Minutes 285

British Association for American Studies

Minutes 285th

Minutes of the 285th meeting of the Executive Committee, held at King’s College London on Friday 17 June 2016 at 1.00 pm.

1. Present: Brian Ward (Chair), Jenny Terry (Secretary), Cara Rodway (Treasurer), Joe Street, Uta Balbier, Ben Offiler, Martin Halliwell, Kate Dossett, Katerina Webb-Bourne, Paul Williams, Nick Witham (on behalf of JAS editors). Carole Holden joined part of the meeting.

Apologies: Simon Hall, Katie McGettigan, Emma Long, David Brown, Celeste-Marie Bernier, Bevan Sewell.

In attendance: Jenny Terry.

2. Minutes of the Previous Meeting

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

3. Matters Arising

None

4. 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 section below.

5. Chair’s Business (BW reporting)

(a)     Chair’s activities, meetings and correspondence (April 2016 – June 2016)

• Since the AGM there has been a handover from SC to BW, including changes of details with banks, our trading arm, BAAS paperbacks, other organizations etc. Subcommittee membership for 2016-17 is also now in place. BW thanked SC, CR and JT for shepherding him through this phase of his tenure.
• On 18 April 2016 SC, CR, JT and UB attended a productive meeting at the US Embassy in London about running the new Embassy grants programme and establishing guidelines. Shortly after the annual BAAS conference we were able to appoint Jo Gill and Carole Holden to share the Managing Director role. In the past few months we have also dealt with a number of applications submitted to the Embassy’s previous programme and subsequently passed on to us. BW recorded special thanks to JG and CH for leading on this and for drafting a new call for applications and a timetable for administering the awards. Our bid had budgeted for additional administrative support and we have recently been able to appoint Katie Edwards at Keele University to assist with the Embassy programme. Louise Cunningham is also giving oversight here and, with the executive’s approval, we will increase LC’s remuneration in view of her expanding work and remit. Agreed.
• On 22 April 2016 BW wrote to the Vice Chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast, Prof. Patrick Johnston, and other administrators at QUB to congratulate Philip McGowan on the success of the 2016 joint IAAS/BAAS conference. Patrick Johnston responded with thanks on 4 May.
• On 16 May 2016 BW attended the 21^st Douglas W. Bryant Lecture (by Martin Dickson on Populism and the Presidency) at the Eccles Centre/British Library. This provided an opportunity to meet with Phil Davies and Fran Fuentes (Eccles Centre) and Mercedes Aguirre (North America Collections) about BAAS-related initiatives and resources, including co-operation on schools and outreach activities and British Library Boston Spa possibilities. Mercedes Aguirre has agreed to take on the role of BAAS Library and Resources Representative and will join the Development subcommittee.
• BW had been unable to attend the last Arts and Humanities Alliance meeting on 22 April 2016.
• UB will represent BAAS at the UKCASA AGM on 29 June 2016.
• BW is planning a meeting with representatives of other bodies such as BrANCH; APG; HOTCUS, etc. to discuss their relationships with BAAS. It might also be helpful to think about how BAAS functions in relation to other large organizations such as the Fulbright, the US Embassy etc.

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

• Ian Scott (University of Manchester) has been appointed a Visiting Distinguished Professor for 2016-17 at Washington State University.
• Philip McGowan has been appointed President of the EAAS.
• Emily West (University of Reading) and Simon Hall (University of Leeds) have been promoted to Chairs from September 2016.

(c)     After attending in Belfast, Alexander Street Press have been in touch about

future BAAS conferences and eliciting further response, use or activity to make

their attendance worthwhile. Further communication will follow in the run up to

Canterbury.

(d)     The organizers of the large-scale conference ‘English: Shared Futures’ have

been in touch to see if BAAS would like to be represented via a dedicated

panel. The conference will be held in Newcastle, 5-7 July 2017, and it is hoped

will develop into a more regular event in the style of the MLA. Other

associations in the discipline will be participating. The conference will be linked

into other Civil Rights and Martin Luther King anniversary events in Newcastle

in 2017 and BW will be giving a plenary.

Agreed Nicole King and JT will devise a theme and co-ordinate a newsletter

call for a BAAS panel.

6. Secretary’s Business (JT Reporting)

(a)     Co-options and confirmation of Vice-Chair

The executive confirmed Uta Balbier as Vice-Chair for 2016-17 and thanked her for her willingness to fulfill this role.

Nicole King (University of Reading) and Martin Dines (Kingston University London) were also thanked for their willingness to serve as co-opted members of the executive this year and their co-option was confirmed. NK will join Development and Education, and MD will join Conferences.

Mercedes Aguirre is also welcomed onto the Development and Education Subcommittee as Library and Resources Representative. Our thanks to Matt Shaw, who has stepped down from this role, were noted.

Nick Witham and Uta Balbier will between them represent the joint London 2018 conference on the Conferences subcommittee.

(b)     Charitable Incorporated Organisation Registration

There has been some delay with this but things are in place for progress with the paperwork and asset reporting and transfer during the summer. The signatures of trustees (that’s elected executive members) will be collected by post.

(c)     BAAS Archive

JT visited the BAAS archive at the University of Birmingham on 13 June 2016. She met with archivist Mark Eccleston, who was deputizing for Susan Worrall, and deposited material from outgoing Chair SC and items collated by the Secretary. Updating of the Birmingham library catalogue was also discussed.

(d)     Michelle Green delivered BAAS website training to BW, JT, UB and BO earlier in the day.

7. Treasurer’s Business (CR reporting)

(a)     Bank Accounts (as at 16 June 2016)

Paypal                                      £2,020.34

Current                                     £8,869.37

Savings                                     £73,871.60

BAAS Publications Ltd             £69,481.31

TOTAL:                                     £154,242.62

(b)     Membership Figures (provided by LC)

Honorary membership – 3

Schools membership (PS) – 12

Individual membership – 288 (129 online JAS, 159 with full JAS)

PG membership – 270 (209 online JAS, 61 with full JAS)

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

Unwaged (PU) – 9 (7 online JAS, 2 with full JAS)

Members on fully paid sheet (total 611)

(c)     Narrative report

CR is currently working on our Gift Aid position. LC is helping us make a claim for the past four years in terms of membership fees. KM is helping CR to ensure that it’s easy for new and existing members to make the Gift Aid declaration via the website.

