该部门不接受文学硕士学位的申请者。南加州大学的所有美国研究与种族研究都是博士课程的一部分，而美国研究与种族文学硕士学位仅是在完成博士学位要求过程中的过渡学位，尽管在某些情况下，学生可能会被邀请尝试终端MA
The core focus of the Ph.D. program is to prepare future faculty with the research and teaching abilities to understand and communicate the diversity of society and culture in the US and the Americas. The graduate curriculum combines core interdisciplinary courses in the four areas of specialization, with departmentally-based courses in given disciplinary methods and literatures. Students are expected to gain competency in the methodology and grounding in the literature of one specific disciplinary area (history, literature, sociology, etc) to enhance the fundamentally interdisciplinary nature of their training in American Studies and Ethnicity.