American Studies

The following 2026-2027 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.

This Courses that Count list was updated on March 17, 2026. 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 Nick Bloom.

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

Key to Requirements:

Pre-1865: Pre-1865 in American Studies
1865-1945: 1865-1945 in American Studies 
A: Transnational: Diaspora/Migration/Empire
B: Ethnic/Racial Diversity in US History or Literature
C: Gender/Sexuality in US History or Literature

• AAAS 10 Introduction to African American Studies. McCarthy. 1865 - 1945  (B)  F & SP
• AAAS 12 Intro to Afro-Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Henry.  (A)   F
• AAAS 108 Black Religion and Sexuaity. Greene-Hayes..   (B) (C) Sp
• AAAS 118x The Black American Experience through Film. Eatmon..   (B)  Sp
• AAAS 119x Chocolate, Culture, and the Politics of Food.. Martin..  (A)(B)  Sp
• AAAS 123Z American Democracy. Stauffer & Unger. 1865 - 1945  (B)  Sp
• AAAS 130x Richard Wright: Literature, Philosophy, and Politics. Shelby.   (B)  F
• AAAS 134y The Philosophy and Politics of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Terry.   (B)  F
• AAAS 146x A Black History of Electronic Dance Music. Aumoithe..   (B)  F
• AAAS 154y African American Fraternal Associations in US Society and Politics. Skopol. 1865 - 1945  (B)  F
• AAAS 170z Harvard Square; Social History of Cambridge, MA. Blier.     F
• AAAS 179x Abolition, Then and Now. Johnson. Pre-1865  (B)  Sp
• AAAS 185y Made to Feel: Race & Affect in the Americas. Henry.  (A)(B)  Sp

• AAAS 191x African American Lives in the Law.. TBA.   (B)  Sp

   

• Anthropology 1435 Challenging Collections: Critical Reflections on Collecting Through Harvard's History. Loren.     Sp

• Anthropology 1900 Counseling as Colonization?. Gone.   (B)  Sp

   

• English 90as The American Short Story. Kim.. (1865 - 1945)    F
• English 90fd The Rhetoric of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Stauffer. Pre-1865 (B) Sp
• English 90ff Indigenous Sci Fi, Horror, Fantasy, and Futurisms. Pexa. (B) Sp
• English 90fg Faulkner and the Southern Gothic. Hopkinson. 1865-1945    F
• English 90mnp Monsters and Power: Indigenous and Writers of Color Reimagine the Monstrous.    (B)  Sp
• English 90ww Walt Whitman. Burt. Pre-1865    F
• English 168d Postwar American and British Fiction. Wood.     Sp
• English 170a High and Low in Postwar America. Menand.     Sp
• English 170se American Literature & the Environmental Imagination. Hopkinson.     F
• English 172m Immigrant Literature. Carpio.  (A) (B)  Sp
• English 175m Melville. Stauffer. Pre-1865    F
• English 181al Introduction to Asian American Literature. Kim. (A)(B)  Sp
• English 185rj Race, Speech, and the Law. Menand.     F
• English 187aa The Aesthetics of Athletics. Stauffer.     Sp

• English 188n Beyond Settler Borders: an Introduction to Native American and Indigenous Studies. Pexa.   (B)  F

   

• EMR 158 Land, Labor, Legacies: New Perspectives on Black and Indigenous Histories. TBA.   (B)  Sp
• EMR 174 Mashpee and Harvard: Braided Histories. Braude.   (B)  F
• EMR 179 Afro-Latinidades & World Diasporas. TBA.  (A) (B)  Sp

• EMR 181 LatinX Medical Humanities. TBA.  (A) (B)  Sp

   

• Folklore and Mythology 125 Introduction to the Indigenous Oral Literatures of the Northwest Coast of North America. Frim.   (B)  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 1019 The Caribbean Crucible: Colonialism, Capitalism and Post-Colonial Misdevelopment In The Region. Patterson.   (B)  F
• General Education 1052 Race in a Polarized America. Hochschild.  (B)  F
• General Education 1089 The Border: Race, Politics, and Health in Modern Mexico. Soto Laveaga.  (A) (B)  F
• General Education 1115 Human Trafficking, Slavery and Abolition in the Modern World. Patterson. (pre-1865)(A)   Sp
• General Education 1133 Is the US Civil War Still Being Fought? Stauffer.   (pre-1865) (B)  F

• General Education 1176 Sexuality in Literature: From Giovanni's Room to Fun Home. Schlossberg.    (C) Sp

   

• Government 94aa American Political Thought. Ecker.     Sp
• Government 94gc African American Politics. Gay.   (B)  Sp
• Government 94mr The Politics of Immigration. Roman.     Sp