As discussed at previous meetings, CR is looking into how we make sure that the correct tax and NI is paid on the regular payments we make to colleagues (for JAS work, website work, admin support etc.). She is in discussions with our accountant about the possibility of creating a payroll.

Following advice from our accountant, CR is also investigating some initial short term investments of BAAS funds. The Charities Aid Foundation may also be able to advise on this.

8. Development and Education Subcommittee (KD reporting)

(a)     Equality issues

The subcommittee had discussed various matters related to our commitment to give fresh attention and emphasis to equality and diversity. We need to think about BAAS’s wider work in relation to equalities issues, but also our own committee and subcommittee processes.

Development and Education will draft a statement to be proposed as an addition to the BAAS constitution at the next AGM. Text on equality and diversity should also be added to Awards information and BAAS funding application forms.

As discussed in previous meetings, an official equalities role on the executive will help to take this work forward and ensure it is sustained. Formalisation of this role could also be part of the constitutional amendment to be voted on at the next AGM. It may be helpful to consult with other associations and professional bodies about what equalities work they are doing (for example the Arts and Humanities Alliance).

(b)     Survey

The subcommittee had discussed the planned American Studies survey in draft. This will help to gain a sense of equalities issues among the membership and in the HE sector as well as other ‘state of the field’ issues. Plans are developing for how and when to administer the survey.

(c)     Public Engagement Award

KD and the subcommittee proposed a new award focused on public engagement and collaboration. This will be aimed at Early Career and Postgraduate researchers. The executive approved an annual budget of £750 for the award. Award criteria will be drawn up and will include something like a letter of support from the project partner(s).

Other matters discussed had been the position of Schools Representative (Mike Simpson has not been able to attend any meetings since agreeing to take on the role in summer 2015). We should develop a role description that lays out our Schools vision and expectations of the representative.

Also plans are still in development to have a postdoctoral research award of some kind for work to be done on the BAAS Archive. We need to decide what form the work and the post will take. Mark Eccleston is a helpful point of contact at the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham. In the past a PhD student, Ali Fisher, supervised by Scott Lucas completed work on the archive’s material relating to the early days of American Studies.

9. Publications Subcommittee (JS reporting)

(a)     JAS

A report had been received from CMB and BS. Submissions to JAS are growing and have increased significantly since they took over as joint editors. They are conscious of, and keen to find ways to address, gender imbalance in submission and publication figures. The editorial team has some ideas for initiatives, including a profile raising annual prize for the best female-authored JAS essay. CMB and BS invite further suggestions from the BAAS executive and will also solicit the views and ideas of the editorial board (on which there is now parity in terms of gender representation).

In discussion, special themed issues came up as a way to encourage more submissions from underrepresented groups. The introduction of an annual prize might have some effect but it is also important to look at the issues underlying the imbalance; the BAAS survey might be of assistance in this. It could be productive to consult with other publication venues such as 49^th Parallel and USSO about their statistics.

Under Publication business, the appointment to the JAS editorial board was confirmed of Eithne Quinn (Manchester University), Rebecca Schreiber (University of New Mexico) and Mark Smith (University of South Carolina).

Lauren Mottle has now replaced Zalfa Feghali as Editorial Assistant.

JS and the subcom will be reviewing JAS Editor payments, one aspect of our recognition of the invaluable work of the joint Editors.

(b)     EUP/BAAS Paperbacks

MH circulated sample book covers for the new EUP/BAAS paperback series design and invited feedback. The covers were positively received.

(c)     USSO

Jade Tullett and Todd Carter have taken over the editorship of USSO. BO, on behalf of the executive, thanked them for all of their great work already. Jade had represented USSO at the earlier Publications subcommittee.

10. Conference Subcommittee (PW reporting)

(a)     Queen’s University Belfast

A report by Philip McGowan on the Belfast conference has featured in ASIB. He hopes to have the conference finances finalised soon.

(b)     Canterbury Christ Church

Plans for the next conference are developing well. Lydia Plath had sought the subcommittee’s views on the issue of the banquet venue; one option is to remain on campus and another, more expensive, is to book the cathedral. Typically one evening of the BAAS conference is spent off campus but, at the same time, we don’t want the cost of the dinner to become prohibitive for postgraduate delegates without funding support. Looking into civic sponsorship could open up options here.

We need to follow up with the US Embassy about how they would like us to handle our application for funding for the annual conference this year. It would be good to clarify this process in light of the funding programme we are now administering for them.

(c)     London

Nick Witham had sent a report on plans for London 2018. The organisers are meeting regularly, including MH and others with Katharina Donn, the new USSO European Relations Assistant Editor, earlier the same day. The team are currently looking at accommodation issues and where to hold the receptions.

PW will shortly advertise for bids to host the conference in 2020.

(d) Postgraduate Conference (KWB reporting)

The handover from Rachael Alexander to KWB as Postgraduate Representative has gone smoothly. KWB has been working closely with the Leeds conference organizers and the conference is scheduled for 19 November 2016 with a theme of ‘American Identity and Borderlands’.

The executive reaffirmed its commitment to support the annual Postgraduate Conference, with the funding typically being £500. Organisers should submit a budget to the Conferences subcommittee Chair and BAAS Officers for oversight.

11. Awards Subcommittee (UB reporting)

(a)     2016 Awards

The Awards subcommittee had not met this time but UB brought forward and reported on several items. There had been positive feedback on the awards ceremony format in Belfast this year and on the booklet listing prize winners. A pdf version of the booklet for even wider circulation would be good in future. Awards recipients are now up on the BAAS website.

(b)     Ambassador Awards

The US Embassy is no longer able to support the Ambassador awards and we must decide how to respond to this gap before it’s time to advertise the 2017 awards. One option is that BAAS provides funding in the same pattern as the previous awards (Postgraduate, Undergraduate and School). In any decision we need to factor in the hidden cost of contributing to the travel expenses of winners who attend the ceremony as well as covering the award amounts themselves.

The executive agreed to fund the School and Undergraduate awards at £250 and £500 respectively (the same level as the Ambassador Awards). It decided against funding an award in place of the Ambassador Postgraduate one at this stage as BAAS already funds its own Postgraduate prize and we have also just committed to the new Public Engagement and Collaboration award for Early Career and Postgraduate researchers (see Development above).

We need to renew our efforts to publicise all our awards widely. UB is preparing the copy for the 2017 Awards poster. A postcard could also help spread the word, for example, at small conferences we have funded and at Open Days and Schools events.

