Register
If you haven’t already, register to start contributing news and events, and to search the Member Directory. Registration is free, but only open to current members of the American Studies Association.
Events
Jan. 9 | Call for papers: Identities and Technocultures
A 2-day conference about American culture and technologies that examines how new technologies dominate and define Americaness in the US and abroad. Co-sponsored by the University of Iowa Center for Ethnic Studies and the Arts (CESA) and the Mid-America American Studies Association (MAASA).
Publications: Directory of Graduate Programs
University of Southern California
Program in American Studies & Ethnicity
Degrees Awarded: Ph.D.
Academic System: Semester
Financial Aid: Fellowships, teaching and research assistantships, and other forms of financial aid are available to qualified candidates.
Deadlines: December 15: Graduate application deadline for Fall semester; November 1: Preferential graduate application deadline for Fall semester; Application completed by Nov. 1st will be given first consideration.
Affiliations and Internships: USC Center for American Studies and Ethnicity fellowships; James Irvine Foundation; American Studies Association; California American Studies Association
Program Specializations: race and ethnicity, Los Angeles and the American West, cultural studies and production, African American Studies, Asian American Studies, Chicano/Latino Studies
At USC, one of the most striking aspects of this program is the thorough integration of American Studies and Ethnic Studies into one program to understand the diversity of American society and culture. USC’s Program in American Studies & Ethnicity is solidly based in both the humanities and the social sciences, as well as in several professional schools, such as Cinema-Television, Communication and Law. Overall, the program’s greatest strengths are: 1) the theoretical study of race and ethnicity, particularly as it is constructed through gender, class, sexuality and the state; 2) a regional focus on Los Angeles and the American West; and 3) an emphasis in the study of cultural production in the United States, with particular attention on the theoretical directions and methodological innovations in the interdisciplinary study of American culture. The Program currently offers majors in American Studies, African American Studies, Asian American Studies and Chicano/Latino Studies, and minors in all four of these areas as well as in Jewish American Studies.
Ph.D. Requirements: The graduate curriculum combines core interdisciplinary courses, primarily in the first year and in the three areas of specialization (1. the study of race and ethnicity, 2. Los Angeles as a global city, 3. the analysis of culture across disciplines), with departmentally-based courses in given disciplinary methods and literatures. Each student will be asked to gain competency in the methodology and grounding in the literature of one specific disciplinary area (history, literature, sociology, etc) to enhance the fundamentally interdisciplinary nature of their training in American Studies and Ethnicity. AMST 500 is required of all doctoral students. It is highly recommended that AMST 500 be completed in the first year of residence. Two 600-level graduate seminars are required for the degree, and at least one of these must be an interdisciplinary seminar offered by the Program in American Studies and Ethnicity. Students are required to demonstrate competence in one foreign language. Students are required to show competency in two methodologies from a list approved by the Program in American Studies and Ethnicity. The following methodologies fulfill the methods requirement in American Studies and Ethnicity: (1) literary/textual analysis; (2) historical/archival analysis; (3) ethnography; (4) cultural/visual analysis; (5) spatial practices and analysis; (6) quantitative analysis. Every doctoral student is expected to achieve competency in at least one disciplinary field by successfully completing at least a total of four graduate courses in one discipline. These four courses must include at least one methodology course, one 600-level advanced seminar, and two graduate readings courses at the 500 or 600 level. After the 4 field, written and oral qualifying examination has been passed, an interdisciplinary dissertation committee of at least three faculty members from the examination committee must approve a dissertation prospectus before full time research commences. Only at this point is a student admitted to candidacy for the PhD and will thereafter concentrate on the dissertation.
