The University of New Mexico
AMST: American Studies Catalog Description

  Three Year Fall Semester Average
Course Catalog Description Enrollment Section
Capacity
Credits
AMST134 (Also offered as ANTH, SUST 134.) An introduction to creating a sustainable future that supports environmental health and restoration, social equity, and economic vitality. Examines challenges and examples of integrated, creative strategies on local, regional, national, and global levels.
AMST180 Introduces 19th and 20th century American culture. Demonstrates interdisciplinary approaches to American culture studies. Content varies by semester and topics include popular culture, comparative studies of race and ethnicity, nationalism and citizenship, critical regionalism. 9.67 10.00 29.00
AMST182 An introduction to the socially and politically constructed values directing Americans' attitudes toward nature, science and technology and to the impacts of those attitudes on built and natural environments regionally, nationally and globally. 87.00 116.67 261.00
AMST183 This course focuses on the interdisciplinary study of the construction of gender as a category. Readings will span cross-cultural and historical materials, including literary, artistic and popular representations of masculinity and femininity in America. 16.67 20.00 50.00
AMST184 Survey of basic concepts of popular culture and methods for its study. Source materials are drawn from diverse areas-television, film, comics, music and sports. May be repeated for credit with permission from AMST undergraduate advisor. 28.33 30.00 85.00
AMST185 An interdisciplinary introduction to the issues of race, class and ethnicity in American life and society. {Fall, Spring} 91.33 103.33 274.00
AMST186 Provides both an introduction to the complex history and culture of the Southwestern United States and a demonstration of the possibilities of the interdisciplinary study of regional American culture. It is multicultural in its content as it is multidisciplinary in its methodology. 151.33 173.33 454.00
AMST200 The content of this course varies by semester. Topics include: America in the 50s; America in the 60s-70s; the American family; power and culture; schooling in America. 26.00 62.67 78.00
AMST200A  
AMST250 (Also offered as AFAM 280.) An analysis of the political, economic, religious and familial organization of African-American communities in the United States.
AMST251 Investigation of the historical and social conditions that have shaped the development of Chicano life. 4.00 5.00 12.00
AMST252 (Also offered as NAS 252.) Introductory survey of Native American History, culture and contemporary issues. Students read literature by and about Native Americans covering a variety of topics including tribal sovereignty, federal policy, activism, economic development, education and community life.
AMST285 Examination of the development of American cultural values and attitudes from the 17th to the early 20th centuries. Demonstrates the use of interdisciplinary modes of inquiry. 15.33 21.00 46.00
AMST303 (Also offered as POLS 303.) Introduction to the role of law and legal institutions in politics and society. Prerequisite for POLS 315. 17.00 17.33 51.00
AMST309 An interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of social movements, focusing on cultural and social formations of these movements. Topics include: folklore of social movements; labor struggles; peace movements; land conflicts. 7.67 8.33 23.00
AMST310 Varying topics undergraduate course. An in-depth study of one subject in the field of interdisciplinary culture studies. Topics may include material culture, folklore, consumerism, public culture, critical theory, cultural identity and language and representation. 103.67 149.67 311.00
AMST310A  
AMST310C  
AMST310D  
AMST310F  
AMST310G  
AMST310H  
AMST311 (Also offered as MSST 311/511.) This course covers the theory and practice of material culture study as it has been used to define American culture. Course content includes architecture, technology, religious art and artifacts, literary, folk and 'fine' arts.
AMST313 An introduction to the informal, vernacular facets of American culture with a focus on the artistic and symbolic dimensions of daily life as expressed in oral traditions, folkloric events and material culture. {Fall} 2.00 3.67 6.00
AMST315 This course will focus on 20th century U.S. cultural history and cultural studies. Proceeding chronologically, the course integrates a range of cultural mediums to investigate the construction of social identity. 1.67 1.67 5.00
AMST317 This course will investigate the role of visual experience in everyday life. The assigned works represent a variety of interdisciplinary approaches to American visual culture, including photography, film, television, material culture, and public art.
AMST320 The content of this course varies by semester. Topics include: environmental justice, ecology in America, gender and nature, ethics and genetics, automobiles in American culture. 35.33 57.33 106.00
AMST320A  
AMST320B  
AMST320C  
AMST323 This course is designed as a multicultural/interdisciplinary approach to the study of environmental justice. Topics include: environmental racism, internal/nuclear colonialism, harmful technologies, industrial pollution and other toxins in communities of color.
