“Trump’s First 100 Days” Organiser’s report

[vc_row margin_bottom=”15″][vc_column][dt_banner image_id=”18999″ bg_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.12)” min_height=”270″][/dt_banner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]On Tuesday, 2 May, 2017 the Monroe Group at the University of Reading hosted a one-day conference to mark the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency. As well as recognising this milestone, the event also marked the launch of this research network. Comprised of figures from Reading’s Politics Department and its Department of History, the Monroe Group is dedicated to the study of history and politics in the Americas. The Reading Vice Chancellor’s Endowment Fund, as well as the British Association for American Studies generously sponsored the event.

The first event of the day was the keynote address by Professor Andrew Rudalevige of Bowdoin College (Maine, United States). Reviewing the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency, Rudalevige argued that the incumbent President has achieved short-term tangible results of little substance. In the case of his foreign policy, for example, Trump’s tough rhetoric belies that little action he has taken. Explaining this, Rudalevige speculates that Trump is hamstrung by a combination of the legacy of his predecessors and naivety on what the role of a politician entails.

Following on from this fascinating, insightful keynote was the first panel of the day, which placed Trump’s first 100 days in historical perspective. Dr Mark Shanahan (Reading) began proceedings by comparing Dwight D. Eisenhower with Trump. Professors Mark White (QMUL) and Iwan Morgan (UCL) followed, exploring the differences and similarities between Trump and John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan respectively. After the lunch break, the second panel explored the origins and motives behind Trump’s political thinking, as well as his impact on minorities in the United States. Dr Eddie Ashbee (Copenhagen Business School) placed the Trump administration in the context of the recent populist surge across the US and the wider western world. Richard Johnson (Nuffield College, Oxford), similarly, explained why so many white Midwest voters, who are typically Democrat voters, opted for Trump in November 2016. Professor Kevern Verney, finally, analysed the incumbent President’s approach to Mexican immigration, most notably his notorious proposal to erect a wall across the US-Mexico border.

The Third Panel of the day explored President Trump’s domestic policy. Professor Lee Marsden (University of East Anglia) explored the current White House administration’s ties with Alt Right figures. Likewise, Dr Clodagh Harrington (DeMontfort University) speculated on the fate of reproductive rights during the Trump Presidency. Following on from this, Dr Alex Waddan (Leicester University) undertook a broad overview of President Trump’s social policy.

The one-day event culminated with a foreign policy roundtable, involving Dr Jacob Parakilas (Chatham House), Dr Maria Ryan (Nottingham), Darius Wainwright (Reading) and Dr Mara Oliva (Reading). The participants all discussed aspects of Donald Trump’s foreign policy to date, as well as speculating on future directions the incumbent President’s diplomacy will take.

A total of 60 people attended the event. These included scholars of US presidency around the country as well as postgraduate students from Reading and other institutions. The one-day conference was also live streamed on facebook. 9,000 people followed the keynote address.

BAAS generous support allowed for 29 postgraduate students to attend the conference at a reduced rate. One of them, Richard Johnson (Oxford) also presented a paper on Trump’s electoral success.

The conference proceedings will be published by Palgrave MacMillan in September 2018, just on time for the mid-term elections. A contract was signed on 2 November 2017.

Mara Oliva is a lecturer in History at the University of Reading[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][dt_banner image_id=”17897″ bg_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.07)” min_height=”300″][/dt_banner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row margin_top=”15″ margin_bottom=”5″][vc_column width=”1/2″][dt_quote]The Eccles Centre Postgraduate Fellowship helped me texture my understanding of salon culture from the 17^th century to the 20^th century, writes Chelsea Olsen. By looking into the correspondence of writer Gertrude Stein, I uncovered a wealth of little details that not only reinforced my current interpretations of Stein’s salon-inspired word portraits and her positioning within the salon space, but also brought Stein and her salon to life.[/dt_quote][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]The Eccles Centre Postgraduate Fellowship enabled me to undertake an intensive five-day research trip to the British Library in May 2017. During this trip, I was able to consult the Library’s expansive collection of hard-to-find audio and textual resources on Gertrude Stein, Natalie Clifford Barney, and the Stettheimer sisters—all of whom hosted important literary salons in the early 20^th century. From listening to Stein’s readings of her salon-inspired word portraits to consulting Barney’s own painstakingly hand-drawn map of her salon and its habitués, I came away from this research trip with a more intimate and multidimensional understanding of how the 20^th century salon operated.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row margin_bottom=”10″][vc_column][vc_column_text]Upon receiving the fellowship, I was entering the last leg of my PhD in English at the University of Sussex. In my doctoral thesis, tentatively titled Networking Subversion: The Feminist Potential of Modernist Literary Salons, I build upon existing feminist theorizations of the 17^th and 18^th century salon in order to assess how we can consider the 20^th century salon as a space conducive to feminist modes of creative expression or political action. Using three American women-led salons from the early to mid-20^th century—the Stein salon, the Barney salon, and the Stettheimer salon—I assess how matters of gender and sexuality were treated within the 20^th century salon space and in the literary and artistic works that derived from it. While I had already consulted hundreds of archival letters and out-of-print texts at the Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques-Doucet and Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, I was at a stage in my research where I needed to cross-reference my findings and add a bit more colour and depth to my descriptions of the salon space—especially that of Gertrude Stein’s salon.

For the first two days of my visit, I focused my research exclusively on published collections of letters and personal essays between Stein and three of her most loyal habitués: writer Sherwood Anderson, Cubist artist Pablo Picasso, and writer/photographer Carl Van Vechten. Through these letters, I uncovered a wealth of little details that not only reinforced my current interpretations of Stein’s salon-inspired word portraits and her positioning within the salon space, but also brought Stein and her salon to life. Through Sherwood Anderson, I came to see Stein as a strong, jovial woman, who chose to laugh in the face of her detractors. The “he he he”s of “If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of Picasso” (1923)—which I had already read as concomitant to Hélène Cixous’ “The Laugh of Medusa”—took on a new subversive power and significance. Similarly, Correspondence: Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein (2008) gave me new context for understanding Stein’s other literary portrait of Picasso, “Picasso” (1911); in the portrait, Stein repeatedly refers to Picasso as one who “was one going on working,” which Picasso—in many of his early letters to Stein and her brother, Leo—describes himself as. What most caught me by surprise, however, was a series of letters between Stein and Van Vechten in which they discuss Florine Stettheimer’s Portrait of Carl Van Vechten (1922)—a work which I analyze in my chapter on the Stettheimer salon.

