American Studies
Sydney Rotman
Class of 2015 | Kings Point, NY
Why American Studies?
I have a wide variety of interests and did not want to be confined to a single discipline. I love the interdisplinary aspect of the major and that a concept I’ll learn in one of my courses connects to another in AMST. I really enjoyed AMST 200-Race Matters, MCS 360-News Analysis, and History of Jazz. Analyzing film, literature, and other media really fascinates me. The most memorable moment I had was creating an anthology/book about a subject in AMST200; compiling my sources and decorating our books for display was a lot of fun! Mine was on display in Myrin Library. I wrote about the Rise of the KKK in the early 1900s.
Major
Minor
Activities
- UCTV Live! (Ursinus College Television Live!)
- Escape Velocity Dance Troupe
- Jazz Ensemble
- Summer Fellows
- General Manager of UCTV
- Dancer in Escape Velocity
- Flutist in Jazz Ensemble
Research
Currently, I am constructing an honors project on Minstrelsy in Contemporary Media. I learned about blackface minstrelsy in my history of Jazz class sophomore year and I became really interested in the subject of race in the United States and its portrayal in popular culture. I started my research over the summer during the Summer Fellows research program.
Study Abroad
I studied abroad in the fall semester of my junior year in Florence, Italy. I took classes in photography, painting, Italian, and sociology/anthropology, while receiving credits for graduation. I traveled to various cities in Italy and I went to Morocco, Prague, Germany, and Israel.