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University of Edinburgh American History Workshop: Kneel, Sit, or Stand: Creating a Student Movement in Civil Rights Era Tennessee

2019 HOTCUS Winter Symposium (University of Lincoln)

University of Lincoln

2019 HOTCUS Winter Symposium: “Nuclear States": Science, Technology, and American Society in the Atomic Age University of Lincoln  February 16th 2019 Plenary Speaker: Dr Audra Wolfe University of Pennsylvania In August 2017 President Donald Trump tweeted that if North Korea continued its path of missile development than it would be “met with fire and fury the likes of which the world has never seen”. This aggressive rhetoric, coupled with Trump’s subsequent withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear agreement, acted as a stark reminder for citizens of the United States and the world beyond of the continuing apocalyptic potential of nuclear technologies. Americans have lived with the shadows cast by the bomb on American politics, society and culture, alongside more affirmative visions of ‘free energy,’ ‘plowshares’, medical applications, and scientific advance for seventy years. As Trump’s fiery rhetoric revives Cold War concerns about nuclear doom, the time is ripe for historians to […]

American Politics Group Colloqium 2018 (Eccles Centre, British Library)

Eccles Centre for American Studies The British Library, 96 Euston Road , London, United Kingdom

American Politics Group Colloquium 2018 Friday 9 November 2018, 10.30-17.00 Eccles Centre, British Library  What's current in US Politics? What effect will the presidency of Donald Trump have on the mid-term elections? International experts will discuss these and other questions in the American Politics Group colloquium at the British Library. This day-long event is ideal for academics, postgraduate students, researchers and teachers. Speakers include: Professor Robert Mason (University of Edinburgh) - 'The Republican party and Donald Trump: perspectives from history?' Dr Emma Long (UEA) - 'The Supreme Court and the American Political Order' Dr Jacob Parakilas (Chatham House), Ms Ashlee Goodwin (Committee Specialist for the Foreign Affairs Select Committee and the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy), Ms Kara Owen (Director, Americas at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office), and Prof Patrick Porter (Birmingham) on US Foreign Policy Former Members of Congress Martin Lancaster (D-NC, 1987-1995) and Tim Petri (R-WI, 1979-2015) […]

Irish Association of American Studies Postgraduate Symposium 2018 (Trinity College Dublin)

Trinity College, Dublin College Green, Dublin 2, Dublin, Ireland

IAAS Postgraduate Symposium: This is America? Shaping, Making and Recreating Trinity College Dublin, 10 November 2018 This year the Irish Association for American Studies Postgraduate Symposium invites papers that investigate the myriad ways in which American history and culture has been recorded and rerecorded, across all media. We welcome proposals for papers that consider how America is engaging continuously in a dialogue with its own history and culture. 2018 marks several important milestones in American history, such as Frederick Douglass’s 200th birthday, the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One, and fifty years since the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. With these events in mind and considering the current climate in the United States, this symposium will provide a forum to discuss the ways in which narratives – political, historical, literary – are created, sustained, interrogated, and distorted.

British Views of the United States, 1939-1984 (University of Sussex)

University of Sussex Brighton, United Kingdom

Thursday 15th November 2018 British Views of the United States, 1939-1984 is a symposium organised by Professors Robert Cook and Clive Webb at the University of Sussex. The symposium, supported by a grant from the British Association for American Studies and the US Embassy in London, assesses continuity and change in British attitudes towards the United States from the start of the Second World War to the late Cold War. Although there is an enormous literature on Anglo-American relations, it is usually focused on political and diplomatic elites with little insight into the thoughts and feelings of the larger public. Our focus is therefore on the ways in which notions of a ‘Special Relationship’ between Britain and the United States have been consistent with, or run counter to, popular opinion. We are also interested in intellectual, artistic and literary representations of the United States. Our keynote speaker is Professor James Cronin of Boston College, author of Global Rules: America, Britain and a Disordered […]

The 64th BAAS Annual Conference (University of Sussex)

University of Sussex Brighton, United Kingdom

The 64th BAAS Annual Conference, University of Sussex 25-27 April 2019, University of Sussex Keynote Speakers: Barbara Savage (University of Pennsylvania/University of Oxford), Robyn Weigman (Duke University), Jonathan Bell (UCL) Conference Themes Proposals are welcomed on any subject in American Studies, and submissions are particularly welcome that address our two broad themes: LGBTQ+ History. Inspired by the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Riots and the heritage of the Brighton area, the conference welcomes submissions relating to the American sexuality, civil rights and sexual dissidence. Activism and Radical Thought. Inspired equally by the East Sussex career of Thomas Paine, we also encourage papers exploring the history and culture of radical thought and activism from all sides of the political spectrum. Submission Guidelines Given the size and scope of the conference, we will give preference to fully formed panel proposals, but will also accept individual paper proposals where possible. All individual […]

Music and Social Movements Symposium (Northumbria University)

Northumbria University Newcastle, United Kingdom

Music and Social Movements Symposium 2018, Northumbria University, 30th November 2018 This symposium, funded by the US Embassy and Northumbria University, will bring together academic historians, graduate students, and teachers to examine the role that music played in various oppositional social movements active in the post-World War II period in the United States. This includes (but is not limited to) religious movements, the gay rights movement, labor organizations, and the African-American and Latino activist communities. Participants will think through how we teach and write about the ways that popular music relates to minority group understanding, political protest, religious identity, and more. In particular, the symposium hopes to promote the work of graduate students and early career academics. It will facilitate this through bursaries to cover travel and accommodation. The day will include a series of academic papers and a ‘Teaching History with Music’ roundtable. The symposium will conclude with a major […]

