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
Cowan, William Tynes. "The Slave in the Swamp: Disrupting the Plantation Narrative," American Studies, College of William and Mary, April 2001.
In nineteenth century literature about the South, the runaway slave in the swamp was a recurrent “boogey-man” whose presence challenged myths of the plantation system. This project uses slave narratives, proslavery novels, African American folklore, antebellum newspapers, plantation rituals, and the testimony of former slaves to contextualize major works in the plantation genre and reveal the dialectical process involved in their creation. Writers defending the institution would conjure forth the rebellious image in order to dispel it safely, often with pillory scenes of mutilation. However, the final signifying power of the fugitive’s tale was not of the law writ large upon his body; rather it was the ghostly gothic effect of an invisible presence, just beyond white control.
Quick Links
American Quarterly [official journal site]
American Quarterly [editorial site]
Encyclopedia of American Studies
Encyclopedia of American Studies [editorial site]