American Studies at MIT offers students the opportunity to organize subjects from various fields (e.g., history, anthropology, literature, political science, music, art, architecture, and urban planning) into personally constructed interdisciplinary programs as a way of gaining an integrated understanding of American society and culture. Students can focus on any of several areas of interest, such as American literature, folklore and popular culture, black history and culture, women's studies, American history, politics, or law, the history of science and technology, and American art, architecture, or music. Thus, a program in American Studies is ideal for preparing students for further work not only in the various humanistic fields, but also in law, urban planning, management, architecture, engineering, medicine, teaching, and the media.<br><br>You may be interested in American literature, folklore or popular culture, in black history and culture, in women's studies, in American history, politics or law, in the history of science and technology, in American art, architecture or musicwhatever the special focus of your interests, American Studies may be the right major for you. American Studies gives you a chance to study American society and culture through its history, literature, art, politics, science, music, etc. by constructing interdisciplinary programs, made up of subjects drawn from different disciplines, centered on your particular interests.<br><br>One aim of American Studies is to help you understand the underlying system of beliefs that informs every aspect of American cultureits myths, institutions, politics and literature, its characteristic dreams and rituals. Another is to understand the uses and limits of different methods and intellectual disciplines as tools for exploring the complexities of a culture. And a third, no less important, is to understand the American present in relation to the American past. To these you will add your own objectives.