American Studies

The following 2023-2024 courses count for concentration credit in the American Studies field.

In most cases, this means that at least 50% of the material in the course relates directly to the student’s field. If you find a course that you think is well-suited to your own particular course of study, but that does not appear on the list, please petition the Committee on Instruction for credit, keeping in mind the 50% guideline.

Please note that this list is subject to change through the start of the semester. Make sure you check back before registering for classes. Look to the key below to determine which courses can count towards specific field requirements. Click on the requirement term to see a short list of courses that fulfill that field requirement. If you have any questions, please direct them to Assistant Director of Studies Morgan Day Frank.

"F" indicates a course offered during the fall semester. "Sp" indicates a course offered during the spring semester.

Key to Requirements:
 
  • AAAS 10. Introduction to African American Studies. Gates. (1865-1945)  (B)  Sp
  • AAAS 55. Ishmael Reed:Novels, Poetry, Essays. Carpio. (B) Sp  
  • AAAS 112. Black Humor: Performance, Art, and Literature. Carpio.   (B)  Sp
  • AAAS 112. Black Art and the Refounding of America: Art, Race, and U.S. Law. Lewis.   (B)  F
  • AAAS 119. Chocolate, Culture, and the Politics of Food. Martin.  (A) (B)  Sp
  • AAAS 120x African American Theatre, Drama, and Performance. Bernstein.   (B)  F
  • AAAS 146x A Black History of Electronic Dance Music. Aumoithe.   (B) (C)  F
  • AAAS 156x Contemporary African American Theater. Carpio.   (B)  F
  • AAAS 170y Black Classicisms: Adaptations of Ancient Greek & Roman Classics in Africa, the Caribbean, & the US. Greenwood.  (A) (B)  Sp
  • AAAS 177x W.E.B. Du Bois and His Critics. Gates. (B) Sp
  • AAAS 180z Freedom Writers: Race and Literary Form. McCarthy.   (B)  Sp
  • AAAS 184x Jim Crow: Histories and Revivals. Eatmon. (1865-1945)  (B)  F
  • AAAS 191x African American Lives in the Law. Higginbotham.   (B)  Sp
     
  • Anthropology 1080. American History Before Columbus. Liebmann. (pre-1865)  (B)  Sp
     
  • English 90ah Asian American Theater and Performance. Kim.   (B)  F
  • English 90b James/Baldwin. McCarthy. (1865-1945)  (B)  Sp
  • English 90fd The Rhetoric of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Stauffer. (pre-1865)  (B)  F
  • English 90ff Indigenous Sci Fi, Horror, Fantasy, and Futurisms. Pexa.   (B)  F
  • English 90ji Not Vanishing: Indigenous Literary Theory and Criticism. Justice.   (B)  Sp
  • English 90ln Harvard and Native Lands. Niles and Izadi. (pre-1865)  (B)  F
  • English 90ri Race in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Dikcis.   (B)  F
  • English 90t Toxic Rhetoric. Dimick.    (C) Sp
  • English 172ad American Democracy. Stauffer.     Sp
  • English 173bl The Black Lyric. Smith.   (B)  Sp
  • English 176tm Toni Morrison. Serpell.   (B)  Sp
  • English 178x The American Novel: Dreiser to the Present. Fisher. (1865-1945)    Sp
  • English 183ts Taylor Swift and Her World. Burt. Sp
  • English 186cc Climate Change Literature. Dimick.     F
  • English 187x Twentieth Century American Poetry. Sacks.     Sp
  • English 189vg Video Game Storytelling. Ravinthiran.     Sp
  • English 195bd The Dark Side of Big Data. Dikcis.     Sp
  • English 197ls Introduction to Indigenous Literary Studies: Poetry, Prose, and Politics. Justice.   (B)  F
     
