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What does it mean to be “an American?” How does our understanding of American culture, and our relation to it, differ depending on historical context, social position, and the interpretive and ideological perspectives we bring to bear? American Studies pursues these questions using a variety of interdisciplinary approaches, texts, performance, and material culture as points of departure for a wide-ranging exploration of American culture.

American Studies

What does it mean to be “an American?” How does our understanding of American culture and our relation to it differ depending upon historical context, social position, and the interpretive and ideological perspectives we bring to bear upon it?  American Studies pursues these questions using a variety of interdisciplinary approaches, using texts, performance, and material culture as points of departure for our wide-ranging exploration of American culture. While it focuses on the United States, American Studies situates the U.S. in a broader transnational context. In particular, American Studies explores the various ways that institutions, values, and practices shape, maintain, and challenge power relations. American Studies courses are designed to elucidate what has been rendered socially invisible.

Utilizing interdisciplinary studies, the American Studies curriculum explores perceptions and narratives often seen as natural, revealing their social and historical roots. By critically engaging with scholarship exploring race, gender, sexuality, social class, disability, and other social structures—and reflecting on their own connections to these topics—students examine what it means to belong, hold privilege, or face exclusion. Among current American Studies courses are those that focus on cultural geography and cultural politics, science studies, borderlands, diasporas, film and media, gender, history, literature, music, performance, digital and technology studies,queer theory, and critical race theory.

Mission Statement and Commitments

The program in American Studies believes in the liberal arts as a space for cultivating emancipatory critical thinking and engagement with the world. We pursue this through our research, teaching, advising, and community relations. We believe our curricula must explore the complex realities of our students and communities. Our program helps students develop critical thinking skills, comfort with various modes of inquiry and theory, and the ability to think across disciplinary boundaries. These skills and knowledge prepare students for careers in a range of fields. The American Studies faculty are committed to creating a safe and equitable space for liberatory learning for all students. 

Afro-Cuban Hiphop artist Pablo D. Herrera Veitia led a workshop yesterday titled ìLet's Talk About Cultural Production, Franklyî with Bates students in Olin Arts Center 128. . Herrera Veitia has managed urban musicians and music-related projects in Cuba for more than 20 years. He is considered Cuba's most influential beat-maker and a pioneer of the Cuban Hiphop sound, which is highly influenced by Afro-Cuban music and culture. He is a 2018-19 Nasir Jones Fellow Hutchins Center for African African American Research, Harvard University, and a doctoral candidate in social anthropology, University of St Andrews, Scotland. . During the workshop, Herrera Veitia discussed how he has engaged in cultural production in and outside of Cuba and asked students to consider ìWhat motivates us to be cultural producers?î The participants broke into small groups to propose hypothetical cultural productions and the roles they might play in them. He then asked the each student to share their individual identities ó their passions ó as cultural producers. Cultural production, he pointed out, can be ó but is not exclusively ómusic or theater or film. îAs active citizens, weíre all doing culture in our own way,î he said. . Herrera Veitia will offer the same workshop on Thursday, Feb 28 at 4:15pm in Olin 128. and Friday, March 1 at 4:15 in a TBD location. For more information, call 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu. His visit to Bates was sponsored by the Latin American Studies Program, the Department of Music, and an NEH Learning Associates Grant. Luis Da Molina (preferred) but in directory, it's Luis David Molina Rueda and Reilly Dwight.

Afro-Cuban Hiphop artist Pablo D. Herrera Veitia led a workshop yesterday titled ìLet’s Talk About Cultural Production, Franklyî with Bates students in Olin Arts Center 128. . Herrera Veitia has managed urban musicians and music-related projects in Cuba for more than 20 years. He is considered Cuba’s most influential beat-maker and a pioneer of the Cuban Hiphop sound, which is highly influenced by Afro-Cuban music and culture. He is a 2018-19 Nasir Jones Fellow Hutchins Center for African African American Research, Harvard University, and a doctoral candidate in social anthropology, University of St Andrews, Scotland. . During the workshop, Herrera Veitia discussed how he has engaged in cultural production in and outside of Cuba and asked students to consider ìWhat motivates us to be cultural producers?î The participants broke into small groups to propose hypothetical cultural productions and the roles they might play in them. He then asked the each student to share their individual identities ó their passions ó as cultural producers. Cultural production, he pointed out, can be ó but is not exclusively ómusic or theater or film. îAs active citizens, weíre all doing culture in our own way,î he said. . Herrera Veitia will offer the same workshop on Thursday, Feb 28 at 4:15pm in Olin 128. and Friday, March 1 at 4:15 in a TBD location. For more information, call 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu. His visit to Bates was sponsored by the Latin American Studies Program, the Department of Music, and an NEH Learning Associates Grant. Luis Da Molina (preferred) but in directory, it’s Luis David Molina Rueda and Reilly Dwight.

