Doctor of Philosophy in American Studies

The graduate program in American Studies provides rigorous yet flexible training in a range of theoretical perspectives and research methodologies building on the interdisciplinary history of our scholarly pursuit. We prepare and encourage students to explore the complex, variable, and contested nature of what it means to be American. We recognize that this requires examining many kinds of evidence derived from multiple sources and genres (archival materials, oral history, literature, popular culture, music, art, food, bodily movement and adornment, landscape, architecture, belief), accessed via multiple methodologies (historical, literary, ethnographic, and digital) and analyzed via theoretical perspectives that attend to esthetics and politics, race, gender, and sexuality, region and transnational connection. The program prepares both those who aim to teach at the college and university levels in American Studies and related fields (including Southern Studies, American Indian Studies, literature, history, art history, cultural studies, folklore, and the social sciences) and those who aim to pursue careers in museums, historical sites, archives, libraries, or publishing or to apply American Studies perspectives in other professional settings.

For the Ph.D. program in American Studies, we expect that most applicants will have extensive prior study in American Studies and/or in related fields such as African American Studies, American Indian and Indigenous Studies, or Southern Studies at that B.A. or M.A. level and possibly also relevant professional experience in museums, libraries, education, music, or art.

The required minimum total score on the exams are internet-based TOEFL exam = 90, The IELTS exam = 7.