Report from Henry Knight Lozano, BAAS Founders’ Award recipient 2016

[vc_row margin_bottom=”15″][vc_column][dt_banner image_id=”15747″ bg_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.12)” min_height=”270″][/dt_banner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row margin_bottom=”10″][vc_column width=”1/2″][dt_quote]The BAAS Founders’ Research Travel Award enabled me to carry out an invaluable archival trip to the University of Hawaii to research United States’ Pacific expansion and the California-Hawaii relationship in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, writes Henry Knight Lozano. The archives reveal how California and Hawaii were tied together in promotional visions from the U.S. acquisition of California in 1848 to the Second World War.[/dt_quote][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]The British Association of American Studies Founders’ Research Travel Award enabled me to carry out an invaluable archival trip to use the Special Collections at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, in June 2016. This two-week trip has formed a vital part of my on-going book project, which seeks to understand a critical element in the United States’ Pacific expansion and identity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: the promotional relationship between California and Hawaii. It explores how promotional expansionism and development existed in unstable mix with defensive peril in moulding the California-Hawaii relationship and evolving discourses of “Americanisation” in these Pacific territories. Having previously done extensive archival work at the Huntington Library in Pasadena, California, it was important to delve into a range of materials held at the University of Hawaii to realise the transpacific ambitions of the project.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The project traces a relatively long period of time – nearly a century from the U.S. acquisition of California in 1848 to the Second World War – and this approach made the extensive Special Collections at the University of Hawaii particularly useful. Over the two-week period, I worked with a treasure trove of materials. I was, for instance, able to consult the Sanford Dole Papers, including the private correspondence of the first Provisional Governor of the Territory of Hawaii, who pushed for the Americanisation of Hawaii socially, industrially, and politically, not least through close ties with California. Another Dole – James – owned the Hawaiian Pineapple Company, the records of which provided insights into the rapid expansion of a fruit corporation that took inspiration, in part, from California’s marketing of citrus into a promotional icon.

From a much earlier period, the archive held scores of travelogues written by U.S. authors in California, Hawaii, and the wider Pacific world throughout the nineteenth century. These showed not only the transportation and literary connections that developed between the West Coast and the islands, but also how ideas of Manifest Destiny (and the “inevitable” Americanisation of California and of the Hawaiian Islands) worked to bind the pair together conceptually in the 1840s and 1850s. Materials on the early twentieth century were equally rich, demonstrating how the annexation of Hawaii not only reflected but also fostered significant promotional connections with California. Formed in 1903, for example, the Hawaii Promotion Committee and its records illuminated how island agencies worked closely with Californian counterparts to attract tourist travel and investment and develop an attractive imagery for Hawaii modelled, in part, on the successful promotion of Southern California as an exotic, semitropical U.S. destination. Lastly, and importantly, I was also able to explore the archive’s Hawaiian Collection, which included diaries of Kanaka Maoli leaders and a wealth of sources relating to the islands’ constitutional monarchy (pre-1898), providing insight into how many native Hawaiians resisted the formal Americanization of their homeland in the nineteenth century. In addition to all this, and with the expert guidance of local archivists, I found fascinating materials on the Hawaiian sugar industry, U.S. military development, and the growing Japanese community in the islands either side of 1900, all of which has added to the project’s exploration of the promotional visions and perilous ties that bound California and Hawaii together in this period.

In providing crucial funding that covered my flight to Hawaii, the BAAS Founders’ Research Award made possible this highly productive archival trip and thus helped to carry forward my book project in myriad ways. I am extremely grateful to have received this prestigious and generous award: thank you BAAS!

Henry Knight Lozano is Senior Lecturer in History and American Studies at Northumbria University.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row margin_bottom=”15″][vc_column][dt_banner image_id=”15128″ bg_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.12)” min_height=”270″][/dt_banner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][dt_quote]The BAAS Marcus Cunliffe Travel Award enabled me to gather new material on George A. Romero’s film production company Laurel Entertainment Inc. and track developments within American independent film, writes Tom Fallows. My visits to Columbia University in New York and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh demonstrate how geographic, economic, legal and institutional forces feed into independent films as cultural objects.[/dt_quote][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]The BAAS Marcus Cunliffe Travel Award provided me with an opportunity to obtain research materials from the United States crucial to my analysis of American independent film. My PhD project offers the first academic study of the key US film production company Laurel Entertainment Inc., established in 1973 by film director George A. Romero and his partner Richard P. Rubinstein. Romero is best known as the director of a series of zombie films, including 1968’s Night of the Living Dead, and his ability to craft commercial, yet politically challenging low budget genre films which made him one of the most culturally significant independent filmmakers working in America. Based in[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Pittsburgh, Laurel’s geographical separateness from mainstream production was unprecedented and my work aims to offer new insight into the industry of independent film, demonstrating how economic, legal and institutional forces feed into and help dictate such cultural objects.

In this media industries investigation, I am reliant on an array of empirical data, including corporate records and interviews with industry figures. Particularly, I had been looking for Laurel’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) documents from 1980-1988, a series of governmental reports containing rare financial and corporate information. These materials proved unavailable in the UK, and in fact are so scarce that even in the US the complete set could only be obtained by visiting two institutions. I therefore began my search at Columbia University’s Butler Library in New York, where, thanks to Head of Access and Operations Michael Lillard, the SEC microfiche files were waiting for me upon arrival. Though incomplete, these wide-ranging materials immediately suggested a more rapid growth in company infrastructure than I anticipated, moving quickly away from Romero’s filmic output to facilitating an eclectic array of in-house talent by as early as 1983. This move placed emphasis on more saleable product and contradicts preconceived notions that position independent filmmaking above marketplace concerns.

To obtain the rest of these documents, it seemed only fitting to travel to Pittsburgh, the city at the core of Laurel’s production activity and home of Romero’s alma mater Carnegie Mellon University. Carnegie’s economics librarian Roye Werner had been instrumental in pointing me to the existence of these SEC files at the start of my project, but following her retirement, Jill Chisnell graciously picked up where Roye left off. As we loaded the documents onto the microfiche reader, Jill and I noted Laurel’s numerous literary acquisitions, including Thomas Bell’s iconic novel on immigration and the Pittsburgh steel industry Out of This Furnace. Laurel’s intent to adapt this into a feature film suggests a fascinating diversification from their usual genre output, expanding a current understanding of the company’s artistic and marketplace intentions.

On day three at Carnegie Mellon I began pouring through the University’s archival collection of regional newspapers, including the Pittsburgh Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the North Hills News. These articles demonstrated Laurel’s close ties to regional space. Not only did they attempt to build a studio in Pittsburgh, but their interaction with the local community uncovered additional, and sometimes unusual, means of funding. This ranged from business firms investing in tax shelter schemes, to ice rink owners enticed into collaboration by the glamour of film production. In these press interviews, Rubinstein and Romero talk candidly about synergetic moves into publishing and television, and such activities appear to have been heavily influenced by these investment opportunities.

