Department of American Studies (GRAD)

The Department of American Studies offers a Ph.D. in American studies and an M.A. in folklore as well as a graduate minor in either American studies or folklore for students pursuing a graduate degree in other departments.

Ph.D. in American Studies

The Ph.D. degree in American studies provides rigorous training in interdisciplinary methods dedicated to the understanding of the complex cultures and history of the United States and its place in the world. Program graduates will be prepared both to teach at the college and university levels in American studies and related fields, including Southern studies, American Indian studies, literature, history, art history, cultural studies, and folklore, and to pursue professional opportunities in museums, historical sites, archives, or related fields requiring interdisciplinary perspectives and methodologies.

Admission

Students will be admitted to the Ph.D. in American studies from a range of academic programs, some with an undergraduate degree, some with a master's degree in American studies or another relevant discipline. Candidates for admission should be firmly grounded in the humanities, social sciences, or the arts. The best qualified students should articulate an interest in American history, literary, expressive and/or material culture, and/or critical theory; should show some familiarity with library, web-based, and/or ethnographic research methods; and should offer a specific rationale for their interest in the UNC–Chapel Hill graduate program. In addition to The Graduate School application form, candidates for admission will present one or two writing samples, a statement of purpose, three letters of recommendation, official transcripts, and a curriculum vitae. Transfer credits may be awarded at the department's discretion on the basis of course equivalencies.

Applications will be accepted in December for matriculation the following August. Consult the website of The Graduate School for details, specific deadlines, and a link to the online application system.

M.A. in Folklore

The M.A. program in folklore focuses on the study of creativity and aesthetic expression in everyday life and on the social and political implications of this expression as it unfolds in contested arenas of culture. Not bound to traditional definitions of folklore, and committed to preparing students for ethical practice in a multicultural world, the program offers a flexible M.A. curriculum that readies students for both public practice and further academic study.

Admission

Applications will be accepted in December for matriculation the following August. Consult the website of The Graduate School for details, specific deadlines, and a link to the online application system.

The Department of American Studies also offers a Ph.D. in American studies; however, admission to the M.A.in folklore does not constitute admission to the Ph.D. in American studies.

Ph.D. in American Studies

The Ph.D. program in American studies balances flexibility and a focus on students' own areas of interest with requirements designed to insure knowledge of key issues and texts in the interdisciplinary study of American culture. Ph.D. students must complete 20 courses (60 hours). Those who enter the program with an M.A. may count up to 9 hours of previous study toward the degree. Four specific courses–AMST 700, AMST 701, and AMST 902 and AMST 903–are required. Students generally take six other courses offered by American Studies core faculty and the remainder of their courses in a variety of associated graduate programs, including English, history, music, and religious studies. Those who enter the program with a B.A. degree must undertake the M.A. Research Seminar (AMST 901) and the Capstone Project (AMST 992). Students pursuing the Ph.D. take two comprehensive exams, one in American studies and another in an area of specialization developed in consultation with their advisors before beginning their dissertation work. They are also expected to participate actively in the departmental colloquium.

Students who join the department with a master's degree can expect to spend less time on coursework than those who enter with an undergraduate degree, although students admitted with a master's degree in a field other than American studies may need to take some additional courses as they progress toward the American studies Ph.D. The graduate studies committee will make the determination on an individual basis. Students who enter with an undergraduate degree earn the M.A. at the end of their second year, upon completion and defense of the capstone project, before proceeding to preparation for comprehensive examinations and the dissertation.

Research Proficiency Certification

Each Ph.D. candidate is expected, as a condition of advancing to candidacy, to select and develop an individualized proficiency that will improve the quality and impact of their research and enhance the capacity they will wield in their professional lives. This empowers students to add value to their education by defining and pursuing an enabling skill set that can deepen the dimensions of their research, practice, and service.

Examples of useful proficiencies might include:

  • the study of a relevant language other than English, including Cherokee, offered in our department;
  • ethnographic field work;
  • oral history interview and recording techniques;
  • digital modes of coding, mapping, and visualization;
  • training in the processes of public planning and policy;
  • facility in survey methods and quantitative analysis;
  • skills in documentary production;
  • archival curation and museum programming.

The proficiency must be in addition to or extend the skill set that students bring with them at matriculation. Certification of this proficiency is met by two requirements:

  • the completion of at least one course or an equivalent process of training;
  • a practical demonstration of its acquisition.

