Undergraduate Minors

Minor in American Studies & Ethnicity

For the minor in American Studies and Ethnicity, five courses in American Studies and Ethnicity, or courses certified for American Studies and Ethnicity credit, are required. The five courses must be distributed as follows: two core requirement courses and three additional elective courses chosen from the courses certified in American Studies and Ethnicity at the 300 level or above.

Core requirements

Units

AMST 200

Introduction to American Studies and Ethnicity

4

AMST 350

Junior Seminar in American Studies and Ethnicity: Theories and Methods

4

Upper division elective courses

Units

Three courses from the American Studies and Ethnicity major lists, at the 300 level or higher. No more than one course in the minor may be taken outside the College.

Minor in American Popular Culture

The interdisciplinary minor in American Popular Culture helps students to assess from a variety of perspectives the icons and ideas they encounter every day, to think critically about the images and assertions of the mass media and commercial culture, and to see the experience of popular culture as it interacts with questions of gender and ethnicity in the American context. Students choose five classes, including one upper-division elective, from a curriculum organized to explore: critical approaches to popular culture; gender and ethnicity in American popular culture; and popular culture in the arts. Twenty units are required, 4 at the lower-division and 16 at the upper-division level.

Lower division requirements

Units

Choose one course (4 units)

AMST 150

The American War in Viet Nam 

4

AMST 205

Introduction to American Popular Culture

4

AMST 206

The Politics and Culture of the 1960s

4

AMST 274

Exploring Ethnicity through Film 

4

AMST 285

African American Popular Culture

4

upper division requirements

Units

Choose four courses (16 units), at least one from each of the groups below.


Critical Approaches to Popular Culture: choose one (4 units)

AMST 301

America, the Frontier, and the New West

4

COLT 365

Literature and Popular Culture

4

COMM 384

Interpreting Popular Culture

4

ENGL 392

Visual and Popular Culture

4

HIST 380

American Popular Culture

4


Gender and Ethnicity in American Popular Culture: choose one (4 units)

AMST 357

Latino Social Movements

4

AMST 365

Leadership in the Community -- Internship

4

AMST 385

African American Culture and Society

4

AMST 395

African American Humor and Culture

4

AMST 448

Chicano and Latino Literature

4

AMST 449

Asian American Literature

4

ANTH 445

African American Anthropology

4

GESM 130

Seminar in Social Analysis

4


Popular Culture in the Arts: choose one (4 units)

AHIS 363

Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Contemporary Art

4

AHIS 370

Modern Art III: 1940 to the Present

4

AMST 305

Art and Performance in the Americas

4

CTCS 392

History of the American Film, 1925-50

4

CTCS 393

History of the American Film, 1946-75

4

CTCS 394

History of the American Film, 1977-Present

4

ENGL 375

Science Fiction

4

HIST 481

Producing Film Histories 4

MUSC 320

Hip-Hop Music and Culture 

4

MUSC 373

Writing About Popular Music  4

MUSC 422

The Beatles: Their Music and Their Times

4

MUSC 460

Film Music: History and Function from 1930 to the Present

4

MUSC 465

Music, Television and American Culture 

4


Electives (4 units)

Choose one additional upper-division course from the lists above, in a department you have not already chosen for the minor.

Minor in Jewish American Studies

Jewish American Studies is a multidisciplinary program designed to provide students with a critical understanding of the historical, cultural, social, political, and religious experience of Jewish Americans, with a particular emphasis on the development and culture of Jewish communities in California and the West, as well as on both historical and contemporary effects of global issues on American Jewish communities. By drawing upon courses in American Studies and by emphasizing comparative as well as interdisciplinary study, this program offers training in the analytical tools and methods of interpretation appropriate for studying the American Jewish experience in its particularity, and ethnic and cultural study in general. The program is particularly appropriate for students interested in integrating studies in the humanities and social sciences, and for students preparing to work and interact with diverse communities and cultures in the United States and abroad in such fields as education, human services, business, journalism, and public administration.
Successful completion of 20 units in American Studies and Judaic Studies are required to qualify for the minor.

core requirements

Units

AMST 202

Interethnic Diversity in the West

4

JS 300

American Jewish History

4


Three courses from the following:

AMST 301

America, the Frontier, and the New West

4

AMST 350

Junior Seminar in American Studies and Ethnicity: Theories and Methods

4

JS 330

Jewish Power, Powerlessness, and Politics in the Modern Era

4

JS 381

The Jew in American Society

4

JS 382

Judaism as an American Religion

4

JS 383

Jews in American Popular Culture

4

JS 415

The American Jewish Experience in Film

4

JS 428

Blacks and Jews: Conflicts and Alliances

4

  • Department of American Studies & Ethnicity
  • University of Southern California
  • 3620 South Vermont Avenue
  • Kaprielian Hall 462
  • Los Angeles, California 90089-2534