American Studies at the University of Kansas is an interdisciplinary department whose faculty and students think critically about community, identity, and social justice in American culture, politics, and society. We study the multiple and contested meanings of “American” both nationally and transnationally, in terms of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, class, region, age, and sexuality. To prepare students to engage a diverse and globalized society, we must learn from and about communities who have been too often marginalized in society and in the academy.

Such an inclusive definition of “American” requires an equally capacious understanding of scholarship. Recognizing the critical impact of difference and power on the formation of traditional scholastic disciplines, American Studies embraces research methods that combine, cross, and stretch conventional academic boundaries. We encourage scholars to advance civic discourse at the local, national, and global levels. Through rigorous analysis of historical and current events, encompassing official institutions, social and religious movements, popular and media culture, and other areas, we illuminate the complex formations of American community and identity, both within and beyond US borders.

American Studies produces undergraduate and graduate students who are global citizens and understand the meanings of America and its populations, its cultural and social history and diversities, and its dynamic place among other nation-states. Our undergraduate majors and minors develop practical and intellectual skills that support their careers in a range of public sector and private sector areas such as public humanities, advocacy and non-profit organizations, marketing and human resources, education, mediation, social services, and the law.  Our graduate students go on to varied and successful careers as university faculty members and administrators, as well as staff members and directors of non-profit organizations such as museums and historical societies.

Undergraduate Programs

American studies offers an interdisciplinary undergraduate program in which faculty and students think critically about the many institutional and cultural meanings of America, popular culture, society, and identity. Through studying topics such as film, jazz, literature, visual culture, gender, race, and religion, American studies investigates America in the present and the past, beyond both disciplinary and national boundaries. Given our recognition of the critical impact of difference and power in American life, we insist that a student’s program consider the profound impact of diversity on society and address differential power structures in American life and social relations. Motivated advanced students have the opportunity to work independently on research and service projects.

Graduate Programs

American Studies at the University of Kansas is an interdisciplinary department whose faculty and students think critically about community, identity, and social justice in U.S. culture, politics, and society. We study the multiple and contested meanings of “American” both nationally and transnationally, and with attention to constructions of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, class, region, age, and sexuality. To prepare students to better understand, effectively argue, and constructively respond to social divisiveness and inequity, we must learn to turn history into questions, to critically engage and assess the veracity of sources and information, and to learn from, by, and about the many marginalized communities that make up our shared histories.

Such an inclusive – and therefore realistic – definition of “American” requires an equally capacious understanding of the critical impact of difference and power on the formation of traditional scholastic disciplines. American Studies embraces research methods that combine, cross, and stretch conventional academic boundaries between the Social Sciences, the Humanities, and the arts. American Studies is rooted in civic engagement and on scholarly discourse that informs policy, and that addresses the local, national, and global processes underlying our thinking, doing, and imagining. Through creative thinking and rigorous analysis of historical and current events, encompassing official institutions, social and religious movements, popular and media culture, and other areas, we explore complex formations of American community and identity, both within and beyond US borders.

 American Studies produces graduate students who better understand the connections between themselves and the world, are aware of the complex historical processes, past and present, that make the United States and the specific experiences of the populations that make up its territories. Graduate students have contributed much to the development of the program, especially since the formation of the Graduate Student Organization in 1969. Graduate students are fundamental to our dynamic intellectual community, through their commitment to question and better our societies, understanding of our role as teachers and researchers, and participation in the organization of local and national conferences, symposia, and the visits of guest scholars to KU. Their elected representatives join department meetings and are active in the formulation of administrative procedures and curricular developments.

Our graduate students go on to varied and successful careers in a range of fields in addition to higher education, including politics, non-profits, archival and library sciences work, museum studies, and public education.