Why American Studies?
American studies is an interdisciplinary program that provides students with opportunities to combine courses on the anthropology, art, history, journalism, literature, music, politics, religion and sociology of the United States into a single major. The requirements for the program emphasize student initiative in crafting a distinctive program of study that meets the academic interests of each major.
In addition to completing a pair of required methodological courses, majors pursue electives in allied departments that are organized around a specific area of intellectual interest. Students, for example, may choose to focus on race and ethnicity studies, a discrete time period, or a distinctly multidisciplinary approach to the study of United States culture and society. The opportunities to develop a unique program of study, therefore, are as diverse as the students who elect to major in American studies.
The field of American studies has changed quite a bit since its inception during the middle decades of the 20th century. The pioneering scholars who founded the American Studies Association in 1951 were interested in combining the study of history and literature into an unified methodology that defined essential American character traits—or, what they called the “myths” and “symbols” that conditioned the American experience.
In the decades following World War II, American studies accented political consensus and broadly shared cultural values. During the 1960s and 1970s, however, scholars and students in the field began exploring issues of dissent and diversity. Their work during this dynamic period of cultural, political and social ferment increasingly highlighted issues of race, class and gender. American studies developed a strong sense of social justice and civic engagement, an activist streak that it has retained into the present.
By 1990, the direction of the field had turned decisively toward the politics of culture and the ways in which Marxist and feminist categories of academic analysis might be applied to the study of popular culture, including low- and middle-brow forms of art, literature, folklore, music, film, theater, material culture and the built environment. Where once scholars sought to uncover the Puritan origins of a distinctly American self, students working in the field of American studies in the new millennium now confront a discipline that embraces a post-national citizenry, diasporic cultures and border-crossing identities.
American studies has always been at the forefront of the most creative trends in the academic study of United States culture and society. The University of Richmond program attracts an innovative cohort of majors. Students appreciate the flexibility of the curriculum and are especially interested in making connections across departments.
The American Studies Program encourages double majors in allied fields in the arts, humanities and social sciences. The interdisciplinary methodological training that majors receive in required American studies courses provides excellent preparation for many professions including law, education and public service, as well as non-profit and international agencies. The discipline’s commitment to social justice initiatives, moreover, serves as an imperative for students to get involved in service learning activities through the Correla and Bertram F. Bonner Center for Civic Engagement, the Jepson School of Leadership Studies and internships in the greater Richmond community. Study abroad experiences provide opportunities for majors to pursue coursework that reorients their perception of the United States and its position in the global community.
