Politics

How Nineteenth-Century White American Women Writers Have Facilitated the Rise of Christian Feminism

Rachel Griffis, in the fourth post of SSAWW’s series, connects white nineteenth-century American women writers with contemporary white Christian feminism.

Gae Pride Parades: The Impossibility of Queerness in Irish America at the St Patrick’s Day Parades

2015 marks twenty-five years since the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization’s (ILGO) first application to march in New York City’s St Patrick’s Day parade on Fifth Avenue. Still the world’s largest celebration of the day, it was rejected by the event’s organizers, the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), a Catholic Irish-American institution. Backed up by the Supreme Court, the AOH not only removed the ILGO from the parade, but also succeeded in barring the organization’s right to protest against its own exclusion on the basis that, “as the parade was a celebration of Irish ethnicity, the AOH had a right to discriminate against the ILGO, based on the tacit acceptance that an a priori condition of being Irish was an active intolerance of homosexuals, and therefore no expression of an identity that was simultaneously Irish and homosexual was possible” (O’Donnell 136). The last twenty-five years have included ongoing queer exclusions […]

60 Seconds With Peter Molin

To usher in a new series of 60 seconds interviews for 2015 we have invited contemporary war literature experts Assistant Professor Aaron DeRosa (California State Polytechnic University), Assistant Professor Peter Molin (Rutgers University) and Associate Professor Patrick Deer (New York University) to tell us a little bit more about themselves and their expertise.

DeRosa, Molin and Deer will lead our January #Bookhour discussion on Phil Klay’s REDEPLOYMENT on the 27th January 2015, 9-10pm GMT.

“How did you come to your current area of research?”

“My own military deployment to Afghanistan in 2008-2009 inspired me to begin reading contemporary war literature. I started my blog Time Now: The Iraq and Afghanistan Wars in Art, Film, and Literature to publicize great work and initiate conversations on the subject.”

American Studies in Europe: Interview with Jack Thompson, University College Dublin

“As scholars such as Richard Pells have observed, the United States initially encouraged American Studies in Europe after the Second World War as a way to tie the Old World more closely to the New, and many Europeans were eager to learn about the new superpower. American encouragement and money combined with European curiosity to create a thriving field of study. Of course, over time, American Studies in Europe evolved in directions that early Cold War policymakers in the US could not have imagined, or would have necessarily always welcomed. However, the incredible richness of the field today emerged thanks to this close, if not always stress-free, post-war transatlantic relationship.”

Clinton’s Ghost: Bill’s Foreign Policy and What It Tells Us About a Hillary Presidency

The recent decision by the Obama administration to move towards the normalisation of diplomatic relations with Cuba marks perhaps the most significant foreign policy decision of his presidency. Indeed, of all the decisions made in the past 6 years, this is one of the few that do not relate back to policies inherited to one degree or another from the previous administration of George W. Bush. The policy implications of the War on Terror, therefore, have loomed large over the White House for the first 6 years of the Obama presidency, ensuring that only now, as he enters his final two years in office, has he found the diplomatic and political space to make such a bold move. Obama’s efforts in this decision have been assisted by a series of factors that were not present when similar efforts were considered by previous administrations. While the full explanation as to how […]

Conference Review: ‘Protest: Resistance and Dissent in America’

Bianca Scoti and Dr Tomas Pollard review a selection of panels and the keynote lectures at the BAAS Postgraduate Conference (15 November, 2014)

Conference Review: IAAS Postgraduate Conference

The annual Irish Association for American Studies post-graduate symposium’s aim for 2014 was to explore and acknowledge the growing numbers of new scholars interested in American Studies, particularly in Ireland.

Book Review: Canadian Literature and Cultural Memory, Edited by Cynthia Sugars and Eleanor Ty

In contemporary Canada, especially with the on-going Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s attempts to provide a platform for the stories of injustice from the survivors of the Residential School system, discussions are taking place in relation to memory issues. How is the “truth” about the past constructed by different social groups? How can memory be “inherited” through generations? How can memory shape identity and a sense of belonging?

#Bookhour: LET ME BE FRANK WITH YOU by Richard Ford

On Monday 29th December 2014, 9-10pm GMT scholars Jennifer Daly (TCD) and Dr. Gillian Groszewski (TCD) joined Co-Editor Michelle Green (University of Nottingham) to discuss the fourth instalment in Richard Ford’s Bascombe series, his 2014 novella Let Me Be Frank With You. Check out the storify below to catch up on their conversation which tackled Ford’s controversial representation of race, place, Hurricane Sandy and Obama’s legacy. Find out what they thought of Frank’s character development (does he develop?), his contradictions (can he really say “place means nothing” now?), and his future (is the last we have seen of Ford’s “uncommon man”?).

Must-Hear Podcasts: A List for Students and Scholars of American Studies

In December 2014 we asked you what are the very best podcasts for students and scholars in American Studies. Here is the list we received!

Podcasts that made the list include the popular Serial, This American Life, Love+ Radio, Planet Money, Night Vale and BackStory to some surprising scientific recommendations, including NASA Science Casts and StarTalk!