Our guest panellists will discuss Sino-American relations in a historical context, focusing on the early and late Cold War Presidencies of Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/americas/events/2020/mar/cancelled-us-china-relations-historical-context-eisenhower-reagan
This July and August BrANCH seek to bring their community together in a series of four online workshops focused on the research of our postgraduate and early career research membership. This week's speaker is Lizzie Evens, PhD Candidate at UCL, and her paper is 'Women Doctors, Sex Workers, and Eugenics during WWI'. The workshop will be held on Zoom, 12 August at 4pm. In each case, papers will be pre-circulated to BrANCH members. The organiser's aim is to elicit instructive and constructive contribution to the work of our early career academics. To that end, they very much hope that as many tenured staff as possible on both sides of the Atlantic will join them for these events. Your presence is key to ensuring their success. If you wish to register your attendance, then please contact us at branchworkshop2020@gmail.com or visit our eventbrite page. For any further questions, please contact Iain Flood at i.a.flood@ncl.ac.uk
This symposium invites Postgraduate Researchers and Early Career Researchers in the field of American Studies to evaluate and analyse the relationship between the Americas and ‘space’. This could include a geographical approach to ‘space’ and ‘place’, an ecological focus on the environment, the art of mapping, the relationship between the country and the city, the American notion of ‘the frontiers’, a transatlantic focus on the relationship between the Americas and other spaces, or even a more literal look at America’s role in exploring outer space. The interdisciplinary nature of this symposium aims to subvert the common use of space as ‘a context’ by bringing it to the forefront of the conversation to interrogate how the Americas are spatially constructed. Due to an emphasis on interdisciplinary discussion and collaboration, proposals are welcomed from PGRs and ECRs working across different periods, themes, landscapes, and disciplines within American Studies including, but not limited […]
To help offset the difficulties posed by the coronavirus (COVID-19), HOTCUS welcomes applications from doctoral students and recent PhD graduates not yet in academic employment, as well as those on short-term (less than three years), fractional, or hourly paid contracts for its 2020 Mini Grant scheme. HOTCUS Mini Grants support research in any area of twentieth century United States history (broadly defined). Applications are invited for £50 to £100 in research expenses. These expenses could include, but are not limited to the following: • Reproduction of archival materials • Paid subscriptions to research resources • Copies of secondary materials necessary for a particular output (e.g. PhD chapter, journal article) Thanks to the generosity of our members and the absence of a postgraduate paper prize award this year, HOTCUS has over £2500 to distribute. The initial deadline for applications is September 1, 2020. Applicants must be members of HOTCUS at the […]
Author Simon Hall sits down with Professor Lillian Guerra to discuss his book, TEN DAYS IN HARLEM. About this Event This event is presented in partnership with the Harlem Historical Society. Rising star Simon Hall captures the spirit of the 1960s in ten days that revolutionized the Cold War: Fidel Castro's visit to New York. New York City, September 1960. Fidel Castro - champion of the oppressed, scourge of colonialism, and leftist revolutionary - arrives for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. His visit to the UN represents a golden opportunity to make his mark on the world stage. Fidel's shock arrival in Harlem is met with a rapturous reception from the local African American community. He holds court from the iconic Hotel Theresa as a succession of world leaders, black freedom fighters and counter-cultural luminaries - everyone from Nikita Khrushchev to Gamal Abdel Nasser, Malcolm X to […]
Back in March 2020, with events dropping like flies from university calendars everywhere in the face of the global pandemic, we at OxEARS decided to enter the brave new world of remote seminar participation. We hope it will not seem an exaggeration to say that our move online has been a roaring success. With the opportunity to welcome experts not just from Oxford, not just from the UK, but from all around the world, the seminar has gained a new lease of life as a forum for scholarly exchange. Going into the academic year 2020-21, therefore, we will be continuing with this approach amidst the ongoing uncertainty about the safety of face-to-face meetings. Although it is a shame not to be able to invite our presenters and guests to the Turf Tavern or the King’s Arms after a meeting, the advantage of being joined by participants in London, Edinburgh, Turin, […]
