Monday 5 December 2011

Research Seminar: Ross Hair

At this week's research seminar, AMS' very own Ross Hair - author, most recently, of Ronald Johnson's Modernist Collage Poetry (Palgrave, 2010) - will be speaking about: "Pan's People: Transatlantic Pastoral and the Jargon 'Society'".

Arts 2.84, 3pm, all welcome.

Thursday 1 December 2011

News: Liam Heffernan On This Season's American TV Imports


by Liam Heffernan

An obsession with film and television can be a terrible hindrance to essay-writing. Spending hours upon hours a day telling yourself you will start just as soon as you have caught up on Have I Got News For You and QI, but then you remember you forgot to watch Happy Endings and Glee from Thursday and how much work can you really be expected to do in the few minutes it takes to download? May as well put the kettle on and get all perked up so you’re ready to power on in an hour or two. Then you can properly focus. But wait, when does Harry Hill start? And you need to cook dinner too. Oh well, you’re free tomorrow, if you just catch up on Pan Am during breakfast and then crack on with essays in the afternoon before The X Factor Results.

Tuesday 29 November 2011

Opinion: Bev Cadby on American Consumerism

Black Friday shoppers

by Bev Cadby

America’s baby boomers are the first generation to have been submitted to media manipulation from the moment of their conception in the 1950s through their childhoods and working lives; now, with many of them in their retirement, they are still being ‘courted’ by marketers.

Friday 25 November 2011

News: Professor Nick Selby's Inaugural Now Online

(from Susan Howe's "Thorow", via)
Some viewing for the weekend: Professor Nick Selby's inaugural lecture, Reading Difficulty: What's American about American Poetry, is now available to view in full here. Enjoy, and feel free to ask any questions you might have below!

Thursday 24 November 2011

News: Thanksgiving Round-Up 2011

(Norman Rockwell, via)
Happy Thanksgiving, America. Or commiserations on the National Day of Mourning, depending on your point of view. Either way, link round-up below!

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Letter from America: Tom Macarte


Letter from America - an occasional series of posts by students on their Year Abroad in America.

by Tom Macarte

Hi. My name’s Tom. I am currently studying abroad at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. I could go on about how wonderful it is here, how many bluegrass and country gigs I am going to, how much fried chicken and sweet tea I am consuming, etc. etc. Instead, I am going to tell you about when I went to the State Fair in Raleigh, NC’s capital.

Tuesday 22 November 2011

Research Seminar: Karen Huntress

This week, we're excited to welcome Karen Huntress to the School of American Studies. Karen is currently the Cultural Outreach Officer for the US Embassy in London, and she'll be talking about issues related to race, gender and American justice.

In the meantime, Karen blogs for the Embassy here, and you can follow her on Twitter here.

Arts 2.84, 3pm, all welcome.

Monday 21 November 2011

"A Frisson of Sexual Deviance": Today's American Vampire

by Andi Bawden

Before I get started, I have spent days thinking over possible topics and finally made the decision whilst watching True Blood in my pyjamas and trying not to look at the stack of reading on my desk.  Over these past few weeks it has seemed impossible to escape the media frenzy over the most recent Twilight offering, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are plastered everywhere you look and it doesn’t seem like their teenage fan base will be running out of enthusiasm any time soon. Breaking Dawn: Part One took almost $140 million in its opening weekend in the US and the enduring fascination with the vampire seems to have exploded with the genre of ‘paranormal romance.’  Twilight is not alone in exploiting this new fashion, with a number of American television shows, films and books featuring the vampire as both villain and romantic hero.  Whilst True Blood and Anne Rice’s vampire novels remain my personal favourites, other examples include books by L. J. Smith and L. K. Hamilton, the Underworld films, and television shows like The Vampire Diaries.

Monday 14 November 2011

Undisciplined: A New UEA PG Journal Seeks Submissions

By Neekta Khorsand


Undisciplined is an online-based postgraduate journal started this semester by none other than myself for the purpose of creating community among UEA PGs across disciplines while also providing a platform through which PGs (taught and research) can express themselves whether academically or creatively in areas that their research or focus may not necessarily allow. Centering itself around themes, Undisciplined's first theme is "Dissent." Submissions can take nearly any form so long as it relates to the theme and hasn't been published elsewhere. The deadline for submission is December 15, 2011. Feel free to contact me by email with any questions: n.khorsand@uea.ac.uk.

