Undergraduate Major in Multidisciplinary American Studies

The goal of the American Studies program at U.C.B. is to utilize the enormous and varied resources of the institution to teach students how to ask and answer scholarly questions, to formulate and undertake a focused interdisciplinary course of study, and to design and execute a substantial research project. Our American Studies program takes as its subject the cultures that have developed in what is now the United States, understanding "American culture" as the interplay of material practices and the realm of ideas. It considers technology, economy, urbanism, and ecology, as well as literature, political history, and the arts; it takes a particular interest in cultural hybridity, cultural layering, and in American culture exported abroad. The axes of investigation, as embodied in the Core courses, are Space and Time.

American Studies is a group major in which each student will have an individualized area of concentration. NOTE: It is, therefore, the student's responsibility to become aware of the range of Americanist courses on campus and propose an integrated program to a faculty adviser for approval.