Events 2009-2010
September 23
American Studies Symposium, 11:30 A.M, RAB Rm. 018
Professor Allan Isaac will speak on "The Byuti and Danger of Transgender and Transnational Belonging in Tomer Heymann's Paper Dolls."
September 30
WGS Lecture Series: Professor Alice Echols - “'Whitened-up Blown-dry Hetero-Pop'? Re-thinking Saturday Night Fever"
Drawing from her forthcoming book, Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture, Echols re-visits the much-maligned movie Saturday Night Fever. She argues that this film, long derided for popularizing and mainstreaming the largely underground phenomenon of glitterball culture, is not the exercise in heterosexual normativity or racism that scholars and critics have too often taken it for.
Mabel Smith Douglass Room, Douglass Library
4:00 PM Reception; 4:30 PM Lecture
Co-sponsored by Departments of American Studies and History and Rutgers University Libraries
October 13
7:00 P.M, RAB 001, DC.
The American Studies Association will be presenting its first program of the 2009-2010 academic year; film presentation and discussion with Prof. Al Nigrin, Mental Radio.
October 21
American Studies Symposium, 11:30 A.M, RAB Rm. 018
Professor Susan Carruthers of the History Department at Rutgers Newark, will be talking about "Media, Terrorism and Counterinsurgency," a chapter in her book in progress, The Media at War.
October 28
Career Night, RAB Rm. 104, 8-10 PM
Come learn about the many opportunities available to those majoring/minoring in American Studies from people who have done just that.
November 3
Prof. Moustafa Bayoumi, Brooklyn College, "How Does it feel to be a Problem: Being Young and Arab in America"
7pm, Rutgers College RSC MPR
Co-sponsored by Asian American Cultural Center, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Center for Race and Ethnicity, Arab Cultural Club, BAKA, College Avenue Campus Dean.
Just over a century ago, W.E.B. Du Bois posed a probing question in his classic The Souls of Black Folk: "How does it feel to be a problem?” he asked. Today, Arab and Muslim Americans, the newest minorities in the American imagination, are the latest “problem” of American society, and their answers to Du Bois’s question increasingly define what being American means today.
November 4
Meet the Fillmmaker, John J. Valadez, 7:30 PM, Trayes Hall A & B, Douglass Student Center.
Distinguished Filmmaker Valadez will present his latest film (The Chicano Wave/La Onda Chicana) and give a short talk about the making of the film. Afterwards he will entertain questions from the audience.
November 18
Traditional American Folkmusic: An Evening with Jay Smar, 7:00 PM, Ruth Adams 001, DC.
The audience will be treated to an "acoustic buffet" of traditional American and original folk, old-time mountain music, bluegrass and gospel tunes as well as coal mining songs and stories.
December 2
American Studies Symposiuim, 11:30 AM, RAB Rm. 018, DC
Professor Angus K. Gillespie will discuss "Planning the Holland" from his forthcoming book, "Crossing Under Hudson: The Lincoln and Holland Tunnels.”
January 28
The Color of Tomorrow: America's Demographic Future in a "Post-Racial" Age, by Richard Benjamin, 6:00 PM, RSC Multipurpose Room B. CAC
Dr. Benjamin is the author of Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America.
February 19
"Re|Siting Asian American Studies: Connecting Critical Approaches," a one-day conference on the state of the discipline.
Alexander Library Teleconference Room, 8:30am to 6:00pm
Eight senior Asian Americanist scholars from around the country alongside Rutgers faculty will explore three current developments in Asian American Studies: Transregional Asian Americas, Connective and Comparative histories, and Visual and Performative cultures. Re|Siting Asian American Studies seeks to enrich the institutional dialogue initiated by undergraduates around Asian American Studies scholarship at Rutgers and to explore the research imperatives for this region within the context of "Jersey Roots, Global Reach."
Contact Prof. Allan Isaac, apisaac@rci.rutgers.edu, for further information.
February 26
In connection with Black History Month, a Gospel Symposium on the meaning of Black Gospel Music in contemporary urban settings.
2 to 4 pm, Assembly Room, Winants Hall, CAC
Gospel Symposium, in connection with Black History Month, featuring "The Highway QCs," legendary traditional Chicago Gospel group,
Black Gospel music is composed and performed for many purposes, ranging from aesthetic pleasure to deep religious devotion. Featured will be discussions and performance by “The Highway Q.C’s,” one of the most famous contemporary groups tracing its history back to its formation in Chicago in 1945. They are best known for “Somewhere to Lay My Head” and “Behold My Mother.”
February 27
Evening of Gospel Choirs
Celebrating Black History Month
Featuring the Lumzy Sisters of Mississippi
7:00 PM, Voorhees Chapel, Douglass Campus
March 31
New Jersey Folk Festival Open House Info Session
Join the NJFF 2010 Staff. Applications invited for "Folk Festival Management" - an AmericanStudies Course carrying 3 credits, featuring event management experience.
7:00 PM, Ruth Adams 018, DC
April 14
Derek Walcott - Reading from his works - Part of the Writers At Rutgers Reading Series
Introduced by Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel,
Professor of Latino & Hispanic Caribbean Studies
8 PM, Rutgers Student Center, Multipurpose Room
April 19
Prof. Jennifer Mittelstadt, Penn State University, The "Army Family" and Military "Welfare": Soldiers, Spouses, and Children in America's Volunteer Army
7:00 PM, SAC, RC
Professor Mittelstadt's talk will trace the history of the “army family”, highlighting why the army was forced to accept and accommodate families after the switch to the volunteer force, the army’s new services and supports for soldiers and families, and soldiers’ and spouses’ views of the “army family” and military “welfare”. She also will survey the challenges confronting the army as a family welfare system as it confronts increased individual and family problems among today’s army families.
April 23
Folklore Symposium
April 23rd, 2 to4 pm
Assembly Room, Winants Hall, CAC
Within the profession of folklore, there has been a historic split between “academic” and “applied” folklore. As a result, the production of folk festivals has mostly taken place with the public sector. Few universities have produced folk festivals because such work has been seen as a fundamentally applied effort. Yet here at Rutgers, there has been a professionally curated festival for more than three decades. Hence, we are faced with a question: Is there a legitimate place for a folk festival within a major research university?
April 24
2010 Theme: The Andes
May
Celebration of our Student's Work.
Douglass College Hall, Fellows Lounge, 3-6 PM
American Studies Prize Judging and Celebratory Lunch