New Campaign Aims to Increase Awareness of HIV and AIDS


by Natasha Broad

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the discovery of HIV and AIDS and, to commemorate this event and highlight the importance of ongoing research into the disease, a new campaign has been launched by fashion designer Kenneth Cole, in collaboration with the MTV Staying Alive Foundation and amfAR.

Wednesday 9 November 2011

"Helplessness Blues" And The Burden of American Individualism

By Neekta Khorsand
"Helplessness Blues" by Fleet Foxes -- Soundcloud

The title track of Fleet Foxes’ sophomore album*, “Helplessness Blues,” is a series of contradictory statements and questions uncomfortably abandoned in the last line. However, its opening lines are ones to which many Americans, regardless of generation, can relate. Lead vocalist and songwriter for Fleet Foxes, Robin Pecknold sings, “I was raised up believing I was somehow unique/ Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes, unique in each way you can see.” In less than 25 words, Pecknold has summarized an aspect of the American tradition of exceptionalism. Granted, the 25-year-old musician is a product of his generation, one raised under the careful and attentive mode of parenting in which adults applaud and praise even the slightest of achievements and encourage kids to wholly be “themselves.” Born exactly a year after Pecknold (we share the same birthday), I was raised within this same mindset and distinctly remember the plethora of uplifting stickers my teachers placed on horrendous drawings and scrawls. Pecknold’s words reflect not only a generational focus on the incredible value placed upon the self within American culture but that focus as a continuation of the longstanding American identity as one of deep individualism.

Thursday 3 November 2011

Race-ing images and words: the power of linguistics and visual culture in maintaining racial oppression


by Jon Ward

In response to last week's American Studies Research Seminar, presented wonderfully by A. Robert Lee in a talk entitled "Postcolonial/PostIndian: Literary and Other Representations of Native America", combined with the timely reading of some interesting blog posts about the cultural appropriation of various Halloween outfits, I started to think about the importance of words and images in maintaining racial oppression, and the need to be aware of the potential cultural implications.

Tuesday 1 November 2011

Research Seminar: Roger Thompson

At this week's research seminar, AMS's own Professor Roger Thompson will be talking about: "From Deference to Defiance: Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1629-1692."

Roger is the author of a wide range of books about colonial New England, and is about to publish a new book which shares the title of his talk.

Wednesday November 2nd, 4pm, A2.86. All welcome.

Opinion: To blog, or not to blog?

The origin of a different kind of Silver Surfer

by Bev Cadby

To blog, or not to blog; that is the question. You see, I’m a mature student and it’s not until you actually get to university you realise there are mature students…and then there’s me! So when an email came around asking for people to sit on the Social Media Editorial Committee for the School of American Studies, I thought why not?

Monday 31 October 2011

Tomorrow: Prof. Nick Selby's Inaugural Lecture

Tomorrow (Tuesday November 1), Head of the School of American Studies Professor Nick Selby will be giving his inaugural lecture. All welcome.

"Reading difficulty: what's American about American poetry?" Thomas Paine Study Centre, 6.30pm.

News: Halloween 2011


It's Halloween! Link round-up below.

Wednesday 26 October 2011

Fateful Birth: William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! turns 75

William Faulkner, looking haunted
by Ed Clough

This week sees the fall of Halloween and Dia de los Muertos – festivals celebrating (ostensibly, anyway) death as abstract and haunting, and as personal and familial; as elemental horror and as intimate loss – and, in both cases, as excuses for some freestyle, heavy-duty material and consumptive excess.

It’s apt, then, that this week should also mark the 75th anniversary of the publication of one of America’s most deathly and gothic literary masterpieces, William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!, published on October 26, 1936. Faulkner, in a typically modest evaluation of his talents, referred to it as “the best novel yet written by an American”. Many would doubtless disagree – yet all the same, it’s hard to discount or ignore the sheer brilliance of this richly difficult, bleakly poetic book.

