- Benefit from the expertise and resources we have developed as the UK's longest-standing American Studies programme.
- Explore US history, politics, literature, and popular culture from European colonization through to contemporary hegemony.
- Spend the entirety of your third year at one of more than twenty US or Canada partner institutions, including those in California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Tennessee, and Ontario.
- Ranked 3rd in the UK for American Studies (Complete University Guide 2022).
Book your place on our October and November taster webinars to learn more about your subject areas!
Our four-year single honours American Studies degree will give you a grounding in the history, culture and literature of the US, from colonisation through to contemporary times.
The course includes a full year in North America as a part of your degree programme.
At Manchester, we train our students to be attentive to the counter-currents of US history and literature, and our course places a particular emphasis on the themes of race, capitalism, sexuality, the cultures of labour, political protest and the environment.
You will master the approaches and tools found in several academic disciplines, including cultural theory, history, visual studies, literature and politics.
You will learn how to analyse and interpret a wide range of texts and materials, including historical documents, films, manuscript collections, literary works, visual and marketing campaigns, and musical works.
Years 1 and 2 will give you a wide knowledge of US politics and history, and American literature and film, and will familiarise you with concepts such as:
- mass incarceration;
- inequality;
- racial stratification;
- poverty;
- the logics of policing;
- the changing nature of work and leisure;
- radical organising;
- military power;
- cultural imperialism;
- climate change;
- urban politics;
- conspiracy theories;
- gender and sexuality;
- literature and film analysis.
Upon returning to Manchester from your year abroad, you will be able to choose from an extensive range of advanced modules, while also completing a substantial piece of independent research.