(c)     Embassy Grants Programme (Carole Holden in attendance)

Carole Holden reported that she and Jo Gill have drafted an application form, including the Embassy expenses guidelines and our criteria for the scheme ‘Promoting a Better Understanding of American Studies in the UK’. This will be circulated to the executive for input before wider release. The first call for applications will go out later in June via the BAAS newsletter, USSO etc. and the two deadlines this year are 15 September and 13 January. CH and JG have been liaising with the Embassy point of contact Tim Gerhardson, and have also started working with Katie Edwards at Keele, who is providing admin support and will help with collating applications and reports. BW thanked CH and JG for all their work on this programme already.

12. EAAS (MH reporting)

The 2016 EAAS conference in Constanta had gone well. The dates for London 2018 after careful deliberation have been agreed as 4-7 April. A special roundtable on the topic of 1968 will also be tied into the relaunch of the BAAS / EUP paperback series. The 2018 conference offers the opportunity to build further links with the US American Studies Association (both MH and NK will attend the ASA conference in Denver in November 2016).

13. Any Other Business

None

14. Date of next meeting: Friday 18 November 2016 at the University of Leeds.

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

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During my time as an Eccles Centre Postgraduate Fellow I was able to gain access to a large body of alternative readings of Don DeLillo’s fiction, writes Rebecca Harding. Accessing the British Library’s materials has suggested new ways of thinking about the body in DeLillo’s work.

[/dt_quote][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]I made two trips to the British Library in July and August 2016, thanks to the generous support of the Eccles Centre for American Studies. The purpose of these trips was to access a number of texts that I hoped would help me in my PhD project, which looks at the role of the body in the fiction of Don DeLillo. My central argument is that DeLillo’s prose locates specific anxieties of American culture at the site of the material body. I find that DeLillo’s writing reveals a peculiar interest in embodiment, and I am working to[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]understand the nature of the connection between grand social themes and individual embodied experience in his fiction. DeLillo’s interest in the body has become more explicit in his later works, particularly The Body Artist (2001) and Falling Man (2007), and from my research so far, it seems that the subject of the body only appears in criticism about his later works. However, my project hinges on the idea that the ‘bodily’ is — and always has been — central to DeLillo’s account of U.S. culture.

During my trips to the Eccles Centre I planned to look at a number of book chapters, articles, monographs, and PhD theses that I hoped would help me in better understanding the role of the body in DeLillo’s earlier fiction. In a journal article by Philip Nel from 2010 I found a useful perspective on the field of existing scholarship. Nel writes of the need to ‘deepen and expand the study of Don DeLillo’, asserting that critical focus has overwhelmingly favoured a number of recurring themes, and I am encouraged by this call for scholars to look beyond common critical frameworks. Nel goes on to examine gender roles in two of DeLillo’s novels, a subject in which the body plays an important part. Further reading revealed a similar interest in gender in several other of DeLillo’s works — I came across a book chapter by Ruth Helyer in which she looks at portrayals of the male body in DeLillo’s 1985 novel White Noise, and an article by Anne Longmuir on genre and gender in two novels from the 1970s. I also found a short piece from 2007 by Randy Laist, which explores the link between masculinity and physical stature in Americana, DeLillo’s 1971 debut novel. I have not encountered such an approach to DeLillo’s fiction before and I had not considered looking at the body in his work with a specific attention to gender, but I found some really useful ideas in these works that have inspired me to develop my own approach. Significantly, these texts also reveal an interest in the gendered body in DeLillo’s fiction that looks all the way back to his debut novel.

I gained a particularly valuable insight into the kinds of questions I am thinking through in my research in a journal article by Katrina Harack, published in 2013. Harack outlines some really interesting ideas about what she terms an ‘ethics of embodiment’ in two of DeLillo’s novels, one from 1985, the other from 2007. For Harack, both novels demonstrate a central concern with the body and its vulnerability. Her argument that the two texts are connected by a common investment in the body is a significant finding – this the first piece of scholarship I have found that reads the body as a continuing concern throughout DeLillo’s work, rather than something that is evident only in the later texts. I was also able to access some other really interesting sources beyond the print journals, and found a few lesser known interviews with the author in literary magazines, as well as a fascinating sound recording from 1998 in which DeLillo speaks about his life and work for the Radio 4 program ‘Kaleidoscope’. Beyond these specific findings, It was helpful to look more broadly at the range scholarship on the author. There is a large amount of critical work written on DeLillo’s fiction, which is reflected in the number of works available in the Eccles Centre’s North American collections. An overview of the many titles available helped to confirm my sense that criticism tends to favour a few recurring subjects, and that discussion of the body in DeLillo’s earlier work is largely absent. It was really useful to see the texts that particularly interest me in context, and to see, for example, how unusual Katrina Harack’s approach is. Had I found a large number of scholars making similar claims I would have had to rethink my own approach, so it is reassuring to find that I am not repeating arguments that have already been made.

My main objective in looking at the Eccles Centre’s collections was to gain a fuller understanding of how DeLillo’s treatment of the body has been addressed in existing criticism, and I also hoped to improve my knowledge of the field of DeLillo criticism more broadly. In my archival research I found a few key texts that will no doubt play an important role as I develop my own arguments. The works of literary criticism that I read offered alternative readings of DeLillo’s fiction, and suggested ways of thinking about the body in his work that I have not yet considered. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to conduct my research in the beautiful surroundings of the British Library. I will need to carry out further archival research, and plan to visit the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas which houses the majority of DeLillo’s own notes, research materials, drafts, and correspondence. During my time at the British Library I gained experience in finding relevant sources from a large body of material and in planning and carrying out archival work, and this will be of great use to me in continuing my research in the future. I was also invited to share the findings of my research as part of the Eccles Centre’s Summer Scholars series, which was a great opportunity to speak about my project to a mixed audience group. Presenting my work in this format really helped me to clarify and formulate my findings, and discussing my work with people from a range of academic backgrounds in the question and answer session was particularly productive, as it gave me ideas about how to develop my project from a diverse range of perspectives.

Rebecca Harding is a PhD student in the English department at the University of Sussex.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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“He forgot more history than most of us will ever remember”:

Louis Billington (8 July 1936-13 November 2016)

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*

Louis Billington’s death sadly deprives the British Association for American Studies of a much-admired British pioneer of the study of American popular religion, its transatlantic context, and its implications for the social history of the United States. He was one of the youngest members of the first generation of BAAS, which he joined in 1958 as a 23 year-old research student at the University of Bristol. He helped to shape the intellectual profile of the American Studies community in Britain during those early years and contributed to the sense of excitement that inspired it (a subject he discussed with affectionate discernment in an essay for the Journal of American Studies in 2008: ‘Pioneering American Studies: Ten Years of the Bulletin, 1956-1966’.)

