The Interdisciplinary Program in American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley offers undergraduates a unique opportunity to take advantage of the depth and breadth of Americanist scholarship and research on the campus in order to explore and understand the United States and its place in the globalizing world. American Studies courses integrate a panoply of subjects, methods, and materials from many academic disciplines, including the traditional blend of history and literature, as well as the social sciences, material culture, the built environment, law, business, technology, urbanism, ecology, economy, and the arts.

The major allows students to build focused, individualized areas of concentration that draw on more than 400 Americanist course offerings at UCB per year. In the course of their studies, we expect that our undergraduate majors will develop a critical set of skills and competencies in cultural analysis, and be able to demonstrate the ability to move beyond disciplinary boundaries in a capstone project, the senior thesis.

With over sixty affiliated faculty from departments and colleges across the campus, Interdisciplinary American Studies offers a friendly intellectual community where study, research, and discussion about American culture and society occur.