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Critical Insights in American Studies

Teaching American Studies in BritainPerspectives and Possibilities

Edited by Megan Hunt and Lydia Plath

Open access
Format

Free to read

Open access under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0

About this book

Tackles the meaning, significance and value of teaching American Studies in UK higher education

  • Includes thought-provoking dialogues on vital topics in the American Studies classroom, including race, imperialism and religion
  • Contains detailed case studies of good pedagogical practice in a range of areas, including spatial literacy, interdisciplinary teaching and assessment development
  • Includes student perspectives to frame and centre the discussions and focus across every section of the book

Exploring the varied approaches to teaching American Studies in Britain today, the contributors in this volume examine how we can use critical pedagogies to empower our students to disrupt the status quo, challenge boundaries and see the United States—and the world—from new perspectives. Using a range of formats, including essays, case studies and dialogues, it explores what American Studies methodologies mean to both staff and students in UK higher education, and the possibilities that they offer in the classroom and beyond.

Reviews

The contributors’ discussions in this rich collection transcend the already-capacious disciplinary boundaries of American Studies to offer generative insights for all of us engaged in the work of teaching and learning in higher-ed environments. A fascinating and unflinching examination of what it means to deeply engage and thoughtfully teach difficult, complex and sometimes fraught topics – like race, power, gender and identity – this volume offers a great deal to teacher–scholars no matter where their disciplinary homes might be.
Table of contents

Acknowledgements
Series Editor's Preface

Introduction: The Mindsets, Meanings and Methods of American Studies Pedagogy
Megan Hunt and Lydia Plath

Part I: Mindsets
1. ESSAY: Spatial Literacy, Disciplinary Identity and American Studies in Britain
E. James West
2. CASE STUDY: The American Berserk as Pedagogic Challenge
Tom Arnold-Forster
3. ESSAY: A Foundation for American Studies: A-Level Politics in the UK
Adam Burns and Sarra Jenkins
4. CASE STUDY: Teaching Place-based Indigenous Texts in UK Higher Education
Ananya Mishra
5. CASE STUDY: Teaching The 1619 Project in Boris Johnson’s Britain
Nathan Cardon, Michell Chresfield, Tom Cutterham and John Munro
6. DIALOGUE: Teaching Religion in US Histories and Cultures
Uta Balbier, Emma Long, Stephen Shapiro and Randall J. Stephens

Part II: Meanings
7. CASE STUDY: From TERF Island to Trumpistan: The Art of Teaching Queer History in Perilous Times Chris Parkes
8. DIALOGUE: Encountering 'Race' in the British American Studies Classroom
Rebecca J. Fraser, Christopher Lloyd, Christine Okoth, Jonathan Ward and Xine Yao
9. CASE STUDY: The Personal is Historical: Journalling About Race
Nicholas Grant
10. DIALOGUE: Multimedia-Informed Pedagogies and Academic Precarity in American Studies
Ellie Armon Azoulay, Emily Brady and Olivia Wright
11. CASE STUDY: Students as Co-Creators: Recovering Nineteenth-Century Children’s Literature
Hilary Emmett and Thomas Ruys Smith
12. CASE STUDY: Contemporary Issues in the Americas: Translating Academic Knowledge via Applied Assessment
Nick Witham and Joshua Hollands

Part III: Methods
13. DIALOGUE: Teaching US Empire, Expansion and Expulsion
Oli Charbonneau, Fabian Hilfrich, Reetta Humalajoki, David Stirrup and György Tóth
14. ESSAY: The Promise and Peril of Teaching the US in the World
Bevan Sewell, Kaeten Mistry, Uta Balbier, Katharina Rietzler and Thomas Tunstall Allcock
15. CASE STUDY: Native American History and the US in the World
Elizabeth Ingleson
16. CASE STUDY: Teaching Transnational American Studies
Hilary Emmett
17. CASE STUDY: ‘Talking Race and Racism’: Innovations in Learning via the National Saturday Club
Marie S. Molloy
18. CASE STUDY: Going Back to School: Applying Secondary-Level Pedagogies to Support American Studies
Lauren Mottle
17. ESSAY: Mickey Mouse Degrees? Understanding Employability in American Studies
Peter O’Connor and Rebecca Stone

Conclusion: What It Means to Teach American Studies in Britain
Megan Hunt and Lydia Plath

List of Contributors
Index

About the contributors

Megan Hunt

Megan Hunt is Lecturer in Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Edinburgh, where she serves as the Director of Undergraduate Programmes in History, Classics and Archaeology. Her teaching and research mostly explore intersections between the civil rights movement, white liberalism, and Hollywood film, reflected in her book, Southern by the Grace of God: Race, Religion, and Civil Rights in Hollywood’s South (2024).  She has also written about the place and significance of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the wider African American civil rights movement in British schools, culminating in articles in the Journal of American Studies and The Conversation.

Lydia Plath

Lydia Plath is Professor of US History at the University of Warwick, where she also serves as the Deputy Head of Department and Director of Teaching and Learning. Lydia served as the Chair of the British Association of American Studies (BAAS) between 2022 and 2025, and established the BAAS Teaching Network. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has a Postgraduate Award in Interdisciplinary Pedagogy. She has written widely on American Studies pedagogy as well as histories of racism and racial violence from an interdisciplinary perspective.