2021-2022 Graduate Handbook
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A M E R I C A N S T U D I E S D E P A R T M E N T S A I N T L O U I S U N I V E R S I T Y G R A D U A T E H A N D B O O K 2 0 2 1 – 2 0 2 2 Table of Contents SECTION I. ABOUT AMERICAN STUDIES AT SLU 1: Welcome to the Department 3 2: Faculty and Staff Contact Information 4 3. Graduate Student Profiles 5 4. History of American Studies at SLU 16 5. Ongoing Department Events 20 SECTION II. GRADUATE DEGREE REQUIREMENTS 6. Requirements for MA in American Studies 26 7. Requirements for Accelerated BA/MA in American Studies 29 8. Requirements for MA-to-PhD in American Studies 33 9. Requirements for Graduate Certificate in American Studies 39 10. Translation Exam Guidelines 41 11. Dissertation Proposal Guidelines 42 12. Student Responsibilities and Annual Graduate Student Review 44 SECTION III. ASSISTANTSHIPS AND RESEARCH FUNDING 13. Departmental Graduate Assistantship and Fellowship Information 47 14. American Studies Alumni Research Fund 50 15. SLU Dissertation Fellowship: American Studies Nomination Procedure 52 16. Internal Funding Opportunities for American Studies Graduate Students 54 SECTION IV. FURTHER STUDENT RESOURCES 17. Graduate Internships in American Studies 58 18. Directory of Campus Resources 59 19. Selected Professional Resources 63 Appendix: SLU American Studies Dissertations, 1965–Present 66 2 SECTION I ABOUT AMERICAN STUDIES AT SLU 3 1. Welcome to the Department Welcome to the graduate program in American Studies at Saint Louis University! Our department is committed to excellence and originality in research, teaching, and service. Together, we work towards these goals by building strong mentoring relationships, establishing dynamic and innovative classroom experiences, and disseminating research through conferences, workshops, exhibits, and publications. Our graduate students enter our programs with a variety of interests, skills, backgrounds, and professional histories. This is a strength of our interdisciplinary community. At the same time, graduate student cohorts move together through a rigorous curriculum designed to ground their efforts in a common experience and frame of reference. This handbook serves as an outline of expectations, requirements, and policies regarding your coursework and degree work. Your faculty cohort advisor will go over these with you, and we keep a copy of the most recent handbook on our website. You should also keep this handbook as a reference as you proceed through the program. Both the Office of Graduate Education and the Department of American Studies can make policy changes, so we update this handbook almost every year. Should a major change be made after your first year, you will almost always be offered the option either to follow the new policies or to adhere to the ones from your year of entry. No doubt you will have questions as you move through your program, but advising and support are easy to find. All incoming students are advised by a faculty cohort advisor until they choose their faculty advisor. For MA students, this is normally by the end of their first year; for doctoral students, this is normally by the end of their second year. Graduate students who begin to teach their own courses will also work with the Department’s Pedagogy Mentor. You will routinely receive feedback from the faculty members who teach your courses, who mentor you as a graduate assistant, and, later on, who serve on your committee. Should you choose to complete an internship, the faculty Internship Supervisor will support that process. In addition, all incoming students are assigned a peer mentor to help ease the transition to graduate school. In short, each member of our American Studies community—staff, faculty, undergraduate and graduate students—will try to answer your questions, prod your thinking in new directions, and develop your skills. We are very happy to have you here, and we look forward to our work together in the years to come. Welcome to the department. 4 2. Faculty and Staff Contact Information Heidi Ardizzone, PhD (she/her) Flannery Burke, PhD (she/her) Associate Professor Associate Professor (joint w/History) Pedagogy Mentor Internship Supervisor 242 Adorjan Hall 215 Adorjan Hall [email protected] [email protected] (314) 977-7212 314-977-2904 Benjamin Looker, PhD (he/him) Emily Lutenski, PhD (she/her) Associate Professor Associate Professor Undergraduate Coordinator Department Chair 112 Adorjan Hall 131 Adorjan Hall [email protected] [email protected] (314) 977-3008 (314) 977-3516 Kate Moran, PhD (she/her) Terri L. Foster (she/her) Associate Professor Administrative Assistant Graduate Coordinator 131 Adorjan Hall 105 Adorjan Hall [email protected] [email protected] (314) 977-2911 | cell: (314) 465-3000 (314) 977-4150 Emeriti Faculty American Studies Subject Librarian Matthew J. Mancini, PhD Jamie Emery, MS (she/her/hers) Professor Emeritus (retired 