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{{short description|Interdisciplinary academic field}}
{{for|the journal|American Studies (journal)}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2023}}

'''American studies''' or '''American civilization''' is an [[interdisciplinarity|interdisciplinary field]] of scholarship that examines [[American literature]], [[History of the United States|history]], [[Society of the United States|society]], and [[Culture of the United States|culture]].<ref>{{cite book| title = Theories of American Culture, Theories of American Studies | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=1ym7FW6rNnoC&pg=PR9| isbn= 3-8233-4173-1 | publisher= Gunter Narr Verlag | year= 2003| author=Winfried Fluck| access-date=June 21, 2011}}</ref> It traditionally incorporates [[Historiography of the United States|American historiography]], [[literary criticism]], and [[critical theory]].

Scholarship in American studies focuses on the United States. In the past decades, however, it has also broadened to include [[Atlantic history]] and interactions with countries across the globe.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Rowe|first1=Juan Carlos|title=Transnationalism and American Studies|url=http://www.theasa.net/project_eas_online/page/project_eas_online_eas_featured_article/|website=American Studies Association|access-date=September 11, 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150916062345/http://www.theasa.net/project_eas_online/page/project_eas_online_eas_featured_article/|archive-date=September 16, 2015}}</ref> Subjects studied within the field are varied, but often examine the literary themes, histories of American communities, ideologies, or cultural productions. Examples might include topics in American social movements, literature, media, tourism, folklore, and intellectual history.

Fields studying specific American ethnic or racial groups are considered to be both independent of and included within the broader American studies discipline. This includes [[African American studies]], [[Asian American studies]], [[Latino studies]], [[Native American studies]], and others.

==Founding notions==
[[Vernon Louis Parrington]] is often cited as the founder of American studies for his three-volume ''Main Currents in American Thought'', which combines the methodologies of [[literary criticism]] and historical research; it won the [[1928 Pulitzer Prize]]. In the introduction to ''Main Currents in American Thought'', Parrington described his field:
{{blockquote|I have undertaken to give some account of the genesis and development in American letters of certain germinal ideas that have come to be reckoned traditionally American&mdash;how they came into being here, how they were opposed, and what influence they have exerted in determining the form and scope of our characteristic ideals and institutions. In pursuing such a task, I have chosen to follow the broad path of our political, economic, and social development, rather than the narrower [[Belles-lettres|belletristic]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Parrington|first1=Vernon Louis|title=Main Currents In American Thought Volume One 1620-1800 The Colonial Mind|date=1927 |publisher=Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc|page=ix|url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.53378/2015.53378.Main-Currents-In-American-Thought#page/n9/mode/2up |access-date=22 April 2017}}</ref>}}

The "broad path" that Parrington describes formed a scholastic course of study for [[Henry Nash Smith]], who received a PhD from [[Harvard]]'s interdisciplinary program in history and American civilization in 1940, setting an academic precedent for present-day American studies programs.<ref>{{cite web|url = https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fsm76|title = Texas State Historical Association}}</ref>{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}}

The first signature methodology of American studies was the "[[myth and symbol]]" approach, developed in such foundational texts as Henry Nash Smith's ''Virgin Land'' in 1950, [[John William Ward (professor)|John William Ward's]] ''Andrew Jackson: Symbol for an Age'' in 1955 and [[Leo Marx]]'s ''[[The Machine in the Garden]]'' in 1964.{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}} Myth and symbol scholars claimed to find certain recurring themes throughout American texts that served to illuminate a unique American culture. Later scholars such as [[Annette Kolodny]] and [[Alan Trachtenberg]] re-imagined the myth and symbol approach in light of multicultural studies.

Beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, these earlier approaches were criticized for continuing to promote the idea of [[American exceptionalism]]&mdash;the notion that the US has had a special mission and virtue that makes it unique among nations. Several generations of American studies scholars moved away from purely ethnocentric views, emphasizing transnational issues surrounding race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality, among other topics. But recent studies critique the exceptionalist nature of the transnational turn.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Herlihy-Mera |first=Jeffrey |url=https://www.academia.edu/34217614 |title=After American Studies: Rethinking the Legacies of Transnational Exceptionalism &#124; |journal=Transversal: International Journal for the Historiography of Science |publisher=Routledge |date=2018 |issue=6 |page=111 |access-date=August 21, 2019}}</ref> "The transnational turn has positioned American Studies in a nationalist rut", observes Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera, in ''After American Studies: Rethinking the Legacies of Transnational Exceptionalism'': 
{{blockquote|In these transnational turns&nbsp;... the unhyphenated-American phenomenon tends to have colonial characteristics: English-language texts and their authors are promoted as representative; a piece of cultural material may be understood as unhyphenated—and thus archetypal—only when authors meet certain demographic criteria; any deviation from these demographic or cultural prescriptions are subordinated to hyphenated status.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Herlihy-Mera |first=Jeffrey |url=https://www.academia.edu/34217614 |title=After American Studies: Rethinking the Legacies of Transnational Exceptionalism &#124; |journal=Transversal: International Journal for the Historiography of Science |publisher=Routledge |date=2018 |issue=6 |page=5 |access-date=2019-08-21}}</ref>}}

Institutionally, in the last decade the American Studies Association has reflected the interdisciplinary nature of the field, creating strong connections to ethnic studies, gender studies, [[cultural studies]] and post- or de-colonial studies. Environmental perspectives, in ascendance in related fields, such as literature and history, have not penetrated the mainstream of American studies scholarship.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/10231602 |title=Necrocracy in America: American Studies Begins to Address Fossil Fuels and Climate Change &#124; Matthew Schneider-Mayerson |journal=American Quarterly |publisher=Academia.edu |date=January 1, 1970 |access-date=December 12, 2015|last1=Schneider-Mayerson |first1=Matthew }}</ref> A major theme of the field in recent years has been internationalization{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}}&mdash;the recognition that much vital scholarship about the US and its relations to the wider global community has been and is being produced outside the United States.

==Debate on use of the term ''American''==
Until the mid-2000s, the use of ''American'' for this multidisciplinary field was widely defended. In 1998, Janice Radway argued, "Does the perpetuation of the particular name, ''American'', in the title of the field{{nbsp}}... support the notion that such a whole exists even in the face of powerful work that tends to question its presumed coherence? Does the field need to be reconfigured conceptually?" She concluded, "the name ''American'' ''studies'' will have to be retained."<ref>{{cite speech |last=Radway |first=Janice |author-link= |title=What's in a Name? |event=Presidential Address to the American Studies Association|date=November 20, 1998 |location= |publisher= |url=http://xroads.virginia.edu/~DRBR2/radway.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010122010900/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~DRBR2/radway.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 22, 2001 |access-date=February 16, 2021 |language=}}</ref> In 2001, Wai Chee Dimmock argued that the field "is largely founded on this fateful adjective. [''American''] governs the domain of inquiry we construct, the range of questions we entertain, the kind of evidence we take as significant. The very professionalism of the field rests on the integrity and the legitimacy of this founding concept."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dimock |first1=Wai Chee |date=2001 |title=Deep Time: American Literature and World History |url= |journal=American Literary History |volume= 13|issue=4 |pages=755–775 |doi=10.1093/alh/13.4.755 |access-date=}}</ref> In 2002, Heinz Ickstadt argued that American studies "should accept its name as its limitation and its boundary."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ickstadt |first1=Heinz |date=2002 |title=American Studies in an Age of Globalization |url= |journal=American Quarterly |volume=54 |issue=4 |pages=543–562 |doi=10.1353/aq.2002.0036 |s2cid=144862489 |access-date=}}</ref> In 2006, Dimmock affirmed that the field "does stand to be classified apart, as a nameable and adducible unit."<ref>{{cite book |last=Dimock |first=Wai Chee |author-link= |date=2006 |title=Through Other Continents: American Literature Across Deep Time |url= |location=Princeton, NJ |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=4 |isbn=}}</ref>

More recently, scholars have questioned ''American'' as a categorizing term. "In consideration of the limitations of conventional terms," Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera argued in 2018, instead of ''American'', terms like "spaces claimed by the political body" and "residents of spaces claimed by the political body" would offer a "more sensitive and attuned description{{nbsp}}... of the regions, critical artifacts, communities, and individuals in question, one that is less charged with the ambiguities and colonial ties that weigh down the traditional disciplinary nomenclatures."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Herlihy-Mera |first=Jeffrey |url=https://www.academia.edu/34217614 |title=After American Studies: Rethinking the Legacies of Transnational Exceptionalism &#124; |journal=Transversal: International Journal for the Historiography of Science |publisher=Routledge |date=2018 |issue=6 |page=x |access-date=January 1, 2021}}</ref> In "the interests of justice and along the lines most suitable to our emergent age," argued Markha Valenta in 2017, scholars should consider "abandoning ''America'' as the field identifier."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Valenta |first1=Valenta |date=2017 |title=Abandoning America The Better to Save American Studies |url= |journal=Review of International American Studies |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=139–171 |access-date=}}</ref>

