The Scherer Center for the Study of American Culture

The Scherer Center for the Study of American Culture aims to develop a new model for graduate education in American culture, to serve as a hub for the exciting multidisciplinary study of America at the University of Chicago, and to make that study visible on a national and international level.

Original work on American culture within various disciplines is best fostered by rich conversations between disciplines that identify unanticipated connections and raise fresh questions for scholarly methods and research topics. The study of American culture is a multidisciplinary endeavor extending far beyond the established relationships between literary and historical studies that form the core of most programs in American studies. At the University of Chicago, faculty and students currently pursue advanced projects on American culture from within the departments of Anthropology, Art History, Cinema and Media Studies, Economics, English, History, Linguistics, Music, Romance Languages, Philosophy, Psychology, Political Science, Public Policy, Social Thought, Sociology, Visual Arts, as well as in the Divinity School and the Law School.

The Scherer Center helps coordinate the University’s rich and diverse scholarly interest in the study of American culture by sponsoring courses, seminars, and lunch-time discussions of new work; by supporting dissertation fellowships for students at the University of Chicago and, in partnership with the Newberry Library, short-term fellowships from scholars from beyond Chicago; by bringing distinguished visitors to campus for lectures, symposia, and conferences; and by developing forums for meaningful interactions among scholars of different disciplines and the public.