American Studies Program | 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

AMST Student Feature: Olivia Ochoa

9/29/2023

Olivia Ochoa shares her first generation experience and journey as an AMST major and social justice advocate

Cornell celebrates 15 years at the heart of CNY Humanities Corridor

9/28/2023

A highway of connective possibilities across Central New York

AMST Student Feature: Amara Valerio

9/22/2023

Learn about how Amara Valerio's was able to incorporate her interests in the arts and social justice during her four years at Cornell, both in and out of the classroom.

AMST Student Feature: Maggie Sandler

9/15/2023

Learn about how Maggie Sandler's passion for film led her to major in American Studies.

Glenn Altschuler, Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies

Highlighting Glenn Altschuler’s 40+ Years at Cornell and Contributions in American Studies

9/11/2023

Glenn Altschuler, Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies is retiring on January 1, 2024.

NYT columnist to be featured at Kops Lecture

9/06/2023

Jamelle Bouie, columnist for the New York Times, will be the featured speaker at the 2023 Daniel W. Kops Freedom of the Press Lecture Sept. 12.

Undergrads relish challenging Nexus Scholar projects

8/02/2023

Nexus Scholars spent eight weeks this summer working with researchers on campus on projects in the humanities, social sciences and physical sciences.

A&S dean Jayawardhana named provost at Johns Hopkins

7/12/2023

Rachel Bean, the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor in the Department of Astronomy and senior associate dean for math and science, has been named interim A&S dean.

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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.