i [heart] my major: american studies and economics

This is the second post in That Girl Magazine’s I [heart] my Major series! Do you have deep and unreasonable affection for your chosen course of study? Would you like to encourage younger folks to follow in your fantastic footsteps? Contact That Girl Magazine using my contact form, or contact me on facebook.

Clara has a very good story about why she became a linguistics major. That’s pretty awesome. I don’t have a good story for why I want to double major in American Studies and Econ. I just had a cute AmStud TA last semester and a strong desire to be employable.

I kind of had a crush on my TA from last semester for US Gay and Lesbian History. By kind of, I mean I really did. She’s this super intelligent American Studies grad student who majored in Art at Weselyan and is tiny and queer and brilliant. (And ohmygosh I hope she never reads this.) I had a hard time deciding between history and American Studies, and I kind of talked about it with her, but she kept saying, “you’re majoring in American Studies, right?” with her cute little smirk.

So I’m majoring in American Studies.

I do have more reasons that I tell my parents/grandparents/adults—I like that it’s interdisciplinary, Yale’s department is one of the best in the country, I like studying American history, etc. I like cultural studies more than I like dead-white-man studies, but I don’t tell that to the getting-on-in-years-white-men in my life.

But it’s probably because of my TA.

I’m majoring in Econ too, because it’s fun to play with numbers, I did well in the intro courses, and I want to be able to afford things like health insurance and vegetables when I graduate. I’m also a varsity athlete, and, you know, majoring in Econ is what we do.

I don’t mean to be overdramatic, but my double majoring in Econ and American Studies kind of represents the rather inconvenient internal struggle I’m going through right now. I’m taking a seminar on travel taught by my former TA, and, guys, imperialism is everywhere! It’s really bad! There’s so much injustice in the world! This little blonde, gender conforming 1 %-er is finally starting to realize capitalism isn’t really as fair as we’re taught in Introduction to Microeconomics. Am I your typical rich varsity athlete majoring in Econ and considering consulting as a career? Or your typical college lesbian feminist with a passion for social justice? Both those sound pretty unpleasant to me.

I talked about this a little with my former TA, current teacher. I asked her, “Well, bell hooks said we need consciousness raising. But then what? What do we do once our consciousness is raised?”

She answers, in all seriousness, “Start a revolution.”

I’m leaning towards revolution now. But don’t be surprised to see McKinsey and Bain pamphlets on my desk next year.

This week’s I [heart] my Major post was brought to you by Katie C., Yale ’14. Katie enjoys reading about feminism, running, and making up complex mythologies for civilizations that do not exist.