Teaching Radicalism
The second post in the ‘Teaching America’ series is by Dr Christopher Phelps (University of Nottingham), co-author of the new title Radicals in America: The U.S. Left since the Second World War, who reflects upon the intellectual advantages and challenges when faced with designing and teaching the history of U.S. radicalism.
Continue ReadingTeaching U.S Women’s History in British Universities: a Personal and Political History
The first post in our new HOTCUS-led ‘Teaching America’ series is by Dr Kate Dossett (University of Leeds) who reflects on her own experiences of designing a course on U.S. women’s history, and how she has encouraged British undergraduate students to consider how their own gender identity shapes their approach to the study of history.
Continue ReadingCyborgs, Simians and San Francisco (part two) – Vampires and Mood-Organs
In part two of Antonia Mackay re-reads LA and San Francisco through the fantastical bodies in Cold War fiction.
Continue ReadingCyborgs, Simians and San Francisco (part one) – Bodies and the American West
“Bodies become like cities” in LA and San Francisco, argues Antonia Mackay, as these places stretch the boundaries between American fantasy and reality.
Continue ReadingAs American as Apple Pie: U.S. Female Converts to Islam
As U.S. citizens who understand American cultural and societal norms, American female converts to Islam are in a good position to serve as advocates and agents for change, not only for themselves, but also on behalf of their fellow Muslim Americans. These American voices are offering a challenge to both the greater non-Muslim American community and the Muslim American community in clearly articulated, individual voices saying: I am a ‘real American’, I am a ‘real Muslim’, I am ready to have the conversation. You bring the vanilla ice cream – I’ll bring the apple pie.
Continue Reading“Atomic Ayatollahs”: The ‘Islamic Bomb’ in 1980s American News Media
The ‘Islamic bomb’ is and was shorthand for a perceived pan-Islamic desire for nuclear capability. Eliding nuanced understandings of the significant differences between strands of Islam, the diversity of the ‘Muslim world’, and the many different reasons why a country might (or might not) seek nuclear status, the ‘Islamic bomb’ was a trope that essentialised Islam and implied a monolithic religious bloc. Wilful misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the ‘Islamic world’ and its relationship with nuclear weapons have, however, been a feature of US media reporting since the late 1970s.
Continue ReadingIslam and Americanness as Antitheses in Contemporary Media Discourses
Tropes created by much of corporate media suggest an incompatibility of ‘Americanness’ and the American-constructed image of ‘Islam.’ Whereas islamophobic tendencies in the US public sphere have been evident for a while, current approaches in the media are reaching new degrees of bigotry by propagating an alleged Islamic threat and evoking an omnipresence of fear. The construction of ‘Islam’ works flexibly enough to perpetually represent an antagonism to ‘Americanness’ which needs to be resisted and fought.
Continue ReadingThe Transatlantic Impact of civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome”
“We Shall Overcome” bridges the civil rights movements in the United States and Northern Ireland, says Glen Whitcroft, but does this overlook the diversity in Northern Ireland protest history?
Continue ReadingReview of the 1st Americas Postgraduate Conference at the UCL Institute of the Americas
Nik Kyriacou reviews the 1st Americas Postgraduate conference at UCL’s Institute of the Americas in our first conference review double header.
Continue ReadingThe legacy of Black Power Visual Culture in 1990s Hip Hop
Artists such as KRS-One, Public Enemy and Chuck D. position themselves as heirs to the legacy of the Panthers and Malcolm X by creatively updating the “media-conscious iconography of sixties black radicalism for a 1990s constituency”, says Hannah Jeffery.
Continue Reading