[ General Information | Thursday, October 16 | Friday, October 17 | Saturday, October 18 | Sunday, October 19 | Table of Contents ]
8:00 - 10:00 AM
The Challenge to University Administration: Understanding Interdisciplinary Departments and Cross-Departmental Programs in the Humanities (Roundtable)
Sponsored by the Committee on American Studies Programs, this roundtable discussion will focus on the administrative issues unique to interdisciplinary departments and cross-departmental programs. The Committee on American Studies Programs feels that this is an especially opportune moment for such a discussion, with several American Studies programs being up for review this year and with the recent decision by the National Research Council to begin ranking American Studies Programs. Roundtable participants include: Barry Shank, Simon Bronner, Johnella Butler, Michael Cowan, and Cathy Davidson.
6:00 - 7:30 PM
Special Session: Rethinking W.E.B. Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk, 1903-2003
A hundred years ago W.E.B. Du Bois issued a challenge that takes on urgent new meanings today: "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line,-the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea." On the centennial of the publication of The Souls of Black Folk, this interdisciplinary critical panel will discuss its significance in a variety of national and transnational arenas. Panelists will consider the connection of Souls to Du Bois's other work, the reasons for its canonization, and the relations between Du Bois's writing and activism, scholarship, and pedagogy, in range of political, literary and historical contexts. Chaired by Nellie McKay, the panel includes Nahum Chandler, Vilashini Coopan, Adolph Reed, and Stephanie Shaw.
7:30 - 9:00 PM
Minority Scholars' Committee, the Women's Committee, and the Queer Caucus Reception
The Minority Scholars' Committee, the Women's Committee and the Queer Caucus invite you to attend a reception at the ASA annual meeting in Hartford. Please come to eat, drink, and network. Pre-registration is required: $15 for members, $8 for students, $5 for international scholars.
8:30 - 9:30 PM
Readings by Roberta Hill & Jeffery Renard Allen
Roberta J. Hill [formerly Whiteman] (Oneida) is a Professor of English and American Indian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a poet, fiction writer and scholar. Hill is the author of two collections of poetry, Star Quilt (Holy Cow! Press, 1984, and a fifteenth anniversary edition due out this year) and Philadelphia Flowers (Holy Cow! Press, 1996). Her poetry recently appeared in The American Indian Culture and Research Journal, The Beloit Poetry Journal, Luna and Prairie Schooner. Her manuscript, Dr. Lillie Rosa Minoka-Hill, Mohawk Woman Doctor, will be published by the University of Nebraska Press. The biography explores the creation of Native American identity, the training and practice of an American Indian woman physician, the legacy of traumas, and argues for a new form for portraying the complexity of Dr. Minoka-Hill's life story. Her current project is a work of historical fiction.
Born in Chicago in 1962, Jeffery Renard Allen earned a Ph.D. in English (Creative Writing) from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is currently an Associate Professor or English at Queens College of the City University of New York and an instructor in the graduate writing program at The New School for Social Research. He has published two books to date, Harbors and Spirits (Asphodel Press/Moyer Bell 1999), a collection of poems, and the novel, Rails Under My Back (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux 2000), which won The Chicago Tribune's Heartland Prize for fiction. He has won several awards among which have been the Whiting Writer's Award and the Chicago Public Library's Twenty-first Century Award. He is currently completing work on four new books: Stellar Places, his second collection of poems, Bread and the Land, a book of short stories, Radar Country, a short novel, and the longer novel Hour of the Seeds.
7:30 - 9:30 AM
Networking Breakfast for American Studies/Ethnic Studies Program Directors
Please note that the Networking Breakfast for Program Directors requires a ticket. Early reservations are advised because tickets are available in limited quantities. Tickets may be purchased when attendees pre-register, as noted on the pre-registration form, or at the registration desk upon arrival at the Hartford Civic Center. No tickets will be sold after 5:00 PM, Thursday, October 16, 2003. All tickets are $15.00.
