Conference Preview: The Dream in Popular Media
Today our series of sneak peeks at the American Studies Graduate Student Conference continues with"The Dream in Popular Media," a panel that will feature commentary on the American Dream and representations of alternative pasts and hopeful futures as expressed in popular music and comedy.
"The Dream in Popular Media" panel will feature the following presenters and papers:
- Jen Rafferty, “‘If the South Woulda Won’: Reimagining the Southern Past in Contemporary Country Music”
- Sequoia Maner & Yvette DeChavez, “‘Build Your Fences, We Diggin’ Tunnels’: Remixing the American Dream”
- Carrie Andersen, “‘I Find Human Contact Repulsive’: The Pain of Political Discourse and Community in Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm"
This panel will take place on Friday, April 5 from 2:15p.m. – 3:45p.m. in the Texas Union, 4.206 Chicano Culture Room.
Conference Preview: American Homes, Consumer Dreams
Good morning, Austin and everywhere!This week on AMS:: ATX we are excited to feature a series of sneak peeks at the panels that will take place at the upcoming American Studies Graduate Student Conference on Thursday, April 4 and Friday, April 5 here at UT Austin. The theme for this year's conference is "Reimagining the American Dream," and we have an incredible line-up of grad student presenters and faculty moderators who will weigh in on everything from power lines and western swing to payday loans, refrigerators, and the zombie apocalypse.
First up, we present to you a panel entitled "American Homes, Consumer Dreams," which takes on the complicated relationship between the American Dream and the domestic landscape of houses, appliances, waste, and work. This panel will take place on Friday, April 5 from 9:00a.m. – 10:30a.m. in the Texas Union, 4.206 Chicano Culture Room
- Natalie Zelt, “Self-Preservation: Identity, Food Politics and the American Dream in Mark Menjivar’s series ‘You Are What You Eat’”
- Laura Jacquelyn Simmons, “General Electric’s Monitor Top Refrigerator and the Impossible Dream Kitchen of Tomorrow”
- Ellen Cunningham-Kruppa, “Trash Talk: Disposable Tableware and the American Dream”
- Sherri Sheu, “Salvaged Visions of the American Masculinity: Restoration Hardware, American Mythologies, and the Post-Fordist Economy”
- Jocelyn Wikle, “Cinderella and Cinderelliot: Gender Differences in Adolescent and Young Adult Housework”
This conference is free and open to the public. Conference registration (and breakfast!) begin on Friday, April 5 at 8:00a.m. in the Texas Union, 2.102 Eastwoods Room. Stay tuned all week for a look at the great panels coming to UT next Thursday and Friday!
Announcement: Women’s and Gender Studies Conference Today and Tomorrow!
Today and tomorrow, the Center for Women's and Gender Studies presents "The Feeling Body—Feeling the Body, " the 20th Annual Emerging Scholarship in Women’s and Gender Studies Conference. This graduate student run conference offers undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to share their research on issues in women's, gender, and/or sexuality studies. The theme of this year's conference addresses the relationship between feminist theory, affect, and the body.
The following comes to us from the conference program:
Affect is an emerging new direction in feminist theory, generating fascinating conversations around the role of the body and feeling in producing knowledge. How are other disciplines writing about and engaging with affect? How might this new direction shift how we think about the role of the body in academic research? The panelists will examine these topics, exploring the ways in which the body shapes knowledge.
The conference will feature a keynote address on Friday at 3:30p.m. by Dr. Ann Cvetkovich (Ellen Clayton Garwood Centennial Professor of English and Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at UT) in the SAC Ballroom.Also, be sure to check out our AMS grad students presenting at this year's conference! Masters student Tynisha Scott will present her paper, "Imagining Freedom: On the Vestiges of Enslaved Black Women, Pleasure, and Sexuality" at 3:00p.m. today in SAC 3.116, and Ph.D. candidate Jennifer Kelly will present her paper, "Negotiating (Im)Mobility: Solidarity Tourism in Occupied Palestine" at 1:30 Friday in SAC 1.118.Hope to see you there!
Undergrad Research: Amanda Martin Receives Recognition on Commencement Program!
