Collaboration and Community at the Futures of American Studies Institute

— a report from the 2016 Futures of American Studies Institute (FASI) at Dartmouth College by Callie Gallo, GSAS-American Studies Summer Institute Fellowship Winner, 2016

The Futures of American Studies Institute
is an annual program at Dartmouth College

The 2016 Futures of American Studies Institute (FASI) at Dartmouth College welcomed scholars and graduate students from around the world for a week of programming featuring up-and-coming research in the field. As a fourth-year PhD candidate in the English Department at Fordham, I arrived in Hanover, New Hampshire on a warm and sunny day in June ready to learn about the latest areas of study, meet a cohort of unique professionals, and develop my own research project.

Less than a week later, I walked away from FASI with a new appreciation for the diverse and cutting-edge work of new and established scholars, including program directors Donald Pease (Dartmouth University) and Elizabeth Maddock Dillon (Northeastern University), as well as my peers. It was a great privilege to receive the GSAS-American Studies Summer Institute Fellowship and be given the opportunity to represent Fordham at such an innovative and prestigious event.

One of the unique features of FASI is the collegiality and collaboration between the featured speakers and attendees. Graduate students, junior faculty, adjuncts, writers with book projects, and senior faculty were all encouraged to share, debate, and exchange ideas in Q&A sessions, workshops, and on our down-time. All of the individuals who ran the Institute, as well as my session leader Winfried Fluck of Freie Universität in Berlin, encouraged me to network with scholars and talk about our projects in a friendly and supportive environment. We met in daily seminars where we became acquainted with other works in progress, gave feedback, and discussed the content of the daily plenary presentations. By fostering a collegial atmosphere, FASI gives scholars at all levels a way to learn from each other and exchange ideas that simply doesn’t happen at a typical conference.

This year, each plenary session at FASI was organized around a “Question Worth Asking” in the field that engages with issues or topics that American Studies scholars are or should be talking about right now. Some of these questions included “Why (not) surface reading now?,” “Afro-pessimism? Afro-optimism?,” “Affirmative biopolitics?,” and “How has digitization changed the archive of American Studies?” In addition to lively Q&A’s after each presentation, attendees also exchanged reactions and questions on twitter using the hashtag #FASI16.

Each plenary had a distinct focal point, but all sought to attend to re-think current critical and theoretical approaches. Yet as the event took place shortly after the mass shooting tragedy in Orlando at Pulse nightclub, and in the wake of a year marked by a series of high-profile police shootings of African Americans, many were eager to incorporate more discussion of those events and how to address them meaningfully through scholarship.

Callie's seminar group included, from left: Tim Salzer,
Katrina Kelly, Isil Özcan, Winfried Flick, Stephen Pasqualina,
Callie Gallo, Jesse Raber, Silke Schmidt, Sally Anderson
Boström, Greg Chase, and Joe Varghese Yeldho. 

Eric Lott (CUNY Graduate Center) and Sandy Alexander (MIT) displayed some of the ways American Studies scholars are analyzing racial violence in their presentations on responses to racial divisions in popular culture and through black protest. Soyica Diggs Colbert (Georgetown University) and Hortense Spillers (Vanderbilt University) also gave stirring talks about the artistic practices of African American women and the possibilities for optimism amidst racial strife.

Two of my favorite presentations were delivered by Patricia Stuelke (Dartmouth College) and Annie McClanahan (University of California, Irvine), who responded to the question “Was … a neo-liberal fantasy?”. Stuelke looked at the “antiblack acoustics” of the US occupation of Panama and analyzed the military’s selected playlist of 90s pop and rock (e.g. “Don’t Have to Live Like a Refugee” by Tom Petty, and “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley) that blared through General Noriega’s abandoned Presidential Palace.

In contrast, McClanahan examined endless economic growth as a neo-liberal fantasy that rejects the prospect of long-term stagnation, even as economists from the eighteenth century onward have predicted its onset. They both gave eye-opening and accessible presentations that resonated because of their unique case studies.

