American Studies Commons^™

Black Elk Faces East: Beb Vuyk, Cultural Translation, And John G. Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks, Frank Kelderman

Faculty Scholarship

This essay examines the work of the Dutch-Indonesian author Beb Vuyk in producing one of the first foreign-language translations of John G. Neihardt’s Black Elk Speaks: the 1964 Dutch edition Zwarte Eland spreekt. Published in the Netherlands, Vuyk’s translation connects the 1932 as-told-to autobiography of the Oglala Lakota heyoka Black Elk to the career of one of the most important Dutch-Indonesian authors after World War II, who had a prominent voice in debates on Indonesian decolonization. Linking the literary history of two different colonial contexts, Vuyk’s edition also connects Black Elk Speaks to a Cold War-era history of …

Religion And Spirituality: Meditations On Mystery, Graley Herren

Faculty Scholarship

Don DeLillo is a profoundly religious writer. He is a religious writer because of the questions he asks rather than the answers he finds. He is a religious writer because of how he depicts characters wrestling with moral problems, not because of how those characters emerge victorious from such battles. He is a religious writer because his work is persistently drawn to sacred encounters with the numinous, immanent, and transcendent, even though such moments may prove illusory and are always transient. This chapter traces the evolution of critical perspectives on DeLillo as a religious writer, beginning with postmodern critiques of …

Colonial Prehistories Of Indigenous North America, Mark A. Mattes

Faculty Scholarship

One of the most common inquiries received by Filson Historical Society librarians concerns the myth of Prince Madoc and the Welsh Indians. Of the myth’s many versions, the one most familiar to Ohio Valley History readers goes like this: Madoc, a Welsh prince escaping an internecine conflict over political rule at home, supposedly sailed to North America in the twelfth century. His force either landed at the Falls of the Ohio or made it there after landing further south and being driven north by hostile locals, possibly Cherokee people. Madoc and his contingent intermixed with Indigenous populations, whose fair-haired, blue-eyed, …

Toward An Archaeology Of Manuscripts, Mark A. Mattes

Faculty Scholarship

The title of Rachael Scarborough King’s edited collection of essays, After Print, refers at once to Peter Stallybrass’s insight that printing is a provocation of manuscript, as well as to what the study of manuscripts looks like when we move away from stadial and supersessionist print culture paradigms of authorship and publication and instead embrace archival methods and interpretive approaches that center on concepts of media interrelation in early modern manuscript cultures, such as Margaret Ezell’s concept of social authorship.The essays in King’s collection, including an epilogue by Ezell herself, bear the fruits of such intermedial and transmedial approaches, bringing …

Distribution Struggle: Assembling A Media History Of J. Brian’S Enterprises With Court Proceedings And Public Records, Finley Freibert

Faculty Scholarship

This article introduces the concept of “distribution struggle”—the panoply of cultural and industrial conflicts that must be traced and accounted for in distribution histories—to sequence a primary-sourced media history of J. Brian’s gay media enterprises. In tracing this history, primary sources are surprisingly accessible, and provide new insights into J. Brian’s industrial operations. By triangulating archival records with secondary accounts, this article provides a more nuanced cultural and industrial portrait of J. Brian. It argues that media industry historiography must frame historical narratives by accounting for the cultural and industrial struggles that culminated in the available archival sources, in this …

Building Asian American And Black Solidarity For Racial Justice In Today’S America, Vinay Harpalani, Sunu P. Chandy, Sholanna Lewis, Frank H. Wu

Faculty Scholarship

About the Panel: Although there have been tensions, including those tied to colorism, between the Asian American and Pacific Islander and Black communities in America, there has been an equally long history of mutual support and collaboration between these two communities. How does anti-Blackness in the AAPI community impact the work of building solidarity with Black activists? In this conversation, we highlight our common ground so that Asian American and Black social justice communities can push forward our collective needs to fight racial injustice and other forms of discrimination in this country.