AMST330 Varying subjects deriving from the contemporary cultural studies focus on matters of gender. Topics include: feminist theory; gender and nature; the factor of gender in disciplinary and interdisciplinary studies. 17.00 29.67 51.00
AMST330A  
AMST330D  
AMST330E  
AMST330F  
AMST332 An introduction to a range of interdisciplinary readings in cultural studies of sexuality. The focus of the course is to inquire into the construction of sexualities and to assess their impact in shaping scholarship and cultural theory.
AMST333 A study of the connections between gender, the traditions associated with women and men, and the intricate linkages of gender and tradition with systems of power and oppression in various cultures and time periods.
AMST340 Content varies by semester. Topics include: popular music, popular culture of the 1960s; sex and gender in popular culture; chicano/a vernacular culture; black popular culture; popular environmentalism. 49.00 76.00 147.00
AMST341 Varying subjects, based in theoretical and/or historical approaches. Topics include: sex and gender in popular film; films of the nuclear age; African-American film; ethnicity in American cinema; film theory.
AMST342 This course is an introduction to the history of television as a medium from its origins through the present moment. In the course we will focus on the structure of the television's role within American society, and television as a site of cultural representation.
AMST350 Offers specialized topics on an alternating basis dealing with race, class and ethnicity in the formation of American life and society. Subject areas include immigration, class formation, conquest, colonization, public policy and civil rights. 41.67 66.00 125.00
AMST350A  
AMST350B  
AMST350C  
AMST350D  
AMST351 (Also offered as AFAM 307.) A survey of the lives of Blacks in the American West (1528-1918).
AMST352 This course examines contemporary Native American cultural production including literature, art and film with an emphasis on historical, political and cultural contexts. Topics may include: definitions of cultural production, sovereignty, colonialism, cultural survival and identity.
AMST353 An interdisciplinary investigation of the development of race as a set of power relations, lived identities and ideas. Pays particular attention to the relationship of race to work, immigration, gender, culture and intellectual life.
AMST354 This course is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of class formations in society. Topics include: culture, ideology, politics, history, Marxism, Weberian sociology, (post-) structuralism, colonialism, textuality, praxis and desconstructionism. 9.67 10.00 29.00
AMST356 Topical survey of theoretical approaches, research methodologies and subject areas within the interdisciplinary field of Native American Studies.
AMST356A  
AMST356B  
AMST357 Offers topics addressing African-American social, cultural, political and intellectual life. Topics include: black social movements, African-American intellectual history, black cultural studies, slavery in the Americas. 1.33 2.00 4.00
AMST357A  
AMST358 This interdisciplinary topics course examines the fastest growing population in the U.S. and includes Latino intellectual history, political and economic relations, recovery projects, music, film and media representations and environment, community and post-colonial studies. 0.00 1.67 0.00
AMST358A  
AMST359 This course introduces students to historical and contemporary debates about the meaning of interracial romance, marriage and sexuality-and its relationship to definitions of American citizenship and democracy. Through engaged study of primary and secondary, social and cultural forms, students will develop an interdisciplinary understanding of race, gender and sexuality.
AMST360 Offers topics dealing with the social, cultural and technological developments among the people of the Southwest. Topics include folk art and material culture; rural, urban and border communities; traditional healing; travel and tourism; Hispano/Chicanos after 1848. 14.67 40.00 44.00
AMST360A  
AMST361 An in-depth study of the expressive behavior of Native American peoples of the Southwest with special emphasis on the traditional material culture, music, dance, oral tradition and festivals of Puebloans, Navajos and Apaches.
AMST362 This course will examine popular representations of Native Americans from American literature, film, policy, science and popular culture. Topics include critical and cultural theories of representation and identity and Native resistance and cultural production.
AMST363 Covers the Chicano/Latino experience through its depiction on film and from the perspective of Latino filmmaking. The course analyzes film as communication, film narration, symbolism and subjectivity. 10.67 17.67 32.00
AMST385 Introduces students to interdisciplinary approaches in the study of American culture, focusing on "Race, Ethnicity, Gender and National Identity," "Media, Popular Culture, and Cultural Studies," "Critical Regionalism," "and Environment, Science, and Technology."
AMST422 Considers three interrelated sections: the political and scientific history of the Manhattan Project; strategic alternatives to the use of the atomic bomb; and the literature of the hibakusha survivors of the destruction of Hiroshima.
