Programs by Campus
Bloomington
American Studies
College of Arts and Sciences
Departmental E-mail: amst@indiana.edu
Departmental URL: https://americanstudies.indiana.edu/
Curriculum
(Please note that when conferring University Graduate School degrees, minors, certificates, and sub-plans, The University Graduate School’s staff use those requirements contained only in The University Graduate School Bulletin.)
Program Information
For additional graduate student information, contact Ballantine Hall 543, phone (812) 855-7718, fax (812) 855-0001.
Degrees Offered
The Department of American Studies provides an opportunity to pursue the interdisciplinary study of American society and culture. Students in the Ph.D. program acquire specialized training in one particular discipline as well as firm grounding in interdisciplinary study. They are encouraged to shape portions of their graduate studies to fit individual needs and interests. Courses in the program are also open to graduate students pursuing a master's degree in another department, special nondegree graduate students, and international students.
Doctor of Philosophy in American Studies
Special Program Requirements
See also general University Graduate School requirements.
Doctor of Philosophy Degree
Admission Requirements
Admission is by approval of the program’s Graduate Affairs Committee (GAC). Applicants must have a bachelor’s degree, a cumulative GPA of 3.2, and a major GPA of 3.5 and above. An MA degree is optional. We ask that students submit three letters of recommendation from faculty members familiar with their academic work, a writing sample, and a brief personal statement. Furthermore, though we are especially interested in students who have a demonstrated interest in American Studies, we welcome applications from students with degrees in all fields.
Course Requirements:
At least 90 credit hours are required for the doctorate. Within these, students must complete AMST G603, Introduction to American Studies (4 cr.), AMST G604, Perspectives in American Studies (4 cr.), one section of AMST G620, Colloquium in American Studies (3-4 cr.), and one section of AMST G751, Seminar in American Studies (3-4 cr.). Students must receive approval from the Director of Graduate Studies for their course plan prior to course registration each semester. No substitutions are allowed for G603 and G604.
Advisory Committee:
The Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) is the initial advisor to each cohort of students. By the end of their first year (for students who completed an MA or MS prior to admission to the program), students will select an advisor from among the core faculty to serve as chair of a four-person Advisory Committee, consisting of the chair, a representative from the doctoral minor, and two other members, one of whom may be an affiliate faculty. The Advisory Committee will supervise the student through the PhD qualifying exam, and will maintain responsibility to the student until the Research Committee is nominated after the student is nominated to candidacy.
Thematic Plan of Study:
In year one, each student will complete a thematic plan of study around a chosen focus and submit it to the DGS in mid-October (in preparation for spring semester course enrollment) and mid-March (in preparation for fall semester course enrollment). In year two, students who completed a BA or BS prior to admission to the program will do this again; students who completed an MA or MS prior to admission to the program will submit this plan of study to their Advisory Committee instead of the DGS. In year three, all students will submit this plan of study to their Advisory Committee.
Timeline for degree completion for students admitted to the PhD program:
- Students admitted to the PhD in American Studies with an MA or MS shall be required to enroll in at least 2 courses a semester while also holding an SAA (Student Academic Appointment). They may thus complete AMST coursework and complete the 12 credit hours required for a PhD minor in 2 years (4 semesters). These students will be required to take the written and oral portion of their qualifying exams during Fall of year 3, and write and defend their prospectus during Spring of year 3. Students should plan on spending up to two years dissertating, and complete a degree in 5 years total.
- Students admitted to the PhD in American Studies with a BA or BS as a prior degree shall be required to enroll in at least 2 courses a semester while also holding an SAA (Student Academic Appointment) and thus complete their AMST coursework and complete the 12 credit hours required for a PhD minor in 3 years (6 semesters). Students will be required to take the written and oral portion of their qualifying exams during Fall of year 4, and write and defend their prospectus during Spring of year 4. Students should plan on spending up to two years dissertating, and complete a degree in 6 years total.
- Students admitted with an MA/MS who opt not to count any of their transfer credit towards the required AMST coursework will follow the timeline laid out for students admitted to the PhD with a BA/BS degree.
Transfer credit into AMST:
Incoming students who have completed an MA or MS have the option to transfer up to 30 hours of their graduate coursework to count towards the 90-credit hour requirement for a PhD as per the Graduate School Guidelines.
Qualifying Examination:
Students will take an exam in two parts: a written examination and an additional oral examination conducted over the course of their 5th semester (for those entering the PhD program with an MA) or their 7th semester (for those entering the PhD program with a BA)
Part 1 of the written examination will cover the history and methods of American Studies. It will comprise a critical examination and analysis of key texts in American Studies from the past, present, and emerging scholarship. The exam will cover the G603 and G604 readings from the larger list generated by the whole faculty annually, as well as key texts agreed upon by the student’s advisory committee. If there are extenuating circumstances, this timeline may be pushed back one semester.
Part 2 of the written examination will focus on the student’s area of concentration with the expressed goal of outlining the intersections between the area of concentration and American Studies scholarship. Students will prepare a 50-text list in consultation with their respective advisory committees.
The administration of the examination with be a month-long process for all students, with the written examination (Parts 1 and 2) administered over a 7-day week. The faculty comprising the advisory committee will have two weeks to evaluate the written exam, and the oral exam will take place within three weeks of the written exam’s completion. Students who fail the qualifying examination once will be placed on Academic probation, and must take it again during the following spring semester based on a mutually agreeable schedule of the advisory committee and student. Any student who fails the exam twice will be dismissed from the program.
