PhD Certificate in AMCS

a multidisciplinary space of research and practice

The PhD  Graduate Certificate in American Culture Studies allows the doctoral student to develop multidisciplinary expertise beyond their home department.  It also encourages the student to bring that added competence to bear in original, multidisciplinary dissertation research that satisfies the demands of the principal specialty while also charting creative new paths in broad-based scholarship.  This provides the student with added benefits as they undertake innovative research, develop professional skills, and pursue careers inside and outside of academia.

In order to encourage this kind of scholarship, AMCS cultivates a community of graduate students and faculty who share interests in Americanist topics and exchange knowledge, methods, and ideas across departmental bounds.  The links among graduate students across campus, as well as their access to faculty from a variety of disciplines, help to expand the scope of intellectual interaction and to avert the temptation to dwell exclusively in narrow corners of scholarly proficiency.  This kind of community-building promotes the give-and-take of ideas that makes graduate study most stimulating.

Students who satisfy certificate requirements will receive the PhD Graduate Certificate in American Culture Studies along with the award of the PhD.  This is one of several interdisciplinary certificates offered by the Office of Graduate Studies in Arts & Sciences, intended as credentials of special competency.  The certificate helps its holders build academic careers, including interdisciplinary teaching and distinctive research profiles.

Certificate Requirements

The Ph.D. Graduate Certificate in American Culture Studies is awarded to students who complete the Ph.D. in a department of the Office of Graduate Studies in Arts & Sciences (OGS) and who satisfy the following requirements:

  • The core seminar (3 credits), Introduction to American Culture Studies (AMCS 645).
  • Multidisciplinary courses (6 credits): 2 graduate courses on American topics specifically designed in explicitly multidisciplinary terms. Courses satisfying this requirement will be determined in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS).
  • Extradepartmental courses (6 credits): 2 graduate courses on American topics that are methodologically substantive and based in fields that complement work in the home department; to be determined in consultation with the DGS.
  • Routine consultation with the AMCS DGS, in addition to the student's principal Ph.D. advisor.

Additionally, Ph.D. Graduate Certificate Students are expected to regularly attend and participate in the monthly Americanist Dinner Fora series, a flagship AMCS event which stages cross-disciplinary conversations among Americanist faculty to probe productive nodes of shared concern. To declare the AMCS Ph.D. Graduate Certificate, please print out or complete the top portion of the AMCS Certificate Application Form before scheduling a meeting with the Director of Graduate Studies. Make sure to keep/make copies as signatures are collected (in case it is misplaced), and once the form is complete, please send it via email to AMCS and Cc your home department’s admininistrator.

AMCS Certificate Application Form

Graduate Student Funding Opportunities

American Culture Studies announces regular funding opportunities, up to $800 per proposal, for Harvey Fellows and certificate students. Graduate students are invited to submit proposals for funding to assist with their research and travel costs, conference fees, and publication expenses.

See Funding Opportunities

Graduate Program Activities

The graduate program in American Culture Studies invites students to participate in a lively range of academic and public events promoting discussion of, and new research about, issues of American history, economy, society, culture, personality, and politics. These include lectures and workshops offered by distinguished visiting scholars, public figures, and Washington University faculty as well as reading groups and academic conferences in American culture studies that involve graduate students in the wider academic community.

AMCS graduate students attend monthly Americanist Dinner Fora discussions during the academic year, designed to introduce them to faculty across many departments, to visiting speakers, and to research methods and issues of American culture studies as a profession. Students are eligible to participate in special academic programs such as the summer travel seminar, "On Location: Exploring America."

AMCS PhD Certificate students have the opportunity to teach a course in American Culture Studies. In order to be eligible to teach for AMCS, students must have completed the Certificate and MTE's required by their home department. Interested students should contact the AMCS DGS to learn about the process for proposing a course. Course planning should begin well in advance. We recommend students begin talking with the AMCS DGS and their PhD advisor at least one year prior to the semester in which they hope to teach. 

AMCS offers PhD Certificate students funding for conference presentations and research. Click here for more information on funding opportunities for AMCS Certificate students.