Roberts, Michelle Robinson.

Adjunct Professors

Yaakov Ariel (Religious Studies), Carole Blair (Communication Studies), W. Fitzhugh Brundage (History), Jon Finson (Music), Larry Griffin (Sociology), Lawrence Grossberg (Communication Studies), Minrose Gwin (English and Comparative Literature), Laurie Maffly-Kipp (Religious Studies), Michael Lienesch (Political Science), Ruth Salvaggio (English and Comparative Literature).

Adjunct Associate Professors

Kathleen Du Val (History), Eliza Richards (English and Comparative Literature), Anne Whisnant (History), Heather Williams (History).

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Jennifer Ho (English and Comparative Literature).

Affiliated Faculty

William Andrews (English and Comparative Literature), Jan Bardsley (Asian Studies), Richard Cante (Communication Studies), Erin Carlston (English and Comparative Literature), Tyler Curtain (English and Comparative Literature), María DeGuzmán (English and Comparative Literature), Connie Eble (English and Comparative Literature), Rebecka Rutledge Fisher (English and Comparative Literature), Gregory Flaxman (English and Comparative Literature), John Florin (Geography), David Garcia (Music), Jacquelyn Hall (History), Laura Halperin (English and Comparative Literature), Reginald Hildebrand (African Studies and Afro-American Studies), Fred Hobson (English and Comparative Literature), Michael Hunt (History), Jordynn Jack (English and Comparative Literature), Clara Sue Kidwell (American Indian Center), Scott Kirsch (Geography), Valerie Lambert (Anthropology), Rosa Perelmuter (Romance Languages), Della Pollock (Communication Studies), John Sweet (History), Jane Thrailkill (English and Comparative Literature), Linda Wagner-Martin (English and Comparative Literature), Harry Watson (History), Eric King Watts (Communication Studies), Gang Yue (Asian Studies).

Professors Emeriti

Peter Filene, Michael Green, Trudier Harris, Townsend Ludington, Daniel W. Patterson, Charles G. Zug III.

Introduction

The Department of American Studies was established in 1968 (as the Curriculum in American Studies) as one of the first interdisciplinary programs at UNC–Chapel Hill. Since then, American studies has developed a tradition of vigorous teaching and innovative curriculum that offers stimulating opportunities to study the United States and the diversity and influence of its peoples, institutions, texts, performances, and places. In 2008 the Curricula in American Studies and Folklore merged to create the Department of American Studies. 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, ethnic, and ethnographic perspectives. American studies majors graduate with a comprehension of the dynamics of American culture that prepares them to make a responsible and critical difference in the variety of professions they choose to pursue.

At the core of the undergraduate major in American studies are two required courses in interdisciplinary cultural analysis: AMST 101 The Emergence of Modern America (or AMST 334 Defining America I or 335 Defining America II) and AMST 201 Literary Approaches to American Studies or 202 Historical Approaches to American Studies. Majors also choose at least two advanced seminars in the department that focus readings and research on topics representative of both the talents of its faculty members and emergent directions in American studies scholarship. For the remainder of their requirements, majors select a series of relevant electives offered by over a dozen different University departments and curricula. These courses deepen their interdisciplinary awareness of American traditions, institutions, literature, and arts as well as expose them to a broader diversity of American experiences and perspectives. Students interested in more specialized study can choose concentrations in Southern studies, American Indian studies, or international American studies. The Southern studies concentration and minor focus critical attention on the history, society, culture, and expression of the American South with its regional, state, and local distinctiveness. The American Indian studies concentration and minor emphasize the ethnohistory of American Indian peoples and cultures and their relations with settler societies. The international American studies concentration and minor explore American engagements with the broader world and credit the study of American subjects in study abroad programs.

The Folklore Program emphasizes the study of creativity and aesthetic expression in everyday life and the social and political implications of this expression as it unfolds in contested arenas of culture. The study of folklore focuses attention on those expressive realms that communities infuse with cultural meaning and through which they give voice to the issues and concerns they see as central to their being. These realms are often deeply grounded in tradition, yet as community self-definitions develop in light of shifting social, political, and economic realities, community-based artistry likewise evolves. Folklore thus moves beyond the study of the old and time-honored to explore emergent meanings and cultural forms.

