American Studies

We are one of the longest-established and largest dedicated centres for American studies, internationally recognised as founders of the field in the UK.

Our multidisciplinary research and teaching explores the history, literature, politics, and the diverse cultures of the United States of America. Our work considers America in transnational and comparative contexts. We are recognised as world leaders in the following areas: Native American studies; the study of spaces, places, region and environment; race, gender, sexuality, and age; civil rights and civil liberties; the literature and poetics of America.

Our award-winning teaching is student focused and our students benefit from our international connections, which include an extensive study-abroad programme with partners across North America and the Pacific region. Our research and teaching resources also include our on-campus media suite and television studio, which provide opportunities for innovative creative work. 

We offer our Undergraduate students a broad range of courses and modules, allowing you to tailor your learning as you progress through your time with us. Most of our degrees also involve a year studying abroad. Throughout their course, our students develop skills that are highly attractive to employers.

As the department of American Studies at UEA, we are proud to express our solidarity with the Black Lives Matter protests against racism.

As academics who spend our professional lives analysing America, we know what racism has meant and continues to mean in the United States. We also know how important it is for us to support the struggle against racism. We are committed to work against anti-black oppression inside and outside our teaching spaces, and to work towards cultivating an equitable and fair learning environment in which all students can flourish. 

Our department has a long history of teaching and research in relation to numerous aspects of race and American culture: to give only a few examples, we regularly offer modules on the history of enslavement, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Civil Rights movement, alongside Native American history, literature and film, as well as explorations of multi-ethnic America. Our teaching is attentive to racial hierarchies in all contexts, ranging from foreign relations to individual identities. Current research in the department includes projects foregrounding Black female intellectuals; race, representation and comics; and the history of Native North American presence in Britain. However, we know we need to do more.

We are now working urgently to create opportunities for our students to be in conversation about Black Lives Matter, and to discuss how what started in the USA became a world-wide movement. We aim to regularly review and amend our modules, reading lists, and curriculum design, in ways that foreground these debates and centre anti-racist pedagogies and decolonising practices.

To find out more about what we are doing, keep visiting our webpages and follow us on X (formerly known as Twitter): @AmericanStudies and Instagram: @americanstudiesuea.

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