Our current students conduct interdisciplinary research on a wide range of American studies topics in consultation with dedicated faculty advisors drawing on various disciplines, including history, English,women's studies, law, religious studies, media studies, museum studies, psychology, medicine, art history, and architecture, among many others.
American Culture doctoral degree recipients have moved on to successful careers in academia, the arts, and in the public humanities.
Our graduates teach at top universities across the country, including the Amherst College, every campus in the University of California system, University of Colorado, University of Michigan, Wesleyan University, Michigan State University, Brooklyn College, University of Minnesota, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Bowdoin College, Hampshire College, Indiana University, University of Texas-Austin, Texas A&M, University of British Columbia – Vancouver, Williams College, and the University of Wisconsin.
Our graduates have not only founded key national organizations in the public humanities but work as curators, public historians in institutions like the National Hispanic Cultural Center in New Mexico, the Amistad Center in New Haven, and the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives.
Our graduates also work in the public domain in roles as diverse as freelance writer, editor, film maker, academic advisors, and elected office. (Frank Mitchell won an Emmy for his work on Amistad. Karen Majewski is the mayor of Hamtramck, Michigan.)
Finally, in recent years our graduates have published books on soul food, the popular culture of the Vietnamese diaspora, Mexican American music in Los Angeles, law and the construction of place, W.E.B. DU Bois, photography and U.S. immigration policy, the Loving trial, the life of Belle Greene, post-capitalism, black theology, and the cultural history of the Asian American activism.
