Creative. Dynamic. Inquisitive.

Our capacious approach to American Studies is interdisciplinary and hemispheric.  Our teaching and scholarship draws on methodologies from fields including Anthropology, Cultural Studies, English and Literary Studies, History, Media Studies, Performance Studies, Sociology, and Political Science. We uniquely combine arts, humanities, and social sciences in our study of the United States.

We contribute to the mission of the University of Virginia by equipping students to be engaged citizens, and by generating new knowledge and understanding of the nation and world that they inherit. We house the University wide Minors of Asian American Pacific Studies; Latinx Studies; and Native American Indigenous Studies.

Representing an interdisciplinary and capacious field of study, the Department of American Studies is a foundational pillar, key to the University's goals of recruiting and retaining a talented faculty of rising leaders in their field who are committed to outstanding research and teaching.