Immersion

Immersion Is… an opportunity for undergraduate students to pursue their passions and interests through experiential learning. Each student takes a project from proposal to completion in and beyond the classroom with the guidance of a Vanderbilt faculty member. American studies students have completed Immersion projects on topics such as sports in Nashville, the rhythms of music city, gentrification and social justice, food culture, environmental advocacy, and much more.

Immersion Through the Senior Project

American studies majors in AMER 4960: Senior Project can use their capstone project to fulfill the Immersion requirement. Contact the Director or DUS of American studies for more information.

Additional Immersion Opportunities

American studies majors are able to explore opportunities related to questions of power and conflict, experience and identity, traditions, and social change within and beyond the territorial borders of the United States and the Americas. Matters of class, race, region, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, law, migration, environment, technology, politics, and the arts are all possible topics for Immersion pathways.

Students may undertake projects at the local, subnational, national, and global levels, from in-depth investigation of Nashville communities to research on transnational nongovernmental organizations.

Study Abroad

American studies students have travelled to Germany, France, Spain, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Japan, Denmark, Switzerland, and more, as part of an Immersion experience. Visit the Global Education Office website for more information.

Immersion Stories

Anthony Cesario BA’23

Major: American Studies, with a Music & History concentration

“My immersion project allowed me to place my own personal experiences in the context of something that was bigger than myself. It allowed me to get creative, to dive deeper into something I was passionate about and that aligns with my intended career path, while still applying easily to my major (thanks to the flexibility of American Studies).”

For his immersion project, Anthony combined his experience having worked a music blogging internship with academic research about the power of blogging in the ever-evolving music industry. He found data surrounding the importance of branding, target audiences, and more for social media-based businesses, and he connected his research with his own experience in music culture.