  • EMR123. Issues in the Study of Native American Religion. Braude.   (B)  F
  • EMR148. Indigeneity and Latinidad. Mendoza-Mori.  (A) (B)  Sp
  • EMR133. Power, Knowledge, Identity: Critical Approaches to Race and Ethnicity. Craig.   (B)  F
  • EMR149. Latinx Representation in Media, Films, and Pop Culture. Mendoza-Mori.   (B)  Sp
  • EMR 158. Land, Labor, and the Color Line: New Perspectives on Black and Indigenous Histories. Izadi. (Pre-1865) (B)  F
  • EMR159. Contemporary Asian American Popular Culture. Fernandez.   (B)  F
  • EMR161. Urban Latinidad: Barrios, Public Space, and Social Movements. Mendoza-Mori. (B) Sp
  • EMR162. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Race and Artificial Intelligence. Fernandez. (B) Sp 
  • EMR163 Asian American Graphic Narratives. Fernandez. (B) Sp.
  • EMR164. Global Rebellion: Race, Solidarity, and Decolonization. (B) Sp 
  • EMR1010. Topics in Latinx Studies: Imagining Latinidad. Mendoza-Mori.   (B)  F
  • EMR1020. Topics in AAPI Studies. Craig. (A) Sp
  • EMR1030. Topics in Native American and Indigenous Studies: North America. Izadi. (pre-1865)  (B) Sp
  • Folklore and Mythology 120. Folklore and Appalachia. Craycraft.     Sp
  • Folklore and Mythology 172. Quilts and Quiltmaking. Lufkin. (1865-1945)   (C) Sp
  • Folklore and Mythology 176. Tattoo: Histories and Practices. Lufkin.     F
     
  • General Education 1017. Americans as Occupiers and Nation-Builders. Gordon and Manela  (A)   F
  • General Education 1022 Vision and Justice: The Art of Race and American Citizenship. Lewis  (pre 1865) (1865-1945) (B) Sp
  • General Education 1043. American Dreams Made in Hollywood and Beyond. Rentschler.   (1865-1945)  F
  • General Education 1133 Is the U.S. Civil War Still Being Fought?. Stauffer. (pre-1865)  (B)  F
  • General Education 1113 Race, Gender, and Performance. Bernstein.   (B) (C) Sp
  • General Education 1115 Human Trafficking, Slavery, and Abolition in the Modern World. Patterson. (pre-1865) (A) Sp
  • General Education 1159 American Capitalism. Beckert.     Sp
     
  • German 199 Freedom: A Transatlantic Affair. Carranza. (1865-1945) (A)   F
     
  • Government 1510. American Constitutional Law. Fallon.   F
     
  • History 12y Capitalism, Crime, and Punishment in American History. Bekemeyer.   (B)  F
  • History 12z The History of American Conservatism from William F. Buckley, Jr., to Donald Trump. Bekemeyer.     Sp
  • History 15a The Challenge of Making American Modern. Cohen.     Sp
  • History 15v The War on Drugs. Alyass     F
  • History 15y Race Gender, and the Law Through the Archive. Eatmon.   (B) (C) F
  • History 74n U.S. History: Major Themes in the Twentieth Century. McGirr. (1865-1945)    Sp
  • History 89j. The United States and China: Opium War to the Present. Manela.  (A)   Sp
  • History 1217 U.S. Foreign Policy in a Global Age. Logevall  (A)   F
  • History 1219 American Legal History: From Reconstruction to the Present. Weinrib     Sp
  • History 1223 The American Century?: A History of the United States since World War II. Bekemeyer.     F
  • History 1225 "Harvard Works Because We Do": A History of Labor and Class at Harvard. Bekemeyer.     Sp
  • History 1511 Latin America and the United States. Weld.  (A)   Sp
  • History 1776 The American Revolution. Kamensky (pre-1865)    F
  • History 1973 Re-Wilding Harvard. Chaplin (pre-1865)    Sp
  • History 1977 US Labor and Working Class History, 1886-1967. Lossin. (1865-1945)    Sp
     
