American Studies

Writing and reading American football: culture, identity and sports studies.

by John Nauright

Published in Sporting Traditions, 13:1 (1996), 109-127.

Reflections on Social Engineering and Settler-American Literature

by Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera

The publication and dissemination of literature (and, tangentially, the study of literature) within boundaries of a... more The publication and dissemination of literature (and, tangentially, the study of literature) within boundaries of a national identity invariably focuses public attention on the opinions of a small number of authors, publishers, reviewers, and critics. These sociocultural projections of a uniform (and for that reason illusory) United States national identity, national literature, and associated parallels of cultural collectivity—for a populace of over 300 million—is a circumstance that deserves focus: what makes a piece of writing “American?” What characteristics, themes, and structures define the canonical texts? Moreover, as many literary expressions do not fit a prescribed national mold, further polemic arises when we analyze the forces that minoritize “other” literatures. The axis of these uncertainties relates to who conceives and controls the metaphoric maps that define the group-identity. To engage this topic, this inquiry examines the multilateral influences on the formation of collective identity through attention to governmental social engineering; the aim here is first to characterize the structures that place a contrived primordialism in the image of the settler-American, and second, to explore the attendant literary and cultural expressions of this phenomenon.

The South Carolina – Clemson Football War of 1902

by John Nauright

This paper was originally published in the American football history magazine GRIDIRON GREATS in 2005.

Port Huron at Fifty: The New Left and Labor: An Interview with Kim Moody

by Christopher Phelps

Published in Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas, Volume 9, Issue 2 (summer 2012): 25-46.

This interview with Kim Moody, who was present at the Port Huron convention of 1962 as a twenty-two-year-old Johns... more This interview with Kim Moody, who was present at the Port Huron convention of 1962 as a twenty-two-year-old Johns Hopkins University student, illuminates the early history of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), especially the neglected labor-related portions of The Port Huron Statement, one of the most influential manifestos of the sixties radicalization. In a wide-ranging discussion on labor and the New Left, Moody explains the different views of labor represented at Port Huron, appraises individual thinkers such as Tom Hayden and C. Wright Mills, and explores topics such as the meaning of participatory democracy, the politics of labor in the 1960s, class relations in the civil rights movement, the SDS economic and research action projects, and the general relationship between organized labor and the New Left.

We Are What We Teach: American Studies In the K-16 Classroom

by Adam Golub

Published in American Quarterly 60:2 (June 2008): 21-30.

Teaching American Studies as a Habit of Mind

by Adam Golub

Published in Encyclopedia of American Studies, Online Forum 3, “Teaching
American Studies: Four Perspectives.” (2012).

"Did Somebody Say 'Islamophobia'?: An Essay on the American Liberal Understanding of Park51 and the 911-Event"

by Laurie Rodrigues

Some of Badiou and Žižek’s most disquieting claims include their opposition to liberal multiculturalism, tolerance... more Some of Badiou and Žižek’s most disquieting claims include their opposition to liberal multiculturalism, tolerance discourses and particularist “ethics” concerned with respecting the “Other.” This has particular relevance to recent liberal media coverage of the hotly-debated “Islamic Cultural Center” slated to be built near the ground zero of 911 in Manhattan (the Park51 debate). In this article, I argue that the positions of Badiou and Žižek are valuable for examining the seemingly benign, “tolerant” position held by the American liberal Left that purports to be the sole logical, “moderate” stance to assume in this debate. However, this dangerous construction, offers a fallacious notion of choice: one has the “freedom” to choose either a Right or Left-side stance with respect to Park51; however, one risks condemnation if one chooses to stand with the Right. In this article, I will adapt and expand upon Badiou and Žižek’s converging viewpoints in order to fashion an examination of American liberalism’s media presence and its self-conception as the force of “good” within the post-911, “Ground Zero Mosque,” tolerance debates. Ultimately, I aim to show how the Left’s structure of thought within and around the Park51 contention betrays a fundamental infidelity to the 911-event. The proposed building of an Islamic cultural center near ground zero represents a new kind of problem that American, liberal media cannot meet head-on, I propose that we begin to question the central role of tolerating the Other within discourses concerning American “rights.”

