Undergraduate | Postgraduate |
The Programme in American Studies provides an interdisciplinary approach to the study of American culture and civilization. Students must gain admittance to the programme by taking AMER1050 Foundations of American Studies, I: The origins of the nation (6 credits) in the first year to qualify for a major or a minor. Although students should make every effort to take this course in their first year, they may take it in the second year as overload if they have not registered for it before.
AMER1009. Consuming culture: decoding American symbols
AMER1011. Born in the USA: U.S. youth cultures
AMER1015. Wall Street: Issues in American Business
AMER1050. Foundations of American Studies, I: The origins of the nation
MAJOR
In order to ensure reasonable coverage and interdisciplinary understanding, students who intend to pursue a major in American Studies must, in their second and third years, take a minimum of 54 credits from the list below. Only in exceptional cases may a waiver be granted for a core course.
3 American Studies Core Courses (18 credits)
AMER2021. On the road again: Field trip in American Studies (6 credits)
AMER2050. Foundations of American Studies, II: Reconstructing the nation (6 credits)
AMER3050. Foundations of American Studies, III: Capstone (6 credits)
6 Courses from the following list of American Studies and departmental offerings (36 credits)
American Studies
AMER2002. The road in American culture (6 credits)
AMER2014. A dream in the heart: varieties of Asian American culture (6 credits)
AMER2015. The American city (6 credits)
AMER2018. Show me the money: doing business with Americans (6 credits)
AMER2022. What’s on TV? Television and American culture (6 credits)
AMER2029. Current perspectives on the U.S. (6 credits)
AMER2033. Asia on America’s screen (6 credits)
AMER2035. Addicted to war? The US at home and abroad (6 credits)
AMER2037. Institutions in American life: home, education, work and play (6 credits)
AMER2038. American film, from Golden-Age Hollywood to New Hollywood and beyond (6 credits)
AMER2039. The art of crime and its detection in the United States (6 credits)
AMER2046. Legal fictions: United States citizenship and the right to write in the United States (6 credits)
AMER3007. Dissertation in American Studies (12 credits)
Comparative Literature
CLIT2076. Fashioning feminities (6 credits)
CLIT2092. Modern American poetry: Politics and aesthetics (6 credits)
English
ENGL2055. American gothic: Haunted homes (6 credits)
ENGL2089. Making Americans: Literature as ritual and renewal (6 credits)
ENGL2099. Language, identity, and Asian Americans (6 credits)
ENGL2104. Language in the USA (6 credits)
Fine Arts
FINE2020. American art (6 credits)
FINE2031. The rise of modern architecture in Western culture (6 credits)
History
HIST2015. The United States before 1900 (6 credits)
HIST2016. The United States in the twentieth century (6 credits)
HIST2031. History through film (6 credits)
HIST2053. The Cold War (6 credits)
HIST2069. History of American popular culture (6 credits)
HIST2092. The United States and Asia (6 credits)
HIST2107. The Second World War in Asia and the Pacific, 1931-1952 (6 credits)
HIST2113. New worlds: Exploring the history of Latin America (6 credits)
HIST2118. Chinese and Americans: A cultural and international history (6 credits)
HIST2126. The American family: Histories, myths, and realities (6 credits)
HIST2131. Growing up ‘Girl’: Histories, novels and American culture (6 credits)
Music
MUSI2031. American music (6 credits)
Politics and Public Administration
POLI0044. American democracy (6 credits)
POLI0047. United States foreign policy (6 credits)
POLI0087. Globalization and world order (6 credits)
Sociology
SOCI0011. Gender and Crime (6 credits)
Not all of the above electives may be offered in a given year.
MINOR
Students may take American Studies as a minor by completing 30 credits of second- and third-year courses. Of these courses, students must take:
2 American Studies Core Courses (12 credits) including the following:
AMER2050. Foundations of American Studies, II: Reconstructing the nation (6 credits)
AMER3050. Foundations in American Studies, III: Capstone (6 credits)
The remaining 3 courses (18 credits) may be drawn from the following:
AMER2002. The road in American culture (6 credits)
AMER2014. A dream in the heart: varieties of Asian American culture (6 credits)
AMER2015. The American city (6 credits)
AMER2018. Show me the money: doing business with Americans (6 credits)
AMER2022. What’s on TV? Television and American culture (6 credits)
AMER2029. Current perspectives on the U.S. (6 credits)
AMER2033. Asia on America’s screen (6 credits)
AMER2035. Addicted to war? The US at home and abroad (6 credits)
AMER2037. Institutions in American life: home, education, work and play (6 credits)
AMER2038. American film, from Golden-Age Hollywood to New Hollywood and beyond (6 credits)
AMER2039. The art of crime and its detection in the United States (6 credits)
AMER2046. Legal fictions: United States citizenship and the right to write in the United States (6 credits)
AMER3007. Dissertation in American Studies (12 credits)