American Studies (AMS)

The Learning Environment

American Studies is an interdisciplinary field of study within the Department of Transnational Studies that offers a wide range of courses that focus on the research, analytical, and communications skills necessary for success. A degree in American Studies can help prepare you for rewarding career paths in academia, social activism, non-profit work, media, law, government, museum management, librarianship, and teaching.

American Studies offers the opportunity to develop a transnational understanding of the cultures of the Americas. Reclaiming the voices, histories, and cultures of marginalized peoples has been a central mission of American Studies since the 1960s. Our research strengths include American Indian / indigenous studies, especially Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) history, art, and culture; the Black Atlantic and the African diaspora in the Americas; Asia and the Asian diaspora in the Americas; Chicana/o, Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American studies; ecological history and restoration; Canadian studies, including First Nations cultures; oral history, documentary studies, and new technologies for accessing and documenting history; feminist and queer studies; critical race theory; working-class history, immigrant cultures, urban studies; public policy; and popular culture.

A major or minor in A.S. helps prepare students for careers or graduate studies in academia, social activism, non-profits and NGOs, media, law, government, museum management, librarianship, and teaching.

About Our Facilities

The Department of Transnational Studies is housed in 1004 Clemens Hall and has three dedicated seminar rooms. The department holds classes in centrally scheduled space throughout the campus, which includes traditional classes and lecture halls that can accommodate the program’s teaching philosophies.

About Our Faculty

The American Studies program has core faculty within the Department of Transnational Studies and they consist of internationally and nationally renowned scholars who have been awarded prestigious awards for advocacy work, writing various texts and articles, and teaching cross-cultural courses.

Faculty List Directory

Please visit the American Studies department website for additional information about our faculty.

AMS Courses

AMS 100LEC Indian Image On Film
Lecture

Discusses the fabricated image of Native Americans in American film history, the media process that perpetuates such images, and the resulting stereotypes; also covers the relationship to social movements and alternatives for overcoming stereotypes. This course is the same as DMS 100, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 102LEC The Asian American Experience
Lecture

The Asian American experience from the beginning of Asians' and Pacific Islanders' entry into North America in the eighteenth century to the present. Investigates this phenomenon in connection with national and transnational power relations, economic structures, and political realities. Also considers the construction of American identities in the United States and their impact on Asian American communities and individuals. Goals are to develop a historical and multi-cultural perspective on the Asian American experience, to enlarge students' capacities for analytical and critical thinking, and to achieve a better understanding of the diversity within Asian American communities and of Asian Americans' social status in North America. This course is the same as AS 110 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
AMS 103LEC Intro African Amer Stds
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 104LEC Intro Indigenous New World
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 107LEC Introduction to American Studies
Lecture

Introduces students to a variety of approaches that have been developed in American studies to assist understandings of how different people participate in this society and in the world. Also considers how experiences continue to shape present thinking and future possibilities.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
AMS 111SEM Hip Hop and Social Issues
Seminar

This course explores the foundations/origins of Hip Hop Culture, making connections to current social problems as interpreted by the Hip Hop Generation. Using an interdisciplinary approach, students will interrogate issues of race, class, privilege and power in the context of what is now a global cultural phenomenon. This course is the same as AAS 117 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 112SEM Ethnicity and Urban Society
Seminar

This class introduces students to a range of critical insights into race, ethnicity, and identity. By critically engaging ethnicity from a comparative cultural perspective, our goal will be to begin to understand the political, social, and economic role of ethnicity in history and culture, while carefully considering how the intersections of race, gender, class, sexuality, generation, nationalism, and socio-political contexts reconfigure subjective experience and identity practices. This course is the same as AAS 199 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 113SEM American Lives and Environments: Folklore and Social Groups
Seminar

Examines patterned stories, sayings, designs, and ways of living that have been created and are continuously being recreated by groups of people; also investigates historical and social meanings of folklore. This course is the same as GGS 116, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 114SEM American Lives and Environments: Folklore and Social Groups
Seminar

Examines patterned stories, sayings, designs, and ways of living that have been created and are continuously being recreated by groups of people; also investigates historical and social meanings of folklore.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 121SEM Mythologies
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 122SEM Art & Socl Consciousness
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 124SEM Writers Workshop
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 125SEM Feminist Acting Workshop
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 126SEM Topics in Arts & Culture
Seminar