Tuesday 25 October 2011

AMS Discussion Cafés: Crisis and Contemporary America


The first in a series of Discussion Cafés hosted by students from the School of American Studies' final year module "New American Century: Culture and Crisis" takes place tomorrow! No need to book, no charge, and refreshments provided. Tomorrow's session:

‘How do national cultures deal with globalisation and Americanisation?’ October 25, 11-12, The Maddermarket Theatre, St. John’s Alley, Norwich.

You can see the full programme of events here. The Discussion Cafés are taking place throughout October and November.

Research Seminar: A. Robert Lee

At this week's research seminar, A. Robert Lee will be visiting. He is the author and editor of an wide-ranging number of books, and is, most recently, editor of this four volume collection of Native American Writing. On Wednesday, he will be talking about: "Postcolonial/Postindian: Literary and Other Representations of Native America."

Wednesday 26 October, 3pm, Arts 2.84. All welcome.

Monday 24 October 2011

Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison and the Spirit of Invention

Thomas Edison, relaxing with his iPod
by Nick Cleaver

I’d like to talk a little about Steve Jobs. Not in the sense of an ode to a life tragically cut short – I never met the man and, while I do own a phone which could be considered to a greater or lesser extent a product of his genius or vision, without wishing to sound callous I would not presume that this places me in sufficiently close relation to warrant paroxysms of grief. Suffice it to say that 56 years is no great age in the 21st Century developed world and I am sure that his family, friends and colleagues miss him greatly. What I would like to talk about is Steve Jobs’ embodiment of ideas which resonate strongly with the United States of America a century before his time.

Monday 17 October 2011

Research Seminar: Matthew Ward

At this week's research seminar we're being treated to a visit by Matthew Ward (University of Dundee). Matthew is the author, most recently, of The Battle for Quebec: 1759. He writes:
My current research examines the Seven Years' War in North America and its effects on Native Americans, French-Canadians and Anglo-American settlers. More broadly I am interested in Britain's involvement in early America, and the interaction of the British Empire with different peoples. This is reflected in my background, as I have been described in one review of my work as a 'genuinely trans-Atlantic product' with English roots, an American PhD, Canadian research interests, living and working in Scotland. These research interests take me to both sides of the Atlantic, conducting much of my research in archives in London, Canada and the United States, and giving conference papers on both sides of the Atlantic.

On Wednesday 19, he will be speaking about: "Justice from the law is fled’: Court and Community in the First American West, ca. 1730-1815.

Arts 2.84, 3pm - all welcome.

Opinion: Four Weddings and Three Hundred Funerals

by Liam Heffernan
On Thursday 28th April 2011 Alabama and the southern states were hit by a storm killing almost 300 Americans. It was 'the worst tornado outbreak since 1974' leaving thousands of people homeless and over a million without power. The following morning, I was sitting in a hostel in downtown Boston trying to see the news through the heads of old ladies huddled around the television (it was an odd place).

Thursday 13 October 2011

AMS Film Screenings: Real to Reel


As an offshoot of our first year History modules this semester, we're running Real to Reel, a series of film screenings which serve as another way of introducing some of the issues at stake in the study of American history. These screenings will be of interest to students of American Studies more generally, and everyone is welcome. Below, the schedule.

Wednesday 12 October 2011

News: Kevin Smith's Red State

by Natasha Broad

Whilst filmmaker Kevin Smith is well known for making comedies, his latest offering concerns a far more serious topic. Released at the Sundance Film Festival amongst controversy, Red State is a hard-hitting film about religious extremism in the USA but, unexpectedly, also offers a thought provoking image of the American government post 9/11.

Monday 10 October 2011

News: Urban Prep, and the Ongoing Battle between Education and Poverty in Chicago

(via)
by Andi Bawden

Hidden amongst a mass of BBC news stories focusing on the United States, an article by Mark Mardell with a brief video illustrates the success of a school in Chicago.  Although attracting relatively little attention in the UK until now, Urban Prep made American national news at the beginning of this summer after 100% of its graduating seniors were awarded places in American colleges.