The primary vehicle for the exploration of contemporary folklore is ethnographic fieldwork, the real-world study of people’s lives in everyday settings, grounded in conversation and participatory engagement. In folklore courses students often move beyond the University to engage experts of the everyday in the communities that they call home. Given this focus, the folklore program emphasizes North Carolina and the American South and encourages students also to draw upon the University’s archival holdings and related strengths in the study of Southern history, literature, and culture. The folklore program includes courses from other departments in order to assure broad coverage of the expressive realms of music, narrative, festival, architecture, belief, language, and art as articulated in communities defined by race, gender, class, ethnicity, region, faith, and occupation.

Programs of Study

The degree offered is the bachelor of arts with a major in American studies. Majors may select concentrations in Southern studies, American Indian studies, or international American studies. Minors are offered in American studies, American Indian studies, Southern studies, international American studies, and folklore. Students who wish to study folklore in a more intensive manner may craft an independently designed major through the interdisciplinary bachelor of arts program in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Majoring in American Studies:
Bachelor of Arts

B.A. Major in American Studies: Regular Concentration

Core Requirements

The major in American studies consists of nine courses, with one from each of the following categories (courses listed more than once can be counted for only one category):

• Introduction (one of the following): AMST 101, 334, or 335

• Approaches: AMST 201 or 202

• Topics: At least two AMST courses numbered above 202

• Literature (one of the following): AMST 246, 256, 257, 286, 290, 338, 360, 440, 685; COMM 561; ENGL 343, 344, 345, 347, 348, 367, 368, 369, 373, 374, 375, 443, 444, 445, 446, 472, 643, 644; RELI 240

• Ideas and Traditions (one of the following): AFAM 258, 262, 263, 408, 522, 550; AMST 255, 269, 277, 291, 334, 335, 384, 387; COMM 372; ECON 330, 430, 433; EDUC 441; HIST 362, 364, 365, 368, 369, 373, 561, 563, 564, 565, 566, 573, 580, 581, 582, 584, 622, 624; JOMC 448; PHIL 228, 274, 428, 473; PLCY 220; POLI 200, 202, 206, 274, 280, 410, 411, 412; RELI 241, 338, 340, 341, 440, 441, 442, 443; SOCI 468; WMST 375, 560

• Expressive Arts and Popular Culture (one of the following): AFAM 259, 276, 340; AMST 266, 268, 336, 375, 482, 483, 484, 485, 487, 488, 490, 499; ART 161, 287, 387; COMM 573; DRAM 287, 488; ENGL 589; FOLK 560, 610; HIST 125, 579, 625; MUSC 143, 144, 145, 147, 281; RELI 236

• Regionalism, Transnationalism, and the Public Sphere (one of the following): AFAM 252, 278, 280, 285, 293, 297, 371, 474; AMST 210, 211, 259, 275, 277, 285, 378, 385, 387, 394 and 394L, 398, 410, 486, 488; ANTH 205; ART 487; ASIA 452; COMM 374, 573; ENGL 315, 578; FOLK 340; GEOG 228, 260, 261, 262, 454; HIST 232, 233, 278, 281, 366, 367, 374, 534, 568, 570, 577, 586, 587; JOMC 242; PLAN 550, 585; PLCY 249, 361; POLI 231, 405, 418, 443, 456, 459; SOCI 115, 468

• Ethnicity and Diversity (one of the following): AFAM 190, 266, 267, 269, 285, 342, 392, 398, 428, 560; AMST 203, 231, 233, 234, 235, 246, 253, 258, 336, 360, 440, 486; ANTH 230, 450; ASIA 350, 455; ENGL 289, 360, 364; HIST 232, 376, 377, 569, 588, 589; JOMC 342; POLI 217, 218, 419; PSYC 467, 503; RELI 141, 142, 242, 243, 342, 423, 445, 540, 580; SLAV 469; WMST 368, 553