Topics vary according to faculty/instructors. This course is the same as GGS 126 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
AMS 128SEM Afro-Latin Musical Praxis
Seminar

Uses basic musical techniques derived from various Afro-Western traditions.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 129SEM Topics:Teach Latin Music
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 130SEM Topics
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 145LEC Cities of the World
Lecture

This course gives students an introduction to urban studies that is historical, transnational and multidisciplinary. Starting with basic concepts such as "what is a city in today's world?" it addresses some of the main analytical debates of the field today, including massive urban growth, urban inequality and segregation, the politics of urban space, suburban sprawl, ghettos, slums, and the explosion of informal settlements, gentrification, urban circulation systems, global cities and urban networks, and the promise and perils of cities for humans' relationship to the environment.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
AMS 146SEM People in Institutions
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 147SEM Topics
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 149SEM Topics
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 150SEM Topics:Music in Daily Lif
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 161SEM Natural World Perspective
Seminar

Speaks about ways of life of the North American continent's original peoples, including their history and contemporary issues. Provides a Native American perspective.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 162SEM New World Imaginations
Seminar

Studies the connection with all forms of life in evolutionary development and ecological processes. Also examines ecstatic experiences; social life before the domestication of plants, animals, and each other; and utopian thinking.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 167SEM Cross Cultural Topics
Seminar

Provides a special concentration in Native American, African / African American, and American history. Utilizes an interdisciplinary and cross cultural approach to better understand oppression and the creation/maintenance of hegemony in the Americas.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
AMS 169SEM Cross Cultural Topics
Seminar

Credits: 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 170SEM Cross Cultural Topics
Seminar

Credits: 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 179SEM Introduction to Native American History
Seminar

Introduces the lives, histories, cultures, and characters of Native American peoples of North America. Focuses on cultural assumptions and native visions of the land, the environment, and the spirit life.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 197SEM Seneca Language
Seminar

Seneca is an unwritten language. The course presents the basic Seneca vocabulary for numerals, foods, geological features, the classification of society, and the classification of nature, and works up to reading myths and legends.

Credits: 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 198SEM UB Seminar
Seminar

The one credit UB Seminar is focused on a big idea or challenging issue to engage students with questions of significance in a field of study and, ultimately, to connect their studies with issues of consequence in the wider world. Essential to the UB Curriculum, the Seminar helps transition to UB through an early connection to UB faculty and the undergraduate experience at a comprehensive, research university. This course is equivalent to any 198 offered in any subject. This course is a controlled enrollment (impacted) course. Students who have previously attempted the course and received a grade of F or R may not be able to repeat the course during the fall or spring semester.

Credits: 1
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Other Requisites: Students who have already successfully completed the UB seminar course may not repeat this course. If you have any questions regarding enrollment for this course, please contact your academic advisor.
AMS 199SEM UB Seminar
Seminar

The three credit UB Seminar is focused on a big idea or challenging issue to engage students with questions of significance in a field of study and, ultimately, to connect their studies with issues of consequence in the wider world. Essential to the UB Curriculum, the Seminar helps students with common learning outcomes focused on fundamental expectations for critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and oral communication, and learning at a university, all within topic focused subject matter. The Seminars provide students with an early connection to UB faculty and the undergraduate experience at a comprehensive, research university. This course is equivalent to any 199 offered in any subject. This course is a controlled enrollment (impacted) course. Students who have previously attempted the course and received a grade of F or R may not be able to repeat the course during the fall or spring semester.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Other Requisites: Students who have already successfully completed the first year seminar course may not repeat this course. If you have any questions regarding enrollment for this course, please contact your academic advisor.
AMS 203LEC American Wars
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 205LEC Amer Norms & Deviations
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 206LEC Women in the Global System
Lecture

