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Apr 16, 2025
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Course Catalog 2021-2022 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Comparative American Studies Major
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The major consists of a minimum of 9 full courses (or the equivalent).
Note: Students must earn minimum grades of C- or P for all courses that apply toward the major.
 View the catalog page for the Comparative American Studies department.
Comparative American Studies examines the range and diversity of experiences, communities, and identities in the United States. Through inter and multi-disciplinary study, students explore social, political, economic and cultural processes relating to the production and contestation of power and inequality, and consider the United States locally, nationally, and globally.
Students wishing to declare a Comparative American Studies major should meet with a potential advisor on the CAS faculty (may include courtesy faculty) or the department chair. In consultation with the advisor and using the forms available online here, students will propose a program of study for review by the chair.
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Summary of Requirements
*Note: It is strongly recommend that a 300-level CAST course is completed prior to CAST 500 Cross-Referenced Courses and Petition Process
As Comparative American Studies is an inter- and multi-disciplinary field, we encourage students to take courses in other departments that can enhance and deepen their studies in the major/minor. Many courses in History, English, Sociology, and Politics, for example can be counted, and a comprehensive list can be found here. This resource indicates which concentration and methodological areas courses count for, and should be consulted carefully as students plan their course schedules. If a student is enrolled in or completed a course with substantial American Studies content that is not listed in the resource, they can petition to apply the class toward their major or minor. The process involves filling out the form found here as well as providing a syllabus to the department chair. Students should bear in mind that these requests are not always granted, so if they have any questions about particular courses, they should seek to resolve them before enrolling in the class or well before they complete it. Petitions should be filed no later than the end of the term after which they student has completed the class they wish to count. Honors
Senior Comparative American Studies majors may conduct independent, original research or a creative project through the Honors Program. Consideration for admission to the Honors Program takes place during the second semester of the junior year, by invitation of the Comparative American Studies faculty or by self-nomination. Honors students must enroll in CAST 501 /502 Senior Honors (both semesters) and are exempt from the Research Seminar (CAST 500 ) requirement. Students accepted for honors must normally have a 3.00 GPA in the college, and a 3.25 major average at the beginning of the second semester of the junior year. They must have completed the following by the start of their senior year: Introductory course requirement (100 or a 200-level CAST course) and CAST 200 Theories and Methods in American Studies .  Find more detailed information about the honors program, see the handbook here.
Comparative American Studies Major Course Lists
Methodological Breadth
Return to the summary of requirements.
Students must complete a methodological breadth requirement by completing courses in the following areas: Cultural Studies/Theory, History, and Social Science.
This requirement must be satisfied through three separate courses. For classes that straddle more than one methodological approach, students can only count these toward one of the categories.
Social Science Courses
Return to the summary of requirements.
- AAST 101 - Introduction to Africana Studies
- AAST 231 - African American Politics
- AAST 302 - Marxism and the Black Radical Tradition
- AAST 378 - Sociology of African-American Community
- ANTH 227 - Medical Anthropology
- ANTH 416 - Race, Racism, and Human Variation in Global Perspective
- CAST 201 - Latinas/os in Comparative Perspective
- CAST 210 - Sanctuary, Solidarity, and Latina/o/x Practices of Accompaniment
- CAST 211 - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Identities
- CAST 311 - Militarization of American Daily Life
- CAST 335 - Latinx Oral Histories
- CAST 411 - Seminar: Ethnic and Racial Minority Mental Health
- ECON 243 - Economic History of the United States
- ECON 430 - Economics of Poverty & Income Distribution
- ENVS 230 - Environmental Justice and Local Knowledge
- POLT 116 - The Theory and Practice of Contemporary Left Politics