Incoming doctoral students have the responsibility to work with their preliminary advisor to select a proficiency and prepare a plan for its attainment before they complete their prospectus and become candidates for the Ph.D. A written application on a departmental form will spell out which skill set they will acquire to meet this certification, describe the extent of their present competency, explain why it is relevant to their research, and outline how their plan enables them to gain proficiency. Incoming students will submit their proposal to the Graduate Studies Committee by October 1 of their first semester. This committee will meet to approve or suggest alternations to this proposal by November 15. At the end of the fall of the second year, the director of graduate studies will follow up and confirm with students and their dissertation directors whether the benchmarks of attainment have been fulfilled, and if not, what plan is in place to complete the requirement.

Colloquium

All students enrolled in the American studies graduate program are expected to participate throughout their graduate careers in a monthly colloquium in which faculty and M.A. and  Ph.D. candidates will offer presentations of their work-in-progress. The colloquium exposes graduate students to the research interests of faculty in American studies and allied fields and more advanced students, provides opportunities for sharing discourses and ideas, and may also include visiting graduate students and faculty from international partner institutions. The colloquium is the collegial wellspring of the program, the intellectual and social center of the American Studies community. The conversation occurring there will naturally both inform and be informed by classroom work, particularly in AMST 700 and  AMST 701 will help to shape, against the backdrop of individual specializations, a common discourse; and will provide a site for the formation of the American studies social and intellectual community.

Comprehensive Exams

All students, regardless of whether they enter with a B.A. or M.A., undertake their comprehensive exams in the fall of their third year. Students and faculty members will work collaboratively, with the aim of integrating the best work with the most current scholarship in particular fields. Each student will assemble a three-person examination advisory committee (often consisting of two faculty members from the Department of American Studies and one from a related department), and in consultation with committee members the student will develop reading lists for two exams, one in American Studies (with lists drawn from readings in core courses) and one in an area of specialization. Students will undertake a written exam for each list. Shortly after passing the written exams, each student will undergo an oral exam covering both concentrations. Students are expected to receive passing evaluations on the written and oral exams. Any student who fails one or more sections of the exam may repeat the failed section(s) only once, no sooner than three months following the exam.

Teaching and Professional Development

All students will be expected to teach as part of their service requirement for financial aid. Students will most often serve as teaching assistants in undergraduate courses taught by members of the faculty. More advanced students may have the opportunity to develop and teach undergraduate courses in their areas of specialization.

Doctoral Dissertation and Defense

The dissertation constitutes an original contribution to knowledge that advances the interdisciplinary understanding of American culture. It may be based upon archival research, analysis of texts and/or cultural artifacts, ethnographic research, or a combination. The student will assemble a five-person doctoral advisory committee, which must include three faculty members from the Department of American Studies. The student ordinarily completes the dissertation prospectus and refines it with the advice of the doctoral advisory committee at the end of the semester that begins with their successful completion of the comprehensive exams. The prospectus must be approved by the committee following a prospectus defense. Upon completion of the dissertation, all degree candidates must successfully defend their dissertation before their doctoral advisory committee.

M.A. in Folklore

The M.A. program in folklore balances flexibility and a focus on students' own areas of interest with requirements designed to insure knowledge of key issues and texts in the discipline. Master's students must complete 10 courses (30 hours). Two specific courses–Approaches to Folklore Theory (FOLK 850) and The Art of Ethnography (FOLK 860)–are required, and students must take three additional courses offered by core faculty. Students take the remainder of their courses in a variety of associated graduate programs, including American studies, anthropology, communication, English, history, music, and religious studies, or they may take advantage of the opportunity to enroll in courses at neighboring universities, particularly those offered at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Students pursuing an M.A. must compile a critical literature review at the beginning of their third semester and must complete and defend a thesis at the end of their second year of study.

Graduate Minor in American Studies

The American studies graduate minor serves students admitted in a variety of departments, including art, communications studies, English, history, and religious studies. Interdisciplinary training in the study of American culture can enhance scholarly and teaching capabilities for these students. The object of study is American culture in all its diversity, and the methodologies include historical, literary, and visual analysis as well as ethnography, sociology, economics, and political science as appropriate. To apply, contact the director of graduate studies.

The graduate minor consists of five courses, to be selected with the advice of the chair or director of graduate studies in American studies. These courses should include AMST 700 or AMST 701 and at least two other graduate courses with an AMST designation. Additional courses may be chosen from related departments. These courses must be in addition to those required for the degree in the student’s major field of study.

