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Undergraduate Programs
Completing an American Studies degree prepares you to enter a range of graduate and professional programs, including law school, doctoral programs, and others. The skills and knowledge acquired in the program are also useful for work in government, media, museums, non-profit organizations, advocacy and activist groups, and cultural and artistic fields. Our programs explore socio-historical contexts and cultural perspectives that complement other fields of study at AU.
Indigenous Peoples Day with Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs
Monday, October 13, 7:00 p.m. | MGSC 128
American Studies in Washington, DC

Washington, DC is the perfect place to explore American Studies, an interdisciplinary, intersectional approach to understanding American life, politics, and culture within a transnational framework. The field of American Studies encourages students to consider the larger geopolitical context and longer histories within which settler colonial nation-states such as the United States have shaped people’s lives. American Studies is about much more than the USA: it teaches students to understand our global world order from the perspectives of the most marginalized. American Studies is a political project that centers social justice approaches to the past, present, and future while critically asking what we can do in the here and now to effect the change we desire.
Our program combines student-centered learning and community engagement with courses that examine the latest scholarship in the field. Our faculty are experts in cultural studies, disability studies, immigration and border studies, carceral and labor studies, gender and sexuality studies, Native American and Indigenous studies, and more. Our students are critical thinkers, organizers, advocates, and anyone who is willing to ask hard questions in order to find better answers. Many of our students come to American Studies as an intellectual home in interdisciplinary critical inquiry that complements degrees in AU’s other schools and within the College of Arts and Sciences.
Student Spotlight: Sinit Tekleab

I began as a political science major, but after my first year, I realized I wanted a more interdisciplinary approach to my studies. I was drawn to AMST because it centers humanity, recognizing that behind every policy, law, or piece of research are real people with diverse perspectives and lived experiences.
Sinit Tekleab
Junior, American Studies
Announcements
News & Notes
Drs. Kaplan, Wong and Dorr just signed an advanced contract with University of Washington Press for our forthcoming anthology, Abolition Everywhere. Building from our national convening this past spring, this collaborative project convenes scholars and practitioners working to dismantle policing and the carceral state with those deploying abolitionist frameworks to stage critical interventions in other movements and areas–including militarism and war, land and climate justice, housing and property, im/migration and reproductive justice–to construct a new model and agenda for research and action. Together we examine the convergent formation of abolitionist theory and praxis across a range of social movements to productively complicate and/or expand how we understand the inner workings of carceral power across different sites and scales. Given the urgencies of our current political moment, our aim is to strengthen conversations and connections across these movements and traditions.
Mary Ellen Curtin's book She Changed the Nation: Barbara Jordan's Life and Legacy in Black Politics was named one of the Five Best Books on Black Women's Political Leadership in Ms. magazine.
Dr. Mary Ellen Curtin has just returned from a semester in Poland as a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar at Adam Mickiewicz University, where she shared her knolwedge in African American and Women's History with students and colleagues. Read this feature to learn more about Dr. Curtin's time abroad.
Dr. Elizabeth Rule joined New Book Network for a discussion about Rule's book Indigenous DC: Native Peoples and the Nation’s First Capital.
Dr. Toby Aho and Dr. Mary Ellen Curtin have won the 2022-2023 Ann Ferren Curriculum Design Award for their creation of the “Disability, Health, and Bodies” undergraduate certificate. This award recognizes the collaborative work of two or more faculty who creatively integrate the values of a liberal education in the design of courses or curricula for majors or academic programs.
Stevie Marvin has won the 2023 University Award for Outstanding Service to the AU Community.
Jules Losee won the 2022 Provost’s Summer Scholar Award for their research project "Where Love Grows: How Art Coaxes Queer Community Through Prison Walls."
Rachael Hesse won the AU Library’s Best Overall Undergraduate Paper Award for their capstone project “How Joan Rivers Created the Modern Female Comedian.”
Talia Marshall won an AU Provost Summer Scholars award for her research project "Queer Time Meets Neurodivergent Time: Exploring Temporal Intersections.” Talia will be presenting her research at the Modern Language Association’s national conference in January of 2023.
Abigail Goldner-Morris won the University Award for Outstanding Community Service in Spring 2021.
Professor Toby Aho discussed the new certificate Disability, Health, and Bodies in "American University launches certificate in Disability, Health, and Bodies."
Recent Events
Indigenous Health: A Roundtable Discussion
Join AU's American Studies Department for a conversation about Indigenous health with Josie Raphaelito (Diné/Navajo Nation), Mariah Gladstone (Blackfeet, Cherokee), Candi Brings Plenty (Oglala Sioux), and Elizabeth Rule (Chicasaw Nation), moderated by Toby Aho. Our panelists will discuss their work on Indigenous cancer research, Two Spirit and Native LGBTQIA+ advocacy and community work, resistance to colonial theft, exploitation, and gender violence, and reteaching Indigenous foodways.
Participants:
Josie Raphaelito (Diné, Navajo) is a passionate advocate for tribal public health. Josie serves as the Research Project Coordinator for the new Center for Indigenous Cancer Research at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. She also is co-author of the Indigenizing Love Toolkit.
Dr. Elizabeth Rule (Chickasaw Nation) is Assistant Professor of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies at American University. Rule’s research on Indigenous issues has been featured in the Washington Post, The Atlantic, and NPR.
Mariah Gladstone (Blackfeet, Cherokee) graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Environmental Engineering and returned home where she developed Indigikitchen, an online tool for reteaching information about Indigenous foods.
Candi Brings Plenty (Oglala Sioux) is a queer, indigenous, Two Spirit, cis, Oglala Lakota Sioux Activist and Spiritual Practitioner. She works as an indigenous justice organizer with the South Dakota ACLU and specializes in advocating for Two Spirit warriors, community health, and protesters at the Keystone XL pipeline.
Dr. Toby Aho is a Professional Lecturer of American Studies at American University, where they teach two core courses of the new Disability, Health, and Bodies certificate. They serve on the board of the Rainbow History Project and were a copy editor of the Indigenizing Love Toolkit.
Program Director
Statement in Solidarity with Anti-Racist Efforts from CRGC
The faculty of the Department of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies join with protesters across the world to denounce police brutality and systemic anti-Black violence.