British Association for American Studies Postgraduate Conference 2015 (University of Glasgow and University of Strathclyde)

Collaboration in America and Collaborative Work in American Studies

Jointly organised by researchers at the University of Glasgow and University of Strathclyde

Saturday 5^th December 2015

Collaboration, n.

1. United labour, co-operation; in literary, artistic, or scientific work.
2. Traitorous cooperation with the enemy.

(OED Online)

From politics to culture, artistic creation to commercial production, civil disobedience to peaceful protest, collaboration is demonstrably of vital importance.  Culture, society, history and politics in the Americas have been, and continue to be, shaped by collaborative endeavours.   Collaboration is no less significant within academia.  Interdisciplinary, interinstitutional research and authorship has increased dramatically in frequency and, for some academics, is a necessary prerequisite.  Yet collaboration is an aspect of academia often neglected in the postgraduate experience.

Over ten years ago Linda Hutcheon, the then President of the Modern Language Association, made a case for the importance of academic collaboration at their annual convention.  In her address she promoted collaboration between scholars as opposed to “the romantic model of solo scholars” stating, “the kind of research that needs to be done in the humanities can’t be done by some solitary person sitting in the library trying to write the last great work on ‘x’” (MLA Convention, 2000).  While some, like Hutcheon, view collaboration—both within academia and in wider cultural contexts—as being highly beneficial, for others it represents “traitorous cooperation with the enemy.”  Postgraduate research remains, for the most part, aligned with “the romantic model” of solitary work.  With this in mind, this one day conference will engage with both the academic practice of collaboration and collaboration as a theme in American Studies.

This conference will be preceded by a postgraduate workshop, sponsored by Historians of Twentieth Century United States, and attendees are invited, and welcome, to participate in both days of the event.  BAAS, HOTCUS and the organising committee are committed to keeping the cost for attendance as low as possible for postgraduates; £15 for both days, £10 for one.

Registration is now open for the BAAS Postgraduate Conference and HOTCUS PG workshop, on the theme of ‘Collaboration in America and Collaborative Work in American Studies’. The conference will be held at Glasgow University, on Friday 4 and 5 December 2015.
The event is open to all with an interest in American Studies, and participants can register at this link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/collaboration-in-america-and-collaborative-work-in-american-studies-tickets-18628246587

Thanks to the generous support from BAAS and HOTCUS, the price of attendance has been kept as affordable as possible; £10 for one day, £15 for two (plus Eventbrite booking fee).

There is a draft programme for the HOTCUS workshop available here:
https://baashotcus2015.wordpress.com/provisional-programme/

And one for the BAAS PG conference here:
https://baashotcus2015.wordpress.com/provisional-programme-2/