Louis established himself as a loyal and authoritative contributor to the Journal of American Studies over a period of four decades from its founding in 1967. He brought to its pages, as well as to BAAS conferences, his deep knowledge of religious revivalism, millennialism, varieties of sectarianism, women’s preaching, and the radical reform movements they inspired. His scholarly assurance and ability sympathetically to enter the worlds of these groups – and his determination to take them seriously – was founded on a mastery of sources, in particular the religious periodical and newspaper press, and first-hand accounts of the religious experience of ministers and lay-people. Louis was much influenced by Whitney R. Cross’s classic work, The Burned-Over District: The Social and Intellectual History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York, 1800-1850 (1950) and also by Frank Thistlethwaite’s The Anglo-American Connection in the Early Nineteenth Century (1959), which explored the intertwined relationship of British and American reform movements, including antislavery, temperance, and women’s rights – subjects particularly close to his heart.

Louis’s most significant published work appeared as scholarly articles in the Journal of American Studies: ‘The Millerite Adventists in Great Britain, 1840-1850” (vol. 1, no. 2: Oct., 1967); ‘British Humanitarians and American Cotton, 1840-1860 (vol. 11, no. 3: Dec., 1977); and ‘”Female Laborers in the Church”: Women Preachers in the Northeastern United States, 1790-1840’ (vol. 19, no. 3: Dec., 1985). Two other influential articles appeared in the Journal of Religious History: ‘The Churches of Christ in Britain: A Study in Nineteenth-Century Sectarianism’ (1974) and ‘Popular Religion and Social Reform: A Study of Revivalism and Teetotalism’ (1979). Louis was also an assured reviewer of books for the Journal of American Studies, the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and the English Historical Review. His reviews were always discerning and fair. If his critiques could sometimes be trenchant (as I personally discovered, as a raw younger historian!), it was only because he measured other historians’ work against his own exacting scholarly standards. The high bar that he set might explain why he did not write the book on nineteenth-century sectarianism for which he was so well equipped. Yet the absence of a monograph from his oeuvre does not diminish the quality and value of his fine scholarly legacy. My own work would have been the poorer without it: thank you, Louis.

Professor Richard Carwardine is the current President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford

*

When I first came to the American Studies Department at the University of Hull in 1992 Louis Billington was my Head of Department.  Over the course of the next 24 years he became much more to me.  I arrived with my newly-minted PhD into a higher education system that was foreign to me and bore little or no resemblance in those days to the American education system that produced me.  Louis guided me through the ins and outs of university teaching and administration.  He gave me some of the most valuable career advice I had ever received.  Not only did he help me structure my teaching and my university committee work, he introduced me to BAAS where I went on to become a member of the executive committee, Secretary and Secretary General of EAAS.  I eventually followed in his footsteps into the role of Head of Department.  Throughout this journey Louis was always there – with advice, as a sounding board, as my own personal cheer-leader and as a good, faithful friend.

Louis was one of the smartest historians I ever met.  I often thought he forgot more history than most of us will ever remember.  Thankfully he seemed to think that I too had some knowledge of American history so he was willing to engage in long, thoughtful discussions of everything from colonial American race relations to the most recent presidential primary season.  His office at Hull was wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling books – all of which he had read at least once and I always enjoyed trying to find the most obscure title I could.  My favorite was The History of the Clam Bake.

Louis also took it upon himself to show me the countryside surrounding Hull.  Back in the ‘good old days’ we took off every couple of weeks, on a week day no less, and explored towns and villages within a day’s drive.  Whether we were visiting Fountains or Rievaulx Abbies, Stamford, Whitby, Goatland, the Dales, Boston Lincolnshire or even Blackpool I could be sure of two things: he would get us there using the most obscure backroads and once we arrived he would know the best pub for lunch.  I also got history lessons, both national and local, throughout the day.  I wouldn’t trade a single memory for any amount of gold, though his driving did often scare the pants off me.

Louis retired only a few years after my arrival but we remained close friends.  We met at least once a week for drinks and conversation and there were very few if any topics about which Louis did not have an opinion.  In the last few years he was invaluable to me in my research on US Army chaplains in World War II because of his vast knowledge of American religious history.  I would give him chaplain memoirs or diaries to read and we would discuss them over glasses of good quality wine.  The real trick was keeping Louis on track in the conversation.  I am sure many students remember Louis for his oft repeated statement – ‘but I digress’.

I retired in February 2016 and moved back to the US in March and rarely did a day go by that I didn’t think, ‘I would like to tell Louis about this’.  I missed him and now he’s gone, but I am sure he is regaling someone, somewhere with his stories.

Dr Jenel Virden is Senior Lecturer in American History at the University of Hull[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row margin_bottom=”15″][vc_column][dt_banner image_id=”14210″ bg_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.31)” min_height=”270″][/dt_banner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][dt_quote]My time at the British Library as Eccles Centre Fellow 2016 has allowed me to take a closer look at the role of US officials in promoting the use of the pesticide DDT in Nicaragua, writes Hilary Francis. The archives revealed the imagery of America’s past was employed by those who were suspicious of DDT as a justification for care and scrutiny.[/dt_quote][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Thanks to support from the Eccles Centre I spent two months at the British Library in May and June 2016, with follow up visits in July and August. The time spent in London was a real luxury, partly because I was able to focus entirely on research in such convivial surroundings, but also because the project I was working on was in its very early stages, so every new discovery and shift in my thinking was a cause for excitement (rather than angst, backtracking, and endless rewrites). My research project explores the role of US officials in promoting the use of the pesticide DDT in Nicaragua. Between 1945 and 1980 US officials promoted[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]DDT as a means to spark a ‘green revolution’ in developing countries, including Nicaragua. All over the world this ‘excellent powder’ was used to boost crop production and combat malaria. However, in 1962 Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring led to widespread concern about the chemical, and DDT was banned in the United States in 1972. Nonetheless, USAID continued to support the use of DDT overseas. The effects of DDT use in Nicaragua were particularly pronounced – a survey in 1980 found that Nicaragua had the highest rates of DDT ingestion in the world.

