American Studies
American Studies is a vital and diverse community
of scholars whose work shares:
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a focus on the societies and cultures of the United States
or the Western Hemisphere, and
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a commitment to interdisciplinary study, to understanding
the importance of the questions that scholars in other fields
ask and to developing a sensitivity to resonances among work
in different fields of inquiry that may disclose some more
fundamental truth about American society, culture, or thought
Thus, American Studies is also a wonderful opportunity
for anyone who wants to learn more about American cultures and societies.
It is ideal for anyone who is considering a career (or is already
working!) in government or non-governmental public service, law,
journalism, and especially for teachers of American literature,
American history, and social studies.
At UHCL, American Studies exists as a concentration
within the Master of Arts degrees in Humanities and Literature
that offers the option to organize your coursework by focus, as
well as by discipline.
Some of your seminars will be interdisciplinary (like
the recent seminar, "'Race' in American Writing," which studied
the development of the concept of race in the natural and social
sciences, law, literature, and nonfiction genres, as well as recent
critical work by American Studies scholars). Other seminars will
be taught from the perspective of one discipline: Anthropology,
Art History, History, Humanities, Literature, or Sociology.
The grounding in other disciplines that you gain will
make you a more genuinely interdisciplinary thinker. If you are
an educator, interdisciplinary skills will expand the boundaries
of your subject area, increasing the possibilities for collaborative
teaching and integrated curricula.
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