紐約州立大學水牛城分校

Why study American Studies BA at UB?

American Studies is an interdisciplinary program that awards BA, MA, and PhD degrees. The program takes a hemispheric approach to the study of the Americas, examining local cultures and regions within their larger contexts of Americas. Building on our traditional strengths in American Indian studies, critical race theory, class analysis, and community engagement, we encourage work on history, politics, visual cultures, literary and oral cultures, practices, religions, kinship systems and economics.

Reclaiming the repressed voices of marginalized peoples in the Americas has been a central mission of our program since the 1960s. The American Studies program coordinates one of the strongest American Indian studies programs in the United States.

We seek students who wish to pursue a program centering on the multidisciplinary study of the Americas. We also welcome international students who seek to understand the cultural, historical, and natural complexity of the United States.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of all requirements, the student will have knowledge of:

• Broad thematic periodization and chronology (from the perspectives of identity; oppression and resistance; and democracy and social justice) of the socio-economic, political, and cultural history of the Native American peoples in the Americas, and their role in the history of the Americas up to the present.
• The role of Native American peoples in the evolution of U.S. constitutional democracy through their struggles for sovereignty.
• Major descriptive and analytical themes in the current socio-economic, political, and cultural circumstances of the Native American peoples in the Americas (including their relations with other racial minorities).
• Broad thematic periodization and chronology (from the perspectives of identity; oppression and resistance; and democracy and social justice) of the socio-economic, political, and cultural history of the African, Asian and Latina/o diasporas in the Americas, and their role in the history of the Americas up to the present.
• Major descriptive and analytical themes in the current socio-economic, political, and cultural circumstances of the African, Asian and Latina/o diasporas in the Americas (including their relations with other racial minorities).
• The major literary and audiovisual texts — both fiction and non-fiction — that document aspects of past and/or present socio-economic, political, and cultural circumstances of Native American peoples and the African, Asian, and Latina/o diasporas in the Americas.
• Major descriptive and analytical themes in the historical role of Native American women and the women of the African, Asian and Latina/o diasporas in the Americas, and in their current socio-economic, political and cultural circumstances.
• Major descriptive and analytical themes in the historical evolution of the relationship between human beings and the natural environment in the Americas, from the pre-Columbian era to the present.

Career Outlook

American Studies graduates have pursued positions in diverse areas including admissions and employment counseling, community organizing, law, real estate, social program directing, teaching, curriculum designers, working in media, and the arts. About 50% percent of graduates find related employment

Graduates pursue the following careers among others:

Administrator
Affirmative action work
Author
Consultant
Counselor
Ecologist
Editor
Educator
Human service worker
International affairs specialist
Journalist
Public or Labor relations specialist
Legal advisor
Legal advocate
Librarian
Project coordinator
Social worker
Travel industry worker
Urban planner