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British Association for American Studies

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BAAS Early Career Academic Work in Progress Workshops

CFP- Pro- and Anti-War Voices, University of Worcester

University of Worcester City Campus, Castle Street, Worcester , United Kingdom

Call for Papers: Pro- and Anti-War Voices, 11 November 2023, University of Worcester. Deadline May 31st. This conference is dedicated to illuminating both negative and positive responses to war in the United States, and welcomes proposals from academics, postgraduate researchers (PGRs), and early career academics (ECAs) who focus on either of these perspectives in any historical period. Whilst war has often been analysed by focusing on the important decision makers, both civilian and military, we seek to challenge this lens by concentrating on a “bottom-up” approach to history. This will be done within this conference by focusing on both the pro- and anti-war voices of a range of different “regular” people during war time. The parameters of this conference are therefore expansive and hope to shed light on the perspectives of those who have been ignored and neglected by a previous dedication to “top-down” history. The organisers hope that these […]

CFP: Virtual Conference: Darkness in the American Imagination

Online

Darkness has always been defined in binary opposition to light. As Toni Morrison puts it in Playing in the Dark (1992): “Whiteness, alone, is mute, meaningless, unfathomable, pointless, frozen, veiled, curtained, dreaded, senseless, implacable.” While darkness and light are mutually constitutive, the threshold between the two is ambivalent; it is blurry and changing. In addition to its symbolic dimensions, the darkness-vs.-light binary can also be taken literally: the early settlers feared the dark while electricity effectively banished darkness from cities, for example. The dark may be rife with danger, a metaphorical space of erasure, and a tool of obfuscation, but at the same time, the dark may provide protection, a space for subversion, and a place of beauty. In view of the multiple meanings of darkness in the American imagination, we invite papers on topics including—but not limited to: darkness and the racial imagination darkness and oppression/marginalization/erasure the surveillance of darkness dark bodies […]

CFP: Love and Lenses: Photographic Couples, Gender Relationships, and Transatlantic Networks in the Long Nineteenth Century

Rothermere American Institute University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Event: 12– 13 October 2023 CFP Deadline: 21 July 2023 Maison Française d'Oxford and Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford The Maison Française d'Oxford and the Rothermere American Institute are delighted to invite paper proposals on the theme: ‘Love and Lenses: Photographic Couples, Gender Relationships, and Transatlantic Networks in the Long Nineteenth Century.’ This conference is being organised by Dr. Emily Brady (Broadbent Junior Research Fellow, Rothermere American Institute) and Martyna Zielinska (DPhil, Université de Paris Cité, LARCA). The Canadian photographers Hannah and Richard Maynard outside Hannah Maynard's studio c.1880, via Wikimedia Commons. This two-day conference invites papers that explore photographic partnerships as a main object of study. Since the invention of the camera, men and women – spouses, friends, members of the same family – have learned and practiced photography together for business, pleasure, educational and scientific purposes. This conference aims to bring new light on how the practice […]

CFP: Individuality and Community in Mid-Century American Culture (1945-1968)

Lund University Lund, Sweden

Mid-century US culture tends to be described in both simplified and paradoxical terms. On the one hand, it is thought of as a period of ‘containment’ culture, ‘Red-Scare’ rhetoric, and McCarthyism: a time when norms were strong, and it was difficult to be different. On the other hand, it is a period romanticized as the great era of American exceptionalism and industry. As today’s politicians from left to right increasingly rely on nostalgia for an idealized past, it becomes relevant to ask questions about the culture and values of mid-century America, and to challenge stereotypical images of this time, especially that of the white, churchgoing nuclear family, which has become an almost indelible image of the ‘long’ 1950s. At this pivotal moment in American history, the individual was often seen as being in conflict with society. Early Cold-War culture saw an increased focus on the negative effects of social conformity […]

CFP: EAAS 2024 | 1924-2024: The American Immigrant Narrative Revisited

Amerikahaus Munich Karolinenpl. 3, Munich, Bavaria, Germany

From April 2-7, 2024, the 35th Biennial EAAS-conference, titled 1924 – 2024: The American Immigrant Narrative Revisited, takes place at Amerikahaus Munich. It is hosted by the Bavarian American Academy (BAA). CFP: It has become a longstanding cliché, albeit highly controversial, to note that the U.S. is – and always has been – a nation of immigrants. Oscar Handlin, among others, famously remarked that to write the history of America was to write the history of immigrants. This history – or, to be precise: these histories – have throughout been marked by extreme inequalities for groups of various origins, yet the Immigration Act of 1924 (the Johnson-Reed Act) sticks out as one major paradigm shift in the larger course of events. One hundred years ago, this piece of legislation drastically limited the number of immigrants allowed to come to the U.S. each year through a national quota system and completely excluded Asians from immigrating to the U.S. […]

CFP: UCL Americas Research Network 2024 Conference – Historical Roots, Modern Realities: Nationalism Across the Americas

Online

The UCL Americas Research Network, part of University College London’s Institute of the Americas, proudly announces a one-day conference tailored towards Postgraduate and Early Career Researchers and Practitioners, Historical Roots, Modern Realities: Nationalism Across the Americas, to be held online on Friday, June 28 2024. The history of nationalism in the Americas is a complex and multifaceted one. From the revolutionary anti-imperial imaginaries of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries to the recent rise of the ‘new nationalism’ of Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, and Javier Milei, ideas of nationhood have indelibly shaped the political, social, and cultural lives of those living within the Americas. Nationalism has been marked by both inclusive and exclusionary tendencies, promoting national integration and cultural and intellectual production while simultaneously defining ‘insiders’ from ‘outsiders’ and fuelling conflict and ethnic, racial, religious, and gendered violence. Historical Roots, Modern Realities is dedicated to exploring nationalism throughout the Americas and […]