9:30 PM - 12:30 AM
The President's Dance Party: Ray Gonzalez and His Orquesta
Ray Gonzalez and His Orquesta is New England's most popular Latin Orquesta, comprised of nine professional musicians and three singers. The ensemble's repertoire highlights Afro-Antilles rhythms such as Salsa, Merengue, Qumbia, Bolero and Latin Jazz. Ray Gonzalez trained in music and education at the University of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music and directs his own orchestra, Orchestra Versatil, which travels throughout New England and Puerto Rico. He is the director and instructor of music at Guarkiarte School of Creative Art in Hartford. He has held music director positions with the University of Turabo, the Festival de la Voz y la Canion Latino-americana, and the Hartford Arts and Civic Festivals. Mr. Gonzalez has also taught at Fulgencio Pinero Elementary School in Puerto Rico and the Music School of Caguas. In 1990, the Hartford Symphony Orchestra commissioned him to compose Fiesta Musical with the symphony and Orchestra Versatil. The following year, he composed and arranged Latin American music for a special collaborative concert Serenata Latina, with the symphony and his orchestra. In 1996, Musical Productions in Puerto Rico contracted Mr. Gonzalez to produce the music for promotional recording for Mimi Ibarra, a Colombian salsa singer.
7:00 - 9:00 AM
Women's Breakfast
Please note that the Breakfast for Women in American Studies requires a ticket. Early reservations are advised because tickets are available in limited quantities. Tickets may be purchased when attendees pre-register, as noted on the pre-registration form, or at the registration desk upon arrival at the Hartford Civic Center. No tickets will be sold after 5:00 PM, Thursday, October 16, 2003. (Tickets are $15 for regular members, $8 for students, $5 for international scholars.)
This year the Breakfast for Women in American Studies (sponsored by the ASA Women's Committee) welcomes Hazel Carby from the Department of African American Studies at Yale University as guest speaker.
8:00 AM - 5:45 PM
Focus On Teaching Day
Saturday, October 18, 2003, the Committee on Secondary Schools will present a series of four sessions aimed at both secondary school practitioners of American Studies and collegiate-level American Studies scholars interested in pedagogy and in strengthening ties between the two education levels. These sessions are crossover workshops that deal with issues of interest to both secondary school and university faculty, in order to highlight the classroom issues we share, as well as to acknowledge our differences. Focus on Teaching Day offers ASA members substantive discussions and debates about curriculum design and teaching practices. For Focus on Teaching Day registration forms and luncheon reservations go to the American Studies Association website, www.theasa.net, or contact the American Studies Association, 1120 19th Street, NW, Suite 301, Washington, DC 20036; phone: (202) 467-4783; fax: (202) 467-4786; email: annualmeeting@theasa.net.
8:00 - 9:45 AM
It's Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School10:00 - 11:45 AM
Youth and Queer Violence in the Schools12:00 - 1:45 PM
Focus on Teaching Day Luncheon: "Teaching 'Vietnam' as 21st-Century American Matrix" by H. Bruce Franklin2:00 - 3:45 PM
Feeding Community, Teaching Ourselves: Placing Local Agriculture in Connecticut's Classrooms4:00 - 5:45 PM
Schools and Hometowns Belonging to Each Other: Building and Sustaining the New England Community Heritage Project
6:00 - 7:30 PM
Plenary Session: The State of War
At the turn of the 21st century, the United States emerged as the world's only superpower. Globalization, terrorism, violent civil wars, and a re-figured imperialism: these realities have structured the multiple wars that the United States is now fighting, at home and abroad. This panel addresses the militant assertion of U.S. power in Iraq and elsewhere, the attacks on civil rights and immigrants at home, the impact of racism and nationalism, and the struggles of social movements within the U.S. to articulate dissent and wage peace. How can we as scholars, teachers, artists, and public intellectuals foster political engagement and critical debate in a transnational public sphere? These questions will be addressed by Tariq Ali, Michael Bérubé, Judith Butler and Cheryl Harris.
9:00 - 10:00 PM
Special Performance: Michael S. Harper & Paul Austerlitz
This inviting interdisciplinary performance on Saturday evening will feature the collaboration of poet Michael Harper and musician Paul Austerlitz. A poet of great range and sensitivity, Michael Harper teaches in the English department at Brown University and is the author of several collections of poetry including Dear John, Dear Coltrane and Images of Kin, both of which were nominated for the National Book Award. Paul Austerlitz is a reed player, composer and ethnomusicologist who also teaches at Brown University and has worked with musicians such as Doc Cheatham, Julius Hemphill, and Dave Obeng. Harper and Austerlitz have been performing together for a number of years, composing and improvising novel fusions of and dialogues between music and language. This is a rare opportunity to see and hear two significant artists from different disciplines engage one another in alchemic artistry.
Please note that the Special Performance requires a ticket. Early reservations are advised because tickets are available in limited quantities. Tickets may be purchased when attendees pre-register, as noted on the pre-registration form, or at the registration desk upon arrival at the Hartford Civic Center. All tickets are $15.
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