Explores how the current expansion of the world market is overturning the seclusion of women in traditional societies and looks at the consequences of globalization on the lives of women throughout the world. Women in developing countries share common patterns of location and differentiation within the international division of labor. Examines how women are struggling to represent their identities in the midst of rapid changes in their societies. Examines why more and more women are becoming active in the international human rights movement. Looks at how women are attempting to shape the discourse of development in different regions of the world economy. Intended to develop a multidisciplinary approach to gender and more specifically, to understand how gender is constructed by political, economic, and cultural discourses in industrialized and industrializing societies, and to understand the differences between the lived experiences of women in these societies, the heterogeneous nature of women based on class, race, religion, and nationality, and how women's lives are changing in the context of the global economy.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 207LEC U S in the World
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
AMS 209LEC Musics of the World
Lecture

Introduces ethnomusicology; studies musical styles in a variety of cultures.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 210LEC Musics of the World
Lecture

Introduces ethnomusicology; studies musical styles in a variety of cultures.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 213SEM Women in Contempry Socty
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
AMS 214SEM Women in Contempry Socty
Seminar

Credits: 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 215LEC Women's Language
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
AMS 219SEM Wmn of Color&the Amer Exp
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 222SEM Mens Roles & Amer Culture
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 223LEC Violence in the Gendered World
Lecture

Surveys components in the spectrum of gender-based violence, in the U.S. and in some other countries. Historical, legal, sociological, psychological, literary and first person accounts comprise the course readings. Students will gain an understanding of the dynamics of violence against women and children, social movements that attempt to ameliorate it, and how gender, race, class and theoretical grounding influence local, national and global efforts to end violence and empower women.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 226SEM Yourself in Fiction
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 227SEM Feminist Essay:Wrtg Wkshp
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 229SEM Top:
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 230SEM Intro Mothers & Daughters
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 231SEM Survey of Native American History
Seminar

Focuses on the spiritual side of the Native American; including substance, motivation, and character of the American Indian.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 232SEM Survey of Native American History
Seminar

Focuses on the spiritual side of the Native American; including substance, motivation, and character of the American Indian.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 234LEC Women in the Middle East
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 238LEC Women, Work, and Family in the Twentieth Century
Lecture

Explores the experience of women of different race, class, and ethnic groups regarding changes in women's responsibilities in the family, participation in the labor force, and the development of new family forms. Illuminates contemporary issues regarding work, marriage, and family from a historical perspective. This course is the same as GGS 238, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
AMS 240SEM Asian Women
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 241SEM Third World Women
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 242LEC Sexuality in America
Lecture

Sexuality in America

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 247SEM Women in Latin America
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 257LEC The City in U S Hist
Lecture

The City in U.S. History is a semester long excursion through the imperial circuits and transnational networks of the industrial cities and sprawling metropoles of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As we travel through U.S. cities, we will consider how urban space created possibilities for new forms of entertainment, artistic exploration, social organization, and modes of pleasure even as they often presented new ecological challenges, created new fears (both real and imagined), exacerbated social divisions, and sustained particular forms of inequality and exclusion that were felt and experienced beyond the borders of the cities we will consider. As we travel, we will explore the hidden histories embedded in urban spaces and consider how cities mediate the material, psychological and social lives of those living beyond the narrowly-defined borders of the city and how people with different legal statuses, racial, classed, gendered, sexual orientations and ability.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
AMS 260SEM Women's Health: Problems and Practices
Seminar

Reviews the health care system in the U.S. and its treatment of women. Content includes a history of health care and the changing definition of "health", the current roles of women in this system, and the intersection of the legal system on women's bodies and women's health. Women in the 1970's and beyond started examining the politics of health care, which exploded into the millennium such as cost containment and restriction of services through managed care; newer and more expensive technologies; growing consumer dissatisfaction with the current system; and trends towards holistic and alternative care outside of the "mainstream" health care system. Develops an analysis of the current system with a rational plan for improving health care for all women. Addresses the roles that women have played in relation to health and health care, the history of women as healers, the shift to women as patients and consumers, and women as workers, both paid and unpaid, in the system of care. This course is the same as GGS 260, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
AMS 261SEM Culture Anthro Topics
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 262SEM Critical Reading
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 264SEM Black Child in America
Seminar

