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AMERICAN STUDIES

American Studies includes the informal and formal study of  Native American cultures and the immigrant cultures creating a great heterogeneous mix of American culture over the last 500 years. As everywhere these unique cultures synthesized elements of from their cultural roots in  the American landscape. Parents and  teachers often incorporated grassroots knowledge based on individual experiencesn to create a new American identity. Some of the early founding fathers, like Benjamin Franklin campaigned arduously to defend these unique American cultural elements. American identity was further strengthened  with the revival of American folk culture in the late 19th century and again after World War II. In turn scholars and educators developed curriculum, research projects, and living art programs that tended to elicit support from agencies like the Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). In my own college experiences, folk music was clearly the first introduction to American Studies. At the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill there was a much stronger presence of American Studies especially in the humanities and Southern Regional Culture programs. For me it was like a living arts experience; especially in the folk music area of African American  blues. There were a number of scholars in the process of rediscovering old time blues, minstrel and gospel singers and making recordings of their music. The African-American churches were still the center of the communities in the South and in the1970s were open to visits by outsiders. We also went to various folk music events like fiddler's conventions,  traditional furniture workshops and pottery artisans in and around the Asheville, NC . In education the  infusion of  local folklore, arts and music into curriculums was exemplified with the popular Foxfire series, that was initiated by high school English teachers creating a school magazine based on students interviewing community artisans and farmers about traditional folk knowledge in rural Georgia. This project received NEH funding and became so popular that student's articles were published in a series of books entitled Foxfire 1, etc. These articles included traditional folklore ranging from making dulcimers to dressing out a hog.

When I returned to the West Coast, after graduate school, American Studies was not very prevalent in four year or two year institutions. It was not until 1990 that Palomar College created a program in American Studies to be articulated with CSU and UC programs in California. The American Indian Studies Department decided to add courses in American Studies since other departments were not willing to develop the curriculum and we felt that American Indian Studies was the foundation or building block to American Studies. Our goal was to have courses that did not duplicate American history, literature or art history courses but would focus on how the arts reflected and influenced American culture and the individual identities of Americans. Recently, we have included a unit on genealogy and family history in our entry level course, AMS 100 Introduction To American Culture and Identity.    

Revised 9/04

This course is an introduction to American Studies and focuses on American culture reflected in American Art.  This is coupled with the exploration of  the diverse American Identities. Students have an unit or assignment to create a Family Genealogy and History Notebook with a essay on their own identity.

Copyright © S.J. Crouthamel 2003