B.A. Major in American Studies: American Indian Studies Concentration

Core Requirements

The major in American studies with a concentration in American Indian studies consists of ten courses from the following categories (courses listed more than once can be counted for only one category):

• Introduction: AMST/HIST 110

• Approaches: AMST 203

• History (at least two of the following): AFAM 294; AMST/HIST 231, 233, 235; AMST/HIST/ANTH 234; HIST 232

• Culture (at least two of the following): AMST/ANTH/HIST 234; ANTH 450, 451; ANTH/FOLK 230; HIST/WMST 576

• Literature (at least two of the following): AMST 246, 336, 338, 440

• Two other courses drawn from the above lists

B.A. Major in American Studies: International American Studies Concentration

Core Requirements

The major in American studies with a concentration in international American studies consists of nine courses from the following categories:

• Introduction (one of the following): AMST 101, 334, or 335

• Approaches: AMST 201 or 202

• America in the World (at least one of the following): AFAM 430; AMST 259, 277, 378; CMPL 379; HIST 212, 213, 281, 373, 570, 577; INTS 512; POLI 231, 443, 456, 459

• The World in America (at least one of the following): AFAM 278, 293, 297, 340, 371, 474; AMST 258, 685; ART 487; ASIA 350, 452, 455; ENGL 265, 361, 364, 365, 578; GEOG 452; HIST 278; PLCY 249; POLI 450; RELI 423, 445, 580; SLAV 469

• Students may elect to complete up to four approved American culture courses taken at an American studies international partner institution or other study abroad program. These courses should deal primarily with the United States, or with the interaction between American culture and one or more other cultures, or with the impact within the United States of other cultures. Courses must be approved by the American studies chair or director of undergraduate studies before the study abroad experience.

• If fewer than four courses are taken abroad, the student should increase the number of courses taken at UNC–Chapel Hill from the America in the World and The World in America lists above, to reach a total of nine courses in the major.

B.A. Major in American Studies: Southern Studies Concentration

Core Requirements

The major in American studies with a concentration in Southern studies consists of nine courses, with one from each of the following categories (courses listed more than once can be counted for only one category):

• Introduction (one of the following): AMST 210 or 211

• Core content courses: (at least two of the following): AMST 210, 211; AMST/FOLK 488; ANTH 205; ANTH/FOLK 340; COMM 374; ENGL 373, 673; ENGL/FOLK 587; FOLK 560; FOLK/HIST 571; GEOG 261; HIST 586, 587, JOMC 458; PLCY 249; SOCI 115

• Thematic courses (at least five other courses; choose at least two from each of the following two lists):

• History and Social Sciences: AFAM 258, 280, 294, 371, 550; AMST 259, 275, 394, 398, 486; AMST/FOLK 488; ANTH 205; GEOG 261, 262; HIST 232, 278, 366, 367, 376, 377, 378, 565, 568, 569, 586, 587, 621, 670; JOMC 458; PLCY 249; POLI 405, 419H; SOCI 115

• Art and Expressive Culture: AFAM/ANTH/FOLK/RELI 342; AFAM/ART 287, 387, 487; AFAM/FOLK 610; ANTH/ENGL/FOLK 202; ANTH/FOLK 340; COMM 374; ENGL 367, 368, 373, 374, 375, 673; ENGL/FOLK 587, 589; FOLK 560; MUSC 144, 145; RELI 141

• One advanced seminar: AMST 410 Seminar in Southern Studies, or both senior honors thesis courses (AMST 691H and 692H)

Minoring in American Studies

The undergraduate minor in American studies consists of five courses in American studies, with courses chosen one from each of the following categories (courses listed more than once can be counted for only one category):

• Introduction (one of the following): AMST 101, 334, or 335

• Approaches: AMST 201 or 202

• Topics: Three AMST courses numbered above 202

Minoring in American Indian Studies

The minor in American Indian studies consists of five courses. AMST/HIST 110 Introduction to the Cultures and Histories of Native North America is required. Students should select four additional courses from those currently available:

• AFAM 294; AMST 203, 246, 336, 338, 440; AMST/HIST 231, 233, 234, 235; ANTH 450, 451; ANTH/FOLK 230; HIST 232; HIST/WMST 576

Minoring in Folklore

The undergraduate minor in folklore consists of five courses:

• FOLK 202 Introduction to Folklore

• Two of the following courses on genre: ANTH 147, 151; FOLK 334, 375, 470, 484, 487, 502, 550, 560, 571, 585, 610; MUSC 144, 145, 146, 147

• One of the following courses on community: ANTH 142, 155, 205, 226, 234; FOLK 130, 230, 340, 342, 488, 587, 589, 684; MUSC 240

• One of the following courses on theory: ANTH 120; FOLK 323, 428, 429, 435, 454, 455, 473, 525, 537, 562, 565, 670, 675, 688

From time to time, current or visiting faculty will offer additional folklore courses not listed here. The program will post these to the semester’s course listing and will determine on a course-by-course basis which minor requirements each course will fill.

Minoring in International American Studies

The minor in international American studies consists of five courses.

• Introduction (one of the following): AMST 101, 201, 202, 334, 335

• America in the World (at least one of the following): AFAM 430; AMST 259, 277, 378; CMPL 379; HIST 212, 213, 281, 373, 570, 577; INTS 512; POLI 231, 443, 456, 459

• Students may elect to complete up to two approved American culture courses taken at an American studies international partner institution or other study abroad program. These courses should deal primarily with the United States, or with the interaction between American culture and one or more other cultures, or with the impact within the United States of other cultures. Courses must be approved by the American studies chair or director of undergraduate studies before the study abroad experience.

• If fewer than two courses are taken abroad, the student should increase the number of courses from the America in the World and The World in America lists above, to reach a total of five courses in the minor.

Minoring in Southern Studies

Students may minor in Southern studies by completing five courses, including AMST 210 or 211, and four other courses from the core content and thematic offerings listed under the Southern studies concentration.

Honors in American Studies

The American studies interdisciplinary major offers a two-course honors program: AMST 691H in the fall semester and AMST 692H in the spring semester. These courses fulfill the advanced seminar requirement in the Southern studies concentration; they are additional required courses for honors students in the other concentrations. The Folklore Program offers a two-course honors program: FOLK 691H in the fall semester and FOLK 692H in the spring semester for students pursuing an intensive study of folklore through the independently designed interdisciplinary studies major. During the two semesters devoted to honors work, students conduct individual research and prepare an honors thesis under the supervision of a faculty member. Students must maintain a 3.2 grade point average to be eligible. With the approval of the associate or the assistant dean for honors, students with a slightly lower average who have a reasonable expectation of meeting the requirement within one more semester may embark upon the honors thesis, understanding that if they do not attain the 3.2 standard they may continue the research project as independent study but are not eligible to graduate with honors or highest honors.

Special Opportunities in American Studies

Experiential Education

The American studies department offers a seminar on Service Learning in America (AMST 398) and offers credits for approved internship projects (AMST 397). Students have learned about American studies by serving the community in museums, schools, social agencies, and other cultural institutions.

Study Abroad

The Department of American Studies encourages students to consider a semester or more of study abroad and has developed close relations with several American studies programs in different countries. Studying American experience in international contexts is an integral part of understanding the place and influence of the United States in the world. Student learning is enhanced by the perspectives gained by examining how American subjects are taught in universities around the globe as well as by encountering the international students who enroll in American studies courses in Chapel Hill. Study abroad offers students of folklore the opportunity to understand the rich vernacular and traditional cultures of other parts of the world from both a local and a comparative perspective. Students can receive American studies major credit for selected study abroad programs and are encouraged to make study abroad part of their academic plans. Study abroad courses can count toward the international American studies major or minor or the folklore minor. Students interested in this experience should consult with the Study Abroad Office about foreign exchange programs sponsored by UNC–Chapel Hill or with the director of undergraduate studies.