The assistance and expertise offered by university staff during this research trip far surpassed my expectations. But the ease in which I obtained materials here was in stark contrast to my interaction with the film industry itself. Much of my time in New York and Pittsburgh was spent chasing an assortment of former Laurel personnel, many of whom refused to confirm dates and times, lost e-mails, backed out at the last minute, didn’t return calls or spent the entire duration of my trip asking me to call back tomorrow. While awaiting confirmation, I decided to visit several locations pivotal to Romero’s work, starting with Laurel’s former offices downtown. I then headed out to the Monroeville shopping mall, the setting of Romero’s 1978 consumerist satire Dawn of the Dead, before continuing my zombie hunt to Evans City, home of the iconic graveyard seen at the start of Night of the Living Dead. Rather than simply a pop culture pilgrimage, these locales gave valuable insight into the spatiality of this filmic centre and here I was a uniquely positioned to consider Laurel’s physical relationship with the region. How important this space was in shaping aspects of filmic aesthetic, identity and business practicalities demands further enquiry.

Only a few days before leaving, I was contacted by Tony Buba, an independent filmmaker who worked closely with Laurel during their formation in 1973. In turn, Tony introduced me to Tom Dubinsky, a film editor who began his career as an apprentice at the company. Both agreed to be interviewed (at a coffee shop and an Orange Julius respectively) and they went into considerable detail regarding their polymorphic roles as cameramen, editors, sound editors and actors, shedding new light onto corporate infrastructure. This was particularly useful since the majority of their experiences pre-dated the records kept by the SEC.

These primary interviews suggest Laurel began as a post-Fordist company with a relaxed attitude to traditional modes of production, allowing a period of experimentation and creativity. The SEC documents meanwhile show a growing professionalism. Accordingly, as stock and shareholder profit became a primary incentive, product was increasingly standardised. Finally, regional newspapers and locations place this in a socio-economic context, giving grounding to Romero’s specific investigations into American culture and politics. Already this research has revealed much about the often-hidden infrastructure of independent film, suggesting alternatives for economic survival, while complicating notions of creative autonomy so central to analysis of independent film.

At this stage, the collated research still has a lot to reveal, particularly as I begin to interpret the vast economic data contained in the SEC filings. Taken as a collective, the information gathered on this research trip will give solid foundation to my exploration of Laurel Entertainment and developments within American independent film. Fundamentally, it is the intent of this analysis is to extend an existing critical terrain to encompass a previously neglected area of American cultural production. The generous contribution of BAAS has been a major step towards fulfilling this ambition.

Tom Fallows is a PhD student at the University of Exeter.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Welcome to the BAAS Schools Resources Page. Below, we have collated materials created by American Studies scholars that may be useful for teaching and studying American topics in English Literature, History and Government and Politics A-Levels. 

Resources are divided by period for History and English, and by topic area for Government and Politics. But they are also tagged with the exam board and topic  for which they may be relevant (e.g. AQA: The Birth of the USA, or OCR: American Literature 1880-1940), so you can search the website for relevant content by placing this term in the search box in the right hand corner.

All resources can be reproduced for private study, and for use in the classroom, but must be credited to their original authors.

We welcome advice from teachers and students on further topics that we could cover.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][dt_gap height=”20″][vc_column_text]History[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][dt_blog_scroller arrows=”dark” show_categories=”true” autoslide=”7000″ loop=”true” orderby=”title” category=”schools-history”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row bg_type=”no_bg”][vc_column][dt_gap height=”40″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][dt_gap height=”40″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Resources on this page support:

AQA: The Birth of the USA, 1760–1801

OCR: The American Revolution 1740–1796

Academic Articles

Popular Articles and Blog Posts

Useful Websites

Lecture Slides

Audio Visual Resources

[vc_row margin_bottom=”15″][vc_column][dt_banner image_id=”15124″ bg_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.13)” min_height=”270″][/dt_banner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][dt_quote]With the Eccles Centre Visiting Canadian Fellowship I was able to pursue my research into French Canadian Loyalism between the 1763 cession of Canada and the 1840 Act of Union, writes Damien-Claude Bélanger. The British Library’s excellent material relating to parliamentary debates and committees was important to my research and reveals new insights into French Canada’s relationship with Britishness and the Empire.[/dt_quote][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]I spent a month in the British Library researching the various French Canadians delegates who came to London to lobby the British authorities between the 1763 cession of Canada and the 1840 Act of Union. The project is tied to a wider programme of research that I am pursuing on French Canadian loyalism, and will form the basis for a scholarly article that I was able to get underway during my time at the library.

Before arriving at the British Library, I had compiled a list of persons, using secondary sources, who had been delegated by a significant body or institution within French Canada and who came to London in order to lobby the imperial[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]authorities in favour of the expansion French Canadian rights. These delegates were most often appointed by the Roman Catholic Church, French Canada’s leading institution before the 1960s, but they were also selected by the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada and by various ad hoc committees and assemblies.

I chose to examine French Canadian delegations rather than Quebec delegations because my focus is on those missions that sought to expand French Canadian political, legal, and religious rights. Missions to London were also organised during the British Regime by leading English-speaking colonists, but these often had the goal of preventing the expansion of French Canadian rights.

Delegates were attempting to negotiate a place within the British Empire for French Canada. They hoped to participate in civic life within the framework of British political institutions while retaining the religious and social institutions that were particular to French Canada. In my research, I wanted to understand how successful these delegations were, overall, and what they reveal about French Canada’s relationship with Britishness and the Empire.

The British Library’s remarkable collection contains a great deal of material related to Quebec, and I was able to locate many sources related to my topic. The papers of Governor Frederick Haldimand and those of apostate Jesuit Pierre Roubaud were of great use to understanding the delegates who came to London in the 1780s, as were those of Lord Goderich for the 1830s. The British Library’s excellent material related to parliamentary debates and committees was also important to my research, especially to the missions that were organised as a response to legislative initiatives in the 1770s, and again in the 1820s and 1830s. Finally, I should note that the British Library’s general collection of books and microfilms contains remarkable material related to Quebec, including some, like Michel Chartier de Lotbinière’s 1774 pamphlet on the Quebec Act, which not currently available in any Canadian library. Indeed, the British Library’s collection of Canadian material compares quite favourably with that of some of Canada’s best research libraries.

The material at the library helped me to establish a list of 12 missions to London that were organised between 1763 and 1840. Some of the persons that I had initially regarded as delegates, like Joseph-Gaspard Chaussegros de Léry (1721-1797), who was the first Canadian seigneur to be presented to George III, do not appear to have been delegated by any particular group and were thus eliminated as a result of my research.

The goals of the various missions to London mirror the shifting priorities of French Canada’s elites. The issue of religious rights is present throughout the period under study, as a Catholic nation, French Canada, attempted to negotiate its place within a Protestant Empire. It was most acute, however, in the 1760s, when religious leaders sought to ensure the basic survival of Catholicism in Quebec. The issue of political and legal rights emerged soon thereafter and had become central to French Canadian missions by the 1820s and 1830s.

