The World in American Studies Today Keynote: Dr. Anita Mannur

 We are pleased to announce that the keynote lecture for our biennial graduate conference, The World in American Studies Today, will be given by Dr. Anita Mannur at 6 PM on Thursday, March 20th in CLA 1.302B. Dr. Mannur is Associate Professor of English and Asian/Asian American Studies and Director, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Miami University. She is the author of Culinary Fictions: Food in South Asian Diasporic Culture and the co-editor of Eating Asian America: A Reader and Theorizing Diaspora: A Reader.In this talk, Dr. Mannur explores how the figure of the “enemy” is constructed in public culinary sites by examining social media, cook books and food trucks that are devoted to the dissemination of culinary knowledge. The spaces she examines are Michael Rakowitz’s performance art installation “Enemy Kitchen” and Conflict Kitchen, a take-out restaurant in Pittsburgh, PA. In juxtaposing these sites and exploring the performative politics deployed within each context, Dr. Mannur explores what it means to turn to the tactile, olfactory and consumptive to reflect on questions of US diplomacy and foreign policy that have taken on particular forms of cultural xenophobia, directed at the Islamicsubject, in the wake of the war on terror and 9/11. By focusing in particular on the use of “radical hospitality,” Dr. Mannur asks how meals are staged as spaces to provide a counternarrative to xenophobia and the discourse of theenemy combatant.

Announcement: The World In American Studies Today Graduate Conference Hosted By UT AMS

We are very excited to announce this year's iteration of the biannual graduate conference in American Studies, entitled: The World in American Studies Today: Nationalism in American Studies, to be held Thursday and Friday March 30th and 31st at The University of Texas at Austin. There will be a keynote, given by Dr. Anita Mannur, on Thursday the 30th at 6 PM. We hope to see you there.More information on the keynote, and the conference schedule, to follow.

Announcement: Congratulations to our newly minted Ph.D.s!

Enormous congratulations to the following graduate students who are now, as of this weekend's commencement festivities, official Ph.D. recipients. We are so proud of them!Sean Cashbaugh"A Cultural History Beneath the Left: Politics, Art, and the Emergence of the Underground During the Cold War"Supervisor: Randolph LewisBrendan Gaughen"Practices of Place: Ordinary Mobilities and Everyday Technology"Supervisor: Jeff MeikleJosh Holland"Kurt Hahn, the United World Colleges, and the Un-Making of Nation"Supervisor: Julia MickenbergLily Laux"Teaching Texas: Race, Disability and the History of the School-to-Prison Pipeline"Supervisor: Shirley ThompsonSusan Quesal"Dismantling the Master's House: The Afterlife of Slavery in the Twentieth-Century Representations of Home"Supervisors: Shirley Thompson and Stephen MarshallKirsten Ronald"Dancing the Local: Two-Step and the Formation of Local Cultures, Local Places, and Local Identities in Austin, TX"Supervisor: Steve HoelsherJackie Smith"Black Princess Housewive and Single Ladies: Renee Cox's Housewife Enactments and The Politics of Twenty-First Century Wealthy Black Womanhood"Supervisor: Shirley Thompson

Announcement: Stephanie Kaufman receives University of Texas at Austin 2016 President’s Outstanding Staff Award

Congratulations to UT AMS Executive Assistant Stephanie Kaufman, who has received the  University of Texas at Austin 2016 President’s Outstanding Staff Award. As President Fenves writes in his award letter, Stephanie “was chosen for this award from 225 nominees in recognition of the positive effect [she] has had on campus, [her] commitment to excellence, and [her] consistent, high-level performance.”President Fenves got it exactly right; as anyone in American Studies can tell you, the Department would not run without Stephanie. What isn't clear from the letter however, what couldn't be clear unless you have the privilege of working with Stephanie Kaufman on a day to day basis, is that she cares deeply for everyone in American Studies and for their success, and she does everything she can to ensure it. We are very lucky that we have her in our community, and we're extraordinarily happy that the University has recognized her extraordinary contributions. Congratulations, Stephanie!