American Studies

A section of the AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display from April 11 through April 29. The Quilt was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, and is today the largest community art project in the world. Today it consists of more than 48,000 panels with the names of more than 94,000 individuals who died of AIDS. The display will be open during the Davis Family Library regular open hours. Sponsored by: Center for Teaching, Learning and Research; American Studies Program; Davis Family Library; Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life; Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies

The title of this talk refers to a scathing 1951 critique of Chicago that Richard Wright published in Ebony magazine, which was accompanied by photographs taken by Chicagoan Wayne Miller. Olson will discuss the documentary impulse of Wright’s work, including his 1941 photo-essay 12 Million Black Voices, and his luminous introduction to Horace Cayton and St. Clair Drake’s groundbreaking sociological study, Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City (1945).

In 2017, David Henry Hwang’s now-canonical M. Butterfly returned to Broadway in a revival headlined by Clive Owen and directed by Broadway auteur Julie Taymor with a newly revised script. This talk considers both the original and revised versions of the play in the context of the height of multiculturalism, in 1988, and the emergence of a post-multicultural racial regime in 2016, following Donald Trump’s election. Tracing how the play’s representations of whiteness, multicultural Asian Americanness, and queer desire have transformed, Dr.

Reception for American Studies Seniors and their families in Axinn 242.

Korydon Smith is a faculty member at the University at Buffalo – State University of New York, the most comprehensive public research university in the northeastern United States. Serving as Professor and Associate Dean in the School of Architecture and Planning and Co-Director of the Community of Excellence in Global Health Equity, Dr. Smith conducts research on planning and design for diversity, health, and social justice in the United States and abroad.

A lecture by Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Professor Charlene Villaseñor Black, Professor of Art History and Chicana/o Studies Studies at UCLA. Professor Charlene Villaseñor Black will offer a public lecture on the relationship between migration and art. In introducing the lecture, Charlene Villaseñor Black writes: Can art effect political change, and if so, how? Can it move us to action, empathy, andhope? I consider these questions as I investigate Chicanx (Mexican American) artists’ responses to global migration, in particular, Los Angeles artist Sandy Rodriguez (born1975).

Kofi Bazzell-Smith is an artist, a graduate student at the University of Illinois, and a professional boxer. Pursuing his Master of Fine Arts in New Media, Kofi is currently a Mellon Foundation Interseminars Initiative Fellow with the Humanities Research Institution.

Prof. Ford Risley, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Communications at Penn State University, will give a guest lecture titled, “Abolition and the Press: The Moral Struggle Against Slavery.” Abolitionist newspapers played an essential role in opposing slavery in the decades before the Civil War. Some 40 newspapers were founded with the goal of promoting emancipation of the more than three million slaves in the United States. At a time when most mainstream publications either supported slavery or ignored the subject, abolitionist newspapers were an unmistakable voice of outrage.

Liz Kinnamon, PhD Candidate, University of Arizona, will give a guest lecture, titled, “Undoing the Property Form: Feminist Consciousness Raising as a Practice of Freedom”.

This talk examines 1960s and 70s feminist Consciousness Raising as an example of creating positive freedom. Kinnamon paints a picture of what radical feminist Consciousness Raising was; how it developed out of Third World liberation movements, such as in Vietnam and China, and Civil Rights; how it spread across the US and transnationally; and what kinds of effects these group practices had.

The Guitar in American Culture course culminates in an evening of celebrating the musical instrument that we all love with performances by members of the class, ranging across genres. Sponsored by the American Studies Program and the Department of Music.

Full vaccinations and boosters (or valid medical or religious exemptions) and masks required.

If you have symptoms, or have been exposed to or tested positive for COVID-19 within the past 5 days, you may not attend arts events.