Editorial
One change that many BAAS members will have noticed in the last six months is that, while it’s true their subscription fee has risen, they do now receive a shiny hard-copy of the Journal of American Studies. The decision to include the journal in the subscription fee was discussed at last year’s AGM (the minutes are included in this issue of the newsletter) and was passed by the membership with little objection, so putting an end to the endless discussions of the BAAS executive committee which have been ongoing for the past few years. The change not only confirms the link between BAAS and JAS, which has been important since the journal’s foundation, but puts BAAS on the same footing as many other professional organisations which have their own journal. In addition, of course, there is the added benefit of no longer having to read articles and reviews on a screen or download and print them off onto wads of A4 paper that quickly get dog-eared, misfiled or lost in a pile of other printed documents which you always mean to read but which end up stuck on the corner of a table.
For all the promise of digitisation, the journal article and the review are the ancestors of a form of intellectual activity that predates screen technology. I’ve tried loading documents onto my ipod to read on the bus or train but, after the initial buzz of finding that this does actually work, the long haul of trying to read a few thousand words turns into such an effort that I’m back to the music fairly quickly. The hard copy of the journal, on the other hand, makes little demand on the space in my bag, can be opened and closed much more quickly than navigating through even the most efficient of Apple designs, and rests much more easily on the eye. And when you need it again, there it is neatly located in year order on your shelf.
Of course, for the delivery of material to hundreds of students, electronic access comes into its own. Who would want to be without JSTOR or Project Muse? As university libraries are no longer willing to support the hard copy journal, for new journals (like US Studies Online) electronic production keeps start up costs at a minimum and provides the opportunity for fledgling projects to reach a wide audience. BAAS members now have the best of both worlds.
Graham Thompson
School of American & Canadian Studies
University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham NG7 2RD
E-mail: graham.thompson@nottingham.ac.uk
Cambridge Conference, April 15-18, 2004
Notice of BAAS AGM 2005
Agenda
1. Elections: Secretary, 3 committee members, any other offices that fall vacant before the AGM
2. Treasurer’s report
3. Chair’s report
4. Report of the Conference Sub-Committee, and Annual Conferences 2006-2008
5. Report of the Publications Sub-Committee
6. Report of the Development Sub-Committee
7. Report of the Libraries and Resources Sub-Committee
8. Report of the Representative to EAAS
9. Any other business
At the 2005 AGM, elections will be held for three positions on the Committee (three year terms), for the Secretary of the Association (three year term), and for any offices that fall vacant before the AGM. Current incumbents of these positions may stand for re-election if not disbarred by the Constitution’s limits on length of continuous service in Committee posts.
The procedure for nominations is as follows: Nominations should reach the Secretary, Heidi Macpherson, by 12.00 noon on Saturday 16 April 2005. Nominations should be in written form, signed by a proposer, seconder, and the candidate, who should state willingness to serve if elected. The institutional affiliations of the candidate, proposer and seconder should be included. A ready-made form can be found at the back of this newsletter. All candidates for office will be asked to provide a brief statement outlining their educational backgrounds, areas of teaching and/or research interests and vision of the role of BAAS in the upcoming years. These need to be to the Secretary at the time of nomination so they can be posted in a prominent location and available for the membership to read before the AGM.
Dr. Heidi Macpherson
BAAS Secretary
Department of Humanities
University of Central Lancashire
Preston PR1 2HE
United Kingdom
Tel. (01772) 893039
Costs and Registration
Fees for BAAS/EAAS/ASA Members
Fees for payment by cheque are in bold. Fees with added extra charges for credit card payments are given in italics in parentheses.
A. £335 (342.39) Standard conference fee
B. £225 (230.63) BAAS postgraduate/teacher standard conference fee
C. £213 (218.44) Non-resident delegate fee i. (excludes accommodation; includes dinner/banquet– according to availability)
D. £198 (203.20) Postgraduate/teacher non-resident fee (excludes accommodation; includes dinner/banquet – according to availability)
E. £135 (139.19) Non-resident delegate fee ii. (excludes dinner/banquet and accommodation)
F. £45 (47.75) Single day ticket (excludes dinner and accommodation)
G. £40 (42.67) Postgraduate/teacher single day ticket.
Fees for non-BAAS/EAAS/ASA MEMBERS*
H. £385 (393.19) Standard conference fee
I. £240 (245.87) Postgraduates/Teachers not members of BAAS standard conference fee
J. £243 ( 248.92) Non-resident delegate fee iii. (excludes accommodation)
K. £165 (175.35) Non-resident delegate fee iv. (excludes dinner/banquet and accommodation)
L. £75 (78.23) Single day ticket (excludes dinner and accommodation) SPECIFY DAY below.
*The cost of full BAAS membership is £41, or £13 for postgraduates. For details of how to join BAAS, please contact Nick Selby at N.Selby@englit.arts.gla.ac.uk.
Late Fee
If places are available after 1 March (enquiries after that date by email only), we may accept late bookings on payment of an additional £20 late fee.
A registration and booking form is available at the conference website:
http://http://www.baas.ac.uk/administration/baasconf.asp
You can also find a copy at the back of this newsletter.
Any queries about the conference can be addressed to:
Enquiries, suggestions and comments about the conference should be made to:
Dr Sarah Meer
Selwyn College
Cambridge, CB3 9DQ
E-Mail: sm10003@cam.ac.uk
Provisional Programme
THURSDAY 14 APRIL 2005
1.30-4.30 Registration (Delegates may take Cambridge tour bus from Robinson, or watch Jonathan Fineberg’s film ‘Imagining America’ – British premiere) Tea.
4.45 -5.00 Welcome Address
5.00-6.00 Keynote Address: Kwame Anthony Appiah
6.00-7.00 2006 Reception (University of Kent)
7.00– Dinner
8.00 Bar
FRIDAY 15 APRIL 2005
7.00-8.45 Breakfast
9.00-11.00 PANEL SESSION 1:
A. Gender and Meaning in American Culture
Mike Chopra-Gant (London Metropolitan University) – The law of the father, the law of the land: power, gender and race in The Shield
Bill Osgerby (London Metropolitan University) – Giving ‘Em Hell: Masculinity and meaning in the American ‘True Adventure’ pulp of the 1950s and 1960s
Sinead Moynihan (Nottingham) – Textual Transgressions: representations of Brandon Teena
Craig McClain (University of New Mexico) – Gay Rodeo: carnival, gender and resistance
B. American Photography and Cultural Memory
Richard Crownshaw (Manchester Metropolitan University) – The recycling of American memory and photography
Guy Westwell (London Metropolitan University) – The production and reproduction of memory in Flag Raising on Iwo Jima (Joe Rosenthal, 1945)
Caroline Blinder (Goldsmiths College) James Agee’s Manifesto of Photography
C. 2004 Elections Roundtable
David Waller (University College of Northampton) – Chair
Mark Rozell (George Mason University) – the role of religious belief in the presidential election
Peter Ubertaccio (Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts) – the historical context of the 2004 elections
Ross English (University of Reading) – the extent to which the congressional elections have remained dominated by ‘traditional’ local issues
Philip Davies (De Montfort University) – US election campaigns
D. Black Studies and the Transnational
Nicole King (University of California, San Diego) – Blackness and American Exceptionalism
Sarah Silkey (University of East Anglia) – Ida B Wells and Transatlantic Reform: Rethinking the British Anti-lynching campaigns
Magdalena Zabrowska (University of Michigan) – Babylonia revisited or James Baldwin at Pasha’s Library and other Turkish locales
Fionnghuala Sweeney (University of Liverpool) – Atlantic Modernity and the Politics of Historical choice
E. Nature and Politics in Early Transatlantic Texts
Clare Elliott (University of Glasgow) – Transcending the Natural by reading the Leaves: textualizing Nature
Kathryn Napier Gray (University of Plymouth) – Visualising and exhibiting Early America’s natural world
Susan Castillo (University of Glasgow) – Decay and Ruin in the New World? Views of American Nature in Goldsmith
Susan Klepp (Temple University) – A ‘Louse Rampant’ or the Radicalization of William Moraley Returned from the Colonies to Newcastle upon Tyne
F. Power and Anxiety: Modernism and After
Leslie Shimotakahara, (Brown University) – The Regional Designs of American Modernism: Willa Cather’s Collaboration with Frank Lloyd Wright
Sarah Cain, (Newnham College, Cambridge) – American Nervousness: Modernist Poetry and Paranoia
Sue Currell, (University of Sussex) – Science, sanity, and the Tyranny of Words: Streamlining Language in the Interwar Period
Andrew Pepper (Queen’s University Belfast) – ‘What can be done in the face of so much power?’ Conceiving of power and resistance in Kesey, Burroughs and Doctorow
G. Black Social and Cultural Organizations
Edward Andrews (University of New Hampshire) – ‘Outcasts in a Strange Land’: Emigration, Education and the Changing Nature of Black Benevolent Societies in Newport, Rhode Island, 1780-1824
Zoe Trodd (Harvard University) – “Why don’t you get acquainted with your race?” “The Bookshelf”, The Forgotten Readers of Chicago and The Making of Black Middlebrow Culture in the 1920s
Kate Dossett (Leeds University) – Black Nationalism and Interracialism in the YWCA
Elizabeth Jacobs (King’s College, London) – Women, Civil Rights and the Sex Caste System
11.00-11.30 Tea and Coffee
11.20-1.00 PANEL SESSION 2:
A. Music and Post-war Culture
Brian Ward (University of Florida) – Imaging the American South in Postwar British Popular Music
Adrian Smith (University of Nottingham) – Appalachian Culture
B. Revisiting the Founders: literature and politics in post-war Britain
Michael Heale (Lancaster University) – Atlantic stepping stones: fashioning American history in post-war Britain
Mick Gidley (Leeds University) – Writing America: Marcus Cunliffe’s literary histories
Owen Dudley Edwards (Edinburgh University) – Denis Brogan’s American Politics
C. Feminism and the Law
Emma Long (University of Kent) – Making Lemonade from Lemon: the Burger Court’s contribution to the Establishment Clause debate
Mary C Dagg (University of Kent) – Burger v Rehnquist: furthering the Conservative agenda?
