Convinced of the major advantages and effectiveness of an interdisciplinary approach in teaching, colleagues from American Studies, Economics, and Greek Studies offered a joint seminar for master's degree students on "Individual Goals and the Common Good: Perspectives on Utility Concepts from Ancient Greek Literature, American Studies, and…

In this essay, authors Kihana Miraya Ross and Jarvis R. Givens make their case for a distinct field of education research--Black education studies, which builds on Black studies and education studies. They explore a key analytic in Black education studies, antiblackness, examining its early and more recent uses as an analytic in education research…

In this article Roland Sintos Coloma argues for the relevance of empire as an analytical category in educational research. He points out the silence in mainstream studies of education on the subject of empire, the various interpretive approaches to deploying empire as an analytic, and the importance of indigeneity in research on empire and…

Calls for closer connections among disciplines can be heard throughout the world of scholarly research, from major universities to the National Institutes of Health. "In Defense of Disciplines" presents a fresh and daring analysis of the argument surrounding interdisciplinarity. Challenging the belief that blurring the boundaries between…

"Writings of Healing and Resistance: Empathy and the Imagination-Intellect" is a multi-authored, interdisciplinary journey. It continues the work started in Public Education and the Imagination-Intellect (Peter Lang, 2003) by extending the importance of empathy in developing an action-based social consciousness. Mary E. Weems doesn't argue for a…

This study describes how two 10th grade teachers designed a cross-disciplinary unit, using PBL instruction as a tool for helping students create a valid and convincing argument in their math class. The five week PBL unit focused around American Studies/English and geometry content. In order to measure the rigor and relevance of the unit, multiple…

Interdisciplinary work across the humanities and social sciences is moving beyond analysis of any one nation in isolation and instead placing urgent questions in the larger matrix of the Americas as a hemisphere. But little attention has been given to the overarching methodological, institutional, and pedagogical issues resulting from the growth…

This article extends and expands the existing literature on critical thinking (CT) by both establishing the need for more student-centered research on the topic and reporting on the findings of a CT research project with two central, related goals: 1) To record and analyze undergraduate students' definition of CT and 2) To create an easy-to-use…

A look at utopian literature, 1888-1900, typifies the problems of approaching literature as a vehicle for American studies. The problems, however, do not excuse the greater fault of omitting literature altogether. (JH)

The field of American Studies explores the cultures and practices of individuals and communities in the United States, as well as their transnational exchanges and impacts. It is an interdisciplinary field that is based on making "connections." Environmental justice, as a social movement, also makes important connections. It integrates…

Points out the need for histories that take mass communication as their subject and include journalism as a part of that larger topic; describes concerns shared by mass communication history and the field of American studies. (GW)

Includes a description of an American studies course for grade eleven and a world history/English program for grade nine. (DD)

American Studies programs are traced from their beginnings in the 1930's at Ivy League schools to their present status as truly interdisciplinary studies drawn along functionalist and behaviorist lines. Because of their emphasis on social relevance, American Studies programs are particularly amenable to incorporation in community colleges. (NHM)

James E. Hartley tracks the rise of American Studies early in the twentieth century as a scholarly effort to draw distinctions between American culture and things European. The radical impulse for relevance in the 1960s brought an end to that and to the quaint concept that great books allow an easy summing up of our values and ideals. Professor…

This article contains the results of a survey of public secondary schools in Pennsylvania to determine their compliance with the State Board of Education Mandate to teach an interdisciplinary American Cultures course. For journal availability see SO 504 433. (Author/RM)