AMST434 (Also offered as ANTH, ARCH, SUST 434.) Presents frameworks for complex and creative analysis, including systems think-ing and synergistic integration of the three pillars of sustainability: environment, equity, economy. Examines innovative local and international case studies in environment, business, policy, and community development. Prerequisite: SUST 134 and (ECON 106 or ECON 203.)
AMST485 An analysis of the value of synthesis in liberal scholarship. Focus will be on cooperative interdisciplinary research. {Spring only} 11.33 15.00 34.00
AMST486 Capstone course for majors/minors in the Southwest Studies that synthesizes current scholarship on critical regionalism: borderlands studies, trans-nationalism, indigeneity, immigration and other topics. Students develop research, analysis and writing to produce an original research paper.
AMST497   4.33 316.33 11.33
AMST498 Involves internships in off-campus learning experiences related to the study of American and regional culture and character, such as work in local communities and with relevant institutions. 9.33 300.00 45.33
AMST499 Development and writing of senior honors thesis under supervision of faculty advisor. Prerequisite: 285. Restriction: permission of undergraduate director. {Spring} 4.00 275.00 12.00
AMST500 Examines the basic texts and methods in the field of American studies through discussion and critical/analytical writing assignments. Required for all American Studies graduate students; restricted to graduate students in the department. {Fall}
AMST508 This course is concerned with meaning, identity and subject formation in the autobiographical text. Readings will focus on contemporary critical theory about autobiography and post-colonial studies. Students will draw on a broad range of personal accounts that result from the construction of race, gender, class and ethnicity in the United States past and present. 1.00 5.00 3.00
AMST509 An interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of social movements, focusing on cultural and social formations of these movements. Topics include: folklore of social movements; labor struggles; peace movements; land conflicts. 1.67 2.33 5.00
AMST510 An in-depth study of one subject in the field of interdisciplinary culture studies. Topics may include material culture, folklore, consumerism, public culture, critical theory, cultural identity and postcolonial studies. 5.00 10.00 15.00
AMST511 (Also offered as MSST 311/511.) This course covers the theory and practice of material culture study as it has been used to define American culture. Course content includes architecture, technology, religious art and artifacts, literary, folk and 'fine' arts.
AMST513 This course examines key methods and theoretical approaches to the study of folklore, focusing on the artistic and symbolic dimensions of daily life as expressed in oral traditions, folkloric events and material culture.
AMST515 This course will focus on 20th century U.S. cultural history and cultural studies. Proceeding chronologically, the course integrates a range of cultural mediums to investigate the construction of social identity.
AMST516 An intensive study of various contemporary theories about the intersection of language and culture. Readings focus on the interdisciplinary study of language, drawing especially on postmodern theory.
AMST517 This course will investigate the role of visual experience in everyday life. The assigned works represent a variety of interdisciplinary approaches to American visual culture, including photography, film, television, material culture, and public art. 3.67 5.00 11.00
AMST518 This is a graduate-level introduction to the interdisciplinary field of post-colonialism. The readings will cover areas in post-structuralism, post-modernism, semiotics, discourse analysis, textuality, Western Marxism, cultural nationalism, colonialism(s) and imperialism.
AMST519 Graduate seminars; content varies. Topics include: democracy, culture and history; American landscapes; history and narrative.
AMST520 Graduate study of subjects in Environment, Science and Technology. Content varies by semester and topics include: science/technology studies, environmental justice, the environment and political and social development, ecology in America, gender and nature. 4.00 7.67 12.00
AMST520A  
AMST520C  
AMST522 Considers three interrelated sections: the political and scientific history of the Manhattan Project; strategic alternatives to the use of the atomic bomb; and the literature of the hibakusha survivors of the destruction of Hiroshima.
AMST523 This course is designed as a multicultural/interdisciplinary approach to the study of environmental justice. Topics include: environmental racism, internal/nuclear colonialism, harmful technologies, industrial pollution, and other toxins in communities of color. 4.67 5.00 14.00
AMST525 This course surveys key methods and model case studies in ecological history, in impacts of technology on the environment and in the role of cultural values and ethics in natural resource policy decisions. 4.33 6.67 13.00
AMST530 Varying subjects deriving from the contemporary cultural studies focus on matters of gender. Topics include: feminist theory; gender and nature; the factor of gender in disciplinary and interdisciplinary studies. 3.00 8.33 9.00
AMST530A  
AMST533 A study of the connections between gender, the traditions associated with women and men, and the intricate linkages of gender and tradition with systems of power and oppression in various cultures and time periods.
