HOW TO CHOOSE AND REQUEST CLASSES
This is the hardest part because there are so many courses available and the descriptions are short. Here is a list of the most relevant courses.
Choose courses for Fall semester first, but take a look at the spring offerings too–there could be courses you really want then, so you may want to finish your American Studies requirement in the Fall semester.
Step A
Choose courses from the lists below based on what Danielle mentioned in the Welcome letter and your own interests.
Step B
Email Danielle your 2 courses for Fall and 1 or 2 backupa. You may also indicate your spring choices, but those may change.
Fall 2025 American Studies courses
AAAS (African American & Afr Studies) 200.001, Class Nbr 11944: Black Feminisms: Past, Present, and Futures
Mon Wed 10:20-11:40
Black feminist expressions, dialectics, arts, and/or politics, through discussions on language, the body, institutions, history, cultures, communal relations, exercises of freedom, and practices of resistance.
AAAS (African American & Afr Studies) 201.001: Black Sexualities Studies: Past, Present, and Futures
Mon Wed : 2:40 PM-4:00 PM
Black Sexualities Studies through identity formation, dialectics, arts, and politics, through discussions on language, the body, institutions, history, cultures, politics, healing, exercises of freedom, and practices of resistance.
AAAS (African American & Afr Studies) 202:001, Class Nbr 11945 : Black Genders Studies: Past, Present, and Futures
Tues Thurs 10:20-11:40
Gender ideologies, ideologies that produce gender, pursuits of resistant imaginaries, and gender fluidity particularly in Black lifewords, expressions, activism, and politics.
AIIS (Amer Indian & Indigenous Stdy) 201, Section 001 / Class Nbr 12742 : Introduction to American Indian and Indigenous Studies
Tue Thu : 12:40-2:00 PM
Introduction to the study of American Indian and other Indigenous peoples, including issues related to culture, knowledge, language, governance, colonization, sovereignty, and ongoing revitalization efforts.
ANP (Anthropology) 411 Section 001 / Class Nbr 17918: North American Indian Ethnography
Tue Thurs 1:00-2:20PM
Social and cultural patterns of North American Indian societies. History, economy, politics, social organization, religion, and social change.
ENG (English) 351 Section 001 / Class Nbr 12688: Readings in Chicano and Latino Literatures
Tue Thu : 8:30 AM-9:50 AM
The course introduces you to US Latinx literatures and the social and historical contexts that inform their production. We will emphasize close reading of primary texts, and materials will include poetry, essays, drama, film and fiction, as well as representations of Latinx people in United States popular culture. While foregrounding the distinct character of Latinx art and literature, the course should also continuously challenge broader assumptions and expectations regarding Latinx people in America. The creative work we engage with will teach readers much about the culture and history of Chicanx and US Latinx people, but our goal is also to interpret literary texts as works of art, crafted artefacts that explore multiple levels of meaning and that exist in the broader history of “American literature.” Our aim is also to develop our facility in close textual analysis with the recognition that the skill of explication has broad applicability outside the classroom and outside of literary studies. Course texts tentatively include the following book length texts: Limon, Ada. The Hurting Kind Moreno, Gus. This Thing Between Us Sánchez, Erica. I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter Torres, Justin, Blackouts Villavivencio, Karla Cornejo. The Undocumented Americans + selected poetry and prose provided via D2L Assignments tentatively include: • Two 2-page textual explications • One Team project • One Research Assignment • Several discussion assignments • One Literary Analysis with secondary research
ENG (English) 443 Section 001 / Class Nbr 26218: Seminar in 19th Century American Literature
Mon Wed : 10:20 AM-11:40 AM
This is a seminar in the major themes and developments in literary culture in the United States from the War of 1812 to Reconstruction in the 1870s. Readings include novels, short stories, plays, poems, essays, and autobiographies. Students will encounter some authors they might know (like Walt Whitman or Edgar Allan Poe) and many authors who will be new to them. We will look at canonical works like Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, but also recovered voices, popular culture, the visual arts, and material culture. We will read from a single anthology, The Broadview Anthology of American Literature Volume B: 1820 to Reconstruction (Broadview Press), which presents an expansive overview of this tumultuous period. Students will write informally on Packback, present regularly in small groups, and design
HST (History) 213 Section 001/Class Nbr 17301: U.S. Business and Economic History
Mon Wed : 4:10-5:30 PM
Evolution of American economy from colonial period to the present. Relationship between government and business. The relationship of labor to industry and government. Political culture and the world of business.