Graduate Minor in Folklore

Students pursuing the Ph.D. in another department at UNC–Chapel Hill may qualify for a minor in folklore by completing six courses, chosen in consultation with the coordinator of the folklore program. These courses must be in addition to those required for the degree in the student’s major field of study.

Professors

Daniel Cobb, American Indian and Indigenous Studies, American Indian History, Politics and Activism, Ethnohistorical Methods, Biography and Memory, Global Indigenous Rights
Elizabeth Engelhardt, Southern Cultures, Food, Appalachia, Feminism, Literature, Region and Place
Sharon Holland, Critical Race Theory, Feminist Theory, Queer Theory, Sexuality Studies, Animal Studies
Blair Kelley, Director, Center for the Study of the American South
Timothy Marr, 19th-Century American Literary and Cultural History, Transnational American Studies, Religion in American Culture, Islam in/and America, Herman Melville
Rachel Willis, Global American Studies, Transportation Planning, Labor Economics, Service Learning, Experiential and Higher Education

Associate Professors

Gabrielle Berlinger, Material Culture, Ritual, Jewish Folklore and Ethnology, Ethnography, Public Folklore, Museum Anthropology1
Seth Kotch, Digital Humanities, Modern South, Oral History, Criminal and Social Justice
Keith Richotte Jr., American Indian Law and Policy, Legal History, Constitutionalism
Michelle Robinson, 19th- and 20th-Century United States Religious History, 19th- and 20th- Century American Literature, U.S. Cinema
Patricia Sawin, Narrative, Discourse, Festival, Culture of Adoption1

Assistant Professors

Kelly Alexander, Food Studies, Ethnographic Methods, Documentary Studies, Feminism
Kita Douglas, Asian American Literature, Asian American Visual Culture, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Archives and Material Culture
Ben Frey, Sociolinguistics, Language Shift, Cherokee Language
Antonia Randolph, Black Masculinity, Popular Culture (Hip-Hop), Music, Race Theory, Education, Sexuality

Adjunct Faculty in American Studies

Daniel Anderson (English and Comparative Literature), Digital Humanities, Rhetoric, Alt-Scholarship
Fitzhugh Brundage (History), American History since the Civil War, Southern History, Historical Memory
Maggie Cao (Art History), Art and Technology, Landscape, Material Culture, Ecocriticism
Claude Clegg (African, African American and Diaspora Studies; History), African American History, Modern U.S. History, Migrations and Diaspora, Nationalism, Social Movements
Kathleen DuVal (History), Early America, Cross-Cultural Relations on North American Borderlands
Lawrence Grossberg (Communication), Media and Cultural Studies
Philip Gura (English and Comparative Literature), American Literature, American Studies
Glenn D. Hinson (Anthropology), Ethnography, African American Expressive Culture, Belief Systems, Vernacular Art, Public Folklore, American South1
Heidi Kim (English and Comparative Literature), Director, Asian American Center
Jocelyn Neal (Music), 20th-Century Music Theory, Popular Music1
Michael Palm (Communication), Technology and Everyday Life, Politics and Economics of Media Culture, Telecommunications History, Work, Labor and Consumption Studies
Eliza Richards (English and Comparative Literature), 19th-Century American Literature, Gender Studies, American Poetry
William Sturkey (History), Modern American History, African American History, Race in the South, Civil Rights
Jane Thrailkill (English and Comparative Literature), 19th-Century American Literature, Medical Humanities
Timothy Tyson (Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University), American Christianity, Southern Culture, Civil Rights, African American History
Ariana Vigil (Women's and Gender Studies), Latina/o Literature, Militarization, Gender and Sexuality Studies

1 Core members of the folklore program
For a complete list of adjunct and affiliated faculty, click here.

Retired Professors

Robert Allen, Digital Humanities, American Cultural History, Family History
Marcie Cohen Ferris, Southern Jewish History, Food Studies, Southern Studies
William Ferris, Southern Music and Literature, Documentary Studies, American South
Bernard Herman, Material and Visual Culture, Folklore and Folklife Cultures of the American South, Vernacular Art1
John Kasson, American Intellectual and Cultural History, Technology and Society, Art and Literature, Popular Culture
Joy Kasson, American Visual Culture, Literature, Popular Culture, Cultural History
Daniel W. Patterson, Ballads, American Folksong, Religious Folklife, Gravestones, American South
Theda Perdue, Native American History
Charles Gordon Zug, Pottery, Material Culture, Narrative, Maritime Folklife, Folk Art, American South

Subjects in this department include American Studies (AMST) and Folklore (FOLK).