AMST536 Introduction to changing meanings of masculinity in America from WW II through the present. Focus on cultural construction of masculinity and men's experiences in spheres of work, family, leisure, war and sexuality.
AMST540 Content varies by semester. Topics include: popular music, popular culture of the 1960s; sex and gender in popular culture; chicano/a vernacular culture; black popular culture; popular environmentalism. 2.67 3.00 8.00
AMST541 Varying subjects, based in theoretical and/or historical approaches. Topics include: sex and gender in popular film; films of the nuclear age; African-American film; ethnicity in American cinema; film theory.
AMST545 Graduate seminar surveying approaches to the study of popular culture and major theoretical debates in the field. Students also work with popular culture texts, including film, television, toys, fashion, music and advertising.
AMST550 Offers specialized topics on an alternating basis dealing with race, class and ethnicity in the formation of American life and society. Subject areas include immigration, class formation, conquest, colonization, public policy, and civil rights. 10.00 16.67 30.00
AMST550C  
AMST552 This course examines contemporary Native American cultural production including literature, art and film with an emphasis on historical, political and cultural contexts. Topics may include: definitions of cultural production, sovereignty, colonialism, cultural survival and identity.
AMST553 An interdisciplinary investigation of the development of race as a set of power relations, lived identities and ideas. Pays particular attention to the relationship of race to work, immigration, gender, culture and intellectual life.
AMST554 This course is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of class formations in society. Topics include: culture, ideology, politics, history, Marxism, Weberian sociology, (post-) structuralism, colonialism, textuality, praxis and desconstructionism.
AMST555 This course will survey the theoretical and methodological convergence/divergence of race, class and ethnicity. This class is designed as a graduate-multidisciplinary approach to racial, class and ethnic formations, relations, structures, institutions and movements.
AMST556 Seminar offering topical survey of theoretical approaches, research methodologies and subject areas within the interdisciplinary field of Native American Studies. 3.00 5.00 9.00
AMST557 Offers topics addressing African-American social, cultural, political and intellectual life. Topics include: black social movements, African-American intellectual history, black cultural studies, slavery in the Americas. 0.00 0.67 0.00
AMST558 This interdisciplinary topics course examines the fastest growing population in the U.S. and includes Latino intellectual history, political and economic relations, recovery projects, music, film and media representations and environment, community and post-colonial studies. 3.33 5.00 10.00
AMST559 This course introduces students to historical and contemporary debates about the meaning of interracial romance, marriage and sexuality-and its relationship to definitions of American citizenship and democracy. Through engaged study of primary and secondary, social and cultural forms, students will develop an interdisciplinary understanding of race, gender and sexuality.
AMST560 Offers topics dealing with the social, cultural and technological developments among the people of the Southwest. Topics include folk art and material culture; rural, urban and border communities; traditional healing; travel and tourism; Hispano/Chicanos after 1848.
AMST562 This course will examine popular representations of Native Americans from American literature, film, policy, science and popular culture. Topics include critical and cultural theories of representation and identity and Native resistance and cultural production.
AMST563 Covers the Chicano/Latino experience through its depiction on film and from the perspective of Latino filmmaking. The course analyzes film as communication, film narration, symbolism and subjectivity.
AMST565 This seminar examines cultural and ethnic representations in the tri-cultural Southwest. The course includes consideration of works by native and Hispano/Chicano authors who examine and contest the cultural ideation of the Southwest.
AMST597   2.67 275.00 8.00
AMST599 Offered on a CR/NC basis only. 2.67 275.00 15.00
AMST600 This seminar reviews: 1) archival and library research; 2) data collection and fieldwork (plus subsequent analysis and presentation of data); 3) processes of hypotheses and theory building; and 4) development of a research proposal. Prerequisite: 500. {Spring} 5.00 5.00 15.00
AMST697 For Ph.D. candidates only. 5.00 275.00 13.67
AMST699 Offered on a CR/NC basis only. 24.33 300.00 138.67

"AMST: American Studies "Three Fall Subject Average - Enroll: 856.00 Capacity: 3,139.67 Credits: 2,655.00'