American Studies Program

What is American Studies…..

American Studies explores the cultures of the United States, as well as their transnational exchanges and impact. The discipline’s practitioners seek to understand the historical origins of particular cultures and practices held by individuals and groups within the United States and how those values and beliefs shape social and political realities within and beyond U.S. borders. The approach that American Studies takes is interdisciplinary, meaning that in American Studies we answer these questions using tools developed by numerous disciplines including history, sociology, anthropology, literary criticism, folklore, media and science and technology studies.

American Studies takes as its subject American culture. Our aim is to make each student a culture critic, a person capable of bringing a thoughtful and humane approach to bear upon our understanding of the varieties of American experience. Making connections is the way we like to characterize our work in American Studies, and we see three related ways of doing that.

American Studies provides an excellent, broad education in the liberal arts. Our goal is that you become a good critical thinker, that you develop excellent writing skills, and that you “learn how to learn,” that is, you learn to figure out what intellectual tools and specialized knowledge you will need to perform a task or solve a problem. We believe these intellectual and communication skills will prepare you for just about anything you face after graduation.

So you are thinking of Majoring/ Doublemajoring/ Minoring in AMS