2024 - 2025 Graduate Catalog
American Studies Program
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Faculty
View the American Studies Faculty .
The American Studies Program
William & Mary’s Graduate Program in American Studies provides a flexible plan for interdisciplinary study of the United States and the Americas. The Program offers three degree tracks: the Ph.D., the M.A./Ph.D., and the M.A.. The Program also offers a combination track with the School of Law that leads to an M.A./J.D.. Please see the Law Juris Doctor Combination degrees page .
Full-time M.A./Ph.D. and Ph.D. students admitted into the Program receive funding packages that include tuition and a stipend for five years. Funded graduate students fulfill assistantships that provide practical experiences in American Studies-related fields such as archive and manuscript collections, editing, museum work and college-level teacher training. Ph.D. students can also apply to teach a course of their own design after serving as a teaching assistant and passing their Ph.D. qualifying exams.
Opportunities to earn small stipends are often available to full-time M.A. students.
Program Description
Our M.A. and Ph.D. programs consist of coursework and independent research. Together with an advisor, graduate students choose a program of study appropriate to their interests. Our areas of strength include: Africana Studies, Art and Visual Culture, Critical Race Studies, Cultural Studies, Environmental Studies, Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, Literary Studies, Material Culture, Native/Indigenous Studies, Popular Culture, Religious Studies, and Technology and Media Studies. We emphasize both past and present time.
Our faculty hold joint appointments in Anthropology, Art and Art History, Education, English, Government, and History. They have expertise in interdisciplinary research methods, including literary analysis, visual cultural analysis, oral and archival history, community collaboration, digital humanities techniques, ethnography, archaeology, and other qualitative and quantitative research methods. Many of our faculty members are committed to research projects that engage local communities.
Admission Requirements
William & Mary uses an online application system. Applicants submit official transcripts, three letters of recommendation, a writing sample of approximately 20 pages in length, and two short essays detailing intellectual interests and motives for pursuing a graduate degree in American Studies. GRE scores are not required nor will they be accepted as part of applications for admission. If English is not your first language, your Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or International English Language Testing System (IELTS) scores are required and must be sent directly to William & Mary by the Educational Testing Service or IELTS. The TOEFL/IELTS requirement can be waived for applicants who will have received a degree from a college or university in which English is the primary language of instruction.
To ensure full consideration for admission and financial assistance, applications, including all supporting materials and test scores, should be completed by December 15. Applications received after December 15 will be reviewed on the basis of available space. There are no spring admissions. Only applicants intending to enter as full-time M.A./Ph.D. or Ph.D. students are considered for financial support.
Programs and Course Descriptions
ProgramsCoursesAmerican Studies
Description of Courses
Unless otherwise noted, all courses are graded using standard grading [A, B, C, D, F] scheme (See Grading and Academic Progress in the section entitled Graduate Regulations) and may not be repeated for credit (See Repeated Courses requirements in the section entitled Graduate Regulations).
American Studies GRAD
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