Being surrounded with such innovative and thought-provoking work at FASI gave me new perspectives from which I can approach my dissertation and find ways to be in conversation with scholars in my field. Additionally, the Institute professionalized me by pushing me to network and engage with scholars and to make connections with fellow graduate students. I left Dartmouth College feeling reinvigorated and excited about my research. Given the immersive and collaborative environment I found myself in at FASI, it’s easy to see why any scholar would jump at the opportunity to return time and time again.

Editor's Note: Callie Gallo was a recipient of the 2016 GSAS-American Studies Summer Institute Fellowship which provides support for Fordham graduate students to attend American Studies summer institutes both in the U.S. and abroad. For information on this the 2017 GSAS-American Studies Summer Fellowship, contact amerstudies@fordham.edu with "2016 GSAS-American Studies Summer Institute Fellowship" in the subject line!

Fall 2015 Senior Symposium and Annual Celebration

Join us for the American Studies Senior Thesis Symposium on Friday, December 11, 11-4pm with a celebration and holiday party at 4pm.

2014 Senior Thesis Symposium & Holiday Party

Please join us for the 2014 American Studies Senior Thesis Symposium & Holiday Party. The symposium panels run from 11-4pm and the party commences at 4pm. All are welcome!

Christina Greer's Black Ethnics Wins 2014 W.E.B. Du Bois Distinguished Book Award

American Studies and Political Science Professor Christina Greer’s Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream (Oxford, 2013) has been awarded the National Conference of Black Political Scientists’ 2014 W.E.B. Du Bois Distinguished Book Award. One member of the awards committee noted that Professor Greer's scholarship fundamentally reorients the way that we must think about African American politics and race relations in the United States, observing that the book is “game changer in the fields of African-American politics and racial and ethnic politics.” Congratulations to Professor Greer on this exemplary professional recognition!

Catch Christina Greer on NY1 News Tuesday Evening After the State of the Union Address

American Studies and Political Science professor Christina Greer
comments on the inauguration of Mayor Bill De Blasio, January 1, 2014.

American Studies and Political Science professor Christina Greer —who has been a featured commentator on NY1 News throughout the recent mayoral race — will provide analysis on NY1 again this coming Tuesday evening, January 28th, after the State of the Union address.

Tune in on Tuesday evening around 10pm (or just after the President's address wraps up) to catch her stellar commentary, or check out her recent Op-Ed in the New York Times. You can also follow Professor Greer on Twitter @Dr_CMGreer.

Greer is the author of the recent monograph Black Ethnics: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream (Oxford University Press, 2013).

Peppard on Pope Francis: ". . . he's a lot more Karl Marx's economic analysis meets Jesus in the underbelly of 21st century capitalism."

Christiana Peppard on Pope Francis' Evangelii Gaudium

Earlier this week Pope Francis released an apostolic exhortation denouncing economic inequality and free market ideology, noting that:

"While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation."

Fordham American Studies and Theology Professor Christiana Z. Peppard, who specializes in ethics, joined Bloomberg TV's Street Smart to discuss the Pope's Evangelii Gaudium and summed up the Pope's position: "He's not Milton Friedman — he's a lot more Karl Marx's economic analysis meets Jesus in the underbelly of 21st century capitalism." Peppard praised the potential of the Pope's exhortation to turn Catholic's toward "the broader swath of Catholic social teaching." See the full interview with Professor Peppard on Bloomberg TV.

American Studies Professor Dennis Tyler, Jr. on "What Ralph Ellison Can Teach Us About Trayvon Martin"

Ralph Ellison

Read American Studies Professor Dennis Tyler, Jr. on "What Ralph Ellison Can Teach Us About Trayvon Martin" at Feminist Wire. Tyler notes . . .

"In light of the recent decision by the school board of education in Randolph County, North Carolina, to ban Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man from their libraries—partly because of a parent’s complaint that the book is not age-appropriate material for teenagers and partly because one board member claimed he could not “find any literary value” in the text—I cannot help but reflect on a few of the key lessons I’ve learned from the novel, particularly as I attempt to cope with the verdict in the Zimmerman trial." Continue reading at The Feminist Wire . . .

