American Studies and Ethnicity

Return to: USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences  

American Studies and Ethnicity integrates humanistic and social scientific perspectives, and brings them to bear on an examination of the United States with a particular emphasis on comparative study of the peoples, cultures, history and social issues of the Western United States. The department offers four separate majors in American Studies and Ethnicity, African American Studies, Asian American Studies, and Chicano/Latino Studies; and minors in American Studies and Ethnicity, American Popular Culture and Jewish American Studies. The graduate program offers a PhD for students interested in broad interdisciplinary training at an advanced level to study the peoples, cultures and institutions of the United States in courses that integrate modes of inquiry from the humanities and the social sciences. Drawing upon the cultural resources of a cosmopolitan city on the Pacific Rim and upon the strength and diversity of its professional schools as well as departments in the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, these degree programs provide a richly interdisciplinary curriculum that is unique for its constitution of American Studies and Ethnic Studies as comparative and interethnic program that takes as its focus a region — Los Angeles, California and the West — marked by challenging social and cultural changes.

American Studies and Ethnicity offers challenging and diverse opportunities to study the peoples, cultures and institutions of the United States in interdisciplinary courses. Combining the study of history with literature, the arts and the social sciences, American Studies and Ethnicity seeks to bring together these various disciplines and modes of inquiry in a common project: the effort to understand the diverse peoples and cultures that have composed the United States and to provide critical perspectives on the words, deeds, myths and material practices that have shaped this country in its full regional, ethnic, class and gender diversity. An education in American Studies and Ethnicity will be particularly appropriate for students interested in pursuing careers in law, journalism, government, foreign service, social work, international business, public administration and education.

American Studies and Ethnicity is administered by an executive committee comprising the chair, directors of the four majors and other faculty members. In addition to the college academic adviser, the directors of the majors serve as advisers to majors and minors, providing, in conjunction with the sequence of courses, the opportunity for students to undertake an interdisciplinary concentration under close faculty supervision. It is recommended that students meet with the appropriate major director to plan a coherent set of courses to fulfill the major or minor requirements.

3620 S. Vermont Ave., KAP 462
Los Angeles, CA 90089-2534
(213) 740-2426
FAX: (213) 821-0409
Email: aseinfo@dornsife.usc.edu
dornsife.usc.edu/ase
Chair: Nayan Shah, PhD

King Faisal Chair in Islamic Thought and Culture and Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity: Sherman Jackson, PhD (Religion)*

Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change and Professor of Sociology and American Studies and Ethnicity: Manuel Pastor, Jr., PhD* (Sociology)

USC Associates Chair in Humanities: John Carlos Rowe, PhD (English)

Professors: Sarah Banet-Weiser, PhD* (Communication); J. Jack Halberstam, PhD; Dorinne Kondo, PhD (Anthropology); Laura Pulido, PhD; David Román, PhD* (English); George J. Sánchez, PhD*; Nayan B. Shah, PhD

Associate Professors: Judith Jackson Fossett, PhD*; Macarena Gómez-Barris, PhD; Sarah Gualtieri, PhD* (History); Thomas Gustafson, PhD* (English); Stanley Huey, Jr., PhD (Psychology); Lanita Jacobs, PhD* (Anthropology); Kara Keeling, PhD (Cinematic Arts); Joshua David Kun, PhD (Communication); Viet Nguyen, PhD* (English); Shana Redmond, PhD; Francille Rusan Wilson, PhD

Assistant Professor: Chris Finley, PhD; Juan De Lara, PhD

Emeritus Professor: Felix Gutierrez, PhD (Journalism)

*Recipient of university-wide or college teaching award.

Undergraduate Degrees

Honors Program

The program offers a two-semester honors program for qualified students, first identified in AMST 350  or by the program adviser. Students spend their first semester in the program in an honors senior seminar, AMST 492 , focused on developing their research and methods for the honors thesis. During the second semester, all honors students are required to take AMST 493  in which each completes a thesis project on a topic of his or her own choosing under faculty direction. Contact the program adviser for further information. To graduate with honors, program majors must successfully complete an honors thesis and have a minimum GPA of 3.5 in their major course work.

