The 4th Annual Postgraduate Review Symposium

Next Thursday (13th June) will see the 4th Annual Postgraduate Review Symposium. Taking place on campus, this one-day even will showcase the current research projects of PhD and Masters by Research students in the School of American Studies. As testament to the broad range of subject areas being considered by the postgraduate research community, this year’s symposium includes papers on topics such as American sneaker culture, conspiracy theory, female infertility, celebrity autobiography, Eleanor Roosevelt, chicano fiction, plaçage and the radical changes in racial demographics in the U.S. primary education system.  The inaugural keynote lecture will be given by Dr Francisco Costa to mark the recent successful defence of his PhD thesis on representations of queer identities on the American stage from the 1950s to the 1990s. It promises to be a day full of thought-provoking debate and a great way of marking the School of American Studies’ continued contribution to UEA’s status as a centre for interdisciplinary research.  

Visual Essays: Reading Cultures II: Ideas and Ideologies

Our first year undergraduates have been completing visual essays as part of their assessment on the 'Reading Cultures II: Ideas and Ideologies' module. Working in groups, students were asked to use a number of theoretical frameworks to assess the broad cultural significance of a particular American icon. The finished essays addressed a range of topics, including Freudian readings of American civilization through the Hillbilly, discussions of Judith Butler's notion of performativity in relation to Barbie, and the application of Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of the carnivalesque to the figure of Elvis.

Dr. Wendy McMahon brought in this form of assessment as a way of developing key teamwork, organisation and planning skills, whilst prompting students to think about how they can disseminate their research in innovative and exciting ways. When working on these projects, students were encouraged to explore how certain icons are produced as visual texts and assess their significance in shaping how we view American culture. This type of work is not designed to replace essay and exam writing, both of which continue to be a central part of the course, but is a way of complementing these more traditional forms of assessment.

As first year AMS student Ellie Bishop commented, "It's refreshing to be assessed in a way other than by exams or academic essays. I think it works particularly well in terms of this modules as the study of icons is a visual practice." Reflecting on the benefits of the assessment in terms of her overall experience of Reading Cultures, Becky Borrows added, "I thought the module as a whole allowed you to experiment and use different types of media, for example creating videos and blogging, which was exciting...The visual essay requires teamwork, playing to individual strengths, planning and time management. If you plan like a normal essay it makes the rest more enjoyable as you can back up your plan with a variety of pictures and videos that you may not even have know existed...If you struggle with technology it can seem quite intimidating at first but there is help available and it encouraged you to learns and expand your technological knowledge."

Below are a selection of the best visual essays that were submitted this year. Please feel free to comment on these efforts below.

Elvis by Charlotte Moore, Naomi Messenger and Jamie Cansdale

Native Americans: Problems of Portrayal by Becky Borrows and Jack Perkin

Barbie in the US and Abroad by Megan Brewster, Nathan Packham and Emily Eastwood.

The King: Elvis Presley by Eleanor Thomas, Hannah Laking and Jess Brown

The Hillbilly: The Repressed American Subconscious by Ellie Bishop, Kathryn Thompson and Jay Slayton-Joslin

High Ranking for AMS in the Complete University Guide

The School of American Studies has been ranked 5^thnationally in a subject survey compiled by the Complete University Guide.

On the back of University’s first place ranking in last week’s Student Experience Survey, UEA also scored highly in the general survey, placing 20th in the Guide’s overall standings. A university’s position in the table is determined by its scores in nine areas, including student satisfaction, research assessment, spending on academic services and graduate prospects.

You can see the full table for American Studies here and read more about UEA’s overall score here.

American Studies at the National Portrait Gallery

In Conversation: Catlin’s ‘Vanishing Indians’ and the politics of Indian agency, National Portrait Gallery, May 9 2013, 7pm.

Next Thursday (9^th May) Jacqueline Fear-Segal and Rebecca Tillett will be representing AMS and the Native Studies Research Network at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Along with David Stirrup (University of Kent), they will be discussing the historical and political context of George Catlin’s ‘Indian Gallery’ to coincide with the NPG's George Catlin: American Indian Portraits season of events. 

Free and open to the public, the event will explore Catlin’s portraits alongside the responses of 19th century Native American intellectuals. Jacqueline , Rebecca and David will also address the way in which the Smithsonian has used Catlin's imagery to establish the narrative of the vanishing Indian, as well as the way in which contemporary Native Americans such as Pequot preacher William Apess or Ojibwe interpreter Maungwudaus have attempted to subtly challenge and subvert these romantic and racist stereotypes in popular culture.

