American Studies with a Year Abroad

American Studies is an interdisciplinary field that takes the United States as its object of inquiry, drawing on history, literature, cultural studies, politics, film, and sociology to understand one of the most complex and consequential societies in the modern world. America has been a dominant force in global culture, politics, and economics for well over a century, and yet it remains deeply contested and often misunderstood, shaped by contradictions that run through its founding mythology, its history of race and immigration, and its relationship to the rest of the world. American Studies takes these contradictions seriously and equips you to analyse them with precision and depth.

At the University of East Anglia, this four-year full-time programme is built around a sustained engagement with both the texts and the contexts that define American experience. You will read novels, essays, and political documents alongside films, music, and visual culture, learning to treat all of these as sources that reveal something important about the society that produced them. You will study the history of American democracy and its limits, the literature of race and migration, the politics of gender and sexuality, and the cultural power of popular media.

The programme includes a year abroad, allowing you to spend time in North America, studying at a partner institution and experiencing the country you have been studying from the inside.

The skills you develop are those of any strong humanities degree, applied to a subject of genuine contemporary importance: close reading, critical argument, independent research, and the ability to communicate complex ideas clearly. These transfer readily into professional life.

Graduates pursue careers in journalism, publishing, education, the civil service, politics, law, and the creative industries. Many go on to postgraduate study in American literature, transatlantic history, cultural studies, or international relations. The degree suits anyone who wants to understand how American culture and politics have shaped, and continue to shape, the modern world.