Today, we continue our recent trend of featuring undergraduate excellence by sharing with you more details about the American Studies Honors Symposium this Thursday, April 19, from 5 - 7pm in Burdine 436A:

This symposium will showcase the remarkable research of our undergraduate honors thesis writers in the Department of American Studies. Part One--consisting of three papers--will explore diverse topics related to Texas and its borderlands, including research on hydraulic fracturing; state educational standards in the social studies curriculum; and  an analysis of the drug war in Mexico and local efforts to resist violence with art and social activism. Part Two--comprised of three papers--will examine various modes of creative expression, ranging from rock-and-roll and its unlikely alliance of Patti Smith, Allen Ginsberg, and Walt Whitman; boy choir schools and coming of age narratives in American culture;  and sport, Jack Kerouac and the creative process. Each presentation will be approximately ten to fifteen minutes in length. After each panel, there will be a discussion with the audience. There will be a short break between panels, as well as a reception after the panels are completed.

Kelli Schultz, "Our TEKS: A Theatrical Exploration of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills through Thornton Wilder's Our Town"Julie Reitzi, "Making Due and Making Change: Women and Youth of Ciudad Juarez Respond to the Drug War"David Juarez, "Beating the Score: Jack Kerouac and the Sometimes Fantastical World of Baseball"Miriam Anderson, "Just the Fracks: Hydraulic Fracturing in a Culture of Contradicting Proof"Laci Thompson, "Always On a Tightrope: The Power of Contradiction and the Beauty of Rock Music as Seen Through the Work of Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg and Patti Smith"Alexandria Chambers, "Rob(b)ed Boys: Employing Fiction to Introduce the Choirboy School Upbringing into the American Coming-of-Age Discourse"

We hope to see you there!