Overview
The interdisciplinary 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, the arts, and political and geographic history. American Studies takes a particular interest in cultural hybridity, cultural layering, and in American culture exported abroad.
The goal of the Interdisciplinary American Studies program 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 integrative research project. In doing this, we build upon several generations of scholars across disciplines who have advocated the critical study of race, class, gender, sexuality, and mass culture, as well as the examination of America as part of an increasingly globalized world.
Undergraduate Program
American Studies: BA (Group Major)
Graduate Program
There is no graduate program in American Studies.
Faculty and Instructors
+ Indicates this faculty member is the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award.
Faculty
Michael Cohen, Associate Teaching Professor. African American Studies/American Studies.
Kathleen S. Moran, Associate Director, Lecturer.
Christine Palmer, Lecturer.
Affiliated Faculty
Charles L. Briggs, Professor. Anthropology. Linguistic and medical anthropology, social theory, modernity, citizenship and the state, race, and violence.
Mark Brilliant, Director, American Studies. History/American Studies. 20th century US history, with a focus on political economy, civil rights, education, law, and the west.
Research Profile
Raul Coronado, Associate Professor. Ethnic Studies.
Margaret L. Crawford, Professor. Architecture. Everyday urbanism, evolution, uses and meanings of urban space and therapid physical and social changes on villages in China’s Pearl River Delta.
+ Kathleen Donegan, Associate Professor. English. Colonial America, early America, Native America, early Caribbean.
Research Profile
Peter Glazer, Associate Professor. Theater.
Marcial Gonzalez, Associate Professor. English. Chicano and Chicana literature, twentieth-century American ethnic literatures, theory of the novel, marxism, critical theory, farm worker social movements.
Research Profile
Dorothy J. Hale, Professor. English. English literature, American literature, the novel, narrative theory, critical theory, Henry James, William Faulkner, the modern novel of consciousness.
Research Profile
David Henkin, Professor. History. US History, urban history, cultural history, History of Time.
Research Profile
Shari Huhndorf, Professor. Native American Studies. Interdisciplinary Native American studies, cultural studies, gender studies, American studies, literary and visual culture.
Research Profile
Richard Hutson, Professor Emeritus. English.
Research Profile
Jake Kosek, Associate Professor. Geography.
Lauren Kroiz, Associate Professor. Art History. History and theory of photography and new media, race and ethnic studies, the relationships between regionalism, nationalism and globalism.
Michel Laguerre, Professor. African American Studies. Globalization, information technology, urban studies.
Research Profile
Margaretta M. Lovell, Professor. Art History. Architecture, design, American art.
Research Profile
Waldo E. Martin, Professor. History. African American History, Modern American Culture.
Research Profile
Louise A. Mozingo, Professor. Environmental Design.
Samuel Otter, Professor. English. African American literature, 19th century American literature, 17th and 18th century American literature, Herman Melville, race in American culture, literature and history, discourse and ideology, close reading.
Research Profile
Genaro M. Padilla, Professor. English. American literature, Chicano/Latino literary and cultural studies, American autobiography.
Research Profile
Mark A. Peterson, Professor. History. US/North America, Atlantic World, early modern history, religion, political economy.
Research Profile
Beth Piatote, Associate Professor. Native American Studies.
Research Profile
Leigh Raiford, Associate Professor. African American Studies. Social movements, visual culture, memory, photography, African American history and culture.
Research Profile
Tamara C. Roberts, Assistant Professor. Music.
Juana Maria Rodriguez, Professor. Ethnic Studies.
Christine Rosen, Associate Professor. Business. History of business and the environment, business history, green chemistry, sustainable business strategies.
Research Profile
Caitlin Rosenthal, Assistant Professor. History.
Alex M. Saragoza, Associate Professor. Ethnic Studies. Ideology, modern Mexico, Latin American history, structural origins of Mexican migration, cultural formations in Mexico, Mexican cinema, radio, television.
Research Profile
Scott Andrew Saul, Professor. English. African American studies, 20th century American literature and culture, performance studies, jazz studies, histories of the avante-garde.
Research Profile
+ Susan Schweik, Professor. English. Feminist theory, cultural studies, American poetry, disability studies, 20th-century poetry, literature and politics, war literature.
Research Profile
Andrew Shanken, Professor. Architecture. Memory, visionary architecture, the unbuilt, paper architecture, heritage conservation, architectural representation, urban representation, diagrams, history of professions, historiography, world's fairs, expositions, California architecture, themed environments.
Research Profile
Shannon Steen, Associate Professor. Theater Studies.
Bryan Wagner, Associate Professor. English. Critical theory, African American literature, historiography.
Research Profile
Hertha D. Sweet Wong, Associate Professor. Chair, Art Practice, English. American literature, native American literature, autobiography, ethnic American literature.
Research Profile
Visiting Faculty
Greil Marcus
Emeritus Faculty
Donald McQuade, Professor Emeritus. English, Advertising, 20th century American literature and culture, theory and practice of non-fiction, literature and popular culture, the American Renaissance, the essay as literature.
Research Profile