Rush hour in Grand Central Station in New York City.
Photo by Nicolai Berntsen on Unsplash
American Cultural Studies at Western
American Cultural Studies is an interdisciplinary field of critical inquiry that investigates power dynamics, inequality, and agency, at the intersection of race, gender, status, religion, class, and ability.
Our courses place particular emphasis on minoritizing and other exclusionary practices shaping limits to national belonging, and how those experiences are lived. We pay attention to the roles of institutions, policies, discourse, and other socio-cultural processes. We educate students in historical and social inquiry, textual analysis and interpretation, and critical theory and practice. We expose students to theoretical foundations in Settler Colonialism, Queer and other Feminisms, Critical Race Theory, Borders, and Transnationalism.
American Cultural Studies Degree(s)
American Cultural Studies, BA
The ACS major combines the social sciences with humanities to prepare students with a rich undergraduate background for advanced study in law, domestic social services, public service, government service, education, and graduate work in American studies, ethnic studies and the social sciences.
Contact
Dr. Midori Takagi,
mtakagi@wwu.edu | (360) 650-7381
View in Catalog
American Cultural Studies, BAAmerican Cultural Studies at Western
Explore Courses
AMST 206 - The Jewish-American Experience
AMST 314 - Contemporary Latino/a Issues
AMST 362 - Asian-American History
PLSC 321 - Queer and Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Politics
ENG 235 - Native and Indigenous Literatures of North America
FAIR 374B - The Cultural Creation of Identity
Related Minors
“American Cultural Studies prepares students to function and to be successful in an ever increasingly diverse and multicultural society. In line with shifting demographics, the understanding of different cultures and population groups will be essential within the twenty first century in virtually any field of endeavor.”
Larry Estrada
Faculty
What can you do with American Cultural Studies?
The American Cultural Studies (ACS) major combines the social sciences with humanities to provide students with a rich undergraduate background that is the foundation for careers and advanced study in law, domestic social services, public service, government service, education, and graduate work in American studies, ethnic studies, and the social sciences.
Graduates of the program are especially prepared to go on for further study. Over half of all ACS graduates go on to professional and graduate schools upon the culmination of their undergraduate degree.
American Cultural Studies careers
- Attorney
- Public Administration Higher Education
- Social Work
- Marketing
- Journalism
- Teaching
- Community Organizing
- Urban Planning
- Human Resource Management
- Public Servant
- Non-Profit Agency Administration