STUDENT BREAKFAST I
Friday, October 9, 8:00 to 11:00am
Sheraton Centre, Sheraton Hall B
Abstract: The ASA Students’ Committee is pleased to announce the eleventh year of the popular Breakfast Forums. These forums will take place on Friday and Saturday and will provide an opportunity for students to meet with outstanding scholars who champion the integration of junior scholars into American Studies. In addition, a buffet breakfast will be available to students, gratis, courtesy of the Association. All events are first come, first admitted.
MOCK JOB INTERVIEW FORUM
Friday, October 9, 8:00 to 9:45am
Sheraton Centre, Forest Hill
Abstract: This forum presents a mock interview between three faculty members who will serve on a mock search committee and a graduate student to an audience of ASA graduate students. The forum provides an opportunity for students to witness what may transpire during an academic job interview. An open Q&A will take place following the interview, graduate students can ask faculty specific questions and seek advice on interviewing and strategies while on the academic job market.
Panelists: Alyosha Goldstein, University of New Mexico (NM)
Christina Hanhardt, University of Maryland, College Park (MD)
Amanda Stuckey, College of William and Mary (VA)
JOB MATERIALS WORKSHOP
Friday, October 9, 10:00 to 11:45am
Sheraton Centre, Forest Hill
Abstract: The job market is perhaps the quintessential source of misery for graduate students in academia. This workshop seeks to alleviate some of the agony and anxiety associated with searching for jobs by providing practical advice on preparing application materials and showcasing your best self. Seasoned faculty members as well as successful job seekers will provide insights on how to navigate the job market as well as on writing cover letters, teaching statements, and research plans for tenure-track jobs. Panelists will also provide examples of successful applications and pointers on what worked and did not work. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to ask specific questions about the job search process and to share experiences.
Chair: Kritika Agarwal, University at Buffalo (SUNY)
Panelists: Aureliano Maria DeSoto, Metropolitan State University (MN)
Duchess Harris, Macalester College (MN)
Cynthia Wu, State University of New York, Buffalo (NY)
Mary Cathryn Cain, Agnes Scott College (GA)
INNOVATIVE ASSIGNMENTS WORKSHOP
Friday, October 9, 12:00 to 1:45pm
Sheraton Centre, Forest Hill
Abstract: If there is one institutional misery that graduate students and faculty in American Studies share, it is the pain of learning how to teach effectively and engagingly. This workshop promises to offer a wide array of innovative assignments that will overcome the worst miseries of assessing learning outcomes, grading continuously, and overcoming student disinterest. In this workshop, we ask seasoned teachers to share their experiences and strategies in crafting innovative assignments that are engaging and challenging. In a lively and interactive format, this workshop will create a space in which all of us who teach can learn from others’ innovative ideas and produce new strategies that resist or complement calcified assignment formats.
Chair: Tanja Aho, University at Buffalo (SUNY)
Panelists: Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, University of California, Irvine (CA)
Elizabeth Maddock Dillon, Northeastern University (MA)
Matthew Pratt Guterl, Brown University (RI)
Kathryn Lofton, Yale University (CT)
Shana L. Redmond, University of Southern California (CA)
Comment: Amy K King, Johannes Gutenberg University (Germany)
OVERCOMING MISERY: ACCESSING STRUCTURES OF SUPPORT AT THE UNIVERSITY
Friday, October 9, 2:00 to 3:45pm
Sheraton Centre, Forest Hill
Abstract: It is commonplace for graduate students to associate the general affect of their institutional lives with misery. Scholar-organizers have rightly pointed toward how such experiences of misery, rather than an indictment on students’ intellectual merits, elucidate their precarity as shaped by the structures of the university and larger historical, political, and economic conditions. Oriented toward mentorship, this session features professors who will strategize about how we can navigate academia, change inaccessible conditions, and create structures of support for each other and for our students. We invite the panelists to draw upon their former tenure as graduate students, their scholarly research, activist and organizing work, as well as their experiences navigating the university through multiple positions as teachers and administrators. In particular, we ask that these scholars speak to the following categories as illuminative of particular conditions of inhospitality as well as possibilities for organizing in the university: accessibility, women of color, depression, service, and solidarity. Collectively, we aim to open a conversation that approaches expressed experiences of misery as ethical calls for working toward a more socially just university.