American Studies Faculty
Core Faculty
ECHOLS, Alice (PhD, University of Michigan, 1986) Associate Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity; American Studies, creative writing, critical theory, film and popular culture, gender studies, minority discourse, queer studies
FOSSETT, Judith Jackson (PhD, Princeton Univ., 1999) Associate Professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity; 19th and 20th century American and African-American literature, African-American studies, American studies
GILMORE, Ruth (PhD, Rutgers, 1998) Associate Professor of Geography and American Studies and Ethnicity
GOMEZ-BARRIS, Macarena (PhD, University of California, Santa Cruz, 2004) Assistant Professor of Sociology and American Studies and Ethnicity; sociology of culture, Latino studies, gender and race and representation, political violence
GUALTIERI, Sarah (PhD, University of Chicago, 2000) Assistant Professor of History and American Studies and Ethnicity; Arab and Middle Eastern History; race, gender, and migration
GUSTAFSON, Thomas (PhD, Stanford Univ., 1986) Associate Professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity; colonial and 19th century American literature, American political discourse, literature of the American West
HALTTUNEN, Karen (PhD, Yale University, 1979) Professor of History; U.S. cultural and intellectual history
HOLLOWAY, Camara (Ph.D., Yale Univ., 2001) Assistant professor of Art History and American Studies and Ethnicity; African American photographers and their subjects, particularly during the Harlem Renaissance, as well as broader issues of representation and race.
HUEY, Stanley J. Jr. (Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 1998) Assistant Professor of Psychology and American Studies and Ethnicity; Culture and mental health, psychosocial problems in urban settings, community-based interventions
IWAMURA, Jane Naomi (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 2001) Assistant Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity; Asian American relations, religion and American popular/visual cultures
JACOBS-HUEY, Lanita (PhD, Univ. of California, Los Angeles, 1999) Assistant Professor of Anthropology and American Studies and Ethnicity; linguistic anthropology, issues in urban poverty and public policy
KONDO, Dorinne (PhD, Harvard Univ., 1982) Professor of Anthropology and American Studies and Ethnicity; aesthetics, politics, performance, critical race theory, Asian American and multiracial theatre
KURASHIGE, Lon (PhD, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, 1994) Associate Professor of History and American Studies and Ethnicity; Asian Americans, US immigration and ethnicity, cultural history
LINT-SAGARENA, Roberto (Ph.D., Princeton University, 2000) Assistant Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity; Religious history of the Americas; Chicano and Latino religious traditions; African American religious history; religion, cultural exchange, and theories of translation
McKENNA, Teresa ( Ph.D, University of California, Los Angeles, 1980) Associate Professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity; Chicano/a and Latino/a literature; 20th century American literature and culture; ethnic American literature; gender and race
MOTEN, Fred (PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 1994) Associate Professor of American Studies; American Studies, Creative Writing, Film and Popular Culture, Minority Discourse, Modernism, Renaissance, Romanticism
NGUYEN, Viet (PhD, Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1997) Associate Professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity; Asian Americans, American literature and film
PULIDO, Laura (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1997) Associate Professor of Geography and American Studies and Ethnicity; Race and ethnicity; social movements; political activism; Los Angeles
RAMIREZ, Ricardo (Ph.D., Stanford University, 2002) Assistant Professor of Political Science and American Studies and Ethnicity; Political behavior; state and local politics; and the politics of race and ethnicity, especially as they relate to political participation and incorporation.
ROMAN, David (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1991) Professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity; theatre and performance studies, Latino studies, Gay and Lesbian studies
ROWE, John Carlos (PhD, SUNY Buffalo) Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity; critical theory
SAITO, Leland (Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 1992) Associate Professor of Sociology and American Studies and Ethnicity; race and ethnic relations, Asian American Studies; urban politics, community studies, urban sociology, qualitative research methods.
