OUR STUDENTS
Our students are a diverse group, coming to study with us from a wide variety of institutions and from regions within and beyond California including from South America, Asia, and Europe. Some of our students come to us directly from undergraduate programs; others have been in their careers for years or even decades. Some are building CVs or resumes to enter Ph.D. or professional programs; some are teachers looking to learn thought-provoking material and hone their skills to take back to their classrooms; others are looking to start careers in journalism, the entertainment industry, the non-profit sector, higher education, or a multitude of other fields. Others join us without any particular career in mind because they seek the intellectual challenge, and flexibility that our program provides. What they all share is a deep enthusiasm for researching, critiquing, and discussing American culture from a wide variety of perspectives and using a plethora of tools drawn from across the humanities and social sciences.
OUR CURRICULUM
Our curriculum is designed to to provide students with flexible, advanced training in the interdisciplinary analysis of American culture as a complex whole in the past and present. To that end, our teaching is grounded in a concept of culture that:
- highlights pluralism and examines the creative tension between unity and diversity, power and resistance in American experiences;
- emphasizes the process of historical change, compelling students to trace the past sources of contemporary issues;
- moves fluidly between local, regional, national, and global contexts;
- is self-consciously interdisciplinary, requiring students to integrate knowledge and methodologies from across the humanities and social sciences;
With this concept of culture at its core, our curriculum is designed to help students develop advanced research, writing, and analytical skills that they can apply in their daily lives, communities, and careers. Through our coursework, department events, and the examination or thesis process, students learn how to analyze and critique American culture from a variety of perspectives; develop and conduct original, interdisciplinary research; and communicate their work to diverse audiences.
OUR COURSES
We offer an exceptionally diverse portfolio of courses for our M.A. Students to take. Every 400-level American Studies course carries graduate credit. In addition, we offer the following courses exclusively for graduate students:
- AMST 501: Theory and Methods (Offered in the Fall)
- AMST 502T: Seminar: Selected Topics (Offered in the Spring)
- AMST 596: Teaching Tutorial
- AMST 598: Graduate Thesis
- AMST 599: Independent Graduate Research
For descriptions and topics of all of our courses, please see our Courses page.
OUR EXIT OPTIONS
The final requirement for the American Studies Master’s Degree at CSUF is the writing of either a thesis or a comprehensive essay examination. In both cases, your work will be supervised and evaluated by the three faculty members you have asked to serve on your Master’s committee (one of whom you will ask to serve as chair). In deciding whether to write the thesis or the comprehensive exam, you should consider your progress thus far in the program and career goals.
You can find out more about the comprehensive exam including the process and field list on our M.A. Examination page.
You can find out more about the thesis option, including a list of recently completed theses and their abstracts on our M.A. Thesis page.
OUR RESEARCH RESOURCES
CSUF is close to multiple research archives and resources, including the Huntington Library, the Nixon Presidential Library, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Japanese American National Museum collection, the ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives, the Autry Museum of the American West, and the USC and UCLA film and television archives.
CSUF's Pollak Library also has an extensive university archives in popular culture (including fan works), science fiction, social justice, and Chicano culture as well as access to hundreds of digital archives. Additionally, the Lawrence de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History is an excellent resource that many of our students have used in their research.
OUR FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
The Department typically offers Graduate Assistant Position for which all American Studies M.A. students are encouraged to apply. Successful applicants are usually hired two weeks before the beginning of each semester and are hired for between 5 and 20 hours per week to assist faculty with teaching (typically grading) or research. Availability is subject to budget and funding.
Beyond Graduate Assistantships in American Studies, there are numerous opportunities for employment across campus that our M.A. students are typically very successful in securing, including in other departments, the library, advising, and other offices on campuses.
We also offer three scholarships and awards that are exclusively for M.A. students: the Brown-Barraza Graduate Student Scholarship, the American Studies Graduate Scholarship for Careers in Education and the Earl James Weaver Graduate Essay Prize. If they are participating in a Study Abroad Program, M.A. students can also apply for the Mike and Lucy Steiner Study Abroad Scholarship. Additionally, CSUF's Office of Graduate Studies offers several programs and scholarships for which our students are competitive and our students have also been successful in pursuing opportunities available through other Humanities and Social Sciences Departments.
OUR ALUMNI
Our students go on to a wide variety of careers such as high school and community college teaching, educational administration, library sciences, journalism, entertainment, corporate management, filmmaking, public policy, and grassroots organizing. People from a wide range of careers see our program as a means of enhancing their job skills, while still others use the program's flexibility to explore their passions and find a career that suits them.
For students whose eventual goal is a Ph.D. in American studies or a related field, we provide special advisement and training. In recent years, our graduate students have been admitted to Ph.D. programs at Brown University, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, Indiana University, University of Michigan, The University of Texas at Austin, University of Iowa, Michigan State, University of Kansas, University of Maryland, Tulane University, and Washington State University, among others.
For more information about what our graduates are doing, see our Alumni Profiles.
The M.A. program at Cal State Fullerton features a vibrant, extensive, interdisciplinary curriculum that will teach you how to analyze, interpret, and critique American culture in the past and the present and apply those skills to a wide range of potential careers. The department offers more than 40 different electives on topics such as gender, sexuality, race, urban culture, work, crime, the environment, technology, public memory, popular culture, and much more and has a dedicated faculty of award-winning teachers and established scholars committed to helping you succeed both while you are here and after graduation.