About our Program

American Culture Studies (AMCS) is a program in Arts & Sciences at Washington University that fosters the multidisciplinary study of the Americas. We promote a pluralistic and transnational view of American historical, social, political, material, and cultural contexts. Our approach is theoretically and empirically inclusive, emphasizing the enormous diversity within American society and the wider world. We are especially concerned with issues of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, and other social contrasts that spur so much debate, expression, and conflict within the United States and across borders.

For undergraduates and graduate students, including the Harvey Graduate Fellows and Harvey Undergraduate Scholars programs, AMCS offers diverse curricular opportunities for transdisciplinary study, as well as mentoring from faculty in different fields who can support their intellectual growth. The AMCS Major includes a series of concentration areas such as “Ability and the Body,” “Citizenship, Nationhood, and Identity,” “Gender and Sexuality,” “Place, Space, and the Environment,” and “Race and Ethnicity.” Our graduate programs offer similarly rich areas of study.

Above all else, our aim is to foster expansive and critical perspectives and understandings of the historical, social, and cultural dimensions of life across the Americas.

 

McMillan Hall