The program in American studies offers an interdisciplinary curriculum oriented around six areas of study that are intended to encourage students to consider American culture from a variety of perspectives: race, ethnicity, and modern society; urban cultures; cultural history and artistic production; America within a global context; the cultures of social institutions; and women`s and gender studies. The program provides students with a unique opportunity to pursue intellectual questions beyond the boundaries of traditional disciplines and prepares its graduates for career options in academic, public, nonprofit, and business sectors.
In an effort to encourage and facilitate this thematically diverse approach, the program draws upon the research expertise of graduate faculty members in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, as well as from the graduate faculties of the Rutgers Business School, the School of Criminal Justice, School of Law-Newark, and the College of Nursing. The program also draws upon the resources of research centers at Rutgers including the Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience; the Center for Global Change and Governance; the Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies; and the Institute of Jazz Studies; and upon the collections and staff of regional public arts and historical institutions like the Newark Museum, the Newark Public Library, the New Jersey Historical Society, and the Edison Historic Site.
Students are strongly encouraged to develop research skills that will help them create new scholarship that will contribute to the ways undergraduate and graduate students, scholars, professionals working in public sector cultural institutions, and the general public understand the rich and varied fabric of American culture.