2017) Research & Instruction Librarian/ [email protected] Professor [email protected] Elizabeth Kolmer, ASC, PhD (314) 977-3591 Professor Emerita (retired 2004) Remote work number: (314) 325-6111 Lawrence F. Barmann, PhD Professor Emeritus (retired 2002) 5 3. Graduate Student Profiles Here, the term “PhD student” refers to all students who have been accepted into programs culminating in receipt of a PhD, including those still formally in the MA phase of the MA-to-PhD program. “PhD candidate” refers to PhD students who have passed their comprehensive exams. Beatrice Beirne Combined BA/MA student | she/her [email protected] I am in my second year of the American Studies MA program. In 2021, I received my BA in American Studies and Political Science (with minors in Communication and Political Journalism) from Saint Louis University. I am now studying how American experiences are expressed through political actions, with a focus on public art and political movements. I am particularly interested in the topics of labor rights and workers’ justice movements in cultural elements, including fashion, photography, and protest imagery. In May of 2021, I completed my undergraduate capstone titled “For Work, for Rest, for Selfies: Solidarity Portraiture and Capitalist Photography in Post-Automation America.” My research explored the use of photography as a tool of both oppression and resistance in American workplaces. After grad school, I am interested in pursuing a career in advocacy and public policy. Michael Brickey PhD candidate | he/him [email protected] Dissertation working title: “Down to the Wire: Cultures of Energy, Politics of Infrastructure, and Energy Justice in the American Midwest since the 1970s” I study United States cultures of the 20th and 21st centuries with a focus on the culture and political economies of place. My research interests fall primarily at the interdisciplinary intersection of urban and environmental studies, but also cultural geography, critical race, ethnic, and Indigenous studies, and the energy humanities. My dissertation project will examine the politics of 6 climate change, cultures of energy, and various entanglements over place in the American Midwest. I have a BA in Political Science with a Geography minor from the University of Missouri, an MA in history from San Diego State University, and an MA in American Studies from St. Louis University. In 2019, I helped to co-found the Graduate Public Humanities Working Group at SLU, a volunteer, student-run organization open to all graduate students in the humanities and social sciences with interest in the broad and diverse field of Public Humanities. Aretha D. Butler PhD candidate [email protected] Dissertation working title: “On the Front Lines: Culture Wars in the Era of Black Lives Matter, 2012–2018” I am a doctoral student, originally from the Bronx, New York, and began at SLU in Fall 2012. I am also pursuing a graduate minor in Women’s and Gender Studies at SLU. I attended DePauw University from 2005 to 2009 as a Posse Scholar and majored in Black Studies and Women’s Studies. After graduating from DePauw, I taught middle-school math in New York City as a Teach for America corps member. My current research interests include black popular culture, transnational studies, and critical race theory and race in post–civil rights America. Victoria Cannon PhD candidate | she/her/hers [email protected] Dissertation working title: “Between Visits: Twentieth-Century Tourism on the US/Mexico Border” I am currently a PhD candidate, after having received my Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy (with a minor in History) in 2015 from the University of Arizona. My interests include leisure culture, recreation, and tourism, especially in the twentieth-century American West. 7 Gregory Carr PhD student [email protected] I am a local St. Louis historian and PhD student in American Studies. My interests are in urban history and Black political activism. I have been studying the life and works of Martin Luther King, Jr. since graduate school and I am very interested in researching his influence on the ecumenical community in St. Louis. King spoke at Temple Israel (now the Missouri History Museum Archives), Christ Church Cathedral, Washington Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, and lastly, at Saint Louis University. His presence in St. Louis ranged from a casual breakfast with a former Morehouse classmate to addressing an interracial audience one day before he was given the Nobel Peace Prize. Bryonie Carter PhD candidate [email protected] Dissertation working title: “Rune-Maker, Majic–Maker, Traveler: The Mystical Tourism of H.D. and Her Circle” My research interests include modernism, feminist theories, mythology, and transnational literature. Currently, I am an Associate Professor of English and Chair of the Service- Learning and Civic Engagement Program at Saint Charles Community College.