American Studies Association
Canadian Association for American Studies:
Third Joint Annual Meeting

Going Public: Defining Public Culture(s) in the Americas

Day 1
Thursday, October 30, 1997


8:00 AM - 3:00 PM
BRYCE

Business Meeting of the ASA National Council


9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
COLUMBIA B

Pre-convention Workshop for American Studies Program Directors: Outreach and American Studies (Sponsored by the Committee on American Studies Programs)

CHAIR:
Deborah Dash-Moore, Department of Religious Studies, Vassar College
PANELISTS:
Sherry Linkon and John Russo, American Studies Program, Youngstown State University
Peter Leonard, Director of Field Work, Vassar College
Eric Sandeen, American Studies Program, University of Wyoming
COMMENT:
The Audience

Designed for Program Directors and Department Chairs, this workshop will address community outreach activities sponsored by American Studies programs and departments. Panelists will offer a survey of the range of such activities at their home institutions, including a detailed look at select projects and general reflections on the difficulties and opportunities of such enterprises. This session will allow American Studies administrators the opportunity to compare notes, exchange information of how to implement and develop outreach efforts, and provide perspectives on how specific institutional activities fit within the general project of American Studies. Results of information solicited directly from ASA members regarding the community outreach activities they sponsor will also be summarized during this workshop.


11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
COLUMBIA B

Pre-convention Workshop for American Studies Program Directors: American Studies and Ethnic Studies: Conflict/Collaboration/Synergy (Sponsored by the Committee on American Studies Programs)

CHAIR:
Sean Wilentz, American Studies Program, Princeton University
PANELISTS:
George Lipsitz, Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California, San Diego
Ramifornia, San, Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California, San Diego
Ruth Meyerowitz, Department of American Studies, State University of New York, Buffalo
Michael Frisch, Department of American Studies, State University of New York, Buffalo
COMMENTS:
The Audience

This session offers American Studies and Ethnic Studies program directors and faculty an opportunity to jointly discuss current relations between areas. Panelists will present brief statements on these relations as they have been reflected in the development of their programs and academic careers. We hope to encourage an open and honest discussion of the sources of conflict between American Studies and Ethnic Studies at some of our home institutions, and to discuss the potential for program collaboration. These are particularly critical issues at a time when both American Studies and Ethnic Studies programs are under severe budgetary threats and are often pitted against each other by college and university administrations.


1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
GRAND CANYON

Joint Business Meeting of the Minority Scholars' and Women's Committees


1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
COLUMBIA A

Public Trials and Cultural Tribulations: Courts and the Making of Meaning in Nineteenth-Century America

CHAIR:
Amy Gilman Srebnick, Department of History, Montclair State University
PAPERS:
Dawn Keetley, Department of English, North Carolina State University
Familicide and Insanity in the New Republic: The Case of Charles Brockden Brown's Wieland
Barbara Cutter, Department of History, Rutgers University
"Drunk with Murderous Longing": The Trials of Polly Bodine and the Problem of the "Respectable" Murderess in Antebellum America
Melissa J. Ganz, University of Pennsylvania Law School
Legal Storytelling in Nineteenth-Century America: Narrative and Gender in the McFarland-Richardson Trial
Cara W. Robertson, Clerk to Judge James Brown, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
In Limine: Evidentiary Ruling in the Trial of Lizzie Borden
COMMENT:
Amy Gilman Srebnick


1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
COLUMBIA B

Religion Addresses Public Issues

CHAIR:
Tracy Fessenden, Department of Religious Studies, Arizona State University
PAPER:
Carrie Tirado Bramen, Department of English, State University of New York, Buffalo
De-Privatizing Spirituality at the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions
Regina Bannan, American Studies Program, Temple University
Institution and Identity: The Y.W.C.A. and Public Space in the 1920s
Anthony B. Smith, Department of Religious Studies, University of Pittsburgh
Catholic Readers of Contemporary American Public Life
COMMENT:
Tracy Fessenden


