Department of American Studies

Sylvia Chong

Associate Professor of English and American Studies, Director of Minor in Asian Pacific American Studies

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Lisa Marie Cacho

Associate Professor of American Studies

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Anna Brickhouse

Linden Kent Memorial Professor of English and American Studies

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Lawrie Balfour

James Hart Professor of Politics

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Spring 2025

Expand the course offerings below to learn more about the class schedule, theme, cross listing, and major requirements.

Required AMST Courses

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AMST 3001 – Theories & Methods of American Studies (2 sections)

This seminar course will introduce majors to various theories and methods for the practice of American Studies. The three goals of the seminars are (1) to make students aware of their own interpretive practices; (2) to equip them with information and conceptual tools they will need for advanced work in American Studies; and (3) to provide them with comparative approaches to the study of various aspects of the United States.

Prerequisites: American Studies Major

AMST 3001-001: Theories & Methods of Amer Std

MW 03:30PM-04:45PM | BRN 328

Miller, Karl Hagstrom

AMST 3001-002: Theories & Methods of Amer Std

TR 11:00AM-12:15PM | BRN 235

Tapia, Ruby

Fourth Year Seminars

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AMST 4210 - 001 - Refugee Aesthetics

W 3:30PM-6:00PM | CAB 187

Nguyen, Patricia

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AMST 4321 - 001 - Caribbean Latinx: Cuba, Puerto Rico and the DR

W 3:30PM-6:00PM | SHN 119

Lamas, Carmen E.

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AMST 4500 - 001 - Fourth Year Seminar AMST: Race, Criminality, Abolition

AMST 4500-001: Fourth Year Seminar AMST

TR 11:00AM-12:15PM | WIL 214

Cacho, Lisa Marie

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AMST 4559 - 002 - Politics and Literature

T 4:45PM-7:15PM | GIB 241

Balfour, Katharine L.

AMST Electives

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AMST 1050 - Slavery and Its Legacies

MW 2:00PM-3:15PM | WNR 110

Von Daacke, Kirt

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AMST 2500 - 001 - Major Works for Amer Studies: Commodify Race/Gender/Sexuality

TR 11:00AM-12:15PM | BRN 328

Coyoca, Wilfred David

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AMST 2559 -100- Queer Histories of Art

TR 11:00AM-12:15PM | CAM 158

Getsy, David

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AMST 2660 - 100 - Spirituality in America

MW 02:00PM-02:50PM | WIL 402

Hedstrom, Matthew Sigurd

What does "spiritual but not religious" mean, and why has it become such a pervasive self-description in contemporary America? This interdisciplinary course surveys spirituality in America, with a particular eye for the relationship between spirituality and formal religion, on the one hand, and secular modes of understanding the self, such as psychology, on the other.

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AMST 3180 - 100 - Intro to Asian American Studies

MW 10:00AM-10:50AM | RDL G004

Chong, Sylvia Shin Huey

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AMST 3280 - Introduction to Native American Studies: (Mis)Representations

MW 2:00PM-2:50PM | CAB 364

Jernigan, Kasey

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AMST 3471 - American Cinema

MW 2:00PM-3:15PM | CLK G004

Chong, Sylvia Shin Huey

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AMST 3500 - 100 - Topics in American Studies: Jim Crow America

TR 12:30PM-01:45PM | BRN 328

Grandison, Kenrick I & Ross, Marlon B

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AMST 3559 - 001 - New Course: Latinx and Indigenous Environmentalisms

TR 11:00AM-12:15PM | CLK G004

Azua, Anneleise

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AMST 3559 - 002 - New Course: Placed and Displaced in America

TR 3:30PM-04:45PM | CAB 115

Goff, LIsa

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AMST 3559 - 003 - New Course: Race, Gender, Music

TR 12:30PM-01:45PM | RDL 123

Ngô, Fiona

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AMST 3559 - 004 - New Course: U.S. Cultures of Disability

TR 3:30PM-04:45PM | PHS 217

Ngô, Fiona

Distinguished Majors Course

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AMST 4999 - 001 - DMP Thesis Seminar

R 04:00PM-06:30PM | CAB 038

Coyoca, Wilfred David

This workshop is for American Studies majors who have been admitted to the DMP program. Students will discuss the progress of their own and each other's papers, with particular attention to the research and writing processes. At the instructor's discretion, students will also read key works in the field of American Studies.

Prerequisites: admission to DMP.

Graduate Seminars

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AMST 8001 - 001 - Approaches to American Studies

T 3:30PM-6:00PM | CAB 064

Tapia, Ruby C.

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AMST 5232 - 001 - Oral History: Workshop

M 3:00PM-05:30PM | CAB 207

Hale, Grace E.

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AMST 5500 - 001 - Grad Topics in AMST: Material Culture

R 5:00PM-07:30PM | CAB 111

Goff, Lisa

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AMST 5559 - 001 - New Course: Latinx Literature and the Americas

M 3:30PM-06:00PM | RTN 102

Lamas, Carmen E.