Research Seminar: Richard Martin

This Wednesday, it's the first AMS research seminar of the semester, and it's something a little out of the ordinary. Richard Martin (Birkbeck) is currently undertaking a research project sponsored by the British Association for American Studies. From the BAAS website:

American Studies in the UK, 2000-2010The British Association for American Studies, in association with the Fulbright Commission, is embarking on an important new research project tracing the development of American Studies in the UK between 2000 and 2010. The project will produce a contemporary census document and a historical resource for future scholars.
Alongside statistical data, the report will also include commentary and case studies, involving a wide range of voices and experiences. Contributions are therefore invited from all sections of the American Studies community in the UK, including researchers, lecturers, administrators, teachers and students. Contributors are asked to respond to the central question: In what ways did American Studies in the UK change between 2000 and 2010?
Accordingly, on Wednesday, Richard will be talking about "American Studies in the U.K., 2000-2011." Should be a good one. All welcome.

Wednesday October 12, 3 pm, Arts 2.84.

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Extreme Right-Wing Pundits Love Steve Almond’s Latest Much To The Confusion Of, Uh, Everyone


Steve Almond, beloved DIY-publishing, bad-poetry-writing, experimental “candy freak,” is releasing a new book entitled God Bless America at the end of October of “comic and forlorn” short stories about the United States and its many delights. Much to Almond’s bewilderment--and that of many others--his book has been touted by members of the right wing extreme & Fox News pundits—most notably, teddy bear lookalike Glenn Beck. Almond explains the whole situation in the trailer video for his book.





News: New Editorial Committee for Containing Multitudes

(via)
This year, in addition to its regular and semi-regular features, Containing Multitudes is going to feature a series of posts from the members of our new editorial committee, made up of a number of our supremely talented postgraduates. You'll get to know a bit about each of them as the year rolls on. So stay tuned for some exciting developments. And remember, you can follow us on twitter @AmericanStudies, and on Facebook here.

Friday 23 September 2011

CFP: aspeers



Long time-friends of Containing Multitudes aspeers have got in touch with their new CFP. For those who aren't familiar, aspeers is:
the first and currently only peer-reviewed print journal for MA-level American studies scholars in Europe. It is a platform for the best work done by American studies graduate students below the PhD level. It aims to foster academic exchange among young Americanists across Europe, and to thereby advance the field as well as its genuine European perspective on ‘America’ and its presences and effects around the world. In addition to a general section, aspeers features a topical one that brings academic and creative works into a dialogue on one common theme.

So pay attention, postgrads. More from the CFP below.

Monday 19 September 2011

What They Did Next: Kirsty Callaghan


Kirsty Callaghan graduated from the School of American Studies this year, and is currently teaching and studying at the University of Wyoming. Happily, she's agreed to write us a guest post about her experiences so far. Make sure to check out her own blog here.

Thursday 15 September 2011

News: Lecture Series on American Life and Culture at the 2nd Air Division Memorial Library

Above, a flyer for the forthcoming Autumn 2011 Lecture Series on American Life and Culture hosted by the 2nd Air Division Memorial Library at the Forum, Norwich - including AMS's very own Rebecca Fraser. Below, further details about the lectures. Enjoy!

Tuesday 30 August 2011

News: New Orleans, Six Years After Katrina

Ted Jackson / The Times-Picayune
Yesterday was the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Below, we round-up the best articles.

Saturday 6 August 2011

News: Guilty Verdicts in the New Orleans Danziger Bridge Shootings

Yesterday, five New Orleans Police Department officers were found guilty of civil rights violations and conspiracy charges relating to the shooting of six innocent people on Danziger Bridge, two of whom died, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Link round-up below.

Tuesday 2 August 2011

News: We're Hiring

We want YOU to work in the School of American Studies at the University of East Anglia. We're currently looking for a Lecturer in American Studies (History and Culture). Full details of the post are available here, but the highlights are available below.

Friday 22 July 2011

News: 150th Anniversary of the First Battle of Bull Run

The Battle of Bull Run

Yesterday was the 150th anniversary of the First Battle of Bull Run - the first "real" battle of the Civil War. In keeping with the coverage that the sesquicentennial has received so far, the internet has provided a number of rich ways to mark the anniversary.

Tuesday 19 July 2011

Friday Night Lights

Following yesterday's thoughts on a recent crop of American television landmarks, Christopher Bigsby has second thoughts on Friday Night Lights...