The following two days proved to be equally fruitful. During a listening appointment at the Library’s Rare Books & Music Reading Room, I was able to hear Stein’s readings of “Matisse” (1911) and “If I Told Him,” in which her emphases on certain words and her overall tone clarified and reinforced my own interpretations of the portraits and how Stein positions herself as both Matisse and Picasso’s superior, judge, and maker within them. I also consulted one of Natalie Clifford Barney’s collections of memoirs—Souvenirs Indiscrets (1960)—which provided new insight into the origins of her 20 rue Jacob salon and Barney’s admiration of Sappho.

Yet, the ultimate highlight of the visit—and one of the highlights of my academic career thus far—came on the last day, when I came across the hand-drawn map of Barney’s salon in a first edition of her memoirs, Aventures de l’esprit (1929). Not only was I utterly charmed by the sheer amount of detail (the side table featuring cups of whisky, port, orangeade, and fruit was particularly appealing), but I also found great pleasure in deciphering the dozens upon dozens of names of salon guests that Barney had crammed into every spare inch. I felt as though I had been transported into that space, overwhelmed by the talent and fame of those who filled it.

Chelsea Olsen is a PhD student at the University of Sussex.

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Sylvia Text

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][dt_quote]At the 62^nd annual BAAS conference, gender equality and diversity was at the forefront of discussion, writes BAAS organisers Lydia Plath and Gavan Lennon. This year’s BAAS prioritised ecological sustainability through a dedicated conference mobile app and showed a commitment to inclusivity by discouraging men-only panels.[/dt_quote][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][dt_fancy_image image_id=”17312″ width=”240″ padding=”0″ align=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row margin_top=”30″][vc_column][vc_column_text]When people made their way to the registration desk for BAAS 2017 at Canterbury Christ Church University it was, for the first time, with the aid of a dedicated conference app. In an effort to commit to ecological sustainability, delegates were encouraged to decide, from a digital list of the over 250 papers, spread across 55 panels, which they wanted to attend. While this year’s conference had unique time-constraints compared to previous conferences we did our best to accommodate as many lively and stimulating talks as possible between the afternoons of Thursday 6th and Saturday 8^th April 2017.

Good weather accompanied the first set of panels and was kind enough to stick around for the duration of the conference. At the end of the first day, Professor Brian Ward (Northumbria University) delivered the conference’s first of three plenary lectures while also presiding over his first BAAS conference as Chair of the Executive Committee. Brian’s lecture analysed three very different operas that take the US South as their topic in order to ascertain what it is that makes a musical work “sound southern.” In Frederick Delius’ Koanga (1897), Donald Davidson’s Singin’ Billy (1952), and The Drive-By Truckers’ Southern Rock Opera (2001) the South, according to Ward, is constructed through a complex intermingling of musical style, authorial background, and listeners’ pre-existing ideas of the region. Sponsored by the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library, Ward’s talk capped off a stimulating first day of papers. Following the lecture, delegates made their way to Augustine House for a wine reception hosted by EBAAS 2018, next year’s joint conference of the British and European Associations for American Studies, that will be jointly hosted by King’s College, London, University College, London, and the British Library.

[/vc_column_text][dt_fancy_image image_id=”17328″ width=”500″ margin_top=”30″ margin_bottom=”30″ align=”center”][vc_column_text]In the second of the conference’s plenary lectures (sponsored by Journal of American Studies) Professor Marjorie Spruill (University of South Carolina) urged delegates to reconsider the women’s movement of the 1970s and the controversial equal rights amendment. Spruill argues that the feminist activism of figures like Gloria Steinem and Bella Abzug was one of two women’s movements in conflict during the period and that scholarly complexity is lost if we ignore or marginalize the conservative movement led by Phyllis Schlafly. As suggested by the lecture’s title, shared with Spruill’s latest monograph Divided We Stand: The Battle Over Women’s Rights and Family Values That Polarized American Politics (Bloomsbury, 2017), Spruill offered a new way of exploring a critical moment in the history of the nation that continues to resonate today.

In the final keynote lecture Professor Trudier Harris (University of Alabama) offered new ways of understanding an endlessly complex theme in American culture with a lecture titled “Home in African American Literature: Difficult to Define, Impossible to Claim.” Interrogating the sometimes simplistic need to “return” to Africa in African American fiction and memoir – a sometimes pathological desire that Harris terms “African Fever” – the lecture charted new ways of reading for the notion of home in black literature from the “Freedom Narratives” of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs to contemporary black writing. Sponsored by the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Canterbury Christ Church, Harris’ talk encouraged the assembled scholars to think differently about texts and ideas we thought we understood.

Following Harris’ plenary everyone returned to Augustine House for a well-earned glass or two of wine at a reception overlooking the beautiful city of Canterbury. The reception was followed by a gala banquet in Augustine Hall, which gave diners the opportunity to celebrate the hard work of the many winners of prestigious awards for outstanding work in the discipline from school-level onwards. Chief among them was Professor Philip Davies, Director of the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library, who was rightfully celebrated for his contribution to the field and the Association when he was awarded the BAAS Fellowship.

If the delegates were feeling fatigued as the conference drew on it certainly did not show during a final morning of excellent papers and lively discussion. The conference concluded on Saturday afternoon with a Women’s Network roundtable and discussion on the need for gender equality and diversity in the organization and the profession. The network event marked the organisation’s renewed emphasis in recent years on the need for equality and diversity in American Studies in Britain. It was the same emphasis that textured the organisers’ decision to avoid men-only panels and it is encouraging indeed to know that the same practice will continue in EBAAS 2018 and at future BAAS conferences.

