Welcome to the American Studies Program!
Started over 80 years ago, the American Studies Program at Williams is one of the oldest in the country. Our curriculum has kept pace with some of the most exciting and important changes in this wildly interdisciplinary field – away from the American exceptionalism of the field’s origins in the mid-20th century and toward the critical interrogation of the U.S. within and beyond the geopolitical boundaries of the nation. Our accomplished faculty bring a wide range of methodological tools to the historical knowledge, social analysis, and political thought they share in their classes. Through interdisciplinary frameworks (such as media studies, women of color feminisms, or critical ethnic studies), we study institutions and cultural production — including music, art, literature, film, and digital media — as well as social formations, relations, and practices. Examining the long histories of colonialism, racism, capitalism, and more, we strive to understand how such systems of power have shaped our embodied individual and collective experiences in shared and divergent ways. These historical trajectories inform our engagement with a range of contemporary actors, struggles, and practices, from prison abolitionists to Indigenous water protectors, from journalism to experimental performance, and from transnational labor organizing to youth activism, both local and global. For a more detailed look into our curriculum, we invite you to view our current course offerings.
Detail of quilt produced collectively by students in AMST 373 US Empire in the Philippines, Spring 2025.