Distribution, Bars, And Arcade Stars: Joe Anthony’S Entrepreneurial Expansion In Houston’S Gay Media Industries, Finley Freibert

Faculty Scholarship

This article develops the concept of "gay useful media" to explore a case study of gay entrepreneurship in Houston, Texas, of the 1970s. A father and son developed a gay media empire in the city, which spanned bars, bookstores, distribution, and vending. One of the pair's key establishments was Houston's legendary gay bar Mary's at 1022 Westheimer (also known as Mary's Lounge, Mary's, Naturally, and Mary's…Naturally).

Albuquerque Journal Interviews Maryam Ahranjani, Many Want Police Out Of Schools Across Nm, Maryam Ahranjani, Shelby Perea

Faculty Scholarship

In Albuquerque, University of New Mexico School of Law associate professor Maryam Ahranjani and Hope Pendleton, a board member of the Black Law Student Association at UNM, are saying now is the time to remove officers from schools.

“There’s a lot of unfortunate downstream negative repercussions for children from having police officers in schools,” Ahranjani said.

Pendleton and Ahranjani helped write a letter to APS Superintendent Raquel Reedy and her leadership team that says funds earmarked for the APS Police Department would be better spent addressing this counselor-to-student ratio and investing in other personnel.

“Reallocating funds away from law enforcement …

Aaron Burr Jr. And John Pierre Burr: A Founding Father And His Abolitionist Son, Sherri Burr

Faculty Scholarship

Aaron Burr Jr. (Class of 1772), the third Vice President of the United States, fathered two children by a woman of color from Calcutta, India. Their son, John Pierre Burr (1792-1864), would become an activist, abolitionist, and conductor on the Underground Railroad.

Civil Rights In Living Color, Vinay Harpalani

Faculty Scholarship

This Article will examine how American civil rights law has treated “color” discrimination and differentiated it from “race” discrimination. It is a comprehensive analysis of the changing legal meaning of “color” discrimination throughout American history. The Article will cover views of “color” in the antebellum era, Reconstruction laws, early equal protection cases, the U.S. Census, modern civil rights statutes, and in People v. Bridgeforth—a landmark 2016 ruling by the New York Court of Appeals. First, the Article will lay out the complex relationship between race and color and discuss the phenomenon of colorism—oppression based on skin color—as differentiated from …

Review Of When Novels Were Books. By Jordan Alexander Stein., Mark A. Mattes

Faculty Scholarship

But novels ARE books, you might be thinking. Jordan Stein points out that this is true, but not in the way that many of us have thought to be the case. Twentieth- and twenty-first century literary history, Stein argues, has too often failed to deliver a programmatic discussion of the media history of genre. Attention to changes and continuities in the early Anglophone novel’s artifactual status within an evolving, transatlantic media ecology, supplements, and in some cases rethinks, critical understandings of the development of novelistic form. Stein’s method is axiomatic for those working at the intersection of form and format: …

Race, American Enlightenment, And The End Times, Mark A. Mattes

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter examines eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century visions of apocalypse regarding the future of black lives in the American body politic. It begins with readings of Jefferson’s fear of a black planet in Notes on the State of Virginia and Crèvecoeur’s depictions of racial terror in Letters from an American Farmer. The chapter then investigates the writing of an African American herald of the end times, Christopher MacPherson. The chapter reads the apocalyptic jeremiad of MacPherson’s pamphlet, Christ’s Millennium (1811), as a reparative response to the suppression of black voices and the annihilation of black lives.

Kamala Harris And The Complexity Of Racial Identity Politics, Vinay Harpalani

Faculty Scholarship

Vinay Harpalani reviews Kamala Harris' run as Democratic nominee for President, contrasting her challenges with Barak Obama's campaign to show how racial identity politics are complicated and constantly evolving as well as the intersectional, or multifaceted, issues Kamala faced during her candidacy.

