Announcement: Elizabeth Engelhardt on UT TV Show, 'Game Changers'
We are very excited to share the news that one of our faculty members, Elizabeth Engelhardt, will be featured on a television show on the Longhorn Network called Game Changers, which highlights "our most dynamic and inspirational faculty with fresh perspectives about contemporary and relevant topics."
She'll be discussing the importance and relevance of southern food, from greens to barbecue:
A southern meal of fried chicken or barbecue, homegrown tomatoes, a mess of greens, and peaches. Should they be subjects of academic research? Does southern food matter? We live in an era of great interest in food—with high stakes questions of who has enough food, what food contributes to our society’s and our planet’s health, and how food makes reputations of people or places. Simultaneously, a cultural fascination with the US South has continued for at least two hundred years. Civil rights, identity, definitions of home and away are debated in portraits of southern culture. When we bring the two together and apply academic lens to southern food, we access complex gender, racial, and class politics of the past as well as our present. Our discussion reveals the southern food matters in a meal, a can of tomatoes, a pot of greens, and a pitmaster’s story.
All of YOU are invited to attend the taping on Wednesday, June 20, at 6:00pm at KLRU, Studio 6A, in the Jesse H. Jones Communications Building (CMB 6th Floor).RSVP here (scroll down for directions - don't worry, it's free!). The doors will open around 5:15pm, and the taping will last until 7:00pm.Be there or be square - it will be a really fun and fascinating event!
Undergrad Research: A Post-Grad Post from David Juarez
One of our favorite aspects of American Studies as a broad, interdisciplinary field is that it enables students to pursue any number of interests and activities both during school and after graduation. We've asked our graduating seniors to write a quick reflection on their time in the American Studies department and to share what amazing things they'll be up to next. We begin this series with some words from David Juarez.
Being an American Studies major at UT over the past three years has been many things: incredible, eye-opening, thought-provoking, intellectually stimulating, challenging, and phenomenal. I’ve had the opportunity to take classes that still impact how I think about and analyze the texts, art, people, and the world around me. I’ve also been fortunate to work with some of the most intelligent teachers, professors, and students I’ve ever met. To say I’ve changed my ways of living, creating, thinking, and working since I came to UT would be a gross understatement.I’ve wanted to be an American Studies professor since my junior year of high school and my time spent at UT has not deteriorated that pursuit in the least. In fact, it’s made it stronger than ever. To me, American Studies has become a field so entrenched in my personality and character I can’t imagine being anywhere else in the world right now than in this area and in this department.After graduation, I will be returning to UT in the fall as an American Studies graduate student. This means I will have the opportunity to forge deeper relationships with the amazing people I’ve met so far in the department, as well as new ones with my own incoming cohort. I don’t think it’s time for me to leave this institution. There’s still so much to learn and so much to do here that to leave it now would be preposterous. I’m just glad that the university, and most importantly, the department, wants me back just as much as I’d like to return.Here’s to the department that’s treated me so well during these three wonderful years, and to the many more years to come! Cheers!
Announcement: Summertime, and the blogging is easy!
A very happy summer to all of you, dear readers! We have some announcements for you about the months ahead of us.
With many of our faculty and students scattering for the summer, we'll be offering new posts on a less frequent basis until the end of August.But rest assured that we are not just riding off into the sunset! We're also spending the summer brainstorming and developing some new digital projects that we hope to share with you all as we continue to move forward on this social media project. We'll also continue to update the calendar and the CFP page in case you find yourself aching to submit a proposal to a conference or journalIn a nutshell: stay tuned! And keep checking back for some exciting new things. More details to come.And, as always, follow us on Twitter for departmental announcements, Austin news, and links to very cool and weird articles throughout the summer.
Announcement: MA Graduate to Speak at Commencement
This weekend is Commencement at the University of Texas, and we'd like to again offer our hearty congratulations to all of those in the department who will be leaving with BAs, MAs, and Ph.D.s!We'd also like to share some related news about one particular student: Carrie Andersen, who will be graduating with an MA, has been selected to speak at the University-wide Commencement Concert that immediately precedes the procession of degree candidates in the main mall. She recently completed her MA report on representations of Kennedy's assassination in videogames, and how they reconstruct historical memory and political ideology, and she'll continue on in the program as a Ph.D. student.Her remarks at Commencement will center on a decidedly more whimsical topic: the recent internet celebrity known as Double Rainbow Guy.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI]
The concert begins at 7:20pm on Saturday, May 19 in front of the Tower. If you're not in Austin, you can watch the webcast here.