Lydia Plath, Senior Teaching Fellow and Director of Student Experience at the University of Warwick

Gavan Lennon, Lecturer in the School of Humanities at Canterbury Christ Church University[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row margin_top=”40″ type=”5″ padding_top=”20″ padding_bottom=”20″][vc_column width=”1/2″][dt_fancy_image image_id=”17358″ align=”center”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

BAAS2017 thanks the US Embassy London Small Grants Programme for its generous support for the conference this year. The US Embassy supported postgraduate attendance at the conference through a reduction in the delegate fee, and also contributed to the cost of the printed programme and the app.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row margin_top=”40″][vc_column][ultimate_carousel slides_on_desk=”3″ slides_on_mob=”1″ autoplay=”off”][dt_teaser image_id=”17316″ lightbox=”true”]Photo credit: Tom Clayton, via Twitter[/dt_teaser][dt_teaser image_id=”17321″ lightbox=”true”]Conference swag. Photo credit: Jenny Daly, via Twitter[/dt_teaser][dt_teaser image_id=”17322″ lightbox=”true”]The conference app in action.[/dt_teaser][dt_teaser image_id=”17317″ lightbox=”true”]The organisers, Lydia, Gavan, and Becky with our wonderful student helpers, via Twitter[/dt_teaser][dt_teaser image_id=”17319″ lightbox=”true”]Prof. Marjorie Spruill during her keynote lecture. Photo credit: Nicholas Grant, via Twitter[/dt_teaser][dt_teaser image_id=”17320″ lightbox=”true”]Prof. Brian Ward’s keynote address. Photo credit: EBAAS2018 via Twitter[/dt_teaser][/ultimate_carousel][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row margin_bottom=”15″][vc_column][dt_banner image_id=”16690″ bg_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.16)” min_height=”270″][/dt_banner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][dt_quote]The British Library archives on 1980s liberal champion Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY.) were fundamental to my research into liberalism in Reagan’s America, writes Joe Ryan-Hume, Eccles Centre Postgraduate Fellow. Looking into Moynihan’s papers on Social Security has helped me to contest the argument that the history of 1980s liberalism is one of incompetence and ineffectiveness.[/dt_quote][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]The Eccles Postgraduate Research Fellowship enabled me to spend two weeks in London, based at the British Library on a daily basis. My research findings at the British Library were fundamental to the development of a thesis chapter, which could only be completed with access to the various digitized American newspaper databases at the British Library; the only institution in the United Kingdom to have comprehensive access to the resources I required.

I am a current third-year Ph.D. student based in the Department of History at the University of Glasgow. My thesis questions the notion of conservative ascendancy[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]and the so-called ‘Reagan Revolution’ in 1980s America by reinterpreting the impact of liberalism at the time. By thoroughly examining how liberals functioned both within and distinct from the Democratic Party in opposition, I intend to dispel the argument that the history of 1980s liberalism is one of incompetence and ineffectiveness. Instead, I will highlight how the networks that formed and developed whilst in opposition helped liberals attain success at state and congressional level, as well as facilitate Bill Clinton’s subsequent presidential triumph in 1992. Furthermore, as this is the era in which Barack Obama – at the time an organiser for Ralph Nader’s Public Interest Group – and many of the President’s allies became politically active, it would be impossible to understand the present administration’s historic ascension without an examination of the political environment that first nurtured Obama and his cohort.

In order to effectively survey liberalism during this tumultuous decade, a section of my thesis focuses on Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY.), a liberal champion and vocal critic of the Reagan administration. From an examination of my initial research, completed whilst a 2014 John W. Kluge fellow at the Library of Congress, it became clear that Moynihan played a crucial role in protecting liberalism’s brightest jewel, Social Security, from conservative dissection. With a new case study titled ‘Social Security and the 1982 Midterms’, I sought to use the collections at the British Library to show how and why a strong liberal defence of Social Security in 1982, driven by Moynihan in the Senate and supplemented by the activism of liberal interest groups, dissuaded the Reagan administration from attempting major revisions and had a dramatic impact on the 1982 midterms.

My research findings highlighted that by exploiting the Social Security issue, liberals effectively regained ideological control of the House of Representatives following the 1982 midterms. Moynihan, alongside Democratic Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, literally took the Social Security issue and ran with it, slowly gaining much needed ground on the political terrain of domestic issues. Using the British Library’s US government documents collection, particularly the Congressional Serial Set and the Congressional Record, allowed me to discover how the Social Security issue effectively reshaped the contours of Reagan’s America and slowed the pace of the ‘Reagan Revolution’ steam train. Alongside this, I was able to use contemporary newspaper and magazine clippings to pinpoint the exact moment that this successful liberal backlash to a key facet of Reagan’s conservative agenda started to take hold. Gathering this information has helped me to map out how and why liberals were able to gain such political traction on an issue seen by conservatives to epitomise the supposedly elephantine nature of the federal government. By discovering some of the varied strategies implemented in order to save Social Security from the conservative chopping board, this research has greatly improved the range and depth of my thesis.

The lack of access to such varied materials at The University of Glasgow hindered the progression of this research beforehand – my university library does not have access or subscriptions to most digitized American newspaper databases for example. Thus, outwith a research trip to the United States, the best (and perhaps only) way to comprehensively research the observations of the American press from the 1980s was at the British Library. The Eccles Fellowship allowed me to carry out all of the research required for this chapter over a two week period. I sub-rented a room in Surrey and commuted to the library each day in a fortnight filled with record heat waves and unavoidable tube strikes.

The majority of my findings regarding Moynihan and the Social Security battle of the early 1980s will be published in my thesis, which has the working title ‘Standing in Reagan’s Shadow: Liberal Strategies in a Conservative Age.’ The overall range and depth of this thesis has benefited greatly from the BAAS/Eccles Centre Award and the consequential research period in the British Library, both allowing me to precisely determine the role liberals played in influencing policy, as on Social Security, as well as enabling me to initially uncover some of the networks and organisational strategies that developed to ensure success whilst in opposition. Finally, alongside supporting me to further develop a key analytical aspect of my PhD, my time at the Eccles Centre enabled me to begin work on a paper based on my research for consideration in a number of high-impact journals.

Joe Ryan-Hume is a PhD student at the University of Glasgow.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

British Association for American Studies

Minutes 287th

Minutes of the 287th meeting of the Executive Committee, held at the Institute of the Americas, UCL on Saturday 4 February 2017 at 1.00 pm.

