American Studies

Degree: Master of Arts in North American Studies
Mode of Study: full-time
Duration: 1 year
Start date: September, February
Language of instruction: English
Location: Leiden
Croho/isat code: 60845
Share |

The idea that the United States is exceptional is widely held among Americans, but also vigorously contested. The question of what is unique to U.S. history and culture, and what is not, is one of the scholarly and theoretical debates explored in the interdisciplinary MA programme in American Studies at Leiden University. The inspiring academic environment offered by Leiden University allows you to explore major issues in the history, literature and culture of the U.S., but also lets you undertake in-depth studies of specific historical and literary topics.


The strengths of Leiden MA programme lie particularly in African-American history and literature, U.S. political history and foreign policy, and immigrant and ethnic studies in the U.S. Graduates in American Studies go on to a variety of careers in teaching, journalism, radio and TV, politics, government, publishing and research, as well as other fields that call for academic training and skills.

In the Netherlands, Leiden is a leading center of research in American Studies, and has an international faculty and student body. The Leiden history department has the Netherlands’ only endowed chair in American history, the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Chair of U.S. History and Culture, occupied by Professor Adam Fairclough.

At Leiden University, master’s students study U.S. history, literature and culture, as part of an integrated approach to American Studies. This enables you to discover connections between historical events and cultural and literary developments. You can, for example, investigate how the struggle for black civil rights influenced African-American and other minority literatures, and study how films and novels became weapons in the struggle for, and against, civil rights for minorities.

Master’s students who graduate in American Studies will be able to:

  • critically analyse American historical and literary texts, and place them in a cultural and historical context;
  • conduct independent multidisciplinary research in the field of American Studies (including Canada), thereby showing the ability to comprehend and apply relevant theoretical insights and methodological approaches;
  • apply knowledge of North American history, literature and culture, to contemporary social, political, literary and cultural developments.

Prof. Adam Fairclough

Adam Fairclough

“We study America’s history in light of its commitment to core values.”

“During its first hundred years as a nation, the United States expanded from the Atlantic to the Pacific, attracted millions of European immigrants, and developed the world’s most productive economy. In the twentieth century it became a global superpower with a vast, informal empire and far-reaching cultural influence.

This course studies America’s history in light of its commitment to core values such as republicanism, individual freedom, and private enterprise. At the same time it examines how these core values have been challenged by war, Cold War, and internal conflicts over race, class, and religion.

Leiden offers excellent facilities for research in American history, including presidential papers, the digitized archive of the New York Times, and on-line access to every Congressional committee hearing between 1823 and 1980. Some students enhance their research by spending an additional semester at a university in the United States.

In 2009-2010 a dozen students graduated from the M.A. program in American History, writing theses on subjects such as Congressional redistricting; Nixon and the South Asia crisis; and black nationalism in the African American church. During the past four years Leiden students have twice won the Theodore Roosevelt Association History Award for the best M.A. thesis in American History written in the Netherlands.”