Monday 18 July 2011

News: Explaining America on Screen

Christopher Bigsby provides you with a few American Studies viewing recommendations for wet summer days or cold autumn evenings.

Friday 15 July 2011

Research News: Becky Fraser on Nineteenth Century Gender ideals and their regional adaptation

The Sphere of Women, Godey’s Lady’s Book, March 1850
Becky Fraser charts in this recently published journal article for Slavery and Abolition the ways in which Sarah Hicks Williams, an elite white woman from New York state, adapted to the gender ideals of the South following her marriage to Benjamin F. Williams, a physician and slaveholder from Greene County, North Carolina, in 1853. 

Through the letters she wrote to her parents from the Williams' plantation, Clifton Grove, Sarah communicated her observations on the "peculiarities" of southern life including the manner in which they lived, North Carolina's lack of religious privilege, and of course, the institution of slavery, which in Sarah's opinion, was structured by relations of familiarity and intimacy between master and slave. The complexities of her transition toward the ideal southern plantation mistress were often fraught with difficulties not least because of her new mother-in-law, Avey, who part-owned Clifton Grove, and her sister's husband, James Brown, who was a committed abolitionist. Sarah struggled to make sense of the cultural landscapes of the South and the roles and responsibilities that were expected of her. Yet, by the late 1850s Sarah had successfully transformed herself into the ideal southern woman. Her life had proved complicated during these years as she underwent the adjustments necessary for her but eventually she succeeded in becoming a true southern woman living as wife, mother, and plantation mistress in the southern world. Enjoy!

Tuesday 12 July 2011

News: East St Louis Toodle-oo

Malcolm McLaughlin is just back from his trip to East St. Louis, IL, and brings us a few snaps from his travels around town.

Monday 11 July 2011

News: North and South (Yorkshire)

As the Civil War Sesquicentennial rolls forward, a different perspective. You might not know it but the American Civil War has been raging in the north of England for almost 40 years. Follow the link to see some wonderful photographs, courtesy of The Guardian,.of a recent battle between the Union Army and the Confederate forces of General Lee at Cusworth Hall, South Yorks., all thanks to the UK’s American Civil War Society, founded 1975.

Monday 4 July 2011

Première of The Lost Ones!

On Wednesday July 6th, at the Norwich Forum, a documentary based on the work of AMS's Jacqueline Fear-Segal will receive its European première! Below, you can watch the trailer. And below that, you can see the press release.

Thursday 30 June 2011

Lighting Out: Malcolm McLaughlin Heading to St. Louis

UEA’s Malcolm McLaughlin will be visiting East St. Louis, Illinois, next week to make an appearance as a guest speaker at a conference that has been organized by Professor Andrew Theising of Southern Illinois University and the local Action Research Project, as part of the city’s 150th anniversary celebrations.

East St. Louis is one of America’s forgotten corners. It was basically a city of factories and when those shut down in the 1960s-1980s there was almost nothing left. Thousands of people moved away and its population shrank from over 100,000 to under 30,000 today. In places where factories once stood there are now acres of abandoned land – the urban prairie. But there are good things happening, too, like the community gardens project which is letting the people of East St. Louis reclaim their city and turn the urban wilderness into plots of flowers, fruits, and vegetables. 


More from Malcolm when he's on the road.

Next Week: American Lives at the Forum

Next week, the School of American Studies is heading out into Norwich for a series of exciting events exploring what America 'means' to it's diverse population and the variety of ways in which it is imagined from within its national borders. The American Lives programme is available here, but a sneak preview of events at the Forum is available below. See you there!

Thursday 23 June 2011

Geoffrey Plank’s work contributes to the renaming of a Nova Scotia Junior High School


Nova Scotia Governor Edward Cornwallis has long been celebrated in the province as the founder of the capital Halifax.  His name is attached to several landmarks, including a park in the centre of the city, where a statue honouring him was erected in 1931.  In his 1994 Princeton dissertation, and in his subsequent book An Unsettled Conquest, UEA School of American Studies Professor Geoffrey Plank recounted in detail how Cornwallis conducted his campaign against the local indigenous people, the Mi’kmaq.  While he was still on shipboard, anchored off the coast where he planned to establish Halifax, he resolved to offer bounties for the scalps of Mi’kmaq men, women and children. 

