Student Experience

A welcoming + vibrant community

Our department offers a close-knit professional home base within a campus that features remarkable research opportunities across every discipline. We offer opportunities to study, develop your abilities as a teacher and researcher, give presentations, and prepare for diverse career paths, including academia.

The work of our graduate students has the potential to impact public debate, policy, and decisions concerning our understanding of the various cultures of the Americas. While focused on American Studies, we emphasize the value of a transnational approach, putting our work into a global context. We also consider the history of our discipline, all the while envisioning new directions for inquiry and collaboration.

Giselle Cunanan

With a few other graduate students, I presented one of my papers at the Spring 2017 Critical Ethnic Studies symposium. I appreciated this opportunity because I received feedback and connected with scholars doing similar work outside of IU. This event was particularly useful to me because the comments I received helped me complete and defend my dissertation prospectus. It is because of events like this that I am able to also collaborate with other Ph.D. students who aim to build something long-lasting and tangible with our research.

Giselle Cunanan, graduate student