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Welcome to American Studies at Purdue University!
American Studies is a dynamic interdisciplinary field of study of U.S. culture and history and one of the fastest-growing fields of study in the world. Founded in the 1930s to foster academic analysis of American ‘identity,’ culture, and national interests, American Studies has become today a flashpoint for examination of the role of the U.S. in a transnational world, the place of gender, race, sexuality and class in the process of nation-building, and the politics of academic study related to empire and globalization.
American Studies at Purdue perceives its current place in the national and international field as fostering dynamic interchange and debate for students and faculty committed to original scholarship and ideas. The program is among the most intellectually and demographically diverse in the College of Liberal Arts. Its faculty represent nine academic departments (English, History, Sociology, Anthropology, Communication, Political Science, Educational Studies, Curriculum and Instruction, and Philosophy) and two academic programs (African American Studies and Women's Studies) all of which may be a major or minor field of concentration for the M.A. and Ph.D. The affiliated program faculty has grown from 17 to 29 since 2005. In 2008-2009, the program expects to hire a new faculty member and move to joint-appointment faculty from across the university to American Studies. In 2009, the program plans to redesign its undergraduate major.American Studies at Purdue is student-centered and democratic. A Steering Committee of eight faculty with an elected student representative helps the program allocate its major resources to supporting student research, intellectual engagement and travel. American Studies annually sponsors a lecture series and workshops on job placement, grant writing and publication strategies. Each spring, the Purdue American Studies Symposium, a student-organized academic conference, brings two internationally-known scholars in the field to Purdue and provides students a showcase for their own work. In recent years, Martin Manalansan, Eric Lott, George Lipsitz, Tiya Miles and Michael Denning have been featured Symposium speakers. In September 2008, Amy Kaplan will keynote "Imperial Designs: New Scholarship on the Place of the U.S. in the World," an international conference hosted by American Studies. In May 2007, American Studies students at Purdue took part in an international American Studies seminar in Shanghai, China, as part of the program's new Study Abroad dimension.
For more information abut American Studies at Purdue, browse the web pages provide or contact program director Bill Mullen at bvmullen@purdue.edu or program assistant Delayne Graham at dkgraham@purdue.edu.
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