NEASA Call for Papers (revised 9/30)
The New England American Studies Association invites papers and panels
on the conference theme "'The Tyranny of Facts': Cultural
Institutions and the Authority of Evidence." The conference will take
place in Boston, on April 26-28, 2002.
To be held at the site of the Massachusetts Historical Society, one of
the country's oldest and most respected archives, the 2002 NEASA
conference will explore the connections between cultural institutions,
evidence, and the process of instituting culture throughout the American
experience. The theme of this year's meeting (the title of which comes
from Warren Goldstein's review of Dutch, the fictionalized biography of
Ronald Reagan by Edmund Morris) raises such issues as:
? What "counts" as facts, data, or evidence? How have "facts" been used
in American culture to construct mythologies of race, class, gender, or
power?
? What is the role of evidence in academic research, and particularly in
interdisciplinary approaches such as American Studies? When is it
appropriate to interweave fact and fiction? How do we reconcile
different elements of scholarship to create a "braided narrative?" How
has the construction of a "usable past" marked American thought, and
American Studies scholarship?
? How (either historically, or now) do "gatekeepers" of facts such as
the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Smithsonian Museum, the United
States Information Agency, or local historical societies, influence
American culture? How have people in the United States and abroad
responded to such cultural institutions?
Sadly, the topic conceived last spring now seems all the more pressing
in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001. We invite papers that
consider how cultural institutions and theauthority of evidence affect
understandings of those tragic events, and their aftermath.
As always, NEASA welcomes participation by public intellectuals and
activists without university affiliations -- e.g., secondary school
teachers, journalists, community organizers, archivists, curators,
artists, and independent scholars. To support broader participation in
the conference, and to reward excellent papers (the award carries a
stipend), NEASA again will offer the Mary [C.]Kelley Prize for the best
paper by a graduate student or non-tenure track scholar.
Inquiries, and paper and session proposals for the 2002 NEASA conference
should be directed to:
Lisa MacFarlane, NEASA Program Chair
Department of English
Hamilton Smith Hall
University of New Hampshire
Durham, NH 03824
lwm@cisunix.unh.edu
Proposals, including a one-page abstract and a C.V., should be received
by Friday, January 4, 2002.
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or write Erika Lin: elin@english.upenn.edu
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