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Early American Matters Caucus
“EARLY AMERICAN MATTERS” Caucus within the American Studies Association
A question that this title raises is “By ‘early,’ do you mean pre-1900? Prior to the so-called American Renaissance? pre-1800? Maybe even pre-European contact?,” and a legitimate answer would be Yes, as in Yes to all of the above.
We know that a number of our colleagues who attend A.S.A. conferences—as well as many more prospective participants—have research interests touching on those earlier periods. We know that alongside the re-invigoration of American Studies during the past two decades there has been a flourishing of interdisciplinary attention to America before the Civil War, before the Revolutionary War, before slavery came to the English colonies, before there were European colonies throughout these continents. We know too that many of today’s most fiercely contested issues have their sources in the first two centuries of European settlement. We also know that as scholarship flourishes around such questions and issues, it not only crosses these fairly arbitrary temporal boundaries (1900, the 1850s, 1800, and so on) but also takes us across traditional disciplinary lines.
We also know, alas, that for the past decade and more, the programs of A.S.A. conferences have included a paucity of matters early American. For us, matters include everything from the material culture of pre-European contact archeology to the pseudo-scientific racial theories of the antebellum decades; in short, we look at matters textual, ideological, material, and historical. Another question, then, suggests itself:
Shouldn’t the A.S.A.’s menu of caucuses include one
whose title bears these keywords EARLY and MATTERS?
We say Yes, and we relish that prospect. Why don’t you Join Us? Why don’t you Sign-Up for our e-mail list-serve?
Community Blog
Thanks, Dan Richter and the McNeil Center
following up to last night’s reception at the McNeil Center
Categories:
a reading-Benjamin-Franklin moment
cross-posting announcement about _Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin_ from Graduate Student Caucus at ASECS, the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
Recent Williamsburg Events
Congratulations to Dennis Moore, erstwhile founder of our Caucus and current president of the Society of Early Americanists, for his role in shaping the combined SEA/OIEAHC conference held in Williamsburg, Va. June 7-10, 2007. It was terrific!
Events
9/17/07: Reception at McNeil Center for Early American Studies
THE A.S.A.’s EARLY AMERICAN MATTERS Caucus is co-sponsoring this reception with the McNeil Center, on the University of Pennsylvania campus, on Thursday, October 11 at 8 pm. Please see our full invitation !
The McNeil Center for Early American Studies
and the ASA’s
EARLY AMERICAN MATTERS Caucus
cordially invite you to
a RECEPTION
8:00 p.m. Thursday, October 11
at the McNeil Center, 3355 Woodland Walk
(note: 34th and Sansom Sts, on the University of Pennsylvania campus)
** Meet us there if you’d like—or gather at 7:30 at the ASA’s registration table, at the Marriott, to set out as a group.
**There are taxis, and one can also hop on the Market Street Subway at 11th Street (just outside the Marriott), exiting at 34th St.—or mosey down to Walnut Street to catch a #21 or #42 bus, also to 34th St.
-- Daniel Richter, Richard S. Dunn Director of the MCEAS
http://www.mceas.org | http://earlyamericanmatters.fsu.edu
Submitted by Dennis Moore
Categories:
News
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