American Studies Graduate Programs

On Sunday, I gave tours of Fordham at the school's annual Open House for accepted students. As per usual, I faced many perplexed faces each time I said that I was an American Studies major here. While there was some eye rolling, most families seemed very intrigued by my undergraduate interdisciplinary experience and one family even commented that the American Studies premise seemed very much in line with the Jesuit principles of a well-rounded liberal arts foundation and the development of critical thinking skills.

Speaking with so many students just beginning their Fordham experience made me definitely take a step back to reflect on my own. I came to Fordham as a Communication and Media Studies major with a minor in Political Science and am graduating as an American Studies and Communication and Media Studies double major with a concentration in Power, Politics and Institutions. While the two seem reasonably related, it truly has been the American Studies program that has set my Fordham experience apart from the one I had planned on having. Even though I enjoyed my journalism classes, I feel that my American Studies courses gave me much greater insight into the historical, economical and social issues that journalists have to write about and also sharpened by analytical and writing skills, since the seminars and individual class requirements were dense and writing/reading intensive.

Like many liberal arts majors, American Studies is not a major that leads directly to a specific career (unlike accounting, finance, teaching etc..) and while this is somewhat troubling in this economic climate, it is also very refreshing: the career possibilities are actually much less limiting than our accounting, finance and teaching counterparts. American Studies majors can apply to work at non-profit organizations, in the legal field, in the journalism field, in the publishing field, at political lobbying groups, in government offices, at museums and at many other institutions both in America and abroad.

American Studies is also a great major for those wishing to pursue advanced graduate degrees. A family asked me on Sunday if I would consider going to graduate school for American Studies and my immediate response was that I would not, that I would prefer instead to select a more focused graduate program geared toward my specific career goals. Since providing this response two days ago, however, I have somewhat reconsidered my answer- I do not think myself or any of the other American Studies majors should discount the value of a graduate degree in our undergraduate program. Below I have compiled some notable American Studies graduate programs across the country, each with some very interesting and unique offerings:

Pepperdine University:

http://seaver.pepperdine.edu/humanities/academics/ma-americanstudies.htm

This American Studies masters program is designed primarily to fit the needs of high school teachers in the humanities. The curriculum integrates American literature, history, political science, and economics and includes the following seven core requirements: Literature seminar, Social and Intellectual History of the United States, Private Enterprise and Public Policy, Contemporary American Ideologies, American Moral Traditions, Directed Readings in American Studies.

University of Maryland at College Park:

http://www.amst.umd.edu/

This program is one of the oldest such programs in the United States, operating continuously since 1945. Teaching and research in American Studies at Maryland are shaped by two principal intellectual themes: cultures of everday life and cultural constructions of identity and difference. These themes recur in the areas of ethnography & life writing, literature and society, material culture, popular culture & media studies, cultural landscapes, race and intersectionality, foodways and body & sexuality. Coupled with their commitment to cutting-edge technologies, the themes are also encouraging work in newer directions such as cyberculture and museum studies.

University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

http://www.lsa.umich.edu/ac/grad

The graduate program in American Culture is designed to address specific populations, periods, and disciplines to provide an integrative and intercultural perspective. The program included the Asian/Pacific American, Latino/a, Native American, and the emerging Arab American Studies departments. Among the program's strongest features are its interdisciplinarity (including literature, history, visual arts, psychology, film, and gender studies) and its emphasis on comparative ethnic experiences.

Lehigh University:

http://cas.lehigh.edu/CASWeb/content/default.aspx?pageid=810

This program's core courses are mainly in U.S. and colonial American history and American literature and film, but the program also encourages students to work in political science, religion studies, sociology and anthropology, Africana studies, philosophy, journalism and communications, art history and music. The school specializes in gender and sexuality, Africana studies and Native America, popular culture and electronic media, intellectual history, New York City, early America, science, technology and society.

Brown University:

http://www.brown.edu/Departments/AmCiv/grad/

This Department of American Civilization encourages students to design their own course of study. The primary goal of the graduate program in American Civilization is to train students to become knowledgeable and productive scholars and public humanists who will significantly contribute to the communities in which they work and live. The program produces graduates who are knowledgeable about the changing and complex intellectual landscape of the modern university, originators of new and innovative research across the disciplines and who are part of a new generation of active and committed teachers and public humanists. This unique approach seems to set Brown's program apart.