"Expanding Materially-Instantiated Social & Spatial Relations: Almanac of the Dead as a Reconceptualization of History & Modernity"

by Laurie Rodrigues

My study engages Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead (1991) with Thomas Edison’s short film, “Sioux Ghost... more My study engages Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead (1991) with Thomas Edison’s short film, “Sioux Ghost Dance,” from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show (c.1894). I will demonstrate how Almanac re-imagines traditional social and spatial arrangements, revealing the historically-specific space of social relations and re-announcing the spatial and temporal proportions of that space. The novel’s re-mapping of the Americas constitutes an alternatively-networked politics of pure antagonism that simultaneously betrays the discord of “coherent” networks and territorially-confined forms of modernity, but also the antagonism that belies the identitarian subject him/herself. This paper elaborates Almanac’s reading of capitalist networks and other Euro-American epistemologies as configuring a logic of stasis. Aligning Edison’s film with moments from the novel, I argue that such spatializations imagine actors within a blank space outside of history, figuring them as static scenery to the progress of modernity. Highlighting the virtual and material entanglement of spatial and social relations, Silko’s Almanac of the Dead asserts that social relations (as material practices) are limited to—and thus refigured by—the spatial formations that they actualize. The novel’s materialist strategy for resistance evades multiculturalism’s politicized and territorially-confined model of identity. Encountered in this manner, I argue that Silko’s novel performs a necessary re-configuration of alternatives to existing, static nationalisms and liberal multicultural identity politics.

"Expanding Materially-Instantiated Social & Spatial Relations: Almanac of the Dead as a Reconceptualization of History & Modernity"

by Laurie Rodrigues

My study engages Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead (1991) with Thomas Edison’s short film, “Sioux Ghost... more My study engages Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead (1991) with Thomas Edison’s short film, “Sioux Ghost Dance,” from Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show (c.1894). I will demonstrate how Almanac re-imagines traditional social and spatial arrangements, revealing the historically-specific space of social relations and re-announcing the spatial and temporal proportions of that space. The novel’s re-mapping of the Americas constitutes an alternatively-networked politics of pure antagonism that simultaneously betrays the discord of “coherent” networks and territorially-confined forms of modernity, but also the antagonism that belies the identitarian subject him/herself. This paper elaborates Almanac’s reading of capitalist networks and other Euro-American epistemologies as configuring a logic of stasis. Aligning Edison’s film with moments from the novel, I argue that such spatializations imagine actors within a blank space outside of history, figuring them as static scenery to the progress of modernity. Highlighting the virtual and material entanglement of spatial and social relations, Silko’s Almanac of the Dead asserts that social relations (as material practices) are limited to—and thus refigured by—the spatial formations that they actualize. The novel’s materialist strategy for resistance evades multiculturalism’s politicized and territorially-confined model of identity. Encountered in this manner, I argue that Silko’s novel performs a necessary re-configuration of alternatives to existing, static nationalisms and liberal multicultural identity politics.

"Did Somebody Say 'Islamophobia'?: An Essay on the American Liberal Understanding of Park51 and the 911-Event"

by Laurie Rodrigues

Some of Badiou and Žižek’s most disquieting claims include their opposition to liberal multiculturalism, tolerance... more Some of Badiou and Žižek’s most disquieting claims include their opposition to liberal multiculturalism, tolerance discourses and particularist “ethics” concerned with respecting the “Other.” This has particular relevance to recent liberal media coverage of the hotly-debated “Islamic Cultural Center” slated to be built near the ground zero of 911 in Manhattan (the Park51 debate). In this article, I argue that the positions of Badiou and Žižek are valuable for examining the seemingly benign, “tolerant” position held by the American liberal Left that purports to be the sole logical, “moderate” stance to assume in this debate. However, this dangerous construction, offers a fallacious notion of choice: one has the “freedom” to choose either a Right or Left-side stance with respect to Park51; however, one risks condemnation if one chooses to stand with the Right. In this article, I will adapt and expand upon Badiou and Žižek’s converging viewpoints in order to fashion an examination of American liberalism’s media presence and its self-conception as the force of “good” within the post-911, “Ground Zero Mosque,” tolerance debates. Ultimately, I aim to show how the Left’s structure of thought within and around the Park51 contention betrays a fundamental infidelity to the 911-event. The proposed building of an Islamic cultural center near ground zero represents a new kind of problem that American, liberal media cannot meet head-on, I propose that we begin to question the central role of tolerating the Other within discourses concerning American “rights.”

