Stories from Summer Vacation: Dr. Nhi Lieu on Tourism and Escape

The following report comes to us from UT American Studies professor Dr. Nhi Lieu with photos by Toan Leung:EscapeI often feel a sense of accomplishment when my students tell me I have taken the joy out of their leisure after they have honed their critical thinking skills. I knew this would be my greatest challenge when I planned our summer vacation to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, early in spring. My husband and I wanted to go to an all-inclusive, cookie-cutter resort where we could relax and unplug. Our intention was to escape the frenetic work pace we have been accustomed to all year long. We wanted to slow down, not be constrained by the clock, and spend some quality time with our children. For the few days we were away, we would enjoy the natural beauty of the environment (the topaz blue sea, white sandy beaches, and tropical Caribbean breezes), as well as the simulacra (contrived tropical gardens, immaculately maintained grounds, and fantastical feats of resort architecture) that invited visitors from around the world. The “all-inclusive” resort surely met our expectations, but stark realities of the tourism industry made it difficult for me to completely enjoy my stay. Tourism is the most powerful generator of revenue and capital of the island nation. The challenge was on as I tried to escape all of the realities of the hierarchies in order for me to do some pleasure reading. My book of choice, Monique Truong’s Bitter in the Mouth, is a deeply troubling book about identity formation, racialization, and synesthesia, but that will require another discussion.

Stories from Summer Vacation: Andrew Jones finds "Americana in unusual places"

The following report comes to use from UT American Studies doctoral student Andrew Jones:Greetings from Edinburgh, Scotland where I am supervising a group of students from the McCombs School of Business on a summer program at the University of Edinburgh. There are 28 students with me who study a combination of Business Law and European Union law for five weeks with Professors from UT and from Edinburgh. In addition to studying, there's also a cultural component to the course which I organize that consists of visits to various historical sites, samplings of local fayre and the hokey but fun tourist sites of the city. The work can be fairly intense at times, but the students are great and it's a relief to be away from 99° weather back in Austin, although this has been thus far the wettest summer on record in the UK.!As well as the work and the continuing work on my dissertation, I've been documenting (to paraphrase Philip Deloria) "Americana in unusual places" as the photographs below demonstrate. I'm always on the lookout for instances of cultural transmission from the US and reception in the UK and what happens in the spaces in-between. Naturally, some of these are humorous for Britons "getting it slightly wrong" but sometimes these morph into interesting new manifestations of culture(s), case in point: fried chicken restaurants in Britain.Naturally, I'll keep y'all up to date with any of the more colorful examples I encounter!

Stories from Summer Vacation: Dr. Jeff Meikle Travels by Postcard

The following report comes to us from UT American Studies professor Dr. Jeff Meikle:Did someone mention summer vacation? This year I must simply reply as I always do when the exterminator or the AC guy marvels at all my free time--that summer is when the teaching's done and I get down to my other work. Not to complain, but this summer is a kind of payback for all the fun of last summer, when I could have reported on a wide range of travels, foreign and domestic. This summer, however, I'm traveling mentally through American landscapes imagined 70 years ago by postcard artists in Chicago, and writing what could be likened to blog posts on individual cards, for which I'm relying on old-fashioned archival and library research, myriad websites yielding occasional nuggets of information totally inaccessible even 15 years ago, my own projective fantasies, and a loose script enabling me to organize the individual bits in some sort of intellectual but often associative narrative. What you see in this photo depicts the literal physical place I'm burrowing further into. I've turned down several requests this summer to review this or contribute to that, and I thought about pleading no time in response to this request. But something about it appealed to me, and the photo allows me to step back from everything both physically and mentally. Next summer I also intend to spend a lot of time wandering through landscapes--but real ones, not virtual, and mostly outdoors.

Stories from Summer Vacation: Superheroes in the Library with Andrew Friedenthal

I've spent this summer so far the way that hordes of Americans have - with superheroes!However, instead of doing so in the multiplex, I've been sitting with my array of superhero comic books in the PCL, working on a first draft of my dissertation (which is, if it hasn't become clear from this paragraph, about superhero comics - specifically in regards to cultural memory and history).  It turns out that you CAN have too much of a good thing.  For some stress relief, I suddenly crave a really complex foreign movie.  Maybe I'll pick up ULYSSES for some light recreational reading...