1. Present: Brian Ward (Chair), Jenny Terry (Secretary), Cara Rodway (Treasurer), Ben Offiler, Emma Long, Katie McGettigan, Kate Dossett, Paul Williams, Martin Halliwell, Martin Dines, Nicole King. David Sarsfield attended part of the meeting.

2. Apologies: Uta Balbier, Joe Street, Simon Hall, David Brown, Katerina Webb-Bourne, Bevan Sewell and Celeste-Marie Bernier.

In attendance: Jenny Terry.

3. Minutes of the Previous Meeting

These were accepted as a true record and will now go up on the website.

4. Matters Arising

None.

5. Review of Action List

The Chair asked the Exec to comment on the status of their Action List duties. Items will be addressed under the relevant sections below.

6. Chair’s Business (BW reporting)

(a) Chair’s activities, meetings and correspondence (November 2016 – February 2017)

• BW congratulated Uta Balbier on the birth of her son, Max Barack, on 19 January. JT had sent flowers on behalf the Committee and BAAS. Thanks were offered to EL for stepping into the role of chairing the Awards subcommittee, and to KD for standing as Vice Chair.

• In January BAAS was invited by the Fulbright Commission to help publicise the State Department SUSI (Study of the United States Institute) programme for teachers, and assist in selecting the Fulbright’s nominees to the programme. BW agreed to this collaboration and the call for applications was shared across our various media platforms, though as it transpired there were no applications.

• BW and KMcG attended a meeting of the Arts and Humanities Alliance at the University of London on 12 December to discuss REF 2021 and the consultation document issued by HEFCE. Informed by this, BW drafted a subject association response with input from KMcG and JT (since circulated to the executive). We need to file our response online by 17 March, and will also share it with Tony Chafer, chair of UKCASA, and with the Arts and Humanities Alliance. BW invited comments and suggestions by the end of February. We hope to be asked to nominate individuals to serve as sub-panel members for the next REF. We should consider if we wish to propose that APG, BrANCH, HOTCUS etc also become bodies that make nominations. It was noted that nominating bodies must be societies not just networks.

• On 19 November, BW participated in the BAAS Postgraduate Conference at Leeds University, which was a great success. He offered congratulations to Lauren Moffatt and Sabine Peck (the local organisers) as well as to our own Postgraduate Rep, Katerina Webb-Bourne, for a highly successful event. As hoped for, the new USSO Keynote Lecture was a great success. We thank Jade Tullett for taking the lead on this initiative and congratulate Hannah Murray (Nottingham) on a fine and well attended lecture. Agreed: following the success of this trial, we will support a similar keynote lecture at future Postgraduate Conferences. At PW’s suggestion, (Agreed) also in recognition of the local postgraduate organisers’ work we will offer to cover their conference fees at the next main BAAS conference and continue this form of recognition in future years.

• On 30 November, BW wrote a letter on behalf of BAAS to the University of Wyoming in support of its American Studies BA programme, which was under threat. This maybe symptomatic of a more widespread pattern. Since then BW has not heard how the internal review of teaching provision there is going.

• In the wake of the results of the 2016 US presidential elections, the executive published a brief statement outlining the Association’s continued commitment to the critical exploration of all aspects of the US experience and that of its colonial precursors, and its desire to encourage the free and frank exchanges of informed opinion on those topics.

• Following President Donald Trump’s Executive Order restricting entry into the United States, the executive committee published online a statement of grave concern about the discriminatory aspects of that policy towards various groups, notably Muslims, and its wider implications for academic and civic freedom around the world. BW offered his thanks to all those who worked with him on the statement and noted the unanimous support for it among executive committee members. Other possible steps in response will be taken up under Any Other Business.

• BW gave a brief report on the January round of the Embassy/BAAS Grant Programme. A very high number of applications had been received in this round (forty-nine) and these are currently under consideration. Future plans for funding from the Embassy are unclear at the moment as is any future administration of such support. Looking forward, we need to be alert to possible changes of tenor in BAAS’s relationship with the Embassy as well as bear in mind our wider and long term responsibilities to our membership and to the overarching mission of BAAS in promoting the study of the US.

(b) Achievements, announcements and events of note to BAAS members

• Sadly Chris Brookeman, a stalwart of BAAS, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, passed away in December. A tribute (prepared by Phil Davies and Ian Ralston) appeared in ASIB and highlights how active Chris was in Schools outreach work for BAAS.
• BW reported on the death of Louis Billington in November; since then a tribute, written by Jenel Virden and Richard Carwardine with the assistance of David Brown, has appeared in ASIB.
• Congratulations to Sylvia Ellis, who has taken up a Chair at the University of Roehampton.

7. Secretary’s Business (JT reporting)

• Since the last executive meeting, and with UB starting maternity leave, nominations for Vice-Chair of BAAS had been invited. One candidate was nominated and agreed to act in this role, and we now confirm Kate Dossett as Vice-Chair.

• In November 2016 the Charity Commission approved our new registration as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). The previous BAAS charity registration will be terminated once transfer of our assets is complete.

• Each year as part of the Awards programme the executive invites nominations for a BAAS Honorary Fellow in recognition of American Studies academics who have made an outstanding contribution to the association, to their institution(s), and to the American Studies community in general over the course of a distinguished career. There is no obligation to award a fellowship every year. This year one nomination was received by the deadline of the 1 December and was circulated to the executive. Agreed: To award a BAAS Honorary Fellowship to Prof. Phil Davies (Eccles Centre) at the 2017 conference.

• The executive will be proposing a constitutional amendment at the 2017 AGM, which adds a commitment on equality and diversity to our governing document. The executive has seen this in draft form and the finalized wording will be recirculated for confirmation before being displayed on our website for the stipulated period for members to consult before an AGM vote.

• Nominations are now open for candidates for election to the executive committee in 2017. In line with the CIO constitution, two independent scrutineers and a new timeline, accommodating advance voting for those who cannot attend the annual conference, are in place. JT offered thanks to Rachael McLennan (UEA) and Mike Collins (Kent) for agreeing to act as scrutineers throughout the process. Candidate nominations will close on 26 February.

