American Studies

American Studies Department: 

Department website: https://americanstudies.columbia.edu/

Office location: 319-321 Hamilton; 212-854-6698

Office contact: 212-854-6698, amerianstudies@columbia.edu 

Director: Prof. Jeremy Dauber, 319 Hamilton; 212-854-6698; jad213@columbia.edu

Assistant Director: Michael Gately, 319 Hamilton; 212-854-6544; mg3898@columbia.edu

Associate Director: Robert Amdur, 311 Hamilton; 212-854-4049; rla2@columbia.edu

Administrative Assistant: Arelis Herrera, 319 Hamilton; 212-854-6698; ah3115@columbia.edu

The Study of American Studies 

The Center for American Studies offers students the opportunity to explore the experiences and values of the people of the United States as embodied in their history, literature, politics, art, and other enduring forms of cultural expression. The Center views civic education as its primary mission, sponsoring seminars and public programs that enhance students’ understanding of the fundamental ideas and vocabulary of public discourse in American culture, history, and politics. The Center is the institutional home of the American Studies program, which offers an interdisciplinary, seminar-based curriculum designed to be open and flexible while preparing students for a life of active citizenship.

Student Advising

Each American Studies major or concentrator chooses an academic adviser who monitors their progress through graduation. Students work with advisors to develop programs tailored to their particular interests. Advisors approve Plan of Study forms and provide general guidance regarding the major and concentration. Each student is expected to meet with an advisor at least once a semester.

Undergraduate Research and Senior Thesis

Senior Research Project 

The final requirement for the major in American Studies is completion of a senior essay, to be submitted in the spring of senior year.

Alternatively, students may fulfill this requirement by taking an additional seminar in which a major paper is required or by writing an independent essay under the supervision of a faculty member. Seniors who wish to do a senior research project are required to take the Senior Project Colloquium in the fall of their senior year. 

Department Honors and Prizes

Department Honors 

Students with a 3.6 minimum GPA in the major and an outstanding senior project are considered for honors. Normally, no more than 10% of graduating majors receive departmental honors in a given year.

Academic Prizes 

  • Best Senior Thesis in American Studies

  • Shenton Award; Outstanding Community Service

Seminar Faculty

  • Jeremy A. Dauber 
  • Lynne Breslin
  • Ryan Carr
  • Casey N. Blake
  • Andrew Delbanco
  • Hilary A. Hallett
  • Michael Hindus
  • Roger Lehecka
  • Paul Levitz
  • Mark Lilla
  • Thai S. Jones
  • John H. McWhorter
  • Valerie Paley
  • Robert Pollack
  • Ross Posnock
  • Cathleen Price
  • Benjamin Rosenberg
  • James Shapiro
  • Maura Spiegel

Affiliated Faculty

  • Rachel Adams (English and Comparative Literature)
  • Robert Amdur (Political Science)
  • Courtney Bender (Religion)
  • George A. Chauncey (History)
  • Racquel Gates (Film and Media Studies)
  • Farah Jasmine Griffin (English and Comparative Literature)
  • Frank A. Guridy (History)
  • Richard R. John (Journalism)
  • Ira I. Katznelson (Political Science and History)
  • Rebecca A. Kobrin (History)
  • Michele M. Moody-Adams (Philosophy)
  • Mae Ngai (Asian American Studies and History)
  • Ross Posnock (English and Comparative Literature; American Studies)
  • Shana L. Redmond (English and Comparative Literature)
  • James Shapiro (English and Comparative Literature)
  • Michael J. Witgen (History)

Guidance for Undergraduate Students in the Department

Program Planning for all Students

Students may choose American Studies as an undergraduate major or a concentration. A minimum of 9 courses is required to complete the major, and 7 courses to complete the concentration. Coursework for both consists of a combination of required courses (see degree requirements below) and an individualized program of study.

Although students generally declare their major or concentration in the spring of their sophomore year, you may want to take electives early on in areas that interest you but that will later connect with the American Studies major.

Undergraduate Programs of Study

Major in American Studies

A minimum of nine courses is required to complete the major.  Please note that as of 2025, Major requirements have changed.  Please consult with the department if you have any questions.

One American Studies Core course:
AMST UN1010: Introduction to American Studies.

Two seminars in American Studies 

Four Additional Courses from other departments, including one course in American history before 1865 and one America-focused course in CSER or AAADS.

Senior Research Project:
The final requirement for the major in American Studies is completion of a senior thesis, for which students enroll in the Senior Thesis seminar in the fall and the spring of their senior year. Alternatively, students may fulfill this requirement by taking both an additional course and an additional seminar requiring a major paper.

Minor in American Studies

A minimum of five courses is required to complete the minor. Minors will be required to take the core introductory course required for Majors, one American Studies seminar, and three additional courses:

One American Studies Core course

Minors are required to take the core lecture course AMST UN1010 INTRO TO AMERICAN STUDIES

This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of the values and cultural expressions of the people of the United States from the Puritans to our own time. Students will examine a variety of works in literature, history, and cultural criticism, with an eye to understanding how Americans of different backgrounds, living at different times and in different locations, have understood and argued about the meaning and significance of American national identity. Lectures and readings will give particular attention to the sites—real and imagined—where Americans have identified the promise and perils of American life. Two lectures each week and a required weekly discussion section.

