BA/BS in American Studies

The American Studies major at Stanford is an interdisciplinary undergraduate program for students who want to examine the United States from several angles at once. Its coursework draws on history, the social sciences, literature, the arts, and studies of race and ethnicity, so students can trace how American life has been shaped and how it is understood today. Core requirements cover history and institutions as well as literature, art, and culture, and a required gateway seminar titled Perspectives on American Identity looks at the tension between shared experience and difference through several disciplinary lenses. That shared starting point gives the rest of the major a common frame. Beyond the core, students are expected to develop their own lines of inquiry, which suits those who prefer independent thinking and critical analysis of the American past and present.