Teaching American/cultural studies in a Central European university

This dissertation attempts to deconstruct commonly accepted boundaries of international English language (IEL) and American/Cultural studies teaching by an American Fulbrighter in particular, from the point of view of postmodern thought. The findings are presented on the basis of data collected through classroom observation, reflective practice, and interviews in a year-long collaborative fieldwork at Comenius University of Bratislava, Slovak Republic, Central Europe.;The intersections of postmodern thought and American/Cultural studies teaching are explored within the particular social historical context of Central Europe. The focus is on the field of social forces that keep shaping American/Cultural studies teaching practices, discourses, and meanings associated with, and disrupted within, those practices in the university classroom. Teachers' and students' insights into the power/knowledge relations that shape classroom discourse are presented. The findings suggest that IEL/Cultural studies teaching/learning must shift to multiliteracy education practices which are reflective of students' educational needs in the particular academic context as part of a continually changing, interconnected social and historical environments. The continuum of students' and teachers' discourses indicates the participants' desires for developing a more sophisticated cross-cultural communication and collaboration between international faculty and students at Comenius University. Likewise, the data support the argument that there are potentials for more effective cooperation and exchange of professional experience between American Fulbrighters and the faculty at the Department of English and American Studies at Comenius University.;The dissertation is a contribution to the field in which there is discussion of the struggle and paradoxes involved in IEL education and American/Cultural studies teaching/learning practices in Central Europe. It also presents options for practice from which to choose in similar IEL educational environments and suggests new inquiries that have the potential to be provoked by postmodern analysis of multiple interpretations.