News: as|peers - Emerging Voices in American Studies

Michelle Glauser from the University of Leipzig has got in touch through the blog to let us know about a new publishing opportunity for graduate students. as|peers has been established as the first (and currently only) American Studies graduate journal in Europe. Here's an extract from their mission statement:

"as|peers seeks to give emerging scholars a voice: A platform to showcase their work beyond the graduate classroom and a forum for discussion and exchange. We believe that such wider circulation of graduate scholarship has great potential to further energize the field of American Studies. At the same time, as|peers offers emerging scholars the unique opportunity to publish and get recognition for their research at an early point in their careers."

They're currently seeking submissions.

Research Seminars: Geoffrey Ward

At this week's Research Seminar, Professor Geoff Ward (Royal Holloway) , author of The Writing Of America: Literature and Cultural Identity from the Puritans to the Present, will be presenting a paper entitled: "Thoreau / Creeley : Words / Things (and failed revolutions)."

Wednesday 28, 4pm, Arts 2.51 - all welcome.

News: The Right To Bear Arms?

The Supreme Court is to consider whether or not the Second Amendment grants individuals the right to keep guns in their home for private use. Handguns have been banned in the District of Columbia since 1976, but now a private resident has challenged that prohibition, leading to the new case next year - which looks likely to make gun control a key election issue. Read more about the story in the Guardian and the New York Times - and refresh your memory about the Second Amendment here.

With thanks to AMS student Kirsty Callaghan.

News: Thanksgiving

It's Thanksgiving, so as America sits down to its first helpings of turkey, you can learn more about this uniquely American holiday:

• So what, and why, is America celebrating? Angie Leventis meets St. Louis school children learning about a more historically accurate Thanksgiving, in the St. Louis Dispatch...
• ...and the History News Network opens its Thanksgiving archives, here...
• ...whilst Robert Jensen argues that the holiday should be transformed into a National Day of Atonement "to acknowledge the genocide of indigenous people that is central to the creation of the United States."
• You can read the President's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation here, courtesy of The Seattle Times...
• ...find out which of the Presidential candidates Americans would most like to share their Thanksgiving meal with via Fox...
• ...and experience Thanksgiving in Iraq with Annie Ciezadlo in the New York Times.
  
• And finally: Michelle Tsai asks, "Wherefore Turkey?" in Slate

If you fancy partaking yourself, Vista are hosting a Thanksgiving dinner tonight - from 7pm.

Research Seminars: Will Montgomery

At this week's research seminar, Will Montgomery (Royal Holloway), will be speaking about ‘Style and Affect in Susan Howe’s Pierce-Arrow.’ In advance of the seminar, Will suggests that it might be useful to read Howe's ‘Rückenfigur’ - available here.

Wednesday 21 November, Arts 2.51, 4pm - all welcome.

Research Seminars: Celeste-Marie Bernier

At this week's Research Seminar, Celeste-Marie Bernier from the University of Nottingham, author of the forthcoming Twentieth Century African American Visual Arts (Edinburgh University Press, 2008), will be presenting a paper entitled: "‘Struggle is a Beautiful thing’: Narrative Experimentation and Visual Abstraction in Jacob Lawrence’s Migration of the Negro (1941) and Elizabeth Catlett’s The Negro Woman (1946-47)."

Wednesday 14 November, Arts 2.51, 4pm. All welcome.

News: Norman Mailer Dies

Norman Mailer has died at the age of 84. The New York Times has a lengthy career overview here; the Guardian has an interview with Mailer from February this year, in which he talks about the publication of his last novel, here. Reassessments of his life and work are sure to follow.

News: Capital Punishment Moratorium

The future of capital punishment in America appears to be uncertain. The Supreme Court granted a last minute reprieve to Mississippi prisoner Earl Berry, scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Tuesday. This decision seems to cement a de facto moratorium on all executions until the Supreme Court reviews the legality of lethal injections next year. Read more about this story in the Guardian, the Washington Post, and listen to an NPR radio programme about it, via Slate.

With thanks to AMS student Kirsty Callaghan.

News: Henry James' "little nameless object"

Nineteenth century literary mysteries are (relatively) big news at the moment. Following last week's possible revelations about Poe's brain, Joshua Glenn, writing for Slate, believes he's found a solution to the long standing question surrounding Henry James' The Ambassadors. What is the "little nameless object" manufactured in Woollett, Massachusetts? Here's a clue: it's not a chamber pot.