Most French Canadian missions met with little success. They failed because delegates were often denied the support of the British authorities at Quebec, or because their requests ran contrary to British policy. They also failed because they did not enjoy the support of powerful British lobbies and interest groups. For instance, unlike the representatives of Quebec’s Protestant merchants, French Canadian delegates were not successful in being able to cultivate support among the Britain’s business community. By and large, delegates from Quebec, a Catholic society that had recently been integrated into the British Empire, did not have entrées to Britain’s circles of wealth and power. Instead, the allies that they were able to cultivate tended to come from groups who were politically marginalised within the United Kingdom, like English Catholics, Irish nationalists, and radical reformers.

But the story of French Canadian efforts to directly lobby London is not by any means characterised by unrelenting failure. On the contrary, several missions achieved notable successes. When success was achieved, it was usually because delegates had the support of the British authorities at Quebec. Successful missions also enjoyed the support of the Roman Catholic Church and civil society in French Canada. They advanced moderate claims that ultimately fostered Britain’s long-term goal of maintaining order and British rule in Quebec. Prescient officials in fact understood that allowing Quebec to retain its culture and institutions was likely in Britain’s best interests.

Overall, my research on French Canadian delegates reveals the extent to which elites in French Canada sought to negotiate a place for Quebec within the British Empire. Delegates wished for Quebec to participate in imperial life on terms that allowed for the preservation of French Canada’s religious, legal, and cultural specificity. In doing so they developed an essentially civic notion of Britishness, one that rested on political institutions and British notions of equity and the rule of law.

The research I was able to complete during my stay in London will thus contribute to our understanding of Quebec’s place within the British Empire. It would not have been possible without the support of the BAAS and the Eccles Centre, and I am proud to record my appreciation for their assistance.

Damien-Claude Bélanger is an Associate Professor of Canadian history at the University of Ottawa and the co-founder of Mens : revue d’histoire intellectuelle et culturelle.

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[vc_row margin_bottom=”15″][vc_column][dt_banner image_id=”16704″ bg_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.19)” min_height=”300″][/dt_banner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][dt_quote]In this post Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones introduces his new book We Know All About You: The Story of Surveillance in Britain and America that outlines the development of government surveillance in the United States and the UK since the late eighteenth century to the present.[/dt_quote][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]In response to the Fake News and Alternative Facts doctrine twittered so incoherently from the Trump White House, people have remembered George Orwell’s Doublethink and Newspeak, and sales of 1984 have boomed in the USA. No doubt we shall soon appreciate anew the Orwellian warning that Big Brother is Watching You. The revelations by Edward Snowden still linger in our consciousness as a reminder of the caution. In my book We Know All About You, I sketch the development of[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]government surveillance in the United States and the UK since the late eighteenth century, dwelling on such subjects as American and British McCarthyism, and concluding with an assessment of contemporary attempts at reform.

But I contend that Orwell and Snowden shared an oversight. Few people realize – the novelist John le Carré being one exception – that some of the most intrusive surveillance has been not governmental, but private. The Islington News made the point in 2007 when it commented on the CCTV installations within 200 yards of Orwell’s final residence: ‘far from being instruments of the state, the cameras – more than 30 of them – belong to private companies and well-to-do residents’.

Some of the twists and turns in the story of private surveillance will be familiar. The activities of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, with its motto The Eye That Never Sleeps, are an example. And it wasn’t just the Pinkertons. There was a mushroom growth in private detective agencies in late nineteenth century America. The spied on two stock sources of profit. The first was workers who tried to unionize or draw attention to unsafe working conditions. The second, with divorce booming by the 1920s, was the family bedroom and its adulterous extensions.

More of a surprise to me, when I looked at it, was the role that credit agencies played. Lewis Tappan, the anti-slavery radical who championed the Amistad case, was, less famously, a pioneer of the creditworthiness assessment industry. His firm listed and graded 800,000 US businessmen by the end of the nineteenth century, having subjected them and their habits – alcohol consumption, gambling, sexual behaviour – to surveillance by 10,000 professional informers.

Do you have a supermarket credit card? It is watching you and bending your mind through targeted advertizing. Private surveillance is multi-faceted, and is with us to stay. I devote continuing attention in the book to the unsavoury history of anti-labour surveillance. It took many forms, ranging from spying on bathroom visits to identifying activists and blacklisting them. Ralph Van Deman and ‘Blinker’ Hall, heroes of wartime military intelligence in America and Britain respectively, both set up private anti-labour spying units in the 1920s. Such surveillance continued into the twenty-first century, and now shows signs of reviving in Trump’s America and May’s UK.

Attempts to curb government surveillance have yielded at least partial success, and have received media attention. In spite of the prevalence of blacklisting on some of our most prestigious construction projects, and the phenomenon of merciless hacking and other intrusiveness by mass-circulation newspapers, less constructive attention has been paid in our two democracies to the excesses of private surveillance.

One reason for the strength of the headwind is that the press is privately owned, reponsive to private business interests, and indisposed to report favourably on proposals for its own reform. When it does listen to surveillance grievances, they are those of the middle classes concerned with their own right to privacy. So how impartial has our ‘free’ and ‘truthful’ press been? I argue that we have not properly addressed some of the kinds of surveillance that have done the most harm.

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones is the author of We Know All About You: The Story of Surveillance in Britain and America (Oxford: OUP, 2017): https://global.oup.com/academic/product/we-know-all-about-you-9780198749660. An emeritus professor of American History at the University of Edinburgh, Rhodri is honorary president of the Scottish Association for the Study of America. His work The American Left: Its Impact on Politics and Society since 1900 was the winner of the Neustadt Prize awarded by the American Politics Group for the best UK book published on American politics in 2013.

If you would like to announce your latest book publication in American Studies in Britain, email Michelle at michelle.green[at]baas.ac.uk[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row margin_bottom=”15″][vc_column][dt_banner image_id=”15042″ bg_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.12)” min_height=”230″][/dt_banner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][dt_quote]The British Library’s collections enabled me to explore the popular culture of 20^th-century polar exploration and the changing nature of American cultures of masculinity, writes Marionne Cronin. The British Library’s strong collection of American periodicals and newspapers provided important insights into the ways in which the flight of American aviator Richard Byrd in particular was represented for specific audiences – particularly how notions of masculinity and technological heroism were presented to women and children.[/dt_quote][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]In May 1926, American newspapers were alive with the story that the American aviator Richard Byrd had become the first person to reach the North Pole by air. While several historians have argued that Byrd’s use of aircraft marked the end of the era of heroic polar exploration, contemporary reactions suggest that aerial polar exploration continued to fascinate interwar American publics and that they continued to understand it as a heroic endeavour. But, if the introduction of aircraft heralded the end of heroic polar exploration, why was Byrd celebrated as a national hero? Lurking behind this question are others: how was it that explorers continued to be seen as exceptional men, even when ensconced in the protective shell of a machine that seemed to be doing all of the difficult work? How did[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]aviation become part of the narrative of heroic exploration and what effect did the use of aircraft have on popular cultures of exploration? And, perhaps most importantly, what can this tell us about broader trends in American interwar culture?