CultCommWar Workshop Four: American Wars, American Memory

Rothermere American Institute University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

CultCommWar Workshop Four: American Wars, American Memory Friday 30 November, Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford Thanks to a BAAS and US Embassy Small Grant, booking is now open for our next Cultures and Commemorations of War event on the theme of American Wars, American Memory, on Friday 30 November at the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford. Participants include John Horne and Layla Renshaw and the keynote speaker is Sarah Wagner, who will be talking about her book Bringing Them Home: The Identification and Commemoration of Vietnam War MIAs. It is free and open to all. You can register here. Please do join us for what should be a brilliant event! CultCommWar (@CultCommWar) is an interdisciplinary seminar series which considers the practices and politics of war memory across time. You can read more about the series on the British Academy website and the Oxford Arts blog, and in this […]

Over Here: US Presidents in Britain, 1918-2018

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester, United Kingdom

Over Here: US Presidents in Britain, 1918-2018 MANCHESTER CENTRE FOR PUBLIC HISTORY AND HERITAGE, MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY SYMPOSIUM: FRIDAY 7 DECEMBER 2018, 9.45AM-5.30PM December 1918 saw the first ever visit to Britain by a serving American President: Woodrow Wilson, who led the United States throughout the First World War, made a brief tour through the country on his way to the Paris Peace Conference (which started in the new year). The trip included three key destinations: in Carlisle, to see his mother's birth-place; in London, for meetings with politicians and Royalty; and in Manchester, where he addressed a large crowd outside the Free Trade Hall. To mark the centennial of this latter event, and in order to explore the impact and legacies of subsequent Presidential visits to Britain, the Manchester Centre for Public History and Heritage is hosting a one day symposium featuring talks by several leading scholars of Anglo-American […]

US Embassy (London) / British Association for American Studies – Small Grants Programme

US Embassy (London) / British Association for American Studies - Small Grants Programme The British Association for American Studies (BAAS), with the support of the United States Embassy, London, is delighted to announce that the US Embassy Small Grants Programme is now open.  The Programme seeks to provide funding for cultural, educational and outreach activities that will foster American Studies and otherwise enhance the understanding of the United States in the United Kingdom. Grants may be requested for a range of activities, including (but not limited to): •    Curriculum development, including schools activities; •    Student exchanges; •    US and UK Speaker programs; •    Film and arts programming; •    Conferences and symposia; •    Faculty development and exchange; •    Public dissemination of academic research. Applications for activities that introduce new audiences to American studies and / or have a focus on children, young people, and disadvantaged communities are welcome. Applicants need to […]

Biannual Meeting of the European Early American Studies Association (London)

Queen Mary, University of London Mile End Road, London, United Kingdom

Biannual meeting of the European Early American Studies Association London, 14-16 December 2018 The Making and Unmaking of Identities and Connections in Early America and the Atlantic World, 1650-1850 The 7th biannual meeting of the European Early American Studies Association convenes in London 14-16 December 2018 at King’s College London and Queen Mary University of London. The conference theme for EEASA 2018 is “The making and unmaking of identities and connections in early America and the Atlantic World, 1650-1850.” Issues of identities and connections were as pertinent to the inhabitants of early America and the Atlantic World as they remain today. Up until the mid-nineteenth century, the geopolitics of the Americas were in constant flux. European and indigenous empires emerged, competed, expanded, contracted and collapsed. New nations and unions were formed and reformed. Identities and loyalties were transitory, political and cultural borders permeable. Weak centers fostered local autonomy and a […]

CfP: Indigeneity, Nationhood, and Migrations of the Book, SHARP 2019 (University of Massachusetts)

CFP - Indigeneity, Nationhood, and Migrations of the Book We are pleased to invite submissions for the 27th annual conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (SHARP), to be held in Amherst, Massachusetts—primarily at the University of Massachusetts—from Monday, 15 July, to Thursday, 18 July 2019, with optional book-historical excursions on 19 July. (Details on pre- and post-conference activities will follow.) The conference theme is “Indigeneity, Nationhood, and Migrations of the Book.” Areas of inquiry may include, but are certainly not limited to, the following: • The indigenous book: concepts, definitions, evolution • Making marks to new media: varieties of communicative practice • Cross-cultural encounters, diglossia, heteroglossia, and cultural hybridity • The uses of print by colonizers and colonized • Decolonizing book history, libraries, and archives • The formation and material expression of national literatures • Meanings and manifestations of the vernacular: national languages, lexica, […]

CfP: 40 Years of Alien (Bangor University)

40 years of Alien An academic symposium hosted by The Centre for Film, Television and Screen Studies Bangor University, UK Friday 24 May 2019 Keynote Speaker: Dr Rikke Schubart (University of Southern Denmark) Alien has left an indelible mark on popular culture. Conceived primarily to cash in on the popularity of science-fiction films in the late 1970s, directed by a person known for making adverts (Ridley Scott) and starring an unknown actor in the lead role (Sigourney Weaver), it transcended its humble origins to frighten and disturb audiences on its initial release. Its success has led to three direct sequels, two prequels, one ‘mashup’ franchise, a series of comic books, graphic novels, novelisations and games, and has an enormous and devoted fanbase. For forty years, Alien (and its progeny) has animated debate and discussion among critics and academics from a wide variety of disciplines and methodological perspectives. Hosted by the […]