Minor in Critical Approaches to Leadership

See the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies .

Minor in Race, Ethnicity and Politics

See the Department of Political Science .

Graduate Degrees

The major objective of the graduate program in American Studies and Ethnicity is to prepare future faculty with the research and teaching abilities to understand and communicate the diversity of American society and culture. This is accomplished by stressing the importance of an interdisciplinary perspective which integrates social analysis with cultural approaches. The program’s most significant areas of specialization are: (1) the theoretical study of race and ethnicity, particularly as it is constructed through gender, class, sexuality and the state; (2) a regional focus on Los Angeles and the American West; and (3) an emphasis on the study of cultural production in the United States, with particular attention on the theoretical directions and methodological innovations in the interdisciplinary study of American culture.

Admission Requirements

Requirements for admission include: scores satisfactory to the program in the verbal, quantitative and analytical General Test of the Graduate Record Examinations; evidence of competence in writing English and analytical abilities; a satisfactory written statement by the applicant of aims and interests in pursuing interdisciplinary graduate work; letters of recommendation from at least three college instructors; and grades satisfactory to the department earned by the applicant at other institutions.

All applicants are required to take the GRE and submit their complete undergraduate record; at least three letters of recommendation and a statement of purpose should be sent to the director of the program. Applicants are urged to submit written materials as supportive evidence.

Degree Requirements

These degrees are under the jurisdiction of the USC Graduate School. Refer to The Graduate School  section of this catalogue for general regulations. All courses applied toward the degrees must be courses accepted by the Graduate School.

Programs

Bachelor’s Degree

• •  American Studies and Ethnicity (African American Studies) (BA)
• •  American Studies and Ethnicity (Asian American Studies) (BA)
• •  American Studies and Ethnicity (BA)
• •  American Studies and Ethnicity (Chicano/Latino Studies) (BA)

Minor

• •  American Popular Culture Minor
• •  American Studies and Ethnicity Minor
• •  Jewish American Studies Minor

Doctoral Degree

• •  American Studies and Ethnicity (PhD)

