American Studies

Professor Kim Marra leading a lecture course.

Cultural Experience

Helping students acquire a broad familiarity with the dynamics of cultural experience and explore aspects of life in the United States, such as sport, popular and fine arts, institutions, values, gender and ethnic relations, artifacts, and the everyday life of a diverse citizenry.

Students participating in a group exercise during a lecture by Professor Naomi Greyser.

American Studies is committed to the study of American culture. In our scholarship and teaching, we model interdisciplinary inquiry and stress the central role of power and struggle. We prepare students for a wide range of careers in the arts, education, and public service.

American Studies

Professional athlete kneeling during the national anthem.

Sport Studies

Course work provides students with the critical skills necessary to understand the cultural significance of sport as it relates to the media, the economy, the political system, and the educational system. A focus on the race, class, and gender differences in the sport experience is central to the major.

Sport Studies

Native and Indigenous Studies

Students examine the diversity within indigenous literatures, material culture, belief systems, languages, political and social organization, and economies. Students critically examine popular stereotypes of Native peoples, and develop a clearer understanding of the complex connections between past and present that shape the achievements, needs, and resources of Native American communities.

Native and Indigenous Studies

News and Announcements

Department of Anthropology Native American and Indigenous Studies Prize

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

This scholarship will be awarded to students demonstrating a commitment to partnering with and supporting Native American and Indigenous communities. This award is open to undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Iowa. This scholarship awards $500-1000, and up to two scholarships are awarded each academic year.

Recognition for Marra's The Pull of Horses project

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Dr. Kim Marra's The Pull of Horses receives Honorable Mention for the 2021 ATHE-ASTR (Association for Theatre in Higher Education – American Society for Theatre Research) Award for Excellence in Digital Theatre and Performance Scholarship, awarded each year to an individual or team that demonstrates innovation and rigor in the use of electronic/digital media for the purpose of producing or disseminating knowledge about theatre and performance.

Sport studies students participate in Town Hall with Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren

Monday, November 1, 2021

Sport Studies students Carson Beck, Austin Hanson, and Chloe Peterson, along with faculty member Travis Vogan, participated in a Town Hall with Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren on November 1 to discuss some of the crucial issues the conference is facing. They were part of a select group of student chosen from the Big Ten schools to talk with Warren.

The Department of American Studies acknowledges the university’s origins in land grants from the Ioway, Sioux and Pottowottami, Ho-Chunk, Meskwaki and Sauk peoples; we acknowledge that, like almost all property in the United States, university land has been obtained or extracted from indigenous people. While recognizing that these origins cannot change the past, the Department works to create a future where the past is thoroughly understood in support of human flourishing, democratic values, ethical action and social justice.

The University of Iowa Acknowledgement of Land and Sovereignty represents an official and public recognition that the institutions where we work and learn today are built on Native lands.

Cultural Experience