Art and visual culture majors with a studio concentration work in their first-floor Olin Arts Concert Hall studios in preparation for the Annual Senior Exhibition that will open in April at the Bates College Museum of Art. Emily Graumann ’22 (in gray sweater) of Salem, a double major in AVC and English, is producing a thesis in hand-drawn animation. Ollie Penner ’22 (purple shirt) of Pasadena, Calif,, is a double major in AVC and American Studies, whose thesis uses photography and Photoshop. Kathy Boehm ’22 (black sweater) of Denver, Colo., is a double major in AVC and American studies, who’s designing town with drawings and mixed media. Mary Richardson ’22 (black tank top) of Blue Hill, Maine, is a double major in AVC and psychology and exploring themes of growing up and bodily image. She’s using mixed media and colored pen.

Art and visual culture majors with a studio concentration work in their first-floor Olin Arts Concert Hall studios in preparation for the Annual Senior Exhibition that will open in April at the Bates College Museum of Art. Emily Graumann ’22 (in gray sweater) of Salem, a double major in AVC and English, is producing a thesis in hand-drawn animation. Ollie Penner ’22 (purple shirt) of Pasadena, Calif,, is a double major in AVC and American Studies, whose thesis uses photography and Photoshop. Kathy Boehm ’22 (black sweater) of Denver, Colo., is a double major in AVC and American studies, who’s designing town with drawings and mixed media. Mary Richardson ’22 (black tank top) of Blue Hill, Maine, is a double major in AVC and psychology and exploring themes of growing up and bodily image. She’s using mixed media and colored pen.

Students in Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies Stephanie Pridgeon’s “Screening Citizenship: Jewish Latin American Film” class prepare for two upcoming presentations they will make at the upcoming Maine Jewish Film Festival, both in Portland and Bates. One film is called “Torah Tropical” (see below) and the other, made in Argentina and Austria, is called “The Klezmer Project). Pridgeon says: This coming Tuesday, March 4 at 7 PM in Olin, we will be screening the beautiful documentary “Torah Tropical” followed by a Q + A with producer Heidi Paster (parent of a current Bates student) led by students from my Jewish Latin American film seminar. The documentary follows the story of a family in Cali, Colombia, who converts to Judaism and attempts to immigrate to Israel. Please join us if you're interested and please also consider passing along the information to your students, colleagues, and friends if they might also be interested (entry is free for Bates staff, faculty, and students!) This course considers films from throughout Latin America made by Jewish directors. Students learn the history of Latin American film production as well as terms and skills necessary for audiovisual analysis. The course examines the ways in which film is used as a vehicle to explore and represent issues of identity, belonging, immigration, and assimilation that have long characterized Jewish experiences in Latin America. Moreover, the course focuses on filmmakers’ engagement with key social and political issues within their respective countries as well as on a regional or global scale. Taught in Spanish. Recommended background: HISP 228. Prerequisite(s): HISP 210 or 211.

Students in Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies Stephanie Pridgeon’s “Screening Citizenship: Jewish Latin American Film” class prepare for two upcoming presentations they will make at the upcoming Maine Jewish Film Festival, both in Portland and Bates. One film is called “Torah Tropical” (see below) and the other, made in Argentina and Austria, is called “The Klezmer Project). Pridgeon says: This coming Tuesday, March 4 at 7 PM in Olin, we will be screening the beautiful documentary “Torah Tropical” followed by a Q + A with producer Heidi Paster (parent of a current Bates student) led by students from my Jewish Latin American film seminar. The documentary follows the story of a family in Cali, Colombia, who converts to Judaism and attempts to immigrate to Israel. Please join us if you’re interested and please also consider passing along the information to your students, colleagues, and friends if they might also be interested (entry is free for Bates staff, faculty, and students!) This course considers films from throughout Latin America made by Jewish directors. Students learn the history of Latin American film production as well as terms and skills necessary for audiovisual analysis. The course examines the ways in which film is used as a vehicle to explore and represent issues of identity, belonging, immigration, and assimilation that have long characterized Jewish experiences in Latin America. Moreover, the course focuses on filmmakers’ engagement with key social and political issues within their respective countries as well as on a regional or global scale. Taught in Spanish. Recommended background: HISP 228. Prerequisite(s): HISP 210 or 211.