I had originally intended to explore the way in which USAID officials justified the use of DDT overseas, even after it had been banned in the United States in 1972. There is material in the British Library’s collection of congressional materials which addresses this issue, but it suggests that US officials did not seek to reconcile the contradiction created by the US ban on DDT. Rather, they saw the law itself -which required attention to environmental impact in the US, but not overseas – as a justification for the continuing anachronism. Responding to a question from the Senate subcommittee on foreign assistance in 1975, one USAID official explained that a promised report on the impact of pesticides overseas had not been carried out “because of State and A.I.D.’s views that it is essential to distinguish between domestic projects having environmental effects and assistance activities in foreign countries which do not significantly affect the environment of the US.” In other words, there was no legal requirement to consider the impact of DDT abroad, so officials avoided doing so where possible, in spite of considerable opposition from Congress and environmental groups.

As I began looking at the collections though, I realised that the debates that took place in the early 1970s as a result of the DDT ban could not be studied in isolation. Questions about DDT were raised almost immediately after it was approved for civilian use in 1945, and indeed these early doubts were foreshadowed by conflicts over the use of arsenic as a pesticide in the 1920s and 30s. David Kinkela has argued that the promotion of DDT was emblematic of US confidence in the period after World War Two, a sign of triumphalist faith in the power of the United States’ scientific expertise to drive development overseas. There is much evidence of this in the archives at the British Library: in 1963 Albert H. Moseman of the Rockefeller Foundation told a United Nations conference on the use of science and technology in developing countries that the United States had much to offer, because “agricultural advances in the United States have been continuous from the time of the first settlement to its shores.” But the imagery of America’s past was also employed by those who were suspicious of DDT: it could be deployed as a justification for care and scrutiny, as well as a rhetorical device to crush all doubt. During a 1950 congressional hearing on the use of chemicals in foods, Dr Morton Biskind gave an early, impassioned statement about the dangers of DDT. Congressman James Delaney defended Biskind’s testimony when other representatives objected. He described Biskind as a pioneer, and noted that “pioneers have always been in the minority… Not only in scientific study, but I think in most other things.“

My time at the British Library has allowed me to take an initial look at the congressional papers on DDT, as well as USAID’s own publications and the extensive secondary literature on this topic, but much remains to be done. Thanks to the the Eccles Centre’s support, I was able to put together a successful application to the British Academy Small Grant Scheme. The British Academy award will fund further research on this topic at the US National Archive in College Park, between September and December 2016, and the Institute of Nicaraguan and Central American History in Managua between January and June 2017.

Hilary Francis is a postdoctoral fellow at The Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of London.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row margin_bottom=”15″][vc_column][dt_banner type=”image” bg_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.08)” min_height=”270″ bg_image=”https://www.laprogressive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/nurses-in-vietnam.gif”][/dt_banner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row margin_bottom=”10″][vc_column width=”1/2″][dt_quote]My time as an Eccles Centre Postgraduate Fellow has proven fruitful for my research on war-related trauma and American medical personnel who served in the Vietnam War, writes Nicole Cassie. Accessing British Library psychology records has supported my theory that the trauma of medical personnel in Vietnam does not easily fit into existing categories of trauma.[/dt_quote][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Firstly, I’d like to express my gratitude to the British Association of American Studies and the Eccles Centre, for supporting my research at the British Library, which has proven to be very fruitful. I also appreciated the opportunity to speak as part of the Eccles Centre’s Summer Scholars series, especially considering this was the first chance I’ve had to speak to a more general audience about my research. I had some really interesting feedback, not least from a woman whose father had served as a commanding officer in an Army Medical Hospital during the Korean War.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I am currently a second year PhD candidate at the University of Glasgow, and my research focuses on American medical personnel who served in the Vietnam War. Now that I’m approaching the daunting third year of my PhD, the aim of this research trip was to read secondary literature and a number of psychological studies to support the theories I have developed so far about the manifestation of war-related trauma in medical staff. These theories are based upon my analysis of oral history interviews conducted after 2001, which I transcribed at the Library of Congress last summer. The research will inform the most important chapter of my thesis with the working title ‘About Trauma.’ It essentially places the post-war readjustment issues faced by medical veterans into the context of the socio-cultural and medical history of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

My research began with a series of texts from the Routledge Psychological Stress Series, including the work of American military veterans and psychiatrists Raymond Scurfield and Katherine Platoni, and renowned Vietnam veteran turned traumatology pioneer, Charles R Figley. One of the central research questions in my thesis is how and why have some medical veterans identified as traumatised, while others have remained resilient? I do not necessarily believe that these are rigidly defined conceptual frameworks, but rather that some medical veterans have been able to cope and recover from the horrors of war more effectively than others.

In Healing War Trauma: A Handbook of Creative Approaches Scurfield and Platoni examine the limitations of the approach and treatments for PTSD and related disorders currently offered by the Veterans Administration (VA). Their critique helps to support my theories about why medical veterans, especially women who served as nurses, have found the VA difficult to approach and/or have not achieved a positive outcome from treatment geared towards soldiers. The book features a number of articles which review the successes and limitations of more creative and individualized treatments and self-help techniques, such advocacy as healing, understanding the content of traumatic dreams, and tackling guilt and feelings of excessive responsibility. These articles provided me with some quantitative evidence to support my qualitative analysis, which criticises the treatment of all veterans as a homogenous group.

Next, I wanted to further develop my psychological understanding of the concept known as ‘compassion fatigue,’ which is also referred to a Secondary Traumatic Stress Disorder (or STSD), in caregivers. Not to give too much away, but I do not think that medical Vietnam veterans’ trauma fits into this category as neatly as civilian medical and caregiving staff do. Figley has written about his own experiences and subsequent research into the traumatic effects of caring for the traumatized and suffering, particularly in an autobiographical essay featured in Trauma and its Wake. Secondly, I read Patrick J. Morrissette’s book The Pain of Helping, which further explores STSD as a construct and how it affects different populations.

Finally, I consulted psychological studies that delve into the relationship between the personal and situational variables, which affect the type of posttraumatic symptoms a person suffers. I argue throughout my thesis that whilst medical service could be just as traumatic as combat service in Vietnam, their work and responsibilities were distinct. Therefore the emotional repercussions of witnessing and participating in death and mutilation as a medic are surely experienced differently. For instance, I have found that some medics felt an acute sense of betrayal and guilt, but not for the same reasons as soldiers. These psychological studies have filled in some of the holes in my theories regarding emotions and traumatic stress with medical evidence and symptomology.