HST (History) 306 Sec 001/Class Nbr 17306: Modern United States
Mon Wed : 6:00 PM-7:20 PM
United States history from 1920 to the present. Transformations in political, economic, and social institutions and Americans’ responses to these changes. Development of the welfare-warfare state. The transformation to a post-industrial economy. Political and cultural responses to these changes.
HST (History) 312 Sect 001/Class Nbr 18080 African American Women
Mon Wed : 10:20 AM-11:40 AM
Black women in American history. Slavery, the work place, politics, and the Civil Rights movement.
HST (History) 320 sec001/Class Nbr 17309: History of Michigan
Mon Wed : 6:00 PM-7:20 PM
Political, social, and economic development from colonial beginnings to the present.
HST (History) 329: Sec 001/Class NBR 17311 College Sports in the United States
Mon Wed : 10:20-11:40 am
Origins of sports in higher education. Effects of industrialization and television. Civil rights movement in sports: incorporation of women and members of minorities. Title IX era. History of individual sports.
HST (History) 391 Section 001 / Class Nbr 26514: Environmental History of North America
Tue Thu : 2:40 PM-4:00 PM
Interaction of peoples of North America and their natural environments.
IAH (Integrative Studies Arts & Hum) 201 Section 740 / Class Nbr 12251: United States and the World (D)
Mon : 12:40 PM-2:30 PM
IAH (Integrative Studies Arts & Hum) 206: Self, Society, and Technology (D) Focus: Language and our Lives
Section 013 / Class Nbr 11150 Mon Wed : 5:00 PM-6:50 PM Focus: Decoding Our Institutions and Social Media
IAH (Integrative Studies Arts & Hum) 207: Literatures, Cultures, Identities (I) Focus: Ideas of Class, Race, and Identity
Section 046 / Class Nbr 11156 Mon Wed : 10:20 AM-12:10 PM Focus: Michigan Artists & Art in Michigan
Section 047 / Class Nbr 12533 Mon Wed : 3:00 PM-4:50 PM Focus: Michigan Artists & Art in Michigan
PLS (Political Science) 100: Introduction to American Politics
Sec 001/Class Nbr 17399: Mon Wed : 10:20-11:40 AM
The policymaking process in national government, with emphasis on political participation, the presidency, Congress, Supreme Court, bureaucracy, and civil rights and civil liberties.
REL (Religious Studies) 232: Islam in America
Tue Thu : 10:20 AM-11:40 AM
Introduction to the history and evolution of Islam in America.
Fall 2025 Professional courses
ANP (Anthropology) 420 Section 002 Class Nbr 16960: Language and Culture
Tue Thu : 10:20 AM-11:40 AM
Domain, issues, and methods of cultural linguistics. Relationship between language and culture. Language and ethnicity, status, and role. Pidgin and Creole languages. Crosscultural communication. (Currently Waitlisted)
ENG (English) 308: section 001/Class Nbr 12483 Readings in Literature for Young Adults
Tue Thu : 10:20 AM-11:40 AM
This course in Young Adult Literature aims to broaden the range of texts we associate with this marketing label as we explore stories that make visible alternative systems and conceptions of knowledge, perception, value, justice and ancestry. Our reading and research will identify conventions and patterns that prevail in YAL and consider its status in relation to what the publishing world might call “literary fiction.” The critical reading skills we employ to examine other domains of literature are equally suited to the study of texts written for young adults; thus, this course is a space for developing and refining those skills. The stories and our strategies of reading will be complex, theoretical and multidimensional, meant to challenge cultural assumptions about thematic, descriptive and narrative simplicity. We will most definitely read texts not marketed as “YAL” with an eye towards understanding the precepts and assumptions governing identification and marketing of reading material to audiences of young adults. Part of our study will also include material on an emerging trend in the United States: the elimination of the traditional school library. Book-length texts tentatively include the following: Cheeks, Maura. Acts of Forgiveness Cisneros, Sandra. House on Mango Street Ishiguro, Kazuo. Klara and the Sun Zamora, Javier. Solito Additional material will be made available through D2L. Assignments include several discussion post assignments, 2-page textual explications, a team project, a summary and analysis of a published literary studies essay on YAL, and an extended literary analysis with secondary research at the end of the semester. Attendance and engagement are important to success. There are no quizzes and there is no final examination.
FLM (Film Studies) 260: Introduction to Digital Film and Emergent Media
Section 001 / Class Nbr 12231 Tue : 9:10 AM-12:00 PM Thu : 9:10 AM-11:00 AM
Section 002 / Class Nbr 12023: Tue : 12:40 PM-3:30 PM Thu : 12:40 PM-2:30 PM
Introduction to digital film and emergent media production.