Images of the Arctic landscape played key roles in 19^th and early 20^th-century Anglo-American polar narratives. Constructed as an untamed, wild space beyond the limits of the modern, civilized world, the polar environment supplied the necessary setting for the explorer’s enactment of a set of interlocking heroic, masculine, and national identities. In particular, the direct encounter between the explorer’s male body and the powerful forces of this wild space, by turns alluringly beautiful and fatally dangerous, provides the opportunity for the explorer to demonstrate his masculine heroism. The introduction of aircraft, with their ability to lift the explorer above the dangers of the Arctic’s icy surface, however, seems to fundamentally destabilize both this relationship between explorer and environment, and the Arctic’s status as a space untouched by the modern world. Previous expeditions had deployed modern or cutting-edge technologies such as Robert Falcon Scott’s motorized sledges or Robert Peary’s steamship, the Roosevelt, but placing aircraft at the centre of his expeditions in the way that Byrd did represented a departure from previous treatments of technology. Indeed, according to some scholars, the use of aircraft presented such a challenge to the existing narratives that it marked the end of the era of heroic exploration. And yet, chroniclers of Byrd’s expedition, including the explorer himself, sought to preserve his status as heroic explorers. To do so they produced complex, sometimes ambivalent, re-imaginings of polar exploration as they sought to integrate heroic masculinity within a technologically advanced practice.

My research investigates the popular culture of 20^th-century American exploration by analysing the narratives and images surrounding American aviator Richard Byrd’s interwar polar flights. Exploring the popular culture of 20^th-century polar exploration offers important insights into the changing nature of American cultures of masculinity – particularly the relationship between notions of masculinity, technology, nature, and heroism.

My research approaches exploration as an endeavour that encompasses more than simply the journey itself, but also involves the process of converting the expedition into consumable narratives. As existing scholarship on the history of exploration demonstrates, representations of explorers and expeditions often functioned as expressions of more general historical and cultural contexts. Thus, I draw on a variety of historical sources, including print media, in order to evaluate what popular images of Byrd can tell us about broader cultural trends. By examining Anglo-American press coverage of the expedition my work explores the renegotiation of these narratives. Extending the history of exploration into the interwar period, my research challenges the assumption that the introduction of aircraft automatically produced an image of a conquered North, and illustrates how writing technology into the narratives of polar exploration produced complex, layered, and sometimes contradictory images of masculine heroism. At the same time, this material also demonstrates the ways in which polar exploration continued to function as an important field for the expression and negotiation of national identities.

My project greatly benefited from access to the British Library’s strong collection of American periodicals and newspapers that are not available elsewhere in the UK. During my fellowship I consulted a broad range of publications from across the United States, including 18 newspapers from cities on the East coast, the West coast, in the Midwest, and the South, all of which carried coverage of Byrd and his flight. Access to media covering a variety of geographical locations and political positions afforded me a more nuanced, nation-wide picture of American popular cultures of exploration than that available through standard papers of record such as the New York Times. I also had the opportunity to consult a number of American periodicals, including Woman’s Home Companion, Popular Science, McCall’s, and Boy’s Life. This material provided important insights into the ways in which Byrd’s flight was represented for specific audiences – particularly how notions of masculinity and technological heroism were presented to women and children.

During my fellowship I completed two chapters of a book-length project based on this project. The material from the British Library provided essential information for these chapters, which examine changing American notions of masculinity and popular cultures of technology and modernity. I also contributed an entry on aerial exploration for the British Library’s Science Blog, and appreciated the opportunity to present the results of my research as part of the Eccles Centre’s Summer Scholars programme, as well as at the University of Aberdeen Museums, the ‘Heroes’ conference hosted by The Hero Project, and ‘Debunking National Heroes’ at the University of Manchester.

Marionne Cronin is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row margin_bottom=”15″][vc_column][dt_banner image_id=”15034″ bg_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.11)” min_height=”270″][/dt_banner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][dt_quote]The Eccles Centre Postgraduate Fellowship has proven to be vitally important to the direction of my studies into the media strategy of President Lyndon B Johnson, writes Ben Quail. The materials in the British Library on Vietnam in particular – one of the first widely televised wars – show the influence of media and public perception on Presidential reputation and credibility.[/dt_quote][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]In April 2015 I was fortunate enough to receive the BAAS postgraduate fellow award, and was able to spend two weeks using the resources of the Eccles Centre at the British Library. The fortnight I spent there has proven to be vitally important to the direction of my studies into the Presidency of Lyndon B Johnson. I am currently looking at the media strategy of President Johnson and how his relationship with the media affected his popularity during the course of his elected presidency.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Johnson’s relationship with the media was fraught – he did not trust the journalists working around him and they, in turn, distrusted him. These difficult conditions helped lead to a credibility gap opening up over the course of the mid-1960s over the direction of the war in Vietnam, and jeopardised Johnson’s plans to enact a Great Society programme which would fight poverty, push for civil rights and improve medical care for millions of Americans. Ultimately, the PhD thesis looks to further the discussion over how public perception affects leadership decisions by viewing the specific case study of the Johnson presidency, and argues that Johnson’s inability to pursue a pro-active press strategy contributed to the credibility gap and damaged his reputation with the American public.

The time I spent in the British Library has been vital to my continued understanding of Johnson and the media. The resources that were made available included large amounts of secondary material and explanations of how presidents and their administrations use poll data to manipulate public opinion. The book LBJ and the Polls by Bruce Altschuler was a particularly strong example of this kind of material, as it included several case studies which were relevant to my studies, including discussions of how Johnson’s staffers courted pollsters such as Louis Harris and George Gallup in order to obtain more favourable reports.

Works such as, “Presidential Polls and the News Media,” by Paul J. Lavrakas and “The Superpollsters” by David W Moore were of great help to my theoretical understanding of the subject of opinion polls, while works such as “Power and Personality” by Harold Lasswell and “The Arrogance of Power” by J William Fulbright were useful in gaining an understanding of both presidential issues and the specific issues that Johnson had to deal with in Vietnam.

Several first hand reports from government officials to the President were informative and showed how the president and his staff handled the media during crisis situations. None of this information was readily available to me prior to my visit to the library.

As well as this, I was able to read biographies and memoirs from important figures in the administration such as General William Westmoreland, commander of US forces in Vietnam, and senior Johnson aide Jack Valenti, as well as figures who were central to foreign policy decision making such as Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and his undersecretary George Ball. These accounts of decision making at the highest level show the influence of media and public perception, particularly when focusing on Vietnam – one of the first widely televised wars – and have been integral to my continued study of the topic.

Finally, the material available from the Library helped me to better understand the period of time in which Johnson’s presidency took place. The 1960s were a volatile and difficult period in American history, with the assassinations of major political figures Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King and a series of riots taking place in cities such as Detroit and Newark, New Jersey. On top of the Vietnam war and Johnson’s Great Society program, it has been greatly important to understand the issues that pulled at the president and his administration during his time in the White House, and how these affected both media coverage and the relationship that the media had with the White House.