AMST

Advanced Undergraduate and Graduate-level Courses

AMST 410.  Senior Seminar in Southern Studies.  3 Credits.  

We will engage such topics as race, immigration, cultural tourism, and memory to consider conceptions of the South. Students will research a subject they find compelling and write a 20- to 25-page paper.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, EE- Mentored Research, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 439.  Meaning and Makers: Indigenous Artists and the Marketplace.  3 Credits.  

This course examines how indigenous artists have negotiated, shaped, and pursued markets and venues of display ranging from "fine" art markets, galleries, and museums to popular markets associated with tourism.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, CI, GL.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 440.  American Indian Poetry.  3 Credits.  

This course explores the relation of American Indian poetry and music in English to the history and culture of indigenous communities and their relation to the United States.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: LA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 460.  Rising Waters: Strategies for Resilience to the Challenges of Climate and the Built Environment.  3 Credits.  

This service-learning seminar examines water threats to port cities and low-lying areas from sea-level rise, extreme weather, and inadequate infrastructure. The focus is on the Americas, small and barrier islands, and high hazard regions including the South East and Gulf Coast communities. The APPLES project will focus on North Carolina resilience strategies. Recommended for juniors and seniors. Permission of the instructor for first year students. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-CREATE or FC-GLOBAL, HI-SERVICE.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, CI, EE- Service Learning.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 475.  Documenting Communities.  3 Credits.  

Covers the definition and documentation of communities within North Carolina through research, study, and field work of communities. Each student produces a documentary on a specific community. Previously offered as AMST 275. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, CI, EE- Field Work.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 483.  Seeing the USA: The Film Director as Public Intellectual.  3 Credits.  

Examines the ways in which visual works - paintings, photographs, sculpture, architecture, film, advertising, and other images - communicate the values of American culture and raise questions about American experiences.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 485.  Folk, Self-Taught, and Outsider Arts.  3 Credits.  

Drawing on American and international examples, this course addresses a body of art that occupies the borderlands of contemporary art, examining questions of authenticity, dysfunction, aesthetics, and identity.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH, RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 486.  The Jewish South: Race, Region, and Religion.  3 Credits.  

This course explores ethnicity in the South and focuses on the history and culture of Jewish Southerners from their arrival in the Carolinas in the 17th century to the present day.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-PAST or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, CI, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: JWST 486.  
AMST 487.  Early American Architecture and Material Life.  3 Credits.  

This course explores, through lecture and discussion, the experiences of everyday life from 1600 through the early 19th century, drawing on the evidence of architecture, landscape, images, and objects.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 488.  No Place like Home: Material Culture of the American South.  3 Credits.  

Seminar will explore the unique worlds of Southern material culture and how "artifacts" from barns to biscuits provide insight about the changing social and cultural history of the American South.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: FOLK 488.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 489.  Writing Material Culture.  3 Credits.  

A reading seminar that examines multiple critical perspectives that shape the reception and interpretation of objects, with a particular emphasis on things in American life.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-KNOWING.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 493.  Internship.  1-3 Credits.  

Permission of the department and the instructor. Internship. Variable credit.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: HI-INTERN.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Academic Internship.  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 6 total credits. 6 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 498.  Advanced Seminar in American Studies.  3 Credits.  

Graduate or junior/senior standing. Examines American civilization by studying social and cultural history, criticism, art, architecture, music, film, popular pastimes, and amusements, among other possible topics.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, NA.  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit; may be repeated in the same term for different topics; 9 total credits. 3 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 510.  Federal Indian Law and Policy.  3 Credits.  

This course gives an introduction to the American government's law and policy concerning tribal nations and tribal peoples. We examine a number of legal and political interactions to determine how the United States has answered the "Indian problem" throughout its history and the status of tribal peoples and nations today.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 511.  American Indians and American Law.  3 Credits.  

This course explores the history of Native interaction with the American legal system in order to understand how the law affects Native peoples and others today. Students are encouraged (but not required) to take AMST 510 before enrolling in this course.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 512.  Race and American Law.  3 Credits.  

This class will explore the intersection between race and American law, both in a historical and contemporary context. It will ask how both of these major social forces have informed and defined each other and what that means for how we think about race and law today.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 641.  Communicating Water Challenges of Climate Change with the Visual and Performing Arts.  3 Credits.  

