Throughout its 50 years, Northwestern University’s American Studies Program has been a lively example of interdisciplinary study, intellectual curiosity, and scholarly camaraderie.
Carl Smith would love to cite some grand, elaborate plan behind the formation of Northwestern University’s American Studies Program in 1974, but he acknowledges such a tale wouldn’t be entirely accurate.
Truth be told, the roots of the American Studies Program, which is celebrating its 50th year in 2024, reside much more in Smith’s admittedly youthful naivete and foolhardiness than any calculated strategy.
Back in 1973, Smith, a non-tenure track assistant professor in the Department of English, boldly poked his head into the office of College of Arts and Sciences Dean Hanna Gray and requested a few minutes to pitch the idea of an American Studies Program.
Ignorant of hierarchies and the realities of starting a curricular program in higher education, Smith spoke of blending different methods of inquiry in the study of the nation’s social, cultural, and political contexts. He championed synergizing resources across departments and creating an interdisciplinary program. He also noted rising enthusiasm among students and faculty alike for addressing intellectual questions in this way.
“It was crazy for someone like me to do this, except for the fact it worked out,” Smith says.
Gray, in fact, was open to the idea and invited further exploration – albeit with appointments, not impromptu visits. After a year of significant behind-the-scenes work, from evaluating American Studies programs at peer institutions to examining curriculum and staffing needs, the College approved the launch of an American Studies Program for the 1974-1975 academic year.
“Securing that approval was pure excitement,” says Smith, who served on the committee charged to design the upstart program.
In the five decades since, the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences-housed American Studies Program has grown into a lively and ever-evolving example of interdisciplinary study, curiosity, and the power of scholarly community.
A distinctive program
Called American Culture for its first two decades, Northwestern’s program focused on American values and behaviors and began in fall 1974 with 16 majors selected for their academic “seriousness.”
“From year one, the program attracted intellectually ambitious students – and it’s those students who have made the program year after year,” Smith says, noting that American Studies majors apply to, rather than declare, the major.
Focused on small group teaching, independent study, and collaboration among faculty and students, the program quickly established its hallmark elements, namely required core seminars and faculty advisers tasked with helping students select related courses from existing departments and guiding students’ senior projects, arguably the program’s most distinctive characteristic. American Studies, in fact, is the only Weinberg College major requiring a capstone project.
The senior project, often but not exclusively an academic paper, is an important endeavor for the students individually as well as collectively. For one year, students have the freedom and flexibility to tackle a challenging topic of their choosing. Students meet together throughout the academic year in a senior project seminar to discuss and strengthen their work. This collaboration deepens camaraderie and improves results.
“It’s empowering for the students because they’re not just reading scholarship, but actually formulating the topic and doing the deep research themselves,” says Smith, the Franklyn Bliss Snyder Professor of American Studies and English and Professor of History, Emeritus, at Weinberg College.
Projects have covered everything from religion in America to the place of the military, from urban ethnicity to rural agriculture, from Chicago blues to contemporary dance. Some senior projects have earned publication; others have spurred doctoral dissertations.
In the early 2000s, then-program director Jay Grossman added another signature component when he introduced a senior project symposium at the close of the academic year. The symposium provided students a forum to publicly share their work with fellow students, professors, family, and friends after months of devoting themselves to research.
Propelling student success
Historically, American Studies as a field centered around U.S. history and literature. While surely embracing those core disciplines in its program, American Studies at Northwestern has pushed far beyond that limited scope to examine components of U.S. culture and the diverse experiences of Americans.
The program has incorporated distinct fields – communications, ethnic studies, and political science among them – and varied approaches from anthropology, sociology, and journalism to name a few. At the same time, the program has also become increasingly transnational, incorporating the Americas more broadly as well as exploring how Americans affect others locally, nationally, and globally.
Along the way, the program has also moved beyond curriculum and created unique experiences for its students. The program organized conferences on politics, human rights, and other topics and has also embraced an enhanced emphasis on experiential learning. Students, for instance, have attended President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration, taken in Black and Latino queer performances in New York City, and visited the Whitney and Laura plantations in New Orleans.
The wide-ranging fields and approaches have launched American Studies’ students into a variety of professional adventures. The program’s alumni network includes graduates in law, entertainment, government, activism, journalism, politics, business, and medicine. Smith also says the program has produced a disproportionate number of students who went on to earn PhDs, a number of whom then embarked upon careers in academia at top colleges and universities.
“Even though our program is a humanities and social sciences-based honors major, our graduates do all sorts of things and our alumni network is exceptionally accomplished,” says current American Studies program director and professor of history Geraldo Cadava.
Building on a foundation
Reaching 50 years is no small feat for the American Studies program, especially at a time in which the humanities are being undervalued, if not threatened, across higher education.
“It’s extraordinary, really, and the most meaningful thing in my academic career has been to have played a role in building something like this and participating in it all these years,” says Smith, who served three different stints as the program’s director before his 2014 retirement.
The American Studies Program has already marked the anniversary in various ways, including hosting virtual panels with alumni from particular decades as well as inviting alumni to the annual senior project symposium last May. The 50-year celebration will conclude on October 4-5 with a series of on-campus events, including a panel discussion featuring 1990s-era alumni and a dinner celebration in the Guild Lounge highlighted by a keynote talk by Kathleen Belew, an associate professor in the Department of History.
While the 50-year mark has invited reflection on the program’s rich past, it has also sparked a look ahead.
The American Studies program consistently hovers at about two dozen majors – “A small honors major by design,” Cadava calls it. The tight numbers ensure a close-knit intellectual community where students form bonds from the three-course sequence in their first year in the major to the senior project seminar in their final year.
As it has throughout its 50-year history, the program continues attracting students with eclectic interests who appreciate the program’s license to explore ambitious questions.
“Our students are excited by the idea that no single discipline can answer the questions they have about a topic,” Cadava says.
While honoring the program’s history and core features, Cadava also touts its continued evolution. Long focused exclusively on undergraduate students, he sees opportunity to engage graduate students and a broader range of faculty across campus. He also looks to build stronger, more robust relationships with other interdisciplinary humanities programs as well.
“We can all learn from one another, even more than we do now,” Cadava says. “Learning and conversation across disciplines has always been at the center of the American Studies program and that will continue.”