• Advisement
• Requirements for the Major
• Requirements for the Minor
• Double Majoring
• Sample Academic Plan
• Credential Programs for Prospective Teachers
• CSUF Career Planning & Placement Center
• What Do You Do with It?
Advisement
Majors and minors should always remember to see a faculty
adviser once a semester to plan course work for the upcoming
semester.
Any full-time faculty member in the department can serve as an adviser.
The American Studies department office can tell you any
faculty member's office hours. The department office is
located in
UH-313, or can be reached by phone at (657) 278-2441. Or,
you can click on a faculty member's name on the faculty listing page to see their
office hours for the current semester.
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American Studies Major
The 36-unit undergraduate major requires 12 units of American
Studies core courses and 24 elective units in American
Studies and related fields. Another way to think of these
36 units
is to imagine your normal progress through the program.
In this sense, it is best to think of the program as consisting
of a "beginning," a "middle," and an "end".
The "beginning" consists of two required
core courses, AMST 201 (Introduction to American Studies) and
AMST 301 (The
American Character) which, taken together, introduce the
student to the major approaches we adopt in the study of American
cultures.
The "middle" portion of the student's
progress through the major consists of nine three-unit courses.
One of these nine is a required core course, AMST 350
(Theory & Method
of American Studies), which examines the history of the American
Studies movement, the culture concept , and the major methodologies
used in the discipline. Since this course is designed both
to help students put together what they have learned so far
and to deepen their understanding for coursework to come, they
are encouraged to schedule taking AMST 350 midway through the "middle" portion
of their progress through the major.
The remaining eight courses are electives, which the
major selects in consultation with a faculty adviser.
All faculty
perform this advisement function. Students may take
all eight electives in American Studies courses or
they may
include
up to four courses from other departments.
Students who choose to include courses from other departments
must follow one of two plans in selecting those courses,
a "theme
approach" or a "disciplines approach." Whichever
plan is followed, all non- American Studies coursework
must be substantive rather than skill or how-to courses
and must
have an American focus or a cross-cultural focus involving
America.
If they follow the theme approach, students determine
a concentration or theme, such as gender, popular culture,
regionalism, law
and society, or urban studies. All courses taken outside
American Studies must be upper-division and must fit
this
concentration
or theme.
If they follow the disciplines approach, students may
take upper-division courses from one or two other disciplines,
such as Afro-Ethnic studies, anthropology, art, Chicano
studies, communications, criminal justice, English,
geography, history,
political science, psychology, radio-tv-film, or sociology.
They must take at least two courses in any one discipline.
The "end" consists of our a required
core course, AMST 401T (Proseminar in American Studies)
which serves as
a capstone to the student's work as a major.
AMST 401T is a variable topic course. Recent
(and likely future) topics have included Mark Twain's
America, Nature and Culture, Sexual Orientations, American Culture through Social Science, Reading the City, and Adolescent America. Students in AMST 401T
conduct
individual research
projects on some aspect of the common topic, drawing
on subject matter understandings and methodological
approaches which
they studied during the "middle" portion
of their progression through the major.
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American Studies Minor
The 21-unit undergraduate minor requires 9 units
of American Studies core courses and 12 elective units, three
of which
may be in a related field.
The 9-unit required core consists
of:
9 units must be upper-division courses. That is, 3 units
may be lower division, for example, AMST 101 - Introduction
to
American Culture Studies.
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Double
Majoring
You might want to consider pursuing coursework in American
Studies as part of a double major. You can double count
12 units in another major, applying those units to degree
requirements
in both American Studies and the other major.
Approximately 20% of American Studies majors
are double majors. The most common double majors combine
American
Studies with
Communications, History, or Political Science.
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CSUF
Career
Center
Visit the Career Center's web site.
You can gain access to information about campus
interviews and all job listings. Want a more personal approach? Stop by the Career Center in LH-208 or call (714) 278-3121.
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What
Do You Do With It?
Besides providing a rich liberal arts education, training
in American Studies develops skills in writing and analysis
and strengthens the ability to recognize connections among
complex materials and diverse phenomena. American Studies
graduates obtain careers in business, communications, government
service, law, social services, and teaching. The major
is
also a fine background for graduate work in the field or
in related fields.
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