BA American Studies (United States) with Film

Our multidisciplinary course enables you to assess American contributions to our understanding of political, historical, social and cultural perspectives of the world. You combine studies of the US with a number of options in film studies offered by our Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies, Department of History, and School of Philosophy and Art History.

Crucially, you also spend either a term or a full academic year studying in the United States, so you can explore and become immersed in American culture.

The degree is built to be extremely flexible and student-led, and as you progress through the course you can choose from an enormous range of options from across the humanities and social sciences including:

• Contemporary social issues, such as the struggles for racial justice
• The legacies of slavery and the civil rights movement
• Environmental protection of the 'wilderness' of the Far West
• Native American histories and rights

Based within our Interdisciplinary Studies Centre (ISC), American studies offers a truly multidisciplinary approach, giving you knowledge of the many ways to understand key areas of the American experience. You draw on multiple perspectives in order to reach a deeper understanding of the world we inhabit, opening up exciting possibilities to discover the American continent. The cities, vast open plains, mountains and deserts shape diverse and intriguing ways of life.

By encouraging you to think and operate across traditional boundaries, our course has produced confident, assertive and intelligent graduates who have become successful in many professional fields.

We also nurture the creative talent for tomorrow, developing filmmakers, scholars, and thinkers with a dynamic worldview:

• Gain hands-on experience of camera work, sound recording, editing, lighting, and scriptwriting
• Explore the formal aesthetics of film composition and structure in relation to different contexts of production and reception
• Discover the history and social significance of film as a global medium
• Understand the links between critical analysis and creative practice
• Produce both group films and personal projects

• You can study abroad at a wide range of excellent partner universities across the US.
• We're 8th in the UK for American Studies (Complete University Guide 2023).
• Our academic's combined interest in American studies means our interests span American politics, African American history, American crime fiction and much more.

Previous university/college study is required in addition to local high school qualifications for our Undergraduate Bachelor degree courses.

We accept a number of international qualifications, including the International Baccalaureate with the majority of our courses requiring a grade 30 or above or the SATR with the majority of our courses requiring a minimum of 1100 out of 1600 with 550 in each test.

As a graduate in American Studies, you'll have gained a wide-ranging knowledge of many aspects of American life. You'll acquire essential critical abilities as well as excellent communication skills.

This is excellent preparation for careers in media, education, politics, the Civil Service, international organisations such as UN and NATO or non-governmental organisations, and many other fields. Our recent graduates have gone on to work in various desirable roles including:

• Account executive for Bluesky PR
• Business provision manager for BT
• Events co-ordinator for Age UK

We also work with the university's Student Development Team to help you find out about further work experience, internships, placements, and voluntary opportunities.

UCAS

Applications to UCAS are open for 2023-24 entry. Applications are made online via the UCAS Apply and UCAS Hub, where you will be charged a small fee for processing your application. Here you will be able to fill out your details, upload your personal statement, choose the universities you would like to apply for, and track your application status.

It’s important that you complete your application fully to give us all the information we need to make a decisions as quickly as possible. A few key things that we will need are:

• Details of all qualifications, including those you may have not finished yet and any predicted grades
• Your personal statement (we have some tips for this)
• A suitable reference – if this is not provided or does not meet our requirements this may be a condition of any offer made and will be required before your place can be confirmed.

The UCAS code for Essex is ESSEX E70. Our individual campus codes for our Loughton and Southend campuses are ‘L’ and ‘S’ respectively. There is no campus code for Colchester – please leave this blank in your application.