1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
COLUMBIA C

Urban Spaces, Public Places: The City Planned, Played, and Preserved

CHAIR:
David Schuyler, American Studies Department, Franklin and Marshall College
PAPERS:
Mark Herlihy, Department of American Civilization, Brown University
A Beach for Boston: Creating, Contesting Revere Beach
Jeffrey Hyson, Department of History, Cornell University
The Urban Jungle: Zoos and American Society,
1916­1941
William Wright, Department of History, University of North Carolina
Building Preservation: Washington's Union Station after World War II
COMMENT:
Kathy Peiss, Department of History, University of Massachusetts
David Nasaw, Department of History, City University of New York


1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
COLUMBIA FOYER

From Public Intellectuals to Public Cultures of Dissent

CHAIR:
Bruce Robbins, Department of English, Rutgers University
PAPERS:
Jeffrey Williams, Department of English, East Carolina University
Name Recognition
Carol Stabile, Department of Communication, University of Pittsburgh
Pedagogues, Pedagogy and Public Struggle
Amitava Kumar, Department of English, University of Florida
Student Dissenters
COMMENT:
Michael Sprinker, Department of Comparative Literature, State University of New York, Stony Brook
Bruce Robbins


1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
CONCORD

Is American Studies an International Space? The Practice of American Studies in a Global Context

CHAIR:
Bernard Mergen, American Studies Department, George Washington University
PAPERS:
Mari Yoshihara, Department of American Studies, University of Hawaii, Manoa
Training to Be American? American Studies, Multiculturalism, and Professional Acculturation in U.S. Graduate Training
Uta Poiger, Department of History, University of Washington
"Americanization," "Race," and German History
Franck Aguado, Faculté des Langues/Centre d'Études et de Recherches sur l'Amérique du Nord, Université Lumière-Lyon 2, France
Cultural Conservatism, American Studies, and New Ideas in the French Academic Landscape and Beyond
Kathleen Franz, Department of American Civilization, Brown University
Teaching American Studies in Post-Soviet Ukraine
Yujin Yaguchi, Institute for Language and Culture Studies, Hokkaido University, Japan
Translating America: Authority, Representation, and Cultural Mediation in Teaching American Studies in Japan
COMMENTS:
Heinz Ickstadt, John-F.-Kennedy-Institut, Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany


1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
LEXINGTON

Public Sex, Sexual Public

CHAIR:
Martha Nell Smith, Department of English, University of Maryland
PAPERS:
Crystal Parikh, Department of English, University of Maryland
(Un) Articulate Sexualities: The Role of the Transnational in Asian-American Gay Formations
Bernie Heidkamp, Department of English, University of Maryland
No Place Like Home: The Demise of Manhood in Early American Utopian Fiction
Geoffrey Saunders Schramm, Department of English, University of Maryland
Getting Checked Out: The Sodomitic Space(s) of the Hotel in Dreiser's An American Tragedy
COMMENT:
Katherine Stubbs, Department of English, Colby College


1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
BUNKER HILL

Northern Reflections: Constituting Canadian Public(s)

CHAIR:
Zita Z. Dresner, Department of English, University of the District of Columbia
PAPERS:
Susan Adams, Department of Sociology, York University
Imagination: Comedic Constructions of Canadian Identity
Mary-Jo Nadeau, Department of Sociology, York University
"Give Me Something New!": Re-Imagining the Political Through Discourses of the Public
Katarzyna Rukszto, Department of Sociology, York University
Public Interactions: Identifying Canadian Pop Culture
Renuka Sooknanan, Department of Sociology, York University
Community Anti-Racist Activism and the Public Sphere: "Sinking the (Show)boat"
COMMENTS:
Zita Z. Dresner


1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
EVERGLADES

Food Fights: Struggles Over What We Eat and Who We Are

CHAIR:
Warren Belasco, American Studies Department, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
PAPERS:
Rafia Zafar, Department of English, University of Michigan
Domestic Advice, Racial Etiquette, and a Pinch of Salt: Three Nineteenth Century Black Home Economists
Amy Bentley, Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, New York University
Behind the Gerber Baby: Mothers, Babies, and the Infant Food Industry in the United States
Donna Gabaccia, Department of History, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
If We Are What We Eat, Who Are We?
COMMENT:
Susan Strasser, Independent Scholar, Takoma Park, Maryland


