American studies alumni, students, and faculty gathered in Trinkle Hall on March 15 for a roundtable discussion of life after William and Mary. Aptly subtitled, “What’s an American studies M.A. or Ph.D. to do?” the roundtable brought together nearly 50 scholars and professors eager to celebrate the American studies program’s 25th anniversary.

“I was tempted, when I thought about how to introduce this panel, to start with the good news,” said moderator Alan Wallach, the Ralph H. Wark Professor of Art and Art History. “I started with the bad news.”

The bad news is that “the overall employment picture in academia is very discouraging,” Wallach said. Tenured positions are increasingly difficult to find and American studies graduates face fierce competition from applicants with backgrounds in other disciplines. “The good news,” Wallach said, “is that our program has long been successful in placing students in very prestigious [academic positions]. [But] because of the relative newness of American studies, … it’s predictable that you will be hired into a more traditional discipline with responsibilities for working in American studies and teaching American studies courses.”

Alumnus Michael Plater, the Dean of Arts and Sciences at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, emphasized that the value of an American studies degree lies in its inter-disciplinary versatility. Because every American studies professor holds an appointment in a different department, American studies graduate students explore numerous disciplines.

“In my particular case, I was very interested in business history,” Plater said. “In order to look at that, I needed to look at sociology, history, [and] business. … I [was] able to make the jump … because I have that [American studies] training. You can sell it.”

Other graduates of the master's and doctoral programs have discovered that the multicultural aspects equipped them to become civic leaders in their communities. Amy Howard, for instance, is the director of the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement at the University of Richmond. She encouraged students to “think about ways to get involved in the Sharpe program, the documentary film program, Dominican Republic service-learning.”

“Set your expectations as broadly as possible. Think as broadly as you can because American Studies gives you the tools you need to do a variety of things,” Howard advised. “To engage your community … is fundamentally at the core of what American Studies is. There are some outstanding jobs out there that can help you make a large impact in the campus where you work and in the world.”

Penn State-Harrisburg Professor Robin Veder vividly described her experiences working for the Smithsonian as “myth-busting.” “Here’s the myth-busting part: you can do fabulous inter-disciplinary work,” she said. But once Veder left the museum lifestyle to pursue a tenure-track job, she found a “cruel reality.”

“It became very clear to me that [many programs] are protective of the discipline,” she said. And once Veder finally became an assistant professor of humanities and art, she discovered that being a tenure-track professor is “incredibly hard, stressful work.” “That’s the good news and the bad news,” she said.

Howard jokingly responded, “It’s all good. Dreadful faces out there—it’s okay.”

As if to prove Howard’s point, Director of the College’s Center for Archeological Research Joe Jones talked about how “there’s a huge regulatory-driven industry in resource management … that has grown just in the last few decades.” “As American studies' graduates,” he said, “we are equipped for that kind of career.”

“American studies here is a great thing to take advantage of—the inter-disciplinary aspect of it,” Jones said. “I had the lucky opportunity to find employment right here at William and Mary,” he said, noting that heritage tourism is a booming industry around the country. “The Center for Archaeological Research was established in 1986. Now I’m running the show.”

Joe Cosco, associate professor of English and journalism at Old Dominion, followed a very different career path from Jones, meandering his way from journalism to academia. He ultimately settled into a job where he “routinely [has] the opportunity to teach American literature, American studies-type courses.”

“My immigrant working class parents really couldn’t afford to have me at Columbia,” he said. “I really couldn’t justify staying at Columbia three or four years to get the Ph.D., so I dropped out after getting the master’s [degree]. I sort of drifted into journalism [and] ended up in Norfolk at the Virginian-Pilot.”

After working as a reporter at the Virginian-Pilot for several years, Cosco began to teach courses at Old Dominion while pursuing his doctoral degree in the American Studies program. “I love teaching, I love being in the classroom,” he said. “I found that I loved going to classes again. … The program here at William and Mary helped [me] to put it all together.”

A question from audience member and doctoral candidate Erin Krutko about the relative roles their American studies degree and their other experiences have played in their success divided the panelists, causing Cosco to passionately point to “serendipity” and Plater to reaffirm the importance of “thinking heavily, strategically about where you want to be.”

All of the panelists, however, emphasized that the “inter-disciplinary outlook” of the American studies program has played a central role in leading them to become successful in their careers.

“When you are in American studies, you are in what I would consider a very gray area,” Plater said. “You have made a decision to go into a very inter-disciplinary field.”

“Embrace the gray area,” echoed Cosco.