Ultimately all of this material has helped me to understand the discussion behind the press relations and strategy of the Johnson administration, as well as to understand how Johnsonian decision making worked. I have been able to integrate the material into several papers that I have given at postgraduate level including at the Scottish American Studies Association, Historians of the Twentieth Century United States and at several university postgraduate conferences. I hope to submit articles around the subject in the near future.

The help of BAAS and the Eccles Centre award has been fundamental in my continuing understanding of the 1960s, Lyndon B Johnson and the political history of the United States. I am extremely grateful for the opportunities that have been afforded to me as a result of this award, and I would not be able to complete my PhD without the materials I have been able to work with as a result of it.

Ben Quail is a PhD student at the University of Strathclyde[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row margin_bottom=”15″][vc_column][dt_banner image_id=”15022″ bg_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.12)” min_height=”270″][/dt_banner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row margin_bottom=”10″][vc_column width=”1/2″][dt_quote]The Eccles Centre Fellowship provided me with the opportunity to research key aspects of Appalachian culture for my PhD in creative writing, writes Kevan Manwaring. The Fellowship granted me time in the archives but also time to go on an Appalachian field trip that has helped add telling detail to my novel and bring alive specific scenes.[/dt_quote][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]‘We’re sailing west, we’re sailing west,/To prairie lands, sun-kissed and blest—/The crofter’s trail to happiness’ … So goes an Emigrant jingle from the Canadian Pacific Railroad Archives. It sums up the apparently glamorous allure of the New World, as packaged to the Scottish and Scots-Irish settlers, who did not need much persuading, considering the many adverse factors driving them to risk the perilous crossing – Highland and Lowland Clearances; the Potato Famine; punitive changes in farming practices and land[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]ownership; extreme poverty and hardship. It is not surprising they fell for the hype. But they took with them their own songs and tales which evoked the longing of the exile, the backward glance to the lost land of birth, of blood, the soil in the soul.

Many of those settlers ended up in the mountains, laurel meadows and hollers of the Appalachians, planting their culture in different soil that shared the same geology – for once their respective landmasses had been joined as Laurentia. Maybe they felt the ancient rhyme in their bones – it made them feel at home.

Inspired by this notion, of finding unexpected common ground across the divide, my main focus was all things Appalachian. I am working on a novel for a creative writing PhD at the University of Leicester dramatizing the diasporic translocation and cross-fertilisation of ballad- and tale-cultures between the Scottish Lowlands and Southern Appalachians. I had already done a fair bit of ballad research at the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, Cecil Sharp House, but needed to explore certain aspects of Appalachian culture relating to my characters (some real, some fictional) and setting (ditto). I am fascinated by the collision of the actual and the imaginary as Nathaniel Hawthorne termed it in his 1850 introduction to The Scarlet Letter, ‘The Custom-House’, on observing the effect of the co-mingled warm light of the coal-fire and the cold light of moon-beams upon the room’s surfaces:

Thus, therefore, the floor of our familiar room has become a neutral territory, somewhere between the real world and fairy-land, where the Actual and the Imaginary may meet, and each imbue itself with the nature of the other.

The actual anchors the imaginary, providing what Hawthorne defined as ‘the authenticity of the outline’, within which a writer can embellish. It was the need for the solid timber-frame of facts upon which to furnish my fictive world that sent my searching through the archives – for the general texture of the milieu and the telling detail with which I could bring alive specific scenes.

Key subjects I looked at in the British Library were: Long-hunters; Medicine Shows; Log-cabins; and Appalachian history. The log-cabin research culminated in a lunchtime talk in July as part of the Summer Scholars series. It felt great to share my shed-obsession with a lovely audience including general public, staff and specialists. Having visited the iconic ‘log-cabin’ of Thoreau fame, on Walden Pond, during my US research trip, this felt like full circle in a way.

And my Appalachian field trip was certainly a highlight.

During 22 August-8 September 2015 I undertook a road trip, courtesy of my American friends from Rhode Island, down the East Coast to North Carolina. I wanted to go by road to experience more closely the transition from New England to the Southern Appalachians, and take in as much of the geography and culture as possible. As a novelist, this kind of texture is vital. It is all in the ‘telling details’, that no amount of book or virtual research will ever uncover. You have to be there, get off the beaten trail, talk to locals, have an experience.

My intentions with this field-trip were to experience North America directly, to observe, record, and reflect (in my trusty Moleskine); to use the above to enrich the novel, paying particular attention to the quotidian texture of the everyday (what novelist Colum McCann called ‘the miracle of the actual’ ); to identify and record examples of the idiolect and ecolect of North Carolina; to make some useful connections; to hear some live music and perform a little myself (sharing my tales and poems at local ‘open mics’ and round campfires); and, finally, to find (fresh) inspiration.

Particular highlights included meeting fretless banjo-player Rick Ward, a singer descended from long-hunters and a long line of local note-worthies (including the famous Hicks family – see below). I recorded one of his stories, a local folk tale, on my phone, during our conversation at a Boone coffee-house. I was introduced to Rick by local music impresario, Mark Freed, of Jones House – a centre for bluegrass, Americana and Old Timey music in Boone. Another highlight was a visit to Jane Hicks Gentry house, Hot Springs, NC (Jane Hicks Gentry was a ‘tradition-bearer’ with a vast repertoire of ballads and Jack-tales, recorded by Sharp, Lomax, et al). I got to meet her great-grandson in Gentry Hardware and purchased a copy of the biography on Jane Gentry Hicks, A Singer Among Singers, signed by the author, Betty N. Smith and the grandson. During my stay I got to check out a fine slice of different types of music – buskers on the streets of Asheville; the Boston bluegrass all-female outfit, Della Mae, in concert at the legendary Grey Eagle; the Shindig on the Green: a weekly hoe-down in the centre of Asheville with music and dancing; a taste of the Counter Culture at Organicfest in the same venue the next day; bluegrass and blues in the downtown ‘pub’, Jack of the Woods; a folk duo at Shenandoah national park; and merry campfire singalongs. In an intangible, but vitally qualitative way, my field-trip enabled me to simply soak up the texture of the American freeway, and ‘Main St America’.

My field-trip also afforded some unexpected but priceless by-products, including spending quality time with an American family – sharing meals, living space, birthday/Labor Day celebrations, et cetera; researching in App. State special collections (where I immediately felt at home!); exploring the Urban Walking Trail, Asheville; visiting the inspiring aSHEville Museum, which celebrates the lives of Appalachian Women; and hiking round in the ‘Backcountry’ on various trails.