1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
YELLOWSTONE

The Black Man and the Sea: African-American Seafaring in the Nineteenth Century

CHAIR:
W. Jeffrey Bolster, Department of History, University of New Hampshire
PAPERS:
Julie Winch, Department of History, University of Massachusetts, Boston
The View from the Sail-Loft: James Forten and Philadelphia's Black Seafaring Community
Janet Harrison Shannon, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, Davidson College
He Has Long Wished to Go to Sea, Poor Fellow
Michael Sokolow, Department of History, Kingsboro Community College/CUNY
"I Should Like to Have You Try Your Hand At It": Race, Gender, and Black Seafaring
COMMENTS:
W. Jeffrey Bolster


1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
YOSEMITE

Bad Boys and Good Girls

CHAIR:
Louise Newman, Department of History, University of Florida
PAPERS:
Maude Hines, Program in Literature, Duke University
Making Americans: Dick and Jane in the Late Nineteenth Century
Crista DeLuzio, Department of American Civilization, Brown University
"The Adolescent Girl Among Primitive Peoples": Female Adolescence and the Emergence of the Culture Concept in American Anthropology, 1900­1930
Leslie Frost, Department of English, University of North Carolina
Wishing on a Star: Pinocchio's Journey from the Federal Theater Project to Disney's World
Rachel Devlin, Department of History, Tulane University
From Girl Scout to Glamour Girl: Coming of Age in Postwar America
COMMENT:
Louise Newman


1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
BALLROOM 1, WASHINGTON COURT

Gender, Race, and Empire in Jack London's Writings

CHAIR:
Gudrun Grabher, Department of American Studies, Innsbruck University
PAPERS:
Juniper Ellis, Department of English, Loyola CollegeMaryland
A Wreckage of Races in Jack London's South Pacific
Mark Simpson, Department of English, University of Alberta
From Laundry to Infirmary: Jack London and the Stains of Empire
Susan Kollin, Department of English, Montana State University
Jack London and the Ecologies of Whiteness
David Lott, Department of English, Montgomery College
"Red of Fang and Claw" vs "Little Hint of the Fighting Beast": Reverse Racial Stereotyping in Jack London's Coverage of the Jefferies/Johnson Bout
COMMENT:
Jonathan Auerbach, Department of English, University of Maryland


1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
BALLROOM 2, WASHINGTON COURT

Identifying the Body: The Gender Politics of Urban Gothic

CHAIR:
Jonathan Elmer, Department of English, Indiana University
PAPERS:
John Fredric Utz, American Studies Program, Yale University
Depraved New World: Sex and Violence in Urban Gothic
Fiction
David Anthony, Department of English, University of Michigan
Marketing Murder: Tabloid Masculinity and the Gothic Imaginary in Antebellum America
Jennifer Rae Greeson, American Studies Program, Yale University
Mysteries and Miseries of the Plantation: Urban Gothic and Antislavery Reform
COMMENTS:
Jonathan Elmer


1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
BALLROOM 3, WASHINGTON COURT

Mass Appeals: The Public Work of Women's Popular Fiction in
1790s, 1890s, and 1990s

CHAIR:
Stephanie Smith, Department of English, University of Florida
PAPERS:
Ellen Weinauer, Department of English, University of Southern Mississippi
Dangerous Publicity: Susanna Rowson and the New Female Reader
Allison Berg, Department of English, St Mary's College of Maryland
Speaking for and to a Collective Black Public: Pauline Hopkins and The Colored American Magazine
Kristina Brooks, Department of English, West Chester University
Crossing the Great Divide: From Popular to Elite in the Mysteries of Barbara Neely
COMMENTS:
Stephanie Smith