Plank’s work appeared just as a local campaign to remove Cornwallis’s name from local landmarks was gaining momentum.  The driving force behind this effort was the Mi’kmaq elder Danny Paul.  Paul’s sweeping history of the Mi’kmaq people, We Were Not the Savages, first appeared in 1994, is now in its third edition.  Paul helped publicize Plank’s work and partly as a consequence, Plank received attention in the local press, including an extended article in 1998 which was accompanied by an editorial cartoon, above, mocking the statue in Cornwallis Park.

Paul has pursued his campaign tirelessly since the 1980s, but a critical turning point came in 2008, when Cheryl LeBlanc-Weldon, a local elementary school teacher, began circulating an online petition to remove Cornwallis’s name from all streets, parks, schools and other public institutions.  The petition quoted Plank’s scholarly work, and it was circulated in the Mi’kmaq language and French as well as English.  More than 3,000 signatures were collected, and within a year the campaign had its first success, when the Canadian coastguard’s icebreaker Edward Cornwallis was decommissioned, and the coastguard promised not to launch another vessel with that name.  The campaign has continued, and responding to increasing pressure, on June 21, 2011, the Halifax Regional School Board voted unanimously to change the name of Cornwallis Jr. High School.   After the vote, Paul suggested that Cornwallis Park should be renamed Freedom Park, and new statue erected “to all the immigrants who came to this country and helped to build the country into the powerhouse that it is.” 

Within a week of the appearance of the online petition, one local historian wrote Plank to warn him, “If the petition were fully accepted and acted upon, the name of a Nova Scotia town would be changed, the names of several military installations would be altered, street names would be revised, and a number of schools and parks would be renamed.”  The writer suggested that the result would be disastrous.  “This bit of proposed historical revisionism seems like a throwback to the Stalin era in the USSR.”  The campaign to rename the Cornwallis landmarks has always been locally-led, and though Plank’s name appeared in the text of the petition, he did not sign it or directly participate in the subsequent debate.


UPDATE 18/08/2011: The campaign has now extended to the Cornwallis River, as reported here.

Saturday 4 June 2011

Wednesday 1 June 2011

News: James Maycock on Gil Scott-Heron

Gil Scott Heron - music pioneer, icon, lost soul - died on Monday. UEA Alum and awesome documentary maker James Maycock wrote an obituary for the Independent, and he's kindly allowed us to reproduce it here.

Saturday 14 May 2011

News: High Water Everywhere

High water in New Orleans, from the Times-Picayune
As the Mississippi River experiences its worst floods for decades, here's a selection of the best stories available online.

Wednesday 4 May 2011

Beyond Cowboys and Indians: The American West in Film, Television and History


Advance warning that two UEA students, Elizabeth Rawitsch from FTV and Beth Southard from HIS, are going to be giving a public lecture at the 2nd Air Division Memorial Library at the Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library.

Thursday 24 March 2011

Guest Post: Andy Rudalevige on Libya

Friend of AMS and Dickinson College political scientist Andy Rudalevige is guest-blogging for The Monkey Cage this week, and we're very pleased that he's allowed us to cross-post his thoughts on the War Powers Resolution and the Libya ‘no fly zone’ - available after the break.

Thursday 3 March 2011

Guest Post: Rob Velella

Rob Velella as Nathaniel Hawthorne
Containing Multitudes is very proud to present a guest post from Rob Velella! Rob Velella is an independent literary historian and playwright specializing in American literature of the nineteenth century. As a scholar, Velella has published articles and presented academic papers on figures as varied as Rufus Griswold, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Walt Whitman. He served as guest curator for "Margaret Fuller: Woman of the Nineteenth Century" at Harvard's Houghton Library and as research associate for "The Raven in the Frog Pond: Edgar Allan Poe and Boston" for the Boston Public Library. In addition to his dramatic presentations, he maintains the American Literary Blog, an "almost-daily celebration of important (and not-so-important) dates in 19th-century American literary history."