Undergraduate Awards

The department awards the Julia Preston Brumley Travel Scholarship to help fund international travel and study abroad. The Peter C. Baxter Memorial Prize is awarded annually to the outstanding senior majoring in American studies.

Undergraduate Research

The Department offers credit for AMST 396 Independent Study and FOLK 495 Independent Field Research. Majors can develop a two-semester honors thesis project (AMST 691H and 692H) in consultation with an advisor. Students have received summer undergraduate research fellowships, earned research support and travel awards, and presented their work at the Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research each spring.

Graduate School and Career Opportunities

American studies is an excellent liberal arts major for students interested in graduate and professional school study. The major prepares students for graduate work in fields such as American history and literature. After receiving their baccalaureate degree, American studies majors consistently have been accepted in law and business schools, which are interested in students with a broad, interdisciplinary undergraduate background. American studies provides a solid basis for a variety of career choices, including public service, business, teaching, museum curation, and journalism. The folklore minor is a productive component of study for those preparing for graduate school in anthropology, communications studies, journalism, music, and folklore itself—including the master of arts in folklore at UNC–Chapel Hill—as well as for those planning careers in museum curation, public arts presentation, and music production.

Contact Information

Director of Undergraduate Studies, CB# 3520, 227 Greenlaw Hall, (919) 962-4062, fax (919) 962-3520.

AMST

50 First-Year Seminar: American Culture in the Era of Ragtime (3). Interdisciplinary seminar exploring American culture in the first two decades of the 20th century. Material includes film, music, photography, and musical theater as well as fiction and autobiography.

51 First-Year Seminar: Navigating America (3). Analyze American journeys and destinations, focusing on how resources, technology, transportation, and cultural influences have transformed the navigation and documentation of America. Multimedia documentation of personal journey required.

52 First-Year Seminar: The Folk Revival: The Singing Left in 20th-Century America (3). Enlisting fiction, film, and recorded music, this course will acquaint first-year students with the cultural and historical contexts of a range of American traditional musics and explore the social, political, and cultural meanings of these musics in a revivalist movement.

53 First-Year Seminar: The Family and Social Change in America (3). This course uses changes in the American family over the past century as a way of understanding larger processes of social change.

54 First-Year Seminar: The Indians’ New Worlds: Southeastern Histories from 1200 to 1800 (ANTH 54) (3). 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.

55 First-Year Seminar: Birth and Death in the United States (3). 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.

56 First-Year Seminar: Exploring American Memory (3). This course examines the contested and changing role of memory in constructing historical meaning, creating political ideologies, and imagining cultural communities.

57 First-Year Seminar: Access to Higher Education (3). This course explores barriers to access to American colleges and universities. Success in application, admission, matriculation, and graduation requires ability and experience and is also a function of other advantages.

58 First-Year Seminar: Cultures of Dissent: Radical Social Thought in America since 1880 (3). This course examines the history of radical social thought in American history, focusing in particular on examples from “leftist” and “collectivist” traditions, and emphasizes the many forms radicalism has taken by exploring different radical thinkers’ dissenting critiques of dominant political, economic, and social arrangements.

59 First-Year Seminar: Yoga in Modern America: History, Belief, Commerce (3). Examines yoga in American cultural and intellectual history through a range of documents and cultural forms: memoirs, speeches, fiction, biography, letters, and music. Focuses on the meanings ascribed to yoga in the United States and the public and commercial transformations yoga has undergone in different periods of American history.

60 First-Year Seminar: American Indians in History, Law, and Literature (3). This research seminar provides a grounding in American Indian law, history, and literature. Students will conduct research for presentation on Wikipedia.

89 First-Year Seminar: Special Topics (3). Special Topics course. Content will vary each semester.

101 The Emergence of Modern America (3). Interdisciplinary examination of two centuries of American culture, focusing on moments of change and transformation.