3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
COLUMBIA A

Mapping Contemporary Anxieties

CHAIR:
Gary Gerstle, Department of History, Catholic University
PAPERS:
Frieda Knobloch, American Studies Program, University of Wyoming
On the Ground: Seeing and Doing American Environmental Studies
Jaap Kooijman, Department of American Studies, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
"What if You Didn't Have to Worry About Health Care?" National Health Insurance as an Example of How a Public Interest Issue Becomes a Personalized One
Pamela G. Perry, Department of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley
Of Two Minds: White Youth, Multiculturalism, and Identity
Derek V. Price and Henry Rich, Department of Sociology, American University
Malls, Money, and Multiculturalism
COMMENT:
Gary Gerstle


3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
COLUMBIA B

"Acting Respectable": Race, Gender, and the Welfare State

CHAIR:
Eileen Boris, Department of History, Howard University
PAPERS:
Premilla Nadasen, Department of History, Columbia University
From Widow to "Welfare Queen": The Changing Discourse of Welfare Policy, 1935­1975
Nancy A. Naples, Department of Sociology, University of California, Irvine
Contradictions of the State: Anti-Poverty Policies from the War on Poverty to the Impoverished State
Amy Jordan-Rahman, Department of History, University of Michigan
Finding a Place in the Organizing Tradition: Race, Gender, Welfare Rights, and the Politics of Respectability, 1960­1980
Frances Rivera, Department of Political Science, University of Michigan
What is Political? Puerto Rican Women in the National Welfare Rights Movement, 1966­1974
COMMENTS:
Gwendolyn Mink, Board of Politics, University of California, Santa Cruz
Eileen Boris


3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
COLUMBIA C

An All-Consuming Fashion: Dressing Up for Faith, Nationalism, and Gender in American Popular Culture

CHAIR:
Claudia Brush Kidwell, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
PAPERS:
Diane Winston, Center for Study of American Religion, Princeton University
Worn Religion: The Salvation Army Uniform,
1880­1918
Jean Marie Lutes, Department of English, University of Wisconsin
Making Up Race: The African-American "Beauty Expert" as Heroine in the 1920s
Elizabeth Hillman, Yale University School of Law
"Dress Right Dress": Uniforms, Servicewomen, and Fashion During World War II
Kathryn A. Johnson, Department of History, University of Pennsylvania
"It's a Sin to be a Baby Doll": Catholic Girls and their Fashion Choices
COMMENT:
Claudia Brush Kidwell


3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
COLUMBIA FOYER

Politics, Gender, and the Public Cultures of Film

CHAIR:
Jeanne Thomas Allen, Department of Film and Media Arts, Temple University
PAPERS:
Mike Budd, Department of Communication, Florida Atlantic University
Film Censorship and Public Cultures: The National Board of Review and Women's Voluntary Associations, 1909­1950
Jennifer Frost, Department of History, University of Northern Colorado
Hedda Hopper and the Politics of Movie Fan Culture
Ellen Baker, Department of History, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Salt of the Earth and American Cultural Politics during the Cold War
COMMENT:
Andrea S. Friedman, Department of History, Washington University


3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
CONCORD

It's A Girl Thing: Girls' Identities and Twentieth Century American Popular Culture

CHAIR:
Linda Christian-Smith, Department of Curriculum Studies and Instruction, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh
PAPERS:
Norma Pecora, School of Telecommunications, Ohio University and Sharon R. Mazzarella, Department of Television-Radio, Ithaca College
Gilligan Revisited: The Review of Research on Gender and Adolescent Identity
Mary McComb, American Studies Department, George Washington University
Prescribing Popularity: Peers, Polls, and Expert Visions of Gender in Depression-Era Advice Manuals
Debra Merskin, School of Journalism and Communication, University of Oregon
It'll Be Our Little Secret: Adolescence, Advertising, and the Menstrual Taboo
Amy Bowles-Reyer, American Studies Department, George Washington University
Girl Power: Feminism and Female Adolescent Sexual Identity in Young Adult Literature of the 1970s
COMMENT:
Linda Christian-Smith