One seminar in American Studies

Chosen from among the 3000-level AMST seminars. Normally, eight or nine seminars are offered each semester.

Recent offerings include:
The Supreme Court in American History
Shakespeare in America
American Jewish Literature
Freedom and Citizenship in the United States
Douglass and Lincoln
Gender History and American Film
American Cultural Criticism
Immigrant New York
The Problem of Class in American Literature and Culture
A Tale of Two Cities: New York, San Francisco, and Urban Identity
Tocqueville: The American Mind
Race, Poverty, and American Criminal Justice
Equity in Higher Education
Museums, Memory, and American Public Culture
Hollywood’s Cinema of the 1970s
Languages of America
The Graphic Novel (AMST UN 3933)
Journalism and Democracy: The 2024 Election (AMST UN3937)

Additional Courses

In addition to the introductory course and one American Studies seminar, every Minor is required to take three additional courses on American history, culture, or politics. As with our Majors, these courses can be drawn from a wide range of departments. All courses must be approved by the student’s American Studies advisor. A representative list includes:

AFAS UN1001, Introduction to African American Studies
CSER UN3940, Comparative Study of Constitutional Challenges
ENGL UN2826, American Modernism
ENGL BC3180, American Literature, 1800-1870
ENGL BC3183, American Literature Since 1945
ENGL UN3241, African American Literature: The Essay
ENGL UN3351, The Family in Film and Memoir
ENGL UN3832, New York Intellectuals
HIST UN1488, Indigenous History of North America
HIST UN1512, The Battle for North America
HIST UN2432, U.S. Era of Civil War and Reconstruction
HIST UN2523, Health Inequality: Modern U.S.
HIST UN2533, U.S. Lesbian and Gay History
HIST UN2535, History of the City of New York
HIST UN2540. History of the South
HIST UN2565, American History at the Movies
HIST UN2587, Sports and Society in the Americas
HIST UN2679, The Atlantic Slave Trade
HIST UN3501, Indians and Empires in North America
HIST GU4518, Columbia University and Slavery
HIST GU4933, American Radicalism in the Archives
POLS UN1201, Introduction to American Politics
POLS UN3100, Justice
POLS UN3213, American Urban Politics
POLS UN3222, The American Congress
POLS UN3255, Race and the U.S. Carceral System
POLS UN3290, Voting and American Politics
RELI UN1612, Religion and the History of Hip Hop
RELI GU4217, American Religions in Extremis
SOCI UN3265, The Sociology of Work and Gender

For students who entered Columbia in or before the 2023-24 academic year

Concentration in American Studies

A minimum of 7 courses is required to complete the concentration. Please consult with the department if there are any questions.

Two American Studies Core courses.
The following are ordinarily required:
AMST UN1010INTRO TO AMERICAN STUDIES
HIST UN2478US INTELLECTUAL HIST 1865-PRES
or AMST UN3930 Topics in American Studies
Please note, the AMST UN3930 section MUST be Freedom and Citizenship in the U.S. to count towards the core course requirement
Additional Courses
Select five additional courses drawn from at least two departments, one of which must be in History, and one of which must deal with the period before 1900.

AMST UN3930 Topics in American Studies. 4 points.

Please refer to the Center for American Studies website for course descriptions for each section. americanstudies.columbia.edu

Fall 2026: AMST UN3930
Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment
AMST 3930 001/12231 Th 2:10pm - 4:00pm
317 Hamilton Hall		 Casey Blake 4 0/18
AMST 3930 002/12232 M 6:10pm - 8:00pm
317 Hamilton Hall		 Benjamin Rosenberg 4 0/18

AMST UN3933 The American Graphic Novel. 4.00 points.

The course seeks to combine literary and historical approaches to investigate one of the most rapidly growing, increasingly influential, and, increasingly, critically recognized forms of American popular literature: the graphic novel. A historical overview of the medium’s development, complete with analysis of relevant broader institutional and cultural factors illuminating the development of American media culture more generally, will be complemented by study of a series of recent works illuminating the medium’s explosive maturation. Authors read include Eisner, Crumb, Spiegelman, Bechdel, Thompson, and Hernandez

Fall 2026: AMST UN3933
Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment
AMST 3933 001/12233 W 2:10pm - 4:00pm
317 Hamilton Hall		 Paul Levitz, Jeremy Dauber 4.00 6/18

AMST UN3937 American Journalism and Democracy. 4.00 points.