Climate change means water challenges that threaten people, property, and the existence of nation states. Severe precipitation events from warmer air holding more water, sea-level rise, and more intense hurricanes, mean flooding, water quality, and foodshed issues for more than half the world's population. Drought, resulting wildfires, and the availability of life-sustaining water is a problem in others. The visual and performing arts are used to explore more effective ways to communicate this growing crisis.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: CI, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 671.  Introduction to Public History.  3 Credits.  

Introduces the theory, politics, and practice of historical work conducted in public venues (museums, historic sites, national parks, government agencies, archives), directed at public audiences, or addressed to public issues.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, EE- Mentored Research, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: HIST 671.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 685.  Literature of the Americas.  3 Credits.  

Multidisciplinary examination of texts and other media of the Americas, in English and Spanish, from a variety of genres. Two years of college-level Spanish or the equivalent strongly recommended.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: LA, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ENGL 685, CMPL 685.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 691H.  Honors in American Studies.  3 Credits.  

Directed independent research leading to the preparation of an honors thesis and an oral examination on the thesis. Required of candidates for graduation with honors in American studies who enroll in the class once permission to pursue honors is granted.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Mentored Research.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoAMST 692H.  Honors in American Studies.  3 Credits.  

Directed independent research leading to the preparation of an honors thesis and an oral examination on the thesis. Required of candidates for graduation with honors in American studies who enroll in the class once permission to pursue honors is granted.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Mentored Research.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  

Graduate-level Courses

AMST 700.  The History and Practices of American Studies.  3 Credits.  

This course will acquaint students with the texts, contexts, issues, and controversies in American Studies as a field of study. It is required for most American studies graduate students and open to graduate students in other departments.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 701.  Interdisciplinary Research Methods.  3 Credits.  

This course will focus on techniques of American studies investigation. Various faculty members will make presentations highlighting approaches including Southern studies, American Indian studies, Material Culture studies, and new media.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 702.  Readings in American Studies.  3 Credits.  

This course takes a specific topic to explore in depth, and through this investigation critically examines contending perspectives on the field. Topics will change depending on faculty interest.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit.   
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 714.  Incarceration in America.  3 Credits.  

This course explores the theoretical underpinnings, history, and contemporary controversies around incarceration in the United States. It begins by exploring early articulations of the need for imprisonment as punishment, examines how that history unfolded in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, and engages with contemporary debates about mass incarceration and its impacts on American communities.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 715.  Community Histories and Public Humanities.  3 Credits.  

Community Histories and Public Humanities explores how communities have been, are, and might be preserved, documented, represented, and remembered. Focuses on the use of digitized primary sources and tools to engage communities in public history/humanities initiatives using interdisciplinary approaches informed by American Studies and Folklore. Participants have opportunity to work on ongoing community history/archiving projects. Project-based work is supported by reading in memory studies, representation, sites of trauma, community archiving, and oral history.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 6 total credits. 2 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 720.  Fugitive Philosophies: The Intellectual Tradition of Forced Movers.  3 Credits.  

Seminar traces the intellectual tradition of refugees, migrants, and forced movers transiting the United States. Beginning in the 19th century and progressing to the 21st century, we will examine the works of anticolonial thinkers, Caribbean philosophers, journalists of the African American and Latinx traditions, labor movement musicians, activists in the Long Civil Rights Movement, Marxist organizers, and social and political reformers. We analyze how their dislocations and multi-sited lives have created spaces for philosophical interventions.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 775.  Graduate Seminar in Food Studies: Interdisciplinary Research.  3 Credits.  

This class exposes graduate students to interdisciplinary food studies research in the humanities. We use farm records, cookbooks, novels, poetry, photographs, songs, documentaries, and oral histories to investigate American food communities. We are not aiming to define food studies, but are looking at its questions, problems, theories, and methods.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 795.  Digital Humanities Field Experience.  1-3 Credits.  

An opportunity for students to translate theory into practice as they make meaningful contributions to digital humanities projects. Field experience can be tailored to fit the intellectual and professional needs of individual students, who may choose to work on projects in cultural heritage institutions or within academic departments on campus.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 6 total credits. 2 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 820.  Critical Ethnic Studies (CES): New Perspectives.  3 Credits.  

This course is devised to provide graduate students interested in theoretical interdisciplinary work with a sense of prevailing questions and critiques important to CES. CES takes on the more difficult questions of intersectional work, as it thinks through sovereignty and emancipation, identity and ontology, place, space and temporality. Each iteration of the course works itself through new perspectives in the field, challenging students to create new methodologies for their own work.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: COMM 820, WGST 820.  
AMST 840.  Digital Humanities/Digital American Studies.  3 Credits.  