LIN (Linguistics) 225: Language and Gender
Sec 001/Class Nbr 11259 Tues Thurs : 8:30-9:50 AM
Gender and language in societies around the world. Issues such as status, power and politeness in monolingual and multilingual societies. The role of gender in language development, language variation and language change.
LIN (Linguistics) 230:Sec 001/Class Nbr 12093 Languages of the World
Mon Wed : 8:30 AM-9:50 AM
Develop an understanding and appreciation of the world’s linguistic diversity by exploring facts about languages of the world and an appreciation of linguistic diversity as part of cultural diversity. Learn about language families and historical relationships, as well as language typology. Explore how the language situation today reflects historical movements of people and their settlements. Symbolic functions of language and what happens when languages come in contact.
LIN 424 Section 001/Class Nbr 11261: Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology
Mon Wed : 10:20 AM-11:40 AM
Phonetics, phonetics features and components, phonological phenomena, phonemic analysis, sound systems and data analysis.
LIN (Linguistics) 434 class Nbr 11262 : Introduction to Syntax
Tue Thu : 10:20 AM-11:40 AM
Structure of sentences and structural relations among phrases. Methods of syntactic analysis and argumentation.
LIN (Linguistics) 463: Introduction to Cognitive Science
Section 001 / Class Nbr 12060 Mon Wed : 12:40 PM-2:00 PM
Section 002 / Class Nbr 12568 Mon Wed : 3:00 PM-4:20 PM
Cognitive processing of information by animals, humans, and computers. Relevant issues in philosophy, linguistics, psychology, neurophysiology, and artificial intelligence.
LIN (Linguistics) 471:Class Nbr 11264 Sociolinguistics
Thu : 10:20 AM-11:40 AM
Linguistic and social psychological bases for language choice. Accounts of language variation and related larger constructs such as speech community, communicative competence, dialect, and language change.
LLT (Language, Learning & Teaching) 807: Class Nbr 11289 Language Teaching Methods
Mon 11:30am- 2:20pm
Approaches, methods, and materials for teaching foreign and second languages, including the teaching of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Selection and evaluation of materials, lesson planning, and management of activities and materials.
LLT (Language, Learning & Teaching) 809:Class Nbr 11290 Teaching Second Language Reading and Writing
Mon : 3:00 PM-5:50 PM
Teaching reading and writing in foreign and second language contexts. Vocabulary and pre-reading activities; materials development; integrating, assessing and researching reading and writing; reading and writing to learn language, academic reading and writing.
LLT (Language, Learning & Teaching) 822:Class Nbr 11291 Interlanguage Analysis
Tue : 3:00 PM-5:50 PM
Phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax within the context of second language acquisition and teaching. Approaches to analysis of second language learner data.
LLT 841 Topics in Second/Foreign Language Teaching
Section 001 / Class Nbr 26464 Thu : 3:00 PM-5:50 PM Focus: Technology & Instructed Second Language Acquisition
Section 002 / Class Nbr 26511 Mon : 3:00 PM-5:50 PM Focus: Program Administration
LLT (Language, Learning & Teaching) 856:Section 001 / Class Nbr 26472 Language Identity and Ideology in Multilingual Settings
Wed : 11:30 AM-2:20 PM
Current debates on the relationship between language, identity, and ideology. Theories of identity and ideology related to a variety of educational settings. Negotiation of identity and ideology with respect to social relationships between writer and reader, teacher and student, classroom and community.
LLT (Language, Learning & Teaching) 861: Class Nbr 11292 Advanced Topics in Second Language Acquisition
Wed : 8:00 AM-10:50 AM
Advanced course in second language acquisition. Topics vary based on current topics in the field and faculty interests.
LLT (Language, Learning & Teaching) 864: Class Nbr 26475 Second Language Psycholinguistics
Tue : 11:30 AM-2:20 PM
Second and foreign language learning from a psycholinguistic perspective. Discussion of major research findings and theories of second and foreign language perception, comprehension, and production.
LLT (Language, Learning & Teaching) 874: Class Nbr 12108 Qualitative Research in Second Language Studies
Thu : 11:30 AM-2:20 PM
Theories, principles, and techniques underlying qualitative research. Applications to investigating second language learning and teaching.
THR (Theatre) 101N: Acting I for Non-Theatre Majors
info coming soon…
Improvisational exercises, creative exercises, monologue and scene study.
Spring 2026 American Studies Courses
Coming soon….
Spring 2025 Professional Courses
Coming soon….