- POLT 200 - Mass Politics in a Media Age
- POLT 203 - The First Amendment
- POLT 219 - Work, Workers and Trade Unions in Advanced Capitalist Societies
- POLT 228 - US Foreign Policy
- POLT 238 - Modern American Political Thought
- POLT 271 - Gender, Sexuality and the Law
- POLT 275 - Criminal Law
- POLT 278 - Ideal vs Practice of US Democracy: Gender, Race, and the War on Terror
- POLT 279 - American Presidency & Presidential Power
- POLT 280 - U.S. Congressional Politics and Legislative Strategies
- POLT 281 - Interest Groups and American Democracy
- POLT 282 - Politics of Inequality in the United States
- POLT 284 - The American Right
- POLT 315 - Seminar: Future of Organized Labor
- POLT 320 - Imperialism and Global War
- POLT 370 - Race in Congress
- POLT 371 - Power & American Democracy
- RELG 282 - Survey of American Christianity
- SOCI 203 - Sociology of Sexuality
- SOCI 215 - Race, Immigration, and the Asian American Experience
- SOCI 224 - Sociology of Sport
- SOCI 241 - American Urbanism
- SOCI 250 - Sociology of Popular Culture
- SOCI 277 - Race and Ethnic Relations
- SOCI 288 - American Inqualities: Class, Race, Gender, and Sexuality
- SOCI 314 - Unequal Educations
- SOCI 345 - Gender, Work, and Labor in a Transnational Context
- SOCI 348 - Constructing Immigrant Communities
- SOCI 378 - Sociology of African-American Community
- SOCI 386 - Nightlife: Place, Identity and Feeling Alive
- SOCI 420 - Social Inequalities: Class, Race, and Gender
Concentration Area
Return to the summary of requirements. Students must also fulfill a concentration area requirement with a minimum of 4 courses.
Within the concentration, students create an individual focus area on a topic, theme, or question. Students select classes that address their interests within a framework of course offerings designed to build conceptual and practical skills. Concentrations in the Comparative American Studies represent distinct conceptual and scholarly directions within the field. They are: - Identity and diversity
- Examines categories of race, indigeneity, class, gender, sexuality, and/or ability
- Examines diversity within a single category, through categories like race, class, gender, sexuality and ability
- Uses theoretical concepts that emphasize a comparative understanding of social and cultural formation, like “racialized sexualities” or “racial formation”
- Globalization, transnationalism and nation
- Uses the concepts of globalization and transnationalism to examine social and cultural diversity in the United States
- Situates U.S. in a global context through analysis of concepts such as empire or diaspora
- Explores the relationship of transnational social and cultural formations to state power and nationalism in relationship to the United States
- Histories and practices of social change
- Evaluates pedagogy, research, and cultural production as catalysts for social change
- Examines race, class, gender, sexuality, indigeneity, ability and nation in relationship to efforts to affect social change
- Considers histories and strategies of particular social movements
Identity and Diversity Courses
Return to the summary of requirements. - AAST 072 - Blues Aesthetic: Continuity and Transformation
- AAST 101 - Introduction to Africana Studies
- AAST 122 - Caribbean Survey: Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic: Indigenous to 1898
- AAST 123 - Caribbean Survey: Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic: 1898-1986
- AAST 158 - Something from Something
- AAST 171 - Introduction to African American Music I
- AAST 172 - Introduction to African American Music II
- AAST 202 - African American History Since 1865
- AAST 219 - Freedom Movements: Civil Rights and Black Power
- AAST 220 - Doin’ Time: A History of Black Incarceration
- AAST 228 - Katrina and Black Freedom Struggle
- AAST 231 - African American Politics
- AAST 234 - Africana Popular Culture
- AAST 248 - Resistance and Voice: Literature of the African Diaspora
- AAST 249 - Afruturism and Black Speculative Fiction: Black to the Future
- AAST 261 - Framing Blackness: African Americans and Film In The United States 1915 to the Present
- AAST 263 - Black English and Voice: An Introduction to Sociolinguistics
- AAST 264 - African American Drama
- AAST 302 - Marxism and the Black Radical Tradition
- AAST 285 - African American Women’s History
- AAST 357 - Empire and Resistance in the Caribbean (Haiti, Jamaica, Grenada, & Trinidad)
- AAST 361 - Framing Blackness II: African Americans and Cinema in the Late 20th and Early 21st Centuries
- AAST 378 - Sociology of African-American Community
- ANTH 227 - Medical Anthropology
- ANTH 416 - Race, Racism, and Human Variation in Global Perspective
- CAST 201 - Latinas/os in Comparative Perspective
- CAST 202 - Visible Bodies and the Politics of Sexuality
- CAST 207 - Introduction to Queer Studies
- CAST 208 - Which American Life?