What was heartening from all this was confirmation that in my initial envisioning and depiction of my American characters and settings I was pretty near the mark – indeed I felt, at times, that I met real people who could have been from the pages of my novel! Time and time again I did a double-take as I seemed to step into my own book. This was interesting as the working title of the novel was ‘The Two Seeings’, from the Gaelic for Second Sight, An Da Shealladh (literally, the ‘two sights’, the mortal and the visionary sight of the seer) and inspired by the William Stafford poem, ‘Bi-Focal’

So, the world happens twice—

once what we see it as;

second it legends itself

deep, the way it is.

On my final night in Jamestown, Rhode Island, my hosts held a farewell celebration inspired by the theme I suggested: ‘Crossways Medicine Show’. We had fun creating various ‘snake oils’! I MCed a fire circle where I encouraged the sharing of stories, songs and poems, in any language; and painted a banner upon which I asked guests to sign with their respective countries/heritage. It was a great way to celebrate our various narratives, our common ground, and the conclusion of a rich and inspiring trip.

Upon my return to England I followed up some of my field-work with further study in the archives at the British Library; and I went onto incorporate my findings into the second draft of the novel, written while a writer-in-residence at Hawthornden Castle, November-December 2015. I feel my time in the Eccles Centre has been fruitful – taking my research to the next level. It has helped bed my novel in the actual, providing essential nutrients for the orchids of the imagination I have planted there.

Notes:

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, ‘The Custom-House’, Introductory to The Scarlet Letter (1850) http://www.bartleby.com/83/101.html [accessed 20.09.2016]

Stafford, William, “Bi-Focal” from Ask Me: 100 Essential Poems. Copyright © 1954 by William Stafford. Reprinted with the permission of Graywolf Press, St. Paul, Minnesota, www.graywolfpress.org., from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/42779 [accessed 20.09.2016]

Acknowledgments:

I would like to thank the Eccles Centre this opportunity to deepen and widen my research. It has been a great pleasure and privilege to delve into the bottomless archives of the British Library – actual and virtual. It is truly one of the great places in the world to spend time in scholarly pursuits.

Kevan Manwaring (FHEA) is a Creative Writing PhD student at University of Leicester; and an Eccles Centre Postgraduate Fellow in North American Studies (2015-2016).[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

British Association for American Studies

Minutes 286th

Minutes of the 286th meeting of the Executive Committee, held at the University of Leeds on Friday 18 November 2016 at 1.00 pm.

1. Present: Brian Ward (Chair), Jenny Terry (Secretary), Cara Rodway (Treasurer), Simon Hall, David Brown, Joe Street, Emma Long, Katie McGettigan, Katerina Webb-Bourne, Kate Dossett.

2. Apologies: Paul Williams, Uta Balbier, Martin Halliwell, Martin Dines, Nicole King, Ben Offiler, 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 (June 2016 – November 2016)

• BW thanked all members of the Executive for their efforts on behalf of the Association, in particular JT and CR, but also noted our thanks to Jo Gill and Carole Holden, who have been looking after the new US Embassy/BAAS grant programme, and to KM, Louise Cunningham and Michelle Green, who worked with UB to update a lot of the Awards publicity this year.

• US Embassy/BAAS Small Grants Programme: Following a meeting with Tim Gerhardson and Laura Saarinen at the US Embassy on 20 September 2016, BW secured a welcome increase to the total amount of funding we can distribute in 2016-17. In the first round proper of Embassy/BAAS grants (September 2016), 21 applications were received, 12 of which were offered funding or part-funding. The successful projects cover a range of activities that will promote American Studies and/or enhance the understanding of the USA in the UK. They include a wide range of programme types and subjects (5 relating to art/culture and 7 to politics/society/history), are aimed at diverse audiences, and offer a good range of geographical diversity. There is plenty left in the pot for the January round and we should encourage colleagues to apply.

BW circulated a more detailed breakdown of the successful September applications, as provided by Jo and Carole, ahead of the meeting. Tim Gerhardson is pleased with the range of awards. We are still looking at ways of working with and supporting the Fulbright Commission. Unfortunately because of the £10,000 Embassy cap on awards, we were not able to sponsor a Fulbright Scholar via this scheme as had been mooted. BW is liaising about other possibilities and the cap could be something to look at if this collaboration with the Embassy continues another year.

• 23 August 2016: BW met with Penny Egan of the Fulbright Commission to discuss possible forms of support within the terms of the US Embassy / BAAS Small Grants Programme.

• 30 June 2016: BW attended the 4 July celebrations hosted by Ambassador Matthew Barzun and his wife at the US Embassy.

• 20 September 2016: BW attended the welcome reception for Lewis Lukens, the new Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy, also hosted by Ambassador Barzun.

• 9 September 2016: BW attended the HOTCUS Postgraduate and Early Career Researcher Conference at Northumbria University, which BAAS supported financially.

• BW reported that a statement relating to good practice with regard to Equality and Diversity has now been included in online advertising for our awards. We also have particularly robust language on this issue in the call for papers for the 2017 BAAS Conference at Canterbury Christ Church University. Thanks were noted to Gavan Lennon for assuming additional responsibilities in connection with the BAAS 2017 conference and to Lydia Plath for all her work on this and for doing her utmost to minimize the disruption caused by her move from CCCU to Warwick.

• BW also thanked BO for writing a piece for American Studies In Britain highlighting the recent focus and efforts on the part of BAAS in the area of Equality and Diversity, something that will be furthered via the 2017 BAAS Membership Survey (see Development and Education Sub-Committee business below). Ben’s article can be accessed here: http://www.baas.ac.uk/equdivupdate/

• The annual BAAS Postgraduate Conference (tomorrow) sees another initiative. BW offered thanks to Jade Tullett, who oversaw the new USSO Keynote Competition, inviting PGRs to propose a keynote lecture to be given at the conference. The winner for 2016 is Hannah Murray (Nottingham) who will deliver ‘Blackface like me: The borders of belonging and desires for blackness in America.’

Jade also offered an exemplary model of how to keep track of the demographics relating to the competition, including panel composition. BW asked others involved in BAAS’s various awards and schemes to consider compiling and sharing similar records. AGREED: Awards subcom and others to look at what’s feasible. Noted: with BAAS administering over 40 awards annually, plus the Small Conference Support Grants and the US Embassy / BAAS Small Grants Programme, there are administrative and resource implications to gathering this data.

• In the wake of the results of the 2016 US presidential election, BW proposed that BAAS issue a brief statement outlining its 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. A draft statement had been circulated in advance and, after discussion, the executive approved it. AGREED: That the below statement would be posted on the BAAS website, with notice also given in the weekly email bulletin and ASIB.

For more than 50 years, the British Association for American Studies has supported research and teaching on the history, politics and cultures of the United States and its colonial precursors in a variety of national, regional and global contexts. In the aftermath of the 2016 US Presidential Election there has never been a more important time for BAAS to encourage critical engagement with the American experience in all its complexities. The Association remains dedicated to promoting greater understanding of Colonial America and the United States among researchers, students, teachers, schools, and the general public.

