Grad and Faculty Research: UT AMS at ASA!

It's that time of year again--time for the American Studies Association Annual Meeting, which will be held from November 6-9 in Los Angeles. This year's theme is “The Fun and the Fury: New Dialectics of Pleasure and Pain in the Post-American Century," and the program features a number of UT AMS folks. Here's a snapshot of what grad students and faculty from UT American Studies will be presenting at this year's conference:THURSDAY, November 6Anne Gessler, "Second Lines, Creative Economies, and Gentrification: Music Cooperatives in Post-Katrina New Orleans" (Thu. Nov. 6, 4:00-5:45pm, San Pedro). Part of a panel called, "Alternative Economies of Pleasure in Contemporary Southern Working-Class Cultures." Gessler's paper examines the ways in which New Orleans’ black, working-class participatory culture uses music and performance as tools of social critique: second lines parades, for example, have become forums for protesting gentrification of black residents' communities. Specifically, she will argue that contemporary cooperatives have used their city’s long tradition of innovative, egalitarian cultural production to empower working-class New Orleans citizens to alleviate the effects of structural inequality and poverty.FRIDAY, November 7Julia Mickenberg, "Child Savers and Child Saviors: Horror, Hope, and the Russian Famine of 1921" (Fri. Nov. 7, 8:00-9:45am, Santa Anita). Part of a panel called, "Other World(s): Childhood, Nation, and the Price of Feeling Good." Dr. Mickenberg's paper considers the way in which the Russian child became a focal point for humanitarian relief efforts (typically gendered as feminine) and thus offered a socially acceptable vehicle for American women to enter Soviet Russia, through agencies like the American Friends Service Committee. Alongside widely disseminated images of starving Russian children were tales of rosy-cheeked, self-governing, artistic, and socially engaged children to whom the Soviet Union's bright future belonged; "child savers" in Russia were thus, in part, motivated by the notion that the Russian child rescued from starvation might go on to become a child savior.Jennifer Kelly, "Blueprinting Post-Return: Tourism, Pedagogy, and the Work of Imagination in Palestine" (Fri. Nov. 7, 2:00-3:45pm, San Anita). Part of a panel called, "Political Imaginings of Palestine Beyond the Here and Now." Kelly will explore the collaboration between the Israeli organization Zochrot and the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, a Palestinian organization in the West Bank, as they respectively and collectively use tourism to expose Israel’s displacement of Palestinians and imagine futures of decolonized space in Israel/Palestine.Andrew Hamsher, "Controlling Fantasyland: Surveilance and Freedom in Transmedia Storyworlds" (Fri. Nov. 7, 4:00-5:45pm, Santa Monica B). Part of a panel called "We’re Listening: Surveillance Technologies and Non-Private Publics." Hamsher's paper explores how entertainment conglomerates are seeking to exploit the proliferation of branded storyworlds to dramatically expand and normalize datavalliance practices.  He focuses on Disney World's new billion-dollar MyMagic+ initiative.SATURDAY, November 8Elizabeth Engelhardt, "Appalachian Food Studies: A Tale of Belgian Waffles and Cast Iron Fried Chicken" (Sat. Nov. 8, 8:00-9:45am, San Gabriel). Part of a panel called, "The Invention of Authenticity: Troubling Narratives of the “Real” Southern Foodways." Dr. Engelhardt will discuss the impossibility of "Appalachian Chicken and Waffles" as well as the usefulness of such an impossible term.Kerry Knerr, "Institutionalizing the Bon Vivant: Reading Empire through Jerry Thomas’s Cocktails" (Sat. Nov. 8, 10:00-11:45am, San Gabriel). Part of a panel called, "Commerce of Pleasure." Knerr will consider early cocktails, mainly punch, as a form that moves through various European colonial contexts. In her paper, she offers a close reading of a particular punch from Jerry Thomas's How To Mix Drinks: Or, The Bon Vivant's Companion (1862) to demonstrate its imperial inheritance through to the American context.Elissa Underwood, "Food" (Sat. Nov. 8, 2:00-3:45pm, Beaudry A). Part of a Critical Prison Studies Caucus panel called "Keywords in Critical Prison Studies I." Using a lively format of words and visuals, the panelists will explore sixteen terms – some ordinary, some unexpected - related to critical prison studies.

