The MA in American Studies is an interdisciplinary programme taught in English that combines approaches from the humanities and social sciences. The focus of the programme is on examining society, culture, history, literature and politics in the United States and their respective positioning in international and intercultural contexts. This examination occurs on the basis of an in-depth consideration of the interdisciplinary methodology and theory of American studies. The interdisciplinary nature of American studies is reflected in the structure of the modules. The majority are defined thematically rather than methodologically, as is usually the case elsewhere, and deal with a particular complex of topics from different specialist perspectives. To this end, Leipzigs Institute of American Studies cooperates with experts from the fields of political science, sociology, etc. One didactic focus of the masters programme in American Studies is project work, whether in the research seminars of the specialisation modules or in the publication project of the programmes own key qualification module (www.aspeers.com).
The aim is to train students skills in the independent development and implementation of projects and to promote their linguistic and cultural competence in transatlantic thematic fields.