Fall 2024

Expand the course offerings below to learn more about the class schedule, theme, cross listing, and major requirements.

Required AMST Courses

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AMST 2001 – Introduction to American Studies

Lecture: MW 1:00PM-1:50PM | WNR 209

Hamilton, Jack; Ngo, Fiona

Seminars:

101 – Wed 5-5:50p | New Cabell 283 | OBrion, Laura Carrington

102 – Wed 6-6:50p | New Cabell 211 | OBrion, Laura Carrington

103 – Wed 6-6:50p | New Cabell 107 | Parker, Lauren

104 – Wed 7-7:50p | New Cabell 411 | Parker, Lauren

105 – Wed 7-7:50p | New Cabell 211 | OBrion, Laura Carrington

106 – Thurs 5-5:50p | Bryan 328 | Parker, Lauren / Shrum, Nicholas

107 – Thurs 6-6:50p | Bryan 328 | Shrum, Nicholas

108 – Thurs 7-7:50p | Bryan 328 | Shrum, Nicholas

109 – Thurs 8-8:50p | Bryan 328 | Parker, Lauren / Shrum, Nicholas

110 – Fri 11-11:50a | Bryan 328 | Brown, Charles

111 – Fri 12-12:50p | Bryan 328 | Brown, Charles

112 – Fri 2-2:50p | Bryan 328 | Brown, Charles

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AMST 3001 – Theories and Methods of American Studies

TR 9:30AM-10:45AM | BRN 328

Von Eschen, Penny

4000-Level Requirement

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AMST 4500 - 001 - Fourth Year Seminar AMST: The Gig Economy

AMST 4500-001: Fourth Year Seminar AMST

M 3:30PM-6:00PM | CAB 303

Hagstrom Miller, Karl

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AMST 4500 - 002 - Fourth Year Seminar AMST: Race, Space, and Culture

T 5:00PM-7:30PM | CAB 044

Grandison, Kenrick I; Ross, Marlon B

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AMST 4559 - 001 - New Course AMST: Nationalism and Activism in Sport

TR 2:00PM-3:15PM | BRN 328

Coyoca, David

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AMST 4559 - 002 - New Course AMST: Performing Archives, Memory, and Materiality

W 3:30PM-6:00PM | CAB 383

Nguyen, Patricia

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AMST 4559 - 003- New Course AMST: Southern Appalachia in the 1970's

W 4:30PM-7:00PM | FHL 215

Hale, Grace

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AMST 4559 - 004- New Course AMST: Afro-Caribbean Latinx History

TR 9:30AM-10:45AM | FHL 206

Proenza-Coles, Christina

AMST Electives

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AMST 2130 - 001 -Narratives of Girlhood

TR 12:30PM-1:45PM | GIL 245

Tapia, Ruby

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AMST 2422- 001 - Point of View Journalism

TR 12:30PM-1:45PM | CAB 132

Goff, Lisa

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AMST 2559 - 001 - New Course: AMST: Narratives of Displacement and Migration

TR 5:00PM-6:15PM | CAB 107

Coyoca, David

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AMST 3250 - 001 - Black Protest Narrative

TR 11:00AM-12:15PM | BRN 235

Ross, Marlon B

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AMST 3300 - 001 - Introduction to Latinx Studies

TR 2:00PM-3:15PM | WIL 214

Cacho, Lisa M

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AMST 3323 - 001- Hemispheric Latinx Literature and Culture

MW 2:00PM-3:15 PM | BRN 235

Lamas, Carmen E

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AMST 3559 - 001- New Course AMST: Hollywood Exile: German Filmmakers Flee Fascism

MW 3:30PM-4:45PM | CAB 332

Dobryden, Paul A

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AMST 3610- 001 - Asian Americans & Pop Culture

T 3:30PM-6:00PM | CAB 111

Nguyen, Patricia

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AMST 3630 - 001 - Vietnam War Lit & Film

TR 9:30AM-10:45AM | SHN 107

Chong, Sylvia Shin Huey

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AMST 3790 - 001-Moving On; Migration in/to US

TR 3:30PM-4:45PM | CAB 323

Goff, Lisa

Graduate Seminars

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AMST 5559 - 002 - New Course AMST: Theories and Methods of Latinx Studies

M 11:00AM-12:15PM | WIL 214

Cacho, Lisa M

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AMST 5559 - 003 - New Course AMST: Queer Time and Space

MW 3:30PM-4:45PM | FHL 208

Ngo, Fiona

Creative. Dynamic. Inquisitive.

Our capacious approach to American Studies is interdisciplinary and hemispheric. Our teaching and scholarship draws on methodologies from fields including Anthropology, Cultural Studies, English and Literary Studies, History, Media Studies, Performance Studies, Sociology, and Political Science. We uniquely combine arts, humanities, and social sciences in our study of the United States.

We contribute to the mission of the University of Virginia by equipping students to be engaged citizens, and by generating new knowledge and understanding of the nation and world that they inherit. We house the University wide Minors of Asian American Pacific Studies; Latinx Studies; and Native American Indigenous Studies.