News & Events

“Offers an original contribution to American, folklore, and fantastic studies. The selections analyzed are eclectic but the argument that surfing, pirates, John Henry, and rags-to-riches stories actually do have something in common is convincing. All are expressions of the American colonialist impulse and all involve transformative (perhaps ritualized) violence. An important, provocative study.” - Brian Attebery, author of Fantasy: How It Works

"Polarized Families, Polarized Parties deepens our understanding of the role that family plays in party politics. Gwendoline Alphonso masterfully illuminates how definitions of family have been crucial to partisan policy debates since the beginning of the twentieth century."—Priscilla Yamin, University of Oregon

The Department of American Studies at the University of Nottingham is sad to report the death of its Emeritus Professor of Modern American Literature, Pete Messent, one of the founders of the Department and a well-known and widely respected figure in the American Studies community in the UK, Europe and the US.

The co-editors of JAS are pleased to share this collection of our most downloaded articles - published in the last year, and across the journal as a whole - from the past year.

We are inviting expressions of interest for a new Co-Editor of the ‘Critical Insights in American Studies’ series, formerly the BAAS Paperbacks series.

The Winter 2026 edition of the Schools newsletter is now available to read.