3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
LEXINGTON

Lesbian and Gay Public(ity): History, Identity, Neighborhood, and Community

CHAIR:
Rose Gladney, Department of American Studies, University of Alabama
PAPERS:
Brett Beemyn, American Studies Program, University of Iowa
The New Negro Renaissance: A Bisexual Renaissance
Kathy Rudy, Women's Studies Program, Duke University
Sex Radical Communities and the Future of Sexual Ethics
Nan Alamilla Boyd, Women's Studies Program, University of Colorado
San Francisco's Valencia Corridor
John Howard, Department of History, Duke University
"I Am Not, Never Have Been, and Never Will Be a Homosexual": The Strange Career of Jon Hinson
COMMENT:
Rose Gladney


3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
BUNKER HILL

"Takin' It To the Streets": American Studies and the Wider World

CHAIR:
Suzanne E. Smith, Department of History, George Mason University
PAPERS:
David W. Stowe, Graduate School of American Studies, Doshisha University, Japan
Justifying American Studies in Japan: One Case Study
Jessica Johnston, American Studies Department, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
Applying American Studies in a Global Economy: Case Study--New Zealand
Bruce Levy, Department of English, Southern Methodist University
Praxis Makes Perfect: Localism as Social Action in a Community-Based Learning Curriculum
Jeff Sellen, Environmental Projects Program, Washington State University
Finding a Place for Environmental Service-Learning
Elisa Forgey, Department of History, University of Pennsylvania
Academically-Based Community Service and the Production of Collaborative Knowledge
COMMENTS:
The Audience


3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
EVERGLADES

African-American Comic Art: The Humor of Marginalization

CHAIR:
M. Thomas Inge, Humanities, Randolph-Macon College
PAPERS:
David Lionel Smith, Dean of the Faculty, Williams College
Race and Krazy Kat
Shelley Armitage, Women's Studies Program, University of Texas, El Paso
Jackie Ormes: Visualizing Feminist Creativity
Christine G. McKay, Independent Scholar, Brooklyn, New York
Ollie Harrington's Dark Laughter in Exile
COMMENT:
M. Thomas Inge


3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
YELLOWSTONE

Transforming Politics Between the Wars

CHAIR:
James B. Gilbert, Department of History, University of Maryland
PAPERS:
Christopher Thomas, Department of the History of Art, University of Victoria
The Lincoln Memorial, Metaphor of Republicanism
Lisa Marcus, Department of English, Pacific Lutheran University
The Public Spectacle of the Jew: Racial Quotas and Fictions of Jewishness in the 1920s
Scott Alan Zimmerman, American Studies Program, University of Minnesota
Theatre of the Observed: Living Newspapers and Public Discourse, 1935­1939
COMMENT:
James B. Gilbert


3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
YOSEMITE

The Many Languages of the United States: Recovering Silenced
Public Cultures

CHAIR:
Orm Øverland, Department of English, University of Bergen, Norway
PAPERS:
Caryn Cossé Bell, Department of History, Worcester State College
Protest and Idealism in the French Language: Literary Works of Afro-Creole Louisianians, 1837­1896
Dag Blanck, Center for Multiethnic Research, Uppsala University, Sweden
Shaping a Swedish-American Public Culture: The Role of Ethnic Identities
Peter Conolly-Smith, The DeVry Institute
The Ersatz-Kultur of Adolf Philipp: Ethnic (Self-) Parody and the Decline of New York's German-Language Theater, 1895­1918
Karen Majewski, Department of English, St Mary's College
The Politics of Polishness in the United States: American Literature in Polish Before WWII
COMMENT:
Matthew Frye Jacobson, American Studies Program, Yale University


3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
BALLROOM 1, WASHINGTON COURT