- CAST 210 - Sanctuary, Solidarity, and Latina/o/x Practices of Accompaniment
- CAST 232 - History of Race in American Cities and Suburbs
- CAST 235 - Debating Citizenships
- CAST 243 - Promise and Peril: Race and Multicultural America
- CAST 256 - Immigration in U.S. History
- CAST 260 - Asian American History
- CAST 302 - American Agricultures
- CAST 309 - Performing America
- CAST 311 - Militarization of American Daily Life
- CAST 312 - Cultures of Surveillance
- CAST 313 - Archives and Affects
- CAST 315 - Brown TV
- CAST 317 - Transgender Cultural Studies
- CAST 318 - Seminar: American Orientalism
- CAST 319 - Sexual “Absences”
- CAST 335 - Latinx Oral Histories
- CAST/ HIST 382 - Afro-Asian America: Intraminority Connections in Historical Perspective
- CAST 403 - Queer Trauma Narratives
- CAST 405 - Age of Fracture: The United States since 1973
- CAST 411 - Seminar: Ethnic and Racial Minority Mental Health
- CAST 416 - Taste the Nation: Culture, Consumption, and American Identities
- CMPL 365 - Love and Death: Jewish Literature and Culture of the Americas
- CMPL 347 - Sophistications: Queer Postwar New York-Paris Connections
- DANC 214 - Moving into Community
- ENGL 223 - Meaning and Being
- ENGL 231 - Sports Literature and Cultural Fantasy
- ENGL 243 - Promise and Peril: Race and Multicultural America
- ENGL 253 - Pens and Needles: Gender and Media in Early America
- ENGL 258 - August Wilson: The Century Cycle
- ENGL 260 - Black Humor and Irony: Modern Literary Experiments
- ENGL 261 - Constructing the Subject: African American Women and Auto/Biography
- ENGL 263 - Black English and Voice: An Introduction to Sociolinguistics
- ENGL 330 - Modernist Chicago: Urban Literature and Sociology
- ENGL 338 - Modern Fiction and Sexual Difference
- ENGL 357 - Inventing America: Histories of the Book, Archive, and Empire
- ENGL 360 - Globalization and Diaspora
- ENGL 368 - Cultures of Basketball
- ENGL 379 - Welfare Queens and Tiger Moms: Narratives of the Maternal
- ENVS 230 - Environmental Justice and Local Knowledge
- ENVS 301 - Community Engagement and Public Humanities
- ENVS 302 - American Agricultures
- ENVS 315 - Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change
- ENVS 327 - Indigenous Environmentalism
- GSFS 202 - Visible Bodies and the Politics of Sexuality
- GSFS 207 - Introduction to Queer Studies
- GSFS 317 - Transgender Cultural Studies
- GSFS 319 - Sexual “Absences”
- GSFS 347 - Sophistications: Queer Postwar New York-Paris Connections
- GSFS 403 - Queer Trauma Narratives
- HIST 141 - The History of Women in the U.S. to 1865
- HIST 227 - The History and Practice of Whiteness in the United States
- HIST 232 - History of Race in American Cities and Suburbs
- HIST 256 - Immigration in U.S. History
- HIST 257 - Westward Bound: The West in American History
- HIST 260 - Asian American History
- HIST 270 - Latina/o History
- HIST 285 - American Indians: Pre-Columbus to the Present
- HIST 305 - Research Methods in Black Women’s Intellectual History
- HIST 318 - American Orientalism
- HIST 331 - Race and Sexuality in United States History
- HIST 351 - Indians and Empires in Early America
- HIST 376 - Westworlds: Research Seminar in Western History
- HIST 427 - Borderlands
- HIST 493 - Repairing the Past: Readings in Historical Justice
- POLT 271 - Gender, Sexuality and the Law
- POLT 281 - Interest Groups and American Democracy
- POLT 282 - Politics of Inequality in the United States
- POLT 370 - Race in Congress
- RELG 209 - The Bible in American Politics
- RELG 257 - Judaism in the U.S.: State, Synagogue, and Beyond / JWST 257
- RELG 282 - Survey of American Christianity
- RELG 283 - American Religious Traditions
- RELG 358 - Religious Outsiders and the American State
- RHET 205 - Rhetorics of Gender Non-Conformity
- SOCI 203 - Sociology of Sexuality
- SOCI 215 - Race, Immigration, and the Asian American Experience
