Cluster focus

The Comparative United States Studies (CUSS) Cluster evolved out of cooperation between an earlier Ethnic Studies Cluster and a collective of family members committed to the interdisciplinary field of American Studies. Internally, then, we call ourselves the CUSS Collective. We are interested in thinking about the peoples and place of what is now the United States in comparative perspective. What makes our approach comparative is our passion for thinking together across a variety of borders and boundaries: geographic and temporal; national and regional; bodily, racial, ethnic, gender, religious and sexual; economic, political, legal, cultural, and aesthetic; methodological and empirical; theoretical and applicatory. Among our specific interests are race and nationalism, migration and diaspora, indigeneity, human rights, cultural studies, queer studies, family studies, and colonial/postcolonial studies. We are mindful of the position of the United States in the broader historical geography of North America and the Americas broadly defined, as well as the trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic ties that have long defined the American experience.

Cluster accomplishments

  • Comparative U.S. Studies faculty have participated in a series of workshops and hosted guest lectures by Jill Casid, a prominent scholar of Visual Culture, and George Lipsitz, a leading scholar of race, ethnicity, and American Studies.  We have increased membership in the cluster/collective to more than 50 faculty.
  • Cluster members have received numerous awards and fellowships for teaching and research excellence, including the Bancroft Prize, the Fredrick Jackson Turner Prize, the Turrentine Jackson Prize, the Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin Prize, the William P. Clements Prize, the Robert M. Utley Award, and the Lora Romero First Book Prize, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright Program and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation—most recently by Prof. Nancy Marie Mithlo in 2009.
  • Cluster faculty have hosted and co-hosted national conferences, including a conference on race relations, Looking Toward The Future: Discrimination And Prejudice In The 21st Century, and, more recently, Haven Center Visiting Scholar Juan Flores, Latino Studies, New York University: "Coming Home To Roost: Rethinking Diaspora and Cultural Remittances" and “Caribeño Counterstream: Puerto Rican, Dominican And Cuban Diasporas on the Move” and Raquel Z. Rivera, Center For Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College, “From Bomba To Reggaeton: The Socio-Sonic Circuitry Of Caribbean Latino Music;” and Marc Rodriguez, History And Law, University Of Notre Dame, “Reframing Topics In Mexican American History,” Jefferson Cowie, Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University Stayin' Alive: The 1970s & the Last Days of the Working Class,” among others.

Cluster structure

Our cluster is a collective of more than 50 affiliated faculty and numerous graduate students interested in thinking about the peoples and places of what is now the United States in a comparative perspective. What makes our approach comparative is our passion for thinking together across a variety of borders and boundaries: geographic and temporal; national and regional; bodily, racial, ethnic, gender, religious, and sexual; economic, political, legal, cultural, and aethetic; methodological and empirical; theoretical and applicatory. Among our specific interests are race and nationalism, migration and diaspora, indigeneity, human rights, cultural studies, queer studies, family studies, and colonial/postcolonial studies. We are mindful of the position of the United States in the broader historical geography of North America and the Americas broadly defined, as well as the trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic ties that have long defined the American experience.

Cluster coordinator, faculty and lead dean

Cluster Coordinator

Cluster Faculty

Lead Dean