Welcome to American Studies
American Studies combines the insights and practices of several branches of knowledge in the arts and social sciences as they bear upon a single topic, the people and culture of the United States of America.
In a global, interconnected world, we cannot avoid the influence the United States has on our lives in New Zealand. We constantly encounter US culture and its products from McDonald's hamburgers, Coca-Cola and Starbucks coffee to The Sopranos and Lost, from the America's Cup to Bill Gates' Microsoft empire.
American Studies is taught in universities all over the world. Many consider it important to have an understanding of a country which became a superpower in the twentieth century and which still exerts a powerful influence on the international stage. A common thread running through American Studies programmes is a commitment to analyse both positive and negative impacts of US society and culture from a variety of critical and theoretical perspectives.
The American Studies Programme at UC offers an exciting array of courses that study the society, culture and media of the United States. These courses provide insights from a variety of disciplines in the arts and social sciences, including history, literature, sociology, cultural anthropology, film and media studies, human-animal studies, environmental politics and science and technology studies.
Whether as a stand-alone American Studies major or linked to another subject as part of a double major or a minor, American Studies offers a multidisciplinary and international perspective to a Bachelor of Arts degree.