Defending Your Major: American Studies

HCND is taking a look at ND majors in the hopes of dispelling the misguided tendency to major-stereotype.  

 

 

The American Studies major is an Arts and Letters treasure at Notre Dame. Nine core

professors, along with additional visiting professors and professors from other

departments, currently support the department and the existing group of about 100

majors. Notre Dame American Studies majors assume the daily task of addressing the

complex topic that is the United States of America. Erika Doss, professor Department Chair

of the American Studies Department at Notre Dame, and Pamela Butler, Visiting Assistant

Professor of American Studies, and I, a junior American Studies major, weigh in on the

benefits of this interdisciplinary major.

 

 

Erika Doss has taught American Studies at Notre Dame since 2007. Her background is

in primarily American Art History, which she describes as “pretty complicated” because

you have to “put [American Art] into the context of a social and political history.” Similar

contextual analyses are what essentially define the nature of the American Studies major.

Pamela Butler, who has taught courses at Notre Dame since 2010, went to graduate

school for American Studies after receiving her B.A. in Women’s Studies. “I wanted an

interdisciplinary subject to combine different approaches to knowledge,” she said. The

classes these professors teach contribute to the ongoing discourse about what it means to

be an American.

 

Addressing the question of America is taken from many different academic angles.

Students take classes focused on history, political science, film, television, and theatre,

English, education, sociology, anthropology, etc. Doss asserted, “American Studies is an

inter-disciplinary field of study” that serves to answer the following questions: “What is

America? Who counts as an American? What does citizenship mean? What does a nation

want to be?” Her characterization of the major is supported by “American experiences

of the landscape, history, an examination of society, politics, culture, and economics.”

American Studies leaves no aspect of American life unanalyzed. It puts America under

a critical lens, in which the subject can be the Civil Rights Movement or popular media

culture in the form of movies like South Pacific and Sex and the City 2.

 

 

Both Doss and Butler acknowledged the valuable critical thinking skills their students

develop, as they remain engaged and insightful citizens. “I travel a lot for my job,” Doss

recalled, “and when I sit next to a businessperson on the plane I ask them if they prefer

employees with a business or humanities degree. They always prefer humanities because

[they] need folks who can talk and engage in problem solving.” Butler also recognizes

this problem-solving skill in her Notre Dame students. “Notre Dame students are very

 

service oriented. It makes them incredibly focused on “So now what?” [They want] to find

a way to do something” about a problem they learn about in class – they want to makes

things better. She revealed how inspiring teaching at Notre Dame has been for her as a

scholar and an activist. Her American Studies students demonstrate a willingness to apply

their scholarship to the real world. “Scholarship is the real world,” she said. “There is not

always an answer, and never a clear one, but Notre Dame is unique. If students have these

questions in their minds it means the theoretical discussions stay meaningful.”

 

 

The interdisciplinary nature of the American Studies major is extremely valuable in

essentially any chosen field of work. American Studies “Is directly applicable to crafting a

citizenship of informed Americans,” Doss said. “It trains students to be well-spoken and

critically engaged citizens who solve problems by recognizing that they exist.” Moreover,

Butler said, “At it’s best [American Studies] teaches students to pursue questions with

intellectual freedom. It expands different kinds of approaches you can take to a question –

you get to follow the question wherever it leads.” Not only do students get to study a wide

variety of subjects and issues as they earn their American Studies degree, but in the major

they are visibly “more connected to the work they are doing,” Butler remarked. “They

understand intellectual work is relevant to their lives. One advantage of the major is that

there are always ways [for students] to connect to American Studies courses.”

 

Students pursuing an American Studies degree at Notre Dame quickly discover how much

ownership they can have over their major. “[American Studies] is a self-directed major,”

Doss asserted. “Students are really enthusiastic about the major [because] there is leeway

for the student to think creatively – to think outside the box.” American Studies teaches

you how to think critically and analyze the numerous contextual situations that compose

America.

