Discussions about, toward,
around, and alongside the
New England American Studies
Association's Fall 2011 Conference.
See the schedule at the bottom of
the page, and please add your voice
and perspective to the mix!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Post-Conference Conversations: Ben Railton's Responses

All this week (11/7 through 11/10) I'm going to be responding to standout conference moments on my own blog: http://americanstudier.blogspot.com/. Please feel free to head over there, see some of my takeaways from the amazing weekend, and add your own voice there (or here, or both).

Thanks,
Ben

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Post-Conference Conversations: Cathy Stanton's Responses

The conference has come and gone, with absolutely amazing and inspiring turnout and voices and conversations, but this blog remains; while it might turn into other American Studies dialogues in the months to come, right now it's going to be the host to some conference follow ups.

The first ones come from plenary speaker Cathy Stanton. Cathy has provided an e-version of her plenary talk here:

http://www.cathystanton.net/neasa-talk-2011.html

and has also responded to another Plymouth experience in a blog post here:

http://historyonwheels.blogspot.com/2011/11/living-history-at-motor-court.html

More to come! (And please of course continue to revisit or visit for the first time the many great pre-conference conversations present here.)

Ben Railton

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Notes from Day 1

So much fun on the first day!

I was struck as I always am by the diversity of approaches at an American studies conference. As I was remarking to another participant, some panels you learn about things you didn't know (or refine ideas you already did) and other times you learn approaches.

The four panels or events I was able to attend give a good example of the discipline's intradisciplinary approaches. The plimoth/plymouth panel looked at both the town and the site from a visual standpoint in Holly Markovitz Goldstein's talk about the visual components of Plymouth, through an experiential and theoretical idea in Michael Millner's explication of the experience of bringing his college class to Plimoth Plantation, and Karyn Goldstein's talk on the way plymouth has been invoked over time. The discipline often does well when it explores a common text through multiple disciplines, and the audience was engaged by the panel as they were by the plenary speakers. The speakers all approached Plimoth/Plymouth from different disciplines or perspectives--from members of the Wampanoag tribe, Joan Tavares Avant and Linda Coombs, historian Joseph Contori, Archeologist Kevin McBride, and anthropologist Cathy Stanton.

The panel I chaired was one was tied together by the world's relationship to American culture. And the showcase of Native American artists last night at Pilgrim Hall emphasized in many ways the same point as the plenary speakers about the diversity of perspectives both in terms of Plymouth and in American Studies.

--Jonathan Silverman

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Special Session: International Indigenous Video Conference

**Transnationalism and American Studies**
Video Conference with Indigenous Activist Organization from Oaxaca, Mexico

Please join us for a discussion with an organization that struggles for the cultural and social rights of indigenous people who inhabit a transnational local economy increasingly defined by the circulation of tourists, commodities, and culture. The Committee of Defense of the Citizenry (CODECI) was founded in 1996 to organize and advocate for indigenous Chinanteca/os who were displaced by the construction of the Cerro del Oro dam. It is now a multiethnic, multi-state, and transborder organization that works to support peasants, refugees, and migrants. For its efforts it faces constant repression.

Please join us!

Saturday, Nov.5 11- 12:15
Special Session 6D
Shakespeare Theater

New England American Studies Conference
Plimoth Plantation
137 Warren Avenue
Plymouth, Mass. 02360

Please contact Eric Larson with any questions. (larson@fas.harvard.edu)