Review of ANZASA Conference 2019: Community, Conflict and the “Meaning of America” 14-16th July, University of Auckland

For their biennial conference, the Australian and New Zealand American Studies Association (ANZASA) encouraged those in attendance to engage with Perry Miller’s intellectual endeavour to define “the meaning of America.” Using Miller’s seminal work, An Errand into the Wilderness, as a launching pad, a thoughtful offering of keynote speakers, plenaries and panels emphasised the ongoing relevance of community, conflict, and the meaning of America in present-day research.  Continue reading

Review: ‘Untold Stories of the Past 150 Years’: Canada 150

The conference called for counter-narratives to the official record that ‘nuance and complicate’ received histories, attending in particular to the gendered and racialised omissions that often characterise state-sanctioned narratives. In this, the event took up a task that has been resonating with many scholars and intellectuals throughout the #Canada150 celebrations: reframing the sesquicentennial not as a moment of blind nationalism but as an opportunity for re-evaluation and re-envisioning. Continue reading

Book Review: West of the American Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776 by Claudio Saunt

Throughout November 2015, U.S. Studies Online will be publishing a series of posts to mark Native American Heritage Month. In this post, Michael Griggs reviews West of the American Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776 by Claudio Saunt.
This book’s greatest strength is that it challenges the reader to open their minds to the larger struggle for the greater American continent. 1776 was a year of great civil war between the British Colonies and their motherland; however, equally important was the struggle of the Native American and First Nations people against the ever-expanding and exploring Europeans. Continue reading

Beyond the Boundaries of Time and Text: Recovering Oral Traditions in American Women’s Writing

The penultimate post in the series, courtesy of SSAWW, is written by Corey Hickner-Johnson and examines the theme of recovery through three writers (Margaret Walker, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Kao Kalia Yang) who reclaim their own family and cultural stories and histories through fiction. Continue reading

Finding “Native America” in Jazz: The History of “Native Sound” in Jazz throughout the Decades

To look at jazz’s preeminent players and albums, or its popular historical narratives, one would think a “Native American” had never picked up a horn. Indeed, finding Native Americanism in a so thoroughly African-American art form may seem offbeat even for jazz. Yet a “Native jazz” tradition does exist— has… Continue reading

Review of Culture and the Canada-U.S. Border 2014 Conference

Convening on a sun-drenched weekend amid the wonderful surroundings of University Park Campus, the third Culture and the Canada-U.S. Border conference met to discuss the broad theme of ‘Cultural Crossings’, interrogating production, consumption, and reception across the 49th parallel; that real-and-imagined international boundary that lies between the United States and Canada. Continue reading

Review of American Imperialism and Identity Conference

American Imperialism and National Identity Conference, University of Durham 14 June 2014   With Iraq in turmoil and U.S. military involvement in the Middle East once again in the spotlight, the timing of the ‘American Imperialism and National Identity Conference’ on the 14th of June at St. Aidan’s College, University… Continue reading

60 Seconds With Zalfa Feghali

What advice would you give to early career academics?

“Unfortunately, ECR is often understood to be shorthand for unemployed academic. That’s (obviously) rubbish and can be really reductive, since it divides ECRs up rather than focuses on what common experiences they might have. What ECR actually means is that you’re way more energetic and enthusiastic than many academics you’ll encounter (that will sometimes include other ECRs).” Continue reading