• As CR will report as Treasurer, BAAS is currently in a pleasingly robust financial position. This is thanks, not only to Cara’s careful stewardship, but also to the revised Journal of American Studies deal with Cambridge University Press, brokered by Sue Currell and Bridget Bennett, when Sylvia Ellis was treasurer. BW will be writing to all three in thanks following this meeting.

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

• Sadly Prof. Louis Billington, a stalwart of BAAS, especially in the 1970s and 1980s, has died. Louis was a major figure in the development of American Studies at the University of Hull and an important scholar of Anglo-American religious history – and of BAAS’s own past. A fuller tribute will appear in ASIB in due course.
• In May 2016, Christian O’Connell (Gloucester) completed his semester as a Fulbright-Elon College Scholar at Elon College, North Carolina.
• Jacqueline Fear-Segal (UEA) and Emily West (Reading) have been promoted to Professor.
• Dafydd Townley (PGR- Reading) won a Gerald Ford Presidential Foundation Award to conduct research at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
• Brian Ward was awarded a British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant for scoping work on ‘The Sick South: Disease, Disability, Dying and Death in an American Region.’
• Celeste-Marie Bernier is a 2016-17 Fellow of the National Center for the Humanities in the US (North Carolina).
• Martin Halliwell has become Co-Chair of the Arts and Humanities Alliance along with Susan Bruce.

7. Secretary’s Business (JT reporting)

• Charitable Incorporated Organisation Registration

The collection of trustee signatures via mail had taken some time over the summer but the online application to the Charity Commission and various supporting documents were submitted at the start of this week. JT has received an initial response and there are a couple of small queries to follow up on but we should very soon have legal status as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) and a new charity number. Our assets will then be transferred from the ‘old’ BAAS to the ‘new’ BAAS and we can proceed with terminating our previous Charity Commission registration.

• Elections

JT reminded the committee that because of the new advance voting system, election processes and the notice of vacancies on the exec would begin earlier in 2017. She invited suggestions for people who could be approached to act as independent election scrutineers (our CIO constitution stipulates two of these to work with the Secretary on advance and AGM voting).

• Vacancies arising

As UB will be starting maternity leave in January, we will be seeking both a new Awards Subcommittee Chair and a new BAAS Vice-Chair.

• Equality and Diversity

As we consider all aspects of BAAS in light of equality and diversity issues and best practice, JT has reviewed Secretary business in relation to this. She proposed adding Equality and Diversity as a standing item on the exec agenda (AGREED). We might also think further about the timing of our meetings; at the moment most take place on Fridays in the middle part of the day but sometimes they are held on Saturdays, which is not family friendly. This issue and the various factors involved in the selection of meeting dates and days was discussed. Issues noted: timetabling of teaching commitments, cost of weekend travel, January meeting usually involves a tour of campus venues for the next conference. Would a regular pattern (ie third week of Jan each year) help or does doodlepoll consultation remain effective? Committee members were generally happy with arrangements but it would be good to continue to monitor this matter.

8. Treasurer’s Business (CR reporting)

(a) Bank Accounts (as at 14 November 2016)

Paypal                                                  £4,902.00

Current                                     £5,303.88

Savings                                                £71,326.86

BAAS Publications Ltd              £60,310.81

TOTAL:                                                £141,843.55

To give an overview of our turnover between 1 January 2016 and 9 November 2016:

BAAS Charity                           £148,185.84

BAAS Publications Ltd             £99,310.63

Total income:                           £247,496.47

This means we will have turned over nearly a quarter of a million pounds by the end of the year, and shows how we have magnified our activities and programmes and turnover as an organisation.

(b) Membership Figures (provided by LC)

Honorary membership – 4

Schools membership – 13

Individual membership – 288 (134 online JAS, 154 with full JAS)

PG membership – 277 (216 online JAS, 61 with full JAS)

Retired (PR) – 30 (21 online JAS, 9 with full JAS)

Unwaged (PU) – 12 (11 online JAS, 1 with full JAS)

Total members on fully paid sheet: 624   [611 in June 2016]

(c)        Investments

CR is currently looking for a financial advisor specialising in charities in order to get some independent advice with regard to investments. The Charity Commission suggests we need to draw up an investment strategy. It would be useful to take this forward with a couple of other volunteers from the exec. We are now in a better position in terms of meeting our reserves policy (which features in our annual accounts and report to the Charity Commission). One possibility for investment would be a trust which funds a scholarship every year from the interest.

(d)        Payroll

We will be moving towards an organisational payroll, hopefully in the New Year, once the CIO change is completed. As a CIO we can enter into employment contracts as an organisation and legal entity. CR is seeking clarification from the accountant about our pension liability (if any).

9. Publications Subcommittee (JS reporting)

(a)        JAS

The subcommittee had received a report from the Editors about JAS activities and plans. The next Editorial Board meeting is 13 December 2016. JS has been taking forward the review of the payment of the main Editors. Celeste-Marie Bernier and Bevan Sewell are doing great, and increasing, work with JAS and a BAAS review of remuneration is overdue. JS had circulated a proposal to the exec in advance outlining a model of payment involving both a flat rate and some payment linked to a percentage of the JAS annual profits (based on the Retail Price Index).

AGREED: The executive approved proceeding with the new payment as proposed.

(b)        USSO

A report from Editors Jade Tullett and Todd Carter had been received by the subcommittee.

(c)        BAAS Paperbacks and BRRAM

Nothing to report. The subcommittee and exec will come back to developments with BRRAM, with Kenneth Morgan reporting, next time.

10. Development and Education Subcommittee (KD reporting)

(a)        Membership Survey

The survey has been redrafted, for example to include a question on submission of articles to JAS. The pre-circulated draft had been discussed by the subcom and was approved by the exec with some minor amendments. The survey will go live online on 1 March and run until 30 April. AGREED: Proposed expenditure and rolling contract with survey monkey. CUP will be approached about offering the choice of a book as a prize to incentivise participation in the survey.

(b)        Equality and Diversity Statement

The draft statement from NK had been discussed by the subcom and approved with some minor amendments (to remove categories of difference and emphasise key principles). Once finalised, this can be posted on our website and proposed at the AGM as an addition to the BAAS constitution. The final version for the constitution would be brought back to the exec for approval in the January meeting.

(c)        Equality and Diversity Role

The subcommittee had discussed the pros and cons of having a formal equalities role written into the constitution. After some debate, they recommend having a role that could be filled by any member of the executive. This member could be decided on following the AGM each year and would be offered training. It was proposed that all candidates who stand for election are asked to include in their nomination statement what they would try to do in relation to equality and diversity issues. These recommendations were AGREED by the executive.

With a sense that equality and diversity need to be responsibilities shared by all of us, the subcommittee also proposes that these become standing items on every subcommittee agenda as well as the agenda for the main executive meeting. Officers and/or subcom chairs should include equality and diversity reports in their annual reports at the AGM (AGREED).

