Homeland Insecurities 2016 Canadian Association for American Studies Conference Fredericton, New Brunswick, October 21-23 2016 Neoliberalism has ushered in new forms of global insecurity, which instill in American citizens the desire for enforced security. Through tightened border controls, antiterrorism laws, the expansion of the prison system, the war on drugs, and other measures, the U.S. government both provokes and assuages American insecurities about imagined and real terrors, both foreign and domestic. Often, these measures erode welfare institutions that actually provide a degree of safety against economic and social uncertainty, thereby perpetuating a vicious cycle intrinsic to neoliberalism’s creative destruction. What are the origins of the insecurity state, and how has it shaped American culture? More broadly, what does it mean to imagine the United States as a secure homeland? Can non-indigenous Americans ever feel at home in North America without inventing abject social categories meant to contain their insecurities? Further […]

Cambridge American History Seminar For further details, pre-circulated papers and other seminars see the CAHS webpage. Thursday 20 October (Trinity Hall, Room TBC), 6:00pm: Manisha Sinha, Draper Chair in American History, University of Connecticut Book Launch: The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition (Yale University Press, 2016) Hosted by the Trinity Hall History Society

Jacob Rees-Mogg to deliver the Sir Winston Churchill Memorial Lecture at the American Museum in Britain Thursday 20 October, 2016 6 – 8pm (drinks at 6pm, lecture starts at 6.45pm) £7 The fourth Churchill Memorial Lecture at the American Museum in Britain is entitled ‘The UK’s Role in the World post-Brexit’ and will be delivered by local MP Jacob Rees-Mogg. In his lecture, pro-Brexit Jacob Rees-Mogg will explore the advantages and challenges of Great Britain being independent from the bureaucracy of the European Union. He will cover the various implications leaving the European Union will have on Great Britain’s economy and governance, and its relationships with countries still in the European Union, as well as America and the rest of the world. Director Richard Wendorf says: ‘This lecture offers the American Museum in Britain the opportunity to host a stimulating speaker whose financial and political experience promise a lively talk […]