The German and Africana Studies Departments are hosting Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Director of the Africana Studies Program Tina Campt of Barnard College/Columbia University next Thursday. Professor Campt will be giving a lecture titled "Racing the Family Narrative: Black German Family Photography and the Stories Pictures (Won't) Tell…" on Thursday, March 28 at 5 pm in Althouse 106. Professor Campt's visit is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Office of Diversity Initiatives, the Women's Center, American Studies, Women and Gender Studies, Joyce Bylander, Special Assistant to the President for Institutional and Diversity Initiatives, and the Max Kade Foundation.
 
"Racing the Family Narrative: Black German Family Photography and the Stories Pictures (Won't) Tell…"
What historical 'truths' can we read in the visual archive of the African Diaspora in Germany? What narratives of nation, place and belonging do family photographs tell? What narratives do they challenge, dislodge or retell? This presentation uses family photography of Black Germans in the early twentieth century to tell an alternate narrative of race, nation and diaspora for the Black German community. In the process, it asks what we can learn by engaging the multiple truths of still images, and images of dwelling in diaspora.

The 2013 American Studies Senior Research Symposium will be held on Saturday, March 2nd in the Stern Center Great Room.  American Studies seniors will present their research projects.

Panel 1:    9:30 to 10:45am - Gender and Representation
                Ashley Davis:  Cosmopolitan Magazine: The Male Issue
                Alexandra Boorse:  Miss America: Constructing the American Ideal of Womanhood
                Melissa Canu:  From the 'Dream House' to the White House: Barbie, Femininity, and Power in the United States
                Julie Elias:  Radical Laughter?: Bridesmaids and the Limits of Gender Subversion in Film Comedy
                Mary Sullivan:  Tanning Temptations in the United States

Panel 2:    10:45am to 12:00pm - Agency and Action
                 Ivan Gutierrez:  Hegemonic Masculinity: Way of Life or Racial Boundry?
                 Sarah Gray:  Queer Women Artists and the Implications of the Gaze:  Activism, Sexuality, and the Body
                 Samantha Fertel:  Challenging Rape Culture: Can Student Activism Effectively Change a College Campus?
                 Alexis Kuzma:  Empowering or Subjugating?: A Feminist Analysis of the Hot Mom Trend               

Panel 3:   1:00 to 2:00pm - Race, Culture, and Resistance
                Christopher Szymanski:  Forget Fly, I Am Fashion
                Leah Silver:  A Romanticized Reality:  The Fallacy of the American Dream for African Americans in the United States
                Teddy Malley:  Chinese Immigration:  Chinatown in New York and San Francisco in the Early 1900s
                Andrew Hill:  LeBron James & The Infrapolitics of a Working Class Athlete

Panel 4:  2:00 to 3:00pm - Popular Culture and Mass Media
               Laura Garbarino:  Alcoholism and Binge Drinking in Hollywood Films
               Nina Boyd:  Large and Not in Charge:  A Critical Analysis of "The Biggest Loser" and U.S. Ideas of Bodily Citizenship
               Emily Magida:  Sensationalism in Cable Television News: The Blurred Line Between News and Entertainment
               Brian Schwartz:  The Power of the News Media
               Alison Snyder:  Deviant Possession:  Hoarding and its Participation in Unveiling the Processes of Capitalism, Consumerism and Citizenship

Panel 5:  3:00 to 4:00pm - Power, Symbol, and Nation
               Laura Bartell:  Who Are We?: A Critical Analysis of the Family in the Display of Bumper Stickers
               Marcy Isaacson:  Patriotic Fervor and the Symbol of the American Flag in a Post-9/11 America
               Connor Sheehan:  The Use of Mental Illness to Safeguard Consent in the Extended 1950s (1947-1963)
               Molly Welch:  The Dissemination of Fat Discrimination in America
 

 

  

 
                  
     
     
     
         
     
     

          
     

    
     
     
            

The American Studies department presents the 2013 Bud Shaw Lecture on Wednesday, February 27, 2013, 5:00pm in Althouse 106.

Nan Enstad, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison will discuss how cigarettes came to have a global reputation as sexy and a little bit bad.  How did their circulation intersect with jazz, the U.S. empire, and the triumph of the multi-national corporation? This talk explores the creation of cigarettes' affective appeal by tracking its association with jazz and global race in the 1920s and '30s in marketing, radio, and the live jazz club of Shanghai and Reidsville, North Carolina.

This lecture is free and open to the public.

For further information

 

Are we living in Panem? The book or the movie? Is Katniss a feminist? How does race work in fandom? Is hunger a virtue?

Come join us on Tuesday, May 1st for a lively multidisciplinary panel discussion on The Hunger Games franchise. Panelists include Professors Vanessa Tyson (Political Science), Siobhan Phillips (English), Toby Reiner (Political Science), and Perin Gurel (American Studies) with Professor Sharon O’Brien (American Studies) as chair. Remarks from panelists will be followed by an open discussion and q & a.

Light refreshments will be served – squirrel availability TBD.

This event is organized by the department of American Studies and generously co-sponsored by the departments of English, Political Science, and the Center for Sustainability Education at Dickinson College.

Arena:  Stafford Auditorium, Rector Science Center - 6:00pm Capitol Time

 

Associate professor of American studies, Cotten Seiler, discusses his scholarly interests and musical side and explains why it's no fun to watch television with his students.

Focus on Faculty Cotten Seiler