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

Greyser recipient of Graduate College Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award

Friday, April 15, 2022

Broadly defined, a mentor is someone who takes a special interest in helping another person develop professionally. An effective mentoring relationship is characterized by mutual respect, trust, understanding, and empathy.

Vázquez presents to the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council

Wednesday, April 6, 2022

Eric Vázquez, assistant professor of American Studies and Latino Studies, presented "The Innovator's Dilemma - Bitcoin in El Salvador" to the Iowa Foreign Relations Council on April 5, 2022.
This talk examines bitcoin enthusiasts' arguments about the viability of bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador. It raises specific concerns about bitcoin adoption in a context of growing authoritarianism, a history of unstable monetary policy, and limited technology.

Sport studies major on the legacy of Christine Grant

Monday, April 4, 2022

Sport studies major and Daily Iowa Assistant Sports Editor Chloe Peterson examines the impact of former athletic director Christine Grant.

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