Register
Register here for the annual meeting and to begin or renew an ASA membership
Register here to submit a proposal through the ASA's 2012 submission site.
Register here for JHU Press and ASA membership services, including online access to American Quarterly and the Encyclopedia of American Studies Online.Register here to join an ASA community. Only current ASA members may contribute to the community blogs. Registration is not required to submit display or text ads or news and events or to view many pages. We will refuse posts that are not of professional interest to ASA members.
Click here for membership FAQ's
Events
Jun. 30 | 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies due
Jun. 30 | 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies Teaching, Advising, and Program Development due
Oct. 1 | Travel Grants for Graduate Students
For submission guidelines, click here
Resources: Abstracts of American Studies Dissertations
By University | By Year
Grayson, Ellen. "Art, Audiences and the Aesthetics of Social Order in Antebellum America: Rembrandt Peale's Court of Death," American Studies Program, George Washington University, June 1995.
The first in-depth analysis of early forms of commercial visual spectacle, this dissertation uses Rembrandt Peale’s colossal 13 x 24 foot traveling exhibition painting, Court of Death to explore the dynamic between elite and popular culture, the shifting location of cultural authority, and the emergence of middle-class identity. Drawing upon medical accounts, prescriptive literature, sermons, addresses, newspapers and magazines, the dissertation demonstrates: how new forms of visual spectacle challenged existing standards of taste; how the moral philosophy represented in Court of Death transformed the concept of the individual; and how, on extensive tours through New England, the Midwest, and the South in the 1820s and 1840s, ministers, moral reformers, and audiences themselves invested Court of Death with their own meanings, asserting cultural authority and advancing their own agendas in the process.
Quick Links
American Quarterly [official journal site]
American Quarterly [editorial site]
Encyclopedia of American Studies
Encyclopedia of American Studies [editorial site]