==Imperial American studies==
"One of the central themes of [[Historiography of the United States|American historiography]]", argued William Appleman Williams, "is that there is no [[American imperialism|American Empire]]". Another central theme is that America is a World Power continuously and steadily expanding since 1890 and extending varying degrees of American sovereignty throughout the world. Whatever euphemisms are used to describe the American Empire, it exists.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=William Appleman |date=1955 |title=The Frontier Thesis and American Foreign Policy |url= |journal=Pacific Historical Review|volume=24 |issue= 4|pages=379–380 |doi=10.2307/3635322 |jstor=3635322 |access-date=}}</ref>

According to American Studies Association president [[Janice Radway]], one of the main problems has been that American Studies consistently tilted towards "Imperial American Studies." The field consistently becomes politicized, and its representatives find themselves responsible for US foreign policy and for globalization suspected to benefit US citizens disproportionally.<ref>Radway, Janice (20 November 1998). "What Is in a Name? Presidential Address to the American Studies Association," ''American Quarterly'', vol 51 (1/1999), p 23, https://www.jstor.org/stable/30041632</ref> The imperial tilt increased following the "unipolar moment" in 1991. The field reacted with a "Transnational Turn" initiated by [[Amy Kaplan]] in 1993.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kaplan |first=Amy |author-link= |date=1993 |title=Cultures of United States Imperialism |url= |location=Durham, NC |publisher=Duke University Press |pages=4, 5 |isbn=}}</ref> [[Paul Giles (academic)|Paul Giles]] joined the campaign with a proposal to elevate the field from the aged patriotic empire-building to the increasingly transnational networks of the 1990s.<ref>Giles, Paul (1994). "Reconstructing American Studies: Transnational Paradoxes, Comparative Perspectives," ''Journal of American Studies'', vol 28: p 337.</ref> The volume of scholarship edited by Kaplan inspired a 1998 conference on the theme "American Studies and the Question of Empire." Opening the conference, Radway magnified the anti-imperial push and suggested erasing the adjective "American" from "American Studies" because of the association between "American" and "imperial."<ref>Radway, Janice (20 November 1998). "What Is in a Name? Presidential Address to the American Studies Association," ''American Quarterly'', vol 51 (1/1999), p 8, 18, https://www.jstor.org/stable/30041632</ref>

The Transnational Turn was criticized as an antipode to US state power. Speaking transnationally became identified with speaking in a counter-hegemonic way. US imperialism, it was claimed, is an integral part of American Studies, as are manifestations of non-US imperialisms in their respective fields. Other integral parts of the field are outlining the differences between the US and non-US imperial practices, and how the US version in the long run has proven more successful and powerful than most pre-American forms of dominance. According to Frank Kelleter, the Transnational Turn is based on wishful thinking caused by US hegemony:
{{blockquote|
As if hoping to theorize the US out of existence, they dissolve America's truly exceptional global position within any transnational constellation that comes in handy. In this manner, theory promises to do what is impossible to achieve in practice: to rid the world of US power.<ref>Kelleter, Frank, (2007). "Transnationalism: The American challenge,” ''Review of International American Studies'', vol 2 (3): p 30-32, https://www.jfki.fu-berlin.de/faculty/culture/persons/team/Kelleter/publications/transnationalism.pdf</ref>}}
More recently, scholars have examined how cultural imperialism occurs within the US borders. Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera described the phenomenon as an attempt to transition the "cultural symbols of the invading communities from 'foreign' to 'natural,' 'domestic,'" through three discrete and sequential phases:
:{| class="wikitable"
|''People in new space''
|''Objective''
|-
|'''(1) Merchants'''

Also termed "explorers" e.g., Lewis and Clark
|'''Encounter resources'''

''E.g., minerals, trade routes, spices, furs, communities''

''to tax or conscript, fertile agricultural zones, strategic''

''geography, etc''.
|-
|'''(2) Military'''

An invasion force
|'''Control resources'''

''Implement martial law so that the metropolitan may''

''exploit resources; establish "Fort" cities, e.g., Fort''

''Lauderdale, Fort Worth etc. that facilitate metropolitan''

''settlement''.
|-
|'''(3) Politicians'''

Socialize the space into a new province of the metropolitan
|'''Social engineering'''

''Acculturize the space into a region of the metropolitan''

''through saturation of symbol, legend, and myth.''

