Please join us in welcoming Hillary Chute to the workshop!

Hillary Chute, Associate Professor of English, University of Chicago

Presenting “Seeing New,” the Introduction to “Disaster is My Muse”: Visual Witnessing, Comics, and Documentary Form (under contract with Harvard University Press)

Wednesday, October 8, 4:30 pm, Rosenwald 405

Please e-mail Andrew Inchiosa at andrew.inchiosa AT gmail.com for a copy of the paper.

Light refreshments will be served.

We are excited to announce our schedule for Autumn 2014!

Jonathan Schroeder, PhD Candidate in English Literature

“The Logic of Local Color,” paper here: Schroeder – The Logic of Local Colorv10

Rosenwald 405, 4:30pm

Any person with a disability who feels they may need assistance to participate fully in this event should contact one of the coordinators at aleighdavis (at) uchicago.edu or tusler (at) uchicago.edu.

Please join the American Literatures and Cultures workshop in welcoming Hank Scotch, presenting:

Hart Crane’s Liquid Modernism: The End of the Ocean and the Crisis of History

4th chapter of his dissertation, Oceanic America.

Wednesday, May 9 at 4:30 pm in Walker 403: PLEASE NOTE THE UNUSUAL LOCATION.

The American Literatures and Cultures workshop meets alternating Wednesdays at 4:30pm in Rosenwald 405.

Any person with a disability who feels they may need assistance to participate fully in this event should contact one of the coordinators at aleighdavis (at) uchicago.edu or tusler (at) uchicago.edu.

The American Cultures and Literatures Workshop is pleased to present:

James Williams

Senior Managing Editor of Critical Inquiry

“The Author under Sail: The Imagination of Jack London”

May 2^nd 4:30 p.m. in Rosenwald 405

A copy of the paper can be requested from the workshop coordinators at aleighdavis at uchicago.edu or tusler at uchicago.edu

Any person with a disability who feels they may need assistance to participate fully in this event should contact the workshop coordinators for accommodation.

Photo courtesy of CJ Alvarez

The American Literatures and Cultures Workshop is pleased to present

Rosenwald 405 4:30 p.m. Wednesday April 4, 2012

C.J. Álvarez

PhD Candidate, History

Predoctoral Fellow at Stanford University

“The Present as History: How the United States Has Policed Its Southern Border Since 1993”

Over the past two decades, the United States has constructed the largest and most robust policing apparatus ever assembled by a liberal democracy along the border of a non-hostile nation.  The US began policing its border with Mexico in the nineteenth century, but the enormous and highly visible policing arrangement we see today began to emerge very recently, along with a new border fence that separates the two countries.  Since the early 1990s, U.S.-Mexico border policing has become more coordinated, international, technologically sophisticated, and photogenic than it has ever been.  While this huge increase in police capacity, coupled with a physical barrier, would seem to indicate that the two nations are growing apart, I contend that the United States and Mexico have never been closer to one another economically, culturally, and politically.  This contradiction stems from the fact that federal law enforcement along the border has a dual purpose.  On one hand their job is to interdict and prevent illegal movement of people and contraband across the border.  On the other, they must regulate and facilitate legal crossings of both people and goods.  This chapter explains the inner workings of the Border Patrol, the DEA, and the Customs Service and how each agency has expanded and grown closer in recent years.  I frame the last nineteen years as significantly and strikingly different from previous border policing initiatives, and argue that we should think of the recent past as a distinct period in not only border history, but United States and Mexican history more broadly.

To receive a copy of the paper, please email Amanda Davis at aleighdavis (at) uchicago.edu or Megan Tusler at tusler (at) uchicago.edu.

Anyone needing assistance to participate fully in this event should contact the coordinators of the American Literatures and Cultures workshop at aleighdavis (at) uchicago.edu or tusler (at) uchicago.edu.

Photo by Brian Edwards. © 2012 Brian T. Edwards

The American Literatures and Cultures Workshop is pleased to present:

Professor Brian Edwards, Associate Professor of English, Comparative Literary Studies, and American Studies, Northwestern University, presenting work from his forthcoming book:

After the American Century: Ends of Circulation in Casablanca, Cairo, and Tehran

The book examines the circulation of American culture and its forms in contemporary North Africa and the Middle East in order to make an argument about the transnational movement of culture in the digital age counter to prevailing notions in both literary studies and public and cultural diplomacy. The project involves fieldwork and collaborative research teams, and includes close readings of contemporary Moroccan, Egyptian, and Iranian literature, film, graphic novels, and popular culture.

Dr. Edwards’s paper is part of the ongoing series in the American Literatures and Cultures workshop dedicated to the study of American literatures in a global context.

Wednesday, March 14 in Rosenwald 405, 4:30pm.

Refreshments will be provided.

Anyone needing assistance to participate fully in this event should contact the coordinator of the American Literatures and Cultures workshop at aleighdavis (at) uchicago.edu or tusler (at) uchicago.edu.

The American Literatures and Cultures Workshop, in collaboration with the New Media Workshop, present:

Professor Richard Jean So, Department of English –

“Literary Information Warfare: Eileen Chang, the U.S. State Department, Cold War Media Aesthetics”

Response by Hadji Bakara, Department of English.

Dr. So’s paper is part of the ongoing series in the American Literatures and Cultures workshop dedicated to the study of American literatures in a global context. Our next event will be March 14: Professor Brian Edwards, Northwestern University.

Wednesday, March 7 in Rosenwald 405, 4:30pm.

Refreshments will be provided.

Anyone needing assistance to participate fully in this event should contact the coordinator of the American Literatures and Cultures workshop at aleighdavis (at) uchicago.edu, tusler (at) uchicago.edu, or ijones (at) uchicago.edu

The American Literatures and Cultures Workshop presents its winter quarter series, “American Studies in a Global Context.”

Monday, February 6, with Theater and Performance Studies Workshop: John Muse, Assistant Professor of English, University of Chicago

Wednesday, February 22: Darrel Chia, PhD Candidate in English, University of Chicago

Wednesday, March 7: Richard So, Assistant Professor of English, University of Chicago

Wednesday, March 14: Brian Edwards, Associate Professor of English, Comparative Literary Studies, and American Studies, Northwestern University.

The American Literatures and Cultures Workshop meets alternate Wednesdays at 4:30 in Rosenwald 405.

Anyone who feels they may need assistance to participate fully in this event should contact the coordinators at tusler (at) uchicago.edu or aleighdavis (at) uchicago.edu