Research

Core concerns of our program include:

• How can we understand the soft power of American popular culture, mass media, and mass consumer goods?

• How should we assess the global footprint of the United States in comparison to old and new competitors such as Europe, the Soviet Union and China?

• How have American categories of difference such as race, ethnicity, and gender influenced European debates about identity formation and emancipation? What is the influence of transatlantic protest and identity movements, from the civil rights movement and feminism to environmentalism and anti-globalization protests?

• How have transatlantic experiences with indigenous cultures, slavery, and warfare influenced global conceptions of human rights, civil rights, genocide, and minority and regional representation?

Such questions can only be understood from the transnational perspective that this programme offers.

Creative seminar projects

Students can opt to do a project as electives credit. One example of such a project is “Politics & Culture of Liberation”, in which students and teachers worked together with the National Liberation Museum in Groesbeek, the Regional Archive in Nijmegen and the National Archives in Washington, D.C. The project resulted in an exhibition on the impact of American culture on Europe and the Transatlantic World.