The American Studies Association Web site has a comprehensive list of all American Studies program organized by region and this complete list can be accessed here:

http://www.theasa.net/publications/grad_programs/region/

Accent on America

Growing up, I was blissfully unaware of my heavy Long Island accent. After all, everyone spoke the way I did, which made it near impossible to ever pick up on the difference. This came to an end the minute I came to college freshman year, when I was randomly placed to live with a girl from Boston. Our initial interactions were actually about the way we both spoke and those first few weeks living together were filled with laughter about our varied pronunciations of utterly common nouns (she said "cah" instead of "car," I said "cawfee" instead of "coffee). Even more than pronunciation variances, we learned that we had different mannerisms, called common items and stores different names and that we often used different phrases (Bostonians seem to think "wicked" is a universally appropriate adjective, mind boggling, I know). I think we focused on these differences because there was actually little else that divided us- we both came from middle class suburbs, attended good public high schools where we were involved in very similar activities, had close-knit families and were planning to pursue similar majors. We even had other more visible similarities, most strikingly almost identical wardrobes and a love of the color pink. It truly was our regional accents which set us apart and, for whatever reason, we fixated on them.

As college continued, I became very self-conscious of my accent, trying my hardest (especially on job interviews) to remain accent neutral and I definitely have noticed that my roommate now uses "wicked" less. I thought that this was just a natural progression, a possible sign of maturity and a way to practice professionalism. Turns out, our behavior is actually reflective of a much larger phenomenon that originally occurred in the 1960s, according to a New York Times Magazine article printed this week called "Speech Therapy: Is TV like 'Jersey Shore' Helping to Preserve Regional Accents" by Virginia Heffernan.

First off, I promise I will not talk about the horribly addictive yet disgusting television show on which the article focuses, just the basic premise of the article. Heffernan explains that William Labov "the father of sociolinguistics" conducted a study in 1966 which found that many people, especially New Yorkers, possessed a "lingustic self-hatred," thinking that their speech portrayed them as "distorted" and "sloppy." Heffernan goes on to explain that an era of "Newscaster English" followed this, a time when Americans focused on assimilation and refinement, and in line with this, displayed a strong desire to hide their regional badges. Heffernan then credits a wave of mass media for reasserting linguistic pride in America, like Saturday Night Live and Taxi.

Today, according to the article, shows like Jersey Shore tend to exaggerate regional accents and mannerisms in an effort to convene regional subcultures instead of ignoring them. Heffernan believes that "instead of erasing longstanding regional and social distinctions, television will help preserve them." I see her point, but think it is important to recognize that these accents are inauthentic- they are exaggerated. In producing these largely inauthentic accents, characters on these shows are not really uniting a subculture but forming their own new subculture- in the case of the Jersey Shore an especially disturbing one that repulses some of the original culture from which it it originates.

As American Studies majors, we are constantly reflecting on ways to study American culture and the many subcultures that exist within it, especially on the formulation and roles of community and identity. I never thought of American accents as strong identity markers or badges and this article made me think about that. The article also ended on an interesting note, stating that "cultivating and stylizing accents in order to stand out as part of a subculture- to represent in other words- may be as American as the melting pot."

The ability of accents to both unite and divide is perplexing. My roommate and I were divided because of accents yet our fixation on the source of division was something that actually brought us together, uniting us. Divided yet united- seems like an appropriate description of America to me.

Guest Blog: Our Great (Gatsby) Evening at the MET

Were it an ordinary evening, I would not normally expect to be asked, “Mike, is my flapper dress straight?” or “Do my linen pants match my shoes?” Then again, this was no ordinary evening—several (about 40) of my friends from Tierney Hall and I were getting ready for what would prove to be the perfect inauguration to our lives as college students living in New York. Straight out of the 1920’s, we excitedly set off for a lavish evening soirée after-hours at the MET: “The West Egg on the East Side: A (Great) Gatsby Party in the New American Wing,” popularized in the American Studies Newsletter.