Anonymity, Authorship, and Recirculation: A Civil War Episode

by Ellen Gruber Garvey

What Happened to the Ads in Turn-of-the-Century Bound Magazines, and Why

by Ellen Gruber Garvey

Less Work for "Mother": Rural Readers, Farm Papers, and the Makeover of "The Revolt of 'Mother

by Ellen Gruber Garvey

From Blood Vessels to Global Networks of Exchange: The Physiology of Benjamin Rush’s Early Republic

by Sari Altschuler

Journal of the Early Republic 32.2 (Summer 2012): 207-232

This essay explores Benjamin Rush's ideas about physiology in an effort to revise current understandings of Rush's... more This essay explores Benjamin Rush's ideas about physiology in an effort to revise current understandings of Rush's medico-political model and shed new light on conversations about circulation and sympathy in the early republic. Rush's non-hierarchical model of circulation broke with European medicine. For Rush, circulation was the key to corporeal and national health. Circulation needed to remain unfettered for individuals to realize republican promise and for the body to be properly invigorated-but free flow was problematic when it allowed information, goods, and bodies to flow unchecked. Sympathy was the secondary, essential mechanism that controlled this movement. Whereas circulation importantly opened both body and country to external stimuli, sympathy-physiological, social, political-managed responses to those stimuli, directing them along salubrious routes that were both natural and teachable. Rush himself worked tirelessly to mold these sympathies through rhetoric. This physiology and Rush's rhetorical medicine challenge the common understanding of Rush's "republican machines"; American bodies were, rather, dynamic living systems that could, through the cultivation of proper sympathies, become virtuous citizens. This essay extends current work on circulation by reconnecting it to physiology and suggesting that physiology's dynamism-rather than static "anatomy"-ought to inform discussions of the young nation. Rush knew bodies and nations were "tremendous oscillatory mass[es] of matter." America would maintain national health not by restricting circulation but by influencing citizens' reactions to free-flow systems that were only somewhat predictable and always dynamic. This physiology provides a new model for thinking about early American circulation and sympathy.

“Screening Faith: Catholics on TV”

by John Andreas Fuchs

In: Hermann Josef Schnackertz / Saskia Hertlein (eds.), The Culture of Catholicism in the United States, Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter 2012, pp. 213-236. (revised and abbreviated version of: John Andreas Fuchs: “Showing Faith: Catholicism in American TV Series”, Moravian Journal of Literature and Film 2 no.1 (Fall 2010), pp. 79-98.)

According to Colleen McDannell, Catholicism stands above all other religions for the film and TV audience because it... more According to Colleen McDannell, Catholicism stands above all other religions for the film and TV audience because it seems to be the most mystical and the most easily recognizable of all religious creeds; however, it is also the most criticized and suspicious denomination. Since Catholics star on the big screen, as well as on the flat screen in American homes, it is useful to have a close look at the different depictions of Catholicism and their criticism by institutions. Using examples from movies such as Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino as well as TV series such as Ally McBeal, Bones, The West Wing and The Simpsons, this article discusses the fascination with Catholicism on the screen and argues that even depictions seen as negative by the Catholic League do not necessarily harm Catholicism.

Developing Racial Identity on Social Networking Sites and Implications in the Offline World

by Rachel Lesniak

After Trauma: Thinking American Culture Beyond 9/11

by Dr. Alexander Dunst

This is a much shorter version of an article published in May 2012 as "After Trauma: Time and Affect in American Literature Beyond 9/11" in the journal Parallax.

Amerikanske studiers to (tre, fire) ansikter - et historisk perspektiv

by Ida Jahr

Blog post at the blog collective It's Always Sunny in the Americas

Environmental Activism in Music

by Richard Kahn

In: Music in American Life: The Songs, Stories, Styles, and Stars that Shaped Our Culture, Jacqueline Edmondson (ed.), ABC-CLIO, forthcoming.

An introductory source document and some fragmentary notes towards a diagnostic ecopedagogical critique of American... more An introductory source document and some fragmentary notes towards a diagnostic ecopedagogical critique of American music.

The Fire Next Time: Rodney King, Trayvon Martin, and Law-and-Order Urbanism

by Jenna Loyd

2012, City.

Twenty years after the police beating of Rodney King and the riots that swept across LA in response, racism is still a... more Twenty years after the police beating of Rodney King and the riots that swept across LA in response, racism is still a systemic problem in United States cities, as shown by the recent murder of Trayvon Martin. Martin’s needless death struck a nerve with thousands of people gathering for vigils and demonstrations across the country. The lives of Trayvon Martin and Rodney King are related through systemic anti-Black racism that shapes the urban form. Indeed, nationwide trends toward policing and fortified enclosure are the accumulated effects of Cold War military spending and domestic racial politicking. Together, they made law-and-order the nation’s de facto urban planning policy rather than a program of social investment in collective urban futures. Sanford, Florida no less than Los Angeles, has inherited this past. Ending declared and undeclared wars are the material conditions and means of peace-making that justice for Trayvon, and so many others, demands.