Course summary

Our five-year BA American Studies (United States) with Film (including foundation year and year abroad), will be suitable for you if your academic qualifications do not yet meet our entrance requirements for the four-year version of this course and you want a programme that increases your subject knowledge as well as improves your academic skills in order to support your academic performance. This five-year course includes a foundation year (Year Zero), followed by a further three years of study, plus a study abroad year or term. During your Year Zero, you study three academic subjects relevant to your chosen course as well as a compulsory academic skills module, with additional English language for non-English speakers. You are an Essex student from day one, a member of our global community based at the most internationally diverse campus university in the UK. After successful completion of Year Zero in our Essex Pathways Department, you progress to complete your course with our Interdisciplinary Studies Centre. Our multidisciplinary course enables you to assess American contributions to our understanding of political, historical, social and cultural perspectives of the world. You combine studies of the US with a number of options in film studies offered by our Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies, Department of History, and School of Philosophy and Art History. Crucially, you also spend either a term or a full academic year studying in the United States, so you can explore and become immersed in American culture. The degree is built to be extremely flexible and student-led, and as you progress through the course you can choose from an enormous range of options from across the humanities and social sciences including:

• Contemporary social issues, such as the struggles for racial justice

• The legacies of slavery and the civil rights movement

• Environmental protection of the ‘wilderness’ of the Far West

• Native American histories and rights