Undergraduate Bulletin
Spring 2025
AMR: American Studies
AMR 101: Local and Global: National Boundaries and World-Systems
Introduction to the contemporary capitalist world-system as a complex network of unequal power relationships and its inextricable role in our daily lives. Consideration of the ways the Americas have been incorporated into the world-system through colonialism and early capitalist ventures, with emphasis on the 20th century in terms of transnationalism, globalization, and the mobility of capital and labor, especially as this creates racial formations.
3 credits
AMR 102: Making American Identities
A chronological representation of some of the ways that the peoples living in the current U.S. have identified themselves collectively as Americans and individually as belonging to distinct groups marked by racial, ethnic, gender, and class differences. Readings include texts of various kinds: historical, fictional, and theoretical. A computer (virtual) classroom is part of the coursework.
3 credits
AMR 301: Ethnicity and Race in American History
Overview of the role and place of ethnicity and race in the history of North America through investigation of the ways that ethnic belonging and identity have evolved through the 19th and 20th centuries. Readings and discussion consider how ethnicity is forged through engagement with other "outside" as well as "inside" groups toward an understanding of how and why notions of "ethnicity" and "race" have changed over time. Groups that may be considered include African, Arab, Asian, German, Hispanic, Irish, Italian, Jewish, Native, and South Asian Americans.
Prerequisites: U3 or U4 standing; AMR 101 or 102
3 credits
AMR 390: Humanities Topics in American Studies
Selected topics in American studies in the humanities. Topics may include philosophy and drama in the United States, North and South American films, literary trends in the Americas. May be repeated as the topic changes.
Prerequisite: U3 or U4 standing
Advisory Prerequisite: To be announced with the topic
DEC: GSBC: HFA+
3 credits
AMR 392: Social and Behavioral Sciences Topics in American Studies
Selected topics in American studies in the social and behavioral sciences. Topics may include political history of the United States and Latin America, North and South American economies. May be repeated as the topic changes.
Prerequisite: U3 or U4 standing
Advisory Prerequisite: To be announced with the topic
DEC: FSBC: SBS+
3 credits
AMR 395: Topics in American Studies
Selected topics in non-Western cultures, societies, traditions, literatures, etc. Topics may include contemporary Indian societies in Central and South America, sociology of Latin and South America. May be repeated as the topic changes.
Prerequisite: U3 or U4 standing
Advisory Prerequisite: To be announced with the topic
DEC: JSBC: SBS+
3 credits
AMR 397: Topics in American Studies
Topics in U.S. literature, culture, history, etc., placed within a broad historical context, including social, political, economic, and cultural history and institutions. Topics may include, for instance, women and men in the contemporary United States and contemporary U.S. culture. Semester supplements to this Bulletin contain specific description when course is offered. May be repeated as the topic changes.
Prerequisite: U3 or U4 standing
Advisory Prerequisite: To be announced with the topic
DEC: KSBC: SBS+
3 credits
AMR 401: Senior Seminar in American Studies
Students synthesize the theories, methods, and knowledge gained in previous coursework through in-depth study of a particular issue or question. Discussion is structured around topics that engage the central themes of the histories, cultures, and societies of the Americas from an interdisciplinary perspective.
Prerequisites: U4 standing; AMR major or minor
Advisory Prerequisite: AMR 301
3 credits
AMR 444: Experiential Learning
This course is designed for students who engage in a substantial, structured experiential learning activity in conjunction with another class. Experiential learning occurs when knowledge acquired through formal learning and past experience are applied to a "real-world" setting or problem to create new knowledge through a process of reflection, critical analysis, feedback and synthesis. Beyond-the-classroom experiences that support experiential learning may include: service learning, mentored research, field work, or an internship.
Prerequisite: WRT 102 or equivalent; permission of the instructor and approval of the EXP+ contract (http://sb.cc.stonybrook.edu/bulletin/current/policiesandregulations/degree_requirements/EXPplus.php)
SBC: EXP+
0 credit, S/U grading
AMR 447: Directed Readings in American Studies
Independently supervised readings in selected topics in American Studies. May be repeated.
Prerequisites: Permission of instructor and department
1-6 credits
AMR 458: Speak Effectively Before an Audience
A zero credit course that may be taken in conjunction with any AMR course that provides opportunity to achieve the learning outcomes of the Stony Brook Curriculum's SPK learning objective.
Pre- or corequisite: WRT 102 or equivalent; permission of the instructor
SBC: SPK
0 credit, S/U grading
AMR 475: Undergraduate Teaching Practicum I
Work with a faculty member as an assistant in one of the faculty member's regularly scheduled classes. The student is required to attend all the classes, do all the regularly assigned work and meet with the faculty member at regularly scheduled times to discuss the intellectual and pedagogical matters relating to the course.
Prerequisites: Permission of instructor and department
SBC: EXP+
3 credits, S/U grading
AMR 476: Undergraduate Teaching Practicum II
Work with a faculty member as an assistant in one of the faculty member?s regularly scheduled classes. The student is required to attend all the classes, do all the regularly assigned work and meet with the faculty member at regularly scheduled times to discuss the intellectual and pedagogical matters relating to the course. Students assume greater responsibility in such areas as leading discussions and analyzing results of tests that have already been graded. Students may not serve as teaching assistants in the same course twice.
Prerequisites: AMR 475; permission of instructor and department
SBC: EXP+
3 credits, S/U grading
AMR 487: Independent Research
Intensive readings and research on a special topic undertaken with close faculty supervision. May be repeated.
Prerequisites: Permission of instructor and department
0-6 credits
AMR 488: Internship
Intensive readings and research on a special topic undertaken with close faculty supervision. May be repeated.
Prerequisites: Permission of instructor and department
SBC: EXP+
0-6 credits, S/U grading
AMR 495: Senior Honors Project in American Studies
A one-semester project for seniors. Arranged in consultation with the department, the project involves writing a paper under the close supervision of an appropriate instructor, on a suitable topic. Students who are candidates for honors take this course.
Prerequisite: Permission of department
3 credits