U.S. Studies Program Requirements & Course List
Please note: Course offerings will vary from year-to-year. Students may use courses which are not listed below to fulfill their upper-level course requirements if said courses are pertinent to the United States–provided that they receive approval from the POLI/US Studies Undergraduate Advisor to do so. To connect with the Undergraduate Advisor, please e-mail poli.advising@ubc.ca.
US Studies Major
FIRST AND SECOND YEAR COURSE REQUIREMENTS (12 CREDITS):
* ECON 101 (or ECON 310) – Principles of Microeconomics
* ECON 102 (or ECON 311) – Principles of Macroeconomics
* HIST 237 – History of the United States
* POLI 220 – Introduction to Comparative Politics
UPPER LEVEL COURSES (30 CREDITS):
A total of thirty (30) upper division credits in courses designated as eligible for inclusion in a US Studies major or minor, which must include:
* 6-12 credits of eligible courses in Economics
* 6-12 credits of eligible courses in History
* 3 credits of POLI 320A – Government and Politics of the United States of America
* 3-9 credits of additional eligible courses in Political Science
* One of the above courses (3 credits) must be a fourth-year seminar or other research course. It must be relevant to the US but need not concern the US exclusively and must have been approved by the US Studies Undergraduate Advisor.
During 2022W, fourth-year seminar options include:
The upper-level requirement may also include:
* Up to 6 credits in eligible courses in other departments, including but not limited to Anthropology, English, Geography, and Sociology.
UPPER LEVEL COURSES CURRENTLY ACCEPTED INTO THE U.S. STUDIES MAJOR
POLITICAL SCIENCE
POLI 320A – Government and Politics of the United States of America
POLI 320B – Government and Politics of the United States of America*
POLI 328E – The Rise and Decline of Liberal Democracy (2022W)**
POLI 333B – Issues in Comparative Politics (2022W)
POLI 333C– Issues in Comparative Politics (2022W)
POLI 333D– Issues in Comparative Politics (2022W)
POLI 377 – Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control
POLI 378 – Politics of Terrorism
POLI 380 – Quantitative Methods in Political Science
POLI 420A – Advanced Topics in Comparative Politics (2022W)
POLI 420B – Comparative Western Governments: Core Seminar in United States Politics
POLI 460C – Foreign Policy Analysis (2022W)
POLI 462 – International Relations Theory
*POLI 320A is the general or survey course on US Politics, and POLI 320B is “The Politics of Policy in the US;” students can take both courses, in either order.
**Courses marked with ‘2022W’ indicate those whose topics shift from year to year. The 2022W iterations of these courses meet USST program requirements.
HISTORY
HIST 302 – History of the Indigenous Peoples of North America
HIST 331 – The United States, 1865-1900: Labour, Race, Gender & Empire
HIST 334 – African-American History, 1450 – 1850
HIST 335 – African-American History, 1850 to the Present
HIST 338 – American Modernity: The United States, 1890-1945
HIST 339 – The United States since 1945: The Limits of Power
HIST 395 – The Nuclear Century: Scientists, Atoms, and the World Order since 1900
HIST 396 – Environmental History of North America
HIST 403A – Making Peace After Making War: Versailles, Vienna, and Westphalia (2022W)
HIST 403D – The International System, 1975-2001 (2022W)
HIST 408 – U.S. Foreign Relations from Independence to World War II
HIST 409 – U.S. Foreign Relations since 1945
HIST 447A – Selected Topics in United States History – Early USA in the 21st Century
HIST 456 – Race in the Americas
HIST 467 – Topics in Indigenous History of the United States
ECONOMICS
ECON 301 – Intermediate Microeconomic Analysis I
ECON 302 – Intermediate Macroeconomic Analysis I
ECON 303 – Intermediate Microeconomics II
ECON 337 – Economic History of the United States
ECON 339 – Economics of Technological Change
ECON 345 – Money and Banking
ECON 355 – Introduction to International Trade
ECON 356 – Introduction to International Finance
ECON 367 – Economic Analysis of Law
ECON 370 – Benefit-Cost Analysis and the Economics of Project Evaluation
ECON 371 – Economics of the Environment
ECON 374 – Land Economics
ECON 447 – Monetary Theory
ECON 465 – Market Structure
ECON 466 – The Economics of Government Regulation of Business
US Studies Minor
A minor consists of at least 30 credits, but not more than 42 credits. At least 12 credits must be selected from ECON 101/102 (6), HIST 237 (6), and POLI 220 (3). At least 18 credits must be chosen from the courses listed for the Major in United States Studies that are numbered 300 and higher. By doing a major in Political Science, History, or Economics and a minor in US Studies, the student combines thorough training in the methods and theories of one discipline with a well-rounded exposure to the politically and economically most influential country in the world. The student may double-count a maximum of 6 upper-level credits between the major and the minor.