Book Review: Dueling Grounds: Revolution and Revelation in the Musical Hamilton ed. by Mary Jo Lodge and Paul R. Laird
Featuring important contributions from scholars and professionals of theatre and performance as well as specialists in musicology, history, and economics, Dueling Grounds: Revolution and Revelation in the Musical Hamilton provides a vast variety of disciplinary perspectives on Hamilton and its wide-ranging deployments of liminality. The show itself has garnered a great deal of acclaim for promoting diversity and inspiring historical education, praise certainly not without warrant. However, the editors and contributors of this topical volume do not shy away from the fact that Hamilton leaves some aspects of eighteenth-century American life either obscured or unaddressed, particularly with regard to issues involving people of colour and women.
Event Review: HOTCUS PGR and ECR Conference 2020: ‘America at and beyond the ballot box’ (Online)
Co-organised by Tim Galsworthy and Lizzie Evens, ‘America at and beyond the ballot box’ invited scholars to examine the ways in which values and ideologies are framed in both policymaking, political rhetoric, and popular discourse, with specific regard to citizenship, suffrage, and the marginalisation of under-represented minority groups. The conference served as an intriguing preface to the upcoming presidential election, calling for roundtable discussions of historically definitive elections and case studies of exclusionary politics and governmental decision-making. Structured to combat the all-too-relatable Zoom fatigue, attendees were provided with pre-circulated conference papers as well as a pre-recorded keynote address, allowing all participants to engage in thought-provoking Q&A-based dialogue. It has been argued that annual events could just as easily be cancelled, rather than adapted to an online format, but realistically, the conference provided postgraduates and early career researchers with a critical opportunity to not only refamiliarize themselves with specific facets of […]