Courses

American Studies and Ethnicity

• •  AMST 101gmw Race and Class in Los Angeles
• •  AMST 111g Sex in America
• •  AMST 133g Religions of Latin America
• •  AMST 135 gmw Peoples and Cultures of the Americas
• •  AMST 140 Borderlands in a Global Context
• •  AMST 150gw The American War in Viet Nam
• •  AMST 200gm Introduction to American Studies and Ethnicity
• •  AMST 201g LGBTQ America
• •  AMST 202m Interethnic Diversity in the West
• •  AMST 206m The Politics and Culture of the 1960s
• •  AMST 220gmw The Making of Asian America
• •  AMST 230g Introduction to African American Studies
• •  AMST 240 gm Collective Identity and Political Violence: Representing 9/11
• •  AMST 242gm Social Responses to Disaster
• •  AMST 250gmw The African Diaspora
• •  AMST 252 gmw Black Social Movements in the U.S.
• •  AMST 274gmw Exploring Ethnicity through Film
• •  AMST 285gm African American Popular Culture
• •  AMST 301gp America, the Frontier, and the New West
• •  AMST 320 Social Construction of Race and Citizenship
• •  AMST 328 Asian American Politics
• •  AMST 330m Black Music and the Political Imagination
• •  AMST 332m Post-Civil Rights Black America
• •  AMST 333 Religion in the Borderlands
• •  AMST 336 Re-Viewing Religion in Asian America
• •  AMST 337m Islam in Black America: From Slavery to Hip Hop
• •  AMST 340m Latina/o LA
• •  AMST 342m Law and Identities
• •  AMST 344m Islamic Law and American Society
• •  AMST 348m Race and Environmentalism
• •  AMST 350 Junior Seminar in American Studies and Ethnicity: Theories and Methods
• •  AMST 353m Race and Racism in the Americas
• •  AMST 357m Latino Social Movements
• •  AMST 364 m African American Art
• •  AMST 365 Leadership in the Community — Internship
• •  AMST 366 m Chicana and Latina Sociology
• •  AMST 373m History of the Mexican American
• •  AMST 375 m Asian Americans: Ethnic Identity
• •  AMST 376 m Contemporary Issues in Asian American Communities
• •  AMST 378m Introduction to Asian American History
• •  AMST 379 Arabs in America
• •  AMST 380 American Popular Culture
• •  AMST 382 America and the World: Japan Case Study
• •  AMST 383 Jews in American Popular Culture
• •  AMST 385 African American Culture and Society
• •  AMST 389m Carceral Geographies
• •  AMST 390 Special Problems
• •  AMST 392 Undergraduate Research Methods
• •  AMST 395m African American Humor and Culture
• •  AMST 414 Latina/o Screen Cultures
• •  AMST 420 Sociology of Violence
• •  AMST 424 m Political Participation and American Diversity
• •  AMST 428 Latino Politics
• •  AMST 432 m Racial and Ethnic Relations in a Global Society
• •  AMST 442 American Literature, 1920 to the Present
• •  AMST 444 m Native American Literature
• •  AMST 445 African American Anthropology
• •  AMST 446 Cultural Circuits in the Americas
• •  AMST 448m Chicano and Latino Literature
• •  AMST 449m Asian American Literature
• •  AMST 452m Race, Gender and Sexuality
• •  AMST 456 m People of Color and the News Media
• •  AMST 458 m Race and Ethnicity in Entertainment and the Arts
• •  AMST 464 m Latino News Media in the United States
• •  AMST 465 Studies in American Art
• •  AMST 466m The Psychology of African Americans
• •  AMST 475 m Blackness in American Visual Culture
• •  AMST 483 Religion and Popular Culture in the United States
• •  AMST 490x Directed Research
• •  AMST 492 Research Methods in American Studies and Ethnicity
• •  AMST 493 Senior Honors Thesis in American Studies and Ethnicity
• •  AMST 498 Senior Seminar in American Studies and Ethnicity
• •  AMST 499 Special Topics
• •  AMST 500 Introduction to American Studies and Ethnicity
• •  AMST 509 Key Topics in Linguistic Anthropology
• •  AMST 510 Readings in Chicano/Latino Studies
• •  AMST 519 Indigenous, Decolonial and Transhemispheric American Studies
• •  AMST 520 Readings in Asian American Studies
• •  AMST 522 Transpacific History
• •  AMST 525 Seminar in American Art
• •  AMST 530 Readings in African American Studies
• •  AMST 543 Critical Studies in Whiteness
• •  AMST 552 Archives and Subcultures
• •  AMST 553 Race, Gender and Sexuality
• •  AMST 554 Readings in Chicano/Latino History
• •  AMST 560 Readings on Race and Ethnicity
• •  AMST 562 The Practice of Ethnography
• •  AMST 570 Readings on Los Angeles and Urban Culture
• •  AMST 572 Quantitative Methods for a Diverse Society
• •  AMST 580 Readings in Cultural Studies
• •  AMST 585 Topics in Cultural Theory
• •  AMST 586 Utopia and Dystopia
• •  AMST 590 Directed Research
• •  AMST 593 Practicum in Teaching the Liberal Arts: American Studies
• •  AMST 599 Special Topics
• •  AMST 610 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar in Chicano/Latino Studies
• •  AMST 622 Research Seminar on Transpacific Studies
• •  AMST 630 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar: African American Studies
• •  AMST 660 Interdisciplinary Research Seminar in Race and Ethnicity
• •  AMST 662 Research Seminar in Comparative Ethnic Studies