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News and Events 2011
April 2012
Katie McGettigan, a PhD student in American Studies, has been awarded the British Association for American Studies Postgraduate Essay Prize for her essay, 'Originality, Modernity and the Material Text in "The Confidence-Man"'. Her essay examines the ways in which Herman Melville's final completed novel engages with the systems and products of industrial textual production - and in particular, with the literary periodical - to create a new form of original writing that is routed not in the singular and authentic, but the multiple and reproducible.
Staff and doctoral students from American Studies put together an all-Keele panel at this year's conference of the British Association of American Studies, held in Manchester from 12-15 April. Nicola Brindley spoke on 'Contagious Capgras and Viral Euphoria: Connecting Complex Systems in Richard Powers' Generosity and The Echo Maker'; Tim Lustig spoke on 'Syndrome as Symbol in Richard Powers' The Echo Maker', the title of Hannah Merry's paper was 'Queering the Illness Narrative: Dissociative Identity Disorder in Set This House in Order' and James Peacock spoke on 'The Syndrome Syndrome in Contemporary Culture'. All participants in the panel are contributors to Diseases and Disorders in Contemporary Fiction: The Syndrome Syndrome (forthcoming in 2013 from Routledge), an essay collection edited by James Peacock and Tim Lustig. The papers were followed by a lively discussion session.
March 2012
Doctoral student Katie McKettigan has been awarded the Malcolm Bradbury Prize by the British Association for American Studies. Katie will use the prize money to fund a research trip to the United States later this year, when she will participate in the Rare Book School Summer Programme at the University of Virginia, and undertake archival work at the American Antiquarian Society Library, in Worcester, Massachusetts.
March 2012 saw the theatrical premiere of a new feature documentary film, The Beat Hotel. Directed by Alan Govenar, the film focuses on the famous 13th-class hotel in the Latin Quarter of Paris where writers including William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso lived on and off during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and where some of their most important works were written. Interviews with Beat scholar and Burroughs expert Oliver Harris appear extensively throughout the film, shot on location in both Paris and New York. For more information, see the film's website: http://www.thebeathotelmovie.com/
January 2012
Dr. Axel Schaefer has published Countercultural Conservatives: American Evangelicalism from the Postwar Revival to the New Christian Right (Univeristy of Wisconsin Press, 2011). For details please see http://uwpress.wisc.edu./books/4870.htm
Dr. Axel Schaefer has been awarded a second doctorate (Habilitation) by the University of Halle-Wittenberg in Germany for his research on religion and politics in the United States. As one reviewer stated, his "exceptional thesis" was a "monumental effort that enhances our understanding of the complex relationship between government and religion in the United States". The 800-page thesis is the basis for two monographs and a range of articles in journals and edited volumes. For further information see http://www.amerikanistik.uni-halle.de/
The Teachers of North American History Workshop, hosted by Dr. Laura Sandy and held at the David Bruce Centre in March 2011, proved a great success. The report in the latest History Subject Centre newsletter see more details the talks on employability; podcasting and lessons from the American college system that were delivered to an enthusiastic group of Americanists and Historians from universities across the country. Members of this network are now looking forward to meeting again in 2012.
November 2011
Dr. James Peacock presented a paper on Jonathan Lethem's 'Omega the Unknown' at the Comics Forum at Leeds City Art Gallery. Dr. Peacock's book on Jonathan Lethem will be published early in 2012.
Colleagues in American Studies were saddened to hear of the death of Phil Melling on 11 November. Phil was born in Wigan in 1947, the son of a miner. He studied at the University of Manchester and Indiana University and taught in the Department of American Studies at Keele from 1973 until 1975. Phil then went on to become the first head of American Studies at Swansea University, where he pursued his academic career until his retirement. He is remembered for his academic work on the literature of the Vietnam war and American evangelicalism, for his play, Vietnam Hotel (1995), and for his passionate love of Rugby League. Phil leaves behind his wife Sue and three children: Tom, Kirsten and Hannah.
September 2011
Dr. James Peacock presented a paper ('Give it away,now: Jonathan Lethem's Promiscuous Materials Project') to the Out of Print conference at the University of East Anglia.
July 2011 - Graduation
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| American Studies Graduation, Wednesday, 6 July. From left to right: Sarah Jayne, Alex Leonard, Gwen Smith, Ellie Edmonds, Sarah Chetwyn, Chris Norwood, Josephine Simmonds, Tim Lustig, James Peacock, Laura Sandy, Megan Pritchard | |
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| Charles Swann Award, Wednesday, 6 July. Chris Norwood receives our annual prize for the best Dissertation on a literary topic from Tim Lustig. | Ellie Edmonds receives our annual prize for the best Dissertation on a literary topic from Tim Lustig. |
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| Hats in the air! | |
May 2011 : An American Studies doctoral student, Katie McGettigan, was a winner of one of the paper sessions at the seventh annual Graduate School Research Symposium, held at Keele Hall this week. Katie presented a paper on `The Literary Marketplace in the Later Fiction of Herman Melville'. Katie also has an article on Melville's Redburn forthcoming in the prestigious journal Notes and Queries.
April 2011
New research on religion and politics in the us presented at keele american studies colloquium
"American Evangelicalism and the 1960s" was the topic of the Tenth International Colloquium organised by the David Bruce Centre for American Studies at Keele last week.
The Colloquium for the first time brought together younger scholars from the US, the UK and mainland Europe who in recent years have pioneered the reinterpretation of the New Christian Right, one of the most significant developments in modern US politics and culture. Participants presented new research on topics such as the relationship between conservative Protestants and corporate America, the counterculture, the sexual revolution, and the welfare state.
The colloquium, which was supported by the Research Institute for the Humanities, featured a well-attended and well-received keynote address by Professor Paul S. Boyer (University of Wisconsin-Madison), a leading American scholar in the field of cultural, intellectual and religious history. It also included a tour of the Englesea Brook Museum and Mow Cop Castle, the site of the 1807 Primitive Methodist Revival.
April 2011 : American Studies at Keele has been placed 10 (out of 26) in the Complete University Guide for 2012, up 4 places on 2011 - a significant achievement for a small teaching group. For details, see this link .
January 2011 : Glen O' Hara, Reader in History, praises one-day conference at Keele
January 2011: Guardian publish report on American Studies in Britain. Read analysis of skills, careers and postgraduate study.
January 2011. Dr James Peacock attended the Subject Centre forLanguages, Linguistics and Area Studies's E-learning symposium in Southampton, where he presented a paper on using chat rooms for the teaching of literature.
January 2011. Visiting scholar. Adam Newmark (Associate Professor of Political Science at Appalachian State University) is currently Bruce Centre Fellow and is working with colleagues in American Studies and the School of Politics, International Relations and the Environment. Adam received his MA from the University of Birmingham and his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His principal research interests include American politics, public policy, sub-national politics, interest groups, lobbying and environmental policy. Adam's paper on `The Anatomy of "Pork"' will be delivered in the David Bruce Centre in February.
December 2011 PhD student Katie McGettigan was awarded a scholarship to the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia to attend a week-long course in the History of the Book in America in July 2012.
