Our degrees provide you with an exciting and extensive approach to the United States within a friendly and supportive atmosphere.

Full entry requirements

American Studies at Leicester

American Studies at Leicester has a strong reputation for the quality of our teaching, as shown by our achievement of 23 points out of a maximum of 24 for teaching quality in the latest Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) subject review and our strong position in league tables.

Our degrees offer an exciting multidisciplinary approach to the United States. The early part of your degree will introduce you to the history, literature, visual culture and politics of America. Later on you will be able to specialise in the areas you find most rewarding. You can study one of four undergraduate degrees:

• BA American Studies
• BA American Studies with a Year Abroad
• BA English and American Studies
• or BA History and American Studies.

If you decide to take one of our four-year courses you will spend your third year living and studying at one of our 27 partner universities in the United States.

Subject to availability of places in these universities and to academic achievement in year one, it is normally possible to transfer onto the four-year from the three-year American Studies degree.

During the first two years of the course it is also possible to transfer from the four-year onto the three-year degree.

Our friendly and approachable staff will be there to offer guidance and support in every stage of your degree, and have recently won University Teaching Fellowships in recognition of their excellent teaching standards.

Why Choose American Studies at Leicester?

National Student Survey Ranking: 1st out of 11 with 96% of students satisfied with their course.
Position in 2012 Subject League Tables: Independent 2nd, Guardian 2nd, Times 2nd.
Places: 30
Applications: 234

Staff expertise is extensive but especially strong in the modern and contemporary periods where current research interests include:

• the Civil Rights Movement
• American Culture of the 1950s
• Foreign Policy After the Cold War
• Hollywood Melodrama
• American Culture Since 9/11.

While historic and traditional America features strongly on our degrees, the contemporary moment is a particular focus, whether in fiction, politics or cinema, making our programmes especially lively and relevant.

In recent years we have been ranked consistently among the best American Studies programmes in the UK. In 2008 we were ranked in the top two by the Guardian, The Times and the Independent.

American Studies provides you with a great breadth of knowledge across the subject as well as enabling you to specialise in your own areas of interest.

Here at the University of Leicester we pride ourselves on our attitude towards student satisfaction, something that is reflected in our consistently high rankings in the National Student Survey – coming in first in 2005, 2006 and 2007. In 2008 we came second only to Cambridge and were the number 1 ranked American Studies Centre in the 2010 National Student Survey.

Our formal links with 27 universities in the United States mean, if you choose to take a four year degree, you will spend a year at one of these institutions – enabling you to acquire direct experience of America.

In recent years the Centre for American Studies, and the University of Leicester as a whole, has increased its interest in, and commitment to, the study of film; and our facilities have improved accordingly. We now have several lecture theatres fully equipped for film screenings from DVD, video and 35mm as well as a fully operational multi-media lab in which students and staff can study film and manipulate images at their leisure.

The Centre for American Studies was rated ‘Excellent’ in the most recent Teaching Quality Assessment so you will be learning from the very best scholars on the subject.

Teaching, Learning and Assessment

Our degrees are carefully structured to proceed from the introductory to the advanced, in terms of both course content and study skills. The degree culminates in a dissertation conceived, researched and written independently by students, under the one-to-one supervision of an expert in American Studies. We believe it is important for you to have personal support from tutors through this system.

Our core modules are taught mainly in traditional lectures and small group seminars.

Our major forms of assessment are submitted essays and written examinations. A number of modules, however, are now assessed additionally on oral presentations and group work projects, with some final year options assessed mainly by essays.

Course Opportunities

Four-year students will also have the opportunity to experience contemporary America firsthand at one of our 27 partner universities across the United States. In your year in the US, the third of the degree, you choose eight modules, exploring your academic enthusiasms further, as well as developing greater independence and experiencing learning and teaching as they are practised in a very different educational system.

Skills Gained

All our degrees foster a wide range of useful skills. The multidisciplinary nature of the degrees promotes flexibility of thought, initiative and the capacity to communicate persuasively both in writing and speech. Our graduates have a thorough knowledge of a different, complex and, on the world stage, very important culture from both domestic and international perspectives. In addition you will develop analytic, organisational and team-working skills that will prove advantageous in your life and career beyond university.

Graduate Opportunities

The American Studies BAs at Leicester are well-established and well-respected by employers. Our graduates have gone into a variety of careers, often with an international focus. These have included careers in public sector and private sector management, teaching, publishing, the media, television research, librarianship and information technology, as well as postgraduate study and professional training.

Full entry requirements

Opportunities to Visit and Further Information

Choosing where and what to study at university is an important decision for you. We believe it is important to give you the opportunity to visit and speak with one of our admissions team so you can find out whether our programme is the right choice for you.

For details of open days or for more information please contact:

For American Studies:
Admissions Secretary
Centre for American Studies
0116 252 2678 or 0116 252 5009
Fax: 0116 252 5213
amstudies@le.ac.uk
www.le.ac.uk/americanstudies/

For English and American Studies:
Admissions Secretary
School of English
0116 252 2624
english@le.ac.uk
www.le.ac.uk/english

For History and American Studies:
Admissions Secretary
School of Historical Studies
0116 252 2802
history.admissions@le.ac.uk
www.le.ac.uk/history

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