After missing the Ram Van and receiving an odd glance from my Philosophy professor as we dashed to the Metro-North (apparently white pants are unacceptable in October…), we arrived at the MET a bit late, but certainly in style. We were awestruck by the Temple of Dendur, which was beautifully lit up with purple and blue lights, the upbeat Jazz music and chocolate-covered strawberries setting an elegant atmosphere for the evening. However, we had yet to explore the main attraction—The New American Wing.

The new wing at the MET was breathtaking—from a large circular room built around a panorama of Versailles to ornate, meticulously designed recreations of 1920’s salons, the art truly was truly fitting to the occasion. Of course, the MET was unafraid to incorporate some elements of modernity such as touch-screen computers showcasing each element of the salons, but the museum certainly created a wholly immersive exhibit that complemented our Gatsby-styled evening superbly.

Overall, our evening at the MET was certainly educational and interesting, but also quite fun. Dancing the Charleston under an Egyptian temple, taking interior design tips from 1920’s high society women, and addressing each other as “old sport” all made for an unforgettable evening, the ultimate beginning to our Freshman year.

For those interested in other events by the MET’s College Group (who officially hosted the event), visit http://www.metmuseum.org/collegegroup/

– Mike Rametta

Freshman and possible future American Studies major

Beginning of Junior Year and Johan Norberg

Another year began at Fordham University this week. I must admit I had grown used to an empty and quiet campus over the summer but the returning students have brought back a lot of life and activity to Rose Hill.

This will be my junior year. I'll have more opportunities to explore the courses offered to American Studies majors, look into taking on a minor (I'm considering African and African American Studies) and put thought into studying abroad in the spring (but probably not).

The year began for me last night at a guest lecture by Johan Norberg. Norberg is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank based out of Washington DC, and the author of two books. The event was co-sponsored by the College Republicans and the Young Americans for Liberty, a new group at Fordham that has just recieved official club status. Since I was one of the first 20 people to arrive I was lucky enough to get a free copy of Norberg's newest book, Financial Fiasco: How America's Infatuation with Homeownership and Easy Money Created the Economic Crisis. The jury is still out on whether I'll actually have a chance to read it as classes started and I'll be hard pressed to find time to do any personal reading until December.

Norberg's lecture focussed on, what else, the current economic crisis. He claims that the crisis has been caused by 7 steps including easy money, home ownership and the creation of the shadow banking system to handle repackaged and redistributed mortgage securities. Norberg admitted that it was a little rude of him to blame the Americans for the crisis (himself a Swede) but assured us that other countries were trying to cause the economic crisis as well, we were just the only one with the size to do it.

The lecture was incredibly informative. At this point I must admit that before last night I would have been unable to explain the economic crisis to anyone who asked beyond mumbling about "subprime mortgages" and "the housing bubble." After last night's talk I feel I have a much better understanding about what happened to cause the economic crisis but unfortunatly, like everyone else, I'm not really any closer to understanding how to fix it.

Norberg claimed that many of the fixes being proposed and enacted now are the same kind of bad decisions that led to the original crisis, such as lowering interest rates and creating lots of liquidity in the market. He also said that by bailing out certain groups that were "too big to fail" we have created a precedent that encourages these groups to participate in the same risky deals that they were before, now safe in the knowledge that if they fail the government and tax payers will be there to bail them out.

At the end of the lecture the floor was opened up for questions and one struck me in particular as an American Studies major. The question was about how China owns a great deal of our debt and whether or not that might actually effect our sovereignty as a nation. Norberg replied that although it is true that China owns an inordinate amount of American debt, and that they are possibly calling for a second reserve currency in the world, China's status as owner of so much US debt actually creates for them a vested interest in American economic success. As he put if "If you owe the bank a hundred dollars, you have a problem, if you owe the bank a million dollars, the bank has a problem."

Overall the lecture was a great way to kick-off the new academic year and I look forward to more stimulating discussions and lectures as the semester progresses and, of course, blogging about it.