The histories and cultures of the changing United States

American Studies Program

The American Studies Program offers an interdisciplinary engagement with what America means in the United States and in a global context. Faculty encourage students to look at the meaning and reality of the evolving United States as a question still in need of answering and as an experiment still in process, not as a dream fully realized. We use multiple perspectives and methodologies and require that students synthesize knowledge in ways that develop the skills needed for rigorous, complex analysis.

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American Studies News

Person working on an enormous piece of equipment

Barrier-breaking astronomer graces a U.S. quarter

Immortalized in a series honoring notable women, Vera Cooper Rubin, MS ’51, is the first Cornellian ever featured on a coin.

CAU lets you go back to school (without those pesky prelims)

For more than half a century, Cornell’s Adult University has offered summer courses on the Hill — from cooking to cycling and beyond.

Explore home space in a teenage sitcom during upcoming lecture

"Sanctuary from the Storm: Making (My) Room with The Torkelsons," will explore Sheppard’s fondness for the 1990s television show and what the show’s representation of home spaces can tell us about the way television influences living practices.

Latina/o Studies offers new way to connect with alumni

“Fridays with Alumni” kicks off Jan. 31 featuring Kim Cardenas '17 & Joseph De Los Santos '19,

Three people stand behind a product table for "Seen Nutrition"

Ithaca startup’s product builds bone health using NY milk protein

Two friends who bonded over shared concerns over their bone health have formulated a bioavailable calcium chew using milk protein from Finger Lakes dairy farms.

Person wearing a red jacket speaks at a podium, to an auditorium full of students

Learn local lore, Cornell historian Earle says in ‘Last Lecture’

Lecturer Corey Ryan Earle ’07, Cornell’s unofficial historian, gave the latest installment in the Last Lecture series, which invites a respected staff member or professor to give a lecture as if it were their final one.

Book cover: Never on Time, Always in Time

In ‘Fun Home’ and other books, queer narratives rework time

In “Never On Time, But Always in Time,” Kate McCullough of the College of Arts and Sciences examines four books to explore how queer narratives focus on the body and its senses to find alternative ways of experiencing and presenting time.

‘Icon of national femininity’: Beyoncé to appear at VP Harris Houston rally

As Election Day closes in, a Cornell expert in Black feminism sees 'deep meaning and significance' in superstar Beyoncé's support for Vice President Kamala Harris.

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Student Spotlight: Claudia León

American Studies major, Claudia León co-curated "Social Fabric: Land, Labor, and the World the Textile Industry Created," which was at Kroch Library through September 2023.

When asked about the American Studies major, León stated, "I don’t think I can overstate the impact (AMST/HIST 1802) had on me — it introduced me to an entire history, people looking at artwork partially my own, that I had never learned in either the U.S. or Puerto Rican education systems. Learning histories that are deliberately suppressed also helped me reframe and re-evaluate the histories I had been taught, which piqued my interest in historiography while igniting a desire to further explore my Puerto Rican history."

Click here to read more about Claudia.