American Studies

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

American Studies is an individualized interdisciplinary major that 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 variety 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, built environment, law, technology, urbanism, ecology, economy, and arts.

Declaring the Major

In order to declare the major, students with less than 60 units must complete AMERSTD 10 and one other lower division requirement. Students beyond 60 units must be enrolled in AMERSTD 10 and speak with a faculty adviser before being allowed to declare. For details on how to declare, please see the student academic adviser at 265 Evans Hall, email: [email protected].

Honors Program

Students who wish to be eligible to graduate with honors must enroll in the honors thesis seminar, AMERSTD H195. For admission to the course, students must have senior standing, an overall GPA of 3.51, and a GPA of 3.65 in the major. For further information, please contact the student academic adviser in 265 Evans Hall, email: [email protected].

Declaring the Minor

Visit the American Studies Minor webpage for information about declaring the minor.

Visit Program Website

The goal of the American Studies interdisciplinary major is to enable students to learn a set of research, critical thinking, and written and oral communication skills that will enable them to become self-conscious and thoughtful investigators of American society. To meet this basic goal, our courses are designed to give students a basic understanding of American history, culture, political economy, social structures, and environment (both natural and constructed), as well as to enable them to use a range of concepts and methods to define and analyze significant problems, issues, and questions relating to American life. Through a close reading of diverse texts and physical and cultural materials, American Studies students learn how to critically analyze how individuals, groups, and a wide variety of political, economic, and cultural institutions have interacted to shape and give meaning to the American experience.

Learning Goals for the Major

1. Research Skills:
   • Students learn how to locate and evaluate primary source materials and secondary texts. These include published contemporary and historical documents, artifacts of material culture, landscape and architectural structures, visual and auditory media, oral history, and folklore.
2. Critical Thinking Skills:
   • Students learn how to analyze and evaluate cultural texts including literature, performance, film, art, etc., and demonstrate a basic understanding of cultural theory and aesthetics (i.e., to understand and think critically about American society from a humanities perspective).
   • Students learn to critically analyze and evaluate social science arguments, demonstrating an understanding of the premises of qualitative and quantitative evidence (i.e., understand and think critically about American society from a social science perspective).
   • Students learn to analyze and understand the American past so as to gain perspective on and critical understanding of current issues and problems in American life (i.e., to understand and think critically about American society from an historical perspective, which by definition integrates humanities and social science approaches).
   • Students learn to critically analyze and interpret the meaning of American material culture and its built and natural environments (i.e., understand and think critically about American society from the perspectives of the knowledges embodied in the disciplines of geography, architecture, landscape architecture, environmental studies, and art).
3. Written and Oral Communication Skills
   • Students learn how to communicate effectively in written form, demonstrating the ability to formulate a well organized argument supported by evidence.
   • Students learn how to communicate effectively orally, while demonstrating the ability to listen and respond to what others are saying.
4. Specialized Knowledge
   • Time: Students gain in-depth, substantive knowledge about American life and culture in a particular year.
   • Place: Students gain in-depth, substantive knowledge about American life and culture in a particular city, region, or other place.
   • Students gain in-depth substantive knowledge about particular themes, issues, problems, and questions in American life and experience.
5. Integrative Knowledge and Skills
   • Students demonstrate their mastery of all of the above skills by writing a Senior Thesis that is a focused interdisciplinary research project in their specialized area of concentration. 

• finish secondary school and
• earn a certificate of completion, which allows admission to a university in their home country or country of graduation

In addition:

Students who have completed the IGCSE or O-level exams have not yet met the requirements for admission at UC Berkeley. The university requires further study, either completion of the two-year A-level program with a minimum of three academic exams, the IB diploma program, or another similar academic curriculum.

Students from countries requiring entry into military service upon completion of secondary education should not submit an application until the obligation has been met. UC Berkeley cannot defer admission to a later term.

Students may have to meet additional admission requirements and follow certain guidelines for filling out the undergraduate application, depending on country or educational system.

Apply to Berkeley by filling out the UC application. You can begin working on the application as early as August 1, and must submit the application November 1-30. You can apply to as many UC campuses as you like with one application, and each campus will receive your application and official test scores. If you have difficulties, contact the UC Application Center at [email protected] or (800) 207-1710.