AMST 101D United States History, 1492-1865

Credit: 0.5

This course is a thematic survey of United States history from European conquest through the Civil War. Through lectures, discussions, and readings, students will examine the nation's colonial origin, the impact of European conquest of the native peoples, the struggle for national independence, and the formation of a national government. The second half of the course will focus on the making of a modern nation. Topics will include the expansion of the market economy, chattel slavery, and the factory system. The course will also look at early urbanization, the rise of egalitarianism, religious movements, the first women's movements, and the defeat of the southern secessionist movement. No prerequisites. This course is the same as HIST 101D in the history curriculum.

Instructor: Scott

AMST 102D United States History, 1865-Present

Credit: 0.5

This course is a thematic survey of the United States from the end of the Civil War to the present. Students will examine the transformation of the United States from a rural, largely Protestant society into a powerful and culturally diverse, urban/industrial nation. Topics will include constitutional developments, the formation of a national economy, urbanization, and immigration. The course will also discuss political changes, the secularization of public culture, the formation of the welfare state, World War I, World War II, the Cold War, and the Vietnam War as well as suburbanization, the civil rights movement, women's and gay rights, and the late twentieth-century conservative-politics movement and religious revival. No prerequisites. This course is the same as HIST 102D in the history curriculum.

Instructor: Scott

AMST 108 Introduction to American Studies

Credit: 0.5

This course introduces students to the principles of American studies through the exploration of American history and culture in the 1960s. We will seek to understand the nature of American society in that critical period through the study of the struggle for political reform, the role of women, the civil rights movement, and the counter-culture. Guest lectures, films, and student presentations complement the course, and students will be asked to engage actively in its development. No prerequisites. Enrollment is limited to twenty, with preference to first-year students.

AMST 109 American Art and Culture, 1900-1945

Credit: 0.5

In this course, we will study visual culture in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century. We will look at art, architecture, and popular media within a broad cultural context in relation to film, literature, history, and politics. We will explore such themes as the search for an American identity, the issue of cultural nationalism, the interaction between European modernism and a native realist tradition, and the relationship among art, politics, and social activism. In so doing, we will employ an American studies interdisciplinary model by focusing on a number of artifacts, such as the Armory Show, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Gambier Post Office mural. This course is cross-listed in the Department of Art and Art History. No prerequisite.

Instructor: Dabakis

AMST 110 August Wilson and Black Pittsburgh

Credit: 0.5

The great African American playwright, August Wilson, set his cycle of plays in Pittsburgh's one dynamic neighborhood, the Hill. This seminar will read a series of Wilson's plays, including "Joe Turner's Come and Gone", "The Piano Lesson", and "Fences", and locate them in time and place in African-American history. This course is for first year students with AP or KAP credit in American History or American Studies and a critical aspect of the course will be a three-day field work experience in the Hill District of Pittsburgh. Permission of the instructor.

Instructor: Rutkoff

AMST 191 Special Topic

Credit: 0.5

AMST 200D Liberal Democracy in America

Credit: 0.5

The course explores the guiding principles, major institutions, and national politics of the American political order. The Founders' view of liberal democracy and of the three branches of our government (presented in the Federalist Papers) will provide the basis for consideration of the modern Supreme Court, presidency, bureaucracy, Congress, news media, and political parties and elections. The course concludes with Tocqueville's broad overview of American democracy and its efforts to reconcile liberty and equality. The themes of the course will be illustrated by references to current political issues, events, and personalities. Prerequisite: sophomore standing or permission of the instructor. Offered every year. This course is the same as PSCI 220D, listed in the political science curriculum.

AMST 227D American Art to 1865

Credit: 0.5

This course presents an overview of painting, sculpture, and architecture from colonial times to 1865. It frames the development of American art and architecture within a broad socio-historical context and addresses many of the issues pertinent to American studies. The following questions, among others, will be addressed in the course: Does American culture have a single, identifiable character? How have Americans reconciled their uneasy relationship with European culture? How have American political values, such as freedom, liberty, and democracy, informed the cultural expression of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries? Prerequisite: ARHS 111 or AMST 108 or equivalent. This course is the same as ARHS 227D in the art history curriculum.

AMST 229D Social Movements

Credit: 0.5

This mid-level course will examine social movements as attempts to bring about social change through collective action. The major goals of the course are: (1) to acquaint students with the sociological literature on social movements; (2) to examine the development, life cycle, and impact of several important social movements in the United States; (3) to examine issues of race, class, and gender within social movements; and (4) to develop students' skills in thinking sociologically about social discontent and social change. Substantively the course focuses primarily on U.S. social movements from the 1960s through today. This course also includes a service-learning component. Each student will work with a community agency two to three hours per week. Prerequisite: introductory sociology course or permission of instructor. This course is the same as SOCY 229D, listed in the sociology curriculum, and may be counted toward the major in American studies.

