MA/MS in History: American Studies

This one-year track studies the United States both historically and in the present, covering politics and foreign policy as well as the culture that has shaped and mirrored the wider world. Long interdisciplinary in approach, it looks at the US from transnational and comparative angles that have broadened in recent years into a global perspective, with courses addressing the country's political, cultural, economic and military presence abroad, across a field of inquiry that runs from intellectual history to America's place in popular media. Studying the subject in Europe is treated as a strength rather than a limitation, given how central European perspectives on the US have long been to the field and how the relationship between the two continents shapes Atlantic history, with Amsterdam offering a vantage point where American-style modernity meets a major European cultural centre. Teaching staff come from a wide range of academic backgrounds, and students write an original thesis under their direct guidance, based on their own interests and expertise.