110 Introduction to the Cultures and Histories of Native North America (HIST 110) (3). See HIST 110 for description.

201 Literary Approaches to American Studies (3). A study of interdisciplinary methods and the concept of American studies with an emphasis on the historical context for literary texts.

202 Historical Approaches to American Studies (3). A study of interdisciplinary methods and the concept of American studies with an emphasis on historical and cultural analysis.

203 Approaches to American Indian Studies (3). 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.

210 Approaches to Southern Studies: A Historical Analysis of the American South (3). 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.

211 Approaches to Southern Studies: The Literary and Cultural Worlds of the American South (3). 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.

231 Native American History: The East (HIST 231) (3). Covers the histories of American Indians east of the Mississippi River and before 1840. The approach is ethnohistorical.

233 Native American History: The West (HIST 233) (3). See HIST 233 for description.

234 Native American Tribal Studies (ANTH 234, HIST 234) (3). See HIST 234 for description.

235 Native America in the 20th Century (HIST 235) (3). 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.

246 Introduction to American Indian Literatures (3). Students will develop a working knowledge of American Indian cultural concepts and historical perspectives utilizing poetry, history, personal account, short stories, films, and novels.

253 A Social History of Jewish Women in America (JWST 253, WMST 253) (3). 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.

255 Mid-20th-Century American Thought and Culture (3). This course examines topics in the intellectual and cultural history of the United States in the mid-20th century, including issues of race thinking, mass culture, and gender ideologies.

256 Anti-’50s: Voices of a Counter Decade (3). 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.

257 Melville: Culture and Criticism (3). 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.

258 Captivity and American Cultural Definition (3). Examines how representations of captivity and bondage in American expression worked to construct and transform communal categories of religion, race, class, gender, and nation.

259 Tobacco and America (3). 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.

266 The Folk Revival: The Singing Left in Mid-20th-Century America (3). Emphasizing cultural stratification, political dissent, and commercialization in American youth and popular movements, this course will map the evolving political and cultural landscape of mid-20th-century America through the lens of the Folk Revival, from its origins in various regionalist, nativist, and socialist traditions of the 1920s to its alliance with the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s.

268 American Cinema and American Culture. (3). Examines the relationship between cinema and culture in America with a focus on the ways cinema has been experienced in American communities since 1896.

269 Mating and Marriage in American Culture (3). 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.

275 Documenting Communities (3). 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.

277 Globalization and National Identity (3). Considers the meanings and implications of globalization especially in relation to identity, nationhood, and America’s place in the world.

285 Access to Work in America (ECON 285) (3). Focus on systemic and individual factors affecting access to work including gender, race, age, disability, transportation, international competition, technological progress, change in labor markets, educational institutions, and public policy.

286 Nature Writing (ENGL 286) (3). See ENGL 286 for description.

290 Topics in American Studies (3). Special topics in American studies.

291 Ethics and American Studies (3). An interdisciplinary seminar in American studies addressing ethical issues in the United States.

292 Historical Seminar in American Studies (3). Topics in American history from the perspective of American studies.

293 American Studies Junior Seminar Aesthetic Perspective (3). Topics in arts and literature from the perspective of American studies.

334 Defining America I (3). An interdisciplinary seminar that considers the changing understandings of what it meant to be American up through the United States Civil War.

335 Defining America II (3). An interdisciplinary seminar that investigates the changing meanings of being American since the United States Civil War.

336 Native Americans in Film (3). 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.

338 American Indian Novels: Facing East from Indian Country (3). Investigates the centrality of the Native American novel as the premiere site in which non-native (and most native) audiences explore the topic of American Indian culture.

350 Main Street Carolina: A Cultural History of North Carolina Downtowns (3). An introduction to the interdisciplinary scholarly approaches to the physical, social, economic, and cultural developments of downtowns. Students will conduct and share original research.

360 The Jewish Writer in American Life (3). This course will investigate through literature, film, and song the encounter of Eastern European Jews and their descendants with Anglo-Protestant America over four generations.

375 Food in American Culture (FOLK 375) (3). This course will examine the history and meaning of food in American culture and will explore the ways in which food shapes national, regional, and personal identity.

