Month: November 2015

PhD Scholarship at the UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies

Posted on by Jennifer Daly

UCD Clinton Institute PhD Scholarship

The UCD Clinton Institute is offering a fees only scholarship for up to 4 years to a research student who wishes to pursue a PhD at the Institute in one of the following research areas:

American Politics and Foreign Policy
Media and International Conflict
The United States and Ireland

In order to be considered for this scholarship the applicant must have submitted a PhD application to the UCD Clinton Institute via www.ucd.ie/apply.

Once applicants have submitted their online application they should then contact Catherine Carey (catherine.carey@ucd.ie) to inform her their application has been submitted online and include with their email a 500 word personal statement on their professional goals and reasons for pursuing a PhD programme at the Clinton Institute.

Closing date for the scholarship applications is 1st March 2016 and students should be ready to commence their studies in September 2016.

Please note: The scholarship covers fees only, it does not cover accommodation or living expenses.

More details can be found on the Clinton Institute’s website here.

CFP: Urban America: Mediating City Space as Place

Posted on by Jennifer Daly

Urban America: Mediating City Space as Place
Fifth American Studies Leipzig Graduate Conference
April 2, 2016 – Deutsches Literaturinstitut Leipzig

“Place is space that has been given meaning and borders, and so a
location with a human-created ensemble of features.”1

Not only can space be seen as an entity or as a point on a map but it can also be turned into a place whenever an individual or a group assigns meaning to it. Due to its interdisciplinary approach, American Studies is an ideal framework to examine the construction, mediation, and representation of urban spaces as places in the US. From topics such as gentrification and the development of ethnic neighborhoods to the representation of cities and urban spaces in literature and culture—in TV series (Mad Men, Treme) or novels (Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie, Teju Cole’s Open City)—urban spaces and places have gained relevance and recognition in the academic world and thus require continued inquiry.

With the Fifth American Studies Leipzig Graduate Conference “Urban America: Mediating City Space as Place,” we will explore the cultural, social, and political production of spatial realms and places in an interdisciplinary framework. Possible topics to examine the construction, mediation, and representation of urban spaces and places can be located in literature, culture, history, sociology, and politics. While we welcome proposals from any of these fields, we encourage presenters to analyze “urban place-making processes”2 across disciplinary boundaries. Potential research questions could include but are not limited to the following:
• In what ways are identities and meanings of urban spaces constructed and negotiated, for example in literature and/or film?
• What is the function of American cities as political agents on a transnational level?
• How do concepts such as gender, race, class, religion, age, and/or migration influence the construction of personal and collective identities in urban spaces and places?
• To what extent do cities in particular lend themselves to an analysis of larger social conflicts?
• How can the dynamics of subcultures and/or gentrification, for instance in particular neighborhoods (suburban or inner-city areas), be interpreted and theorized?
• How are metaphorical and literal borders mediated in cities and metropolitan areas?
• How are cities influenced by language and communication, for example urban slang or advertising?
• In what ways can tourism shape the representation of cities as specific places?
• How do feelings and affects manifest themselves in urban geographies and vice versa, e.g. with regard to architecture or infrastructure?

As a platform to discuss the complex representations of urban spaces and places, our conference invites all interested graduate students and professionals in the field of urban research. Within this unique forum, participants will have a chance to present their work to an international audience, which will also allow for excellent networking opportunities.

 
Please submit your proposal (ca. 300 words) for a 20-minute presentation including your name, current level of graduate study, research interests, affiliated university or current occupation, and email address to asl-gradconference@uni-leipzig.de by January 8, 2016. We will notify all contributors by January 25, 2016. A limited number of travel grants may be available on a case-by-case basis.
For more information please refer to the conference website, contact us via email, or find us on Facebook under “Urban America – American Studies Grad Conference 2016.”

 

  1. Mahoney, Timothy R., and Wendy J. Katz. “Introduction.” Regionalism and the Humanities. Lincoln: U of Nebraska, 2008. x. Print.
  2. See Warnke, Ingo H., and Beatrix Busse, eds. Place-Making in urbanen Diskursen. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2014. Print.

CFP: Special Issue of 49th Parallel

Posted on by Jennifer Daly

Call for Submissions

A 49th Parallel Special Issue –

Money Talks: Inequality and North American Identity

“Let me tell you something. There’s no nobility in poverty. I’ve been a poor man, and I’ve been a rich man. And I choose rich every time” – Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort, The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

49th Parallel is delighted to announce an upcoming special issue devoted to the theme of economic inequality and North American identity. Seven years on from the start of the Great Recession, North America remains racked with problems of poor job opportunities, financial sector profligacy, and the ever growing disparity between the mega-rich and the destitute. Occupy movements, government shutdowns and striking fast food workers signal the continued economic tumult of Obama’s U.S. Meanwhile Canada may have exited the downturn less scathed than others, but its recovery remains fragile in the face of disappointing prospects for growth. Amidst the macro-noise of economic stress, it is perhaps tempting to forget the micro-level ramifications for ordinary North Americans, who experience financial inequality not as abstract data, but as concrete fact. With these issues in mind, we ask: how has the recession influenced American and Canadian cultural production? Is financial hardship more visible than before in North America – or more anaesthetized? How does income inequality interact with ethnic, racial, sexual, and gender experience, whether in 2014 or 1773?

This Call for Submissions arises out of the conference ‘Money Talks: Inequality and North American Identity’, held by 49th Parallel at University of Nottingham on Friday 19th June, 2015, but is open to all. Topics for submissions may include, but are not limited to:

  • Economic inequality in literature, film, and popular culture
  • ‘Capitalist Realism’ and Neoliberal Hegemony
  • Austerity cultures in a North American context
  • Identity (sexual, national, racial, etc.) and economic experience
  • Economic inequality throughout North American history
  • Financialization and the entrepreneurial subject
  • Populism and economics (Occupy, the Tea Party, etc.)
  • Labor, strikes, and worker’s movements
  • ‘Ruin porn’ and representations of urban decay

Articles should be between 6000-8000 words and adhere to Chicago Manual of Style referencing. For full submission guidelines, please see the Submissions page on the 49thParallel website.The deadline is 30th November 2015. Please submit articles and direct any enquiries to editors@49thparalleljournal.org.