American Studies

The MA American Studies at Leipzig University offers a unique programme in graduate studies of the field. It provides students with sophisticated expertise in US culture, literature, history, society, and politics, and it allows them to acquire advanced academic skills and research capabilities. The programme prepares participants both for pursuing a further academic career and for positions in the international employment market in fields such as cultural affairs, media and communication, publishing, political and international organisations, science and research management, or adult education. While the MA programme overall deepens students’ understanding of the complexities of the United States from an interdisciplinary perspective, through individual choices in thematic modules and research projects, it also allows students to specialise in a discipline or field within American Studies. The scholarly modules of the programme stand out by their strictly interdisciplinary design. Grouped around core themes and concerns in the study of the United States, they combine classes from different disciplinary perspectives and allow wide room for pursuing individual interests. The titles of the modules make this clear, as does the nature of the expertise integrated into the modules. The modules for the MA include: Cultures of Difference Global America Imagining the Past Immigration, Community, and Citizenship Media, Society, and Culture Myths, Narratives, Memory Political Cultures Trans-/National Spaces, Bodies, Cultures In addition to the scholarly components of the programme, we offer a highly innovative Professional Skills Module that enables students to develop advanced abilities in integrating academic training with applied knowledge via project creation and implementation. In this module, called iCAN, students acquire practical and analytical skills needed for the publication of an academic journal, as peers: emerging voices in American studies. Working together as a team, they go through all steps involved in reviewing, discussing, improving, and editing academic articles for publication. Opportunities to study abroad and to pursue a professional internship round off the programme. These opportunities are formally embedded into the possibilities to earn credits. Optional courses are taught by guest professors from the United States as part of Leipzig University's American Studies Picador Professorship for Literature. PDF Download