Professors: Henry Abelove (English), Jeanine Basinger (Film Studies), Neely Bruce (Music), Richard Buel (History), Mary Ann Clawson (Sociology), Alex Dupuy (Sociology), Joel Pfister (English), Charles Lemert (Sociology), Gayle Pemberton (English and African American Studies), Joseph Reed (English), Ronald Schatz (History), Joseph Siry (Art), Mark Slobin (Music), Richard Slotkin (English), William Stowe (English), Khachig Tololyan (English), Elizabeth Traube (Anthropology)

Associate Professors: Patricia Hill (Chair, Spring)(History), Indira Karamcheti (English), Sean McCann (English), Elizabeth Milroy (Art & Art History), Claire Potter (Chair, Fall)(History), Ashraf Rushdy (English)

Assistant Professors: Elizabeth McAlister (Religion), Renée Romano (History and African American Studies)

Instructor: J. Kehaulani Kauanui (Anthropology and American Studies)

Departmental Advising Experts (2000-2001): Henry Abelove, Patricia Hill, Joel Pfister, Claire Potter, Joseph Reed, Richard Slotkin

Wesleyan’s interdepartmental program in American studies provides a broad grounding in the study of U.S. cultural history. The complexity of that culture and of its historical development is such that its analysis requires the intellectual tools of more than one discipline and the interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives emerging in American studies and other interdisciplinary fields. American studies majors deploy such conceptual tools to examine diverse aspects of social constructions and cultural productions in the United States. Individually designed concentrations, which are the hallmark of American studies at Wesleyan, allow students to forge interdisciplinary approaches to the particular issues that interest them most, from popular culture and aesthetics to racial politics and gender systems.

A comparative perspective is also essential to an understanding of any culture. Such prominent features of U.S. cultural development as colonialism, slavery, immigration, industrialization, sexuality, mass culture, gender relations, race and ethnicity, and political culture and state development cry out for comparative treatment. In recognition of the crucial importance of internationalizing and contextualizing the study of the United States, the major incorporates an intra-American component. The hemispheric approach imparts, as the rationale for the Americas graduate program at Brown University argues, "a deeper, richer understanding of the complex histories and societies that resulted from the conflict and confluence of European, indigenous, African, and Asian in the ‘New World.’"

Major program. The route into American studies is completion of at least one semester of one of the following introductory courses: American Intellectual History: 1600-1865 (AMST151), United States Intellectual History Since 1865 (AMST152), Arts in America (AMST154), American Literature from the Colonial Period to the Civil War (AMST155), American Literature 1865-1945 (AMST156).

Junior core courses constitute the foundational base for the major. Colonialism and Its Consequences in the Americas (AMST200) and one junior colloquium are required of every major. The colonialism course situates American studies in a hemispheric frame of reference and introduces a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to an intercultural analysis of the Americas. Junior colloquia explore in depth a range of theoretical perspectives utilized in American studies, consider the history and changing shape of the multifaceted American studies enterprise, and engage students in research and analysis.

In addition to junior core courses and a senior seminar, a major program includes six upper-level electives that focus on the culture of the Americas. The heart of each major’s program consists of a cluster of four courses among those electives that forms an area of concentration. A concentration within American studies is an intellectually coherent plan of study, developed in consultation with an advisor, that explores in detail a specific aspect of the culture(s) and society of the United States. It may be built around a discipline (like history, literary criticism, government, sociology), a field (such as cultural studies, ethnic studies, women’s studies), or a "problematic" (such as ecology and culture, politics and culture). Frequently chosen areas of concentration include mass culture, film studies, popular culture, ethnicity, queer studies, urban studies, African American studies, gender studies, and cultural studies. Students are also asked to consolidate the comparative Americas focus by taking two courses that build on the foundation supplied in AMST200. Courses may count both toward a concentration and the Americas component of the major. A senior seminar, essay or thesis that utilizes a hemispheric perspective may count as an Americas course.

Senior requirement. Senior majors must choose a senior seminar, ordinarily but not necessarily one that facilitates advanced work in their area of concentration. A senior thesis or essay tutorial may be substituted for the seminar requirement. The American Studies Program encourages proposals for senior honors theses, including research projects, critical essays, works of fiction, and other artistic productions.