Located in historic Williamsburg, Virginia, The College of William & Mary has stood for three centuries at a crossroads of colonial expansion, national formation, and global migration. Not far down the road lies Yorktown, the site of the last major military engagement of the Revolutionary War. Even closer is Jamestown Island, the site of the first permanent English settlement in North America, and where the first African slaves arrived on the continent.

The American Studies Program offers students the opportunity to engage with the complex and diverse histories of cultural, racial, and national encounters that, like those of our local area, have come to shape the past and present of the United States, and the Americas. In a rigorous, yet flexible environment of intellectual inquiry, students develop the critical skills that allow them not only to pursue rewarding careers, but to serve as responsible citizens of the 21st Century.