Going forward, I am now prepared to go back and write the next chapter of my thesis and I have also formed a research plan for this coming semester. I was able to consult the Veterans Administration’s Selected Bibliographic Guide on Post-Traumatic Stress IV and the Eccles Centre’s bibliographic guide on The United States and the Vietnam War during my time at the British Library. After consulting a number of the texts from my list I narrowed down the selection I will request via Inter-Library Loan this semester. Overall, I had a productive trip and it was well worth making the journey from Glasgow to enjoy my first visit to the library and some of London’s glorious summer sun!

Nicole Cassie is a PhD student at the University of Glasgow.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row margin_bottom=”15″][vc_column][dt_banner image_id=”14012″ 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 Eccles Centre Visiting Fellowship in North American Studies has given me an excellent foundation from which to expand my project on the origins of the philanthropic organisation Near East Foundation, writes Ben Offiler. My research at the British Library has shown that the connections between philanthropic NGOs and official US foreign policy during the Cold War were complex, dynamic and in a constant state of negotiation.[/dt_quote][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]The British Library is one of my favourite places to work. As one of the largest libraries in the world it has a remarkable range of material available – if it was ever printed or published, chances are the BL will have a copy of it. More than this though, the BL always has a sense of intellectual industriousness and energy to it. The reading rooms and seating on each floor are always filled with people working away, enjoying the productive atmosphere that seems to permeate the building. Thanks to the generosity of the Eccles Centre, I have been fortunate enough to receive both Postgraduate (2011) and Postdoctoral (2015) Visiting Fellowships in North American Studies, which have allowed[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]me to conduct extensive research at the BL. Both fellowships also happened to coincide with exhibitions on two of my great loves (apart from American Studies, of course): the Science Fiction ‘Out of this World’ exhibition in 2011 and this year’s 40^th Anniversary of Punk exhibition – yet another reason to love working at the British Library.

My current research project is interested in how the development, education and disease control programmes of philanthropic NGOs intersected with official American relations with developing countries during the Cold War. I focus primarily on the philanthropic Near East Foundation’s programmes in Iran from the late 1940s through to the Iranian Revolution in 1979, which saw the NEF end its involvement in the country. This period saw US policymakers, to varying degrees, engage with ideas of modernization, development and nation-building as effective means of fighting the Cold War. Non-state actors, including NGOs such as the NEF, Ford Foundation, and Rockefeller Foundation, both helped to shape and were shaped by official US foreign policy.

Among the many interesting things I managed to access while at the BL were a number of rare, old books that shed light on the NEF’s origins. The Lions of Marash: Personal Experiences with American Near East Relief, 1919-1922 by Stanley E. Kerr and Story of Near East Relief, 1915-1930 by James Levi Barton detail aspects of the NEF’s predecessor, Near East Relief, which was set up in response to the 1915 Armenian Genocide with a focus on immediate relief, instead of the long-term development programmes that typify the NEF. The BL also contains a wide range of documents detailing the activities of other philanthropic non-governmental organisations, including the Ford Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, and Rockefeller Foundation. The Annual Reports of the Rockefeller Foundation and reports made to the Rockefeller International Health Board and Commission offer useful context for and comparison with the NEF’s programmes.

Perhaps most valuable to historians of American foreign relations based outside of the United States are the Digital National Security Archive and Declassified Documents Reference System, which contain thousands of official documents detailing the decision-making processes of US policymakers. For this project, however, I was most interested in the Congressional Hearings Digital Collection, which was invaluable in demonstrating how the NEF’s work intersected with House and Senate debates surrounding the role of development and foreign aid in US foreign policy. Throughout the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, NEF Directors were called to give evidence before Congressional subcommittees, sometimes offering advice, sometimes advocating for the use of foreign aid.

My research at the British Library has shown that the connections between philanthropic NGOs and official US foreign policy during the Cold War were complex, dynamic and in a constant state of negotiation. The Eccles Centre Visiting Fellowship in North American Studies has given me an excellent foundation from which to expand my research by visiting the Rockefeller Archive Center, which houses the NEF’s own archival collection, the National Archives and Presidential Libraries across the United States.

Ben Offiler is currently Lecturer in History at Sheffield Hallam University. His first book, US Foreign Policy and the Modernization of Iran: Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and the Shah, was published in 2015 by Palgrave Macmillan.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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“His friendships were deep, but freely shared”:
Christopher Brookeman (1943-2016)

[/dt_banner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row margin_bottom=”15″][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”15208″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”right”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]

*

It was with immense sadness that I, along with more than forty of Chris Brookeman’s former colleagues and friends across the world, learnt of his final weeks and death on December 1^st, 2016 after a lengthy and brave battle with Parkinson’s Disease. Chris’s wife Hazel wrote moving daily reports which brought together many stories and anecdotes about this remarkable person and his extraordinary contribution to American Studies in Britain over many years.

Chris was instrumental in many BAAS projects as well as being a prolific writer and inspiring lecturer. All those who knew him will have their own stories to tell but here I have tried to say what Chris Brookeman meant to me.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I first met Chris in the late 1970s after he became a leading light in the introduction of the GCSE American Studies and established the American Studies Centre at PCL. At the time I was teaching in an FE college and American Studies became part of our programme. It was clear to me right from the start that here was a person totally committed to seeing an important and relevant (as well as wonderfully stimulating) subject introduced into the curriculum at school and FE level. During those early years I would regularly bring student groups down to London to research in the AS Centre and to be guided in their work or given short lectures by Chris. He also produced and fronted a series of excellent educational videos on American history and culture for this new audience. It was Chris who got me involved with BAAS and set my career on a path that he, in many ways, illuminated for me. He was in fact also one of my referees when I successfully applied for a Fulbright teaching exchange to a college in California in the early 80s; something for which I will be eternally grateful. Some years later Chris was again a driving force and great supporter of my successful attempt to set up a sister organisation to the University of Westminster ASRC in Liverpool.

After the AS Centre and I moved (from the FE college) to Liverpool John Moores University, Chris and I continued to work closely together on publishing ventures, teacher training programmes and conferences both for schools and wider academic audiences. Perhaps the peak of all this was in 1999 when along with Sue Wedlake at the US Embassy, we organised a conference on Muhammad Ali. The idea, as always, was Chris’s, as was the title ‘Muhammad Ali: Living Mythically; The American Hero.’  Chris gave one of the lectures that day and this was at a time when the Parkinson’s was beginning to take its toll on him. Only with a determination and commitment I could never in my imagination muster, Chris gave a masterful presentation, as provocative and rewarding as ever, driven on by an immense determination that had the Parkinson’s disease rolling backwards like one of Ali’s opponents. It took a lot out of Chris that day but it was one I will never forget.  And how touching is it that like his American Hero Ali, Chris fought the disease like the great boxer, ducking and weaving so that it could not hit him. I know he was proud of the signed photo he had of Ali and how they had both fought the disease together and now in the same year, they have both left us with strong memories and a smile.