For further details, see http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/late-shift-1/in-conversation-catlins-vanishing-indians-and-the-politics-of-indian-agency.php; http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/george-catlin-american-indian-portraits/exhibition.php

The Year Abroad Employability Project

 

Have you had a Study Year Abroad or are planning to take on one?

If so, you will be interested to know that the School of American Studies has launched the Year Abroad Employability Project.

The Year Abroad Employability Project has been designed to maximise the employability potential of the year abroad experience of AMS students. The project aims to provide the outgoing Year Abroad students with the tools to fully engage with the ways in which their experience enhances their graduate identity through a series of preparatory workshops and by being part of an AMS Year Abroad Network, consisting of current students and AMS alumnus. 

Connecting current students (both 2nd year outgoing and 4th year returned students) with AMS alumnus and creating a system of alumni-student distance mentoring, students will have access to the expertise and experience of our alumni. The hope is that the project will be mutually beneficial for everyone involved. Alumni have the chance to reconnect with the School of American Studies, share valuable insight and experience, improve communication and coaching skills, and be part of something new and exciting.

Both current students and alumni, can find out more about how they can benefit by joining our LinkedIn group, sending an email to lucy.c.edwards@uea.ac.uk or by having a look at the projects new website, http://americanconnections.wordpress.com/.

Writing Las Vegas: Kirsten Tranterʼs A Common Loss

Next Tuesday (16th April) Kirsten Tranter will be at UEA to discuss, and give a reading from, her latest novel A Common Loss. Set in Las Vegas, Kirsten's book explores the disintegration of a group of friends after one of them dies suddenly just prior to their annual reunion. She will be talking about the processes that went into producing an imagined version of the already hyperreal space that is Las Vegas.

Kirsten Tranter is an Australian writer and author of the internationally published and critically acclaimed novels A Common Loss (2012) and The Legacy (2010). The Legacy was praised by The Guardian as “a seductive contemporary literary thriller... a knowing, classy debut” and was a Kirkus Review debut novel of the year. Kirsten completed a PhD in English Literature at Rutgers University in New Jersey and lived in New York between 1998 and 2009. She teaches creative writing, and publishes literary and cultural criticism. Kirsten is one of the founders of the Stella Prize for Australian womenʼs writing, a new award inspired by the UK Womenʼs Prize for Fiction. She is currently based in New York as a visiting scholar at Columbia University.

The event is free and will take place on Tuesday at 5.15-6pm in Arts 01.06.

Sarah Churchwell on Roy Lichtenstein

Detail of Blue Nude (1995). Photograph: Private collection: Estate of Roy Lichtenstein
 

Sarah Churchwell has recently written a piece for the Guardian Review on the Tate Modern's Roy Lichtenstein retrospective. For the full article click here. Sarah also appeared on a special 'American' edition of the BBC's Review Show, discussing Tom Wolfe's 'Back to Blood' and Alistair Cooke's radio series 'Letters from America'. You can follow Sarah on twitter here.

AMS Student Blogging for the US News and World Report

UEA student Emily Burt has started blogging for the world renowned publication US News and World Report. Currently on he year abroad, Emily's first blog 'Manage your Academic Workload as an International Student' addresses her experiences as a visiting student at UC Berkeley. Exploring the differences between higher education in the United States and the UK, her piece offers great advice for international students on how to adjust to life on an American campus.

Emily is studying American Literature with Creative Writing at UEA. She is planning to have a regular presence on the US News website so keep an eye put for updates - especially if you will be embarking on your year abroad this September. You can check out Emily's article here and follow her on twitter here.

American Borders Seminar Series: Becca Weir

Tomorrow (Wednesday 13th) we are hosting Dr. Becca Weir (University of Cambridge) who will be giving a talk entitled, "'Our Own Baedeker': World and War in the Little New Yorker". This event will be held at 4pm in Arts 1.16. All welcome!

Paper abstract:

"The New Yorker's 'pony' edition for U.S. troops overseas has been called 'one of the greatest marketing moves in the history of magazines'; yet surprisingly little has been written about the 'little' New Yorker (1943-1946). Taking this edition as a starting point, this paper will explore the New Yorker's 'map work' in 1944-45. It will include material on the magazine's regular feature 'Our Own Baedeker' and 'Conflict' (the New Yorker office wartime newsletter)."

Becca is a Junior Research Fellow at Jesus College. Her research interests include nineteenth-century American literature and culture, war writing and African American literature