Publications: Directory of Graduate Programs

University of Maryland, College Park
American Studies

Degrees Awarded: MA, PhD

Academic System: Semester

Tuition: In-state graduate $393 per credit hour, out-of-state $820 per credit hour

Deadlines: Graduate admissions and financial aid 12/15

Financial Aid: Graduate assistantships, graduate fellowships

Affiliations and Internships: Access to resources of Washington, DC, area, including Library of Congress, National Archives, Smithsonian Institution; member of Washington Metropolitan Consortium of Area Colleges and Universities

Program Specializations: Cultures of everyday life; cultural constructions of difference and identity

Teaching and research in American Studies is shaped by two principal intellectual themes: cultures of everyday life and cultural constructions of difference and identity. These themes recur in our established areas of ethnography, literature and society, material culture, social policy history, and popular culture, including media studies. Coupled with our commitment to cutting-edge technologies, the themes are also encouraging work in newer directions such as cyberculture and museum studies. Faculty consist of 10 core departmental faculty, 5 core affiliate faculty, and approximately 70 affiliate faculty.

MA Requirements: The Master’s program requires completion of 30 credit hours. Students who elect to write a thesis take 24 hours of course work and 6 hours of thesis credit (AMST 799). Students who elect the non-thesis option take 30 hours of course work and submit a scholarly paper based on independent research in lieu of a thesis.

PhD Requirements: Students entering with a Master’s degree take at least 30 hours of coursework, plus at least 12 hours of dissertation credit (AMST899); students entering with a Bachelor’s take 42 hours of course work and the dissertation credits. Coursework is organized around two core areas. Students must also take a series of three examinations, and after submitting a detailed prospectus, write and defend a dissertation employing two or more disciplines to address a topic or problem contributing to our understanding of American culture past or present.

American Studies Faculty

Core Faculty

CAUGHEY, John L. (PhD, Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1970) Professor and Chairperson; ethnography, culture of consciousness, life history research, comparative cultures

KELLY, R. Gordon (PhD, Univ. of Iowa, 1970) Professor; literature and society, popular fiction, children’s literature

LOUNSBURY, Myron O. (Ph.D., Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1966) Associate Professor; film, science fiction, electronic media, contemporary culture theory

MICHEL, Sonya. (Ph.D., Brown Univ., 1986) Professor; social policy history, welfare, constructions of gender, motherhood, and Jewishness

MINTZ, Lawrence E. (Ph.D., Michigan State Univ., 1969) Associate Professor; humor, popular culture, television

PAOLETTI, Jo B. (PhD, Univ. of Maryland, College Park, 1980) Associate Professor; material culture studies, clothing and culture, culture of childhood

PARKS, Sheri (PhD, Univ. of Massachusetts, 1985) Associate Professor; popular aesthetics, mass media, race, gender, family

SIES, Mary Corbin (PhD, Univ. of Michigan, 1987) Associate Professor; material culture, cultural history, architectural, urban, and planning history

STRUNA, Nancy L. (PhD, Univ. of Maryland, College Park, 1979) Professor; social history, popular culture, leisure and sport history, critical theory

Affiliated Faculty

CARAMELLO, Charles (PhD, Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 1978) Professor of English; 20th century American fiction, modern literary theory, post-modern culture

GILBERT, James B. (PhD, Univ. of Wisconsin, 1966) Professor of History; American cultural and intellectual history

LEONE, Mark P. (PhD, Univ. of Arizona, 1968) Professor of Archaeology; North American archaeology, historical archaeology, African American archaeology, outdoor history museums

PETERSON, Carla L. (PhD, Yale Univ., 1976) Professor of English; 19th century African American women writers

ROSENFELT, Deborah S. (PhD, Univ. of California, Los Angeles, 1972) Professor of English; women’s writers and social change in the modern U.S., diversity and curricula change in higher education

Contact

American Studies
University of Maryland
1102 Holzapfel Hall
College Park, MD 20742-5620
Phone: 301/405-1355
Fax: 301/314-9453
E-mail:
www.amst.umd.edu

Chair: John Caughey
Graduate Director: Mary Corbin Sies

Admissions

University of Maryland, College Park
Office of Graduate Admissions
2117 Lee Building
College Park, MD 20742-5121
Telephone: (301)405-4198,
Fax: (301)314-9305
e-mail:
http://www.umd.edu/prospective/grad.html