The American Studies Area Group is a discussion group at the CUNY Graduate Center that invites students and faculty from all programs to share current scholarship, interests, and ideas about American Studies (particularly the United States). Our primary purpose is to foster an intellectual and social community of scholars that encourages interaction across disciplines between students and faculty. The work of this group is imperative as it gives students interested in Americanist concerns a place to continue their discussions beyond any single class or certificate program event. This is crucial as American Studies is an especially fertile and complicated interdisciplinary field. This group will be a student-directed and controlled forum for furthering transdisciplinary conversations – especially between students at different stages of their degree and among disciplines that otherwise rarely get the chance to work collaboratively. Through the group, these discussions will continue throughout students’ tenure at the Graduate Center. We also see this group as a space where students can share resources, works-in-progress, and professional strategies. Additionally this group will serve as a professional development venue, where students can share ideas and discuss the field of American Studies in a low-stakes, friendly environment. It differs from the certificate program in that, as a student-run organization, it will cater specifically to needs and desires less frequently met by faculty-run programs.