Community Partnership Grants

The American Studies Association is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2016 ASA Community Partnership Grants to support collaborative interdisciplinary community projects utilizing American Studies pedagogy, curriculum, research, and other resources.

1.  University of Pittsburgh: Art, Social Change, and Neighborhood Identities: Hemispheric Conversations.  (Amount $3,000)

This project will bring artists from Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Leon Guanajuato, Mexico into conversation with Pittsburgh residents and each other. By developing workshops on the history of aerosol art, planning public murals, and holding a pot luck party, and one-day symposium, this project allows for artists and residents to connect shared challenges in post-industrial urban spaces, and to explore public art making as a means of democratically shaping the urban environment. Its goals are educational, professional, oriented towards social change, and future collaboration.

2. University of New Mexico: Promoting Service Learning in American Studies.  (Amount $3,000)

This joint project of the Department of American Studies and the National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, will establish a number of paid internships for undergraduate and graduate students in American studies.  Under supervision by the NHCC curatorial staff, interns will conduct primary research, oral interviews, and studio visits.  They will help select artworks to be exhibited, write object and text labels, and develop exhibit-related programming.
 

Regional Chapter Grants

The American Studies Association is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2016 Regional Chapter Grants to develop programming, in the form of conferences or other projects, that engages both American studies practitioners and others interested in the field within a specific region in an original and creative manner.

1. Hawai’i American Studies Association:  Detours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawai’i. Workshops and Creative Project. (Amount $3,000)

The project will host two full-day writing workshops for contributors who include academics, activists, artists, and practitioners. It will then host a public forum following the second workshop session. The editors of Detours are committed to allowing the project to unfold as contributors bring their expertise and ideas to it. The book and related materials will address specifically the ways in which communities of practice are working against the harmful effects of the tourism industry, while simultaneously turning the infrastructure of tourism and the genre of tourism writing on its head.

2. New England American Studies Association: NEASA Professional Development Colloquium, Annual Conference, and Liaison Program (NLP).  (Amount $3,000)

The goal of the program is to increase participation in American studies events and to create a mechanism that will allow NEASA to better represent its broad membership. The colloquium, to be held in fall 2016, will again focus on professionalization concerns for graduate students, faculty, and alternative academics.  The next NEASA conference will be held in spring 2017.  To support these efforts, NEASA will use the ASA funds to help supplement the costs of its upcoming annual programs and NLP, which seek to contribute to the local scholarly communities both inside and beyond the academy.

3. New York Metro American Studies Association: Everything You Wanted to Know About Academic Professionalization—But Were Too Busy Updating Your CV to Ask. (Amount $3,000)

The colloquium will address careers outside academia for PhDs in American studies and related fields, as well as offer workshops on skills and competencies central to academic professionalization. It will invite editors of major journals in American studies as well as the editorial staff of university presses to speak about the environment for scholarly publishing today. The colloquium will include a session on grant-writing.  It will also bring in speakers on careers outside of academia, as well as offering short “how-to” sessions on nuts-and-bolts skills like compiling a cv, writing fellowship applications, and composing conference proposals.

4. Southern American Studies Association: Migrations and Circulations (2017 Biennial Conference of the Southern American Studies Association). ($3,000)

The grant will fund two initiatives that align with the mission of the conference and of the SASA. First, support for transportation and subsidized registration will enhance opportunities for educators and students to attend “Migrations and Circulations” and deepen the diversity of perspectives on conference themes. Additionally, funding for a plenary and discussion that engages all attendees in sustained exploration of interdisciplinary work by a prominent scholar will generate conversations about the past and future of our discipline.  The conference expects 150-200 attendees, including from states outside the region and throughout the world.