This course, explores the application of digital technologies to the materials, questions, and practices of humanities scholarship, particularly as related to enduring topics in American Studies scholarship and community engagement. Students will work on group digital history projects in collaboration with local cultural heritage organizations.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 850.  Digital Humanities Practicum.  3 Credits.  

This practicum blends graduate seminar discussions with hands-on training in the digital humanities. Students will work in the Digital Innovation Lab, contributing to real-life projects while developing their own professional development goals. Students will emerge with a deeper understanding of and experience with digital humanities approaches, practices, and issues.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 6 total credits. 2 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 878.  Readings in Native American History.  3 Credits.  

Readings in and discussions of the major works in Native American history.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: HIST 878.  
AMST 880.  American Film and Media History.  3 Credits.  

Topically focused examination of social and cultural aspects of cinema and media history in the United States, including cinema/media audiences, reception, and historiography.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit.   
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 890.  Seminar in American Studies.  3 Credits.  

Graduate seminar exploring selected topics in the theory and practice of American Studies.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 12 total credits. 4 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 895.  Directed Readings.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor. Independent reading programs for graduate students.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 12 total credits. 4 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 900.  Directed Studies.  0.5-15 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor. Topics and credit hours vary according to the needs and interests of the individual student and the professor supervising the research project.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit.   
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 901.  M.A. Research Seminar.  3 Credits.  

Students will be introduced to issues of project design, develop a prospectus for the M.A. capstone project, work with an advisor, and prepare full drafts of their projects.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 902.  Ph.D. Research Seminar.  3 Credits.  

A review of current scholarship in American Studies, with the aim of creating the final reading list for the comprehensive exams, and an introduction to dissertation design.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 903.  Comprehensive Exams and Dissertation Design.  3 Credits.  

This is the third and final course in a required sequence for PhD students in the Department of American Studies. It is intended to scaffold you into "ABD" status: the concentrated period of research and writing that will lead to the completion of a dissertation. It does so first by creating a community of common labor around studying for comprehensive exams, and then by support you through the dissertation proposal and prospectus writing process. Restricted to Graduate Students only.

Rules & Requirements  
Requisites: Prerequisites, AMST 700, 701 and 901.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
AMST 948.  Research in Native American History.  3 Credits.  

This course introduces graduate students to research methods in Native American history, including the methodology of ethnohistory and the techniques of compiling a source base, taking notes, and outlining.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: HIST 948.  
AMST 992.  Master's (Non-Thesis).  3 Credits.  

Non-Thesis Option

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit.   
AMST 993.  Master's Research and Thesis.  3 Credits.  

Master's Thesis

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit.   
AMST 994.  Doctoral Research and Dissertation.  3 Credits.  

Individual work on the doctoral dissertation, pursued under the supervision of the Ph.D. advisor.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit.   

FOLK

Advanced Undergraduate and Graduate-level Courses

IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 424.  Ritual, Festival, and Public Culture.  3 Credits.  

This course explores rituals, festivals, and public cultural performances as forms of complex, collective, embodied creative expression. As sites of popular celebration, conflict resolution, identity definition, and social exchange, they provide rich texts for folkloristic study. We consider how local and global forces both sustain and challenge these forms.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-KNOWING or FC-VALUES, RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, EE- Field Work.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 424.  
FOLK 428.  Religion and Anthropology.  3 Credits.  

Religion studied anthropologically as a cultural, social, and psychological phenomenon in the works of classical and contemporary social thought. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 428, RELI 428.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 429.  Culture and Power in Southeast Asia.  3 Credits.  

The formation and transformation of values, identities, and expressive forms in Southeast Asia in response to forms of power. Emphasis on the impact of colonialism, the nation-state, and globalization.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-GLOBAL or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, BN, GL.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 429, ASIA 429.  
FOLK 455.  Ethnohistory.  3 Credits.  

Integration of data from ethnographic and archaeological research with pertinent historic information. Familiarization with a wide range of sources for ethnohistoric data and practice in obtaining and evaluating information. Pertinent theoretical concepts will be explored.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 455.  
FOLK 470.  Medicine and Anthropology.  3 Credits.  

