Dear Vice Chancellor, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Pro Vice Chancellor for the Faculty of Arts, and Members of University Council,
I have been horrified to learn that the University of Nottingham is proposing to close all the degree programmes in its Department of American Studies. This Department has been an outstanding, internationally renowned centre for teaching and research on North American history, literature, culture, and politics for nearly half a century. It is notable that in the last Research Excellence Framework the Department was ranked third in the Area Studies unit of assessment and was one of the top-performing units across the whole of the University of Nottingham. This is just one testament to the exceptional and vital role the Department plays nationally, and internationally, in fostering new and innovative ways of understanding the US.
The consequence of closing these degrees and potentially making all the members of the Department redundant will be that the Arts Faculty at Nottingham has no US expertise in any of its units. For a Russell Group university like Nottingham – which claims to be an outward-looking, global institution – to completely extract itself from this field of study is astounding. There has arguably never been a more urgent moment to offer students and the wider public expert knowledge on the world’s leading cultural, political, and economic superpower, and the historical roots of its influence.
Every other higher education institution in the UK, whether big or small, has some teaching provision in American topics as part of its Arts and Humanities offer to students. Departments solely dedicated to “American Studies” have certainly become less common in recent years, as students have increasingly moved away from interdisciplinary degrees to more traditionally designated ones. But these changes are precisely a consequence of how Americanist teaching and scholarship can be and has long been delivered, very successfully, within other departments and schools such as English, History, or Politics, and continues to thrive there.
My colleagues in the Department of American Studies have developed a concrete and viable proposal for the retention and relocation of three of their degree courses, which comprehensively addresses the issues it has recently faced. This proposal involves rebranding some of their existing degrees in a more disciplinarily focused way, and redeploying staff to other units within the new College structure being developed, in ways that more than fulfil your goals for the future direction of the University of Nottingham.
I strongly support this proposal, which will bring the University of Nottingham’s Americanist provision in line with that of other institutions, provide multiple benefits for the units American Studies staff are redeployed to, and ensure the sustainable delivery of programmes that continue to provide the excellent teaching and research they are renowned for. I understand that the Department has not yet had an opportunity to properly discuss this proposal with senior management, despite an initial version having been available to them since February, and so urge you to take it seriously.
From all that I have seen and heard the University of Nottingham has not been open about the rationale and metrics it has used to suspend these degrees and now indicate they will close. I hope you will begin to engage meaningfully with your staff in the Department of American Studies, and in other units affected by the Future Nottingham project. To consider a future at the University without the Americanists who currently work there is both shocking and unnecessary.
Yours sincerely,
The American Literature Association