Communists taking in American Studies (5)
I believe the answer is:
reads
'studies' is the definition.
('read' can be a synonym of 'study')
'communists taking in american' is the wordplay.
'communists' becomes 'reds' (red is a kind of communist).
'taking in' indicates putting letters inside.
'american' becomes 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names).
'reds' placed around 'a' is 'READS'.
(Other definitions for reads that I've seen before include "Studies (at university)" , "Scans" , "Peruses" , "Looks at and undertsands the written word" , "Understands written language" .)