''Establish laws and norms that promote the metropolitan''

''(invading system) as dominant culture and prohibit or''

''criminalize other systems; offer citizenship to conquered''

''peoples in exchange for submission to metropolitan''

''cultural norms and abandonment of original or other (in''

''the case of immigrants) social tendencies''.
|}
:(Herlihy-Mera, Jeffrey. 2018. ''After American Studies: Rethinking the Legacies of Transnational Exceptionalism.'' Routledge. p. 24)

While the third phase continues "in perpetuity", the imperial appropriation tends to be "gradual, contested (and continues to be contested), and is by nature incomplete."<ref name="Herlihy-Mera 2018 24">{{cite journal|last=Herlihy-Mera |first=Jeffrey |url=https://www.academia.edu/34217614 |title=After American Studies: Rethinking the Legacies of Transnational Exceptionalism &#124; |journal=Transversal: International Journal for the Historiography of Science |publisher=Routledge |date=2018 |issue=6 |page=24 |access-date=August 2, 2020}}</ref> The Americanization of the continent has been described as a cultural engineering project that strives to "isolate residents within constructed spheres of symbols" such that they (eventually, in some cases after several generations) abandon other cultures and identify with the new symbols. "The broader intended outcome of these interventions might be described as a common recognition of ''possession'' of the land itself."<ref name="Herlihy-Mera 2018 24"/>

==Outside the United States==
European centers for American studies include the [[British Association for American Studies]], the [[Royal Library of Belgium|Center for American Studies]] in [[Brussels]], Belgium, and most notably the [[John F. Kennedy-Institute for North American Studies]] in [[Berlin]], Germany. Other centers for American studies in Germany include the Bavarian America-Academy, the [[University of Munich]], the [[Heidelberg Center for American Studies]] (HCA) and the Center for North American Studies (Zentrum für Nordamerikaforschung or ZENAF) at [[Goethe University Frankfurt]]. Graduate studies in the field of North American studies can also be undertaken at the [[University of Cologne]], which works together in joint partnership with the North American studies program at the [[University of Bonn]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.northamericanstudies.de/ |title=Home |publisher=Northamericanstudies.de |date=October 1, 2015 |access-date=December 12, 2015}}</ref> American Studies Leipzig at the [[University of Leipzig]] is a center for American studies on the territory of former [[East Germany]]. Founded in 1992, the Center for American Studies at the [[University of Southern Denmark]] now offers a graduate program in American studies. In the [[Netherlands]] the [[University of Groningen]] and the [[Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen]] offer a complete undergraduate and graduate program in American studies. The [[University of Amsterdam]], the [[University of Leiden]] and the [[University of Utrecht]] only offer a graduate program in American studies. Both the [[University of Sussex]] and the [[University of Nottingham]] in England offer both a number of postgraduate and undergraduate programs. In [[Sweden]], the [[Swedish Institute for North American Studies]] at [[Uppsala University]] offers a minor in American studies.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.engelska.uu.se/sinas-en/ |title=Swedish Institute of North American Studies home page |access-date=May 31, 2023}}</ref> In [[Slovakia]], the [[University of Presov]] and [[Pavol Jozef Safarik University]] offer a complete undergraduate and graduate program in American studies combined with British studies. The Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library also offers a range of events and fellowships, as well as promoting the American collections held at the British Library.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/americas/|title=American Collections blog}}</ref> Russia's main center for American studies is the [[Institute for US and Canadian Studies]] of the [[Russian Academy of Sciences]].

