Welcome to American Studies

American Studies focuses on the examination of American culture from an interdisciplinary perspective. We look for the central themes of American life -- labor, mobility, migration, art, place, race, and play -- without restricting ourselves to disciplinary boundaries. “Work in America,” for instance, investigates the history of work, compares the American work ethic to the role of work in other countries and times, explores how workers themselves think and talk about work in song, poems, stories, and photographs, considers how work affects self-definition, and looks at to our own families dealt with and experienced some of these themes. All in all, we offer an exciting approach to understanding the ever changing and contested values and nature of American life.

SEE THE COURSES PAGE FOR INFOMATION ON SOME OF THE GREAT COURSES BEING OFFERED BY AMERICAN STUDIES NEXT SEMESTER, FALL 2008