Announcement: Dr. Caleb Smith Lectures on Law and Literature
Join us this Friday for a lecture by Dr. Caleb Smith (English and American Studies, Yale), "Crime Scenes: Fictions of Security and Jurisprudence." The talk will take place in Parlin Hall 203 at 3:30pm.In this lecture, Dr. Smith will discuss his recent work on law and literature, focusing especially on the popular literature that emerged from the struggle over Cherokee "removal" between the 1830s and 1850s; the minister Samuel Worcester's letters from a Georgia prison; the lawyer-novelist William Gilmore Simms's "border romances"; and the Cherokee writer John Rollin Ridge's Joaquín Murieta, sometimes known as the "first Native American novel."
Dr. Caleb Smith is the author of The Oracle and the Curse (2013) and The Prison and the American Imagination (2009). He is working on an edition of "The Life and Adventures of a Haunted Convict," an 1858 narrative by Austin Reed, an African-American inmate of New York¹s Auburn State Prison, which will be published by Random House in 2016.Presented by the departments of English and American Studies.
Announcement: Foodways Texas Joins UT AMS!
American Studies is happy to announce the recent addition of Foodways Texas to our department! As many of you know, Foodways Texas and AMS have worked together for a few years now. AMS Ph.D. candidate Marvin Bendele is the Foodways Texas executive director, and our very own Elizabeth Engelhardt serves on their executive board.
Foodways Texas is an organization founded by scholars, chefs, journalists, restaurateurs, farmers, ranchers, and other citizens of the state of Texas who have made it their mission to preserve, promote and celebrate the diverse food cultures of Texas. By joining and supporting Foodways Texas, you become part of a movement to preserve the vibrant foodways of Texas through oral history projects, documentary films, recipe collections, and scholarly research. Foodways Texas highlights the state’s distinctive foods and food cultures at their annual symposium, supporting educational food-based seminars, promoting local food networks, and partnering with universities and other non-profit organizations to educate future generations about Texas food histories, cultures, and emerging trends.They have also worked closely with other centers on campus, like the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, which houses their oral history archive--a growing collection of oral histories, documentary footage, menus, advertisements, cookbooks, and other ephemera from farmers, ranchers, chefs, pitmasters, and restaurant owners from around the state. Several of the interviews were done by members of the AMS community, and they are available online here. Foodways Texas has already released four short documentaries and will show new films at the upcoming conference.This year's symposium, Farm to Market 2014, will be held from March 20 to 22 in College Station. Scholars and professionals will gather to discuss Texas crops, the history of Texas markets, urban farming, and farm labor, among other topics; as well as eat some very delicious and educational food. Foodways Texas also holds biannual barbecue camps in College Station in January and June of each year. Unfortunately, June's upcoming camp is already sold out. As we all know, Austin judges barbecue by length of wait-time, making the barbecue camp the greatest in the state.In honor of our new addition, go forth and snack!
Announcement: Dr. Ramzi Fawaz Lectures on "The Fantastic Four"
Join us this Friday, February 7, for a lecture by Dr. Ramzi Fawaz (Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin) entitled "'Flame On!': Nuclear Families, Unstable Molecules, and the Queer History of 'The Fantastic Four.'" The talk will take place from 3:00-4:30 in Burdine 214.
In this lecture, Dr. Fawaz argues that "The Fantastic Four" offered a key contribution to queer literary history in the 1960s by using the mutated bodies of its four heroes to depict the transformation of the normative types of the 1950s nuclear family - the breadwinning father, doting wife, and bickering male siblings - into icons of 1960s radicalism. These icons included the liberal feminist, the left-wing intellectual, the political activist, and the potential queer or neurotic, all non-normative characters the four came to embody.This event is sponsored by the Center for Women and Gender Studies, the Children, Youth, and Gender Research Cluster, and the Department of American Studies.
Announcement: Dr. Shirley Thompson Participates in Roundtable on "12 Years a Slave"
The John L. Warfield Center for African & African American Studies and the Texas Institute for Literary and Textual Studies (TILTS) invite you to a roundtable discussion of 12 Years a Slave on Thursday, February 6, at 5pm in the Santa Rita Suite (3.502) of the Texas Union. The film, directed by Steve McQueen from an adapted screenplay by John Ridley, tells the story of Solomon Northup, a free man kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841, and it has been nominated for 9 Academy Awards. 12 Years a Slave has sparked national and international debates about slavery, American history, the representation of American history on film, and the experiences of African and African diasporic actors and filmmakers in Hollywood.
The roundtable will be moderated by Helena Woodard of the Department of English. Panelists include UT professors Daina Ramey Berry (History), Eddie Chambers (Art and Art History), Mark Cunningham from the Department of Radio, Television, and Film at Austin Community College, and our very own Shirley Thompson (American Studies).