Professionalisierung und Disziplinierung:: Die American Studies Association in den 1950er Jahren

Abstract

The institutionalization of American Studies as an interdisciplinary academic field was a reaction to a specific academic and social context within the United States. The American Studies Association (ASA) was founded in 1951 and emerged as an essential component in the professionalization of the discipline because of three relevant factors: The academic society was based on existing networks. Moreover, it secured financial resources through its popularization and higher education politics to establish an effectively running organization. But this process of shaping and normalizing the discipline finally led to exclusions whereby non-academic American Studies scholars, women and African-Americans were defined as marginal to the discipline. The consequences of this professionalization influenced American Studies and the ASA up to the 1970s