AMST 2001

Great class! 10/10 would recommend. I learned so much from the class and i'm not even an American Studies major. Theres weekly discussion section, 1 midterm, a final and a final project paper about american food. The project was fun to do because its about food, and any food of your choice!

This class was actually taught by Professor Hedstrom and Carmenita Higginbotham together, and I would recommend both of them. I really enjoyed this class, but I would only take it if you are interested in the material, otherwise it could be kind of dull. Grade comes from participation in section, a fairly easy midterm and final, and a "semester long" project/paper that they really only gave us a month to do. The readings were very doable and interesting.

Professor Hedstrom is very passionate about what he does. That being said, he is incredibly effective in making the class fun. Some units of the course are boring but he does a great job in focusing on interesting stuff. Overall, I highly recommend this course. Very easy and interesting perspective on American culture and history.

Hedstrom is awesome!! He's super knowledgable and really passionate about the subject. Overall, the class is pretty standard with grading. A midterm, a final, a semester long project (pretty much on anything food related that you want, which is cool) and a discussion grade. I barely went to class and am expecting a B+.

This was a relatively easy course, if you attend lecture and put the work in. Each week there are readings assigned, and a weekly reading response. There's a midterm (consists of defining terms and two essays), a final project (8 page paper about anything food related), and a final exam (basically a second midterm, with 2 additional long essays). The class can be somewhat dry at times but is generally pretty interesting! I'd recommend.

Hedstrom sucks. This man clearly has no idea what he is talking about. He teaches like a freshman in high school who is nervously giving a class presentation -- staring at the paper, studdering, repeating himself, and always finishing his sentences with an awkward pause followed by him saying the title of the unit he's teaching. This feels like a high school class: you spend the whole time looking at powerpoints with a few bullet points on them and the teacher basically summarizes the powerpoint. That being said, the concepts in of themselves are pretty interesting, but the professors could've done so much more with them. Class is pretty easy, they give you a study guide for the final/midterm. Discussion is 25% of the grade which is a boost and foodways project isn't too bad. If you take it, take it for the GPA, not for an engaging or life-changing course.

*taught by both Hamilton and Hedstrom, alternating units

I believe this was the first semester this class has been taught jointly, and I felt like it worked in some ways, though not all. The lectures were posted asynchronously but you had to finish them before your synchronous discussion, so I recommend doing a later discussion time/day to give yourself more time to watch the lectures. I don't think this class is offered in the spring though, and it'll probably be in person next fall, so just ignore that if that's true. I don't recommend taking this class unless you're genuinely interested in American Studies; it's not an easy class for a filler. While a lot of the work is fairly easy—the TA's are lenient graders so you'll probably get at least a B if you do all the work—there's a lot of work. You have to write a short paper each week, which isn't bad, but it has to be a reflection on the readings, which take up at least 3 hours of your week if you're reading them completely. I think most people learned to skim most of the readings towards the end of the semester, or skip the altogether, because I don't think they're really worth it if you're taking this as a filler class. Hedstrom in general gives the longer readings; I liked Hamilton's teaching style better as well. Towards the end of the semester, I remember having one week with over 300 pages of reading. It might be enjoyable if you, unlike me, are actually interested in American Studies, but if you're just taking it to fulfill a requirement, there are easier classes with less work.

*taught by both Hamilton and Hedstrom, alternating units

If you attend the lectures and do the readings comprehensively, it shouldn't be too difficult to get a good grade in this class. Attending the lectures is super important as the professors don't upload the powerpoints, and the powerpoints are more of a supplement to their lectures rather than a summary.
The work for this class included 2-3 hours of reading (Hedstrom usually assigned the denser readings), a weekly 1-page reading journal submitted to your TA, and an end-of-year foodways project (in addition to two exams).
Hedstrom's lectures definitely seemed a big dryer than Hamilton's, but he was still an effective lecturer overall. Hamilton's lectures definitely were more engaging (definitely could be due to the subject matter) and he did a good job at explaining the main points without going off into too many tangents. For a class that is required to apply for the major, I thought it had interesting topics and was taught well.

*taught by Hedstrom and Hamilton on alternating units*

I came into this class not knowing exactly what to expect, wanting to balance out my more STEM heavy schedule with something different. I was very pleasantly surprised. Almost every lecture kept my attention for the entire 50 minutes, (both Hedstrom and Hamilton are good lecturers), and I was genuinely interested in the topics being discussed. The weekly assignments of reading the resources and writing journals was very manageable (... you don't have to do alllll the readings as long as you review them before tests), and the two assessments in the course (midterm and final) were doable with some studying and review. This was one class I actually looked forward to going to throughout the semester, and thought the content was valuable and applicable to the world today. Overall it was a good intro course and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a manageable class.

(Taught by both Hedstrom and Hamilton, alternating units)
I didn’t really know what “American studies” was before taking the class, but it’s interdisciplinary so it’s like looking through a lens of sociology, history, religion, politics, etc. to get a better understanding of the U.S. I can’t recommend this class enough if you’re up for a decent amount of reading (that you can eventually skim) and enjoy talking about these topics.
Your grade is pretty heavily weighted on the midterm, Foodways project, and final, with the rest being journals which are weekly and based on the readings for the week. It can feel like a lot at times, but it’s fairly manageable. You’ll get out of the class as much as you put in.