Episodes
Tuesday Nov 09, 2021
Episode 012 - Black American coming-of-age fiction (w/ Adam Dawson)
Tuesday Nov 09, 2021
Tuesday Nov 09, 2021
This week, Will and Sarah talk to Adam Dawson, who recently submitted his PhD in American Studies at University of East Anglia. Adam looks at Black American coming-of-age fiction, with an emphasis on YA literature. Here, Adam discusses his recent conference paper on Toni Morrison's Jazz, his love for Colson Whitehead's Sag Habour, and the weight that's been lifted following his thesis submission.
Wednesday Oct 20, 2021
Episode 011 - The Republican Party and Civil War Memory (w/ Tim Galsworthy)
Wednesday Oct 20, 2021
Wednesday Oct 20, 2021
This week, Will and Sarah chat to Tim Galsworthy, a PhD student in American History at the University of Sussex, whose research examines the role of Civil War memory in the historic and contemporary Republican Party. Tim was the recipient of the 2021 BAAS Peter Parish award, which enabled him to hire a research assistant at the Library of Congress. In this episode, Tim talks about this process and how it proved invaluable to his research.
Friday Jul 09, 2021
Friday Jul 09, 2021
This week, Will chats to Carl White, a third-year PhD student at University of Leeds, whose work looks at neoliberalism and financialization in contemporary American literature. From Jennifer Egan to David Foster Wallace, Carl explores how post-70s American capitalism has flattened temporalities, manipulated social mores, and created narratologically innovative novels in American culture.
Monday May 17, 2021
009 - Animals, Automobiles, and Road Narratives (w/ Danny Bowman)
Monday May 17, 2021
Monday May 17, 2021
This week, Will speaks to third-year PhD researcher Danny Bowman at University of Sheffield, whose work encompasses the relationship between animals and automotive culture in America. Looking at the great industrial shifts occurring at the peak of modernity, Bowman considers how the car reoriented national ideologies and altered the American relationship with the natural world.
Thursday Apr 08, 2021
008 - Polarization, Congressional Primaries and Fake News (w/ Mike Cowburn)
Thursday Apr 08, 2021
Thursday Apr 08, 2021
This week, Will talks to Mike Cowburn, a political scientist at Freie Universität Berlin on his research into American voting habits. Mike looks at everything from bipartisanship, polarisation, ideological cleavages, and 'Fake News' in the social media age. He also discusses his new co-authored paper and what remote research has looked like for him in Berlin.
Friday Feb 26, 2021
Friday Feb 26, 2021
This week, Will chats to Georgia Vesma (University of Manchester) and Sarah Collier (University College London) who are researching women photographers in Vietnam and issues of masculinity in the Iraq war, respectively.
They also share their honest thoughts and feelings about life during the pandemic, about obstacles they've had to overcome, and how managing our workloads is vital to staying healthy and happy.
Tuesday Feb 02, 2021
006 - Age, Power and Narrative in Post-1970 America (w/ Danielle Cameron)
Tuesday Feb 02, 2021
Tuesday Feb 02, 2021
This week, Will chats to 2nd-year PhD student Danielle Cameron (University of East Anglia) about her research into age, power, and narrative in post-1970 American literature. Focusing on writers such as Colson Whitehead, Don DeLillo, Paul Auster, and Jennifer Egan, Danielle looks at how childhood, adulthood, and old age collide and come undone in the American city space.
Discussing her undergrad research on 'monstrous adolescents' through to her MA research into children's literature, Danielle also offers warm advice to new PhDs about how to stay on track and keep going.
Friday Dec 04, 2020
Friday Dec 04, 2020
In this episode, Will chats to Rob Fitt (PhD in American History at University of Birmingham) and Dr. Michael Docherty) about their intersection research interests in Los Angeles, frontiers, American mythmaking, and all things in-between. They also share a bit about what life has been like researching during 2020.
*Please excuse any audio issues - remote recording during the current pandemic makes such errors inevitable!*
Wednesday Nov 25, 2020
004 - Eyes on Events - PG BAAS 2020
Wednesday Nov 25, 2020
Wednesday Nov 25, 2020
In this episode, USSO's events editor Emily Brady follows up on the great work being undertaken by Molly Becker and Jennifer dos Reis dos Santos as they gear up for launching the BAAS Postgraduate Conference 2020 on Saturday 28th November.
Thursday Nov 19, 2020
003 - Eyes on Events - Kent Americanists Symposium
Thursday Nov 19, 2020
Thursday Nov 19, 2020
In this episode, USSO's events editor Emily Brady chats to Jack Dice about the upcoming Kent Americanist Symposium 'The Spatial America' taking place on Saturday 21st November. Find out about the history of this symposium series, and what to expect on the day, in this interview.