• On 25 January JT attended the Humanities and Social Sciences Learned Societies and Subject Associations Network at the British Academy. Representatives from approximately fifty learned societies participated in the day’s activities, which included a talk from Lord Stern on the aims of his report on UK research assessment and REF. JT is feeding information gained from sessions on the REF consultation (led by Steven Hill and Kim Hackett from HEFCE) into our own response. The Arts and Humanities Alliance is also pooling responses. Also of note was the launch of the British Academy ‘Skills Flagship Project’ (Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences). MH will pass on the call for evidence for circulation via JT.

8. Treasurer’s Business (CR reporting)

(a) Bank Accounts (as at 4 February 2017)

Paypal                                                  £9,086.39

Current                                     £1127.72

Savings                                                £87,039.10

BAAS Publications Ltd              £51,117.84

TOTAL:                                                £148,371.05

Dollar account                          $3404.44 (as at 30 January 2017)

Our balances reflect the Association’s continuing financial good health.

CR is planning to open a new twelve month savings account through the Charities Aid Foundation, to be held with Shawbrook Bank. This will give a better rate of interest than the current rate of our Barclays savings account. It will also be somewhere to ringfence and safeguard our reserves as a charity. Agreed: CR to go ahead and open this account with the executive’s approval. The mandate is included for the record:

The following are the resolutions of our charity: 1 Pursuant of our governing instrument, it was resolved that a Savings Account be opened with Shawbrook Bank and that the bank be authorised to accept instructions in accordance with the mandate given by the charity/Trustees/Directors from time to time. 2 We agree that the list of Trustees, Directors or other officials of our charity who are authorised to sign instructions on its behalf as set out in this Application form is accurate. 3 We agree to notify Shawbrook Bank of any changes to signatories or otherwise relevant to the operation of the account. 4 We confirm that the mandate shall remain in force and Shawbrook Bank may act upon it until our charity notifies Shawbrook Bank that it is to end or not to be changed.

Further, as part of the move to CIO status, CR is in the process of opening new bank accounts with Barclays and transferring the assets of BAAS the unincorporated charity to BAAS the CIO.

(b) Membership Figures (provided by LC)

Honorary membership – 4

Schools membership – 13

Individual membership – 281 (129 online JAS, 152 with full JAS)

PG membership – 275 (215 online JAS, 60 with full JAS)

Retired (PR) – 29 (19 online JAS, 10 with full JAS)

Unwaged (PU) – 18 (16 online JAS, 2 with full JAS)

Total members on fully paid sheet: 620  [624 in Nov 2016]

This quarter LC has cleared out expired/unpaid memberships from our databases.

(c) Payroll

CR has now registered us with HMRC for payroll and tax purposes. She will be sending paperwork for completion to colleagues receiving payment from BAAS for their JAS, web and other work. Tax will be collected via PAYE from now on.

9. Equality and Diversity

A number of issues and steps were highlighted under this new standing item on the agenda.

Information about the 2017 executive committee elections now includes a strong invitation for candidates to think about equality and diversity issues in the statement that accompanies their nomination.

Publications: CR noted that the Journal of American Studies is continuing to try to promote equality and diversity through a range of measures (e.g. a prize linked to work in a particular area, information gathering in relation to the journal via the BAAS demographic survey, editorial board composition etc).

Conferences: PW reported that something similar to the steer on gender and panel composition included in the Canterbury Christ Church CFP will be rolled out to the 2017 Postgraduate Conference and to future main annual conferences.

Awards: EL has produced some demographic/gender information on those who applied to our various BAAS and Eccles awards this year.

Development and Education: KD offered a further suggestion arising from Development of a ‘protocol’ guiding any work we do as BAAS executive members and also available for other members to follow if they wish. For example, if invited to join an advisory group or judging panel, a protocol could require us to ask about the composition of the group/panel or prompt us to respond, as needed, on equality and diversity grounds: ‘Because of our protocol I’m going to suggest someone else’. This is another kind of step we should consider.

10. Publications Subcommittee (CR reporting for JS)

(a)        British Records Relating to America in Microform (BRRAM)

David Sarsfield from America on Microform joined the executive for this item to talk about BRRAM work and discuss future directions. General editor Kenneth Morgan was unable to attend. Those involved in BRRAM would like to strengthen the relationship with BAAS, in terms of how output can be most useful and used more, and in terms of drawing on our expertise. In a general context of a turn away from microform formats, we need to consider changing usage and new models. The team would like to broaden the primary sources and collections that BRRAM processes, and to help with this would like to form an editorial board. David invited expressions of interest and suggestions of potential board members as well as of collections at our individual institutions. He will work with JS and Kenneth to take forward these plans.

(b)        Journal of American Studies

A report had been received from the editors CMB and BS. Since the last executive meeting, the annual editorial board meeting was held in London on 13 December.

The subcommittee had discussed a proposal from the JAS editors to expand the editorial board by up to six new members, with the main motivations being equality and diversity issues and intellectual spread. The additional members would be appointed in a staggered way. There was general support from the executive committee for this development and it was agreed to take discussions and the process forward in April. The editors would also like to invite board members whose terms are about to expire to renew.

An event to mark the 50^th anniversary of the Journal is also planned for 2018. The subcommittee had discussed the proposed location in Edinburgh and raised some queries about intended audience. Would a dedicated strand or forum at the joint conference with EAAS in London have just as much or greater impact and reach? On the other hand, folding this celebration into a much larger conference programme could mean a loss of distinctiveness. Agreed: the executive approved support for a one day format event. As part of this, it would be good to incorporate a dedicated element for Early Career researchers such as a roundtable. This in turn could feed into discussion of future directions for the journal. The executive would also like to see a sharing of the cost, with a financial contribution being sought from the proposed host venue, the University of Edinburgh.

(b)        EUP

The EUP Paperbacks series editors have received a proposal for an edited collection. The series has been made up of monographs to date. Is the executive happy with this potential diversification and for the editors to go ahead with the review process? Agreed: This could be a positive development; all titles would still need to fulfill the series remit.

