The American Studies Program at the University of Tübingen promotes an interdisciplinary approach to American literature and cultural studies. Although American literature from colonial times to the present still plays a prominent role in the curriculum of the program, cultural and media studies have become major fields of research activity in recent years. A particular focus is placed on the study of phenomena of popular culture and mass media, especially as the program is linked with the Program of Media Studies.

Current long-term research projects in literary and cultural studies deal with the development of theories of fictional and historiographical representation, e.g. narrativist concepts of historiography and historiographical metafiction in the contemporary novel; minimalism in recent American literature and its cultural origins; history and theory of the American short story (17th century to the present); African-American literature and the autobiographical tradition; German-American literary relationships; effects of German immigration on US culture in the 19th century; literature and the new media; minority literature; documentarism.