American Studies Commons^™

December 2020, Temple Shalom Synagogue Center

Newsletter Archive

Contents: Mega-Chanukah Party; From the Rabbi; President's Message; Book Group; Community Notices

Amjambo Africa! (December 2020), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In This Issue

Boko Haram .................................2/3

Publisher’s Editorial ........................4

Meet Georges Budagu Makoko .....4

Elections/immigration reform .......5

Translations

French ............................................7

Swahili............................................8

Somali ............................................9

Kinyarwanda...............................20

Portuguese ............................20/21

News from Africa.....................10/11

Piece Together Project .................12

I’m Your Neighbor Books.............13

Pious Ali mourns Rawlings of Ghana ....................14

A Man on the move.......................15

Black Mainer project.....................16

Finance/Business............................19

Auto Insurance ..............................21

Poem by Ekhlas Ahmed................22

Guest columns...............................23

Titi de Baccarat .......................26/27

The Munemitsu Legacy: The Japanese American Family Behind Mendez V. Westminster: California’S First Successful Desegregation Case, Annie Tang

Library Articles and Research

"Many Orange County, California schoolchildren know the name 'Mendez.' After all, the iconic name is front and center of the landmark civil rights case that desegregated several of the county’s public schools in 1947, preceding the 1954 Brown v. Board case on a national level. The Mendez family, one of five Latino families which challenged several school districts in the county on their practice of Mexican-only schools, had their name immortalized in history. But the Mendezes would not have been able to lead the legal charge if it was not for another family of color, the Munemitsus, the Japanese American …

Contextualizing A Maya Collection From Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, At The University Of Ghent, Belgium, Julia Montoya

Zea E-Books Collection

The aim of the present study is to contextualize a collection of Maya artifacts that have been kept for 125 years at the University of Ghent, in Belgium. The objects came from one of the first archaeological excavations carried out in Guatemala, between 1880 and 1900. The collection includes 130 pottery pieces, 64 jadeite pieces, 24 stone objects (serpentine, silex, and other stones), and 52 obsidian pieces. The study started in 2016, with the identification and location of the provenance site, which was visited in 2017. The phases of documentation and photographic registration of the objects were completed in 2019. …

Nightcrawler: A Review, Joshua Matthews

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

No Longer, Not Yet: Retrofuture Hauntings On The Jetsons, Stefano Morello

Publications and Research

From Back to the Future to The Wonder Years, from Peggy Sue Got Married to The Stray Cats’ records – 1980s youth culture abounds with what Michael D. Dwyer has called “pop nostalgia,” a set of critical affective responses to representations of previous eras used to remake the present or to imagine corrective alternatives to it. Longings for the Fifties, Dwyer observes, were especially key to America’s self-fashioning during the Reagan era (2015).

Moving from these premises, I turn to anachronisms, aesthetic resonances, and intertextual references that point to, as Mark Fisher would have it, both a lost past …

“9/11 And The Collapse Of The American Dream: Imbolo Mbue’S Behold The Dreamers”, Elizabeth Toohey

Publications and Research

Behold the Dreamers follows a Cameroonian couple who, as newcomers to America, harbor dreams of success unavailable to them back home. Undocumented immigration, the widening gulf between rich and poor, and the thinly veiled racism of an avowedly "post-racial" culture converge in this new generation of immigrants' painful encounter with the American dream. I consider the ways Mbue's novel shares themes with a "second wave" of post- 9/11 literature—first, in centering the disillusionment of a protagonist aspiring to the American dream; next, in its representation of New York as a space haunted by 9/11, but also of resistance to the …

Service And Citizenship: Examining The Historical Relationship Between Immigration And Military Service In The United States, Claudia Lynn Zibanejadrad

Master of Arts in American Studies Capstones

The purpose of this project is to examine the many different groups of people who used military service in order to gain the political and civil rights of citizenship. I begin with a history of immigration and military service, throughout American history. I particularly concentrate on World War II, a pivotal moment for immigration and the military. I will then cover the historiography that informed my research. I include some research on immigrants who used military service to become naturalized citizens, such as those from Ireland, Germany, and the Philippines. I also include those who were born on American soil, …

