Support the American Studies Program
In American Studies, we explore the history, literature, and culture of the United States and the larger Americas from an interdisciplinary perspective.
American Studies is a form of critical citizenship. Specifically, the field now considers the role of the United States in the world; it ponders the significance of diaspora, migration, and globalization, or the cross-border flows of people, information, and commodities, for national cultures and nationalism; it pushes the study of the United States into a hemispheric context, positioning that country against and exploring its links to Central and South America, Canada and the Caribbean; it develops interdisciplinary methodologies that encourage a careful, critical reflection on the meaning of the terms "America" and "American." It weighs the significance of empire in "our" history. It no longer borrows exclusively from English and History, but also incorporates people and ideas from Anthropology, Folklore, Ethnomusicology, Linguistics, Ethnic Studies, Area Studies, the study of Spanish, French, and Portuguese literatures, and other concentrations in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
An American Studies degree is one of the best preparations for the challenges of national citizenship an interconnected, internationalist world.