Upon successful completion of the PhD Qualifying Exam, the student will be Nominated to Candidacy for the PhD Degree.
Dissertation Research Committee:
Students will work with the chair of their Advisory Committee to form and nominate a Research Committee of at least four faculty members, including a representative from their doctoral minor and two other members, one of whom may be an affiliate faculty. A member of the core faculty will chair, or co-chair, each Research Committee.
The Prospectus:
Upon successful completion of the written and oral components of the qualifying examination, and nomination to candidacy, the student will then assemble a dissertation research committee and spend semester 6 working on a dissertation prospectus. The prospectus must be completed and receive the Research Committee Chair’s approval the semester following the successful completion of the written and oral parts of the qualifying examinations.
The Dissertation:
The dissertation itself shall be defended orally. All dissertation defenses are open to the public.
Minor Requirement:
Students must complete a minor in another department, program, or field. The minor must be completed before the PhD Qualifying Exam is taken. No courses may be counted toward both the minor and any other requirements.
Ph.D. Minor in American Studies
Students choosing American Studies as a minor (minimum 12 credit hours) in their doctoral program must complete G603, Introduction to American Studies (4 cr.), G751, Seminar in American Studies (3-4 cr.) and either G604, Perspectives in American Studies (4 cr.), G605, Introduction to Native American and Indigenous Studies (4 cr.), G620, Colloquium in American Studies (3-4 cr.), G697, Research in Transnational American Studies (4 cr.), G753, Independent Study (1-4 cr.), or a cross-listed course outside the student's home department.
Ph.D. Minor in Native American and Indigenous Studies
Students who pursue the Ph.D. minor in Native American and Indigenous Studies will focus their interdisciplinary study on the histories, cultures, art, folklore, politics, and literatures of Native American and Indigenous peoples, chiefly in the Americas, but also, where appropriate, globally. This is one of a very few programs in the United States that focuses explicitly on Native American and Indigenous Studies at the graduate level, and that place the study of American Indians within the context of a broader, more sweeping and international inquiry into the nature of political power, colonial settlement, and global contact.
Program of Study
Students are required to submit a "Plan of Study" to a member of the Committee on Native American and Indigenous Studies for final approval. After approval, a signed copy should be sent to the Director of Graduate Studies in American Studies. The Plan of Study will provide the rationale for the student’s proposed curriculum and will list the courses, with alternative selections in the event such courses are not offered on a timely basis that will serve as the student’s minor program. With the Director’s approval, the student will become officially enrolled in the Native American and Indigenous Studies degree.
Requirements
Interested students must first be admitted into a Ph.D. program on the Bloomington campus. Requirements for the Native American and Indigenous Studies Ph.D. minor encourage graduate students to develop a program of academic inquiry that complements their doctoral program and takes advantage of the wide range of College of Arts and Sciences faculty. Students must complete at least 12 credits of coursework, including the required course, G605, Introduction to Native American and Indigenous Studies. The remaining credits can come from any other American Studies course offered by NAIS faculty, assuming content is appropriate, including G620, Colloquium in American Studies (3-4 cr.), with relevant Native or Indigenous content, and a section of G751, Seminar in American Studies (3-4 cr.), also with relevant Native or Indigenous content, or G753, Independent Study in American Studies (1-4 cr.), also with relevant Native or Indigenous content. Students may count up to two graduate-level Native or Indigenous language courses (which are usually listed at the 500-level) toward the minor. For a list of affiliated faculty, students should consult: americanstudies.indiana.edu/about/native-american-and-indigenous-studies-committee/index.html.
Ph.D. Minor in Critical Race and Postcolonial Studies (CRPS)
Jointly administered by the departments of English and American Studies, introduces students to key debates and theories in Critical Race and Postcolonial Studies (CRPS), the interdisciplinary humanities study of the complex process of racialization. It is dedicated to parsing power relationships constituted by webs of social categories (race, ethnicity, nation, gender, sexuality, etc.) at multiple degrees of scale, seeking to map the ways power is structured in social relation as well as through the range of categories in play in any given historical context. Work in this field is attentive to questions of material production, class, capital, and power, and is oriented transnationally and diasporically to global histories of indigeneity, colonialism and empire.
CRPS comprises the cutting edges of these fields as they have evolved in conversation with each other and with poststructuralist theory, integrating feminist and queer of color critique at the turn of the millennium. This umbrella offers, today, an interdisciplinary field with a distinctive historiography, methodology, and expanding canon. As analytical framework, CRPS highlights dynamics of social categories as they relate to power, dedicated to critiques of inequity and exclusion in the U.S. and the world. The CRPS minor seeks to familiarize students with this complex genealogy and to involve students in the current debates and methods of this growing field.
Requirements:
Students must take four courses (12-16 credits): the Introductory Course (ENGL L 648 Readings in Ethnic and Postcolonial Studies, offered annually) and three additional courses chosen in consultation with the CRPS supervisor. Courses beyond ENGL-L 648 must come from at least two departments. To complete the minor, the student must present her/his research in a forum organized by the CRPS Advisory Committee.