Inside American Studies at MSU

When I first declared my major as American Studies in 2019, I thought I was declaring my major as American History. It was not until the first day of my freshman year, in AMST 201 with Jennifer Hill, Ph.D., that I learned American Studies is quite different from basic history. On the first day, Hill quoted “American Studies: A User’s Guide,” to describe what American Studies is: “an interdisciplinary practice that aims to understand the multiplicity of the social and cultural lives of people in — and in relation to — the United States, both past and present.”

At this point, you might be surprised that MSU has an American Studies program (let alone a whole department!). Up until 2021, Robert Rydell, Ph.D., was the director of the department, and there were several faculty that were designated American Studies instructors. Since Rydell retired in the spring of 2021, and his planned replacement, Nichol Rae, abruptly departed MSU around the same time, there have been two different interim directors. Additionally, Susan Kollin, the vice-director of American Studies, is on leave during spring 2022. Now, the only remaining American Studies professor is Alex Harmon. Regarding the lack of American Studies professors, a sophomore in the American Studies major who wishes to remain anonymous expressed concern and frustration, “it is hard to know who to talk to about administrative and schedule stuff… I feel like no one really has the answers to any problems or things that I am having issues with. The [directors] keep changing, and even though I don't know them, I don't think any are American Studies teachers.”

The current interim-director of American Studies is Stacy Nation-Knapper, who is also Assistant to the dean of the College of Letters and Science. Nation-Knapper teaches American History, and is regularly published in scholarly journals for her work on American and Canadian indigenous history.

American Studies is frequently the base from which students go to law school and enter politics, with a substantial understanding of social and political theory, as well as the appropriate tools to critically analyze popular culture and social movements around the world. While American Studies sounds hyper focused, particularly on America, it is primarily a theoretical framework which one can use to successfully and critically deconstruct and interrogate spaces, figures, events, objects, movements, trends, experiences and perspectives. American Studies is immensely important to the new generation of global citizens who are becoming increasingly involved in political activism, social media and economic trends.

“Another obstacle in writing my dissertation was trying to figure out what American Studies —  I mean, I still don't even know what American Studies is… and I am still trying to learn what it is,” American Studies Ph.D. candidate and Special Collections Librarian, James Thull, said. I mentioned this remark to Rydell during my final meeting with him before he retired, and he responded, “Well, you ask ‘what is American Studies?’ You are helping answer that question. You’re deciding what American Studies is.” The fluidity of what American Studies stands for, along with its importance in the emerging global conversations about race, class, gender and religious inequalities, is the reason I’ve stuck with it today.