Program Overview

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On our five-year BA American Studies (United States) (including foundation year and year abroad), we work with you to help to develop your subject-specific knowledge and to improve your academic skills. You receive a thorough grounding in these areas during your foundation year (known as Year Zero) to prepare you for a further three years of undergraduate study at Essex. This five-year course includes a foundation year (Year Zero), followed by a further three years of study, plus a study abroad year or term. During your Year Zero, you study three academic subjects relevant to your chosen course as well as a compulsory academic skills module, with additional English language for non-English speakers. After successful completion of Year Zero in our Essex Pathways Department, you progress to complete your course with our Interdisciplinary Studies Centre. Our course is for those with enthusiasm, passion and intellectual curiosity about all things American. At Essex, we offer you an opportunity to understand some of the diverse and paradoxical aspects of the US through interdisciplinary studies. The US – perhaps more than any other society – lends itself to interdisciplinary study; its literature and film are connected to its politics, its cultures are linked to its histories. Crucially, you also spend either a term or a full academic year studying in the United States, so you can explore and become immersed in American culture. The degree is built to be extremely flexible and student-led, and as you progress through the course you can choose from an enormous range of options from across the humanities and social sciences including:

• Contemporary social issues, such as the struggles for racial justice
• The legacies of slavery and the civil rights movement
• Environmental protection of the ‘wilderness’ of the Far West
• Native American histories and rights

Based within our Interdisciplinary Studies Centre (ISC), this course allows you to explore the many ways of understanding the American experience. You draw on multiple perspectives in order to reach a deeper understanding of the world we inhabit, opening up exciting possibilities to discover the American continent. The cities, vast open plains, mountains and deserts shape diverse and intriguing ways of life. By encouraging you to think and operate across traditional boundaries, our American studies course has produced confident, assertive and intelligent graduates who have become successful in many professional fields. We are 8th in the UK for American Studies in the Complete University Guide 2023. Why we're great.

• We equip you with the necessary knowledge and skills to succeed at Essex and beyond.
• Guarantee your place on your chosen course if you successfully complete your foundation year at Essex.
• Small class sizes allow you to work closely with your teachers and classmates.

Study abroad

Your education extends beyond our University campus. In your fourth year, you spend either one term or one year at one of the American universities with whom we have an exchange agreement. Your fourth year is spent studying abroad, while otherwise remaining identical to the three and four-year courses. We have exchange partners with fifteen excellent academic institutions across the United States, from New Mexico to Massachusetts, including upstate New York, the Deep South, Miami and California. Studying abroad allows you to explore and become immersed in American culture, to broaden your degree socially and academically, and to demonstrate to employers that you are mature, adaptable, and organised. If you spend a full year abroad you'll only pay 15% of your usual tuition fee to Essex for that year. You won't pay any tuition fees to your host university

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Our expert staff

Our staff teach in departments across the University, and specialise in a wide range of topics including history, law, literature, film, politics, and sociology. We are a team of internationally recognised writers and lecturers with expertise across the arts, humanities and social sciences. As well as being one of the UK’s leading universities for social science, and the highest ranking institution for political science, our staff research topics that stretch across the globe – we are working on issues in Latin America, North America, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

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Specialist facilities

By studying within our Essex Pathways Department for your foundation year, you will have access to all of the facilities that the University of Essex has to offer, as well as those provided by our department to support you:

• We provide computer labs for internet research; classrooms with access to PowerPoint facilities for student presentations; AV facilities for teaching and access to web-based learning materials.
• Our Student Services Hub will support you and provide information for all your needs as a student
• Our social space is stocked with hot magazines and newspapers, and provides an informal setting to meet with your lecturers, tutors and friends.

Take advantage of our other extensive learning resources to assist you in your studies:

• Our Essex Collection of Art from Latin America (ESCALA) is the largest of its kind in Europe
• Attend an exciting programme of events
• Access a variety of textbooks and journals in our Albert Sloman Library

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Your future

Our course offers you the chance to gain a wide-ranging knowledge of many aspects of American life and intimate acquaintance with the region in the United States where you have spent a period of study. This provides excellent preparation for careers in media, education, politics, the Civil Service, international organisations such as the UN and NATO or non-governmental organisations, and many other fields. Our recent graduates have gone on to work in a wide range of desirable roles including an events co-ordinator for Age UK, a business provision manager for BT, an accountant in London, and an account executive for Bluesky PR. We also work with the university's Student Development Team to help you find out about further work experience, internships, placements, and voluntary opportunities. “We have a broad range of lecturers who each add a different perspective. We're lucky to have such great minds at our disposal.” Talia Burr, BA American Studies (United States) student