Focuses on the great variety of black children's experiences in the United States, including their experiences both during slavery in the Southern country towns and in the emerging "ghettos" in the North. The course also discusses historical development of social service programs such as Aid to Dependent Children and other government policies. It also explores various issues that contribute to the welfare of African American children.This course is the same as AMS 264, and GGS 264, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 265SEM Sexuality and Diaspora
Seminar

Examines the various constructions of women's sexualities: heterosexual, bisexual, and lesbian. Readings from literature, feminist theory, queer theory, psychology and sociology in order to develop an understanding of how sexuality is constructed. Examines the impact of violence, gender, health, media reproduction, class, and race on women's sexualities.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
AMS 272LEC Native American Literature
Lecture

Examines perspectives and philosophies of Native American writers. Provides insight into why the American Indian has a unique perspective on caring for what happens to the Earth.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
AMS 275SEM Black & Female
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 276LEC Languages and Cultures of Native North America
Lecture

Expression of meaning and linguistic concepts in a number of native languages of North America. This course is the same as LIN 275 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 278SEM Special Topics
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 279SEM Contemporary Problems of American Indians
Seminar

Introduces undergraduate students to some of the current difficulties facing Indigenous peoples in North America.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 280SEM Contemp Prob Amer Indians
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 281SEM Native Americans and the Colonist
Seminar

Examines cultural interactions and values in collision during the major phase of the colonization of the Americas. Reviews contemporary texts in Native American history and culture in a seminar setting.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 282LEC Am Indian Identity Crisis
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 285SEM Natural World Vs. Legal World
Seminar

Examines conflict between the natural world perspective of Native American culture and the legal world perspective of U.S. culture.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 287SEM Women in Crisis
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 290LEC American Women Writers
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 293SEM Race, Law, and Society
Seminar

Explores that part of U.S. law that has dealt with the human and civil rights of African Americans (and by implication other racial ethnic groups in U.S. society: Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, etc.) We do this by examining the relevant legislation and U.S. Supreme Court decisions. However, where appropriate, decisions of the Executive branch made under various 'Executive Orders' are also considered. Any understanding and appreciation of U.S. constitutional democracy requires us to acknowledge the powerful role of race in the evolution of this democracy. Consequently regardless of the time period--the lives of all in the U.S. (of whatever color and sex) have been touched by the interaction between law and race. In Part One of the course we concentrate on an area of legal studies called 'Critical Race Theory,' where our concern is to explore the interaction of law and race from the perspective of issues such as culture, history, gender, identity, politics, class, the media, etc. In Part Two we examine the interaction between race and law from the perspective of the historical evolution of democracy in the U.S. This course is the same as AAS 293, GGS 285 and HIS 304 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
AMS 294SEM Sex Violence&Racism in US
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
AMS 295LEC Special Topics
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 297LEC Welfare & Impact On Poor
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 301SEM Introduction to Native American Women
Seminar

Traces historical periods that affected Indigenous women's lives; emphasizes current laws and policies that have impacted their families and communities. This course is the same as GGS 301, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
AMS 302SEM Politics of Everyday Life: Food and Eating
Seminar

This course explores the politics of everyday life in the Americas, with a special focus on the history of food and eating in the Americas. It takes food as a lens through which to understand the history of nation building and immigration in the Americas, with a special focus on race, class, gender and identity. This course will help student hone their critical eye by analyzing a wide range of food related texts, images, and other media from the 19th century into the present, including cookbooks, literature, blogs, TV and films. Students will also study the food they make, cook, eat and discard as the product of history and also the means by which social, political and national identity are made and unmade.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 303SEM Politics of Love
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 304LEC Tech & Public Policy
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 305LR Amer Cultural Development
Lecture

Credits: 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 306SEM Native American Aesthetics
Seminar

Examines traditional and contemporary art methods and techniques by various Indigenous groups in North and South America.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 307SEM Native American Art
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 309LR New Research On Women
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 312LEC Culture and Reproduction
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 315SEM Cross-Cult Study of Womn
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 316SEM Cross-Cult Study of Womn
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 317SEM Femst Apprchs to the Fam
Seminar

Credits: 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 318SEM Family As Institution
Seminar

Credits: 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 319SEM Black Presnc Lat Am Cult
Seminar