The traditional role of the media in our democracy -- to support an informed electorate -- has been disrupted in the 21st century by technological change, transforming the delivery of information and opinion in radical ways. Partisanship has soared, along with a collapse of the shared fact base. In this course we examine the current state of political and election coverage, in counterpoint with iconic pieces of political reporting and media analysis that offer perspective and highlight turning points in the history of American journalism. With the shrinking role of the legacy news media and the explosion of new formats and platforms, the concept of "objectivity" has lost value. We explore the impact of novel news sources and styles of expression, the impact of algorithms that prioritize emotional engagement, the decline of trust in the media, and the scourge of misinformation. What is the future of independent journalism? And how are these profound changes in news consumption affecting the decisions that voters make?

Fall 2026: AMST UN3937
Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment
AMST 3937 001/12234 W 4:10pm - 6:00pm
317 Hamilton Hall		 Caroline Miller 4.00 10/18

AMST UN3943 Free Speech in American Society. 4.00 points.

In the contemporary USA, free speech is often understood as a legal doctrine or a branch of Constitutional Law. But it can also be understood as a tradition, a way of life, part of American culture. In this seminar, we will explore the hypothesis that America’s free speech tradition has been shaped primarily by people who aren’t lawyers or lawmakers: by beatniks, pamphleteers, abolitionists, Red Power activists, queers, feminists and Free Lovers, poets, preachers, and hackers. People from all these groups have shaped America’s free speech tradition from the sixteenth century to the present day, although they’re usually omitted from Constitution-centered histories of free speech because they weren’t lawyers or parties to lawsuits. This course provides a transnational, cultural perspective on free speech history that decenters the First Amendment from its quasi-sacrosanct place in the historiography of American liberty. Instead of looking at legal arguments and decisions, we will survey the very wide range of social contexts in which struggles over free speech have taken place in American history, from the Pueblo Revolt in seventeenth-century New Mexico to the rise of MAGA in our own time. We’ll seek to understand how, starting in the twentieth century, “free speech” and “the First Amendment” became practically synonymous, with the result that most contemporary Americans know very little about the history of free expression in this country. And we’ll ask what (if anything) gives America’s four-hundred-year-old free speech tradition its unity and coherence

Fall 2026: AMST UN3943
Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment
AMST 3943 001/12235 Th 4:10pm - 6:00pm
317 Hamilton Hall		 Ryan Carr 4.00 19/18

AMST UN3995 SENIOR THESIS IN AMER STUDIES. 4.00 points.

A year-long seminar for outstanding majors who want to conduct research -- or to design a creative project -- on any aspect of American history and culture. During the fall, students will clarify their research agenda or creative topic, sharpen their questions, locate their primary and secondary sources, and begin their project to be completed in the spring perhaps leading to departmental honors. See American Studies website for more details

Fall 2026: AMST UN3995
Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment
AMST 3995 001/14887  
 4.00 0/10

CROSS LISTED COURSES 

AMHS UN3462 IMMIGRANT NEW YORK. 4.00 points.

For centuries, New York City has served as a primary gateway city for immigrants to the United States. In the early twentieth century, according to the 1910 Census, New York City’s population was roughly 40％ foreign-born. The problems these immigrants presented to government officials, doctors, religious leaders, industrialists, the police, and educators in New York City transformed not only the local debate on immigration but the national discussion of “Americanization” as well. According to the most recent census, approximately 40％ of the city's population is foreign-born. Like their predecessors at the turn of the twentieth century, contemporary immigrants, arriving from the Caribbean, Africa, Central America, Asia, and Europe, have posed serious challenges to the civic, educational, and political institutions of New York City. How are these foreign-born residents reshaping the city today? This seminar explores the intersection of immigration, race, culture, and politics in New York City, both from the perspective of history and in relation to contemporary realities as it explores the forces shaping the century-old encounter between immigrants and New York City

Fall 2026: AMHS UN3462
Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment
AMHS 3462 001/11789 M 10:10am - 12:00pm
311 Fayerweather		 Rebecca Kobrin 4.00 12/13

CSER UN3303 Whiteness, Sentiment and Political Belonging. 4.00 points.

Scholars of gender, sexuality, ethnicity and race have long been preoccupied with the terms, categories, and processes through which the United States has excluded or qualified the citizenship of particular groups, including women, immigrants, indigenous nations, and descendants of enslaved Africans. Yet it has spent less time interrogating the unqualified content of Americanness, and the work that the imagination of a "default" American identity does in contemporary political life. This seminar introduces students to this problem through an unspoken racial dimension of American political belonging -- the presumed whiteness of ideal American citizens. Readings drawn from several disciplinary traditions, including anthropology, linguistics, sociology, history, and journalism, will ground students in the course's key concepts, including racial markedness, the history of racialization, and public sentiment. Students will mobilize these tools to analyze several cases that rendered white sentiment explicit in politically efficacious ways, including the "panic" incited by the destabilization of race-based residential segregation, the "paranoia" of conspiracy theorists, the "sympathy" associated with natural disasters, and the "resentment" or "rage" associated with the loss of racial privileges

Fall 2026: CSER UN3303
Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment
CSER 3303 001/12297 Th 4:10pm - 6:00pm
420 Hamilton Hall		 Catherine Fennell 4.00 16/15