Courses at CSUF
AMST350: Theories and Methods
What are the origins of American Studies as a field? What is American culture? In this course, you will answer these questions while familiarizing yourself with core methods and theories in American Studies. This course material will enhance your knowledge of past and contemporary American culture by examining a wide range of topics from archives to science fiction. The course will act as a bridge between what you have already learned in your classes thus far and upper-level coursework. By the end of this semester, you will gain a better comprehension of how you can apply key interdisciplinary methodologies to interpret and analyze American culture and increase your knowledge of how theoretical concepts shape the world around you. |
AMST395: California Cultures
This course examines diverse California cultures from the 1700s to the present. We will explore three major themes throughout the semester: identities, landscapes, and myths. These themes will overlap and intersect in the secondary readings and primary source material. In class, we will analyze cultural artifacts, including advertisements, architecture, diaries, film, murals, music, paintings, photographs, and more. You will be asked to reflect on how history and myths have shaped contemporary California we seek to define this state’s regional cultures. |
AMST401T: Research Seminar
This course is a research seminar that is intended to be the culmination of your major or minor in American Studies or contribute to your graduate training in American Studies or Environmental Studies research. You are going to be an American Studies scholar this semester. We will work together to become a community of critical thinkers and effective communicators. The goal of this class is for you to produce a substantial work of original scholarship that draws on both primary and secondary sources on a subject that interests you that is related to the course themes. |

AMST449: American West in Symbol and Myth
The West is crucial for understanding American identities and memory. It has been both a real and imagined place in American culture. This course delves into the significance of the West as both a frontier and borderlands. Though an examination of a range of readings, films, memoirs, and images, we will explore the shifting landscape of the West from the 1800s to today. We will examine the social, cultural, and political importance of the West through topics that include race, gender, sexuality, migration, suburbanization, and environment.
The West is crucial for understanding American identities and memory. It has been both a real and imagined place in American culture. This course delves into the significance of the West as both a frontier and borderlands. Though an examination of a range of readings, films, memoirs, and images, we will explore the shifting landscape of the West from the 1800s to today. We will examine the social, cultural, and political importance of the West through topics that include race, gender, sexuality, migration, suburbanization, and environment.