In the Middle East, the oldest American Studies program is the American Studies Center<ref>{{cite web|url=http://userspages.uob.edu.bh/asc/ |title=American Studies Center at the University of Bahrain |access-date=April 2, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090307193645/http://userspages.uob.edu.bh/asc/ |archive-date=March 7, 2009 }}</ref> at the [[University of Bahrain]] in Sakhir, which was founded in 1998.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://userspages.uob.edu.bh/asc/tenth%20anniversary.htm |title= American Studies Center|website=userspages.uob.edu.bh |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081001011305/http://userspages.uob.edu.bh/asc/tenth%20anniversary.htm |archive-date=October 1, 2008}}</ref> An American studies program is offered at the [[University of Tehran]] within the Faculty of World Studies.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fws.ut.ac.ir/|title=دانشکده مطالعات جهان|website=دانشکده مطالعات جهان|access-date=December 28, 2008|archive-date=November 11, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111115135/https://fws.ut.ac.ir/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In Oceania, the [[University of Canterbury]] in [[Christchurch]] New Zealand operated a full undergraduate and graduate American studies<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hums.canterbury.ac.nz/amst/|title=College of Arts - School of Humanities and Creative Arts - University of Canterbury - New Zealand}}</ref> program until 2012, and in Australia, an undergraduate major in American Studies and a postgraduate specialisation in American Foreign Policy is run by the [[United States Studies Centre]] at the University of Sydney.

In Canada, the [[University of Alberta]] has the Alberta Institute for American Studies.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.americanstudies.ualberta.ca/ |title=Home - University of Alberta |publisher=Americanstudies.ualberta.ca |access-date=December 12, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222173722/http://www.americanstudies.ualberta.ca/ |archive-date=December 22, 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The [[University of Western Ontario]] has a Centre for American Studies<ref>{{cite web|date=October 1, 2015|title=CAS Main page - Western University|url=http://cas.uwo.ca/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150309094040/https://cas.uwo.ca/graduate/grad_program_information.html|archive-date=March 9, 2015|access-date=December 12, 2015|website=Center for American Studies Program Information|publisher=Cas.uwo.ca}}</ref> that has both an undergraduate and master's program in American studies, with specializations at the graduate level in American Cultural Studies, and Canadian-American Relations.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cas.uwo.ca/graduate/grad_program_information.html |title=Program Information - CAS - Western University |publisher=CAS |access-date=December 12, 2015 |archive-date=March 7, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307140157/http://cas.uwo.ca/graduate/grad_program_information.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[York University]] offers an undergraduate program in United States Studies.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://futurestudents.yorku.ca/program/us-studies |title=United States Studies &#124; Future Students &#124; York University |publisher=Futurestudents.yorku.ca |access-date=December 12, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222121408/http://futurestudents.yorku.ca/program/us-studies |archive-date=December 22, 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

American studies centers in China include the American Studies Center<ref>{{cite web|url=http://asc.bfsu.edu.cn/index.php/en/ |title=Home - 北京外国语大学英语学院美国研究中心-American Studies Center SEIS, BFSU,美国信息中心-Info USA @BFSU |access-date=November 14, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141110013928/http://asc.bfsu.edu.cn/index.php/en/ |archive-date=November 10, 2014 }}</ref> ([[Beijing Foreign Studies University]]) in 1979, the Institute of American Studies<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ias.cass.cn|title=中国社会科学院美国研究所}}</ref> ([[Chinese Academy of Social Science]]) in 1981, Center for American Studies<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cas.fudan.edu.cn|title=复旦大学美国研究中心}}</ref> ([[Fudan University]]) in 1985, American Studies Center<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.asc.pku.edu.cn/Pages/Default.aspx?id=b666eff9-c079-462e-a492-9a60f2bd7cfe |title=北京大学美国研究中心 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129011622/http://www.asc.pku.edu.cn/Pages/Default.aspx?id=b666eff9-c079-462e-a492-9a60f2bd7cfe |archive-date=November 29, 2014 }}</ref> ([[Peking University]]) in 1980, Center for American Studies<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cas.tongji.edu.cn/ |title=同济大学美国研究中心 |website=cas.tongji.edu.cn |access-date=May 22, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150228023332/http://cas.tongji.edu.cn/ |archive-date=February 28, 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> ([[Tongji University]]), American Studies Center<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ascscu.scu.edu.cn|title=四川大学美国研究中心}}</ref> ([[Sichuan University]]) in 1985, [[Hopkins-Nanjing Center|Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies]] in 1986, American Social and Cultural Studies Center ([[China Foreign Affairs University]]) and Center for American Studies<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.flold.ecnu.edu.cn/myzx/About_Us.htm |title=华东师范大学美国研究中心 - Center for American Studies, ECNU |access-date=November 14, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129012354/http://www.flold.ecnu.edu.cn/myzx/About_Us.htm |archive-date=November 29, 2014 }}</ref> ([[East China Normal University]]) in 2004. These centers do not have undergraduate programs. Based on the requirement of the curriculum setup of the China Department of Education, these centers only have graduate programs. In addition, there are also scholarly journals, such as ''American Studies Quarterly''<ref>http://qk.cass.cn /mgyj/set{{Dead link|date=August 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> and ''Fudan American Review''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cas.fudan.edu.cn/far.php|title=复旦大学美国研究中心}}</ref>