AMST 291 Special Topic

Credit: 0.5

AMST 302D The History of Jazz

Credit: 0.5

The most fascinating thing about jazz is its vitality. Jazz remains today what it has been since its inception: an art form of intense personal expression in the context of collaborative improvisation. This course is a social and stylistic investigation of the history of jazz, from its African-American origins up to the present. Progressing chronologically, students will investigate through a variety of sources the main jazz styles and musicians and their development and influence upon the jazz scene. Prerequisite: MUSC 101 (or placement by exam) and either 102 or 103. Declared American studies majors may enroll in this course with only MUSC 101 as prerequisite, though 102 or 103 are recommended. Offered every other year. This course is the same as MUSC 302D in the music curriculum.

AMST 314 American College and University Architecture

Credit: 0.5

College and university campuses, from picturesque Gothic and Georgian wonderlands to the starkly modern and utilitarian assemblages of more recent years, have long been a source of fascination for Americans. They play a large role in the romantic ideal of college life, they evoke images of privilege or openness, and they are increasingly seen as a sales tool by marketers. If we look beyond the most superficial aspects of campuses, though, their physical appearances can reveal a great deal about an institution's history, its goals and philosophy, even its relative place in the nation's higher-education hierarchy. This course will look at a variety of campuses and campus types-urban, suburban, and rural, public and private, old and new-and end with a class project involving development of an ideal campus. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.

Instructor: Stamp

AMST 378D Topics in American Art

Credit: 0.5

This advanced seminar will explore topics and issues of the study of American art and architecture. Topics covered may range from the women of Rome to African-American women artists to memory and commemorations: cross-cultural perspectives. Assignments will include seminar reports, class discussion, and a research paper. Prerequisite: .5 unit of Art History (ARHS 111, 227, 231) or American studies (AMST 108, 109) or equivalent. This course is the same as ARHS 378D, in the art history curriculum.

AMST 381 Senior Seminar In American Studies

Credit: 0.5

The course will provide a setting for guided student advanced work in American studies. The participants will work collaboratively to assist one another in the development of individual resarch projects that represent the synthesis of the six courses they have crafted for the major in American studies. The course is required of all American studies senior majors and concentrators. Prerequisite: permission of instructor.

Instructor: Rutkoff

AMST 382 Baseball and American Culture

Credit: 0.5

This course will look at the wide range of representations of the national game in American culture. The course will examine literature, poetry, and drama as well as the visual arts as a way of understanding the power of baseball on our cultural imagination. The seminar will focus on group discussion, collaborative presentations, and individual analysis. Students may take the course for credit in American studies or English. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.

Instructor: Rutkoff

AMST 391 Special Topic

Credit: 0.5

AMST 401 Framing Intellectual Property

Credit: 0.5

Digital copying and internet file-sharing have given rise to a heated national debate over the ownership of art and ideas. On the one hand, we have the film and recording industries aggressively protecting and enlarging their holdings; on the other, we have a range of open-source initiatives, not just in software but in cultural production generally (as with, for example, scholars, scientists, and artists who post their work for free on the internet). The particulars of this contest are new, but its roots are very old, going back at least to the seventeenth-century, when publishers and governments first attempted to strike a balance between private incentive and the public good. Students in this seminar will trace the history of such attempts from their beginnings into the present; special emphasis will fall on how the founding generation in the United States imagined the circulation of knowledge. Through this history, students will become familiar with the several frames of reference within which this cultural debate has been held; they will thus explore the philosophical, economic, legal, and ethical issues that surround what has come to be called "intellectual property." Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. Offered every two or three years.

Instructor: Hyde

AMST 493 Individual Study

Credit: 0.5

Independent study in American studies requires the submission of a student created course of study with regular due-dates for written or presented work, regular meetings with the student's faculty member, and a public presentation at the end of the semester.

AMST 497Y Senior Honors Project

Credit: 0.5

The Honors Program in American studies entails a two-semester sequence of independent work integral to the elective-study program in the major, taken during the senior year. Prerequisite: permission of the American studies faculty.

Instructor: Rutkoff

AMST 498Y Senior Honors Project

Credit: 0.5

See the description for AMST497Y.

Instructor: Rutkoff

AMST 89 Summer American Studies

Credit: 0.25

AMST 99 Writing the Humanities

Credit: 0.25