Courses Available

American Studies BA degrees at the University of Leicester offer an exciting multidisciplinary approach to the study of the history, literature and culture of the United States. We aim to stimulate your interests and your enthusiasms, and to develop your intellectual flexibility and analytical skills to the full.

Choose from:

• BA American Studies (3 or 4 year)
• BA English and American Studies (3 or 4 year)
• BA History and American Studies (3 or 4 year)

BA American Studies

The Centre is run by ten core members of staff and two secretaries and serviced by a range of other lecturers in the Faculty, drawing from the disciplines of English Literature, Film Studies, History, History of Art, Modern Languages and Politics. The first two years of an American Studies degree at Leicester comprise a series of complementary modules dealing with American History, Literature, Politics, Film and Visual Culture. This structure provides a firm and stimulating foundation that enables students to specialise in the final year by researching and writing a long dissertation of their choice and by selecting from a range of options (see below).

First Year

The First Year provides a foundation in key disciplines in American Studies: History, Literature and Politics. In addition, we offer The West an interdisciplinary module which integrates the different subject areas to deal with a vital area of the American experience.

Second Year

The Second Year develops the knowledge gained in the First Year by exploring specific themes including African-American History, Ethnicity and Diversity in American Literature, Film and Visual Culture and the Civil War and Reconstruction . In Semester 2 we offer the second interdisciplinary module on The City, which consolidates and extends the approaches taken on The West module in the first year. Together, these two modules are designed to show how disciplines can be brought together to explore a single theme in American Studies.

Final Year

The Final Year comprises of two options each semester and a long dissertation.

The Final Year options may include: American Foreign Policy; American Literary Adaptations; The American Presidency; Aspects of American Politics; American Autobiography; Containment and Resistance in 1950s and 1960s American Culture; Forms of Modern Poetry; The Making of American Jewry; Mexican-US Border History and Culture; The Puritan Tradition; The USA and Vietnam; Women in American Society; Hollywood and Melodrama.

Students have recently worked on the following dissertation topics: African-American Protest Music; The American Horror Movie; The American Talk Show; The Death Penalty; Female Prostitution in New Orleans; The Great Migration; The Leisure Industry; Paranoia in American Film; The Rise of Gangsterism; The Role of Mexicans in Film; The Southern Plantation Mistress; Women in 1920s America.

BA English and American Studies

This joint degree allows students to study both English and American Studies. As part of the degree, students may apply to study for a year abroad at a partner institution in the USA or Europe. Modules offer a sound education in each subject and complement each other with a stimulating mix of English and American literature and American history and film. The English courses give students a full history of English, from Shakespeare to the 21st century as well as an introduction to a variety of critical approaches. The American courses offer an exciting combination of American literature, film and history.

First Year

Students take half their modules in the English department and half in American Studies. In English, they take modules on The Novel, Shakespeare and Approaches to Literature. In American Studies they take modules on Classic American Texts, Modern American Writing and American History 1861-2001.

Second Year

Students continue to take half their modules in English and half in American Studies. In English, they study Renaissance poetry, Literature 1660-1789 and develop their knowledge of critical theory. In American Studies they look at ethnicity and diversity in American literature and society and at American Film and Visual Culture.

Third Year (or Fourth Year for Year Abroad Students)

Students must do a minimum of 40 credits in each subject. After that, there is a choice of modules, dissertations and special subjects available. Students take modules in Romantic, Victorian, modern and contemporary literature. They also choose from a rich menu of special subjects encompassing a wide range of topics including postcolonial literature, film adaptations, adolescent writing, 1950s and 60s American culture, autobiography and Hollywood directors. Students must do a dissertation in either English or American Studies.

See full details of this joint degree on the English Web Site.

BA History and American Studies

The BA History and American Studies brings together two of the most popular and exciting arts subjects. You have the opportunity to study American history from the eighteenth century to the present as well as studying aspects of British, European and global history. This degree allows you to study American politics and culture in ways that will complement and extend your understanding of both American and world history. As part of the degree, students may apply to study for a year abroad at a partner institution in the USA or Europe.

First Year

Students take six modules in their first year focusing on American and European History as well as modules on US Politics and the American West. The six core modules are American History 1776-1877; American History 1877 to Present; Europe Reshaped 1815-1914; Introduction to US Politics; The American West; and a Peoples and Places Option.

Second Year

In Year 2 students look deeper at the history, politics and social life of the United States by taking three core modules on Ethnicity and Diversity in American Life; Twentieth-Century US Foreign Policy; and The American City. The other three modules in the second year are made up of options on British, European and world history.

Third Year (or Fourth Year for Year Abroad Students)

The final year focuses on a long double module dissertation supervised in either Historical Studies or American Studies. The other four modules in the final year are made up of a wide range of options, which include: The Civil Rights Movement, 1945–1968; The American Presidency; Race and Slavery in the Americas; The US and the Vietnam War; British Society from Churchill to Major; The Nazis and Cinema. Students are also able to opt for year-long Special Subjects, including The Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt; Ideals of Womanhood in America; The Weimar Republic; The Holocaust: Genocide in Europe; The French Revolution; Women’s Suffrage Movement; The Russian Revolution.