Faculty Research: Dr. Jeff Meikle participates in workshop: "Import/Export: Postwar Design and Industry in East Asia"

One of the most exciting aspects about UT's American Studies department is its expansive reach: our faculty and students live and work in all corners of the globe, whether volunteering in the Peace Corps or presenting innovative research and projects in far-flung locales.This past September, Dr. Jeff Meikle participated in a series of workshops and seminars hosted by the new M+ Museum for Visual Culture in Hong Kong, along with four designers and design scholars from Hong Kong, mainland China, Japan, and Korea. Under the theme "Import/Export: Postwar Design and Industry in East Asia," designers and scholars spent two days advising museum curators on collecting strategies in product design.These scholars also gave presentations and participated in round table discussions at separate events in Hong Kong and across the border in Shenzhen in mainland China, a city of 12-15 million where many products on the American market are manufactured. In Hong Kong on Sept. 11, Dr. Meikle lectured on "Researching Industrial Design and Plastics in the U.S.: A Methodological and Conceptual Case Study," and in Shenzhen on Sept 13, he participated in a roundtable discussion on "Taking Histories Forward."See some photos from the event below:

Announcement: Texas Book Fest

This weekend is Austin’s annual Texas Book Festival, and we here at AMS :: ATX would like to point to some people you might like to see while you’re at the Capitol this weekend.First and foremost is our very own Steve Hoelscher, who will be talking about Reading Magnum, the book he edited celebrating the history and archive of the Magnum photographic agency, the latter of which is now part of the collection at the Harry Ransom Center, at 3:30 on Sunday. You can find more info about Dr. Hoelscher’s book here. Info on the talk can be found here.With the rest of your weekend, here’s some other stuff to seek out:SaturdayAt 10:00 AM, check out Adan Medrano, who will discuss Texas-Mexican American cuisine, or go hear Douglas Brinkley, John Dean, and Luke Nichter talk Richard Nixon’s presidency.At 11:00 AM, Charles Blow talks his memoir Fire Shut Up In My Bones, while Tiphanie Yanique and Jess Row discuss Constructing Racial Identity in a globalized world at 11:30.At 1:00 PM, Austinite Austin Kleon and Joshua Wolf Shenk have A Conversation on Creativity, while Ofir Touche Gafla and Jeff VanderMeer discuss science fiction in The Stuff of Stars at 1:45.At 2:00 PM, novelist Elizabeth Crook talks Monday, Monday, her novelization of the Texas Tower Sniper.At 3:00 PM, S.C. Gwynne discusses his new biography of Stonewall Jackson and Francis Fukuyama talks the development of political institutions and his new book Political Order, Political Decay.At 4:00, Josh Ostergaard maps baseball onto American politics and culture in Let’s Play Ball, while Robert Bryce and Russell Gold talk the future of energy technology in Here Comes the Boom. Sunday 11:15 AM, Tim Lane talks comics and his new book Lonesome Go.12:00 PM, Adam Rogers discusses The Science of Booze.At 1:30 PM, Luara Damon-Moore and Erinn Batykefer talk their book An Artist’s Library, their Library as Incubator Project and how to build strong relationships between artists and libraries.At 2:15 PM, Michael Ruhlman tells of the many ways to cook an egg.At 3:30, members of the cast and crew of the movie Boyhood, including director Richard Linklater and star Ellar Coltrane, come together to talk spending twelve years making a movie.For a full schedule with room assignments, check our the Texas Book Festival schedule here.

Faculty Research: Dr. Nicole Guidotti-Hernández discusses MALS department on The Horn

Last month we shared some details about UT's brand new Mexican American and Latino/a Studies department, chaired by our own Dr. Nicole Guidotti-Hernández. We share with you today a quick video with Texas Exes' "The Horn," a web series about new developments at UT, in which she opines on the value of interdisciplinarity within the department.Take a look:

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