• Government 1317 Racial and Ethnic Politics in the United States. Lee and Roman. (pre-1865)    Sp

   

• History 25 Native American and Indigenous Studies: An Introduction. Deloria.  (A)   Sp
• History 26 Latin America and the United States. Weld.  (A)   F
• History 63 Afro-Indigenous Intersections in Early America. Miles.(Pre-1865)  (B)  Sp
• History 65 The Black American Experience since 1865. Eatmon. (1865 - 1945)  (B)  Sp
• History 67 The United States and World Order since 1900. Manela.  (A)  F
• History 73 Environmental History of the United States. Deloria.     F (Pre-1865)
• History 74 Canadian-American Relations, 1900 to the present. TBA.  (A)  F
• History 78 American Legal History, 1776 - 1865. Gordon-Reed. Pre-1865    Sp
• History 164 Romancing the Archive: Romance Fiction in Historical and Cultural Context. Miles.   (B) (C)F
• History 175 US History: Major Themes in the Twentieth Century. McGirr.     F
• History 188 Ecologies of American Empire: the United States and Global Environments, 1898 - 2000. Ruamcharoen.  (A)   Sp
• History 1957 Healthcare and the Welfare State. Aumoithe.   (B)  Sp

• History 1976 The American Revolution and its Legacies. Gordon-Reed. (pre-1865)    F

   

• History and Literature 10 Introduction to Cultural Studies. Allan and Allison.     Sp
• History and Literature 90dv Red Scares. Biel.     Sp
• History and Literature 90hd Literatures of the Displaced: Diasporic Culture in the United States. Lam-Saili.  (A) (B) (C)F
• History and Literature 90hn Soccer, Globalization, and Urban Life. Carvalho.  (A)   F
• History and Literature 90ho New York Modern. Hawkey. (1865 - 1945)    F
• History and Literature 90hp Manliness & Civilization. Bloom. (1865 - 1945)  (B) (C) F
• History and Literature 90hq Cultures of Capitalism in the United States. von Stackelberg. (1865 - 1945) F

• History and Literature 93aa Queer Archives. Kaminsky.   (B) (C) Sp

   

• History of Art and Architecture 172v Unseen Black Art. Lewis.   (B)  Sp

• History of Art and Architecture 177p The Language of Photography in the USA. Kelsey.     Sp

   

• History of Science 1450 The Mind Has No Sex: The History of Women in Science in the US. Hammonds.    (C) Sp
• History of Science 1458 Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired: A History of Health Disparities in America. Hammonds.   (B) (C) Sp
• History of Science 1760 Brainwashing and Modern Techniques of Mind Control. Lemov.     Sp
• History of Science 1765 History of Psychedelics and Trauma. Lemov.     F
• History of Science 1852 Technoscience and US Politics. Aidinoff.     F

• History of Science 1980 Burning Books, Fighting Facts: How Individuals & Institutions Resist, Reject, and Destroy Knowledge. Oreskes.     F

   

• Religion 16 Religious Dimensions in Human Experience: Apocalypse, Sports, Music, Home, Sacrifice, Medicine. Carrasco.     F
• Religion 1087 Black Religion and Sexuaity. Greene-Hayes.  (B) (C) Sp
• Religion 1093 Racial Liberalism and the Ethics of Law and Justice. Johnson.   (B)  Sp
• Religion 1497 Evangelicalism in America. Brekus.     F
• Religion 1556 Pragmatism and Religion: Pierce, James and Dewey. Lamberth.     Sp
• Religion 1562 Alternative Spiritualities in the United States. McKanan.     F
• Religion 1901 The Religious and Ecological Diminsons of Octavia Butler's Parable. Hoskins.   (B)  Sp

• Religion 1902 American Religious Ecofascism. Hoskins.   (B)  Sp

   

• Sociology 1276 Fiction as Social Theory: Memory, Domination, and Resistance in the Novel. Dromi.   (B)  F

   

• TDM 141bd Boston Goes Dancing. Quinton.     Sp
• TDM 194s The Show-Tune Canon Meets the No-Show Songbook. Stewart.     Sp

• TDM 196ss The Singer-Songwriter: Intimacy, Parasociality, and the Confessional. Hearfield.     F

   

• WGS 1133 Gender and Performance. Bernstein.   (B) (C)Sp
• WGS 1170 Power to the People: Black Power, Radical Feminism, and Gay Liberation, 1955 - 1975. Bronski.   (B) (C)F
• WGS 1424 American Fetish: Consumer Culture Encounters the Other. Light.   (B) (C) Sp

• WGS 1471 Art, Culture, and the Global Struggle for Black Liberation. Kothor.  (A) (B) (C) Sp