378 Nation Building and National Identity in Australia and the United States (3). This course compares the cultural and social histories of two settler societies, the United States and Australia. Focus on selected topics, including landscape, indigenous peoples, national identity, exploration.

384 Myth and History in American Memory (3). Examines the role of memory in constructing historical meaning and in imagining the boundaries of cultural communities. Explores popular rituals, artifacts, monuments, and public performances.

385 Gender and Economics (ECON 385, WMST 385) (3). See ECON 385 for description.

386 American Families (3). Students research the history of their own families as we examine the history of the family as a social institution in America.

387 Race and Empire in 20th-Century American Intellectual History (3). This upper-level seminar explores influential 20th-century writings on race and empire and colonialism by intellectuals from America and around the world.

390 Seminar in American Studies (3). Seminar in American studies topics with a focus on historical inquiry from interdisciplinary angles.

393 Back to the Future: Chicago, 1893 (3). This course will explore Chicago at the end of the 19th century from the perspective of our own postindustrial, postmodern condition.

394 The University in American Life: The University of North Carolina (3). This team-taught course is for juniors and seniors and is multifaceted in its inquiry into the role of the university in American life. UNC–Chapel Hill is used as the case study.

394L Role of the University (1). Pre- or corequisite, AMST 394. Field laboratory explores UNC–Chapel Hill campus sites and Triangle-area universities. One four-hour laboratory a week.

396 Independent Study in American Studies (3). Permission of the department. Directed reading under the supervision of a faculty member.

397 Internship (1–3). Permission of the department and the instructor. Internship. Variable credit.

398 Service Learning in America (3). Explores history and theory of volunteerism and service learning in America. Includes a weekly academic seminar and placement in a service learning project.

410 Senior Seminar in Southern Studies (3). 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.

440 American Indian Poetry (3). 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.

466 You Are Where You Live: The American House in Critical Perspective (3). This course emphasizes the complexities of human shelter in the United States. We learn housing types, explore their social uses and meanings, and evaluate critical issues, such as affordability and gentrification.

482 Images of the American Landscape (3). This course will consider how real estate speculation, transportation, suburbanization, and consumerism have shaped a landscape whose many representations in art and narrative record our ongoing struggle over cultural meaning.

483 Seeing the U.S.A.: Visual Arts and American Culture (3). 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.

484 Visual Culture (3). 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.

485 Folk, Self-Taught, Vernacular, and Outsider Arts (3). Drawing on American and international examples, this course addresses a body of art that occupies the borderlands of contemporary art, examining questions of authenticity, dysfunction, aesthetics, and identity.

486 Shalom Y’all: The Jewish Experience in the American South (JWST 486) (3). 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.

487 Early American Architecture and Material Life (3). 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.

488 No Place like Home: Material Culture of the American South (FOLK 488) (3). Seminar will explore the unique worlds of Southern material culture and how “artifacts” from barns to biscuits provide insight about the changing social and cultural history of the American South.

490 Writing Material Culture (3). 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.

499 Advanced Seminar in American Studies (3). 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.

685 Literature of the Americas (CMPL 685, ENGL 685) (3). See ENGL 685 for description.

691H Honors in American Studies (3). 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.

692H Honors in American Studies (3). 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.

CHER

101 The Cherokee-Speaking World: “Hadolegwa Tsawonihisdi’i” (3). Students develop basic knowledge of the Cherokee-speaking world. Using linguistic and content-based material, students will learn basic Cherokee.

102 Elementary Cherokee II (3). Prerequisite, CHER 101. Continued audio-lingual practice of basic imperatives, idioms on the imperative stem, verbs of motion and locationals, and basic complement types.

203 Intermediate Cherokee (3). Prerequisite, CHER 102. Review and continuation of oral and written grammar, selected readings, and conversation.

204 Intermediate Cherokee II (3). Prerequisite, CHER 203. Readings and discussions on Cherokee history and culture; emphasis on grammar and conversation.