One thing I learned about Chris from an early stage was on which side of him to stand when talking. He was, as many know, partly deaf in one ear following an injury playing rugby. It was a game he ironically described as ” ..a game for hooligans played by gentlemen..” I also knew that at conferences Chris would always find time to introduce me to colleagues who would be able to assist in the work of the AS Centre, or who would make excellent speakers for schools or academic conferences. He saw everyone involved in teaching American Studies, regardless of the academic level, as colleagues. I also spent many a night in university bars during BAAS conferences being regaled with stories that had me rolling in laughter with Chris; his mischievous laugh will be with me for ever.

Thank you Chris, for everything you helped me with, for showing me paths to follow, for introducing me to many interesting folk and steering me away or saving me from a few inveterate bores. Thank you for being an inspiration. Thank you for being a friend.

Ian Ralston is Director of the American Studies Centre at Liverpool John Moores University.

*

Chris Brookeman never lost sight of the importance of maintaining the teaching of American Studies in schools. The schools networks that he helped develop were unrivalled. In co-operation with BAAS he defended the viability of American Studies in teacher training, and contributed centrally to the establishment of an American Studies GCE, and to an effort to introduce A level American Studies that was eventually derailed only by the government’s sweeping changes to education in the 1980s. A small part of the outreach he achieved was an annual week-long summer term course that brought school pupils from all over London to the Polytechnic of Central London. During Wimbledon fortnight he filled the venerable (and at that time noticeably unrestored) with students and their teachers during the day, and took his guest lecturers home to watch the tennis in the evenings, generating a heady mix of cultural, political and sporting conversation that lasted for days on end.

His enthusiasm was infectious and magnetic. He was not much of a committee person, but his presence at BAAS conferences seemed to be accompanied by a small personal maelstrom wherever he went. He was always pleased to meet you. His friendships were deep, but freely shared. His reach was international, affecting teachers of American Studies in San Francisco and Texas as well as within the confines of Greater London. The links that he and Alan Morrison forged between PCL/Westminster University and the Smithsonian are valued today.

Chris’s energetic support for multidisciplinary American Studies was immensely valuable at a time when the subject was under threat and the community owes much to him. There can have been no better prize for Chris, though, than meeting Hazel through the work in which he invested so much of himself. Chris’s struggle with Parkinson’s started early and lasted for decades. Hazel and her family have maintained and loved him throughout.

Philip Davies is Director of the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row margin_bottom=”15″][vc_column][dt_banner image_id=”14004″ 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 enabled me to access the library’s extensive collection of U.S. women’s magazines vital to my project, writes Rachael Alexander. The British Library’s well-preserved copies of Ladies’ Home Journal has undoubtedly facilitated the completion of my PhD project on consumerism, nationalism, and gender in 1920s periodicals.[/dt_quote][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Enabled by an Eccles Centre Postgraduate Fellowship, I completed a research trip to the British Library in May 2016. The main purpose of this visit was to gain access to the library’s extensive collection of U.S. women’s magazines, particularly the Ladies’ Home Journal, which are crucial to the completion of my PhD project, “Imagined Women: Consumerism, Nationalism, and Gender in the Ladies’ Home Journal and Canadian Home Journal of the 1920s”.

My research is situated firmly within American Studies, and forms part of a larger AHRC-funded research project,[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]“Magazines, Travel and Middlebrow Culture in Canada, 1925-1960”. My comparative study of magazines from the U.S. and Canada—considering these periodicals as collaborative literary texts, cultural artefacts, and commercial products—offers an original contribution to the fields of American Studies and Periodical Studies. An increased scholarly focus on print culture and the increasing availability of magazines and newspapers in digital form has led to an expansion of periodical studies within a North American context.

However, the specific titles I focus on have not, as of yet, been digitised. Accordingly, the material which informs my research was collected through an extensive research trip in January 2014 from the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, the Toronto Reference Library, Library and Archives Canada, and the New York Public Library. Given the ephemeral nature of magazines, in that they were created to be read then disposed of, the collections available in these libraries were often lacking. This was particularly true of the Ladies’ Home Journal, where many pages and even full issues were damaged or missing. Of course, this is to be expected with early-twentieth-century magazines, in that relatively cheap paper and imaginative readers are often both causes of incomplete issues.

As my project requires the consideration of these magazines as complete literary texts, it is vital that I am able to minimise the amount of missing material. The growing field of periodical studies has been characterised as inherently interdisciplinary. With this in mind, a vital part of my methodology lies in bringing together literary perspectives with aspects of consumer culture theory – namely content analysis. This method will ensure the consideration of all elements of the magazines, including those often overlooked in other studies such as recipes, advertisements, advice columns, and fashion editorials. This is of vital importance in considering these magazines as collaborative texts in which the seemingly disparate, and at times contradictory, features influence and shape each other.

It was with great relief, then, that I discovered the British Library’s copies of this magazine following my far-flung research trip. Perhaps surprisingly, the British Library’s versions of the magazine are far better preserved and more complete than those available at the New York Public Library. Being a monthly publication, and considering my research period of a decade, this amounts to a substantial archive of one hundred and twenty issues each averaging around two hundred pages. The fellowship allowed extended access to this vast quantity of material, and has been of tremendous benefit to my project, which relies on the reading of magazines as complete texts, as opposed to containers of discrete elements. The Eccles Centre Postgraduate fellowship has undoubtedly facilitated the completion of my PhD project, for which I am incredibly grateful.

Rachael Alexander is a PhD candidate at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row margin_bottom=”15″][vc_column][dt_banner image_id=”13994″ 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 Barringer Fellowship allowed me to not only create a set of three fully-resourced lessons on Jefferson’s Empire of Liberty, but to share ideas and experiences with great teachers from across the US, writes Adam Burns. I would very much urge other school teachers who focus on US history or politics to apply for this fellowship in 2017.[/dt_quote][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]As the recipient of the 2016 BAAS Barringer Fellowship, I was fortunate enough to attend the week-long Monticello Teacher Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia this July. The institute, based at Monticello and the University of Virginia (both designed by Thomas Jefferson), aims to provide an immersive experience for school History and Social Studies teachers, primarily in the US. However, thanks to BAAS, each year a British fellow joins around fifteen other teachers to enhance their teaching of early US history and add to Monticello’s vast set of online resources for teachers[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text](https://www.seaofliberty.org and http://classroom.monticello.org, though the two sites are currently in the process of being merged).