Chair: Christopher Eng, City University of New York, Graduate Center (NY)
Panelists: Liat Ben-Moshe, University of Toledo (OH)
Nicole R. Fleetwood, Rutgers University, New Brunswick/Piscataway (NJ)
Ann Cvetkovich, University of Texas, Austin (TX)
Deborah R. Vargas, University of California, Riverside (CA)
Bethany Moreton, Dartmouth College (NH)
Perfecting Your Pitch: Graduate Student Professionalization with the Pros
Friday, October 9, 4:00 to 5:45pm
Sheraton Centre, Forest Hill
Abstract
ASA 2015
PERFECTING YOUR PITCH: GRADUATE STUDENT PROFESSIONALIZATION WITH THE PROS
*A Graduate Education Committee Professional Development Workshop*
The workshop is a professionalization “speed dating” workshop. It of course has nothing whatever to do with dating but, rather, uses the speed dating model to give ASA graduate students the invaluable opportunity to practice their dissertation “elevator pitch” on top scholars in the field and to get feedback from these scholars. We set up a conference room with a group of invited scholars each sitting alone at a table; graduate student participants would approach (one at a time) and have three minutes to make their pitch; a buzzer would sound at the end of three minutes; the scholars would then give the student three minutes of feedback on their pitch and/or their project; another buzzer would sound and the student would move on to the next scholar. The following scholars have expressed a willingness to participate should they be on the 2015 program: Melani McAllister, Jasbir Puar, Robin Bernstein, Daphne Brooks, Avery Gordon, and Shawn Michelle Smith. Students on the Graduate Student Committee have also asked that we invite the following faculty should they end up on the 2015 program: Bethany Moreton, Nayan Shah, Kyla Wazana Tompkins, Christina Klein, Greta Gaard, Mae Ngai, Tricia Rose, Sunaina Maira, Lisa Lowe, Jack Halberstam, Elizabeth Maddock Dillon, Ann Cvetkovich, Michael Denning, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Dylan Rodriguez, and John Marquez.
STUDENT BREAKFAST II
Saturday, October 10, 8:00 to 10:00am
Sheraton Centre, Sheraton Hall B
The ASA Students’ Committee is pleased to announce the eleventh year of the popular Breakfast Forums. These forums will take place on Friday and Saturday and will provide an opportunity for students to meet with outstanding scholars who champion the integration of junior scholars into American Studies. In addition, a buffet breakfast will be available to students, gratis, courtesy of the Association. All events are first come, first admitted.
LIGHTNING SHORTS, ON PROJECTS IN PROGRESS FORUM
Saturday, October 10, 8:00 to 9:45am
Sheraton Centre, Rosedale
Abstract: What are auspicious young scholars in the field of American Studies currently investigating? The Students’ Committee of the American Studies Association will host a breakfast forum during which student conference attendees can present their on-going or recently completed work in 3-5 minute, informal presentations. Participants will offer “lightning” talks related to papers, proposals, theses, and dissertations in an effort to forge connections with other graduate students who share similar research interests, methodological approaches, and career trajectories. Come hear what your peers are working on and share your own projects with the ASA student community!
Panelists: Thomas Dichter, University of Pennsylvania (PA)
Brian Lefresne, University of Guelph (Canada)
Jenny LeRoy, New York University (NY)
Jennifer Loft, State University of New York, Buffalo (NY)
Juhi Roy, State University of New York, Buffalo (NY)
Sarah Stanford-McIntyre, College of William and Mary (VA)
Community announcements and events are services that are offered by the ASA to support the organizing efforts of critical constituency groups. They do not reflect the decisions or actions of the association’s governance bodies, the National Council or Executive Committee. Questions should be directed to the committee, caucus, or chapter that has authored and posted this notice.