Program Director: PROFESSOR CHERYL GREENBERG
Graduate Adviser: PROFESSOR PAUL LAUTER

The Master's program in American Studies offers students the opportunity to study many aspects of the culture of the United States, including its history, literature, and arts. The program draws upon the methods and insights of several disciplines, as well as those distinctive to American Studies, and emphasizes the history and culture of Hartford and of the Connecticut Valley. It is intended to serve people interested in culture and history, teachers, curators of local collections, and others who desire an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the United States at the graduate level. The program has several features that distinguish it from other graduate programs in the humanities and the social sciences.

First and foremost the program is interdisciplinary. A fundamental aim is to enable students to integrate the knowledge of historians, scholars of American literature and culture, art historians, and other specialists, to achieve an understanding of American life and letters that no single discipline can provide. The program is meant to be both flexible--it allows students wide choice among electives in many fields; and focused--it directs interdisciplinary learning to the goal of illuminating the American experience.

In addition to these features, the program also takes advantage of the rich resources for American Studies located in Greater Hartford. Students are encouraged to combine classroom learning with research and internships in the excellent libraries, museums, archives and other institutions in the Hartford region. The following are among the resources available to students in the program:

Antiquarian and Landmarks Society of Connecticut
Connecticut Historical Society
Connecticut State Library
Hartford Public Library
Hill-Stead Museum
Mark Twain Memorial Munson Institute of American Maritime Studies (Mystic Seaport)
New Britain Museum of American Art
Old State House
Harriet Beecher Stowe Center
Wadsworth Atheneum
Watkinson Library
Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum (Wethersfield)
West Hartford Historical Society

Whenever possible, courses in the program draw upon the collections of these institutions. The program gives special attention to artists and intellectuals who made their homes in Hartford; to the ethnic communities of this region; to the experience of women; and to the topics that can be explored in depth by the use of research collections in or near the city.

All candidates must complete a total of ten courses, some required and others elective:

Required Courses:

American Studies 801 Approaches to American Studies,1 course credit
American Studies 802 Research Methods in American Studies,1 course credit
Either a Thesis (American Studies 954-955), 2 course credits
or an Independent Research Project (American Studies 953), 1 course credit

Total, 3 or 4 course credits

Elective Courses:

For students choosing to write a Thesis:

6 courses, with at least 1 emphasizing historical approaches, 1 emphasizing literary or cultural approaches, and 1 focusing on art or architectural history , 6 course credits

For students choosing to do an Independent Project:

7 courses, with at least 1 emphasizing historical approaches, 1 emphasizing literary or cultural approaches, and 1 focusing on art or architectural history, 7 course credits

Students wishing to specialize in Museum and Archive Studies will be expected to take the following courses, in addition to the regular American Studies requirements:

American Studies 825 Museums in American Culture, 1 course credit
American Studies 8?? Varieties of Museum and Archive Practice, 1 course credit
One or more of the courses focused on current exhibitions at Hartford area institutions

Students concentrating in Museum and Archive studies, and other American Studies students, may also wish to enroll in:

American Studies 8?? Minorities and Museums, 1 course credit
American Studies 811 Hartford Architecture 1790-1960, 1 course credit
American Studies 819 Games People Play: Sports in American Literature and Culture, 1 course credit

The degree requirements are fulfilled in three phases:

The sequential American Studies seminars, American Studies 801 and 802, serve to introduce the American Studies field by applying some of its leading methods and concepts to selected problems. American Studies 801 is the "entry" course; students must successfully complete it in order to become degree candidates. Ordinarily, American Studies 802 will be taken in the semester immediately following completion of American Studies 801.

After these two American Studies seminars, students may choose electives that examine the American experience from among the graduate courses offered in American Studies in other graduate programs at Trinity, or by the Hartford Consortium school (Hartford Seminary, Rensselaer Hartford, St Joseph College, and the University of Hartford). Students may, with the approval of the Graduate Adviser, count up to two graduate courses (2 course credits) taught at other institutions in the region.

When students have completed both American Studies seminars and all electives, they design and carry out their own interdisciplinary research projects, in the form of either a Master's thesis, American Studies 954-955 (2 course credits) or a shorter independent project, American Studies 953 (1 course credit).