American StudiesCreate your own major. Pursue your own interests. Carve your own path.
What can I do with an American Studies major?
We get this question all the time. The answer is: almost anything.
Because of the interdisciplinarity of American Studies, our students can construct a major that reflects their interests, such as cultural history or popular culture, but they acquire shared skills in critical thinking, historical analysis, cultural understanding, community-building, independent research and creative work, and clear communication in writing and speaking. The flexibility of American Studies also makes it easy to double major or minor in other fields, such as History, Politics, Philosophy, and Women’s and Gender Studies.
Our students are successful in many different professions because of these skills, and the complex worldview that interdisciplinary study enables, which makes them naturally able to engage in informed discussion with anyone . They are lifelong learners. Most of our students attain advanced degrees, most commonly in law, education (K-12 and higher education), library and information sciences, social work, business, and museum work (public history). Our graduates also engage in non-profit management and public service work, such as AmeriCorps.
But don’t take our word for it! Here are testimonies from our recent graduates and more seasoned alumni about what they value about their time in American Studies and how it has informed their career paths.
“I think the skills and the experience that you get are so much wider than any other major, honestly. Employers want well-rounded people. The breadth of tools that you get through AMS–the ability to think past what you see, historical knowledge, historical context, your ability to research–are marketable in so many different fields. And with AMS, you recognize that things are happening on a broader scale, but you’re kind of seeing what to do with it.”
“I could take the classes I was interested in and not be boxed in to one specific track. There were so many classes I wanted to take. I wish I could take them all.”
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do, I knew I wanted to do something in the liberal arts and I knew I wanted to be history oriented. But I also wanted to do classes in philosophy and sociology and history and all these different fields. When I found out American Studies was meant for that and doing all those different things in a historical context it was perfect!”
“American Studies taught me to constantly ask questions about things. Pursuing an American Studies degree means that you get to explore the topics you’re really interested in, and this learning environment matched my wide range of academic interests and encouraged me to ask questions of them, whether it was about education, mental health, disability studies, physical and virtual spaces, or a combination of them. I loved how I was really able to chart my own path.”
"I tend to describe American Studies as interdisciplinary and a choose-your-own adventure degree. The adventure I chose was sex education. In my job interview for my current role I explained this background and I fully believe that is why I got the job. Our executive director at the time was impressed with the interdisciplinary nature of the degree saying that it sounded “fancy and fun”. Because I work in a poverty-fighting network, our mission is to serve an entire person, and they really responded well to the idea that I had studied across multiple different disciplines. Even though my current job is not in sex education, the large variety of classes I was able to take as an American Studies major really served me well as a professional in the work I currently do."
"I think the best thing that American Studies gives you is not just the ability to critique what’s going on around you, but the need to critique everything that is around you. Especially since it’s American culture that we’re studying, it’s all relevant; it’s your daily life and how you deal with people, the ads you see, the packaging on coffee cups, everything. It makes you much more aware of everything and much more accountable for what you say and what you do. It’s really important to critique your own thinking; the way you think of yourself and the world, especially the way you think about other people."
How can American Studies inform a law degree?
"American Studies definitely helped with law school. I had a major leg-up in my writing abilities just given all the writing I had to do on various topics throughout my whole program at DePaul. But one of the actual ways you wouldn’t immediately think of is during prosecution. I have to hear the defendant’s side of the story, the police, the witnesses, and of course everyone has different renditions of the event. AMS helped me with the ability of seeing things from different people’s perspectives and understand the totality of the situation. AMS is also one of the most diverse majors you can choose at DePaul. It provides an opportunity to double major; the integration of another fields of study into AMS definitely makes it an even more robust option for a major. I’ve had some of the greatest discussions with some of the best professors I’ve ever encountered during my time in the AMS program."
"My AMS classes at DePaul were so excellent in training us to identify nuance and complexities in analysis and I am so grateful for that preparation. So much of the law is presented as black and white, but a nuanced viewpoint is so much more useful in approaching cases. It allows me to give good legal advice to my client and work as a team with opposing counsel and other stakeholders to come to agreements to help move cases forward. Going from a progressive institution in Chicago to working in a rural and conservative county in Indiana that struggles significantly with poverty and generational abuse was a culture shock and I think my AMS studies prepared me to grapple with such an intense cultural difference and find where I can fit in and make a positive influence. Child welfare is a complicated field that has historically often done more harm than good. Using my AMS background to identify those complexities and figure out how to advocate to improve the system has been valuable."
How can American Studies inform social service work?
"American Studies ultimately became the soil from which I grew a deeply fulfilling career as an AmeriCorps member, Peace Corps volunteer, and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. As an AmeriCorps and Peace Corps volunteer, I felt I was living the history I had studied. I used the same methodologies from American Studies and applied them to my work. In the classroom, we might conduct oral interviews, read historical texts, dissect pop-culture media, and then analyze the narratives within a broader social-historical-cultural context. In AmeriCorps, I listened and connected client stories to the history of the community. In the Peace Corps, I used similar methodologies to understand Dominican history and culture. As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, I am confronted daily with the reality that mental health is deeply influenced by culture, history, media, politics, etc. A lot of my career has been related to race, gender, class, and immigration – all of which are explored through American Studies. American Studies will forever have a place in my heart for shaping my worldview and leading me toward the mission of ongoing social justice in the United States. "