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
Su, Christine M. "Tradition and Change: Khmer Identity and Democracy in the 20th Century and Beyond," University of Hawaii, Manoa, December 2003.
The United States has long believed that it is at the forefront of democracy, as part of a campaign for good and the betterment of the world. Thus any discussion of democracy, including a dissertation on Cambodia, touches on issues central to the discipline of American Studies. While America’s own history perhaps does not provide the best example of democracy in action, liberal democracy is America’s image of what its (and the world’s) political future should be. Thus Cambodia provides a case study, and experiment as to the efficacy of democracy. As perhaps the most ardent promoter of democracy, the United States can look to Cambodia to shed light on the democratic process: Does it work? This dissertation presents an analysis of Cambodia as it wrestles with the structural changes involved in its transition to democracy. I argue that the Khmer wish both to embrace the tenets of contemporary democracy, yet also to reclaim the ancient culture the Khmer Rouge set out to destroy. My thesis is that Khmer, as part of their identity renegotiation process, do and will continue to draw upon various cultural traditions and stories to make sense of their positions as members of a society now built upon a new framework - that is, they can and will “Khmerize” democracy by recognizing the old within the new (and vice versa). I suggest that Khmer are making choices about their futures, rather than allowing their neighbors or the international community to choose for them, and that the Khmer in my study are choosing democracy. This dissertation examines the ways in which Khmer actively participate in the dialogue about democracy and how it fits into their political, economic, social, and cultural futures.
Quick Links
American Quarterly [official journal site]
American Quarterly [editorial site]
Encyclopedia of American Studies
Encyclopedia of American Studies [editorial site]