Students majoring in English, history, fine arts, political science, sociology, or theology may focus their elective and related course choices on American history, literature, art, thought, and institutions, through the minor in American Studies.

Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover, Florence Harding, President Warren G. Harding, Lou Henry Hoover, and H.M. Daugherty at a baseball game, 1922.

In satisfying the GER, major, and other requirements for the degree, participants choose a minimum of six courses from those listed below, with at least two from each group:

History Group:

HIS 2511 Colonial America
HIS 2521 America in the Age of Revolutions
HIS 2531 The Civil War Era
HIS 2551 Ethnic America
HIS 2561 Urban America
HIS 2571 The Progressive Era to the New Deal
HIS 2581 The Cold War Era and its Aftermath
HIS 2591 American Ideas: Origins and Development
HIS 2601 American Ideas: Twentieth Century Uses
HIS 2611 Foundations of American Foreign Policy
HIS 2621 America as a Global Power
HIS 2631 American Biography
HIS 2641 American History-American Historians
HIS 2651 The Civil Rights Movement
HIS 2661 Women in America
HIS 2671 American Environmental History
HIS 2711 Colloquium in American History
HIS 2721 Seminar in American History

ENG 2401 American Colonial and Federal Literature
ENG 2411 American Romantic and Transcendental Literature
ENG 2421 American Literature, 1865-1915
ENG 2431 Nineteenth Century American Fiction
ENG 2621 Writing Narrative
ENG 2701 American Authors
ENG 2711 American Poetry
ENG 2721 American Drama
ENG 2731 Contemporary American Literature
ENO 2741 Southern Literature
ENG 2751 Twentieth Century American Novel
ENG 2921 The Catholic Religious Imagination in Contemporary America

General Group:

ART 1041 Experience of Architecture
ART 2061 American Art and Architecture
ART 2571 American Music
ART 2691 (ENG 2851) American Theatre
ECN 2131 United States Economic History
HON 1633 Philadelphia: in Black and White
LAS 2411 The American Labor Movement
PHL 2711 American Philosophy
POL 2111 Congress and the Legislative Process
POL 2121 The Presidency
POL 2151 The Judicial Process and a Constitution of Powers
POL 2161 The Constitutional Law of Civil Rights and Liberties
POL 2251 Political Parties, Pressure Groups, and Voting Behavior
POL 2261 Urban Politics
POL 2281 Philadelphia Politics
POL 2291 Environmental Politics
POL 2431 Health Policy and Politics
THE 2471 American Religious Thought
THE 2481 American Catholicism
THE 2823 Religious Values in Modern Fiction

Additional courses in each group, as approved by the director and the Committee on American Studies, may become available each year. Selected Honors courses are also eligible for American Studies credit. Consult the Director regarding such credit.

Courses taken to satisfy requirements of the program may also serve to satisfy other degree requirements, as appropriate. Students who successfully complete the program requirements are eligible for the minor in American Studies. This will be awarded only on written application to the Director and following an exit interview with the Director.