Debate on use of the term American[edit]
Until the mid-2000s, the use of American for this multidisciplinary field was widely defended. In 1998, Janice Radway argued, "Does the perpetuation of the particular name, American, in the title of the field ... support the notion that such a whole exists even in the face of powerful work that tends to question its presumed coherence? Does the field need to be reconfigured conceptually?" She concluded, "the name American studies will have to be retained."[8] In 2001, Wai Chee Dimmock argued that the field "is largely founded on this fateful adjective. [American] governs the domain of inquiry we construct, the range of questions we entertain, the kind of evidence we take as significant. The very professionalism of the field rests on the integrity and the legitimacy of this founding concept."[9] In 2002, Heinz Ickstadt argued that American studies "should accept its name as its limitation and its boundary."[10] In 2006, Dimmock affirmed that the field "does stand to be classified apart, as a nameable and adducible unit."[11]
More recently, scholars have questioned American as a categorizing term. "In consideration of the limitations of conventional terms," Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera argued in 2018, instead of American, terms like "spaces claimed by the political body" and "residents of spaces claimed by the political body" would offer a "more sensitive and attuned description ... of the regions, critical artifacts, communities, and individuals in question, one that is less charged with the ambiguities and colonial ties that weigh down the traditional disciplinary nomenclatures."[12] In "the interests of justice and along the lines most suitable to our emergent age," argued Markha Valenta in 2017, scholars should consider "abandoning America as the field identifier."[13]
Outside the United States[edit]
European centers for American studies include the British Association for American Studies, the Center for American Studies in Brussels, Belgium, and most notably the John F. Kennedy-Institute for North American Studies in Berlin, Germany. Other centers for American studies in Germany include the Bavarian America-Academy, the University of Munich, the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) and the Center for North American Studies (Zentrum für Nordamerikaforschung or ZENAF) at Goethe University Frankfurt. Graduate studies in the field of North American studies can also be undertaken at the University of Cologne, which works together in joint partnership with the North American studies program at the University of Bonn.[17] American Studies Leipzig at the University of Leipzig is a center for American studies on the territory of former East Germany. Founded in 1992, the Center for American Studies at the University of Southern Denmark now offers a graduate program in American studies. In the Netherlands the University of Groningen and the Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen offer a complete undergraduate and graduate program in American studies. The University of Amsterdam, the University of Leiden and the University of Utrecht only offer a graduate program in American studies. Both the University of Sussex and the University of Nottingham in England offer both a number of postgraduate and undergraduate programs. In Sweden, the Swedish Institute for North American Studies at Uppsala University offers a minor in American studies.[18] In Slovakia, the University of Presov and Pavol Jozef Safarik University offer a complete undergraduate and graduate program in American studies combined with British studies. The Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library also offers a range of events and fellowships, as well as promoting the American collections held at the British Library.[19]
Russia's main center for American studies is the Institute for US and Canadian Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
In the Middle East, the oldest American Studies program is the American Studies Center[20] at the University of Bahrain in Sakhir which was founded in 1998.[21] An American studies program is offered at the University of Tehran within the Faculty of World Studies.[22]
In Oceania, the University of Canterbury in Christchurch New Zealand operated a full undergraduate and graduate American studies[23] program until 2012, and in Australia, a postgraduate program in US Studies is run by the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.
In Canada, the University of Alberta has the Alberta Institute for American Studies.[24] The University of Western Ontario has a Centre for American Studies[25] that has both an undergraduate and master's program in American studies, with specializations at the graduate level in American Cultural Studies, and Canadian-American Relations.[26] York University offers an undergraduate program in United States Studies.[27]
American studies centers in China include the American Studies Center[28] (Beijing Foreign Studies University) in 1979, the Institute of American Studies[29] (Chinese Academy of Social Science) in 1981, Center for American Studies[30] (Fudan University) in 1985, American Studies Center[31] (Peking University) in 1980, Center for American Studies[32] (Tongji University), American Studies Center[33] (Sichuan University) in 1985, Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in 1986, American Social and Cultural Studies Center (China Foreign Affairs University) and Center for American Studies[34] (East China Normal University) in 2004. These centers do not have undergraduate programs. Based on the requirement of the curriculum setup of the China Department of Education, these centers only have graduate programs. In addition, there are also scholarly journals, such as American Studies Quarterly[35] and Fudan American Review.[36]
In the Republic of Korea, Sogang University[37] (Seoul, Korea) is the sole institution that offers regular degree program both in bachelor (BA) and master (MA) degree in American studies, named American culture. The American culture division is run by the Department of English along with English literature and linguistics. Keimyung University (Daegu, Korea), Hansung University (Seoul, Korea), Pyeongtaek University (Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi-do, Korea), Kyunghee University (Yongin, Gyonggi-do, Korea) also provide a major in American studies. Seoul National University (Seoul, Korea) and Yonsei University (Seoul, Korea) offers undergraduate interdisciplinary courses in American studies. The American Studies Association of Korea (ASAK) is one of the country's foremost research associations devoted to the interdisciplinary study of American culture and society within the Korean context.[38]
International American Studies Association[edit]
Founded at Bellagio, Italy, in 2000, the International American Studies Association[39] has held World Congresses at Leyden (2003), Ottawa (2005), Lisbon (2007), Beijing (2009), Rio de Janeiro (2011), The Sixth World Congress of IASA[40] at Szczecin, Poland, August 3–6, 2013, and Alcalá de Henares, Madrid (2019).[41] The IASA is the only worldwide, independent, non-governmental association for Americanists. Furthering the international exchange of ideas and information among scholars from all nations and various disciplines who study and teach America regionally, hemispherically, nationally, and transnationally, IASA is registered in the Netherlands as a non-profit, international, educational organization with members in more than forty countries around the world.