BAAS 2023 Panel Review: 8C-The Clinging of Lot 49: Perspectives on Pynchon’s Persistence

Reviewed by: Valentina López Liendo Chaired by Dr James Baxter, a postdoctoral fellow at Trinity College Dublin, the panel ‘The Clinging of Lot 49: Perspectives on Pynchon’s Persistance’ explored the many ways in which Pynchon’s now hyper-canonical novel of 1966 resonates with contemporary American culture. The Crying of Lot 49… Continue reading

Event Review: The Crucible, dir. Lydnsey Turner

The Crucible, The National Theatre, 14 Sep-15 Nov 2022  On a drizzly November afternoon, Salem’s Essex Street feels dampened by post-Halloween stillness. With the decorations packed up for another year, tourist season is officially over and the town becomes another run-of-the-mill corner of New England until next fall’s regalia rolls… Continue reading

Panel Review: HOTCUS 2022 ‘Race, Rhetoric and Visibility’

‘Panel 2B: Race, Rhetoric, and Visibility’, HOTCUS 2022 Annual Conference, University of Edinburgh, 22-24 June 2022 On the second day of the Historians of Twentieth-Century United States (HOTCUS) Annual Conference, three researchers presented their current works-in-progress under the topic of ‘Race, Rhetoric, and Visibility.’ To begin, Dr. Emily Brady (Teaching… Continue reading

Conference Review: ‘Black Women’s Activism in the Americas’, SHAW Annual Conference 2022

The British Library, 1st July 2022 The Society for the History of Women in the Americas (SHAW), co-organised with the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library, hosted its 2022 annual conference at the British Library. The conference’s theme focused on Black women and their grassroots activism in… Continue reading

Conference Review: ‘Pandemics, Public Health, and Statecraft in Twentieth-Century U.S. History’

Day One, University College London, 4-5 July 2022 Organised by University College London’s Stephen Colbrook, Pandemics, Public Health, and Statecraft provided a platform for the exploration of the far-reaching intersections between statecraft and contagious disease, highlighting the emergence of identity, memory, and policymaking as narratives vital to advancing our understanding… Continue reading

University of Helsinki: Event Review: The Maple Leaf and Eagle Conference 2022

The biennial Maple Leaf and Eagle Conference is an event of legendary status both in Helsinki and far outside Finland. For almost four decades, it has kept the tradition of the longest running conference at the University of Helsinki uninterrupted and has provided a dynamic venue of exploring and explaining… Continue reading

Reflection on ‘Responding to Sexual Violence in Higher Education – Organisations, Initiatives, and Activism’, BAAS 2022

Please note that this review contains discussion of sexual violence and harassment in higher education. First and foremost, the focus needs to be on the safety of individuals experiencing any form of sexual violence and to facilitate an open discussion on how to proceed with caution and confidence. Reader discretion… Continue reading

BAAS 2022 Panel Review: ‘Surveillance, Technology, and Discrimination in Literature and Culture Across the Americas’

‘Surveillance, Technology, and Discrimination in Literature and Culture Across the Americas’, British Association for American Studies Conference 2022, University of Hull, 21-23 April 2022 Surveillance and dystopian futures are increasingly urgent and generative areas of research for scholars of the contemporary Americas. Just recently, headlines have been dominated by the… Continue reading

BAAS 2022 Panel Review: ‘Language and Multiculturalism in Contemporary Literature’

In the last thirty-five years, there has been a good deal of study of the relationship between language and multiculturalism, and between multiculturalism and contemporary literature. In ‘Language, Multiculturalism, and Identity: A Canadian Study’, a survey conducted by John Edwards and Joan Chisholm, the authors raise the probability of a… Continue reading

BAAS 2022 Panel Review: ‘Ecologies of Race and Gender in Nineteenth-Century American Culture’

F3 Ecologies of Race and Gender in Nineteenth-Century American Culture (sponsored by BrANCA) Opening the final day of BAAS 2022 was a BrANCA-sponsored panel titled “Ecologies of Race and Gender in Nineteenth-Century American Culture”, chaired by Matthew Pethers (University of Nottingham). The panel brought together research in nineteenth-century American literature… Continue reading