Tuesday 15 February 2011

Research Seminar: Maria Sabina Alexandru

At this week's research seminar, UEA alum Maria-Sabina Alexandru (University of Bucharest) will be talking about: ‘Surreal Transatlantic Dialogues: Forgiven Submarine by Ruxandra Cesereanu and Andrei Codrescu.’

Wednesday, 16th February, Room 1.16, 5 pm- 7 pm. Refreshments provided. All welcome!

Wednesday 9 February 2011

News: Fulbright Commission Awards

If you're interested in postgraduate study in the USA, the Fulbright Commission has just opened applications for the UK Fulbright Awards for 2012-13. More information is available on their website, but in the meantime here are some snippets that might be useful:
Information Session on Your Campus

Join the Fulbright advising team for an information session on "Postgraduate Study in the USA" on your campus. This talk will cover the benefits of postgraduate study in the USA and provide an overview of the application process and funding options, including the Fulbright scholarships. Check to see if we are visiting your university on our online calendar.


USA Grad School Day
9 March 2011
6 - 9 pm
London (American School in London, St John's Wood)

For more in-depth information, attend our USA Grad School Day workshop. This event provides students with an insider's view of how to successfully navigate the US postgraduate admissions process. Fulbright advisors and experts in the field will cover a variety of topics: choosing the right institution, admissions exams, the application components and funding opportunities, including the Fulbright Awards for 2012-13.

For more information and to register, go here.
Unable to attend? Students can email gradschoolday@fulbright.co.uk to receive information about a possible webinar in early May.

Fulbright Scholarships for 2012-13
Application Available: 1 February 2011
Deadline: 31 May 2011

The Fulbright Awards are tenable for postgraduate study or research in any academic field, at any accredited institution in the US. Approximately 50 scholarships are given to UK citizens each year, including 20-30 at the postgraduate level. Visit the awards section of our website for more information: http://www.fulbright.co.uk/fulbright-awards  (Non-UK citizens are encouraged to use our advisory service in the UK, but to apply for Fulbright scholarships through the office in their home country.)


Fulbright Advisory Service

Fulbright's advising team is the official source of information on US higher education for the UK. Visit our website for a step-by-step guide to applying to US universities. Students may also contact our advisors via email, phone or in-person at our Resource Library in London.

We look forward to supporting your interest in postgraduate study in the USA and seeing you at an upcoming event!

Monday 7 February 2011

News: Interdisciplinary Seminar Series, How Wide is the Atlantic?


Alongside our regular series of research seminars, this semester the School of American Studies is very pleased to be hosting the Arts & Humanities Interdisciplinary Seminar Series, "How Wide is the Atlantic?" Here's a brief introduction:
The Faculty of Arts and Humanities Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminar provides scholars in a variety of disciplines an opportunity to consult with one another about the broad implications of their work.  This year’s seminar revolves around the question, “How Wide is the Atlantic?”  We will examine transatlantic travel, migration, commerce, cultural exchange, expropriation and miscommunication up to the twenty-first century.  We will discuss novels, paintings and movies, diplomatic crises, insurrections and moral panics, assessing whether it continues to be appropriate to view Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas as component parts of a chaotic Atlantic World.
The next session takes place today (Monday February 7th) at 3pm in Arts 3.01. You can view a full schedule of seminars here. See you there.

Sunday 6 February 2011

News: Super Bowl XLV Link Round-Up

Super Bowl 45 is upon us, which must mean it's time for our annual link round-up.

This year, a study in the journal Clinical Cardiology released on Monday warns that a loss by the hometown team in the big game leads to “increased deaths in both men and women, and especially older patients.” One of the authors said in a press release that “stress reduction programs or certain medications might be appropriate in individual cases.”
  • Never mind the spectators. The real health scare hovering over this year's Super Bowl is the ongoing "concussion crisis." Recent research has demonstrated that the repetitive impacts received by players on the football field are directly linked to degenerative brain damage. The New York Times has been following the story closely for some time, and the New Yorker recently published a long article on the subject by Ben McGrath, which asks pertinently, "Does football have a future?" It was also picked up by the New York Review of Books blog, which asserted even more pointedly: "There is the reality behind the Super Bowl—superb young bodies being broken, and irretrievable harm being done to brains." Food for thought as you're watching the game.