On arrival in Charlottesville, the group was soon whisked up the hill to Monticello for a guided tour of Thomas Jefferson’s house, with the rare opportunity to take plenty of photographs (something usually prohibited). After this, we retreated to the garden (which showcases heritage vegetables of the type grown by Jefferson, himself a keen horticulturalist), for a drinks reception as the sun set behind neighbouring Montalto – quite a spectacular start to a busy and immensely enjoyable week.

In the week that followed we were tasked with using our various site tours and library visits to create lesson resources that will be placed online for future use by those teaching Thomas Jefferson and early US history. Each participant focused on something quite different – from Jefferson’s role in the conflict with the Barbary pirates to his relationship with the (suddenly very fashionable) Alexander Hamilton. My focus was American imperialism, and how Jefferson managed to reconcile his dreams of expanding the United States to create an “Empire of Liberty” while himself maintaining a plantation that exploited enslaved labourers. Jefferson felt that slavery was an issue for the next generation to deal with and, though he expected the institution would eventually die out, in later life he supported the spread of slavery into US territories.

During the week, my thoughts about what my lesson plans would focus upon and the key themes they would address developed immensely. Among the many excellent activities we participated in, the session with Professor Peter Onuf was particularly useful, allowing me to pick his expert brain on the concept of an “Empire of Liberty”. His responses were incredibly valuable in shaping my reading during our study periods at the International Center for Jefferson Studies across the rest of the week. Another particularly useful activity was our Hemings family tour of Monticello, led by Brandon Dillard. This proved invaluable in helping me to understand Jefferson’s complex and contradictory views on slavery (the Hemings being one of the enslaved families).

In addition to these activities, we were also given an introduction to highlights of UVA’s special collections, a presentation from archaeologists working at Monticello, a guided tour of the UVA campus, and a visit to Montalto to discuss our ongoing projects with Gary Sandling, another Jefferson specialist from Monticello. On the final day each member of the group presented their finished lesson plans and resources (while being streamed online), and I was amazed at how much the group had achieved in so short a time – a very diverse and creative set of lessons on Jefferson that will hopefully be of use to a good number of teachers in the future.

In terms of professional development, the Barringer Fellowship allowed me not only to create a set of three fully-resourced lessons on Jefferson’s Empire of Liberty, but also to share ideas and experiences with great teachers from across the US, and benefit from the expertise of the many helpful scholars at Monticello. Alongside the formal sessions, the chance to talk with the other teachers more informally in the evenings was also a huge boon, and the group were incredibly supportive of one another across the week. The MTI was expertly run by Jacqueline Langholtz, Melanie Bowyer, Lora Cooper and Anna Barr and they really did help to make our trip a truly memorable one. I would like to take this opportunity to thank BAAS and the MTI for giving me the chance to participate in the teaching institute this year and would very much urge other school teachers who focus on US history or politics to apply for this fellowship in 2017.

Adam Burns is currently the Head of History and Politics at Queen Elizabeth’s Hospital in Bristol, and his book, American Imperialism: The Territorial Expansion of the United States, 1783-2013, is scheduled for publication early next year as part of the BAAS Paperbacks series.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row margin_bottom=”15″][vc_column][dt_banner image_id=”15027″ bg_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.12)”][/dt_banner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][dt_quote]Sophie Roberts and Megan Hunt report on the HOTCUS Annual Postgraduate Conference ‘Winning minds and hearts: constructing national identity in US history’ that took place on the 9^th September 2016 at Northumbria University. The conference was supported by the BAAS Small Conference Support Grant.[/dt_quote][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]This HOTCUS postgraduate conference focused on the construction of national identity throughout US history. The first half of the day took a conventional conference format, with themed panels of two or three twenty-minute papers. These panels fostered diverse discussions about different manifestations of national identity, including American norms in the 1950s and 1960s, ideas of Americanism during the Vietnam War era, and the manifestation of American identity in the face of annihilation narratives. This part of the day thus facilitated a wide-ranging and varied discussion of American identity as an ever-adaptive construct.

The second part of the day consisted of developmental roundtables, which delivered practical and applicable advice to postgraduate and early career researchers as they continued on their PhD journey and beyond. Dr Peter O’Connor (Northumbria University), Dr Simon Cooper (Newcastle College) and Dr Emily Trafford (University of Manchester) spoke on topics pertinent to postgraduates: namely VIVA preparation, seminar teaching, and applying for fixed-term teaching posts, respectively. In a second, more advanced, session, Dr Molly Geidel (University of Manchester) gave advice on approaching American university presses, while Dr Randall Stephens (Northumbria University) spoke about writing op-eds for non-academic audiences. Finally, Dr Mike Cullinane (Northumbria University) advised early career researchers interested in applying for the AHRC ECR Fellowship Scheme. This facet of the day thus enabled attendees to gain practical advice from experienced scholars, something which complemented the intellectual knowledge gained from the traditional panels of the first half of the day.

Finally, Professor Simon Hall (Leeds University) who has published widely on manifestations of American national identity, particularly with relation to unrest in the 1960s era, gave a keynote address entitled “Leonard Matlovich: Military Heroism and the Making of a Gay Rights Icon.” This paper helped tie together many themes discussed throughout the day, as Prof. Hall reflected on the oftentimes-ambiguous nature of patriotism as a facet of national identity. As such, it proved a fitting way to end a lively and thought-provoking conference.

Generous support from BAAS meant that we were able to offer travel bursaries to assist postgraduate attendance, as well as supporting travel for our ECR speakers Dr Molly Geidel and Dr Emily Trafford. We were able to acknowledge this support and include the BAAS logo on all CFPs, programmes and other forms of publicity. Individual sessions are currently under review for USSO, where we hope to inspire further conversation on many of the day’s themes. We were also able to publicise the Journal of American Studies and the upcoming BAAS PG event at the University of Leeds, the CFP for which was distributed within conference packs.

Sophie Roberts and Megan Hunt are PhD students at Northumbria University.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]