Coordinator: Frances Pohl
Steering Committee: Jennifer Friedlander, Frances Pohl, Tomas Summers Sandoval, Valorie Thomas
Administrative Assistant: Anne Tessier
The purpose of the American Studies major is to give students a comprehensive understanding of American culture both in the past and present. An interdisciplinary program combining work in the humanities, social sciences, and the arts, it offers courses ranging from Race and Ethnicity in the United States and Religion, Magic, and Science in Early America to Social History of North American Art: The Twentieth Century and History of Jazz.
American Studies encourages students to think creatively and critically about American culture. The greatest strength of the major is its flexibility. Each year the course American Culture is team-taught by two or three professors from different fields, including English, history, art history, music, and sociology. The class covers consumer culture, the frontier, religious conservatism, and civil rights, using fiction, film, works of art and historical texts to identify what is distinctive about American culture and to appreciate its diversity. Each year, an American Studies seminar is offered for majors in which students are introduced to theoretical problems in an interdisciplinary field of study. Required classes in literature and history form a foundation on which to build an individual program of study. The faculty maintains a close advising relationship with majors, and students may take courses from faculty at the other Claremont Colleges. Most American Studies majors choose to study abroad.
Students Visit Judith Baca's mural "The Great Wall of Los Angeles"
Visit the 5-College American Studies Web Site at the Scripps College Web Site.