SANCHEZ, George J. (Ph.D., Stanford Univ., 1989) Associate Professor of History, Associate Professor and Director of Program in American Studies and Ethnicity; Chicano/a, immigration, American West
STURKEN, Marita, Associate Professor of History and American Studies and Ethnicity and Political Science; cultural studies, pop culture, consumer culture, art and technology
TAYLOR, Ula Y. (Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, 1992) Associate Professor of History and American Studies and Ethnicity, African American History (1890-1970); Black Nationalism; Pan-Africanism; Black Feminist Theory; Women’s History
WONG, Janelle (Ph.D., Yale University, 2001) Assistant Professor of Political Science and American Studies and Ethnicity; Racial and ethnic politics, immigration, community institutions, Asian American politics, public opinion, political behavior
YOUNG, Cynthia (Ph.D., Yale University, 1999) Assistant Professor of English and American Studies and Ethnicity; Cultural theory; US radical culture; Black Diaspora culture; comparative urban ethnic literatures & cultures
Affiliated Faculty
BANET-WEISER, Sarah (PhD, University of California San Diego, 1995) Assistant Professor of Communication; Feminist theory and politics, media studies, race and sexuality, contemporary American culture, nationalism and popular culture
BANNER, Lois W. (PhD, Columbia Univ., 1970) Professor of History; women, gender, cultural history
BOYD, Todd (PhD, University of Iowa, 1990) Professor of Cinema-Television; African-American cinema and culture; music and popular culture; media and society; sports and society; American cinema and television; race, class & gender in American cinema.
CHENG, Meiling (Doctor of Fine Arts, Yale University, 1993) Associate Professor of Theatre; Contemporary theatre; modern drama, especially avant-garde performances; performance art; body art; European avant-garde movements.
CHUNG, Ruth (PhD, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara) Assistant Professor of Education, Division of Counseling Psychology; acculturation and mental health of Asian Americans, cross-cultural conceptualizations of healthy family functioning, career development of racial and ethnic minorities
COX, Thomas C. (PhD, Princeton Univ., 1980) Associate Professor of History; Afro-Americans, US intellectual, urban CRUZ, David B. (JD, New York Univ., 1994) Professor of Law; law and sexuality, law and identity, constitutional law
DEAR, Michael (PhD, Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1974) Professor of Geography and Director of Southern California Studies Center; Los Angeles, post-modern urbanism, political and social geography
DIAZ, Roberto Ignacio (PhD, Harvard Univ.) Associate Professor of Spanish American Literature; 19th and 20th centuries, native fiction and literary history
DUDZIAK, Mary L (PhD, Yale Univ., 1992; JD, Yale Univ., 1984) Professor of Law and History; civil rights history, 20th century US constitutional history, constitutional law
ETHINGTON, Philip J. (PhD, Stanford Univ., 1989) Professor of History; 20th century politics, urban, US West FOX, Richard Wightman (PhD, Stanford Univ., 1975) Professor of History; 19th century US history with special attention to cultural and intellectual developments.
GLASSNER, Barry (PhD, Washington Univ. [St. Louis], 1978) Professor of Sociology and Director of Institute for the Study of Jews in American Life; cultural sociology, methodology, theory
HONDAGNEU-SOTELO, Pierrette (PhD, Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1990) Professor of Sociology; gender, migration, Latinos in the US, informal sector work
HOUSTON, Velina Hasu (MFA, Univ. of California, Los Angeles) Associate Professor, School of Theater; Pan-Asian American feminist dramatic literature
IRAZÁBAL, Clara (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 2002) Assistant Professor of Urban Design and Planning in the School of Policy, Planning, and Development: The politics of urban and regional planning and development; the links between social and spatial inequalities; and theory and criticism of transnational, contemporary architecture and urbanism, particularly in the Americas.
KANN, Mark (PhD, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, 1975) Professor of Political Science and University Associates’ Professor of Political Science; history of American political thought
KAPLAN, Carla (PhD, Northwestern Univ., 1990) Professor of English; American literature, African-American literature, feminist history, modernism, the novel
KAPLAN, Elaine Bell (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1988) Associate Professor of Sociology; Race and ethnic relations; social inequality; sociology of childhood; gender, qualitative methodology
LLOYD, David (Ph.D., Cambridge University, England, 1982) Professor of English: colonialism; Irish Literature and Cultural History; “Minority Discourse”;; Ethnic Cultures; postcolonial theory.
