American Studies Graduate Program

 Trinity College

About the Program

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.

The American Studies Program of Trinity College has also begun a widely popular concentration in Museums and Communities within the course of study leading to the Master of Arts degree.

First and foremost, the American Studies 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:

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

For more information about the resources available to students please visit our Related Links.

  Program Requirements

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.

Museum and Archive Studies

Museums, archives, and the communities they serve have emerged as a major area of interest in the field of American Studies but, more importantly, in the public culture of the United States.  A striking example is provided by the huge success of the Getty Center, which opened in Los Angeles on December 16, 1997.  In the first three months, the center, and particularly its museum facility, attracted more than 500,000 visitors; by May, the number of visitors had passed one million, almost double the initial estimates.  Similar statistics could be cited not only for "blockbuster" fine art shows, like those of Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso, but for exhibitions like those on diamonds and on voodoo at the American Museum of Natural History.

These details suggest at least two things:  first, Americans and visitors to this country have come to see museums not as places for a small cultural elite but as venues of mass entertainment and education.  And second, museums need both larger staffs and volunteer corps and a broader understanding of their new roles in a changing cultural environment.  The concentration in Museums and Communities within the American Studies Master's program at Trinity is designed to respond to those changing needs.  It offers students a regular fall course called "Museums in American Culture," as well as a changing set of courses directly related to the exhibitions that are part of the rich resources of the greater Hartford area.

Master's degree students will continue to take an introductory course titled "Approaches to American Studies" and a research methods course.  In addition to the courses directly related to museums and archives, students will be able to focus a thesis or an independent term project on research or other forms of work related to the concentration.  They will also be able to undertake internships at museums and archives in the region.

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

Students concentrating in Museums and Communities, as well as other American Studies students, may also wish to enroll in:

All candidates must complete a total of 10 courses.

Required courses for American Studies:

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 American Studies:

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,  for a total of 6 course credits.

For students choosing to do an independent research project:

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

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 by other graduate programs at Trinity, or by the Hartford Consortium institutions (Hartford Seminary, Rensselaer of 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.

Students are also encouraged to enroll in an Internship at an archive, historical society, or area museum for 1 Trinity credit.

When students have completed both American Studies seminars and all electives, they are expected to design and complete 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).

  More Information:

The American Studies Graduate Advisor is Prof. Paul Lauter; contact him for further information by e-mail, by telephone at 860-297-2303, or by writing to him at the American Studies Department, Trinity College, Hartford CT 06016.

The above information is reprinted, with slight modifications, from the 2001-2003 edition of the Graduate Studies Catalogue. You are advised to contact  Prof. Paul Lauter for the latest information on departmental requirements and programs, and Prof. Nancy Wagner, Director of Graduate Studies, for information about the Graduate Program generally.

For additional information on the History Graduate Program, please check the following documents:

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