About Us

Founded in 1945, the Department of American Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, is considered to be one of the leaders in the field nationwide. As one of the oldest and best regarded American Studies departments, we pride ourselves on dynamic and innovative teaching, cutting-edge research, and close collaborations with Washington D.C.’s cultural institutions.

Welcome, and thank you for visiting our website. We encourage you to browse around and learn about our department. As you will see, the Department of American Studies centers its research around two large themes: the cultures of everyday life and cultural constructions of identity and difference. These themes simultaneously focus and connect the individual research programs of both faculty and students. On the periphery are several “lenses” through which we explore the central themes. Each of these lenses is comparable to an area of concentration with a particular set of questions and methodology. As American Studies is an interdisciplinary field, faculty and students combine two or more of these concentrations in research and teaching. For more information about how our faculty engage in research areas, please visit the faculty page of this site. Beyond the core faculty in the program, the Department also has approximately 72 Affiliate Faculty spread across 20 departments and programs.

We offer Ph.D. and M.A. degrees at the graduate level. Our graduates are placed within some of the best colleges, universities, and cultural institutions worldwide. Our undergraduate curriculum continues offer an interdisciplinary approach that draws widely on the University’s superb resources in the humanities and social sciences as well as the intellectual resources of the Washington, D.C. area. Our majors also have the option to minor in US Latino/a Studies or take part in the Native American Studies Program.

Our faculty, affiliates, and students are involved with a wide array of activities throughout the year. Please visit our “Events” link to see details about upcoming events of interest to the American Studies community.