What American Studies is about
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.
Students majoring in American Studies gain an understanding of various historical and contemporary cultures and populations of the U.S., with attention to religious, racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, and class differences. Through coursework and directed research projects, students examine social, cultural, and regional dynamics that contribute to the formation of American society, cultures and the nation-state.
American Studies provides an excellent education in the liberal arts. Our goal is that you become a critical thinker, a skilled writer, and a person who has “learned how to learn,” that is, one who has acquired the intellectual tools and specialized knowledge necessary to undertake a variety of tasks and solve a variety of problems. These skills will prepare you for any direction you take your life after graduation. These intellectual and communication skills will prepare you for just about anything you face after graduation.
American Studies graduates have used their major to enter law, journalism and mass communications, teaching and education, social work, community organizing, government, museum curatorial work, graduate school in the humanities and other disciplines, and the private sector.
We encourage students to take a broad range of classes across faculty expertise during their first years in the major. (See “Courses” page.) These courses include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Science and U.S. Culture
- Religion and American Lives
- Nature and Culture
- Material Culture and Everyday Life
- Introduction to Popular Culture
- Corporate Cultures
- Technology and the Modern Body
- The Individual and Community in the U.S.
- Images of America and Americans in Popular Culture
- Race, Culture and Identity in the U.S.
- The Lives of Men in America
- Food and Culture in Everyday Life
- Animals in American Culture
After discovering their own areas of interest, students have the opportunity to develop their own emphasis plans. This involves selecting five courses (or three if they opt to complete a senior thesis) inside and outside of the department to prepare them for specific career paths. Some areas of possible emphases include:
- Business and Consumption
- Bodies, Disability, and Society
- Media, Communications, and Visual Culture
- Race and Ethnicity
- Gender and Sexuality
- Urban and Environmental Studies
- Foodways and Animal Studies
- Youth Cultures and Education