American Studies  

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Making its debut in Fall 2010, UMA now offers a minor in American Studies. This new minor includes "Introduction to American Studies" as its core course and offers students a range of courses in American literature, history, politics, arts, technology, law, and other subjects. This minor is interdisciplinary and asks students to consider American Studies from a variety of diciplinary perspectives, methods, and lenses. While the subject matter is diverse, American Studies offers students the opportunity to view their lives, their country, and their world through a critical lens.

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While American Studies is certainly a thematic field, it is more than a compilation of courses that are about the United States. There has always been contention within this field about the subject matter of American Studies, how we should study that subject matter, and what methodologies should be used. Is there one way to do American Studies? This self-reflective aspect is part and parcel of American Studies. The American Studies Association is the leading organization for such discussions and the annual conference is an incredible gathering of scholars, artists, and community activists.

According to George Lipsitz in American Studies in a Moment of Danger, “there are two American Studies traditions in existence. One is the institutional American studies canonized within easily recognized paradigms like myth-symbol-image, uses-and-effects anthropology, the new social history, and cultural studies.” And there is also what he calls, the “‘other American studies,’ the grassroots theorizing about culture and power that has informed cultural practice, social movements, and academic work for many years” and which “takes on new meaning in this age of deindustrialization, economic restructuring, capital flight, and economic austerity.” Blending these two approaches is one of the challenges for the future of American Studies.

Some important aspects of American Studies courses and program curriculum:

Critical: The material in American studies courses is not simply presented, but critically considered. American Studies requires us to ask questions about why things are the way they are, how they came to be that way, and how they may need to change. American studies considers power relationships, identities and institutions, social movements and popular representations.

 Interdisciplinary: American studies courses, and the field as a whole, are interdisciplinary. It is both between and among the disciplines. We can’t simply have a variety of disciplines represented but also must figure out how we can bring different disciplinary perspectives into classes that are traditionally single-discipline clases, like English, History, Criminal Justice, or Music.

 Comparative: There are many discussions in American Studies about “what’s in a name” and what is “American.” Should American Studies simply focus on the United States? Given the reach of the United States through culture, politics, military, and economics, it is impossible to limit American Studies to the boundaries of the nation. Thus, American Studies seeks to be comparative in its approach, through comparative American studies between Canada and the U.S. or Latin America, for example. After all, “America” is a couple of continents, not a country, and “America” is spread throughout the world with both positive and negative influences.

 Intersectional: American diversity is certainly an important aspect of American studies and while there are many ways to explore diversity, an intersectional approach is often a way of exploring diversity both on individual as well as structural levels. Thus, American Studies considers issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, ability and citizenship or empire. On a structural level, American Studies considers institutions such as racism, capitalism, and patriarchy.