In the [[Republic of Korea]], [[Sogang University]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sogang University Department of English|url=http://english.sogang.ac.kr/|access-date=July 3, 2020|website=english.sogang.ac.kr}}</ref> (Seoul, Korea) is the sole institution that offers regular degree program both in bachelor (BA) and master (MA) degree in American studies, named American culture. The American culture division is run by the Department of English along with English literature and linguistics. [[Keimyung University]] (Daegu, Korea), [[Hansung University]] (Seoul, Korea), [[Pyeongtaek University]] (Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi-do, Korea), [[Kyunghee University]] (Yongin, Gyonggi-do, Korea) also provide a major in American studies. [[Seoul National University]] (Seoul, Korea) and [[Yonsei University]] (Seoul, Korea) offers undergraduate interdisciplinary courses in American studies. The American Studies Association of Korea (ASAK) is one of the country's foremost research associations devoted to the interdisciplinary study of American culture and society within the Korean context.<ref>{{cite web |title=The American Studies Association of Korea |url=http://www.asak.or.kr/eng}}</ref>

==International American Studies Association==
Founded at [[Bellagio, Italy]], in 2000, the International American Studies Association<ref name=IASA>{{cite web|url=http://www.iasaweb.org/|title=IASA - International American Studies Association|publisher=IASA}}</ref> has held World Congresses at Leyden (2003), Ottawa (2005), Lisbon (2007), Beijing (2009), Rio de Janeiro (2011), The Sixth World Congress of IASA<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iasa.us.edu.pl/|title=Uniwersytet Śląski|access-date=November 3, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130922193819/http://www.iasa.us.edu.pl/|archive-date=September 22, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> at Szczecin, Poland, August 3–6, 2013, and [[Alcalá de Henares]], Madrid (2019).<ref name="IASA Events">{{cite web|url=http://www.iasaweb.org/events/|title=Events archivo |publisher=IASA - International American Studies Association}}</ref> The IASA is the only worldwide, independent, non-governmental association for Americanists. Furthering the international exchange of ideas and information among scholars from all nations and various disciplines who study and teach America regionally, hemispherically, nationally, and transnationally, IASA is registered in the Netherlands as a non-profit, international, educational organization with members in more than forty countries around the world.

==Associations and scholarly journals==
{{main category|American studies journals}}

The [[American Studies Association]] was founded in 1950. It publishes ''[[American Quarterly]]'', which has been the primary outlet of American studies scholarship since 1949. The second-largest American studies journal, ''[[American Studies (journal)|American Studies]]'', is sponsored by the [[Mid-America American Studies Association]], [[University of Kansas]], and [[University of Minnesota]]. Today there are 55 American studies journals in 25 countries.<ref>[http://www.theasa.net/journals/directory/ American Studies Journals:  A Directory of Worldwide Resources] (updated 2015).  ''TheASA.net''.  Retrieved January 22, 2015.</ref>