- SOCI 348 - Constructing Immigrant Communities
- SOCI 378 - Sociology of African-American Community
- SOCI 386 - Nightlife: Place, Identity and Feeling Alive
- SOCI 420 - Social Inequalities: Class, Race, and Gender
- THEA 264 - African American Drama
Globalization, Transnationalism and Nation Courses
Return to the summary of requirements. - AAST 101 - Introduction to Africana Studies
- AAST 122 - Caribbean Survey: Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic: Indigenous to 1898
- AAST 123 - Caribbean Survey: Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic: 1898-1986
- AAST 227 - Saint Domingue/Haiti in the Atlantic World
- AAST 248 - Resistance and Voice: Literature of the African Diaspora
- AAST 249 - Afruturism and Black Speculative Fiction: Black to the Future
- AAST 302 - Marxism and the Black Radical Tradition
- AAST 357 - Empire and Resistance in the Caribbean (Haiti, Jamaica, Grenada, & Trinidad)
- ANTH 416 - Race, Racism, and Human Variation in Global Perspective
- CAST 201 - Latinas/os in Comparative Perspective
- CAST 207 - Introduction to Queer Studies
- CAST 210 - Sanctuary, Solidarity, and Latina/o/x Practices of Accompaniment
- CAST 256 - Immigration in U.S. History
- CAST 260 - Asian American History
- CAST 318 - Seminar: American Orientalism
- CAST 335 - Latinx Oral Histories
- CAST 443 - Colloquium: Crisis of Confidence: American History and Culture in the 1970s
- ENGL 231 - Sports Literature and Cultural Fantasy
- ENGL 254 - Nineteenth-Century New York: Writing the Modern City
- ENGL 255 - In Search of America: The Concept of Nature in Early American Literature
- ENGL 357 - Inventing America: Histories of the Book, Archive, and Empire
- ENGL 360 - Globalization and Diaspora
- ENGL 368 - Cultures of Basketball
- ENGL 379 - Welfare Queens and Tiger Moms: Narratives of the Maternal
- GSFS 207 - Introduction to Queer Studies
- HISP 450 - Puerto Rico Post-Mortem: Nation, Identity, and Language in a Non-Sovereign Territory
- HIST 256 - Immigration in U.S. History
- HIST 260 - Asian American History
- HIST 270 - Latina/o History
- HIST 318 - American Orientalism
- HIST 427 - Borderlands
- HIST 443 - Colloquium: Crisis of Confidence: American History and Culture in the 1970s
- POLT 228 - US Foreign Policy
- POLT 238 - Modern American Political Thought
- POLT 320 - Imperialism and Global War
- SOCI 215 - Race, Immigration, and the Asian American Experience
- SOCI 345 - Gender, Work, and Labor in a Transnational Context
- SOCI 348 - Constructing Immigrant Communities
Histories and Practices of Social Change Courses
Return to the summary of requirements. - AAST 101 - Introduction to Africana Studies
- AAST 122 - Caribbean Survey: Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic: Indigenous to 1898
- AAST 123 - Caribbean Survey: Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic: 1898-1986
- AAST 171 - Introduction to African American Music I
- AAST 172 - Introduction to African American Music II
- AAST 202 - African American History Since 1865
- AAST 219 - Freedom Movements: Civil Rights and Black Power
- AAST 220 - Doin’ Time: A History of Black Incarceration
- AAST 227 - Saint Domingue/Haiti in the Atlantic World
- AAST 228 - Katrina and Black Freedom Struggle
- AAST 231 - African American Politics
- AAST 248 - Resistance and Voice: Literature of the African Diaspora
- AAST 263 - Black English and Voice: An Introduction to Sociolinguistics
- AAST 302 - Marxism and the Black Radical Tradition
- AAST 357 - Empire and Resistance in the Caribbean (Haiti, Jamaica, Grenada, & Trinidad)
- AAST 378 - Sociology of African-American Community
- ANTH 227 - Medical Anthropology
- ANTH 416 - Race, Racism, and Human Variation in Global Perspective
- CAST 201 - Latinas/os in Comparative Perspective
- CAST 207 - Introduction to Queer Studies
- CAST 208 - Which American Life?
