AMST

Subject

AMST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

cdn.carleton.edu

This overview of the “interdisciplinary discipline” of American Studies will focus on the ways American Studies engages with and departs from other scholarly fields of inquiry. We will study the stories of those who have been marginalized in the social, political, cultural, and economic life of the United States due to their class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, citizenship, and level of ability. We will explore contemporary American Studies concerns like racial and class formation, the production of space and place, the consumption and circulation of culture, and transnational histories. Sophomore Priority section is available Offered: Fall 2025, Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: CL: 100 level HIST Pertinent Courses CCST Seeing and Being Cross-Cultural EDUC 2 Social Cultural Context HIST United States Faculty: Christopher Elias · Adriana Estill

Subject

AMST

Credits (min)

6

Credits (max)

6

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

cdn.carleton.edu

Popular culture and mass media serve as key sites of identity formation. In this course we will examine U.S. Latinx identity formation by focusing on three case studies: Selena Quintanilla, the singer; telenovelas; and the Disney films Coco and Encanto. These case studies will help us explore how transnationalism, intergenerational knowledge and trauma, and civic and cultural belonging contribute to the shaping of U.S. Latinx collective identities. We will attend to the particular processes of production and reception as we study how audiences engage with cultural producers both in private and in public (notably on social media). Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: AMST Democracy Activism CL: 100 level AMST Production Consumption of Culture AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity

Subject

AMST

Credits (min)

6

Credits (max)

6

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

cdn.carleton.edu

Subject

AMST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

cdn.carleton.edu

offered 2025-26)

Subject

AMST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

cdn.carleton.edu

Subject

AMST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

cdn.carleton.edu

Before Chicago as we know it today existed, many Indigenous nations had long standing relationships with this place. They knew it as Zhegagoynak, Gaa-zhigaagwanzhikaag, Zhigaagong, Šikaakonki, Shekâkôheki, Sekakoh, and Guušge honak, among others. This course emerges from four years of community-engaged curriculum development and examines Chicago histories through five themes: Chicago's lands and environment, Chicago as a Native place, Chicago as a place of convergence, activism and resistance in Chicago, and community-driven education movements in Chicago. Drawing from History, American Studies, Education, and Indigenous Studies, students will also examine how research and curricula can center Indigenous perspectives and sources. Not offered in 2025-26 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies Tags: AMST Space and Place CL: 200 level AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity DGAH Cross Disciplinary Collaboration HIST United States

Subject

AMST

Credits (min)

6

Credits (max)

6

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

cdn.carleton.edu

Subject

AMST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

cdn.carleton.edu

Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island and the Pacific Islands are fighting to revitalize Indigenous languages, uphold tribal sovereignty, and combat violence against Indigenous women, among many other struggles. This course shines a light on contemporary Indigenous activism and investigates social justice through the lens of Indian Country, asking questions like: What tools are movements using to promote Indigenous resurgence? And what are the educational, gendered, environmental, linguistic, and religious struggles to which these movements respond? Students will acquire an understanding of contemporary Indigenous movements, the issues they address, and the responsibilities of non-Native people living on Indigenous lands. Offered: Fall 2025 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies Tags: AMST Democracy Activism CL: 200 level AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity DGAH Cross Disciplinary Collaboration Faculty: Meredith McCoy

Subject

AMST

Credits (min)

6

Credits (max)

6

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

cdn.carleton.edu

What does it mean to be an American and how has that definition changed over time? This course examines how individual Americans have explored the relationship between their selves and their country’s recent history. We will read memoirs and autobiographies to explore American identities through a variety of lenses, including race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, citizenship status, region, and ability. Key texts will include works by Alison Bechdel, Audre Lorde, Malcolm X, and Mine Okubo. Offered: Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies Tags: AMST Democracy Activism AMST Space and Place CL: 200 level AMST

Subject

AMST

Credits (min)

6

Credits (max)

6

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

cdn.carleton.edu

Subject

AMST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

cdn.carleton.edu

A critical examination of the history of capital punishment in the United States, including its origins, development, and current status. Students will engage with broad questions and themes related to the death penalty, including its legal intricacies, religious implications, ethical components, racial and class dynamics, and political meanings. Multiple disciplinary lenses will be applied to a variety of texts, including history, journalism, memoir, court decisions, and documentary film. Offered: Fall 2025 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2 Tags: AMST Democracy Activism CL: 200 level AMST Race Ethnicity Indigeneity Faculty: Christopher Elias

Subject

AMST

Credits (min)

6

Credits (max)

6

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

cdn.carleton.edu

Subject

AMST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

cdn.carleton.edu

Subject

AMST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

cdn.carleton.edu

Subject

AMST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

cdn.carleton.edu

Subject

AMST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

cdn.carleton.edu

the deep dive into methodology that this class provides, it is also a key part of our community building.

Subject

AMST

Credits (min)

6

Credits (max)

6

Credit unit

credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

cdn.carleton.edu

This junior seminar for AMST majors studies AIDS in America as a means of preparing students to write their own research papers. The AIDS crisis made deep impact on various areas of American society, resulting in a robust, interdisciplinary discourse about the pandemic’s origins, scope, impact, and legacy. We will utilize a variety of media, including poetry, music, memoir, fiction, oral history, film, visual art, performance art, and scholarship. Using the tools of inquiry encountered in this class and throughout their work in the major, students will then prepare an original research paper on a topic of their choice. Offered: Spring 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: HI, Humanistic Inquiry IDS, Intercultural Domestic Studies WR2 Writing Requirement 2 or better. Tags: CL: 300 level Faculty: Christopher Elias

Subject

AMST

Credits (min)

6

Credits (max)

6

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

cdn.carleton.edu

Prerequisite

Student has completed any of the following course(s): AMST 115 with grade of C-

This seminar introduces advanced skills in American Studies research, focusing on the shaping and proposing of a major research project. Through a combination of class discussion, small group work and presentations, and one-on-one interactions with the professor, majors learn the process of imaging, creating, and preparing independent interdisciplinary projects as well as the interconnections of disparate scholarly and creative works. Offered: Fall 2025 Grading: S/CR/NC Credits: 3 Liberal Arts Requirements: No Exploration or better. Faculty: Michael McNally

Subject

AMST

Credits (min)

3

Credits (max)

3

Credit unit

credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

cdn.carleton.edu

This seminar focuses on advanced skills in American Studies research, critical reading, writing, and presentation. Engagement with one scholarly talk, keyed to the current year’s comps exam theme, will be part of the course. Through a combination of class discussion, small group work and presentations, and one-on-one interactions with the professor, majors learn the process of crafting and supporting independent interdisciplinary arguments, no matter which option for comps they are pursuing. Students also will learn effective strategies for peer review and oral presentation. Offered: Winter 2026 Liberal Arts Requirements: No Exploration or better. Faculty: Michael McNally

Subject

AMST

Credits (min)

3

Credits (max)

3

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

cdn.carleton.edu

Prerequisite

Student has completed any of the following course(s): AMST 345 with a grade of C-

The American Studies comprehensive exercise takes place over Fall and Winter terms and is a colloquium process that yields an individual 12-15 pp essay and a collaborative, public facing presentation. Offered: Winter 2026 Grading: S/NC American Studies major and has Senior Priority. Faculty: Michael McNally

Subject

AMST

Credits (min)

3

Credits (max)

3

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

cdn.carleton.edu

Prerequisite

Student must have completed AMST 396 with a grade of C- or better AND is an