The U.S. Studies Online 60 Seconds interview feature offers a short and informal introduction to a postgraduate, academic or non-academic specialist working in the American and Canadian Studies field or a related American and Canadian Studies association.
Emily Brady is a third year PhD candidate at the University of Nottingham in American and Canadian Studies and is the Events Editor for 2020-2022.
Emily Brady (Events Editor)
Tell us a bit about yourself
I’m Emily, and I’m a third year PhD candidate at the University of Nottingham in American and Canadian Studies! I am funded by AHRC Midlands3Cities, and applied for this post because I love attending conferences. In my spare time I enjoy making podcasts and performing improv!
What do you research and why?
I research African American women photographers in the long civil rights movement, and how their images shape both the memory of the movement and our understanding of what ‘protest’ looks like. I’ve always been a very visual learner, and came to study the civil rights movement through a focus on photography. For my undergraduate dissertation I wanted to write about Black women photographers in the civil rights movement, but at the time struggled to find more than one figure to include. Now, almost five years later, my PhD thesis contains eighteen women!
You’re throwing a fantasy dinner party for 6. Who’s invited and why?
Including me – I’d invite Barack and Michelle Obama, Lin Manuel Miranda, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and Robin Williams. I think that group would have the right balance of smart conversation and hilarious chat!
In a Desert Island Discs: American Studies scenario, what song and book are you taking?
Okay so – for books, it’s got to be The Stand by Stephen King. It was the first book I read when I was a teenager that made me really think about America – plus, at over 1,500 pages long, I think I could be rescued from the island by the time I finish it again! For music, it has to be Call Me by Blondie – I could listen to Debbie Harris all day and never get sick of her voice!
What do you hope to achieve during your time with USSO?
I hope to be able to carry on the fantastic work done by the previous events editor, but also experiment with some new ideas! I’m particularly excited about expanding into new formats, such as audio podcasting or video blogs to cover events. I also hope to broaden the kinds of events USSO covers – from conferences further afield, to smaller scale events that sometimes miss out on coverage!
