American Studies is a multidisciplinary program involving the study of different aspects of the United States of America. It is multidisciplinary because it consists of studying the economy, culture, history, politics, foreign policy, literature, art and many other topics regarding America.
When I first started the program at Tehran University my idea of what the program consisted of was a program with mostly a political orientation towards the study of America. I thought that it would focus on American politics, foreign policy and the relationship between Iran and the US. Not only did I expect the program to be this way but also I thought that this is the correct way to understand America. My reasoning was that since the US is the only super power of the world then politics and foreign policy would be the main pillars for understanding it.
The reality of the American Studies program at Tehran University was fortunately different than my expectations. It was more multidimensional than I anticipated with courses on American culture, art and cinema among other things. Currently contrary to before I think that understanding a country requires far more than political understanding even if politics is a major issue in that country like the US. The interesting fact is that even to understand the politics of a specific country you need to have a good understanding of the culture of that country. In a country like the US political participation and behavior has deep historic and cultural roots and ignoring this would make one’s understanding of the US very superficial.
Another aspect of the program at Tehran University which was different than my anticipation is the fact that most of the professors approach different topics of the United States with an un-biased and detached view. When I first enrolled in the program I thought that many of the professors would have a strong anti American bias due to long and deep row between the two countries. This was not the case.
When I first started the program at Tehran University my idea of what the program consisted of was a program with mostly a political orientation towards the study of America. I thought that it would focus on American politics, foreign policy and the relationship between Iran and the US. Not only did I expect the program to be this way but also I thought that this is the correct way to understand America. My reasoning was that since the US is the only super power of the world then politics and foreign policy would be the main pillars for understanding it.
The reality of the American Studies program at Tehran University was fortunately different than my expectations. It was more multidimensional than I anticipated with courses on American culture, art and cinema among other things. Currently contrary to before I think that understanding a country requires far more than political understanding even if politics is a major issue in that country like the US. The interesting fact is that even to understand the politics of a specific country you need to have a good understanding of the culture of that country. In a country like the US political participation and behavior has deep historic and cultural roots and ignoring this would make one’s understanding of the US very superficial.
Another aspect of the program at Tehran University which was different than my anticipation is the fact that most of the professors approach different topics of the United States with an un-biased and detached view. When I first enrolled in the program I thought that many of the professors would have a strong anti American bias due to long and deep row between the two countries. This was not the case.
My main disappointed with my MA studies is the unavailability of major recourses (mainly books) needed to conduct research. Although I should add that this is mainly not related to the North American and European Studies Institute or even Tehran University for that matter but rather the unavailability of academic resources in Iran as a country. Even Canada’s Carleton University library with over 2 million books didn’t have most of the books I sought for research, however one always had the opportunity to order a book from ‘Amazon’.
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