Heidi Macpherson (University of Central Lancashire) – “Mother Knows Best”: tracking guilt in feminist law and literature
D. Southern Literature
Jonathan Ellis (University of Reading) – Corresponding Worlds: Flannery O’Connor and Letter Writing
S Bradley Shaw (University of Bergen, Norway) – “The Displaced Person” in a Gray Flannel Suit: O’Connor’s A Good Man is hard to Find 50 Years Later
Rachel McLennan, Glasgow University, Pick up and Unpack: Figuring (Out) Southern Female Adolescence in Jill McCorkle’s The Cheerleader and Ferris Beach
E. Alternate Histories: speculation and variation in Philip Roth, Carol Shields and Lorrie Moore
David Brauner (University of Reading) – “The Other side of silence”: ‘Alternate Histories’ in the fiction of Carol Shields
Alison Kelly (University of Reading) – ‘Writing anew’: reshuffled identities in Lorrie Moore’s Anagrams
Catherine Morley (Rothermere Institute) – Altered visions of the American past: Philip Roth’s The Plot against America
F. Censorship, War and History
Jenel Virden (University of Hull) – Questionable Fictions: The Army Chief of Chaplains and literary censorship in World War II
David Eldridge (University of Hull) – Hollywood censors history
Ian Scott (University of Manchester) – “Why we fight” and “Projections of America”: Frank Capra, Robert Riskin and theories of World War II censorship and propaganda
G. Conflict in Native American Culture
Ruth Maxey (University College, London) – Racialising White America: Literary Strategies of Physical Othering in Contemporary Indian American Writing
Dean Rader (San Francisco University) – Engaged Resistance in American Indian Art, Literature and Film
Rebecca Tillett (Plymouth University) – Seeing with a ‘ New and Different Eye’: Interactions of Culture and Nature in Contemporary Native American Literatures
H. Foreign Policy
S Bennett ((Aberystwyth) – The US Senate as Foreign Policy Actor: the advice and consent role in the foreign policy process
Matthew Jones (Nottingham University) – Limited War in Asia, Nuclear Weapons and Race: a neglected aspect of the challenge to massive retaliation, 1956-61
Carl Pedersen (Copenhagen University) – William Appleman Williams and US Foreign Policy in the 21st Century
I. Race and the South 1730-1870
William H Boulware (Homerton College, Cambridge) – Interracial Leisure Relations, Cultural Links, and Lowcountry Identity, 1730-1775
James Campbell (University of Portsmouth) Race, Slavery and Law in the Antebellum South
Nicola Clayton (Sheffield University) ‘The Most vital and important of the whole question of Reconstruction’? The Antislavery Movement and the Land Issue in the South, 1861-1870
1.00-2.00 Lunch. Group Meetings (to be arranged).
2.00-4.00 PANEL SESSION 3:
A. The Early American Republic: Recent Scholarship
Marie-Jeanne Rossignol (Paris 7 – Denis Diderot) – The American Revolution, radical historians and the French connection
Pierre Gervais (Paris VIII) – The political nature of American Corporations 1790-1830
Jean-Pierre Le Glaunec (Paris 7 – Denis Diderot) – The lost world of Jean-Michel Fortier: Louisiana dreams of a French Colonial Empire 1800-1803
Monica Henry (Paris 7 – Denis Diderot/Paris XII) – In the aftermath of the Monroe Doctrine: the Panama Congress, 1826
B. Influences: Pound and Eliot
Lee M Jenkins (University College Cork) – “The riddims of St Louis”: T S Eliot and Caribbean Poetry
Tatsushi Narita (Nagoya City University) – The young T S Eliot, the composition of The Man who was King and Transpacific American Studies
Roxana Preda – Between social credit and fascism: the economic correspondence of Ezra Pound
Brendan Cooper (Downing College) – ‘Finches and Fairies’: John Berryman and Mr Eliot
C. The Uses of Presidency
Edward Ashbee (Center for the Study of the Americas, Frederiksberg) – The Bush administration, ‘healthy marriage’ and compassionate conservatism
Birgitte Madelung (Copenhagen Business School) – Monumental Presidencies: the uses of collective memory
Jesper Lohmann (Copenhagen Business School) – George W Bush and Immigration
Niels Bjerre-Poulsen (Copenhagen Business School) – A Charismatic Leader or just one of us? – The strategic use of stereotyping in American presidential elections
D. African/American Literature
Jennifer Blanchard (College of William and Mary) – Passing as brothers and sisters in the fictions of Chesnutt, Hopkins and Twain
Ali McConnon (M.Phil Cambridge 2004) – From Drenched in Light (1924) to Isis (?): Zora Neale Hurston’s Changing Perception of the Harlem Renaissance
Kaleem Ashraf (University of Sheffield) – Representations of the Creole in Wright
Stephanie Brown (Ohio State University) –“The same, really the same”: Postwar authenticity and the “Raceless” African-American novel
E. Black Political Organizations
Lee Sartain (Edge Hill College of Higher Education) – “Leaders who persevere”: Mrs D J Dupuy and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1929-1944
Kevern J Verney ( Edge Hill College of Higher Education) – A rising wind: Walter White, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Second World War, 1939-1945
Nick Sharman (University of Melbourne) – The media and ‘The Movement’: New York Times coverage of the Chicago Eight conspiracy
4.00-4.30 Tea and Coffee
4.30-6.30 PANEL SESSION 4
A. Desegregating Sport
John C Walter (University of Washington) – Integrating the American Bowling Congress: the case of Buffalo, New York, 1947-1950
James Rigali (University of Washington) – The role of Hubert H Humphrey and the National Committee for Fair Play in Bowling in desegregating the American Bowling Congress
Julian Madison (Southern Connecticut State University) – The changing political climate in post-war America and the desegregation of sports
Ian Ralston: (John Moores University, Liverpool): comment
B. Punishment and History
Robert Perkinson (University of Hawaii at Manoa) – An Empire of punishment
Greg Grandin (New York University) – Empire’s Workshop: how Hobbes met Kant in Central America
Corey Robin (City University of New York) – Fear: History of an Idea, Politics of a Practice
Douglas Dennis (Louisiana State Penitentiary) – Fear and loathing in a Louisiana prison
C. The Verbal and the Visual after World War II
Catherine Martin (University of Sussex) – The verbal and the visual in post-World War Two American poetry
Christina Makris (University of Sussex) – The metaphorical relationship between the verbal and the visual in experimental American poetry
John Fagg (University of Nottingham) – All roads lead to Rockwell: representational painting, Modernism and the fear of cliché
Patrick Walsh (Passau) – Anti-Modern Painters in Very Modern Times: Looking at Grandma Moses and Thomas Kinkade
D. Politics and Detective Fiction
Cindy Hamilton (Manchester Metropolitan) – The hard-boiled formula, historical consciousness and the politics of marginality: Sara Paretsky and Paula L Woods
Jennifer Terry (University of Durham) – “Always outnumbered, always outgunned”: Circumatlantic Connections in the ‘Detective’ Fiction of Walter Mosley and Patrick Chamoiseau
Paul Woolf (University of Birmingham) – Prostitutes, Paris and Poe: the sexual economy of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”
6.30 -7.30 Journal of American Studies Plenary Lecture (Shelley Fisher Fishkin)
7.30-8.15 (CUP) Reception
8.15 Banquet Dinner (Prizes and Awards).
9.30 Bar
SATURDAY 16 APRIL 2006
7.00-8.45 Breakfast
9.00-10.30 PANEL SESSION 1
A. Mark Twain
Peter Messent (University of Nottingham) – Mark Twain, Manhood, the Henry H Rogers Friendship and Which was the Dream?
Peter Stoneley (University of Reading) – Mark Twain’s Aquarium
T J Lustig (University of Keele) – Mark Twain, Matthew Arnold and ‘Civilization’
B. Studying American Studies
Louis Billington (University of Hull) Pioneering American Studies: ten years of the Bulletin 1956-1966
Elena Maragou (American College, Athens?) – American Studies in the context of European anti-Americanism: the example of Greece
Ann Schofield (University of Kansas) – The post 9/11 crisis in American Studies and the American Studies curriculum
C. Rituals and Order: Communities, Violence and Authority in the Early Americas
Simon Middleton (University of East Anglia) – Chair
Thomas J Humphrey (Cleveland State University) – Traditions of power and authority: rough music and crowd violence in Colonial New York
Susan Branson (University of Texas at Dallas) – From public to private: sentimentality, masculinity and the demise of public executions in the early nineteenth century
Cécile Vidal (University Mendès-France) – French Louisiana (1699-1769): a violent Frontier Colony?
