Concentrations are subject areas of special strength and long-standing student interest in the AMCS curriculum. In general, they provide meaningful focus for study in several disciplines, and encourage students to be deliberate about their coursework within AMCS as well as in any complementary programs / departments.

To fulfill the requirement, students must take at least three courses, two of them above the 300-level, in their Concentration area.

AMCS currently has seven established Concentrations:

• Ethnic America, which focuses on ethnic identity and perceptions of ethnicity in American culture past and present.
• Popular Culture, which involves exploration of the significance of popular culture in America, the role that specific pop cultural phenomena have played in shaping ideas, events, and changes in specific periods, etc.
• Social Thought & Social Problems, which focuses on a variety of social issues/problems in U.S. culture and how they can be understood.
• 20th-Century America, in which students explore defining features, texts and patterns of change in American culture and society during the 20th century.
• Policy-Making in American Society, which focuses on public policy and the cultural influences on it.
• War & Peace, which explores the profound significance of war in American culture (historical events and representations of conflicts as well as peace-related topics - national security, peace movements, etc.)
• A Sense of Place: Community, Region and Landscape, which is concerned with the way place shapes American culture and identity.

Click here to find predefined lists of current-semester suitable courses for each of the Concentrations.

Concentrations are designed to be flexible, and to encompass both humanities and social science fields. Majors are welcome to propose new Concentrations or to tailor an established one to suit their interests (for example, focusing their work in the "20th-Century America" area on gender or race in the civil rights period). Click here for more on choosing and defining a Concentration.