Public Space and Male Racial and Sexual Identities, 1900­1960

CHAIR:
Hazel Carby, African and Afro-American Studies Program, Yale University
PAPERS:
Jayna Brown, American Studies, Yale University
"We'll Build a Broadway in Dahomey": The Primitive and the Civilized in 1900's Black Musical Comedy
Martin Summers, Department of History, New Jersey Institute of Technology
The "Respectable" and the "Damned": Leisure and the Constructions of Middle-class Black Masculinity During the Jazz Age
Stephen Robertson, American Bar Foundation, Chicago
Separating the Men from the Boys: Masculinity, Sex Crime, and the Prism of Age, 1937­1960
COMMENTS:
Elsa Barkley Brown, Department of History, University of Maryland


3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
BALLROOM 2, WASHINGTON COURT

Other Intellectuals and Their Publics

CHAIR:
Andrew Hoberek, Department of English, University of Chicago
PAPERS:
Christopher Newfield, Department of English, University of California, Santa Barbara
Cultural Trainers of the Corporation
Candace Vogler, Department of Philosophy, University of Chicago
Reclaiming "Class," Critiquing "Race," and Arming the
People: Yeshitelism in Practice
Stacey Olster, Department of English, State University of New York, Stony Brook
"Two People Who Didn't Argue, Except Over the Use of the Subjunctive": Jean Harris and the Scarsdale Diet Doctor Murder
COMMENT:
Andrew Hoberek


3:30 PM - 5:30 PM
BALLROOM 3, WASHINGTON COURT

American Public Religions

CHAIR:
David W. Noble, American Studies Program, University of Minnesota
PAPERS:
Nancy G. Isenberg, Department of History, University of Northern Iowa
Is Public Religion a Misnomer? Feminist Theories of Religion and Public Culture
Mark Hulsether, Department of Religious Studies, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Bill Graham, Billy Graham and the Religious Left: Why American Studies Should Pay More Attention to Public Religions
Jay Mechling, American Studies Program, University of California, Davis
Rethinking (and Reteaching) the Civil Religion in Post-National American Studies
COMMENTS:
The Audience


5:00 PM - 6:15 PM
CONFERENCE THEATRE

Business Meeting of the Material Culture Caucus/Visual Culture Caucus

This is a business meeting for a material culture/visual culture studies network and interest group within the American Studies Association. All students or professionals working in, or interested in, material culture studies are invited to attend. The Caucus would like to extend a special invitation to students and professionals in art history and visual culture to attend this meeting to discuss our mutual interests.


6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
SEQUOIA

Business Meeting of the Electronic Projects and Publications Committee


6:15 PM - 7:30 PM
CONFERENCE THEATRE

Business Meeting of the Visual Culture­Art History Caucus

This is a business meeting for a visual culture studies network and interest group within the American Studies Association. All students or professionals working in, or interested in, visual culture studies are invited to attend. The Caucus would like to extend a special invitation to students and professionals in material culture studies to attend this meeting to discuss our mutual interests.


7:30 PM - 8:15 PM
TICONDEROGA/YORKTOWN/VALLEY FORGE

Awards Ceremony for ASA Prize Recipients

PRESIDING:
Janice Radway, Program in Literature, Duke University, and President-elect of American Studies Association

Presentation of the 1997 Bode-Pearson Prize for outstanding contributions to American Studies, the 1997 John Hope Franklin Publication Prize for the best book in American Studies, the 1997 Ralph Henry Gabriel Prize for the best dissertation in American Studies, the 1997 Constance Rourke Prize for the best article in American Quarterly, the 1997 Mary C. Turpie Prize for outstanding teaching, advising, and program development in American Studies, the 1997 Wise-Susman Prize for the best student paper at the convention, and the Annette K. Baxter Travel Awards to provide travel assistance to outstanding graduate students on the program.


8:15 PM - 9:30 PM
TICONDEROGA/YORKTOWN/VALLEY FORGE

President's Address

SPEAKER:
Mary Helen Washington, Department of English, University of Maryland, and President of the American Studies Association
Disturbing the Peace


9:30 PM - 12:30 AM
COLUMBIA A/B/C

President's Reception and Harvest Dance


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