Events

Each semester the Bruce Centre hosts a series of seminars given by distinguished national and international scholars. These events are central to the maintenance of a research culture at Keele. Bruce Centre Seminars provide a means to meet and debate with some of the leading scholars of American history, culture, literature, and politics. The seminars also provide a valuable opportunity to hear voices from outside the Keele community.

Author event: Curtis Chin

Curtis Chin On 22 May 2025 The David Bruce Centre for the Study of the Americas was delighted to welcome writer, producer and director Curtis Chin, author of the award-winning memoir, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant. Curtis led a workshop with creative writing staff and students and then, in conversation with James Peacock, Director of the David Bruce Centre, talked about and read from his memoir before signing copies at the pop-up shop hosted by Ruth from Stoke-on-Trent’s very own independent bookshop, Drop City Books.

Legacy and Survival: Evolving Global Threats from the Atomic Bomb to Climate Change

On 2 April 2025, The David Bruce Centre for the Study of the Americas, in conjunction with British Pugwash, hosted a major symposium on nuclear proliferation, disarmament, and anti-nuclear activism. On the 80th anniversary of the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, our speakers discussed the continuing existential threat of nuclear weapons and the role of nuclear and non-nuclear weapons states and youth activists in confronting that threat. The three speakers were David Alexandre Ellwood, a member of the Pugwash Council and the executive committees of International Pugwash and the British Pugwash group; María Antonieta Jáquez, current Coordinator for Disarmament and Nonproliferation at the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs of Mexico; and Franco Castro Escobar, a PhD student at Keele University who is affiliated to the David Bruce Centre for the Study of the Americas.

Hiroshima's Atomic Bomb: Legacy and Survival (Virtual Reality Experience and Book Exhibition)

On 29 and 30 October 2024, Keele staff and students and members of the public were invited to join postgraduate researcher Franco Castro Escobar and colleagues from the David Bruce Centre for the Study of the Americas to use a virtual reality headset, loaned to the David Bruce Centre by the Hiroshima Peace Institute, and experience its unique 5-minute immersive film about the events of 6 August 1945, when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The David Bruce Centre was the first research institute outside Japan to have been loaned one of these headsets, so this was a unique and exciting opportunity.

There was also a small display of pictures, Japanese comic books, and other materials which added up to a fascinating (and in the current global context, very timely) mini pop-up exhibition on nuclear threat, and the legacy of and survival of war more generally. There were more than 50 visitors, many of whom left positive comments in our visitors' book.

Origamis Jim headset Hiroshima event 3 Hiroshima event Hiroshima event 2

Unfolding Our Shared Future - Keele Hall 8 May 2024

On 8 May 2024 the David Bruce Centre for the Study of the Americas, in collaboration with the American Politics Group (and with the support of a special award from the US Embassy) hosted "Unfolding Our Shared Future: Challenge, Possibility and Potential in the 21st Century." The event was part of a travelling festival addressing issues affecting the US and UK in domestic, trans-Atlantic and global contexts. The theme for Keele's event was "Urban Regeneration," and we were delighted to welcome two internationally-renowned researchers in the field - Professor Loretta Lees (Boston) and Professor Ray Bromley (Emeritus, Albany). We also welcomed many partners from the Potteries region for what was a fascinating and wide-reaching discussion.

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Loretta Lees (left) and Ray Bromley (right)

Watch the event here.

David Bruce Centre for the Study of the Americas seminar programme

Seminars will be held at 2.15pm in the David Bruce Centre (CBB 1.030).  Online seminars will be held on Teams.  Please follow public health advice, and do not attend in-person if you are feeling unwell or experiencing any COVID symptoms.

Please direct queries to the DBC director Dr James Peacock (j.h.peacock@keele.ac.uk).

Seminar programme 2016/2017 | Seminar programme 2017/2018 | Seminar programme 2018/2019 |Seminar programme 2019/2020 | Seminar programme 2020/2021

Semester 1, 2024/25

December 6 (hybrid)
Dr Harriet Earle (Sheffield 
Hallam) "'Broken Kites': The Representation of Vets in Comics of the Vietnam War"

Semester 1, 2022/23

November 23 (in-person)
Dr David Brown (Manchester)
Duet with John Bull: The Black Abolitionist Mission to the British Isles during the Civil War

November 30, 2022 (in-person)
Dr Jenny Woodley (Nottingham Trent)
Ghosts, Mourning and Death at Louisiana's Plantations

December 14, 2022 (online)
Professor Maria Sulimma (Freiburg)
Microscripts of Gentrification: Leisure and Urban Transformations in Contemporary Literature

Seminar programme 2021/22

October 27, 2021 at 3.15pm
Dr Sam McBean (Queen Mary, University of London)
Queer Enumeration

December 8, 2021 at 2.15pm
Dr Megan Hunt (University of Edinburgh)
‘When things made sense, when we were the good guys’: representing the white South in late-twentieth century American cinema'.