USC
University of Southern California
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Undergraduate Degrees

Minor in American Popular Culture

The interdisciplinary minor in American Popular Culture helps students to assess from a variety of perspectives the icons and ideas they encounter every day, to think critically about the images and assertions of the mass media and commercial culture, and to see the experience of popular culture as it interacts with questions of gender and ethnicity in the American context. Students choose five classes, including one upper-division elective, from a curriculum organized to explore: critical approaches to popular culture; gender and ethnicity in American popular culture; and popular culture in the arts. Twenty units are required, four at the lower-division and 16 at the upper-division level.

Lower division requirementsunits

Choose one course (4 units)
AMST 206The Politics and Culture of the 1960s4
AMST 285African American Popular Culture4

upper division requirementsunits

Choose four courses (16 units), at least one from each of the groups below.

Critical Approaches to Popular Culture: choose one (4 units)
AMST 301America, the Frontier, and the New West4
COLT 365Literature and Popular Culture4
COMM 384Interpreting Popular Culture4
ENGL 392Visual and Popular Culture4
HIST 380American Popular Culture4

Gender and Ethnicity in American Popular Culture: choose one (4 units)
AMST 357Latino Social Movements4
AMST 365Leadership in the Community -- Internship4
AMST 385African American Culture and Society4
AMST 395African American Humor and Culture4
ENGL 448Chicano and Latino Literature4
ENGL 449Asian-American Literature4
ENGL 476Images of Women in Contemporary Culture4

Popular Culture in the Arts: choose one (4 units)
AHIS 363Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Contemporary Art4
AHIS 370Modern Art III: 1940 to the Present4
CTCS 392History of the American Film, 1925-504
CTCS 393History of the American Film, 1946-754
CTCS 394History of the American Film, 1977-Present4
ENGL 375Science Fiction4
ENGL 471Literary Genres and Film4
ENGL 481Narrative Forms in Literature and Film4
HIST 481Producing Film Histories4
MUJZ 419The Jazz Experience: Myths and Culture4
MUSC 400The Broadway Musical: Reflection of American Diversity, Issues and Experiences4
MUSC 422The Beatles: Their Music and Their Times4
MUSC 450The Music of Black Americans4
PAS 400Contemporary Public Art4

Electives (4 units)

Choose one additional upper-division course from the lists above, in a department you have not already chosen for the minor.