Announcement: American Studies Grad Conference Call for Abstracts Deadline Extended - February 7!

The graduate students of the Department of American Studies at UT will be hosting a conference, "Home/Sickness," on April 2-3, 2015. The organizing committee has extended the deadline for abstract submissions until February 7, so if you're a graduate student in any discipline who has research to share based loosely upon the theme of home and sickness, consider submitting! Just follow this link and fill out the very brief form - and, of course, spread the word to any and all interested parties.More details about the conference theme:

The death of eighteen-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri this August, the immigration crisis centering primarily around the recent influx of children from Central America to the United States, and the growing panic over the spread of the ebola virus can all be read as the newest manifestations of a long-running pattern throughout American history and culture: the relationship between constructions of “healthy” communities, the fear that these communities will be violated, invaded, or contaminated, and the mobilization of these fears as justification for action in the name of community preservation. The history of the United States is littered with rhetorical constructions of safety and security, purity and contamination—as well as with the results of very real processes of violence, displacement, and exclusion.With this in mind, we invite presenters to consider constructions of home and health, and to explore how these concepts have been and continue to be mobilized in the construction and erasure of American communities, families, and selves. What processes are involved in the construction of a sense of home, either personal or communal? Who gets to define the boundaries of community? What relationships and investments does the name “home” imply? What produces a sense of homesickness, and what does this sense of nostalgia in turn produce? What does a “healthy”—or a “sick”—community look like? What is the relationship between community construction and processes of exclusion, abjection, and othering? We invite both papers that reflect on the present moment as well as explorations of the shifting terrain of home and health in American history.Submissions from all disciplines are welcome.

Welcome back to school!

Classes at UT have started today, so we'd like to welcome y'all back to campus for the spring semester. We'll be back with more content in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, enjoy a tune! It's on us.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en-liwDGzaw]

Faculty Research: Dr. Randy Lewis's Original Comedy, "My Dinner With Bambi," to Premiere in Austin

Although our university won't be back in session for several days yet, we couldn't wait to post this exciting news about one of our faculty members. Dr. Randy Lewis, who we've featured in the past for his expansive work on topics from surveillance to media studies to public scholarship, has penned an original play that will premiere in Austin later this month. We asked Dr. Lewis for a few words about his new work, and how it relates to his broad interests in all that American Studies has to offer...

So a funny thing happened on the way to the lectern—I wrote a play, a dark comedy called My Dinner with Bambi (A Shocking Comedy) that is now in rehearsals under my direction. Is it funny? Outrageous? Insightful? You be the judge when it opens on January 22 at Austin’s FronteraFest.The main character is a force of nature called Bambi Krill. She’s a media celebrity extraordinaire, a powerful woman with hints of Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter, Stephen Colbert, and Mephistopheles. The basic set-up is that she’s holding court with her two young acolytes, Sarah and Roger, one of whom is not yet converted to the dark side of big money punditry. Drinking heavily after a widely protested campus lecture, Bambi spars with her minions until an explosive encounter with Sarah’s parents brings deeper tensions to the surface. And no one—on the right or left—gets off unscathed. (I mean this quite literally: a real Taser is one of our central props).As anyone who knows me can deduce, Bambi is another version what I often talk about in the classroom. For instance, last fall I was working on Bambi while teaching undergrads how to make documentary theater out of Internet troll comments (talk about tragedy!). I love this overlap between my academic and creative work. For me, it all flows together—especially when I’m teaching courses with titles such as “The Politics of Creativity.” Bambi also has many literal connections to UT: we auditioned actors at night in a seminar room in Burdine, we ended up casting several alums and one faculty member, and we’re working with a consultant from UT’s Drama Department, which is something I really appreciate as a first-time director.We have an amazing cast and know that you’ll enjoy the show—especially if you have any connection to American Studies. After all, how many plays have jokes about Moby Dick, Thomas Kinkade, and turducken? (Not King Lear—I checked!). Even if you’re not part of the American Studies world, we hope you’ll come see Bambi in action starting January 22.

More information about the play can be found at its website and Facebook page, and tickets for all four performances are available here. We recommend you buy tickets in advance if you're interested in checking the show out - they'll sell out!

Announcement: Dr. Steve Hoelscher gives keynote lecture on photographer Elliott Erwitt

Last week, Dr. Steve Holescher presented a keynote lecture at the Boca Raton Museum of Art’s new exhibition of the photographs of Elliott Erwitt. Dr. Hoelscher also wrote the exhibition catalogue for the Erwitt show, which you can check out here.

The following information on the photographer and exhibition comes to us from the Boca Raton Museum of Art:

Elliott Erwitt is a renowned documentary photographer who melds substance and enchantment into his work. This exhibition features over 80 images hand selected by the artist himself.Born in Paris, Erwitt and his family fled Europe for the United States at the onset of World War II. Iconic images by Mr. Erwitt include John F. Kennedy, Che Guevara, and Marilyn Monroe with the skirt of her white dress wafting around her legs as she posed over a New York City subway grate. His spectacular sense of humor and joy is evident in his work that captures quotidian life in urban surroundings.