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

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.

University celebrates top faculty for outstanding teaching, mentoring

Eleven teaching faculty from across the university have been awarded Cornell’s highest honors for graduate and undergraduate teaching, Interim President Michael I. Kotlikoff announced Oct. 22.

J. Ellen Gainor wins book award from Theatre Library Association

The George Freedley Memorial Award Special Jury Prize goes to Gainor for “The Routledge Anthology of Women’s Theatre Theory & Dramatic Criticism," which she co-edited.

A&S announces membership in MLA Strategic Partnership Network

“We felt this is an important resource that should be available to our humanists at all levels, whether they have the resources to pay for membership or not,” said Peter John Loewen, the Harold Tanner Dean of Arts and Sciences.

From portfolios to pizza, fall A&S career events explore diverse fields

"Cornell alumni are generous with their time and efforts to assist students, to answer questions from students, or connect them to people and places."

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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.