D. Encounters – Native American Strategy towards US Indian Policy
Sam Maddra (University of Glasgow) – Courts of Indian Offenses: ‘Making thousands of Indians criminals’
Jacqueline Fear-Segal (University of East Anglia) – Surveillance, concealment and resistance at the Carlisle Indian School
Claudia Haake (University of York) – Problems removed? Delaware responses to removal and its long-term consequences
E. The Air War in Europe and Japan
Wilfred Wilms (Union College, NY) Combatting the non-combattant: America remembers the Air war in Europe and Japan
Diederik Oostdijk (University of Amsterdam) – “For a saving grace, we didn’t see our dead”: Howard Nemerov’s troubled wartime poetry and memory
Ian Copestake (Goethe University, Frankfurt) – “All bombs. No ammunition. No gunners. All Payload. All Fire”: Fatal Narratives of Redemption in James Dickey’s To the White Sea
F. Limited International Visions
Gabor Berczeli (Kodolanyi Janos University College) American and British Military Statesmen’s Vision of a Post-war International Order at the time of World War I
Brian Roberts (University of Virginia) – Tropical Constitutions/Call for Occasional Revolutions: James W Johnson and US Foreign Policy Down By the Caribbean Sea
Binoy Kampmark (Selwyn College, Cambridge) A Consistent Legacy? Precedents behind US reservations behind establishing an International Criminal Court
G. Ethnicity in the Era of Transnational Studies
Dalia El-Shayal (Cairo University) – ‘Know Thyself’: The Quest for a Japanese/American Identity in Philip Kan Gotanda’s Ballad of Yachiyo
Yan Ying (Nottingham University) – The (Un)becoming Body: Food, Ethnicity and Sexuality in Eating Chinese Food Naked and The Barbarians are Coming
Swan Kim (University of Virginia) Spy in the Era of Transnational Studies: Watne Wang’s Chan is Missing and Chang-Rae Lee’s Native Speaker
10.30-11.00 Tea and Coffee
11.00-12.30 PANEL SESSION 2:
A. Public Diplomacy and US Foreign Policy
Liam Kennedy (University College Dublin) – Virtual diplomacy and information wars
Scott Lucas (University of Birmingham) – The limits of soft power
Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones (University of Edinburgh) – Justice or security? An FBI dilemma
B. Gender and Aging in Twentieth Century America
Jay Kleinberg (Brunel Business School) – Inventing the matron: middle age as a separate life cycle stage for US women
Eileen Boris (University of California, Santa Barbara) – Old before her time: the sexuality of Age Discrimination
Marjorie Julian Spruill (University of South Carolina) – “No grandmother clause”: Gender and generations in 1970s America
C. Civil Rights and Black Power
Catherine Maddison (Cambridge University) – ‘DC Citizens Still in Chains!’: the Free DC Movement and the limitations of civil rights strategies in an urban setting
Devin Fergus (Vanderbilt University) – Black Power in the Age of Watergate, 1972-1978
Zoe Colley (University of Dundee) – The unseen freedom struggle: the Black Panther Party and the politicization of African American prisoners, 1966-1975
D. The West and American Culture
Martin Padget (University of Wales) – Excessive Consumerism in Literature of the New Southwest
Stephanie Palmer (Bilkent University) – Smart Blockbusters, superficial reviews: environment, labor, and the family in The Day after Tomorrow
John Beck (University of Newcastle upon Tyne) – A Tour of the Monuments of Postminimalism
E. Late Eighteenth-Century Letters
Sarah Wood – Refusing to RIP: or, The Return of the Dispossessed: adaptations of Rip Van Winkle in the Ante- and Post-Bellum Eras
Matthew Pethers – Legal Fictions: Charles Brockden Brown and the emergence of literary discourse in late eighteenth century America
Keith Pacholl (State University of West Georgia) – “Raising human nature to its highest degree of exaltation”: the influence of Periodical Literature upon American religious culture in the eighteenth century
F. Conspiracy and Conflict in Nineteenth-century America
Linda Upham-Bernstein (University of New Hampshire) – “Men of Families”, the Intersection of labor conflict and race in the Norfolk Dry Dock Affair, 1829-1831
Thomas Ruys-Smith (University of East Anglia) – Independence Day, 1835: the Murrell Conspiracy and the Vicksburg Hangings
Jeffory A Clymer (University of Kentucky) – The 1886 Chicago Haymarket bombing and the Rhetoric of Terrorism in America
G. “I’m here to Save your Ass, not kiss it”. Flight Attendants in the Spotlight
Kathleen Barry (University of Cambridge) – Pink-Collar Feminism in full bloom: flight attendants’ activism in the 1970s
Drew Whitelegg (Emory University) – All that is Solid’s up in the Air: constructing the world of flight attendants
Bobbie Sullivan (Independent Research Psychologist) – Nothing will ever be the same again: how flight attendants in the US coped with 9/11
H. Telling Race
Joan Bryant (Brandeis University) – Narrating Life and Death: Black Execution Tales as Moral Autobiography
Gary Holcomb (Emporia State) – Being ‘primitive and proletarian at the same time’: Claude McKay’s Romance in Marseille
R J Ellis (Birmingham) – Was Huck a Woman as Well as Black? Carried down the river by Harriet Spofford
12.20-1.30 Lunch. Group meetings (to be arranged).
1.20-2.30 PANEL SESSION 3:
A. American Studies as a Cold War Project
Inderjeet Parmar (University of Manchester) – American Foundations, the State and the promotion of American Studies in the Cold War: BAAS et al as a Cold War Project
Giles Scott Smith (Roosevelt Study Center) – The True Atlanticists: Dutch-American cooperation in the development of American Studies in the Netherlands
Ali Fisher (University of Birmingham) – Sought by the US Government, Facilitated by Philanthropy
B. Federal, State and Local Power in the Civil Rights Struggle
John Kirk (Royal Holloway) – The African American Struggle for Freedom and Equality and the Federal Government: an Arkansas New Deal Case Study
George Lewis (University of Leicester) – Southern Resistance meets the Southern Strategy: Virginia segregationalists and the Campaign in the North, 1958-1968
C. The Role of the Artist and Cultural Production in the Formation of Nationhoods
Reina Alejandra Prado (University of Southern California) – Ni Una Mas! Politicizing the performance space and meditations of violence in the work of Raquel Salinas
Cam Vu (University of Southern California) – Profane nation: literature and the arts in the crafting of a Postcolonial Nation
D. Postbellum Literary Instabilities
Lucy Frank, Warwick University, Suturing the Nation: Mourning in Postbellum America
Owen Robinson, Essex University, City of Exiles: George Washington Cable’s Unstable Narratives of New Orleans
E. Gender, Sexuality and Ageing
Katie Otis (UNC, Chapel Hill) – When I’m Sixty-Four: the American sexual revolution of the 1960s and ‘70s, retiree style
Christina R Nelson (UNC, Chapel Hill) – “Her pendulous abdomen and enlarged thighs”: re-forming the irregular older female body through foundations and corsetry in the US, 1900-1970
F. Jazz
Jeff Farley (Glasgow University) – Understanding Miles Davis
Holly Farrington (Middlesex University) – ‘I improvised beyond him…ahead of time’: Charles Mingus, Kenneth Panchen and the jazz aesthetic in twentieth-century American literature
G. Expansionist America
Antonis Balasoupouls (University of Cyprus) Spectral empires: US Science Fiction and Expansionist Geopolitics, 1889-1899
Don Doyle (University of South Carolina) – Manifest Destiny, Race and the Limits of Expansion
2.30-3.00 Tea and Coffee
3.00-4.30 BAAS AGM
5.30-6.30 Eccles Centre Lecture (John Dumbrell)
7.30-8.00 Reception
8.00 — Dinner
9.00 — Bar and BAAS disco
SUNDAY 18 APRIL 2004
7.00-8.45 Breakfast
9.00-11.00 PANEL SESSION 1:
A. American Fiction and the Saddleback of Time
Peter Rawlings (University of the West of England) – Fraternal Temporization: William and Henry James on Time
Peter Kuryla (Vanderbilt University) – “Hashish-Intoxication” and Marijuana Blues: Tetrahydrocannabinol and Time in William James and Ralph Ellison
Sam Halliday (Queen Mary, University of London) – Music, Time and the “Radio-phonograph”: Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man
Ben Williamson (University of the West of England) – Undead Time and Edgeless Space in Mark Z Danielewski’s House of Leaves
B. Revisiting The Black Atlantic
Alan J Rice (University of Central Lancashire) – Gravesites, Performance and Memorials: Black Atlantic sites and the politics of remembrance
Lisa Merrill (Hofstra University, NY) – Captured in the Dark: the construction and reception of nineteenth-century performances of gender, race and nationality
Rachel Van Duyvenbode (University of Sheffield) – Food for thought: Kara Walker’s ‘Grub for Sharks’ (Liverpool Tate 2004) and the aesthetics of Diaspora art
Richard Steadman-Jones and Duco Van Oostrum (University of Sheffield) – “One Village”: Roots of an African Identity in Experience and Language on the Middle Passage
C. Violence and Violations: Seizing the Law
Leslie Harris (Emory University) – Black women defending themselves: rape, domestic violence and the courts during New York’s Emancipation Era, 1785-1827
Jean Yellin (Pace University) – Harriet Jacobs and the legal betrayal of Reconstruction
Jean Pfaelzer (University of Delaware) – Chinese resistance to violence and vigilantes in the nineteenth century: rewriting the Letter of the Law
D. Hollywood and other Genres
Lois Banner (University of Southern California) – Cecil Beaton shoots Marilyn: gender and glamour in the Twentieth Century
Laura Rattray (University of Hull) – Cinematic licence: Horace McCoy and Hollywood
Chalermsri Chantasingh (Silpakorn University) – The strategies of the American Pop Culture Industry in establishing historical veracity: from The King and I (1951) to Anna and the King (1999)
E. Conflict and Society in the late Eighteenth Century
Steven Park (University of Connecticut) -‘Fire in the Hole!’: The burning of the HMS Gaspee and a longer view of colonial maritime resistance
Kirsten Phimister (Edinburgh University) – Religion and the Ratification of the Federal Constitution in Virginia
William Van Vugt (Calvin College) – ‘I scarcely Know Myself’: The British Meet the Natives in the Early Ohio River Valley
Zoltan Vajda (Szeged University) – Jefferson on the Character of an Unfree People: The Case of Latin America
W Merkel (Columbia University) – Thomas Jefferson, slavery and the law 1770-1800
F. Poetic Challenges
Jon Thompson (North Carolina State University) – William Carlos Williams and Violence
John Armstrong (University of Glasgow) – “The Fourth World”: Ed Dorn’s ‘Othering’ of a Poor White Space
John Wrighton (Aberystwyth) – Jerome Rothenberg and Gary Snyder: po(e)thical practice Nick Selby (University of Glasgow) – Rattling Lyric Frames: Lisa Jarnot’s poet(h)ics
11.00-11.30 Tea and Coffee
11.20-1.00 PANEL SESSION 2:
A. The Anglo-American Special Relationship
Peter Boyle (University of Nottingham) – Eisenhower and 10 Downing Street
Sylvia Ellis (University of Northumbria) – Lyndon Johnson and 10 Downing Street
B. The Varieties of Post-World War II American Social Thought
Richard King (University of Nottingham) – Philip Rieff: Freud: the Mind of the Moralist and The Triumph of the Therapeutic
Dave Greenham (Nottingham Trent University) – Freud and his influence on Norman O Brown
Joel Isaac (University of Cambridge) – The Culture of Epistemology: theories of knowledge and the Sciences of Man in Postwar America
C. Transatlantic Constructions of Memory in the Wake of War
Jane E Schultz (Indiana University) – Performing Modesty: war, commemoration and the sexual politics of publicity
Samuel Graber (University of Iowa) – “A Tribute from Strangers”: Stonewall Jackson’s British Face
Linda Kauffman – How does one reconcile the repression of memory with the memory of repression?
D. Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Cultural History
Martha Sledge (Marymount Manhattan College) – Alphabet for Sale: The Anti-Slavery Alphabet and Abolitionist Rhetoric
Daniel McInerney (Utah State University) – The Art – and Science – of Memory in Antebellum Mnemonics
Marlon B Ross/K Ian Grandison (University of Virginia) – Razing the Dead: Interment and American Spatial Ideology at Jefferson’s Monticello
E. Classifying Society in the Twentieth Century
Douglas C Baynton (University of Iowa) – Defectives in the Land: Disabled Immigrants in the American Imagination, 1882-1924
Venetia Guerrasio (University of New Hampshire) – “For the Promotion of Medical Science”: a Quantitative Analysis of Pennsylvania’s Dissection Subjects, 1901-1925
Cheryl Hudson (Vanderbilt University) – “Citizenship by Racial Division”: the Chicago Commission on Race Relations, 1919-1922
Stephanie Lewthwaite (University of Nottingham) – “Making Americans”: Cultural Pluralism and Assimilation in Mexican Los Angeles, 1914-1933
F. Modern American Government
Iwan Morgan (Institute for the Study of the Americas, London University) – President Bill Clinton and the Balanced Budget
Dean Williams (Edinburgh University) – ‘Law and Order or Social Improvement’ The Department of Justice in American Life, 1967-72
G. Faith and Form
Wilson Brissett (University of Virginia) – Psalm-Singing and the Practice of Beauty in Early America
Amy Morris (University of Cambridge) – “Holy harmony” or “crotchets of division”?: the equivocal style of the 1640 Bay Psalm Book
Tom Rogers (University of Sheffield) – The Dispossessed of Christ: conflicts of faith and form in the early poetry of John Berryman
Jacob M Blosser (University of South Carolina) – Anglican Happiness: the formulation and dissemination of transatlantic religious identity in Colonial Virginia
H. Narrative, Identity, Postmodernity
Alan Gibbs, Nottingham University, Making Funnies: Repetition, Evasion and Procrastination in American Postmodernist Trauma Narratives
Rachel Lister, University of Durham, Reinventing the Self: Female Identity and the Postmodern American Short Story
Lene Schott-Kristensen (Roskilde University)- The Face of the Other in Jonathan Lethem’s The Fortress of Solitude
1.00-2.00 Lunch
Conference Ends
Minutes of 2004 AGM
The 2004 AGM of BAAS was held on Saturday 17 April 2004 at Manchester Metropolitan University at 3pm.
Elections:
Chair
Simon Newman (to 2007)
Committee
Sarah MacLachlan (to 2007)
Carol Smith (to 2007)*
Graham Thompson (to 2007)*
Martin Padget (to 2006)
Catherine Morley (to 2005)
Postgraduate member
Clare Elliot (to 2006)
*Not eligible for re-election.
The Treasurer circulated copies of the draft audited accounts. NS reported that the funds in the accounts are currently in good health financially, due to membership subscriptions, generous donations to STA and generous grants from the US Embassy for this conference and previous ones; the Embassy subsidizes postgraduate and teacher fees, and NS offered thanks to the Embassy for their generosity. Because BAAS is a charity, is it not allowed to be run for profit. NS cautioned members about the rise in internet fraudulent claims and noted that BAAS had experienced a number of attempts to defraud us this year, but they were unsuccessful. NS reported that membership is currently at 547, of which 174 are postgraduates. PD reported that six years ago, BAAS had a total of 440 members. Jay Kleinberg moved to approve the accounts, and George Conyne seconded the motion; the motion carried unanimously.
NS reported that he had on additional item of business to consider, and asked the AGM to consider a proposal to link BAAS membership and subscriptions to the JAS. NS outlined the current situation, which was that members can subscribe to JAS at a discounted rate of £30/year. CUP have offered BAAS an opportunity to fold subscription into our membership for £15/year from 2005, and would offer the remaining 2 issues of 2004 free to members if the proposal was carried. There would be a reduction for those members who currently subscribe. This would make membership £41 for full members, £28 for postgraduates who want to subscribe, and £13/year for those postgraduate who chose not to subscribe. Unwaged or retired members would pay £28, and any other membership rates would go up accordingly (ie, £15 on top of current rates). Professor R J Ellis reminded the AGM that there had been links before, but NS noted the previous arrangement was an opt-out situation, which effectively made BAAS a business partner, and this contravened Charity Commission regulations. If JAS subscription is included in the rate, it is rather a membership benefit. This rate would be held for 3 years, just as BAAS has held the rate of £26 for three years. Jenel Virden commented that the Executive Committee had discussed the proposal very thoroughly and felt that it put BAAS more into line with other professional organizations. The proposal was passed unanimously.
NS asked members to make sure renewal requests are dealt with promptly. He is looking into whether it was possible to move to a system of direct debits, but this was previously prohibitively expensive.
The Chair provided a comprehensive report of the year’s activities for American Studies as a discipline. He noted that when he was first elected chair of BAAS, his immediate task was to counter a QAA proposal to define American Studies as a sub-area of English literature. BAAS lobbied the QAA so successfully that John Randall told PD that the number of responses to the placing of American Studies exceeded the total number related to other subjects covered in the consultative document. BAAS has also taken a leading role in the wider area studies subject discipline, working with the LTSN for Language, Linguistics and Area Studies and the new umbrella organization UKCASA. Currently, planning for the next RAE is underway, and PD reported that once again, American Studies needs to be ready to defend its own position and work in cooperation with the Area Studies community where our common interests lie. However, there are many contexts in which UK Americanists work, both within and outside of American Studies departments; the American Studies community has a virtual quality, and BAAS has played an active role in expanding these virtual links.
Over the past year, BAAS has taken an active role in national consultations, including the Roberts Report; the British Academy’s consultation on emerging and endangered subjects; HEFCE’s call for ring-fenced funds (BAAS’s joint bid was shortlisted but did not make the final cut), and the AHRB’s call for nominations to its Peer Review College.
PD reported a number of media contacts over the last year. Enquiries dealt with by the BAAS executive, or passed to other BAAS members with expertise, came from The Chronicle of Higher Education, Newsnight, The Malay Straits Times, various BBC local radio stations, Radio Telefis Eirean, BBC 24, BBC Radio Four, various independent programme makers, BBC Online, Radio Five Live, THES, CNN, Newsweek, the Press Association, and local newspapers in the UK
The past year has also seen the first ever visit of a Congress to Campus programme, a 4 day event in London and Leicester. A new American Studies postgraduate conference was added to the growing list of successful postgraduate meetings, when the Institute of US Studies hosted a one-day event in October 2003, which was also attended by one of the visiting Congressmen. The Scottish Association for the Study of America continued to develop its programme of events, and there are plans to re-launch the Northwest branch of BAAS.
BAAS nurtures American Studies in many ways. In 2002 the BAAS conference hosted the executive committee meeting of the International American Studies Association, which went on to hold a very successful conference in Leiden, Holland, in 2003, and has already announced a 2005 conference in Ottawa. In 2003 the BAAS conference hosted a series of panels organised by the Transatlantic Studies Association, which has since advertised its own independent conference in the summer of 2004.
PD pointed out that not all news regarding American Studies over the past year has been positive. Though the total number of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in American Studies has remained stable at around 50, this disguises changes. Growth has been balanced by decline, and is fragile in some places.
BAAS members have, however, had considerable success in the past year, and PD announced a number of promotions, appointments, and awards. Richard Godden received a Professorship at the University of Sussex; Edward Ashbee has become Associate Professor of American Studies at Copenhagen; Deborah Madsen has taken up a Chair in Geneva; Matthew Jones has been appointed to a Chair at Nottingham; Liam Kennedy was chosen to fill the Chair in Dublin; Peter Stoneley is now Professor at Reading; John Dumbrell has moved to a Professorship at Leicester University; Tim Woods has been elevated to Professor at Aberystwyth; and Heidi Macpherson has been promoted to Reader at Central Lancashire. Des King has been elected a Fellow of the British Academy; Janet Beer became Chair of the Council of University Deans of Arts and Humanities; Philip Davies was elected to the Pilgrims, and to the chair of the UK Council of Area Studies Associations; and Esther Jubb and Andy Wroe became the new Chair and Vice Chair of the American Politics Group. Richard Carwardine became the first UK scholar to win the Lincoln Prize, America’s most generous award in the field of US history, for his book Lincoln. Simon Newman’s book Embodied History shared the 2004 American Studies Network prize for the best American Studies book published in Europe, with Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones’s Cloak and Dollar picked out as another excellent entry in this year’s competition.
PD also noted the passing of several important American Studies colleagues over the last year, including Kate Fullbrook, Richard Maidment, Philip Taylor, and Esmond Wright.
PD reported that BAAS supports its members in a number of ways, and this year, has awarded 10 STAs, 2 BAAS Graduate Teaching Assistantships, 2 Ambassador’s Award essay prizes, and the BAAS postgraduate essay prize; the total value of these prizes amounts to between £45,000 and £50,000. There is the possibility of further teaching assistantships at other US universities, and PD thanked the members of BAAS who had volunteered their time anonymously as judges, as well as the Arthur Miller Centre at the University of East Anglia for the Arthur Miller Prize; and to the Universities of Virginia and New Hampshire and Peter Boyle, for the Graduate Assistantships. He also noted that this year, the Eccles Lecture has joined the established Journal of American Studies / Cambridge University Press Lecture in recognising a scholar of special distinction. A number of invited schoolteacher fellows have been able to attend the conference, supported by the US Embassy. The United States Embassy in London have been good friends to BAAS, and to American Studies in the United Kingdom.
PD finished his report by acknowledging the growth of BAAS over the 6 years of his tenure as chair. The conferences have expanded, information flow is improved (through the website, e-list and ASIB); publications with BAAS connections are of high quality (the Journal of American Studies, the British Records Relating to America in Microform continues, the BAAS paperbacks series at EUP and US Studies Online), and membership has increased to around 550 with potential for further growth. He also publicly acknowledge the support of the 31 BAAS members who have served on the Executive Committee during his tenure (Janet Beer, Celeste-Marie Bernier, Kasia Boddy, Hugh Brogan, Susan Castillo, Kathryn Cooper, Judie Davies, Dick Ellis, Mick Gidley, Paul Giles, Richard Gray, Richard Hinchcliffe, Jay Kleinberg, Allan Lloyd Smith, Heidi Macpherson, Mike McDonnell, Vivien Miller, Catherine Morley, Simon Newman, Ian Ralston, Ian Scott, Nick Selby, Carol Smith, Douglas Tallack, Graham Thompson, Peter Thompson, Jenel Virden, Iain Wallace, Andy Watts, Karen Wilkinson, and Tim Woods) and the conference organizing teams at Glasgow, Swansea, Keele, Oxford, Aberystwyth, and Manchester, as well as many others who offer their service less publicly.
