Undergraduate Catalog 2008-2009

Donald Grinde
Chair

A major or minor in American studies offers the opportunity to take an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approach to the understanding of the Americas. Faculty and students pursue ideas and carry out research projects that cross the boundaries separating nations, languages, media, and academic departments. They consider multiple representations of the Americas, using official documents, literature, oral traditions and histories, and the visual and performing arts. They explore the past and future place of indigenous cultures and societies, the utopian imagination, the social significance of technologies, the relationship between nature and culture, and the administration of justice.

We seek students who wish to pursue a coherent program centering on the vigorous multidisciplinary study of the Americas. We also want students who may already have some ideas about the projects they would like to pursue or the problems they would like to address. We also welcome foreign students who seek to deepen their understanding of the cultural, historical, and natural complexity of the United States, or the Americas more generally.