Indian Affairs Under the Obama Administration – An End to Broken Promises?
At the close of the eighth Annual White House Tribal Nations Conference (WHTNC) this September, the President of the National Congress of American Indians, Brian Cladoosby (Swinomish), wrapped President Barack Obama in a traditional Pacific Northwest blanket and placed his own cedar hat on Obama’s head. Beaming, Obama addressed the assembled Native leaders: “After almost eight years as your President, I have been so privileged to learn from you and spend time with many of you while visiting more tribal communities than any other President.”[1] Indeed, on the campaign trail in 2008 Obama promised to correct past federal wrongdoings, renew the government-to-government relationship, and respect the treaty rights of tribal nations as full partners. At the WHTNC Obama appeared confident that he had achieved those goals. But while positive steps have certainly been taken in the last eight years, has the Obama administration really revolutionised Indian affairs in the United […]
Continue ReadingIntroducing ‘The American South’: A Free Online Course from the Institute of Humanities at Northumbria University
On 31 October 2016, over 4,600 learners across the world will begin a unique, five-week online education experience. Encouraged to ponder all things southern – from Martin Luther King, Jr. to the mint julep – these learners will explore this most intriguing yet often maligned region of the United States, guided by experts from the Institute of Humanities at Northumbria University.
Continue ReadingReview: Quill Project Launch and Digital History Conference, Pembroke College, Oxford
Grace Mallon reviews the Quill Project Launch and Digital History Conference – a platform that will soon become the definitive source available for studying the origins of the text of the Constitution of the United States (and, subsequently, other state constitutions) and transform access to the founding documents of American constitutional law.
Continue ReadingIn The Fields Of Democracy: The Midwest In World War I
World War I generated a new narrative in American national identity. The easterly crusade to save the Old World, or, in President Wilson’s words, to make the world ‘safe for democracy’, reversed the nation’s foundational movement of western exploration and settlement leading away from Europe.[i] As Joseph Urgo describes it, ‘[t]he close of the old frontier’ was followed by ‘the opening of the global imperial frontier’, inaugurating America’s status as a superpower.
Continue ReadingThe Last Time I Saw Richard: Post-Postmodernism and the Contemporary Case for Richard Yates
Ninety years since his birth, a familiar argument recurs in discussions of Richard Yates’s critical underappreciation. It holds that a dedication to a stylistically and formally conventional form of fiction, one preoccupied with the mimetically realist representation of a particular set of social mores and their psychological impacts, placed him out-of-step with the experimental currents of the postmodern period.
Continue ReadingMy Research across Borders: Lonneke Geerlings
‘My Research’ is a new feature that aims to introduce and summarise the research of Postgraduates and Early Career Researchers within the field of American and Canadian Studies. Sit back, and get to know some of the craziest, challenging, and rewarding places researchers have been taken to…
Continue ReadingStorify of #bookhour chat on BLACK DOVE: MAMA, MI’JO AND ME by Ana Castillo
On September 27th 2016, #bookhour organiser Donna Alexander, and Jessica Shine, Zalfa Feghali and Aishih Wehbe discussed Black Dove: Mamá, Mi’jo, and Me by Ana Castillo. Catch up on the storify here.
Continue ReadingApplication Advice: BAAS Postgraduate Travel Award
I have applied for the BAAS Postgraduate Travel Award twice, and this year I was lucky enough to win. The Award contributed towards a research trip to the United States to access archival source material and undertake oral histories for my thesis, which centres on attempts at multiracial organising around reproductive rights since the second wave of feminism.
Continue ReadingAward Experience: BAAS Postgraduate Travel Award
When I found out I had been awarded the BAAS Postgraduate Travel Award my first feeling was, unsurprisingly, elation. As a student of nineteenth-century U.S. politics I viewed my proposed two week visit to the Library of Congress, Washington D.C., as a pilgrimage to my research Mecca. But beneath my excitement was a ripple of uncertainty.
Continue ReadingBooker Prize Americanism
Three years ago, our friends chez Booker changed house rules so that novels by North Americans became eligible for the prize. This provoked a backlash from certain contemporary observers, who augured Americans predominating Booker long- and shortlists going forward. Essentially, this hasn’t happened: two Americans making the six-strong shortlists of 2014 and ’15 is vanishing cause for concern. What this article explores is a corollary issue: whether an influx of American authors necessarily means an influx of an ineffable “American-ness”.
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