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Undergraduate and Graduate Programs 2024-2025


AMERICAN CULTURE AND LITERATURE

Daniel Peter Johnson, Ph.D., Chair

Academic Staff
Courses

The Department of American Culture and Literature offers a program leading to the Bachelor of Arts degree. The department offers a course selection that examines the United States in all its complexity, integrating literature, culture, and history. This interdisciplinary program will not only introduce students to the study of the United States but will also develop critical and creative thinking skills that will enable students to reflect upon their own culture and its history and literature. The newly revised curriculum seeks to ground students in the skills of close reading and textual analysis. Further, it asks students to consider works in their historical and cultural contexts, illustrating the complicated social relations that exist between writer, text, history, and reader. In recognition of the demands of contemporary professional and academic life, the program now requires courses in the natural and social sciences. The program, as is true of most other programs in the humanities, does not offer vocational training per se but rather develops fluency in English, analytical skills, and ability in written expression that will prepare students for success in their professional lives and in further academic study.

UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM

CURRICULUM

FIRST YEAR

Autumn Semester

Code Course Name Hours Credit ECTS
Credit
Lec. Other
AMER 115  Methods and Texts I  3    3  5
AMER 195  Introduction to American Studies I  3    3  5
CS 121  Introduction to Computer Applications and Programming  2  2  3  5
ENG 101  English and Composition I  5    3  5
ENG 117  Advanced English Grammar I  3    3  5
GE 100  Orientation      1  2
TURK 101  Turkish I      2  3.5

Spring Semester

Code Course Name Hours Credit ECTS
Credit
Lec. Other
AMER 116  Methods and Texts II  3    3  5
AMER 196  Introduction to American Studies II  3    3  5
ENG 102  English and Composition II  5    3  5
ENG 118  Advanced English Grammar II  3    3  5
TURK 102  Turkish II      2  3.5

SECOND YEAR

Autumn Semester

Code Course Name Hours Credit ECTS
Credit
Lec. Other
AMER 207  American Texts and Contexts I  3    4  6.5
AMER 293  American History I  3    3  5
GE 250  Collegiate Activities Program I      -  1
HIST 200  History of Turkey  3    4  6.5
HUM 111  Cultures Civilizations and Ideas I  3    3  5
MATH 103  Thinking Mathematically I  3    3  5
SOC 101  Introduction to Sociology  3    3  5

Spring Semester

Code Course Name Hours Credit ECTS
Credit
Lec. Other
AMER 208  American Texts and Contexts II  3    4  6.5
AMER 294  American History II  3    3  5
GE 251  Collegiate Activities Program II      1  2
HUM 112  Cultures Civilizations and Ideas II  3    3  5
PHYS 180  Conceptual Physics  3    3  5
POLS 104  Politics II: How Does It Work?  3    3  5

THIRD YEAR

Autumn Semester

Code Course Name Hours Credit ECTS
Credit
Lec. Other
AMER 290  Summer Training I      -  6
AMER 303  Film Studies in American Culture to 1960  3    4  6.5
AMER 343  American Theater  3    3  5
AMER 357  American Intellectual History I  3    3  5
AMER 383  American Novel to 1900  3    3  5
COMD 358  Professional Communication  3    3  5

Spring Semester

Code Course Name Hours Credit ECTS
Credit
Lec. Other
AMER 304  Film Studies in American Culture Since 1960  3    4  6.5
AMER 358  American Intellectual History II  3    3  5
AMER 374  American Poetry  3    3  5
AMER 384  American Novel From 1900  3    3  5
  Arts Core Elective      3  -

FOURTH YEAR

Autumn Semester

Code Course Name Hours Credit ECTS
Credit
Lec. Other
AMER 390  Summer Training II      -  6
AMER 427  Topics in Theory for American Culture  3    3  5
AMER 459  Race and Ethnicity in American Culture  3    3  5
  General Electives (2)      6  -
  Restricted Elective      3  -
  Social Science Core Elective      3  -

Spring Semester

Code Course Name Hours Credit ECTS
Credit
Lec. Other
AMER 406  Senior Project      3  5
AMER 426  American Studies in a Global Context  3    3  5
AMER 492  Gender Studies in American Culture  3    3  5
  General Elective      3  -
  Restricted Electives (2)      6  -

RESTRICTED ELECTIVES

Code Course Name Hours Credit ECTS
Credit
Lec. Other
AMER 430  The Thirties: the Great Depression and the New Deal  3    3  5
AMER 441  Culture in its Historical Contexts  3    3  5
AMER 447  Topics in Cultural Studies  3    3  5
AMER 448  American Pragmatism  3    3  5
AMER 460  Contemporary Native American Writers  3    3  5
AMER 468  American Fiction in the 21. Century: Migration, Space, Identity  3    3  5
AMER 469  Law in American Literature and Culture  3    3  5
AMER 474  Colonialism and the Making of the New World  3    3  5
AMER 476  Selfhood and Emotional Life in American Culture and History  3    3  5
AMER 477  American Gothic  3    3  5
AMER 478  Science Fiction in American Culture  3    3  5
AMER 480  Hemispheric American Studies  3    3  5
AMER 481  Theories of American Culture: An Ethnographic Approach  3    3  5
AMER 482  Creative Writing Workshop  3    3  5
AMER 483  Freedom and Philosophy in Anglo-America  3    3  5
AMER 484  21st Century African American Novel and Social Change  3    3  5
AMER 486  Social Movements in American History  3    3  5
AMER 487  Native American Literature  3    3  5
AMER 488  Imagining the American West  3    3  5
AMER 489  The History of Childhood and Youth in America  3    3  5
ELIT 384  Philosophy and Literature  3    3  5
ELIT 463  Postcolonial Literature  3    3  5
HIST 435  History of US Foreign Relations: the Cold War and Beyond  3    3  5
HIST 559  Economic History, the Rise of Capitalism  3    3  5
HUM 331  Humanities and Social Science Honors Seminar  3    3  5
IR 338  International Political Economy  3    3  5
IR 349  International Relations in Movies  3    3  5
IR 401  American Politics and Foreign Policy  3    3  5
PHIL 421  Feminist Philosophy  3    3  5
PHIL 422  Bioethics  3    3  5
POLS 488  Film and Politics  3    3  5

MINOR PROGRAM

The Minor Program in American Culture and Literature takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the United States, its people, and its culture. The program allows students from any academic background to explore the main themes and ideas of American literature, film, theater, poetry, and history. Such ideas include gender, race, ethnicity, and other forms of identity. Moreover, the program will allow students to increase their fluency in English, as courses emphasize developing their reading, writing, and analytical skills. At the end, students should have a much better understanding of what the term "American" means, as courses and instructors seek to replace a superficial understanding of America with a deeper, more layered, and more nuanced understanding.

Prerequisite Courses:

  • A minimum grade of B- in ENG 102

CURRICULUM

Courses

Code Course Name Hours Credit ECTS
Credit
Lec. Other
AMER 195  Introduction to American Studies I  3    3  5
AMER 196  Introduction to American Studies II  3    3  5
AMER 207  American Texts and Contexts I  3    4  6.5
AMER 208  American Texts and Contexts II  3    4  6.5
  AMER Course Electives (2)      6  -

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