 

Unfortunately, Doss revealed, “There has been a drop in majors for the humanities,” in

general because of the economy. “The easy slide into our business school” has enticed

many students who, along with their families, are worried about the economic climate and

career opportunities. However, there is no shortage of career options available to American

Studies majors. Doss has had students go on to law and medical school, business, graduate

school, journalism, and even the FBI. Butler also revealed many of her students have found

careers in the non-profit sector, gone to law school, and teach at the middle and high school

level.

 

 

“American Studies fosters intellectual curiosity about how the world works,” which is

valuable to any career, Butler said. American Studies might be focused on the workings

of the United States, but it also pays attention to the nation as part of the world. “It is

the study of the United States in relation to the rest of the world,” Butler said. “It’s not

[completely] internal, but [rather] studies how the United States shapes and is shaped by

the rest of the world.” For Butler, “It is very crucial to American Studies [to recognize there

 

is] a US empire.” American Studies develops a “way of thinking critically about American

power connections…[and] the exporting of American culture,” she asserted.

 

As an American Studies major I have become critically appreciative of my country. When I

was a freshman taking my university history requirement, my professor told me I wouldn’t

like America after taking American Studies classes. However, I still consider myself a lover

of America, but I know take it for everything that it is – the good, the bad, and the ugly. I

recognize that America is not a flawless country, yet its uniqueness will always warrant my

curiosity. Doss said, “[American Studies is] a major that asks hard and serious questions

about this country. Students are actively engaging in problem-solving.” When told about

my professor’s comment, Doss responded, “American Studies students won’t love America

uncritically…[They] want it to be better. It’s like taking the blinders off and recognizing

America’s not perfect.”

 

 

In my pursuit of B.A. in American Studies, I have already studied the identity of

American society in literature, gender dynamics in schools, Asian Americans in TV/Film,

Postfeminism in Media Culture, and the evolution of the American prison system, in my

courses. Despite all the different topics of America I have analyzed, I am certainly not

finished exploring all the facets of American Studies – of the American nation. This “long

way to go” is what makes American Studies so special – there’s always something new

to learn or a different way to look at a situation. “America is in a state of flux,” Doss

said. “[There’s always a need] to reform and revise.”

 

As Butler reported earlier, there is not always a clear answer to the issues we discuss in

class, but our discussions are purposed to bring this issues to the forefront. “Our country

is founded on dissent – argument,” Doss argued. American Studies explores how we

can me a more democratic republic. “America is a fluid concept,” Doss said, so we have

to acknowledge how it changes and why it changes by analyzing the various facets of

American life that contribute to these changes.

 

“American Studies makes people better people,” Butler said. American Studies majors are

challenged to decide how we can be a more educated and aware nation. Students recognize

issues and are not paralyzed by their anger, but are rather incited to find a better option for

how America can be.

 

 

The American Studies major complements the interests of a student willing to engage with

cultural and historical texts and mediums to answer questions that are being asked for

the first time. American Studies is for the curious student wants to learn how to interact

with America on a creative and academic level. “America is complicated so it demands

a complexity,” Butler said, in how it is understood. This major is for anyone interested

intersection of ideas about gender, race, class, culture, art, politics, the social sciences,

and history. Students also choose to complement American Studies with a double major.

 

I also major in English and have classmates who double major in Political Science, FTT,

Sociology, Pre-Med, Business, and Economics. The major also requires that students take

three courses in other departments outside of American Studies. These courses fall into

the three “tracks” that guide the majors’ courses:

1. American Cultures and Societies (literature, art history, music, media studies

(FTT), and material culture)

2. American Identities (history, sociology, theology, gender studies, Africana

studies, Latino/a studies, and anthropology)

3. American Political Cultures (journalism, economics, political science, and

policy studies)

 

American Studies has allowed me to bridge the gaps between the academic subjects I have

previously explored separate from each other. This interdisciplinary major will help you to

develop an advanced analytical mode of thought that will never accept a simple answer for

a question or issue– because there seldom is one.

 

 

Courses for the Spring 2013 semester can be found here: http://americanstudies.nd.edu/

 

They’re excellent. And – many of these courses are cross-listed with other departments and some have unallocated

spaces for non-majors to explore the field of American Studies.