11. Development and Education Subcommittee (KD reporting)

(a)        Schools

The subcommittee has been considering schools activities in the round, rather than as something channeled through one individual or Schools Representative. It would be good to have an annual report on schools engagement, tying together all the different activities that arise from various subcommittees. This approach might also assist us in promoting our awards aimed at schools. Mercedes Aguirre is looking into an American Studies day involving teachers at the British Library; this might be at either London or Boston Spa. KMcG has been in communication with Mike Simpson about building our web resources for teachers. She will be in touch about gathering suitable teaching materials.

JT noted the Royal Geographical Society Student Ambassador scheme, which does schools outreach work and might be something BAAS could emulate on a smaller scale.

(b)        Membership Survey

BO reported that the survey will go live at the start of March. It will include a question on mentoring (this is something BO would like to explore for the benefit of Early Career researchers). A book voucher will help incentivise completion of the survey.

There had been some discussion of whether the survey should also seek the views of members about the relationship between BAAS and the US Embassy. The topic of the relationship will be picked up under AOB (below). It was not thought to be something to include in the survey at this stage.

(c)        Early Career Matters

As EC representative, BO had had input into our draft Association response for the REF consultation. Our response looks robust in terms of representing EC concerns and interests.

(d)        Website

KMcG asked for the executive’s approval to renew Michelle Green’s appointment as website support for a further year. Agreed.

12. Conference Subcommittee (PW reporting)

(a)        Belfast 2016

Despite efforts to pursue this, the conference accounts are not yet finalised.

(b)        Canterbury 2017

Organisers are in a good position of readiness and we look forward to the annual conference at Canterbury Christ Church University in April. There will be a conference App. This could also be of use for London 2018. The possibility of linking the Membership Survey into the App was raised.

Agreed: to extend to EUP the same agreement of a free stand at the annual conference that we have in place with CUP. Agreed: to do the same for digital Adam Matthew for this year and then review.

(c)        London 2018

Plans are progressing well and the Conference subcommittee plus BAAS officers had viewed conference venues at the Institute of Education, UCL earlier in the day. There is an EAAS meeting coming up in March in Lausanne and some details and decisions will need firming up before then in order for MH to present plans.

(d)        Sussex 2019

Representatives from the University of Sussex will join the subcommittee after April.

(d)        2020 Conference Bids

Two bids to host the 2020 conference had been received by the deadline. Both bids, from Plymouth and Liverpool, were discussed as strong cases. The subcommittee made a recommendation that the conference is held in Liverpool in 2020 and the executive approved this decision (Agreed).

(e)        PG Conference and Support

KWB had attended the subcommittee and reported on the situation with the Postgraduate Conference, although she was unable to stay on for the main executive meeting. Having thought that an agreement was in place for a joint IAAS and BAAS PG conference to be hosted in Ireland in 2017, this is no longer the case. We will advertise and invite bids as soon as possible so that planning can begin for an Autumn BAAS PG conference.

KWB confirmed that the reciprocal agreement with the IAAS to fund PG attendance at each other’s annual conferences via a bursary remains in place; applications will open soon.

Led by PW, the subcommittee is also administering a scheme of hardship funds to support Postgraduate and Early Career participation in the Canterbury annual conference. The draft application form has been circulated. While we have acted to put this in place quite quickly this year, the most effective way of administering such support for future years will need review. Agreed: BAAS supports four or five hardship awards of up to £300 each this year. The hardship funds will be restricted to BAAS members.

13. Awards Subcommittee (EL reporting)

EL thanked everyone who is serving on awards panels this year and also UB for her work and Awards handover. The subcommittee, which met jointly with Conferences this time, had considered the statistics on 2017 entries, including a gender breakdown of applicants for each award.

Candidates for the Graduate Teaching Assistantships had been interviewed on 24 February and EL reported that places had been offered to two excellent applicants.

In terms of our publicity strategy for next year, in some areas we need to review and do more. We could look at more targeted approaches (e.g. Schools, Undergraduates) rather than advertising all our awards in one tranche. There may also be scope to look at placement and accessibility of information on the website.

14. EAAS

No report. London 2018 plans were covered under Conferences (above).

15. Any Other Business

BW invited suggestions for responses and actions beyond the BAAS statement agreed and issued following President Trump’s Executive Order and travel ban.

In recent weeks a few members have contacted the executive about possible responses and, in one case, asking for discussion of BAAS’s relationship with the US Embassy in London. Agreed: Retaining intellectual freedom is key and transparency is also important in order that members have a clear understanding of that relationship (which in the past has involved a grant in partial support of our annual conference, and in 2016-17 involves the block grant ‘Promoting a Better Understanding of the US through American Studies’ wherein we administer the distribution of smaller grants to support a wide range of cultural and educational activities in the UK). The benefits of this as well as concerns could be something to address at the AGM.

One BAAS member had suggested discussion of a boycott of the US (this correspondence was circulated). We could support the cost of travel for someone from a country affected by the ban to enable them to attend our own conference. Another suggestion was donation to the American Civil Liberties Union. We could try to build partnerships and connections with subject associations and academics in the countries affected; this would strengthen our international affiliations more broadly and might further understanding of the best ways we can help. Broadly speaking, the executive was in favour of this kind of positive step as opposed to boycott at this point.

16. Date of next meeting: Thursday 6 April 2017

Secretary: Dr. Jenny Terry / Email: j.a.terry@durham.ac.uk / Phone: 01913 342570

[vc_row margin_bottom=”15″][vc_column][dt_banner image_id=”15752″ bg_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.14)” min_height=”270″][/dt_banner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row margin_bottom=”10″][vc_column width=”1/2″][dt_quote]During my time as an Eccles Centre U.S. Visiting Fellow I was able to access rare first-person accounts from eyewitnesses to the turbulent history around the struggle for independence in Guiana, the former British colony in South America, writes Gaiutra Bahadur.[/dt_quote][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]During my month at the British Library as an Eccles Centre U.S. Visiting Fellow, from June 8 to July 8, 2016, I was able to access rare first-person accounts from eyewitnesses to the turbulent history around the struggle for independence in Guiana, the former British colony in South America. The most important was an interview available only at the British Library, as part of the Communist Party of Great Britain Biographical Project.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]During my fellowship, I worked on a biography of Janet Rosenberg Jagan, the first American woman to serve as a head of state anywhere in the world. Born in Chicago to a middle-class Jewish family, she met and married Cheddi Jagan, one of Guyana’s future independence leaders, while he was in the United States studying to become a dentist during the Second World War. Back in Guiana, she worked by his side in the fight to overthrow colonial rule and was very much his equal as a co-founder of a multiracial socialist party, the People’s Progressive Party. Ultimately, in the late 1990s, she succeeded him as president but for many decades the couple was in the political wilderness, ousted from power through a U.S.-British alliance opposed to their Marxist politics.

