About
In the wake of the Civil Rights movement, the United States has witnessed the emergence and proliferation of powerful and creative diasporic groups in the United States, transforming traditional ideas of what constitutes “America” and, therefore, “American Studies.” As these groups self-identify and assert themselves politically, socially, and culturally, the boundaries between groups are also dissolving in interesting ways. Thus, at Northwestern University, while we see the virtue of continued investment in, for example, our well-established department of African American Studies, and in our curricularly-dynamic programs in Asian American Studies and Latinx Studies, our faculty and students also cluster in working groups and research initiatives that bring these separate academic units into creative and productive dialogue with each other, specifically on topics that touch upon critical race theory and diaspora studies.
In response to the growing interest of students and faculty in strengthening and bringing together these currently dispersed academic units, we propose to establish a new Intercultural American Studies Council. This Council would join a cluster of other institutes and centers at Northwestern whose missions likewise emphasize collaboration, dialogue, and public engagement. These include the Institute for Policy Research, the Alice Kaplan Institute for theHumanities, the Buffett Institute for Global Studies, as well as the Mellon-supported Center for Native American and Indigenous Research (CNAIR).
We wish to plot a course that will transform “American Studies” at Northwestern and beyond by gathering and supporting faculty, students, and visitors in an academic unit devoted precisely to the intersectionality that recognizes the overlapping and mutual enrichment of the new groups of Americans and Americanists in ethnic and cultural studies. A new Intercultural American Studies Council will prioritize the study of the United States in the historical context of its position in the Americas, and the contemporary cultures of this country in light of advances in the study of “race,” ethnicity, religion, gender, and sexuality.