The Secretary provided an update on last year’s debate about restricting STA awards and other prizes to members of BAAS. After a long correspondence with the Charity Commission, it was found that BAAS could favour applications from BAAS members without needing to change the Constitution, but that any further restriction would invalidate one of our main tenets as a charity. It was thus decided that the phrase “Preference may be given to BAAS members” would be inserted into the guidance notes.
Conferences: Tim Woods reported that the principal business of the Conference Subcommittee is to oversee forthcoming conferences. He offered a formal vote of thanks to Sarah MacLachlan and the team at MMU who organized the 2004 conference. It was one of the largest conferences BAAS has ever had, with several plenaries, and many papers of a wide range of interest. Next year’s conference will be at Robinson College, Cambridge, 14-17 April. There is a CFP in the conference handbook. The 2005 conference will be a major affair for BAAS, and a special subcommittee has been established , with Jenel Virden working closely with the Conference subcommittee to prepare for the 50th anniversary event. The 2006 conference will be held at Kent, with George Conyne organizing it; details have yet to be finalized. Beyond that, there have been expressions of interest for 2007 and 2008, again with details yet to be finalized. News will then be distributed via BAAS website and other means.
Publications: Janet Beer reported that it has been a busy hear for the Publications Subcommittee. Ken Morgan continues to work hard as the editor of BRRAM, and is hoping to contract a project on the Civil War. Further installments of Liverpool Customs Bills of Entry are being released over the course of the year, and two projects currently receiving attention are the Nathaniel Phillips Papers and the Edward Long Collection. Some additional manuscripts have been deposited at the Merseyside Maritime Museum that supplement the existing BRRAM on the Davenport Papers—the records of a Liverpool slave-trading firm. These are currently being catalogued, though it may take another year before it is complete. The market for series is mainly based on standing orders in US, which are declining slightly. Ken Morgan would welcome suggestion from BAAS members on how to increase the profile of BRRAM and suggestions for future projects. JB reported that the EUP BAAS series is flourishing. Carol Smith and Simon Newman are the joint editors and they work well with Nicola Carr. EUP is happy with current sales figures and co-publishing agreements. There are books under contract on the Civil Rights Movement, immigration, and the Civil War, amongst others. Members with interests in literature, cultural studies or film should contact CS in the first instance, whilst members with interest in politics, history or the social sciences should contact SN. Alternatively, members can approach EUP directly if they wish, but the editors do offer good advice to prospective authors. JB also reported on the ASIB and the website, both of which have Graham Thompson as editor and both of which are thriving. GT welcomes any suggestions for articles about American Studies topics in the ASIB. The website had some server difficulties this year, but nonetheless averages 160 unique visitors a day, and close to 200 per day in the run up to the conference. The Newsletter is the most popular resource (48% of visitors), and the second most popular part of the site is the US newspaper database (13%). The website conforms to priority one requirements of the new disability guidelines, and GT will review further changes this summer. JB offered her own thanks to GT and the AGM offered applause for GT. JB reported that JAS will be delighted that the membership has decided to include subscriptions. There are currently around 100 articles a year being submitted, and the editors would welcome more. There are also a number of books for review, and a list of available books is on the website. JB noted that the new editor of US Studies on line is Catherine Morley, and that a special issue was devoted to the Glasgow postgraduate conference held in November. Finally, JB announced that this was her last report as Publications Subcommittee chair, because she was standing down from the committee, but that she enjoyed working with the association, from 1997 as treasurer, and then from 2000-04 as an Executive Committee Member. JB urged members to put themselves forward for the Committee, as it was a wonderful opportunity to be involved with American Studies.
Development: Simon Newman reported that the Development Subcommittee had also had a busy year, particularly in relation to government agendas. The subcommittee had responded to HEFCE’s invitations to contribute to the Roberts Report, and will now be responding to the set up of RAE panels. In addition, the subcommittee has administered BAAS’s prizes and awards, and SN offered thanks to all those who do the judging. The subcommittee has worked hard on a new School Teachers Initiative, which had support of the US Embassy and the State Department. Kath Cooper, the teacher’s representative, Ian Scott, and Ian Ralston have been instrumental in this project, which includes working on resources for school teachers teaching American Studies. The subcommittee also advises the Executive on providing financial support for regional or postgraduate conferences, or schools’ conferences; members are advised to contact SN for more information. The subcommittee is also very involved in plans for the 50th anniversary celebration, with JV as the main contact person. A number of events are planned for the upcoming year.
Libraries and Resources: Ian Ralston reported on the success of the US newspapers database, and offered thanks to Kevin Halliwell and GT for their work. The subcommittee is looking for ways to continue to develop. IR reported on the upcoming “Cultural Artefacts and American Studies” conference, which will be held June 15th at the Rothermere Institute. IR has copies of the booking form and GT will post details on website; information is already available on the American Studies and STAR websites. There will be sessions from colleagues on a Native American photograph project, the immigrant experience, slavery, and theme parks as artefacts, and IR thanks the Embassy for making the conference possible. IR also reported that there is a proposal to make the BLARS Newsletter an annual newsletter, rather than a biannual one and to extend the content to make it directly valuable to a wider readership. IR noted the resignation Duncan Heyes and has made plans to contact his replacement to serve on the subcommittee.
EAAS: JV reported that the Prague conference had been a success, and that EAAS currently has a total of 4300 members from 19 other associations plus BAAS. EAAS is committed to European editions of national association journals, which are available to all members of EAAS at a reduced rate. This year’s edition is from the French association, and the title of the special issue is “Stemming the Mississippi”; JV has details, but they can be ordered for 9 euros. Future editions are planned from the journals connected with the Turkish and Italian associations. JV urged members to become familiar with the EAAS website and use it as a first point of call. It has recently been revamped and improved and is accessible on www.eaas.info. EAAS may be increasing the number of its member associations; this is currently under review, along with its statutes. The 2006 conference will be held in Cyprus, from 7-10 April, in order to launch its new American Studies programme. There are competing bids from Oslo and Moscow for the 2008 conference. The 2004 conference had 373 registered participants, but only 36 postgraduates. This conference marked the 50th anniversary of EAAS and many references were made to the 1954 Salzburg conference. Next year, the EAAS Board meeting is at Cambridge just prior to the BAAS conference (EAAS meets every year, but have a conference every other year). The new president of EAAS is Marc Chenetier of France and the new Treasurer is Hans-Jurgen Grabbe of Germany, who will serve until 2008. JV reported that the EAAS Grants for postgraduate scholars received matching funds of $12,000 from Fulbright, DC. The Graz conference proceedings are now out, priced 20 euros, and entitled “Nature’s Nation Revisited.” Finally, JV reported on the EAAS newsletter, which has had distribution problems this year. JV promised to write a full report in ASIB on the matter.
AOB:
1. Alan Rice had two items of other business. He reported that the AMATAS project received continuation money from HEFCE, to carry on until October into English subject area. AMATAS has had two min conferences this year, one at Senate House and sponsored by the English Subject Centre, and one at UWE in Bristol; a final conference is scheduled for September 10th in Warwick and will concentrate on pre-1865 transatlantic panels. AR has plans to put information on literature and the transatlantic on the AMATAS website over the summer.
2. AR also reported on the Slave Trade Arts Memorial Project in Lancaster (STAMP). Lancaster was the 4th largest slave port in Britain. STAMP has received £60,000 from the Millennium Commission for a memorial; they are about to commission artists and will send workshops into schools; This is an exciting dynamic project. AR distributed bookmarks on the project.
3. SN offered his thanks to Phil Davies, the outgoing chair, publicly noting how hard he has worked for the interests of members. This was followed by a sustained round of applause, and the AGM closed.
BAAS Requests
BAAS Database of External Examiners
The Secretary of BAAS, Heidi Macpherson, holds a list of potential external examiners. If individuals would like to put their names forward for this list, please email her on hrsmacpherson@uclan.ac.uk. Include the following information, in list form if possible:
Name and title
Affiliation with complete contact details including address, telephone, fax, and email Externalling experience (with dates if appropriate)
Current externalling positions (with end dates)
Research interests (short descriptions only)
By providing this information, you agree to it being passed on to universities who are seeking an external for American Studies or a related discipline. Should you wish your name to be removed in the future, please contact the Secretary.
Any university representative interested in receiving the list should also contact the Secretary. BAAS only acts as a holder of the list; it does not “matchmake”.
Paper copies can also be requested by sending a letter to:
Dr. Heidi Macpherson
BAAS Secretary
Department of Humanities (Fylde 425)
University of Central Lancashire
Preston PR1 2HE
EUP/BAAS Series
The Edinburgh University Press /BASS book series continues to be a vibrant success in publishing books in all areas of American Studies in Britain with co-publishing deals in America. Recent publications are The Civil Rights Movment, Mark Newman and The Vietnam War in History, Literature and Film, Mark Taylor. Forthcoming are The Twenties in America, Niall Palmer, The Civil War in American Culture, Will Kaufman and Contemporary Native American Literature, Rebecca Tillett.
The series editors (Simon Newman – S.Newman@history.glas.ac.uk and Carol Smith – Carol.Smith@winchester.ac.uk ) welcome new proposals at any time. They will be happy to advise and shape proposals and are particularly seeking books on the American short story, American music (all types) and the American city and its representations.
Letter to the Editor
Your latest editorial points to a recent if cyclical decline in American Studies in UK universities, suggesting this may be accounted for by a trend back to “traditional” disciplines offered to A-level students, and not by any advance of anti-Americanism amongst British students, as put forward by Polly Toynbee in The Guardian.
Perhaps what you say is borne out by our recent experience in Historical Studies at Bristol. Last year we experienced a remarkable surge of interest in student numbers amongst 2nd-3rd-years for US outline history from post-Reconstruction to the 1990s, and our American special units have also done well. Indeed, we had to lay on additional seminars to fit everyone in. We alternate this unit each year with USA TILL 1877, so in the present year the American history we are teaching is not modern. All the same, we had more than the expected numbers and an additional seminar had to be put in place.
I do think the current interest in or fascination with the history of the United States may very well have something to do with 9/11 and with George W Bush, the most controversial president in years, though this does not wholly account for the popularity of the earlier period. But rather than detecting anti-Americanism amongst our students, I tend to find them biased against Bush and his administration whilst sensibly not mixing these feelings up with the country as such. Indeed, in one of my seminar groups nearly half had spent periods of time or gap years in the US and had come away fascinated as well as enthusiastic about the warmth and hospitality of ordinary Americans they had met. The proportion of undergraduates spending some time in the United States would appear to increase year by year, which might also help explain their interest in its history.