==See also==
* [[American Literature (academic discipline)]]
* [[American Studies in Germany]]
* [[American studies in the United Kingdom]]
* [[Cultural studies]]
* [[High School of American Studies at Lehman College]]
* [[Outline of academic disciplines]]
* [[Public humanities]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Herlihy-Mera, Jeffrey. ''After American Studies: Rethinking the Legacies of Transnational Exceptionalism'' (Routledge; 2018)
* Bieger, Laura, Ramon Saldivar, and Johannes Voelz, eds. ''The Imaginary and Its Worlds: American Studies After the Transnational Turn'' (Dartmouth College Press/University Press of New England; 2013) 312 pp
* Kurian, George T. ed. ''Encyclopedia of American Studies'' (4 Vol. Groiler: 2001)
* Maddox, Lucy, ed. ''Locating American Studies: The Evolution of a Discipline'' (Johns Hopkins University Press 1998), {{ISBN|0-8018-6056-3}}
*Pease, Donald E. and Robyn Wiegman, eds. ''The Futures of American Studies'' (Duke University Press 2002), {{ISBN|0-8223-2965-4}}
*Lipsitz, George. ''American Studies in a Moment of Danger'' (University of Minnesota Press, 2001), {{ISBN|0-8166-3949-3}}
*''"American Studies at a Crossroads'' https://web.archive.org/web/20120508024141/http://ragazine.cc/2011/12/discourse-american-studies/
* Marx, Leo (1964). ''[[The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America]]''. New York: Oxford University Press.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Meikle |first1=Jeffrey L |title=Review: Leo Marx's ''The Machine in the Garden'' |journal=Technology and Culture |date=January 2003 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=147–159 |jstor=25148061 |doi=10.1353/tech.2003.0036 |s2cid=111121510 }}</ref>
*Matthiessen, F. O. 1949. ''American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman''. Harvard, Boston
*Meyers, Marvin 1957 ''The Jacksonian Persuasion: Politics and Belief Stanford Press'', California
*Lewis, R. W. B. 1955. ''The American Adam; Innocence, Tragedy, and Tradition in the Nineteenth Century''. [Chicago]: University of Chicago Press.
* [[Henry Nash Smith|Smith, Henry Nash]]. 1950. ''Virgin Land; the American West as Symbol and Myth.'' Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
*[[John William Ward (professor)|John William Ward]] 1955. ''Andrew Jackson, Symbol for an Age''. New York: Oxford University Press.
*[[John William Ward (professor)|John William Ward]]. 1969 ''Red, White, and Blue: Men, Books, and Ideas in American Culture'' . New York: Oxford University Press

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20170811034124/http://eas-ref.press.jhu.edu/ Encyclopedia of American Studies], Sophisticated short articles by experts.
*[http://www.iasaweb.org/ International American Studies Association: IASA]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120321163448/http://www.iasaweb.org/rias/ RIAS Journal]
*[http://americanaejournal.hu/ AMERICANA – E-Journal of American Studies in Hungary]
*[http://repositories.cdlib.org/acgcc/jtas/ Journal of Transnational American Studies]
*[http://www.dartmouth.edu/~futures The Futures Of American Studies Institute at Dartmouth College]
*[http://crossroads.georgetown.edu/ American Studies Crossroads Project]
*[http://baas.ac.uk/ British Association for American Studies]
*[http://www.theasa.net/ The American Studies Association]
*[http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_quarterly/ ''American Quarterly''] at [[Project MUSE]]
*[http://www.asjournal.org/ ''American Studies Journal'']
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20051111133409/http://www.wsu.edu/~amerstu/tm/ Theory and Method Resources, T. V. Reed, Washington State University]
*[https://journals.ku.edu/index.php/amerstud/ ''American Studies'' Journal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161025155818/https://journals.ku.edu/index.php/amerstud |date=October 25, 2016 }}
*[http://midamerica-asa.net/ Mid-America American Studies Association]
*[http://www.asak.or.kr/ American Studies Association of Korea : ASAK]
*[http://southernamericanstudiesassociation.org/ Southern American Studies Association]

===Library guides===
* {{cite web|url=http://library.columbia.edu/subject-guides/amerihist.html |publisher=Columbia University Libraries |title=American History & American Studies |work=Research Guides |location=New York |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203192622/http://library.columbia.edu/subject-guides/amerihist.html |archive-date=December 3, 2013 }}
* {{cite web |url=http://guides.library.georgetown.edu/amst |publisher=Georgetown University Library |title=American Studies |work=Research & Subject Guides |location=Washington, DC }}
* {{cite web |url= http://guides.library.harvard.edu/americanstudies?hs=a |publisher= Harvard University |author=Harvard Library |title= American Studies |work=Research Guides |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts }}
* {{cite web |url= http://guides.lib.uiowa.edu/cat.php?cid=7933 |publisher= University of Iowa Libraries |title=American Studies |work=Subject Guides }}
* {{cite web |url=http://libguides.princeton.edu/American_Studies |publisher=Princeton University Library |title=American Studies |work=Princeton LibGuides |location=USA |access-date=November 18, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140103031651/http://libguides.princeton.edu/American_Studies |archive-date=January 3, 2014 |url-status=dead }}
* {{cite web |url= http://guides.library.yale.edu/ushistory |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081006024202/http://guides.library.yale.edu/ushistory |url-status= dead |archive-date= October 6, 2008 |publisher= Yale University Library |title= U.S. History and American Studies |work= Library Subject Guides }}

{{Regional Cultural Studies}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:American studies| ]]
[[Category:Area studies]]