Special Series CFP: “Pedagogies of Resistance, Pedagogies of Hope: Redefining American Studies”
“Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other” – Paulo […]
Travel Report: Into the Southern Archives
In April 2022, I was delighted to receive a BAAS Postgraduate Research Assistance Award to aid my archival research in the United States. The Association’s support for my research has […]
Resilience/Renewal: Shifting Landscapes in American Studies
It is a strange time to be a UK-based researcher in American studies. The industrial action of the past few years speaks to the crisis of the modern university, […]
Broadway, Hollywood, and the Problem with The Prom
Among all the necessary and welcome debates around identity in contemporary culture, few have been more pronounced in theatre and film than that of who should be cast to play […]
Mending Fences: The Broken Bond between Theatre and Film
Play to film adaptations have fallen in prestige and numbers in recent years, and one of the main reasons for this is the decline in popularity of plays that can […]
“Where is Thy Sting?”: Clifford Odets and the Problem of Audience
On September 6th 1936, The New York Times went to print with an article entitled: “Odets, Where is Thy Sting?”[i] Reflecting on the recent reception of Clifford Odets’s The General […]
Drama and Cinematic Adaptation: USSO Special Series
The adaptation of plays into films has been a core part of Hollywood’s output in the 95 years since the introduction of sound into cinema. In this time a […]
“Heeere’s Johnny!”…Again…and Again…: Pluto TV and the Continued Presence of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show
(Image source: https://www.facebook.com/PlutoTV/videos/johnny-carson-tv/1012800892491661/) In August 2020, Pluto TV, a free streaming service from ViacomCBS, launched a new channel called “Johnny Carson TV.” Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a […]
‘Brings Back Some Memories’: Textual and metatextual experiences of nostalgia in Twin Peaks: The Return
“When you see me again, it won’t be me,” the entity called The Arm warns in the second season finale of Twin Peaks, the cult 1990s TV series co-created […]
Quantum Leap: Jukebox Nostalgia and the Flattening of History
In the opening scene of the Quantum Leap episode “Animal Frat” (2×12), Dr. Sam Beckett ‘leaps’ into the body of Knut “Wild Thing” Wileton, arriving in his body on top […]