Quite why we should find US history so popular here, while the more interdisciplinary American Studies fares less well generally (we do incorporate cultural and literary elements into our teaching), I cannot imagine, unless it is because, as you suggest, A-level students are not being given the opportunity to assess the possibilities of interdisciplinary studies, or simply that whilst interest in history per se remains constant, or is even on the increase, interest in interdisciplinary approaches is more difficult to sustain.
Brian Miller
EAAS News
The EAAS newsletter has now officially gone ‘on-line.’ From now on any BAAS member can access the EAAS newsletter at the website: http://www.eaas.info
I encourage BAAS members to check the website regularly for all official deadline notices for EAAS conferences, book awards, travel awards, etc. It just is not possible to get all the deadlines coordinated in such a way for them to appear in full detail in the BAAS newsletter, ASIB.
As noted above the website is at http://www.eaas.info. The webmaster is Hans-Jurgen Grabbe at grabbe@eaas.info and the newsletter itself is produced by EAAS vice president Gulriz Buken and she is reachable at buken@eaas.info as well.
The most recent news is the establishment of an EAAS archive at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. Walter Hoelbling and Hans-Jurgen Grabbe helped to set up the archive and they are currently asking that any past member of EAAS who has any relevant information please forward it to the archive at:
Zentrum fur USA-Studien
Stiftung Leucorea, EAAS-Archiv
Attn: Ms. Angelika Krieser
Collegienstr. 62
06886 Lutherstadt Wittenberg
Germany
Conference
The 2006 EAAS conference is scheduled to be held in Cyprus. The deadline for submission of workshop proposals for the 2006 EAAS conference has already passed (31 January 2005). The next deadline associated with the conference is for submission of individual proposals of papers to workshop chairs. The names of chairs and list of workshops will be produced in the May 2005 ASE (American Studies in Europe) newsletter on-line at the above web address. It will then be necessary for any workshop paper proposals to be submitted to workshop chairs. Information about this and inquires can be addressed to Ole O. Moen, Secretary General, at moen@eaas.info
Other EAAS deadlines include the submission of applications to the travel grants of EAAS by March 1, 2005. Look on the website for forms and information about applications. There are two travel grants on offer. One is for Transatlantic Grants to universities in the United States for from 3 to 8 weeks for PhD students. The other is an Intra-European grant for study at American Studies Centres or Universities in Europe for postgraduate students doing an MA or PhD by research. Please consult the website for details.
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Website
You may be aware that the ESRC currently has two websites – www.esrc.ac.uk and www.regard.ac.uk. From April, these two sites will be combined to produce a new broader resource for social science research called ‘ESRC Society Today’.
As well as featuring all the information from the previous websites, ESRC Society Today will offer academics, students and researchers free access to a wealth of social science research. It will include all ESRC-funded research, and act as a gateway to other online resources such as Social Science Information Gateway and Social Science Research Network. It will include early findings, full texts and original data sets, and allow users to take part in online discussion fora. In short, ESRC Society Today is set become a major new online resource and will benefit users from across the academic spectrum.
Travel Award Reports
Paul Edwards, University of Nottingham
I would like to thank the British Association for American Studies for awarding me a 2004 short term travel grant, which I used to fund research into the Victor Gruen Collection at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. Gruen was an Austrian born architect and planner, who did the majority of his work in America between 1950 and 1968. He is perhaps most famous as the founder of the shopping mall, but also undertook a variety of urban planning and environmental projects. My own research focuses on the work of Victor Gruen as part of an intellectual and cultural history of the origins of the American shopping mall.
As a side trip on my way to D.C., I presented on the built work of Gruen at the American Studies Association conference in the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Atlanta. With its spectacular lobby ascending the complete height of the hotel and interior balconies leading to the rooms, it called to mind Fredric Jameson’s famous discussion of the “post-modern” Bonaventure hotel in Los Angeles. Indeed, the Hyatt Regency shares the same architect as the Bonaventure, John Portman. At least it proved relatively straightforward to find my way in. The conference itself was as impressively huge in size with more than 3,000 delegates. I attended a number of interesting debates including a fascinating one on the impact of (British) Cultural studies on the field of American studies, managed my own presentation with a measure of coherency despite suffering jetlag, met a wide range of “Americanists” from various fields and even visited the house in which Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone with the Wind.
However, the real work began when I arrived in D.C. Unfortunately, rather than the monumental, turn-of-the-century, faux-Renaissance Thomas Jefferson Reading Room (which all the tourists go to see) my work was done in the Manuscript Division of the James Madison Building, completed in 1980. After negotiating the daily security checks, along with their interminable waits, I spent 10 days sitting in a darkened room examining the extensive papers of Victor Gruen. Amongst interesting correspondence were letters from Jane Jacobs and J.K. Galbraith as well as a wide-range of material concerning the construction of Gruen’s most famous shopping malls, including the first “cluster” shopping complex at Northland in Detroit and the world’s first indoor shopping mall at Southdale in the suburbs of Minneapolis. All of this added greatly to my knowledge and understanding of the work of Victor Gruen as well as adding fascinating insights into his thinking and approach to the architecture profession. For his help whilst there I would like to thank most especially Patrick Kerwin, a reference librarian in the Manuscript Division.
While in D.C., I took advantage of the (free) sites to catch up on my constitutional history and American art, where the George Bellows paintings at the National Gallery of Art were particularly impressive viewed in person. On my one voluntary afternoon off from the archives, I attended a fascinating seminar organised by the American Studies department at George Washington University, on “Race, Uneven Development and the Geography of Opportunity in Urban America,” where I met several American urbanists, who added to my knowledge of the intricacies of U.S. housing policy. All of my experiences whilst in the States added greatly to my appreciation of urban issues both contemporary and historical and, along with the material obtained from the Gruen Collection made for a successful trip. Once again, I would like to express my gratitude to the British Association for American Studies for making such a trip possible.
Mariko Iijima, Oxford University
From 1st September to 1st December 2004, I stayed in Hawaii to do fieldwork and to obtain literary sources at University of Hawaii, Manoa for my PhD thesis. Thanks to your financial and academic support, my research turned out to be very productive and successful. I am sure that the research in Hawai‘i made me ready to start writing the thesis for the completion of my PhD degree.
My PhD thesis entitled ‘Twice Migrant: The Japanese Coffee Farmers in Kona, Hawai‘i’ examines the formation and transformations of the Japanese community in the coffee-producing district of Kona, the Island of Hawai‘i. Because of a great influence and prosperity of both sugar and pineapple industries, most research on the social and immigration history of Hawai‘i have focused on these two industries. Despite the fact that the Japanese and other immigrant groups have been engaged in the Kona coffee industry for more than 100 years, little research has conducted on the industry and its society partly because of its small-scale production of coffee.
There were two main purposes for my visit to Hawai‘i. First one was to obtain resources at the Hamilton Library at University of Hawaii, Manoa. The Hamilton holds an excellent collection on the Hawaiian coffee and the Kona community. I found some books and documents which had not been used for academic research and I am very much excited about analyzing them for my thesis. Also, it had a large collection of the local newspapers and magazines, which carries the articles focusing on the industry and the society in Kona in various perspectives such as business, agriculture, and culture.
In addition, during my 2-month stay at University of Hawaii, I had an opportunity to deliver a paper at Department of Ethnic Studies. Since most of the audience was interested in the race and ethnicity in the Hawaiian Islands, they raised interesting questions and constructive comments. These questions and comments were very much to the point, which would be very help for the revision of my thesis. Besides, some of the professors offered to give me more advice for the rest of my thesis.
The other purpose was to do fieldwork in Kona. I spent one month there and interviewed around 20 coffee farmers. Half of them are called old-timers, who are the descendants of the Japanese immigrants arrived to Kona at the beginning of the 20th century and the other half are called new-comers, who are mainly made up of the retired people from the US mainland. From the interviews with them, I found out that there was a political, economical, and ethnic separation between the old-timers and new comers. This discovery was crucial in writing my thesis, which specifically focuses on the transformation of the Japanese community in the 20th century. Therefore, I decided to add a new chapter describing the recent demographic change caused by the influx of the US mainlanders, ‘new-comers’ brings several important changes in the coffee industry and community in Kona.
During my stay in Kona, at the beginning of November, I had an opportunity to attend the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival. The Festival, which last 10 days, is organised by local farmers in order to promote the Kona coffee and to introduce the history of the coffee farmers. Interestingly enough, a great majority of the organisers were the Japanese old coffee farmers. They are keen on the preservation of their life style on coffee farms and proud of their history and culture at their host land. Through the observation of the Festival, I saw the active presence of the Japanese in the cultural and social sphere, albeit their decreasing population. This is also to be an interesting and important topic that I would like to explore in my thesis.
I can conclude that my research trip to Hawaii was ended with a great success because I obtained not only useful information but also inspiring ideas for my thesis. I believe that the success is not to be achieved without the support from the British Association of American Studies. Again, I would like to express my warmest gratitude for your support and encouragement.
Congress to Campus UK—2004
The ‘Congress to Campus’ programme had never left the USA before the 2003 visit to the UK, organised by the Eccles Centre for American Studies. That visit was successful enough to gain mention in the Congressional Record, and to prompt the US-based programme to plan Congress to Campus visits to other international locations, starting with Germany, based on the UK model. They also made a very successful return visit to the UK.
This year the visiting former Congressmen – Jack Buechner (Republican – Missouri; President of the US Association of Former Members of Congress) and Dennis Hertel (Democrat – Michigan) – met audiences made up of A-level students, undergraduates, postgraduates, teachers, diplomats and government officials. The week-long programme brought them into contact with a total of around 750 people, providing a very effective series of events to a wide variety of audiences interested in US politics. The visiting congressmen donated their time, and support was received from the US Embassy, the British Association for American Studies, The Eccles Centre for American Studies, and each of the institutions hosting part of the week.
Over 150 A level students and their teachers attended a day-long conference at the British Library in which the two former Members of the US Congress were teh central particpants. The imminence of the US election heightened interest, and prompted energetic debate between the visiting speakers, their audiences and panels of participating British academics. The topics covered included the US presidency, the operations of the US congress, the importance of the Supreme Court, and the significance of foreign policy in this election year.
