Students may choose electives from among upper level courses in American Studies and related fields (Africana Studies, Asian American Studies, English, History, Latino Studies, Women's Studies, etc.). Electives should in some way enable students to develop their particular interests within American Studies or provide background for their projects. Please select electives in consultation with the Graduate Director.
This is an intensive two-week summer course of lectures, discussions and readings sponsored by the John F. Kennedy Library, the University of Massachusetts Boston, and the Lowell Institute, designed especially for secondary school teachers and of general interest to graduate students. Participants develop research papers or curriculum projects. Topics for the Summer Institute change each year. The topic for 2003 was "Courts, Crime, and Controversies: Justice and the American Experience." Other recent topics include: "The Homefront: the Domestic Dimensions of America's Foreign Conflicts," "Practicing Democracy: Ballot Battles in the US. And Beyond," "The Cold War: From Origins to Legacy," "Race: An Inquiry into the American Experience," "Defining American Immigrants" and "Television and Shaping of Modern America." The Summer Institute is co-directed by Paul Watanabe, Professor of Political Science at UMass Boston and co-director of the Institute for Asian-American Studies, and a historian at the Kennedy Library. (Since the topic of the Summer Institute changes every summer, if a student wishes, he/she can take the course twice and use it as two different electives.) The deadline for applications is June 1.
Independent Study (AmSt 696) is usually undertaken as a means of beginning reading and research for the final project or thesis. The Graduate Program Director gives approval for an Independent Study.
If you wish to undertake an independent study, please sketch out the project
you wish to carry out, the primary and secondary sources you wish to consult
and the kind of writing you want to do. Consult an appropriate faculty member
and ask him/her to serve as an advisor for the project. You must get approval
for the proposal from the Graduate Director, and then the particular schedule
number for the course specific to that semester and that professor from the
American Studies administrative assistant.
Students often do an Independent Study to begin the work of their final projects, often in the semester before they participate in the writing seminar. Here is a sample set of guidelines for students using an independent study to begin their research and prepare a detailed proposal for their final projects.
1. Expect to meet with your advisor twice during the semester, and then once at the end of the term.
2. Prior to each meeting, prepare a one page summary of the works you have finished reading that focus particularly on the issues and questions you think you want to raise and deal with in your final project.
3. These summparies should lead up to an overview of what are the most useful texts (primary and secondary) and some of the ways you plan to use them.
4. At least three weeks before the end of the term, you should have a draft of an outline indicating topics and sections for your final project. It can and will be amended as you work more on the project. On the final day of the course, you should hand in your outline, your reading notes, and an annotated bibliography of primary and secondary sources for the final project. It is on the basis of these materials that you will receive your grade for the course.