The 50th Anniversary of the American Studies Program


Thank you all so much for joining us to celebrate our 50th Anniversary! The weekend was a tremendous success and we are so excited to build and maintain our community into the next 50th years!

Update, October 2019!

Our reservation block at the Georgetown Inn has been extended allowing us to continue to make reservations:

Click here to reserve rooms at The Georgetown Inn (on Wisconsin Avenue!)

Update. August 2019!

We’re reserved room blocks at two Georgetown Hotels. Feel free to make use of these links when you’re making your plans for the 50th! Both of these locations are within walking distance of all of our events.

Click here to reserve rooms at The Georgetown Inn (on Wisconsin Avenue!)

Update, July 2019!

We have made significant updates to our schedule! The schedule now includes extended information about speakers, panelists, and events!

Further, you can continue to register at our Eventbrite page. Please note the Day Pass for Saturday, allowing access to meals, as well as panels (which are always free!)

If you have any questions about logistics, events, or registration, please email us!

Update, June 2019!

As many of you may be aware from our email – registration is now open for the American Studies 50th Anniversary! Click here to access our Eventbrite page, where you will be able to purchase tickets for our 50th Celebration Dinner on Saturday night, our brunch on Sunday, as well as a Saturday meal pass, and register for all our panels, talks, and activities!

American Studies has reserved a limited block of rooms at The Georgetown Inn, which can be booked online by guests.

Update, May 2019!

We’re excited to share the most recent iteration of our schedule for the 50th! Our current schedule.

Update, March 2019!

We’re in the final stages of finalizing our schedule for the Big Weekend! Stay tuned for specific information about schedule, speakers, and events.

The American Studies 50th Celebration is for the American Studies community, and as such we were hoping to garner support and reflections from our community.

One way we’d love to do this is by creating a musical soundtrack to our event on Saturday evening that captures the experience and character of our unique program. Please use this Google form to share your musical ideas with us.

You’ll also notice our sparkly, new website with our 50th Anniversary themed banner on our homepage. Thank you to Ellen Yaeger (col’17) for our amazing artwork.

You can follow along on our lead up to the 50th on Instagram and other social media with the hashtag #amst50. We’ll be posting finds from the American Studies archives, updates and information, and as always, snapshots of our day-to-day AmStud life! Feel free to tag your own Georgetown American Studies memories with #amst50!

SAVE THE DATE!

We’ll be celebrating the 50th Anniversity of the American Studies Program November 1, 2, 3, 2019 on Georgetown’s main campus in Washington, D.C. 

Starting in 1969, innovative, engaging, committed faculty like Dorothy Brown, Emmett Curran, Beth McKeown, Ron Johnson, and Hugh Cloke provided American Studies students opportunities to make connections, across disciplines but also with each other. Their work as leaders of this Program inspired hundreds of students, and our graduates have gone on to inspire others, working in journalism, business, media, education, and other fields to make a difference in the world.

To commemorate our first 50 years, we’re launching a campaign to raise funds to ensure a strong future for American Studies at Georgetown. Thanks to earlier gifts from alumni and their families, American Studies hosts speakers, takes our students on memorable field trips, and supports students’ thesis research. We’ve also been able to hire a full-time Program Manager, and we’ve created a faculty fellowship to build investment in the program by professors from related departments. 

Yet we face one key challenge: stable leadership. To ensure the long-term strength of the Program, we hope to endow the Hugh Cloke Directorship. Naming the position after Dean Cloke honors his foundational contributions to the Program, but it also reflects our aspirations: to ensure that we always have the kind of committed, inspiring leadership he provided. An endowed fund to support this position commits Georgetown to filling the position and supporting faculty leadership to ensure the long-term stability of the Program.

Give to American Studies for our 50th Anniversary!