A student enrolled in a PhD program in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard may achieve formal recognition for completing a secondary field in American Studies.

The interdisciplinary breadth of American Studies and its wide-ranging subject matter make it an attractive secondary field for students from many departments, including anthropology, architecture/landscape architecture/urban planning, education, English, film and visual studies, history, history of art and architecture, history of science, music, religion, and sociology.

The American Studies program spans all aspects of American culture, often with a comparative focus. It includes a wide range of sources, methods, and theories. Over the last ten years, PhD students from other disciplines have enrolled in the American Studies Colloquium and/or the Warren Center seminar, and they have incorporated sources and approaches from American Studies into their dissertations.

Requirements:

–Completion of a minimum of 16 credits (four courses). All must be taken with a member of the Committee on Higher Degrees in American Studies, graduate-level, and taken outside the student’s home department.

–One course must be American Studies 200 or 201.

–One course must be a seminar requiring a major research paper.

–All courses must be letter graded.

–Meet with the Director of Graduate Studies for program approval.

–Submit the Secondary Field Application to the Department Administrator.

Please contact the Department for more information at americanstudies@fas.harvard.edu.