305 Phonetics and General Linguistics (3). Prerequisite, CHER 204. Introduction to linguistics; the Cherokee sound system from a phonetic and allophonic view; grammatical categories, morphology, syntax.

FOLK

130 Anthropology of the Caribbean (ANTH 130) (3). See ANTH 130 for description.

202 Introduction to Folklore (ANTH 202, ENGL 202) (3). See ENGL 202 for description.

230 American Indian Societies (ANTH 230) (3). See ANTH 230 for description.

323 Magic, Ritual, and Belief (ANTH 323) (3). See ANTH 323 for description.

334 Art, Myth, and Nature: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (ANTH 334) (3). See ANTH 334 for description.

340 Southern Style, Southern Culture (ANTH 340) (4). See ANTH 340 for description.

342 African American Religious Experience (AFAM 342, ANTH 342, RELI 342) (3). See RELI 342 for description.

375 Food in American Culture (AMST 375) (3). See AMST 375 for description.

428 Religion and Anthropology (ANTH 428, RELI 428) (3). See ANTH 428 for description.

429 Culture and Power in Southeast Asia (ANTH 429, ASIA 429) (3). See ANTH 429 for description.

435 Consciousness and Symbols (ANTH 435, CMPL 435) (3). See ANTH 435 for description.

454 Historical Geography of the United States (GEOG 454) (3). See GEOG 454 for description.

455 Method and Theory in Ethnohistoric Research (ANTH 455) (3). See ANTH 455 for description.

470 Medicine and Anthropology (ANTH 470) (3). See ANTH 470 for description.

473 Anthropology of the Body and the Subject (ANTH 473) (3). See ANTH 473 for description.

484 Discourse and Dialogue in Ethnographic Research (ANTH 484, LING 484) (3). See ANTH 484 for description.

487 Folk Narrative (ENGL 487) (3). See ENGL 487 for description.

488 No Place like Home: Material Culture of the American South (AMST 488) (3). See AMST 488 for description.

490 Topics in Folklore (3). Topics vary from semester to semester.

495 Field Research (3). Research at sites that vary.

496 Directed Readings in Folklore (3). Permission of the department. Topic varies depending on the instructor.

502 Myths and Epics of the Ancient Near East (RELI 502) (3). See RELI 502 for description.

525 Culture and Personality (ANTH 525) (3). See ANTH 525 for description.

537 Gender and Performance (ANTH 537, WMST 438) (3). See ANTH 537 for description.

550 Introduction to Material Culture (3). An introduction to material folk culture, exploring the meanings that people bring to traditional arts and the artful creations with which they surround themselves (e.g., architecture, clothing, altars, tools, food).

560 Southern Literature and the Oral Tradition (3). Course considers how Southern writers employ folklore genres such as folk tales, sermons, and music and how such genres provide structure for literary forms like the novel and the short story.

562 Oral History and Performance (COMM 562, HIST 562, WMST 562) (3). See COMM 562 for description.

565 Ritual, Theater, and Performance in Everyday Life (COMM 362) (3). See COMM 362 for description.

571 Southern Music (HIST 571) (3). See HIST 571 for description.

585 British and American Folk Song (ENGL 585) (3). See ENGL 585 for description.

587 Folklore in the South (ENGL 587) (3). See ENGL 587 for description.

589 African American Folklore (ENGL 589) (3). See ENGL 589 for description.

610 Vernacular Traditions in African American Music (AFAM 610) (4). 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.

670 Introduction to Oral History (HIST 670) (3). See HIST 670 for description.

675 Ethnographic Method (ANTH 675) (3). See ANTH 675 for description.

684 Women in Folklore and Literature (ENGL 684, WMST 684) (3). See ENGL 684 for description.

688 Observation and Interpretation of Religious Action (ANTH 688, RELI 688) (3). See ANTH 688 for description.

690 Studies in Folklore (3). Topic varies from semester to semester.

691H Honors Project in Folklore (3). 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.

692H Honors Thesis in Folklore (3). Prerequisite, FOLK 691H. 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.