Imagining American Studies

Graduate / Professional

This course introduces graduate students to the field through its shifting intellectual, institutional, and political formations. Tracing the discipline from Cold War articulations of American exceptionalism to interdisciplinary expansions across history, literature, and cultural studies, and more recent global and anti-colonial turns, the seminar pays particular attention to its development at Yale, home to one of the country’s earliest American studies programs. Drawing on primary and secondary sources, students examine the field’s trajectory and their own stakes within it. Coursework includes archival research at Sterling Library, syllabus design, pedagogical discussions, and a short research proposal. The course is required for all first-year M.A. and Ph.D. students and replaces the requirement for American Scholars and is open to other students as space permits. Th 1:30pm-3:25pm