This course examines cultural understandings of health, illness, and medical systems from an anthropological perspective with a special focus on Western medicine.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 470.  
FOLK 473.  Anthropology of the Body and the Subject.  3 Credits.  

Anthropological and historical studies of cultural constructions of bodily experience and subjectivity are reviewed, with emphasis on the genesis of the modern individual and cultural approaches to gender and sexuality.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 473.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 476.  Graffiti, Gods, and Gardens: Urban Folklore.  3 Credits.  

What is the relationship between distinctive features of urban environments and the expressive forms found in those settings? This course explores the impact of the urban setting on folk traditions. We examine how people transform urban spaces into places of meaning through storytelling, festival, ritual, food, art, music, and dance.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-POWER, RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, EE- Field Work, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 480.  Vernacular Traditions in African American Music.  4 Credits.  

Explores performance traditions in African American music, tracing development from African song through reels, blues, gospel, and contemporary vernacular expression. Focuses on continuity, creativity, and change within African American aesthetics. Previously offered as FOLK 610/AAAD 432.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-POWER.
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, EE- Field Work, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: AAAD 480.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 481.  Jewish Belonging/s: The Material Culture of Jewish Experience.  3 Credits.  

What makes an object "Jewish"? This seminar examines how we think about, animate, repurpose, and display "Jewish" objects in the public realm, cultural institutions, religious spaces, and the home. We consider how makers and users negotiate objects' various meanings within the domains of prayer, performance, entertainment, and exhibition. The class curates a final group exhibition of Jewish material culture based on original fieldwork.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-CREATE, RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, EE- Field Work, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: JWST 481.  
FOLK 484.  Discourse and Dialogue in Ethnographic Research.  3 Credits.  

Study of cultural variation in styles of speaking applied to collection of ethnographic data. Talk as responsive social action and its role in the constitution of ethnic and gender identities.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, CI, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 484, LING 484.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 487.  Everyday Stories: Personal Narrative and Legend.  3 Credits.  

Oral storytelling may seem old-fashioned, but we tell true (or possibly true) stories every day. We will study personal narratives (about our own experiences) and legends (about improbable, intriguing events), exploring the techniques and structures that make them effective communication tools and the influence of different contexts and audiences.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-KNOWING.
Making Connections Gen Ed: CI, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ENGL 487.  
FOLK 488.  No Place like Home: Material Culture of the American South.  3 Credits.  

Seminar will explore the unique worlds of Southern material culture and how "artifacts" from barns to biscuits provide insight about the changing social and cultural history of the American South.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: AMST 488.  
FOLK 490.  Topics in Folklore.  3 Credits.  

Topics vary from semester to semester.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit; may be repeated in the same term for different topics; 12 total credits. 4 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
FOLK 495.  Field Research.  3 Credits.  

Research at sites that vary.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit; may be repeated in the same term for different topics; 12 total credits. 4 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
FOLK 496.  Directed Readings in Folklore.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the department. Topic varies depending on the instructor.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 12 total credits. 4 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 502.  Myths and Epics of the Ancient Near East.  3 Credits.  

An examination of Babylonian, Canaanite, Egyptian, Hittite, and Sumerian texts from the prebiblical era, focusing on representative myths, epics, sagas, songs, proverbs, prophecies, and hymns. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: FC-AESTH or FC-PAST.
Making Connections Gen Ed: LA, WB.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: RELI 502.  
FOLK 537.  Gender and Performance: Constituting Identity.  3 Credits.  

Examines the culturally and historically variable ways in which individuals constitute themselves as cis- or transgendered subjects, drawing upon extant expressive resources, modifying them, and expanding options available to others. Performance of self as the product of esthetically marked or unmarked, everyday actions.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, GL.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 537, WGST 438.  
FOLK 550.  Introduction to Material Culture.  3 Credits.  

An introduction to material folk culture, exploring the meanings that people bring to traditional arts and the artful creations with which they surround themselves (e.g., architecture, clothing, altars, tools, food).

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
FOLK 560.  Southern Literature and the Oral Tradition.  3 Credits.  

Course considers how Southern writers employ folklore genres such as folk tales, sermons, and music and how such genres provide structure for literary forms like the novel and the short story.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, NA, US.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 562.  Oral History and Performance.  3 Credits.  

This course combines readings and field work in oral history with the study of performance as a means of interpreting and conveying oral history texts. Honors version available.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: HI-PERFORM.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Performing Arts.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: COMM 562, HIST 562, WGST 562.  
FOLK 571.  Southern Music.  3 Credits.  

