Description
This research strand aims to advance the understanding of cultural realities in the United States from a broad thematic and interdisciplinary perspective, examining how questions of place, identity and transnational interdependencies intersect in the mapping of the ever-changing and multilayered American imaginary.
It aims to foster synergies in research and teaching related to the multifaceted American cultural iterations in a transnational context, and to develop outreach activities that will involve wider audiences.
Activities
Publications in open access:
- A number of publications will result from the planned congresses and symposia
Other publications
- Members of the strand will continue to publish in a number of planned national and international journals and edited volumes.
Young Researchers and international networking
The strand will work with the CETAPS young researcher’s platform JRAAS to encourage M.Phil. and undergraduate students to engage with the various potentialities of American Studies. JRAAS students are already involved in the organization of film sessions followed by debates, and a Reading Club, and will continue to incorporate American filmic and literary corpora in their activities.
From the fall of 2018 on, the Permanent Seminar themes proposed will be coordinated with a series of themed “film festivals”, organized by the young researchers of JRAAS.
Students will continue to present their research in panels at the national conferences of the Portuguese Association for Anglo-American Studies and to incorporate their research in the JRAAs meetings.
Young researchers already engaged with research projects in American Studies will also be involved in international networking activities.
The first one already planned will take place in April 2017, when the strand will host the visit of a group of undergraduate and graduate students from the American Studies Study Association of Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, who will participate in an open session about studying American in the Netherlands and Portugal together with their Portuguese colleagues. This meeting will take place at FCSH /Nova, on the 30th of April.
Young researchers will be encouraged to present their work at the annual Graduate Symposia of ESSE.
International Networks
Members of the strand are members of international networks of American Studies, namely of EAAS (European Association for American Studies), IASA (International American Studies Association), besides other more field-specific international associations
The strand aims to establish contacts with European Research Centers for American Studies, such as the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies, at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the Clinton Institute for American Studies at University College Dublin, to develop cooperative research ties.
Attendance of National and International Conferences
Members of the strand will continue to attend a number of national and international conferences during this period.
Future Activities 2025-2029
2025
Conferences/ Symposia
Conferência Internacional: American and War (80 th anniversary of the end of WWII and 130th anniversary of the end of the Civil War
Permanent Seminar (Spring Sessions) Theme: American Wars in Multiple Media ( Films, Televisual Projects, Visual Culture, Music)
2026
Conferences/ Symposia
America at 250 (250th anniversary of Independence)
Permanent Seminar (Spring Sessions) Theme: American Literary Identities/ Transnationalism
2027
Conferences/ Symposia
Symposium: America On the Road (70 ª anniversary of publication): Mobility/ Immobility and Place; Road narratives; Petro-culture;
Permanent Seminar (Spring Sessions) Theme: Mobility and Energy Humanities; American Petro-fiction
2028
Conferences/ Symposia
Symposium: Native –American Renaissance and after (60 years after the publication of The House Made of Dawn, Scott Momaday).
Permanent Seminal (Spring Sessions) Theme: “Survivance”: Filmic and Literary Narratives
2029
Conferences/ Symposia
Conference: Woodstock at 60: The history and aesthetics of American counter-cultures and the imaging of Other Worlds
Permanent Seminar (Spring) Theme : The 60 th anniversary of Ursula Le Guin´s The Left Hand of Darkness and Amerian Utopias