Trevor Carter, a Trinidadian immigrant who was a member of the British Communist Party, saw first-hand the campaign to destabilize the People’s Progressive Party in the early 1960s. In interview sessions spanning 18 tapes and roughly 20 hours, he provided vivid storytelling. I learned how he came to be recruited to work in rural Guiana by Janet Jagan, at a party in London thrown by a Communist Party member, a Jewish emigre. His observations on her character and persona, like his observations on politics in Britain and the West Indies, were honest, evocative and astute. She recruited him to work in Guyana at a rural college, where he taught members of the PPP the basics of Marxism and party organization. Going to Guyana, to do the work of the Communist Party at a time when comrades were being jailed in Malaysia and India, was an adventure for him.

He went, and from 1961 to 1964, in a political world he evokes as one of guns and guayaberas, and a social world he describes as one flowing with women and alcohol, he saw plenty to shock and disturb him. He witnessed some gruesome violence between Indians and Africans in the country during strikes that U.S. labor and intelligence figures played a role in inciting. A grenade attack on a bus taking white children to school, blamed on the PPP, happened right outside the party college where he worked. He was present in Freedom House, the PPP headquarters in Georgetown, the Guyanese capital, during a bomb explosion that martyred a party member. The immediacy of the material he provides is matched by their analytical value. Carter provided key insights into some of the leading actors in the independence movement: not only the Jagans and their chief rival Forbes Burnham but lesser known figures such as Moses Bhagwan and Ranji Chandisingh. As a black man in a party that had become largely Indian in a place that was becoming ever more racially polarized, Carter also provided unique insight into those tensions. Furthermore, he reflected on splits in the West India Committee of the British Communist Party and the Caribbean Labour Congress which turned on racial tensions in Guyana. His oral history interview is invaluable not only because of its unvarnished eyewitness content but because of Carter’s style, very much a no-holds-barred raconteur’s style. As my book will be narrative history, the details he offered (embedded in plot and setting, with attention to character) will deeply enrich my work.

While at the library, I was also able to listen to oral history interviews with John Platt, a barrister who represented both Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham in cases spanning decades, some involving the racialized political violence of the early 1960s. An interview with Bookers executive Jonathan Taylor, who visited Guyana in 1959 with chairman Jock Campbell, provided some important context on how the politics of Guyana changed the nature of this British multinational, which made its fortune in sugar plantations in Guyana. Taylor’s job was to help steer the company to a much more diversified future; its fears of the nationalization of the sugar industry in Guyana did later come to pass. Taylor’s interview provides some insight into that process, as important a shift for Guyana as it was for Bookers.

While much of the significant headway on my project was made through oral histories archived at the library, I was also able to read pamphlets and articles by both of the Jagans and their rival Burnham, who was effectively placed in power by the Anglo-American alliance in 1964. The library holds one of the few existing original copies of “Beware of my Brother Forbes,” a caustic election-year attack on Burnham by his sister Jessie during his bid for prime minister in1964. She warned of Machiavellian tendencies and stated: “I do not want to see my country become a police state state, where a power hungry man can sacrifice our liberty for his personal gain.” Another rare text I read during the fellowship was London’s Heart Probe and Britain’s Destiny, a very unusual travelogue by Ayube Edun, a man born on a sugar plantation in Guyana who went to England to study in 1928. The book is a sort of Plato’s Republic for Guyana, envisioning an ideal state and its components, including “Manpower Citizens” who worked with their hands rather than their heads. Edun, who would go on to serve in the colonial legislature, also founded a sugar plantation workers union in Guyana called the Manpower Citizens Association. It was this union that the Jagans, when they first emerged on the political scene, tried and failed to lead, and it was this union that was later used by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency as a counterweight to the Jagans. While Edun’s treatise, an odd combination of Anglophilia and revolutionary idealism, was published two decades before the Cold War events I will focus on, the plantation workers’ union he first dreamed in its pages played a critical role in Guyanese politics and in the fate of Janet Jagan and her husband. It provides rich subtext and important background.

Outside the library, I was able to interview one of the two founders of the People’s Progressive Party who are still alive: Eric Huntley, who was jailed for a year by the British government in the mid-1950s. Huntley left Guyana in 1957 and became one of the key figures in Black British anti-racist struggles and movements as well as the co-founder, with his wife, of the groundbreaking radical black publishing house Bogle-L’Ouverture. As an elder of the party, his memories of the struggle for independence, the Jagans and the fight from abroad against Burnham’s repressive rule are pivotal. I spoke to him over two sessions lasting in total eight hours. I hope to continue the conversation with him on subsequent trips.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row margin_bottom=”15″][vc_column][dt_banner image_id=”17102″ bg_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.12)” min_height=”315″][/dt_banner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][dt_quote]As I enter my first year as Early Career Representative for BAAS, a priority of my agenda is to help members combat the isolation, demoralisation, and demotivation that can sometimes plague this stage of the academic career, writes Rachel Williams. Following on from the launch of the Adam Matthew Digital essay prize and BAAS Survey pioneered by my predecessor Ben Offiler, I plan to support the early career community through a series of events that will help ECRs maintain momentum and enthusiasm in their research, and build a sense of community and solidarity among young scholars of American Studies in this country.[/dt_quote][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]I’m delighted to have been elected Early Career Representative for BAAS. My thanks in particular to Sarah Daw and Rebecca Stone for also standing in the election. Our platforms touched on some common themes: we all emphasised BAAS’ commitment to diversity and inclusivity, and expressed concerns at the march of casualisation and continuing uncertainty about TEF – all issues of grave import to ECRs.