Explores the history of music in the American South from its roots to 20th-century musical forms, revealing how music serves as a window on the region's history and culture.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: HIST 571.  
FOLK 587.  Folklore in the South.  3 Credits.  

An issue-oriented study of Southern folklore, exploring the ways that vernacular artistic expression (from barns and barbecue to gospel and well-told tales) come to define both community and region.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: VP, NA.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
FOLK 670.  Introduction to Oral History.  3 Credits.  

Introduces students to the uses of interviews in historical research. Questions of ethics, interpretation, and the construction of memory will be explored, and interviewing skills will be developed through field work.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: HS, CI.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: HIST 670.  
FOLK 675.  Ethnographic Method.  3 Credits.  

Intensive study and practice of the core research methods of cultural and social anthropology.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, CI.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 675.  
FOLK 688.  Observation and Interpretation of Religious Action.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor. Exercises (including field work) in learning to read the primary modes of public action in religious traditions, e.g., sermons, testimonies, rituals, and prayers.

Rules & Requirements  
Making Connections Gen Ed: SS, EE- Mentored Research.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 688, RELI 688.  
FOLK 690.  Studies In Folklore.  3 Credits.  

Topic varies from semester to semester.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit; may be repeated in the same term for different topics; 12 total credits. 4 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 691H.  Honors Project in Folklore.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor. For honors candidates. Ethnographic and/or library research and analysis of the gathered materials, leading to a draft of an honors thesis.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Mentored Research.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
IDEAs in Action General Education logoFOLK 692H.  Honors Thesis in Folklore.  3 Credits.  

Writing of an honors thesis based on independent research conducted in FOLK 691H. Open only to senior honors candidates who work under the direction of a faculty member.

Rules & Requirements  
IDEAs in Action General Education logo IDEAs in Action Gen Ed: RESEARCH.
Making Connections Gen Ed: EE- Mentored Research.  
Requisites: Prerequisite, FOLK 691H.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  

Graduate-level Courses

FOLK 790.  Public Folklore.  3 Credits.  

A graduate seminar addressing theory and praxis in public sector cultural work. Focusing on public folklore, this course explores broad issues of representation, cultural politics, and cultural tourism.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
FOLK 841.  Performance Ethnography.  3 Credits.  

This seminar focuses on methods of ethnography and fieldwork ethics. Performance as theory and practice informs methodological inquiries as well as the analysis of specific ethnographic texts and case studies.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: COMM 841.  
FOLK 842.  Seminar in Performance and Cultural Studies.  3 Credits.  

This course focuses on performance-related issues in the emergent field of cultural studies.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: COMM 842.  
FOLK 843.  Seminar in Contemporary Performance Theory.  3 Credits.  

An advanced graduate seminar, this course will address recent developments and problems in performance theory. It will consider cross- and multidisciplinary approaches to performance as sites for consideration and debate.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: COMM 843.  
FOLK 850.  Approaches to Folklore Theory.  3 Credits.  

A systematic overview of the major issues and theoretical perspectives that have informed the study of folklore historically and that are emerging in contemporary scholarship.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
FOLK 860.  Art of Ethnography.  3 Credits.  

A field-based exploration of the pragmatic, ethical, and theoretical dimensions of ethnographic research, addressing issues of experience, aesthetics, authority, and worldview through the lens of cultural encounter. Field research required.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
Same as: ANTH 860.  
FOLK 890.  Seminar in Folklore.  3 Credits.  

Graduate seminar exploring selected topics in the theory and practice of Folklore.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 12 total credits. 4 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
FOLK 891.  Topics in Folklore.  3 Credits.  

An irregularly offered graduate seminar exploring selected topics in the theory and practice of folklore.

Rules & Requirements  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
FOLK 895.  Directed Readings.  3 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor. Independent reading programs for graduate students.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit. 12 total credits. 4 total completions.  
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
FOLK 900.  Directed Studies.  0.5-15 Credits.  

Permission of the instructor. Topics and credit hours vary according to the needs and interests of the individual student and the professor supervising the research project.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit.   
Grading Status: Letter grade.  
FOLK 993.  Master's Research and Thesis.  3 Credits.  

Research in a special field under the direction of staff members.

Rules & Requirements  
Repeat Rules: May be repeated for credit.   

Department of American Studies

Visit Program Website

Director of Graduate Studies

Gabrielle Berlinger

gberling@unc.edu

Chair

Patricia Sawin

sawin@unc.edu