MAREZ, Curtis (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1993) Assistant Professor of School of Cinema-Television: Chicana/o media and popular culture; race in U.S. mass and popular cultures; Native American film and video; crime and imprisonment; cultural studies and political economy; the Chicana/o Asia Pacific.
MARTINEZ, Maria Elena (Ph.D., University of Chicago, 2002) Assistant Professor of History: Colonial and Modern Latin American History; Early Modern Spanish History; Early Modern Religion and “Race,“; Gender and Sexuality; Comparative Colonial Situations; Mexican Nationalism; Feminist Theory and Movements.
MAZON, Mauricio (PhD, Univ. of California, Los Angeles, 1976) Associate Professor of History; Chicano/a, psychohistory, complexity theory McCABE. Susan (PhD, Univ. of California, Los Angeles, 1990) Assistant Professor of English; modern and contemporary American poetry, American literature
McPHERSON, Tara (PhD, Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 1996) Associate Professor of Critical Studies, School of Cinema-Television; race, feminist and place (esp. the US South); gender and new technologies, television, feminism and media MEYER, Richard (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1996) Associate Professor of Art History; 20th-century American Art; history of photography; visual culture; gay and lesbian studies; censorship & the public sphere
MODLESKI, Tania (Ph.D., Stanford University, 1980) Professor of English; Women in film; women in popular culture; women in literature; feminist studies; soap operas
MYERS, Dowell (Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1981) Professor, School of Policy, Planning and Development; Immigration; ethnic change/demographic diversity & trends; growth management; housing & urban development; demography; real estate market analysis; local census data analysis; urban growth, sprawl & quality of life
PACHON, Harry, Professor of Policy, Panning and Development
POLAN, Dana (Doctorat D’Etat, Universite de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, 1987) Professor and Chair of Critical Studies, School of Cinema-Television; American cinema, critical theory, cultural studies
PRESTON, Michael B. (PhD, Univ. of California, Berkeley, 1974) Professor of Political Science; black politics, racial and ethnic politics, urban politics ROSS, Steven J. (PhD, Princeton Univ., 1980) Professor of History; US social, labor, popular culture
SILVA-CORVALAN, Carmen (PhD, Univ. of California, Los Angeles, 1979) Professor of Spanish and Linguistics, Chair, Department of Spanish and Portuguese; sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, bilingualism, Spanish and the United States
SLOANE, David (PhD, Syracuse Univ., 1984) Associate Professor, School of Policy, Planning and Development; urban history, cultural landscapes, community planning
STANTON-SALAZAR, Ricardo (Ph.D., Stanford University, 1990) Associate Professor of Education, Division of Learning and Instruction; Academic achievement strategies of minority and immigrant urban youth
STROMQUIST, Nelly (PhD, Stanford University, 1975) Professor of Education, Division of Educational Policy, Planning and Administration; international development, education, gender
THOMAS, Douglas (PhD, Univ. of Minnesota, 1992) Associate Professor, Anneberg School for Communication; cultural studies of technology, subculture, youth culture
WOLCH, Jennifer (Ph.D., Princeton University, 1978) Professor of Geography: Urban Social Policy and Planning; Human-Animal Relations; Cultural Diversity and Attitudes Toward Animals; Urban Sustainability
Contact
Program in American Studies & Ethnicity
Waite Phillips Hall (WPH) 303
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-4033
Telephone: 213-740-2426
Fax: 213-821-0409
http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/pase/
Program Director: George J. Sanchez
Director of Graduate Studies: Laura Pulido
Director, African American Studies: Judith Jackson Fossett
Director, American Studies: Thomas Gustafson
Director, Asian American Studies: Leland Saito
Director, Chicano/Latino Studies: Teresa McKenna
Admissions
University of Southern California
USC Office of Admission
University Park
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0911
213-740-1111
e-mail:
http://www.usc.edu/dept/admissions/grad/
Quick Links
American Quarterly [official journal site]
American Quarterly [editorial site]