Na’Hjening’E’S Rivers Indigenous Maps, Diplomacy, And The Writing Of Ioway Space, Frank Kelderman

Faculty Scholarship

This essay examines an indigenous map (1837) of the Missouri and Mississippi river valleys, which offers an alternative to the territorial mappings of US empire in the era of Indian removal. The map was presented by the Ioway delegate Na’hjeNing’e during an intertribal treaty council in Washington in 1837 and depicts the Ioway Nation’s historical occupation of large areas in the Mississippi River Valley. Although the American treaty commissioners ultimately dismissed the map's historical argument and the Ioway's claims, its visual presentation of rivers and indigenous migrations routes marked an alternative to US territorial mappings of Indian country. Understanding the …

Let's Talk Protecting Endangered Species, Clifford J. Villa, Ty Bannerman, Will Cavin, Taylor Jones, Ari Biernoff

Faculty Scholarship

The Trump Administration recently changed Endangered Species Act regulations affecting how species are removed from endangered status and streamlining permits for the oil and gas and ranching industries. Environmentalists say the rules weaken protections. How could the new rules change industry and conservation in New Mexico?

Nefarious Neighbors: How Living Near Payday Loan Stores Affects Loan Use, Nathalie Martin, Younghee Lim, Aimee Moles, Trey Bickham

Faculty Scholarship

Few of us give much thought to local laws, yet local laws, such as zoning and other land use regulations, have an abiding influence on our lives. Think for a few moments about the types of businesses located near your home. Are these businesses places you frequent? Considering socio-economics, how do land uses differ from locale to locale throughout your city or state? Do all citizens have an equal voice in the land use approval process? The answer is likely no, which creates environmental and economic justice issues.

Like all businesses, when it comes to payday lenders, geography matters. Payday …

Book Review: Jonathan P. Thompson, River Of Lost Souls: The Science, Politics, And Green Behind The Gold King Mine Disaster (2018), Clifford J. Villa

Faculty Scholarship

On August 5, 2015, contractors for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigating the Gold King Mine in southwestern Colorado accidently released some three million gallons of contaminated water into the Animas River, triggering weeks of front-page headlines, months of congressional hearings, and now years of litigation. River of Lost Souls: The Science, Politics, and Greed Behind the Gold King Mine Disaster, a new book by Jonathan P. Thompson, suggests by its title a human folly behind this “disaster” much broader and deeper than one tragic accident wrought by EPA contractors. On this thesis, Thompson certainly delivers. However, what …

The Intermedial Politics Of Handwritten Newspapers In The 19th-Century U.S., Mark A. Mattes

Faculty Scholarship

Handwritten newspapers appeared in a variety of social contexts in the 19th-century U.S.1 The largest extant portion of 19th-century handwritten newspapers emerged from home and school settings. More far-flung examples include those written aboard ships during exploratory and military voyages. Others were produced within institutions such as hospitals and asylums. Such works were written during times of privation, including life in an army regiment or a prisoner-of-war camp during the Civil War. At other times, handwritten newspapers accompanied efforts at westward settlement and transcontinental railway journeys. Impromptu papers could follow in the wake of natural disasters that knocked out print-based …

Black Hawk In Translation: Indigenous Critique And Liberal Guilt In The 1847 Dutch Edition Of Life Of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, Frank Kelderman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Missionary Linguistics And Indigenous Disruptions In North America: Review Of Sarah Rivett, "Unscripted America: Indigenous Languages And The Origins Of A Literary Nation", Frank Kelderman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

'Smarks': Kynical Engagement And Coalitional Fandom Of Professional Wrestling, Andrew Zolides

Faculty Scholarship

Conflict in professional wrestling is not limited to the performers in the ring, as World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and other promotions have toxic fan practices borne out of their varied engagements with the wrestling texts. Conflicting reactions to performers and storylines speak to a larger divide within the professional wrestling community exemplified by ‘smarks’: industry-savvy fans whose knowledge of backstage dealings impacts their perceptions of the product. In analyzing smarks, I employ Peter Sloterdijk’s conception of kynicism, distinguished from cynicism by an attitude of cheekiness that enables the user to subvert hegemonic idealism through a particular performance. In his words …

Rock Island Revisited: Black Hawk’S Life, Keokuk’S Oratory, And The Critique Of Us Indian Policy, Frank Kelderman

Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the writings and oratory of the Sauk tribal leaders Keokuk and Black Hawk in the context of Indian diplomacy at Rock Island Indian agency. While Black Hawk's autobiography Life of Mà-ka-tai-me-she-kià-kiàk (1833) is widely read today, Keokuk's oratory has typically been dismissed as an accommodationist extension of US governmental discourses, as op-posed to Black Hawk's rhetoric of resistance and criticism of the Black Hawk War. Complicating these historical narratives, this article argues that both Black Hawk and Keokuk produced collaborative publications that in similar ways critiqued the management of Indian affairs within networks of Indian agents, traders, …

Review Of Magazines And The Making Of America: Modernization, Community, And Print Culture, 1741-1860. By Heather Haveman, Mark A. Mattes

Faculty Scholarship

Haveman’s work explores the changing ways that American magazine publishing and distribution helped create and shape local communities and, increasingly during the nineteenth century, the trans-local communities that are a hallmark of modern life. Her narration and synthesis of data and scholarship on the evolving genres, contents, infrastructures, and institutional workings of American magazines in chapters two through four alone make her work an important source on magazine production and distribution. Subsequent chapters provide a series of case studies on how magazines engendered communities around religion, social reform, and economic development. Following her conclusion, Haveman provides rich, detailed appendices on …

Popular Culture Is Killing Writing, Bronwyn T. Williams

Faculty Scholarship

Bad Ideas About Writing counters major myths about writing instruction. Inspired by the provocative science- and social-science-focused book This Idea Must Die and written for a general audience, the collection offers opinionated, research-based statements intended to spark debate and to offer a better way of teaching writing. Contributors, as scholars of rhetoric and composition, provide a snapshot of and antidotes to major myths in writing instruction. This collection is published in whole by the Digital Publishing Institute at WVU Libraries and in part by Inside Higher Ed.

Review Of "Safe Space: Gay Neighborhood History And The Politics Of Violence" [Post-Print], Jen Jack Gieseking

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Ad Hoc American Studies: Michigan And The Hidden History Of A Movement, Alexander I. Olson, Frank Kelderman

Faculty Scholarship

This essay uses the history of the American Culture program at the University of Michigan as an occasion for rethinking the early years of American Studies more generally. Our archival research has found that the program was founded in 1935—seventeen years earlier than previously thought—making it the oldest American Studies degree program in the world. These forgotten years challenge conventional genealogies tracing the field’s origins to the “myth and symbol” school at Harvard. Instead, Michigan’s history reveals a deep engagement with interdisciplinary movements in the 1930s that shared an interest in critiquing American democracy, particularly human ecology, institutionalist economics, and …

The Algorithmic Self, Frank A. Pasquale

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Making It In Maine: Stories Of Jewish Life In Small-Town America, David M. Freidenreich

Faculty Scholarship

There are countless stories of Jewish life in Maine, stretching back 200 years. These are stories worth telling not only for their enjoyment value but also because we can learn a great deal from them. They reflect the challenges that confronted members of an immigrant community as they sought to become true Mainers, as well as the challenges this ethnic group now faces as a result of its successful integration. The experiences of Jews in Maine, moreover, encapsulate in many ways the experiences of small-town Jews throughout New England and the United States. Their stories offer glimpses into the changing …

No One Who Reads The History Of Hayti Can Doubt The Capacity Of Colored Men: Racial Formation And Atlantic Rehabilitation In New York City's Early Black Press, 1827-1841, Charlton W. Yingling

Faculty Scholarship

From 1827 to 1841 the black newspapers Freedom’s Journal and the Colored American of New York City were venues for one of the first significant racial projects in the United States. To counter aspersions against their race, the editors of these publications renegotiated their community’s identity within the matrix of the Black Atlantic away from waning discourses of a collective African past. First, Freedom’s Journal used the Haitian Revolution to exemplify resistance, abolitionism, and autonomy. The Colored American later projected the Republic of Haiti as a model of governance, prosperity, and refinement to serve this community’s own evolving ambitions of …

American Broadsides And Ephemera Series I, 1760-1990, Bill Sleeman

Faculty Scholarship

Review of an electronic database of rare broadsides and ephemera from the colonial period through the end of the 19th Century.