  • History and Literature 90ek American Noir. Allan.    (C) F
  • History and Literature 90ga Slavery and Historical Memory. Bloom. (pre-1865)  (B)  F
  • History and Literature 90gb American Education Reforms. Gowen. (pre-1865)    F
  • History and Literature 90gc Race and the Environment in the Atlantic World. Cole. (pre-1865) (A) (B)  F
  • History and Literature 90gd The History of American Journalism. Day Frank. (1865-1945)    F
  • History and Literature 90ge Screen Cultures from Cinema to TikTok. von Stackelberg     F
  • History and Literature 90gj Contesting Citizenship in the United States. Teeters Knolle.  (B)   F
  • History and Literature 90gk Performing Latinidad: Race, Sex, and Excess in Contemporary U.S. Culture. Sanchez Cruz.   (B)  F
  • History and Literature 90cm Asian American Cultural Studies. Huang.   (B)  F
  • History and Literature 90fz The South: Histories of a U.S. Region. Kirby.  (B)   F
  • History and Literature 90fi Race and Empire in the Americas. Waits. (1865-1945) (A) (B)  F
  • History and Literature 90fl Indigenous in the City. Ridgway.   (B)  F
  • History and Literature 90gm Hollywood's Seventies: The US on Film 1970-1980. Sp
  • History and Literature 93ae Prison Abolition. Dichter.   (B)  Sp
  • History and Literature 93aa Queer Archives. Kaminsky. (C) Sp
  • History and Literature 933ac Vanishing Arts: Watching, Researching, and Writing about Performance. Quinton.  Sp
  • History of Art and Architecture170g Harvard Square. Blier.     F
  • History of Art and Architecture79 Indigenous Art History of the Great Lakes: From the Pictograph to the Beaded Medallion. Corbiere   (B)  Sp
  • History of Art and Architecture179g Indigenous Diplomacy in the Great Lakes & Northeast: Mnemonically Coding Sovereign Relationships. Corbiere.   (B)  F
     
  • History of Science1445 Medicine and Health in America. Alam.     Sp
  • History of Science1458 Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired: A History of Health Disparities in America. Hammonds.   (B)  F
  • History of Science1821 Humans in Space: Past, Present, Future. Hersch.     F
  • History of Science1955 Science in Popular Culture. Baker.     Sp
     
  • Music27 Latino Music in the United States. Madrid-Gonzalez.   (B)  F
  • Music29 Black Protest Music. Barron.   (B)  F
  • Music190r Gospel Music from the Church to the Streets. Barron.   (B)  Sp
     
  • Religion1562 Alternative Spiritualities in the United States. McKanan.     Sp
  • Religion120 Religion and Nationalism in the United States. Brekus.     Sp
  • Religion1087 Black Religion and Sexuality. Greene-Hayes.   (B) (C) F
  • Religion1089. African American Religious History. Greene-Hayes. (B) Sp
  • Religion1538. Liberal and Liberation Theologies in Dialogue. McKanan.     F
  • Religion1556. Pragmatism and Religion: Pierce, James, and Dewey. Lamberth. (1865-1945) Sp 
  • Religion1590 Issues in the Study of Native American Religion. Braude.     F
  • Religion1557 Unitarian and Universalist History in the United States. McKanan. (pre-1865)    F
  • Religion1589 Truths & Reconciliations. Klassen.   (B)  F
  • Religion1599 Asian American Religion. Eck.   (B)  Sp
     
  • Theater, Dance, and Media180l Before and Beyond Angels: The AIDS epidemic in live arts, culture, and protest. Levine.    (C) F
     
  • WGS1170 Power to the People: Black Power, Radical Feminism, and Gay Liberation. Bronski.   (B) (C) F
  • WGS1209 Dangerous Words: Feminist Debates on Speech, Harm, and Representation. Wells.    (C) F
  • WGS1210ft Black Feminist Theory. Perry.   (B) (C) F
  • WGS1216 Women's Voices in Asian and Asian American Literature. Choi.  (A) (B) (C) Sp
  • WGS1225 Leaning In, Hooking Up: Visions of Feminism and Femininity in the 21st Century. Thompson.    (C) Sp
  • WGS1283 Love's Labors Found: Uncovering Histories of Emotional Labor. Light.   (B) (C) F