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

Steve Warren wins the Distinguished Achievement in Publicly Engaged Research Award

Friday, April 5, 2024

Stephen Warren, professor of history and American Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS), received the Distinguished Achievement in Publicly Engaged Research Award. The award recognizes an individual faculty member who has put addressing public needs and direct engagement with the public, in the service of improving quality of life through research, at the forefront of his or her academic activities.

American Studies Graduate Student, Dominic Dongilli, discusses Easter Monday with NPR

Monday, April 1, 2024

Dominic Dongilli, graduate student in American Studies, discusses the history of Easter Monday at the Smithsonian National Zoo and how it became a tradition for Black families in Washington, D.C.

Naomi Greyser awarded with UI’s highest teaching honor

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Naomi Greyser, faculty member in American Studies, is one of four University of Iowa faculty members are recipients of the 2024 President and Provost Award for Teaching Excellence, recognizing their exceptional and ongoing contributions to student learning and success. Established in 2004 by the UI Council on Teaching, the President and Provost Award for Teaching Excellence is the university’s highest honor for teaching. Each year, the council selects three clinical-track or tenure-track faculty members and one instructional-track or adjunct faculty member to receive the award.

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

American Studies and Sport Studies

American Studies

Sport Studies

Native and Indigenous Studies

News and Announcements