Professor Philip Davies of the Eccles Centre and the visiting former Congressmen spoke at conferences organised along similar lines, and held at University College, Northampton, and at De Montfort University, Leicester. They also gave presentations at the University of Leicester, Nottingham University, and were the main speakers at a dinner discussion in London sponsored by the Europe-Atlantic Group.
Philip Davies
BAAS in the North West
Following the creation of the BAAS North West Group in the summer a programme of research seminars has been organized for the academic year 2004-2005. The first of these, a paper by Will Kaufman (University of Central Lancashire) on ‘Paddy’s Lamentation: Ireland and the American Civil War’ was held at the University of Manchester on Wednesday 13 October. In a lively talk examining historical representations of Irish Americans in popular culture and their attitudes towards race and slavery Will focused on a variety of source materials, including film, literature and music and brought the latter to life with a rendition of popular ballads of the time. Wine and light refreshments organized by Ian Scott (University of Manchester) with the help of funding from BAAS rounded off a highly enjoyable evening.
After this successful beginning two further events are already planned for 2005:
From 5.30-7-00pm on Wednesday 23 February Mike Morris and a team of fellow research students working under the supervision of Ian Ralston at John Moores University will be screening their film documentary ‘The Cunard Yanks’ in Lecture Theatre 5 of the Geoffrey Manton Building at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU).
From 1.00-6.00pm on Friday 13 May a joint BAAS North West/Caribbean Research Seminar in the North (CRSN) half-day seminar on The Americas will be held in The Adelphi Conference Room at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN). Provisional speakers/papers include:
James Dunkerley (Institute for the Study of the Americas) ‘Americana: Some Reflections on Time and Modernity in the Americas’.
George McKay (UCLAN) ‘Caribbean Jazz Musicians in Britain’.
Charles Forsdick (Liverpool) ‘Transatlantic and Pan-American Visual Images of Toussaint L’Overture’
Many thanks to Sarah MacLachlan (MMU) and Alan Rice (UCLAN) respectively for their work in organizing the above, and also to BAAS for its continued funding contributions.
For further details of either event contact:
Kevern Verney
History Department
Edge Hill College of Higher Education
St Helens Road
ORMSKIRK
Lancashire
L39 4QP
E-mail: Verneyk@ehche.ac.uk
Conference and Seminar Announcements
Nationalism and National Identities in the Americas
A symposium of the 52nd International Congress of Americanists Seville, Spain July 17-21, 2006, sponsored by A R E N A: Association for Research in Ethnicity and Nationalism in the Americas
ARENA, a new international organization, invites proposals for a symposium focusing on nationalism and national identity in the Americas. Our symposium will be open to a wide range of subjects and methodologies involving all nations of the Americas, but we are especially interested in comparative, transnational approaches to subjects of particular relevance to the formation of nations in the Americas:
The Americas and the trans-Atlantic exchange of ideas and models
Independence and liberation movements
Nation-building and state construction: integration, unification, ethnic autonomy, and secession
Nationalism and national identity in multi-ethnic immigrant nations
Nationalism as a plural and contested identity
The American nations of the New Millennium: plurality, sexual diversity, multiculturalism, democracy and recognition
Deadline: February 21, 2005 (preliminary round).
Final Deadline: September 15, 2005.
Send proposals of 500 words (English, Spanish, Portuguese, or French) and a curriculum vitae to: ARENA@sc.edu
Coordinators:
Don H. Doyle, University of South Carolina, USA don.doyle@sc.edu
Natividad Gutiérrez Chong, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, nativid@servidor.unam.mx
Marco Antonio Villela Pamplona, Universidade Federal Fluminense e Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. pamplona@rdc.puc-rio.br
For further information on ICA 52, see: http://www.52ica.com/index.html For further information on ARENA, see: http://www.cas.sc.edu/arena For Spanish and Portuguese versions of this announcement, see:
http://www.cas.sc.edu/arena/CFPSPANISH.htm or http://www.cas.sc.edu/arena/CFPPORTUGUESE.htm
2005 Annual Conference of the Society for the History of Technology
The Society for the History of Technology will hold its annual meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 3-6, 2005. This year’s SHOT meeting is co-located with the History of Science Society. We hope members of both societies will take advantage of this opportunity to explore topics that cut across disciplinary boundaries in ways that could benefit both HSS and SHOT scholarship. Please note that applicants should submit proposals to one organization (SHOT or HSS) only.
Conference web site:
http://shot.press.jhu.edu/Annual_Meeting/Annual_Meeting_Main_Page.htm
The Program Committee is seeking proposals for both individual papers and complete
panels. In particular, the committee welcomes proposals from those new to SHOT who
believe that an engagement with history can help their own work, regardless of discipline.
The deadline for proposals is March 15, 2005.
Because the 2004 meeting was held outside the U.S., those who participated at SHOT-Amsterdam are eligible to participate at Minneapolis.
SHOT proposal rules exclude multiple submissions, i.e. submitting more than one individual paper proposal, or proposing both an individual paper and a paper as part of a session. You may both propose a paper and comment on or chair a session.
Themes:
The Committee wants to make clear that proposals on any topic are welcome. This year we are particularly interested in attracting proposals that focus on the following themes, all broadly
defined:
1. Theory, Methodology, and Historiography
2. Technologies of the Everyday: Users and Use
3. Food Technology or Technology and Food
We are interested in session proposals that team established and younger scholars, or scholars who would not ordinarily work together; we especially would like proposals that included scholars from disciplines and sub-disciplines not ordinarily partnered with History of Technology. Multinational, international, and cross-institutional sessions are also desirable.
Again, papers and sessions that take advantage of the co-location with History of Science Society are encouraged.
We also are seeking individual paper proposals for “works in progress” sessions from both junior and senior scholars (including graduate students, chaired faculty, and independent
scholars) who would benefit from a less formal presentation, no formal comment, and greater than normal audience participation. Please indicate specifically if you are submitting a proposal for these sessions.
The committee wants to encourage non-conventional sessions, that is, presentation formats that vary in useful ways from the typical three/four papers with comment. For example, session in which there is no formal comment; sessions at which the presenters do not read their papers but give less formal presentations followed by extensive audience participation; workshops, roundtable discussions, or other “experimental” arrangements. If any special requirements are anticipated, please include that in the proposal, though these should be kept to a minimum.
Paper abstracts, whether part of a panel or individual submission, should clearly indicate the specific topic, argument(s) made, and evidence base used. Panel abstracts should clearly state how individual papers contribute to the session’s overall theme.
Panel proposals that are sponsored by any SHOT Special Interest Group should clearly indicate this.
Proposals for individual papers must include:
1) a one-page abstract;
2) a one-page curriculum vitae.
Proposals for complete sessions must include:
1) a description of the session’s theme;
2) a list of the presenter’s names and paper titles;
3) a one-page abstract and one-page c.v. for each of the presenters;
4) a one-page c.v. for the commentator (if any), chair, and session organizer (if s/he is not one of the session’s panelists).
This year, submissions to the SHOT Annual Meeting will be handled electronically; please see http://www.shotprogram.org for submission procedures and instructions.
Labor, Solidarity and Organizations
Twenty-Seventh Annual North American Labor History Conference Wayne State University, October 20-22, 2005
The Program Committee of the North American Labor History Conference invites proposals for sessions and papers on “Labor, Solidarity and Organizations” for our twenty-seventh annual meeting. 2005 marks several milestones in labor history, most notably the centenary of the founding of the Industrial Workers of the World. In addition, 2005 is the one-hundreth anniversary of the 1905 Russian Revolution and the sixtieth anniversary of the 1905 Russian Revolution and the sixtieth anniversary of the end of World War II. All of these events represent milestones for labor movements and organizations that strongly shaped modern working-class experiences.
In order to mark these events, the North American Labor History Conference invites papers that will explore the history, impact and meaning of these events–the founding of the IWW, the 1905 Revolution and the ending of WWII–as well as the broader process of unionization and organization.
The program committee encourages comparative and interdisciplinary scholarship from a range of national and international c ontexts, the integration of public historians and community and labor activists into conference sessions, and the use of differing sessions formats (workshops, roundtable discussions, and multimedia as well as traditional panels). It encourages sessions that address the theme from perspectives of gender, race, ethnicity, and sexuality.
Please submit panel and paper proposals (including a 1-2 page abstract and brief vitae or biographical statement for all participants) by March 1st,
2005 to:
Professor Janine Lanza, Coordinator, North American Labor History Conference Department of History, 3094 Faculty Administration Building
Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202
Phone: 313/577-2525; Fax: 313/577-6987
Email: aol605@wayne.edu
The North American Labor History Conference is sponsored by the Department of History, the Walter Reuther Library, the College of Liberal ARts, and the College of Urban, Labor, and Metropolitan Affairs, Wayne State University, and the Labor and Working Class History Association.
Contesting Public Memories
An Interdisciplinary Conference, Syracuse University, October 7th-9th, 2005 (tentative date- to be confirmed in January 2005)
The “Contesting Public Memories” conference seeks to expand the broad interdisciplinary conversation about public memory. Conference organizers invite submissions focusing on the dynamic interplay between and around public memories. While the conference theme is designed to be broad and inclusive, our sense of the contention of public memories includes: efforts to resist, resurrect memories, or redefine memories, etc. This broad theme, in turn, is organized around three sub-themes: Place, Event, Person. Within these sub-themes, we envision topics ranging from theoretical to practical, and from global to local. The conference is organized by faculty from a wide-range of disciplines, including: African American Studies, Architecture, Art, Communication Studies, English, Geography, History, Latino/ Latin American Studies, Philosophy, Religion, and Writing.
(Tentative) Scheduled Plenary Speakers:
Urvashi Butalia, Univ. of New Delhi, author of The Other Side of Silence
Robert Hariman, Northwestern University, author of Political Style
John Lucaites, Indiana University, author of Crafting “Equality”
Vera Schwarcz, Wesleyan University, author of Bridge Across Broken Time
Carrie Mae Weems, Artist in Residence at Syracuse University.
Contesting Public Memories also plans to feature a Carrie Mae Weems exhibition entitled, “In Desperate Pursuit: The Failure of Memory” and a screening of films by Bill Morrison with live musical performance of Michael Gordon’s score.
The conference will include plenary sessions and competitive panels. For possible inclusion in these panel sessions, abstracts of approximately 400 words should be submitted by April 1, 2005 to:
Kendall R. Phillips
Conference Organizer
Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies
Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY 13244-1230
USA
For more info see our website: http://vpa.syr.edu/crs/memories.htm
For planning purposes, those intending to submit a proposal are encouraged to contact the Conference Organizer as soon as possible.
