The JFKI’s Graduate School of North American Studies (GSNAS) has been funded by the German Research Foundation as part of the Excellence Initiative since 2006. Following the Excellence Initiative, Freie Universität Berlin has pledged to sustain the School as one of its most successful Ph.D. programs and most internationally visible research institutions. In its academic framework, the Graduate School is dedicated to a comprehensive interdisciplinary analysis of North American societies from the early modern era to the present. Between 2019 and 2024, the GSNAS’s Research Focus will be on "Transformations of 'Democracy‘ in North America".