Effron Center for the Study of America

The Effron Center for the Study of America works to fulfill Princeton’s institutional vision by offering curricula, supporting research, and hosting discussions on the evolving experiences and identities of the peoples of the territories known as America.

The center endeavors to provide spaces for critical analysis guided by principles of civil rights, freedom, social justice, and activism; spaces for intellectual discussions that produce transformative agendas based on ethical research.

The strands that intertwine in the center begin with the founding of the Program in American Civilization in 1942, and weave through generations of Princetonians’ commitment and varied projects to study America in the world and how the world lives in America.

Certificate Programs and Interdisciplinary Initiatives

The center hosts certificate programs in American studies, Asian American studies, and Latino studies, and supports interdepartmental faculty initiatives which bring new areas of research focus to Princeton and create forums for conversations and collaboration between disciplines.

The center’s faculty draw on disciplinary expertise in anthropology, art history, literature, performance studies, sociology, theater and music theater and more, with research interests including transnational religion; ecology and environmental narrative; Native American and Indigenous studies; and economic and cultural history.

By exploring and relating issues raised separately by the humanities, arts, and social and natural sciences, and by engaging with a wide range of scholarly methods and theories, the Effron Center aims to create a generative space for new understandings of issues that profoundly affect contemporary lives and scholarship.

Public Events, Distinguished Fellows

Public programming hosted by the Effron Center and its programs fosters discussion across areas of study encompassed by the center’s certificate programs and initiatives.

Annually, on or around September 17, the Effron Center hosts Princeton’s Constitution Day observance, commemorating the 1787 signing of the United States Constitution and exploring permutations of constitutional law to the present day.

The Effron Center’s Anschutz Distinguished Fellowship brings to Princeton for one semester a leading scholar or practitioner in American arts, letters, politics, or commerce to teach a seminar, deliver a public lecture, and join in the life of the center. Past fellows include Emmy- and Peabody Award–winning filmmaker Sheila Curran Bernard in 2005, Academy Award–winning producer Gerardine Wurzburg, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Tim Weiner in 2015, and scholar of gender and Africana studies Brittney Cooper in 2019.

Past topics include the 1960s counterculture, the future of food studies, Filipino American art, Japanese America, American folk and field recordings; speakers have included Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen and then-President Bill Clinton.

Student Support

The Effron Center offers grants to undergraduate students to support thesis research, off-campus projects, and student groups, and to graduate students to support dissertation research and presentation of papers at the American Studies Association conference or similar interdisciplinary conferences.

The center’s long history of supporting interdisciplinary graduate student initiatives, including the Asian American Faculty-Graduate Reading Group and the Princeton American Indian and Indigenous Studies Working Group, has enabled students to present programming ranging from book discussions and gallery visits to public lectures and conferences.

For more information, please visit the Effron Center for the Study of America website.