MA in American Studies in Albuquerque United States | University of New Mexico

The American Studies program at UNM equips students with analytical frameworks to examine their personal experiences through lenses of identity, location, and societal structures. Our curriculum presents innovative methods to not just examine systems like racism, colonialism, capitalism, nationalism, and gender/sexual norms affecting our communities, but to actively reshape our social reality.

Moving beyond traditional cultural studies, American Studies prompts students to ground their learning in local contexts, challenging established power dynamics in conventional worldviews. From its inception, UNM's American Studies Department has balanced hemispheric and global viewpoints with specialized scholarship on the Southwest and New Mexico regions.

The program provides students with both structure and freedom to cultivate their unique academic interests. Our interdisciplinary approach draws faculty from diverse fields, offering training across historical, literary, visual, and ethnographic methodologies. Foundational to our interdisciplinary nature are critical Indigenous studies, ethnic studies, Black studies, gender/sexuality studies, religious studies, legal/social analysis, cultural studies, and research on liberation movements (including prison abolition, decolonization, racial/gender equity, migrant/refugee rights, and LGBTQ+ advocacy).