CENTRE FOR U.S. IN THE WORLD STUDIES
About us
The Centre for U.S. in the World Studies is a university-based research centre dedicated to the analysis of American foreign relations, politics and culture. Its mission is to produce and promote transnational, policy-relevant scholarship on the United States and its global role.
It provides a space for academics, students, policymakers, cultural producers, and stakeholders within and beyond Nottingham to collaborate on research, educational outreach, and impact opportunities in the field of U.S. in the World Studies.
The Centre draws on expertise from Nottingham faculty in the Departments of American & Canadian Studies, History, and Politics and International Relations, and is open to members from across the University. Our work reflects on the past and present of the United States, and considers issues of vital contemporary importance, ranging from climate change and energy security, to race and inequality, human rights and economics, technology and cultural representations, to peace, security, and the way that the world works, all of which inform and impact the U.S. and its role in the world.
Research
The Centre’s members write, teach and comment about the United States and the Global Cold War, race in U.S. history and politics, right-wing extremism, borderlands, transatlantic studies, and cultural and visual studies.
They are interested in identifying pathways for research that adopt a broad international and interdisciplinary approach to understanding the United States.
Activities
The Centre runs a variety of events and forums that are free and open to all unless otherwise specified. These aim to build upon a history of engagement between Nottingham and the United States. They include “History of Now” sessions with undergraduate students that explore topics of contemporary importance; cross-faculty events addressing pressing issues from a wide-ranging and multi-disciplinary perspective; research workshops to develop member’s work-in-progress; public engagement sessions with schools and educational practitioners; and field-focused conversations that debate and critique the latest interventions in US & the World Studies.
Impact
A vital part of the Centre’s work is in reaching out to key stakeholders beyond the University and providing a bridge between academic research and the wider community. Impact and Outreach activities will be focused on connecting with policymakers, engaging with teachers and schools, media work and expert commentary, and activities with a range of external partners such as museums, art galleries, theatres, and cinemas.
Projects
The Promise and Peril of the U.S. in the World
The “Promise and Peril of the U.S. in the World” is an Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded network featuring members from the UK, Europe, and the United States. It is focused on critically engaging with the wider fields of U.S. history and U.S. in the World studies in light of major changes over the last few decades, which have seen a narrow focus on what one diplomat based in Washington D.C. said to another diplomat based in Washington D.C. give way to a far more expansive and exciting field—one that is as interested in the activities and travels of tourists, workers, artists, writers, teachers, schoolchildren, travelling sports teams, and missionaries as presidents and politicians, and which is as interested in the rest of the world and the impact that it has had on the United States as it is on the domestic influences shaping American history.
In addition to the network’s activities in engaging with the field, it has also focused on is the way that these subjects are taught in schools, at both GCSE and A-level, and to consider the extent to which wider intellectual and methodological shifts in the profession have translated into school-level teaching in order to engage more with what students know when they arrive at University. A second strand of the project, therefore, which is being developed in collaboration with the AQA Exam Board, is working with schools and teachers to think about the future of teaching U.S. history at GCSE and A-level, and considering whether the field’s transformation—in terms of focus, skills, sources, and reappraisals of power and causality—has affected the way it is taught in UK secondary education.