American Studies
American Studies is a field defined not only by the critical questions it asks but by the interdisciplinary methods it uses to answer those questions. In considering the United States as a cultural, ideological, geographical and historical formation, students of American Studies examine how cultural configurations of and within the nation-state operate as social forces, contested archives of change, loci of power and resistance, and sites historical meaning and memory. How are ideologies and arrangements in the U.S. amplified, altered, challenged or contested? American Studies seeks to address these questions by critically examining how ideas and assumptions about the U.S. have been constituted through a range of competing, corroborating and resistant discourses.
Barnard students majoring in American Studies engage in the critical and interdisciplinary study of race, gender, class, sexuality, Indigeneity, political economy, imperialism and social movements in contemporary, historical, hemispheric and transnational contexts. All majors are introduced to the field through AMST 1001 (“What Is American Studies?”) and hone their understanding of the theories and methods of American Studies in an intensive junior colloquium. Their individually-chosen electives include three historically-situated Foundations courses as well as a five-course concentration that culminates in a two-course senior capstone project. The American Studies major aims to teach students to recognize, question and analyze, within an international context, the formation, implementation and contestation of power in both the nation-state and in other institutions of collective life.
We work closely with our colleagues in Africana Studies and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies who, along with the faculty in American Studies, constitute Barnard's Consortium for Critical Interdisciplinary Studies.
Fall 2026 Information for Current Students
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In American Studies
Barnard students graduating with a degree in American Studies aspire to do the following:
- critically analyze power at different scales, from the local to the global.
- identify the plurality of forces that shape and contest American social formations.
- demonstrate an understanding of the various theories and methods (e.g., oral history, ethnography, cultural analysis, archival research, political economy, and close textual, visual, or aural analysis) that shape core conversations in the field.
- produce an original piece of scholarship with a sustained argument that draws on primary sources and is accountable to communities of scholars in American Studies.
- apply cultural and historical analytical frameworks to their lived experience and practice.
Students build their major by combining coursework in the American Studies department with a wide range of potential electives drawn from Africana Studies, Anthropology, Art History, English, History, Political Science, Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies, and other related disciplines. In the process, students work with their American Studies adviser to devise a distinctive area of focus (for example, race and ethnicity) that will encourage the development of both interdisciplinary breadth and historical depth while also serving as the intellectual foundation for their senior capstone projects.
Our Faculty
Jennie Kassanoff
Manu Karuka