For info on SU’s 2001 Framing Public Memory conference, visit the Univ. of Alabama Press website: http://www.uapress.ua.edu/NewSearch2.cfm?id=132476
New Members
Nicola Adcock is a postgraduate student at the University of Central Lancashire and her research interest are Chinese American women writers and Dr. Seuss.
Henrietta Aitken is a postgraduate student at St. Hilda’s College Oxford. Her research interest is early Cold War culture and politics.
Kaleem Ashraf is a PhD student at the University of Sheffield where he is working on the representation of the creole in the fictional dialogues of Richard Wright.
Victoria Blunden is a PhD student at the University of Sussex.
James Burton is a PhD student at the University of Nottingham. He is writing his doctoral thesis on cinematic representations of the Vietnam War-era produced suring the period of the culture wars (specifically 1988-1995).
Rachel Cohen is a PhD student at Brunel University.
Martin Dines is a PhD student at Kingston University working on gay suburban narratives in American film, fiction and activist literature.
Marta Vizcaya Echano recently submitted her doctoral thesis at the Univesrity of York. Her main area of interest is US ethnic literature.
Sam Edwards is a PhD student at the University of Lancaster currently researching the American commemoration of the Second World War.
Patrick Flack is a PhD student at the University of Cambridge currently working on race relations in early inter-war Detroit.
Natalie Goldstraw is a postgraduate student at Keele University. Her research interests are American modernist literature, especially William Faulkner.
David Gooblar is a PhD student at UCL. He is writing his dissertation on the fiction of Philip Roth.
Alex Goodall is a final year PhD student at the University of Cambridge working on a thesis entitled “Aspects of the Emergence of American Anticommunism, 1919-1949”.
Benjamin Goose is a student at Wisbech Grammar School and is applying to universities to undertake a degree in American Studies.
Karen Heath is an MPhil student at the University of Cambridge where she is working on George Bush and the Right, 1988-92.
John Hensley is a doctoral candidate at St. Louis University. He is also Curator-Archivist for the Winston Churchill Memorial and Library at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. His research interests are race, class and gender in popular culture and visual culture.
Katie Howell is currently studying for a joint honours American Studies and History degree at Brunel University.
Neanat Imam teaches American Studies at Jahangirnagar University in Bangladesh and researches in the fields of ethnicity, ethnic politics and twentieth century American theatre.
Cathia Jenainati is a lecturer in the English department at the University of Warwick. Her research interests are mainly in the fields of French feminist literary theory, contemporary Canadian writing in English and French and nineteenth and twentieth century US writing by women.
Deirdre Johns is a PhD student at the University of Exeter where she is working on twentieth century African American women’s protest writing during the 1950s and 60s.
Joseph Kennedy is undertaking doctoral work on F.O. Matthiessen’s writing of national identity at the University of Sussex.
Emma Kimberley is a PhD student at the University of Leicester researching the relationship between painting and contemporary American poetry, focusing especially on the work of Mark Doty, Jorie Graham, Charles Wright and Mark Strand.
Nicole King is a lecturer at the University of California, San Diego. Her research interests include black US literature and culture, Caribbean literature, postcolonialism and black diaspora studies.
Rachel Lister is a PhD student at Durham University. Her research interests are the modern American short story, gender and ethnicity, regionalism and form.
Alan Lowe is an MA student at Manchester Metropolitan Uni versity. His research interests include the Civil War period and William H. Seward.
Sarah Megson works in Quality Assurance at the University of Kent and hopes to begin a PhD in the next few years. Her main areas of interest are American political and social history.
Catalina Neculai is a postgraduate Research Fellow at The University of Warwick working on a doctoral project tentatively entitled “Urban Regime Transformation and Cultural Production in New York City, 1970s-1990s”.
Robert Phillips is a postgraduate student whose primary research interest is in Jack Kerouac and his literary companions.
Steven Pope is Senior Lecturer in American history at the University of Lincoln. His current research interest is leaisure travel and motoring in the US and Britain from the 1920s to the 1950s.
Sarah Roberts is a PhD student at Oxford Brookes University and is working on H.D. and the muse.
Yvonne Ryan is a PhD student at the University of East Anglia. The subject of her thesis is Roy Wilkins and the NAACP.
Adrian Smith is a doctoral student at the University of Nottingham working on the folk music, authenticity and the Left.
Simon Turner is a PhD student at the University of Nottingham where he is working on the cultural reception of the Vietnam War.
Sue Tyrell is a postgraduate student at Keel University working on the cultural and political context of the plays of Tennessee Williams.
Molly Vaux received her PhD from the City University of New York where she completed her thesis on American novelists’ self-representation through their prefaces.
Denise Wells is a research student at University College Winchester working on a project titled “Thatcher, Reagan, Work and Identity”.
Paul Williams is a graduate student at the University of Exeter currently exploring the cultural ramifications of the threat of nuclear war in British and American representations.
Jacqueline Wilson is a PhD student at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, working on Chinese American women writers.
Members’ Publications
Sylvia Ellis, Britain, America, and the Vietnam War (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004) ISBN 0-275-97381-6, $74.95 Cloth
John A. Kirk, Martin Luther King, Jr. (Pearson/Longman, 2004)
Hazel Moffat, Your AffectionateBrother, Francis Ogley Thompson: A Yorkshire Emigrant’s Letters from Canada and the USA 1857-1864 (Doncaster: Buttercross Books, 2003). ISBN 1-903833-39-6
Members’ News
Multicultural American Literature by A. Robert Lee has been selected as a winner of the twenty-fifth annual American Book Awards for 2004.
Simon Newman has been awarded a British Academy Research Readership for 2005-2007, for the project “The transformation of working life and culture in the British Atlantic World, 1600-1800.”
BAAS Membership of Committees
BAAS Committee
BAAS Officers
The Association is administered by an elected committee (see below), including three officers:
Professor Simon Newman, Chair, Director, American Studies, Modern History, 2 University Gardens, Glasgow University, Glasgow G12 8QQ
Tel: 0141 330 3585
Fax: 0141 330 5000
E-Mail: simon.newman@baas.ac.uk
Dr. Nick Selby,* Treasurer, Department of English Literature, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ
Tel: 0141 330 8596
Fax: 0141 330 4601
E-Mail: N.Selby@englit.arts.gla.ac.uk
Dr Heidi Macpherson, Secretary, Department of Humanities, Fylde 42, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE
Tel: 01772 893039
Fax: 01772 892924
E-Mail: heidi.macpherson@baas.ac.uk
Executive Commitee (after 2004 AGM)
In addition to these three officers, the current committee line up of BAAS is:
Ms Kathryn Cooper, (Co-opted), Development Subcommittee, Loreto 6th Form College, Chicester Road, Manchester, M15 5PB
Tel: 0161 226 5156
Fax: 0161 227 9174
E-Mail: kathcooper@cwcom.net
Dr. Jude Davies, School of Cultural Studies, King Alfred’s College, Winchester, SO22 4NR
Tel: 01962 827363
E-Mail: Jude.Davies@wkac.ac.uk
Ms Clare Elliott,* Postgraduate Representative, Department of English Literature, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ
E-Mail: clare_baas@yahoo.co.uk
Professor Jay Kleinberg, (Ex-Officio), Editor, Journal of American Studies, School of International Studies, Brunel University, Kingston Lane, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 3PH
Tel: 0181 891 0121
Fax: 0181 891 8306
E-Mail: jay.kleinberg@baas.ac.uk
Dr Sarah MacLachlan, Department of English, Manchester Metropolitan University, Geoffrey Manton Building, Off Rosamond Street, Manchester, M15 6LL
Tel: 0161 247 1755
Fax: 0161 247 6345
E-Mail: S.MacLachlan@mmu.ac.uk
Ms. Catherine Morley, School of Humanities, Oxford Brookes University, Gipsy Lane Campus, Headington, OX3 OBP
E-Mail: catherine.morley@baas.ac.uk
Dr. Martin Padget, Department of English, University of Wales, Aberystwyth SY23 3DY
Tel: 01970 621948
Fax: 01970 622530
E-Mail: mtp@aber.ac.uk
Mr Ian Ralston, (Ex-Officio), Chair, Library & Resouces Subcommittee, American Studies Centre, Aldham Robarts Centre, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool L3 5UZ
Tel: 0151 231 3241
Fax: 0151 231 3241
E-Mail: I.Ralston@livjm.ac.uk
Dr Ian Scott, Department of English and American Studies, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL
Tel: 0161 275 3059
Fax: 0161 275 3256
E-Mail: ian.scott@baas.ac.uk
Ms Carol Smith,* School of Cultural Studies, King Alfred’s College, Winchester SO22 4NR
Tel: 0196 282 7370
E-Mail: Carol.Smith@wkac.ac.uk
Dr. Peter Thompson, St. Cross College, St Giles, Oxford, OX1 3LZ
Tel: 01865 278498
E-Mail: peter.thompson@stx.ox.ac.uk
Dr Graham Thompson,* School of American & Canadian Studies, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD
Tel: 0115 9514269
E-Mail: graham.thompson@baas.ac.uk
Dr Jenel Virden,* Representative to EAAS, Department of American Studies, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX
Tel: 01482 465638/303
Fax: 01482 466107
E-Mail: J.Virden@amstuds.hull.ac.uk
Professor Tim Woods, Department of English, Hugh Owen Building, Penglais, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales, SY23 3DY
Tel: 01970 622535
Fax: 01970 622530
E-Mail: tim.woods@baas.ac.uk
[* indicates this person not eligible for re-election to this position. All co-optations must be reviewed annually]
BAAS Sub-Committee Members
Development:
Dr Ian Scott (Chair)
Dr. Jude Davies
Ms Clare Elliott
Ms. Catherine Morley
Professor Simon Newman
Dr. Peter Thompson
Dr Iain Wallace
Publications:
Ms Carol Smith (Chair)
Ms Kathryn Cooper
Professor Jay Kleinberg
Dr Heidi Macpherson
Professor Ken Morgan
Dr Graham Thompson
Dr Jenel Virden
Conference:
Professor Tim Woods (Chair)
George Conyne
Ann Holton
Dr Sarah MacLachlan
Dr. Sarah Meer
Dr. Martin Padget
Dr. Nick Selby
Libraries and Resources:
Mr Ian Ralston (Chair)
Dr Kevin Halliwell