I’d also like to express my thanks to Ben Offiler, who has done sterling work in the post of ECR Representative in the past two years, and who will no doubt continue in the same vein as Ordinary Member on the Executive Committee. Ben has pioneered some excellent ECR-centric schemes since taking office in 2015, and his work in designing and disseminating the BAAS members’ survey, as well as securing funding for the Adam Matthew Digital Essay Prize,[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]has been tireless and invaluable. I will be working to maintain that essay prize in the future, as it’s an excellent opportunity to showcase fresh and exciting new scholarship.

My aim as ECR representative is to help members combat the isolation, demoralisation, and demotivation that can sometimes plague this stage of the academic career. In particular, I’d like to set up a series of peer-review workshops to encourage ECRs to maintain momentum and enthusiasm in their research (which may fall by the wayside when confronted with heavy teaching loads or lack of formal institutional affiliation). I want to create an accessible and supportive forum providing not only constructive criticism on written work but also a sense of community and solidarity among young scholars of American Studies in this country. I’d value your input and suggestions on the best way of organising these workshops – whether by discipline, by time period, or even by geographic location (I’m based in Hull myself, and so I’m aware that potential participants might be dissuaded from attending by long journeys).

Making the ECR experience a positive, rewarding one means making it positive and rewarding for everyone, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, socio-economic background, disability, educational history and so on. I welcome the frank and respectful discussions about accessibility, diversity, and inclusivity that took place at the Women’s Network event in Canterbury – this is a fantastic springboard for encouraging open, destigmatised consideration of these issues at all future BAAS events. I look forward to the results and analysis of the members’ survey, which will hopefully tell us more about our diverse academic community, and how the current state of HE and FE supports (or, indeed, fails) the constituency. It would be great to devote workshops and panels at future BAAS conferences to discussion of accessibility, and to matters of concern for ECRs, such as TEF, job interviews, academic publishing, and impact.

I left the annual conference in Canterbury last month feeling invigorated, motivated, and positive, after some excellent discussions (and excellent pastries) with old friends and new contacts – and I’m sure many of you felt the same. This is indicative not only of the hard work and commitment of the team at Canterbury Christ Church, but also of the wonderful community BAAS provides for academics at every stage of their career. I’m looking forward to being a part of maintaining that community and making sure it’s open and welcoming to all.

Finally I want to encourage ECRs to keep applying for the wide range of awards and fellowships offered by BAAS, and to keep writing for US Studies Online, a fantastic platform for new writing – which also welcomes reflective pieces about pedagogy, the job market, research practise, and other aspects of academic life and professional development.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions about how BAAS can best support ECRs working in American Studies, please do get in touch via email (R.Williams3@hull.ac.uk) or Twitter (@RachWilliams87). Looking forward to representing you all!

Rachel Williams is Lecturer in American History at the University of Hull. Her research interests include antebellum reform, the social and cultural impact of evangelicalism, and the social history of American medicine. She is currently completing a monograph on civilian relief agencies during the American Civil War, exploring the role of philanthropy, evangelical postmillennialism, and bureaucratisation in the Union war effort. She is also developing new modules on slavery and civil rights and the Civil War in history and culture. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row margin_bottom=”15″][vc_column][dt_banner image_id=”17089″ bg_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.14)” min_height=”300″][/dt_banner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row margin_bottom=”10″][vc_column width=”1/2″][dt_quote]As the new EAAS representative for BAAS, I hope to build on the success of my predecessor Martin Halliwell by forging stronger connections and knowledge-sharing between the members of BAAS and EAAS, writes Sue Currell. During my term I will be looking at best-practice in EAAS as an organization, as well as offering my knowledge of outreach, inclusivity and media communications as a former Chair of BAAS.[/dt_quote][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]It’s very exciting to have been selected as the EAAS representative for BAAS at this moment in time: everything concerning Europe and America (and the UK’s relationship with both) seems ‘up for grabs’ and I’m looking forward to taking part in some of the dynamic discussions that will inevitably take place among EAAS members concerning the past, present and future of America and American studies more broadly. To hear a wider set of views and perspectives is going to be hugely rewarding, and working at keeping relationships functioning productively will clearly be an exciting challenge in the current political climate.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]On an institutional level I hope that some of the experience that I gained as Chair of BAAS 2013-16 can be brought to this role. During my term I was most inspired by being able to initiate policies that led to greater inclusion of all our members at various career stages, as well as to begin to address the issue of equality and diversity in American studies more generally.  I hope to bring that experience to the post of EAAS rep and to continue to work on these widening participation issues more broadly. To do this I will be looking at best-practice in EAAS as an organization and work to bring back what I learn from that to the BAAS executive, as well as offering my expertise and knowledge in this area to EAAS, where appropriate. In this way I hope to promote American studies in Europe and the UK as a discipline and academic space which is fair, tolerant and inclusive, as well as intellectually rewarding.

For BAAS I prioritized modernizing the organization and improving our outreach and media communications. Over my term as EAAS representative I would like to extend this and hope to see stronger connections made between the members of BAAS and EAAS that would lead to greater collaborations and knowledge-sharing; connected media communications; and increased support for early career and postgraduate scholars at national conferences and events. To kick this off, of course, we have the joint EAAS and BAAS conference taking place in London next April (2018) and I look forward immensely to welcoming European members and working to bring our work together more fully. I hope that through this work we can keep our intellectual field border-free, if not our nation states.

In 2019, when the BAAS conference comes to my home institution of Sussex University, I hope that many of those who come to the London conference will feel at home enough in BAAS to return and keep coming back to us each year. Finally, I’d also like to say a huge thank you to Martin Halliwell, my predecessor (twice now!) who has been tireless in his work for both BAAS and EAAS.

Sue Currell is Reader in American Literature and former Chair of the British Association for American Studies (2013-16). Her research interests include American literature, culture and modernism in the first half of the twentieth century as well as eugenics and popular culture. Among her publications are The March of Spare Time: The Problem of Leisure in the Great Depression (Pennsylvania, 2005) and American Culture in the 1920s (Edinburgh, 2009) and Popular Eugenics. She is currently writing a history of New Masses, a communist arts and culture magazine published in New York between 1926-48.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]