THE AMERICAN CULTURES AND POLITICS RESEARCH CLUSTER ACAP UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS / DAVIS HUMANITIES INSTITUTE / SPRING 2011 / VOLUME 01 History, Historiography, Fiction Eric Rauchway kicks of the 2010 -2011 year for ACAP “Are there certain kinds of problems one would like to solve that one can best solve through fiction; are there certain kinds of historical problems for which a fictional narrative is the best ‘explanatory strategy?’” This was one of the key questions asked – and answered with an entertaining and resounding “Yes!” – by Eric Rauchway, Professor of History at UC Davis, who delivered ACAP’s Fall Lecture to a room of undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty members from across campus. Speaking on “History, Historiography, and Fiction,” Rauchway traced the rise of the seething American elite satirized in his debut novel, Banana Republican. After a brief reading from his novel, which follows The Great Gatsby’s Tom Buchanan on “fictional” imperial adventures in late-1920s Nicaragua, Rauchway gave a wide-ranging account of the intellectual and professional questions raised by his turn to a mode of writing so ostensibly different from his previously published work as a historian. 2 The Cognitive Response to Threat: Just World Beliefs and Americans' Views of Global Warming EVENT What: Robb Willer, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, presents his research on the skepticism of global warming in American culture HOW DOES THE RHETORIC OF GLOBAL WARMING INFLUENCE SKEPTICISM IN THE AMERICAN PUBLIC? ROBB WILLER EXPLORES When: THIS ISSUE IN HIS UPCOMING TALK ON MAY 11. Willer will present two projects on the dynamics underlying Americans' May 11th at 3:10pm environmental attitudes. The first examines the possibility that the potentially dire consequences of global warming threaten individuals' deeply held beliefs Where: that the world is just, orderly, and stable. The second project explores the relationship between political ideology and moralization of the environment. In Andrews Conference this talk, Willer will present the results of studies designed to test both ideas and Room, SSH Building he will discuss the implications for the future of environmental consciousness in America. Portions of this work have been featured in Nature, The New York Times, the Interested in Washington Post, Time, NPR’s Marketplace, and Scientific American. Please join ACAP on May 11 for what will be a thought-provoking and open becoming discussion with Professor Willer. more involved ACAP Website Coming Soon! in ACAP? ACAP's new website, linked to the DHI, will launch in a few weeks. The website will give members a place to go for information about upcoming events and ways to get involved. The website will feature a list of ACAP members and their interests. We Contact hope to provide a space where the community of people studying American cultures and politics can grow and collaborate. Email Kaitlin to have your information Kaitlin Walker updated or added to the site. [email protected] Coming soon, visit us online at: http://acap.ucdavis.edu 3 Interdisciplinary FACULTY SPOTLIGHT Marx & World Stephanie Lee Mudge is a Capitalism political and economic • • • sociologist whose research This past December ACAP was a proud focuses on neoliberalism in co-sponsor of “Marx’s Capital and the mainstream Western politics Current Crisis of World Capitalism.” and the roles of experts and Presented by the Program in Critical expertise in European Theory, this public colloquium was integration. organized by Professor Neil Larsen, of the Comparative Literature department here Her current project, tentatively at UC Davis, and the students from his titled The Road to Neoliberalism: Critical Theory course “Marx, Capital & Parties, Expertise and the Rise of Grundrisse.” a New Political Era, offers a sociological perspective on the Drawing on the analytical framework of sources and effects of the rise Capital, this event was centered on a of market-friendly politics in 22 critical discussion of the current financial Stephanie Lee Mudge Western democracies, focusing crisis and featured presentations by Assistant Professor on the programs of center-left Professor Joshua Clover (English) and parties in the 1990s. three Ph.D. candidates: Tanzeen Doha Department of Sociology (Anthropology), Anna Björk Einarsdottir (Comparative Literature), and Christine Early American Studies Reading Group Willie (Native American Studies). The Early American Studies Reading American studies at UC Davis serves Afterward, the large audience engaged Group held their first meeting on as a testimony to Professor Forbes’ the speakers and each other in a spirited February 22nd. powerful legacy. and stimulating debate. Seats were definitely at a premium – the turnout was The selected book, The American We look forward to our spring so great that people were sitting on the Discovery of Europe by the late meeting where we will read Michael floor. Some folks even had to settle for Professor Jack Forbes allowed for a V. Wilcox's The Pueblo Revolt and the listening from the hallway. This was strong discussion of how early Mythology of Conquest: An certainly ACAP’s kind of event: cross- American studies can be an Indigenous Archaeology of Contact. disciplinary, timely, and appealing to interdisciplinary space for faculty, graduate students, and indigenous sovereignty. The exciting For more information contact Gina @ undergraduates alike. conversation and direction of early [email protected]. Opportunities in American Studies Correlations: Third International Graduate Summer School on the Cultural Study of the Law Deadline April 30, Website: http://www.blogs.uni-osnabrueck.de/lawandculture/ Summer Intensive Nahautl Language Study Deadline May 1, Website: http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/lais/summer.html University College Dublin Clinton Institute for American Studies Summer School Deadline May 9, Website: http://www.ucdclinton.ie/summerschool2011.htm American Studies Association Ralph Henry Gabriel Dissertation Prize Deadline May 20, Website: http://www.theasa.net/prizes_and_grants/awards_and_prizes/ Futures of American Studies Institute at Dartmouth College Deadline May 31, Website: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~futures/ 4 ENVIRONMENTAL PAPER JAM! MAY 20, 2011 4:30PM Voorhies 126 ACAP will be closing spring quarter with a “paper jam,” a venue where graduate students will share short five-minute snippets of their current research. Coming off our talk from Robb Willer, grad students will be rounding out their takes on the intersection between the environmental humanities and American cultures and poltitics. Listed below are just a few of the exciting projects to be shared. Come out and support graduate students as they present their work! Meg Sparling presents “A ‘Natural’ Unity: Gender, Environment, and Resistance in Sanora Babb's Whose Names are Unknown.” Angela Lewandowski offers her thoughts on “The Ecopoetics of Emergency.” Josef Nguyen shares his research on “Climate Change and Speculation.” Will Elliot presents “Toxic Impasse: Aesthetics of Waste in Rick Bass and A. R. Ammons.” Interested in contributing to the ACAP newsletter? Contact Gina: [email protected] Have an idea for an ACAP event or speaker? Contact Karl: [email protected].