Category Archives: American Studies

Application Support from the TheGradCafe

July 15, 2011 – 8:47 am

If you are thinking about applying to Grad School in the U.S. you need all the help you can get. There is always the literature and the EducationUSA advising centers to rely on, but there really isnt anything as powerful as the community of people who have applied before. Those who have gone through the same process as you have will know best. Thats just a fact. They have the most up-to-date information and know from experience everything from deadlines to the GRE-score it takes to get into Harvard. A good place to connect with that anonymous bunch, at least virtually, is the TheGradCafe.com. read more »

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ASA Publishes Program for Annual Meeting

July 1, 2011 – 8:50 am
Business Neworking Presentation, Paris

alexdecarvalho via Flickr

One of the special treats of the American Studies year is the annual meeting of the American Studies Association, something that you shouldn’t miss if you are in the area – or if your school covers the travel expense. I like conferences in general, they give you a good idea of whats happening in the field and you get to talk to lots of smart and interesting individuals, plus the food is usually (but not always) quite exquisite. Today, the ASA published the program for the upcoming annual conference in Baltimore in October. Since there are literally hundreds of workshops and sessions, the program is searchable online and reveals some very exciting stuff. In general, the trends continue to go towards topics such as queer politics, diasporas, and aesthetics; labor and class studies; humor, popular culture and material culture; music and sound; religion, religious embodiment, and the politics of religion. read more »

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Some Advice on Publishing

June 21, 2011 – 3:23 pm

keyboardphoto © 2007 Aleksandar Cocek | more info (via: Wylio)The earlier you publish the better. So once you start your academic career, look out for opportunities to do so. Ask professors, older graduate students, subscribe to listservs on H-Net and simply be ready to take every opportunity you can get. And be ready to start at the bottom. Intern at a publishing company over the summer, try to get an assistantship with a journal or an academic press at your institution, and offer your services to the countless journals devoted to promoting graduate students. You could also gather your fellow grad students and start your own journal. Impossible? Well, since 1999, the e-journal “49th Parallel” is published at the University of Birmingham, run almost exclusively by graduate students and almost certainly waiting for YOUR contribution: http://www.49thparallel.bham.ac.uk/
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