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

The Centre for American Studies at the University of Leicester is firmly established as one of the UK’s leading providers of American Studies degrees.
Our degrees offer an exciting multidisciplinary approach to the United States.

Our motto, ‘Declare Your Independence’, is appropriate for two reasons. The gaining and exercise of independence is a major theme in the American history, literature, politics and visual culture studied at Leicester. In addition, we want to help you discover and explore the independent interests, as well as develop the skills, that will enable you to achieve fulfilment in your life and career.

We offer both three-year and four-year degrees in American Studies, as well as joint degrees in English and American Studies and in History and American Studies, allowing you to complete your full degree here or spend your third year abroad at one of our 31 partner universities in North America, returning to Leicester for your final year.

Our teaching programme is carefully designed to give you the fullest possible foundation in your first two years in each of the constituent disciplines of American Studies (History, Literature, Politics and Visual Culture). We then encourage you to follow your own personal interests and enthusiasms in your final year (or, if you are spending a year abroad, your final two years) by selecting from a range of options and by researching and writing a long dissertation on the subject of your choice.

The Centre is run by ten core members of academic staff and two administrative staff, and serviced by a range of lecturers, drawing from the disciplines of History, English Literature, Film Studies, Politics, History of Art and Modern Languages.

All members of academic staff in the Centre are active researchers and publishers, and are internationally recognised in their fields of expertise. Their own enthusiasms are reflected in many of the options they teach.

Why Choose American Studies at Leicester?

National Student Survey Ranking: 1st for student satisfaction. 97% of students satisfied overall with their course.
Position in 2012 Subject League Tables: Independent 2nd, Guardian 2nd, Times 2nd.
Places: 30
Applications: 214
Example Jobs: Broadcast Buying Assistant; Campaign Executive; Editorial Assistant; Teacher; Youth Worker; Legal Secretary; Marketing Executive; Media Research Analyst; Website Content Developer.
Example Employers: Channel 4; Earnest Jones; National Trust; The History Press; Trinity Mirror Group; West Midlands Police.
Example jobs and employers information comes from the University’s ‘Where Did They Go?’ survey, and shows destinations of 2009/10 graduates six months after graduation.

Here in the Centre for American Studies 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: we came in first in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2011.

Our programmes aim to provide you with a great breadth of knowledge across the subject as well as enabling you to specialise in your own areas of interest. Our graduates consistently cite both the wide range of focus on all aspects of American Studies and the variety of final-year options and opportunity to specialise later in the degree as the most rewarding and enjoyable aspects of their academic experience here.

We offer a multidisciplinary approach, combining perspectives in creative ways on innovative modules on the major American themes of the West and the City. We believe that the best way to understand a subject is to apply a variety of disciplines as tools to develop a multifaceted perspective.

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 and Melodrama, and 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.

Four-year degree students will spend their third year of study at one of our 31 partner universities in the United States or Canada. This is an ideal way to gain first-hand knowledge and direct experience of North America. Our partner institutions range from large state universities to small private universities, suiting all students and covering all regions. It is a once in a lifetime chance to study for a year, make friends and travel in North America.

Teaching, Learning and Assessment

The diverse teaching methods you will encounter on our American Studies degrees include lectures, seminars, small discussion groups and individual supervision. The degree culminates in a dissertation conceived, researched and written independently by you 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.

Each term you will study three modules, attending a minimum of two classes per week for each module. Typically, however, a week will involve additional events such as workshops on careers and study skills, learning groups, introduced film screenings and the opportunity for one-to-one meetings with tutors.

Assessment methods are varied too. Our major forms of assessment are submitted essays and written examinations. On a number of modules, however, we are now additionally assessing by means of oral presentations and group work projects in order both to give you a more fully rounded academic experience and to help you develop vital oral and team working skills for the professional workplace.

In all our modules you learn, and we teach, with the assistance of the latest technology. A virtual learning environment will give you access to articles, websites and discussion groups and so enable you to participate more fully in all areas as well as become more fully informed.

Course Opportunities

Four-year students will have the opportunity to experience contemporary North America firsthand at one of our partner universities across the United States and Canada. In your year abroad, 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.

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. If you are doing one of our joint degrees (English and American Studies or History and American Studies) you may also be able to qualify for a year abroad and extend your degree by a year, depending again on availability of places and academic achievement in year one.

Skills Gained

All our degrees foster a wide range of useful skills. The multidisciplinary nature of the programmes promotes flexibility of thought, initiative and the capacity to communicate persuasively both in writing and speech.

In addition you will develop analytic, organisational and team-working skills that will prove advantageous in your life and career beyond university. The growth of the global market over the last twenty years means that many jobs in the public and private sectors have an international and often a transatlantic dimension. Employers are looking for independence, creativity, maturity and a broad cultural outlook, all of which are stressed in the American Studies degrees at Leicester.

Graduate Opportunities

The American Studies BAs at Leicester are well-established and well-respected by employers who are attracted to our graduates for their rigorous training in analysing information and in making creative links between subject areas. Our emphasis on key skills – in essay writing, presenting, team working, IT and research – will enable you to display to potential employers that you have far more than a degree when you graduate.

The range of careers recent American Studies graduates have entered and for which the degree prepares you includes Accountancy, Civil Service, Information Management, Marketing, Media, Public Relations, Publishing and Social Services. Some students take a year of further training after their degree to qualify for a profession like Law, or take a vocational Masters course in Journalism or Teaching.

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
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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