(d)        BAAS Archive

The subcommittee had looked at a number of models for how we might use a scholarship or grant to promote use of the BAAS archive. One model that received strong support was to fund a postgraduate placement, which would lead to an online publication such as ‘BAAS in 10 Documents’ and enable skills acquisition. This would require liaison with archivists in Birmingham. Another suggestion was to appoint a postgraduate researcher to conduct oral histories with former BAAS officers while the opportunities are still there. These ideas are in development.

(e)        Schools

The role of Schools Representative is not currently clearly defined and the subcom will work with our rep Mike Simpson to draw up a job description. MS had made suggestions relating to online resources and KM will liaise directly with him to further develop teacher resources on our website. Podcasts raising the profile of American Studies with teachers are also a possibility.

The subcommittee had also discussed the idea of a teachers workshop and considered holding this as part of the BAAS annual conference with a fees waiver for teachers. After consideration, it was decided that working with the British Library in London and Boston Spa to organise a teachers’ workshop would be the best strategy in the first instance. Events could involve American Studies alumni.

(f)         Website

Website matters are generally fine. From April 2017 onwards KM would like to start to handover mailing list duties to someone else. This year it had been necessary to draw on extra assistance in order to get Awards publicity online with a tight turnaround. AGREED: funds for some extra web support around the launch of Awards each year (e.g. up to 20 hours work).

(g)        Other matters

Mercedes Aguirre was in attendance at the subcommittee as our new Libraries and Resources Representative. As Early Career Rep, BO is working on ideas regarding a mentoring programme in American studies. KD is organising a panel / women’s caucus at the 2017 BAAS conference in Canterbury.

11. Conference Subcommittee (JT reporting on behalf of PW)

(a)        Queen’s University Belfast

The accounts are still not closed from the Belfast conference and it would be good to get these tied up.

(b)        Canterbury Christ Church University

The organisers had received a higher than expected number of paper and panel proposals. With a shorter conference planned for 2017, this means careful management of parallel sessions and selectivity. AGREED: all of us wish to retain the BAAS conference’s traditional lively mix of postgraduates and researchers at other career stages.

As Lydia Plath moves on to a new job in January, she will remain involved but Gavan Lennon will become conference lead at CCCU. LP and PW are preparing an application for conference support from the US Embassy / BAAS Small Grant Programme (January deadline).

The steer on gender and panel composition included in the Canterbury CFP has prompted only one negative response to Lydia Plath plus a couple of queries to BW. AGREED: It would be good to have similar guidelines in the CFP for the next Postgraduate conference and future BAAS conferences, perhaps with some wording to be discussed at the exec. KWB also reminded the meeting of other forms of diversity and the need to work out how to address those at our events.

(c)        London

Nick Witham reported that planning is progressing well and the logo for the conference has almost been finalised. The next organising meeting is due to take place on 29 November. He would like the Conferences subcom to see some of the UCL venues on the day of the next exec meeting. As UB starts maternity leave, Dan Matlin will become the main King’s College representative on the joint organising group.

(d)        BAAS Small Conference Support Grants

The second round of 2016 closed in mid November and applications have just been assessed. PW is passing on reports on completed events to USSO and ASIB.

(e)        Postgraduate Conference

KWB reported that there will be approx. 60 delegates at the annual Postgraduate Conference at the University of Leeds tomorrow. As mentioned under Chair’s business, one innovation is the USSO postgraduate keynote. There will also be sessions linked to career development and USSO will be featuring interactive panel reviews to facilitate dialogue.

For future organisers, it would be helpful to have a clear picture earlier on of which BAAS exec members are able to attend and, in light of this, it might be a good idea to ask them to register.

KWB is looking ahead to the next Postgraduate Conference in 2017. There would usually be a bidding process to host but she has heard that there are prior arrangements for a joint PG conference between IAAS and BAAS to be held in Ireland. No one in attendance had memory of this and we need to clarify the arrangement if any. It possibly pre-dates the April 2016 Belfast conference and was a plan that got pushed back in light of the joint annual conference.

12. Awards Subcommittee (JT reporting on behalf of UB)

The 2017 awards are now open, with print and electronic publicity underway. UB asks that all of us use all available channels to promote these opportunities widely (to schools, our students, colleagues etc.). Members of the exec are reminded that as BAAS trustees we should not be putting in for BAAS-funded awards. Arthur Miller, Eccles and Embassy-supported schemes are not included in this guidance. JT also noted that details about the nomination process for the BAAS Honorary Fellowship are online and any nominations will be considered at the next exec.

Interviews for GTA awards are due to take place in Manchester on 13 January 2017. DB is co-ordinating and EL and one other will assist on the interview day. AGREED: We will ‘spotlight’ the Graduate Teaching Assistantships in the next weekly BAAS bulletin.

UB had asked the subcom to consider what financial support we wish to give award recipients to attend the conference banquet and collect their awards. With an expanding portfolio of awards, it would be helpful to confirm our policy before Louise Cunningham writes to winners this year. The subcom proposed and the executive AGREED:

• We will offer to cover the banquet fee for all winners. This can be paid for as a separate fee (£45) on the Canterbury conference registration site by individuals and then claimed back from BAAS.
• Schools prize: we will reimburse the banquet fee for a guest/chaperone as well as for the winner; also travel costs (within the UK, advance booking) for winner and guest and one night’s accommodation for both.
• Undergraduate prizes: same as above for Schools. Although undergraduate winners might not officially need a chaperone, given the potentially daunting nature of attending the banquet it would be good to support them bringing a guest.
• Postgraduate prizes: reimburse banquet fee; we encourage postgraduate winners to seek conference funding from their institutions in the first instance – if this is not available we will support up to £100 of travel costs (within the UK, advance booking).
• In years when an Honorary Fellowship is awarded, we will reimburse the banquet fee; we will also offer UK travel and accommodation costs in cases where the Fellow wouldn’t be attending with institutional support anyway.

Awards discussion also included the suggestion of considering anonymisation of all awards on equality and diversity grounds. Entries for most of our awards are currently anonymised, but some are not as they involve letters of reference or books. KD proposed that we move away from using references (for example, in the case of Postgraduate Travel Awards), also for equality reasons. This discussion is one to be returned to by the Awards subcommittee, as all subcommittees review practice with equality and diversity in mind.

13. EAAS

See Conferences Subcommittee business above regarding London 2018 planning.

MH’s term as BAAS’s EAAS Representative is due to end in April 2017 and is constitutionally non-renewable. The executive discussed the need to retain continuity and representation in terms of the run up to the London 2018 conference, organised jointly between EAAS and BAAS. One possibility is co-opting MH onto the BAAS exec for 2017-18, with him working alongside the new EAAS Rep for the year that takes us through to London 2018.

14. Any Other Business

Michelle Green and Ben Offiler were congratulated on their appointment as Co-Editors for web presence for the European Journal of American Studies.

Thanks to Nicole King and JT, BAAS has submitted an association panel (‘Writing Shared Futures: African American Literature and Racialisation’) for the large-scale ‘English: Shared Futures’ conference to be held in Newcastle in July 2017.

15. Date of next meeting: January 2017 date TBC; meeting to be in London, allowing viewing of 2018 venues.

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