AMERICAN STUDIES
Facilitators: James Bennett, Religious Studies, and Juliana Chang, English
American Studies is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the United States, past and present. Students approach the study of American cultures through such diverse fields as history, literature, religious studies, art, economics, and environmental studies, and might focus on such topics as popular culture and material culture, ethnic studies and gender studies, empire, and globalization. American Studies students analyze America’s relations with the rest of the world, the construction and deconstruction of American identities, and changing and competing definitions of America (including critiques of the very name “American Studies”).
We encourage students to intentionally craft a four-course cluster around a theme or topic of special interest to them. Such intentional focus will also make it easier for students to complete the reflection paper. Below are suggested possible ways of crafting such a cluster or focus, although students should feel free to develop and define their own individualized cluster topic:
- American Regions (i.e., The West and California, America and the Caribbean, Interregionalism, America and the Atlantic)
- Politics and Activism
- Transnationalism and Globalization
- Colonialism/Postcolonialism
- Historical Periods (i.e., The Colonial Period, The 19th Century, Modernism, Postmodernism)
- Gender and Sexuality
- Race and Ethnicity