- CAST 232 - History of Race in American Cities and Suburbs
- CAST 235 - Debating Citizenships
- CAST 256 - Immigration in U.S. History
- CAST 260 - Asian American History
- CAST 284 - Disability and Queer Community Health in a Time of Pandemic
- CAST 302 - American Agricultures
- CAST 309 - Performing America
- CAST 311 - Militarization of American Daily Life
- CAST 318 - Seminar: American Orientalism
- CAST 319 - Sexual “Absences”
- CAST 335 - Latinx Oral Histories
- CAST 403 - Queer Trauma Narratives
- CAST 405 - Age of Fracture: The United States since 1973
- CAST 443 - Colloquium: Crisis of Confidence: American History and Culture in the 1970s
- ECON 243 - Economic History of the United States
- ECON 430 - Economics of Poverty & Income Distribution
- ENGL 263 - Black English and Voice: An Introduction to Sociolinguistics
- ENVS 219 - Climate Change
- ENVS 315 - Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change
- ENVS 230 - Environmental Justice and Local Knowledge
- ENVS 301 - Community Engagement and Public Humanities
- ENVS 302 - American Agricultures
- ENVS 327 - Indigenous Environmentalism
- GSFS 207 - Introduction to Queer Studies
- GSFS 319 - Sexual “Absences”
- HIST 141 - The History of Women in the U.S. to 1865
- HIST 214 - Oberlin Oral History: Community-Based Learning & Research Practicum
- HIST 227 - The History and Practice of Whiteness in the United States
- HIST 232 - History of Race in American Cities and Suburbs
- HIST 238 - Slavery in the US
- HIST 256 - Immigration in U.S. History
- HIST 260 - Asian American History
- HIST 270 - Latina/o History
- HIST 279 - Civil War and Reconstruction
- HIST 285 - American Indians: Pre-Columbus to the Present
- HIST 304 - Abolitionists and the Antislavery Movement
- HIST 305 - Research Methods in Black Women’s Intellectual History
- HIST 318 - American Orientalism
- HIST 331 - Race and Sexuality in United States History
- HIST 351 - Indians and Empires in Early America
- HIST 407 - Civil War Era
- HIST 443 - Colloquium: Crisis of Confidence: American History and Culture in the 1970s
- HIST 493 - Repairing the Past: Readings in Historical Justice
- POLT 116 - The Theory and Practice of Contemporary Left Politics
- POLT 219 - Work, Workers and Trade Unions in Advanced Capitalist Societies
- POLT 238 - Modern American Political Thought
- POLT 271 - Gender, Sexuality and the Law
- POLT 281 - Interest Groups and American Democracy
- POLT 282 - Politics of Inequality in the United States
- POLT 284 - The American Right
- POLT 315 - Seminar: Future of Organized Labor
- POLT 370 - Race in Congress
- RELG 209 - The Bible in American Politics
- RELG 257 - Judaism in the U.S.: State, Synagogue, and Beyond \ JWST 257
- RELG 283 - American Religious Traditions
- RELG 358 - Religious Outsiders and the American State
- RHET 205 - Rhetorics of Gender Non-Conformity
- SOCI 215 - Race, Immigration, and the Asian American Experience
- SOCI 241 - American Urbanism
- SOCI 288 - American Inqualities: Class, Race, Gender, and Sexuality
- SOCI 314 - Unequal Educations
- SOCI 348 - Constructing Immigrant Communities
- SOCI 378 - Sociology of African-American Community
- SOCI 420 - Social Inequalities: Class, Race, and Gender
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