Considers black presence and black heritage within Latin American culture, viewed through literature, films, art, and the theatre. Also explores stereotypes in arts and the mass media. This course is the same as AAS 318, LLS 308, and HMN 318 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
AMS 320LEC Issues in Counslg Women
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 321SEM Politcl Econ Womens Lib
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 322LEC Latina/o American Cinema
Lecture

This course is the same as LLS 322 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
AMS 324SEM Mainland Puerto Rican Experiences
Seminar

Examines lifestyle and emerging cultural personality of Puerto Ricans raised on the mainland, as well as Puerto Rican dynamics' role in American social and cultural change. This course is the same as LLS 303 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
AMS 325SEM Contemporary Afro-Caribbean Religion
Seminar

Explores the many religious experiences developed from the blending of Christian, African, and Indian cultures in the Caribbean. Although the principle focus is on Voudou and Santeria many less known religions of the region are also explored through a multidisciplinary perspective. This course is the same as APY 325 and LLS 325 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
AMS 327LEC Modern British Literature
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 334SEM Womn Writers Wkshp Poetry
Seminar

Credits: 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 335LEC Women Writers
Lecture

Study of writing by women across a variety of periods and genres, with focus on the historical and cultural context of women's lives. A: Twentieth-Century Women Writers Study of the writing of twentieth-century women, attending to its differences from and connections to earlier periods and mainstream traditions. May include a variety of genres. B: U.S. Women Writers Exploration of U.S. women's writing as it participates in mainstream literary and rhetorical traditions and creates its own counter-traditions. May include women's autobiographies, speeches, essays, letters, captivity and slave narratives, poetry, fiction and drama from a variety of periods. For example: Prof. J. Holstun, Socialism and Feminism In this course, we'll talk about the twentieth-century American dialogue between socialism and feminism, with emphasis on the novel. For example: Prof. A. Lyon: American Women Activist Writers This is a course in political activisim, rhetoric, and human rights. We will look at bad girls and figure out how their language helps to create both the identity of women and changes it the larger society. To do this, we are going to read selections from almost three centuries of writings by American bad girls. This course is the same as ENG 387 and GGS 335 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 336SEM Women and Literature
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 339SEM Socl Hist Aging Perspect
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 341SEM Hist Women in Education
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 343LEC Human Ecology
Lecture

Studies social dimensions of space affecting human distribution and location of social activities; provides theoretical explanations.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
AMS 345LEC Buffalo Stud Envir & Hist
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 346SEM Engage the City
Seminar

This course is about some of the most difficult problems our cities face today and allows students to engage in some of the most creative solutions to those problems. The course will begin with an introduction to inequalities of wealth and power in American cities, as well as segregation, joblessness, educational crisis, and urban environmental degradation. Then students will meet with leaders from our own city to talk about ways to solve these problems, and will collaborate in projects whose highest goal is to spark an urban revival across America.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 350LEC Labor History & Women
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 355SEM Theories of Feminism
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 356LEC Soc Hist Women 1875-Pres
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 358SEM Africa Diaspora
Seminar

A diaspora is not merely a spreading of a particular people, but literally a forced dispersal, touched off by some great cataclysmic event or process. Africa has experienced no fewer than two such processes (both at the hands of Europe): the slave trade and imperialism (or colonialism). These diasporas have profoundly shaped the world we live in today, though Africa and its diasporas have largely been treated as an afterthought in the study of world history. One major goal of this course is to study the processes of the African diasporas to understand how Africans and their descendants have impacted world history-a world historical agency that has generally been ignored or denied. Another major goal of this course concerns the understanding not so much of the past but of our world today. This course is the same as AAS 358 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
AMS 360SEM Prep Sem Teach Womns Stud
Seminar

Credits: 4
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
AMS 363LEC Ritual
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 364SEM Research Methods
Seminar

Introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of African American Studies, its relationship to other disciplines, and to social science research methodology. Students read the classic literature in the field and prepare annotated bibliographies. Topics covered may include slavery, colonialism, urbanization and migration, gender and gender construction, and intellectual movements. This course is the same as AAS 320 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall
Prerequisites: Completion of Communication Literacy 1 or completion of Writing Skills 1 (ENG 101 or placement into ENG 201)
AMS 366LEC Sexual Subcultures/America
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 375LEC Special Topics
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 380SEM Women in Workg Class Comm
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 381SEM Special Topics
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 385LEC Appro to Literat Women
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 386LEC Writing Criticism
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 387SEM Special Topics
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 388LEC Kinship & Socl Structure
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 389LEC Modern Gay Literature
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 392SEM Junior Seminar
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 394SEM City in U S & Asia
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 395SEM Chang Role Blk Women
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 409LEC Amer Working Class Woman
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 411SEM Topics in Women's History
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Spring
AMS 412SEM Women in the Professions
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 417SEM Fieldwork Americas
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 424SEM Ref Am His Blk Wmn Actvst
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 425LEC Native American Legal Situation
Lecture

Looks at the legal status of Native North Americans in relation to the United States and its governmental predecessors.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 429LEC Cultural Politics
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 430SEM Lit & Pol: Louise Erdrich
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 432SEM Applied Sociomusicology
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 435SEM Hist of Working Women
Seminar

Traces the changes in women's work in the home, in the family, and in the labor force in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Focusing on working class women's experiences in the labor force, we explore the impact of urbanization and industrialization on women in different ethnic and racial communities, their experiences and conflicts with unions, and their contributions to labor struggles. This course is the same as GGS 435, and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.?

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 437SEM Special Topics
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 439LEC Contemporary American Fiction
Lecture

Considers problems in American fiction from a cultural, historical, thematic, and stylistic perspective.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 440LEC Contemporary American Fiction
Lecture

Considers problems in American fiction from a cultural, historical, thematic, and stylistic perspective.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 446SEM Buffalo Admin of Justice
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 448LEC Special Topics
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
AMS 455SEM Cross Cult Retrospects
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 456SEM Cross Cult Retrospects
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 457SEM Problems in American Urban History
Seminar

Studies urban development aspects in the local community and more generally.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 459SEM Power and Social Policy
Seminar

This seminar for graduate students, majors and advanced undergraduates will explore several themes around the issues of class, power and policy from the European exploration and conquest of the Americas into the present. Themes include: the origins and development of class systems in the U.S.; the relationship between ruling elites and government in the creation of wealth; the role of class and class conflict in making and shaping domestic economic and foreign policies, including wars and interventions in other nations. Using the recent U.S. invasion of Iraq as a contemporary case study of these themes, we will explore such question as: who are the ruling in the U.S? How have they changed since colonial times? Who are the current ruling elites? What are their goals and visions? What is their relationship to government? How do they seek to translate thei goals into domestic economic policies and into foreign policy?

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 466LEC Women, Work, and Social Change
Lecture

Introduction to the study of women, work and social change in developing countries, focusing not only on women workers in labor intensive manufacturing jobs but also on women engaged in other formal and informal sectors of the global economy. Examination of the many processes that generate and contribute to women's subordination, paying particular attention to the many ways in which women assert their own agency and autonomy, and have power to act on their own behalf. By utilizing a comparative cross-country framework, the class will address the larger issues of the feminization and globalization of poverty via the struggles of working women in relation to economic development and the struggles of women from all walks of life who are trying to effect social and political change in their own communities. The objective of this course is to provide a gendered perspective on work and social change in a localized context and to highlight the importance of women's agency through their experiences of work and living. We will learn how women can take responsibility, can struggle to make a difference, and can improve their own situations. This course is the same as GGS 466 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 475SEM Languages of the Theatre
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 485SEM Women in Theatre
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 488REC Violence and Nonviolence
Recitation

Introduces the theory and practice of nonviolence.

Credits: 1
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 488SEM Violence and Nonviolence
Seminar

Introduces the theory and practice of nonviolence.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 489SEM Melville
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 490LEC Automation and Society
Lecture

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 491SEM Levelling Latin Am People
Seminar

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 496TUT Internship
Tutorial

Hands-on experience in the field.

Credits: 3
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Varies
AMS 499TUT Independent Study
Tutorial

Individually designed program of reading, research, or skills development in close association with an instructor.

Credits: 1 - 16
Grading: Graded (GRD)
Typically Offered: Fall, Spring
Prerequisites: permission of instructor

Transnational Studies