What Happened? Continuities and Discontinuities in American Culture The 27th Biennial Conference of NAAS & the 11th Biennial Conference of SAAS Uppsala, Sweden, May 20-22, 2021 While it appears to be perennially tempting to see one’s own time as exceptional and unprecedented, it is nevertheless safe to say that our present time is perceived by many as characterized by crises of different kinds (democratic, humanitarian, environmental, medical, and economic crisis) to an unusually high degree. As a result, the stakes are high when it comes to identifying causes and cures and the political, media and academic communities are all concerned in their different ways with constructing narratives that make sense of what is happening: Backlash, renewal, apocalypse? Whatever their political, ideological or theoretical underpinnings or agendas, all mobilize tropes of either continuity – understood for instance as progress, degeneration or intensification – or discontinuity – understood for instance as a break […]
Due to concerns over covid-19 HOTCUS's annual postgraduate and early career conference will this year take the form of a one-day virtual event, taking place on Friday 18 September 2020. With the presidential election looming in November 2020, politics is paramount in the minds of those interested in the United States. This year also marks a century since the Nineteenth Amendment to the American Constitution was ratified giving women the right to vote. The 2020 HOTCUS Postgraduate and Early Career conference provides a pertinent opportunity for emerging scholars to explore America at and beyond the ballot box. Professor Iwan Morgan (UCL Institute of the Americas) will close the day with a virtual keynote address. The full programme is now available here.There is no charge for the conference and you can register here. The call for papers is now closed.
After a very successful pilot during the summer months, the organisers decided to continue BAAS PGR Work in Progress Session for the winter term. The sessions will run on the second Friday of each month during October-December between 15:00-17:00. (9th of October, 13th of November, and the 11th of December) The organisers invite postgraduate students to present a work in progress on any topic and period related to the Americas – music, visual culture, art, literature, history, politics etc. Postgraduates are encouraged to circulate any piece of writing they see fit – it can be a dissertation chapter, book review or an essay in preparation for a peer review submission. Each session will consist of three presenters and five readers to provide in-depth feedback in a collegial and supportive atmosphere. Upon submission, the organisers will try as much as possible to curate the sessions based on some common ground – themes, period or genre […]
After a very successful pilot during the summer months, the organisers decided to continue BAAS PGR Work in Progress Session for the winter term. The sessions will run on the second Friday of each month during October-December between 15:00-17:00. (9th of October, 13th of November, and the 11th of December) The organisers invite postgraduate students to present a work in progress on any topic and period related to the Americas – music, visual culture, art, literature, history, politics etc. Postgraduates are encouraged to circulate any piece of writing they see fit – it can be a dissertation chapter, book review or an essay in preparation for a peer review submission. Each session will consist of three presenters and five readers to provide in-depth feedback in a collegial and supportive atmosphere. Upon submission, the organisers will try as much as possible to curate the sessions based on some common ground – themes, period or genre […]
September 24 Megan Hunt (Edinburgh): Boo, Bull, and Birmingham: To Kill a Mockingbird, Black Protest, and Racial Moderation in April 1963 This session is part of the University of Edinburgh’s American History Fall Workshop series. If you are interested in participating in these workshops, please contact David Silkenat at the University of Edinburgh in order to be added to the mailing list and receive the pre-circulated papers. All of these workshops will occur on Zoom at 5pm on the indicated date
This book spotlights the remarkable number of instances in which the Constitutional protections have been overridden or weakened in the USA About this Event The first comprehensive account of the politics of exceptions and emergencies in the history of the United States, States of Exception in American History weaves together historical studies of moments and spaces of exception with conceptual analyses of emergency, the state of exception, sovereignty, and dictatorship. Combining theory and history, this book spotlights the remarkable number of instances since the Founding in which the protections of the Constitution have been overridden, held in abeyance, or deliberately weakened for certain members of the polity. During this event, Gary Gerstle and Joel Isaac will discuss the book’s overarching themes, methodological contributions, and relevance for our current moment. A Q&A session will follow, with questions taken in advance. To submit a question please e-mail it to statesofexception@gmail.com States of […]