“Fetch M’Dear”: Healers, Midwives, Witches, And Conjuring Women In Select Ya And Toni Morrison Novels, Diane Mallett-Birkitt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Accusations and persecution of witchcraft have been embedded in global culture for centuries. For as long as these persecutions have occurred, women have found themselves accused most frequently. Older women with herbal knowledge were often called on to assist with childbirth or termination of pregnancies and this “secret knowledge” often led them to be suspected of supernatural abilities, often of a satanic nature. Intrigued by these wise women who appeared to have mysterious powers and a penchant for arousing the ire of men in the legal, medical, and religious communities, I began to notice their frequent appearance in novels. Does …

The Case Of Limbo: The Search For Identity In Sylvia Plath’S Short Fiction And The Bell Jar, Kristin Lyons

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Though Sylvia Plath’s poems and novel undergo frequent scholarly research, her short fiction is often overlooked. Plath’s journals influenced her short fiction writing, and her stories reflected Plath’s lived experiences. Plath’s short fiction, like her other works, explore themes of identity and detachment. Each of her protagonists exist in a personal limbo, and they strive to find their identities and to fit the roles in which they occupy. This thesis focuses on “Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom,” stories from Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams, and additional research from scholarly journals and biographies, with comparisons to identity struggles …

The Transformation Of Edgar Huntly: An American Awakening, Willie C. Sosa

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Since Charles Brockden Brown published his first novels in the late eighteenth century, he has subsequently shifted back and forth, in importance, from the center to the periphery of the American literary canon. In recent years however, a dramatic increase in scholarship on Brown shows his significance is once again trending back toward the center of importance in this field. Scholarship has tended to coalesce around four topics which can be categorized as postcolonial expansion, the wild city, the distinction between the city and wildness, and identity. Looking closely at identity, although the discourse has done a thorough job of …

Providence Lost: Natural And Urban Landscapes In H. P. Lovecraft's Fiction, Dylan Henderson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

S. T. Joshi, the preeminent scholar of weird fiction, considers H. P. Lovecraft a “topographical realist,” noting that, in his later fiction, Lovecraft creates realistic and painstakingly detailed settings. In “Providence Lost: Natural and Urban Landscapes in H. P. Lovecraft’s fiction,” I explore the significance of Lovecraft’s topographical realism and trace its evolution through Lovecraft’s career. I argue that Lovecraft’s early fiction, the tales, that is, that he wrote from 1917 to 1924 under the influence of Edgar Allan Poe and Lord Dunsany, pays little attention to the natural landscape, though Lovecraft does, in story after story, allude to fabulous, …

Notes And Comment, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Includes a list of new members

By The King, A Proclamation, King George Iii

Florida Historical Quarterly

Whereas we have taken into our royal consideration the extensive and valuable acquisitions in America, secured to our crown by the late definitive treaty of peace concluded at Paris the 10th day of February last; and being desirous that all our loving subjects, as well of our kingdoms as of our colonies in America, may avail themselves, with all convenient speed, of the great benefits and advantages which must accrue therefrom to their commerce, manufactures, and navigation; we have thought fit, with the advice of our privy council, to issue this, our royal proclamation, hereby to publish and declare to …

Education In Florida, 1821-1829, James O. Knauss

Florida Historical Quarterly

Writers on the history of education in Florida have usually passed over the period between 1821 and 1830 with only casual mention. During this decade no public schools were established in the territory and the records relating to private schools and libraries are meagre. However, since the educational activities in these years form the background of the later cultural development, it seems advisable to gather all available material on the subject and to attempt to draw a picture as accurate as possible under the circumstances.

Jacksonville And The Seminole War, Part Ii, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

The Courier, Jacksonville, Florida, December 24, 1835.

The Battleship Maine As A Florida State Board Of Health Quarantine Vessel, Joseph Y. Porter

Florida Historical Quarterly

This is the first part of Dr. Porter’s Reminiscences mentioned in the last number of the Quarterly. They are told in narrative style, without revision, for it is believed that in this form they will not only be more interesting but will be of at least as great historical value. -Editor.

Capital Removal, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Seldom has the site for a city been deliberately selected, less often has it been chosen in a wilderness, and scarcely ever has a capital been so placed not only many miles from any settlement but far from any single habitation of civilized man. Yet thus it was with Tallahassee when its site was chosen for the seat of government of the Territory of Florida and as the permanent home of its wandering Council.

Verso, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Includes Officers and Directors

Title Page, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Title page for Volume 3, Number 4. Includes the Table of Contents

Membership List Of The Society, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

A list of members of the Florida Historical Society

Notes And Comment, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Report Of The Treasurer Of The Florida Historical Society, H. Robinson

Florida Historical Quarterly

Treasurer's Report, FHS, 1924

Report Of Arthur T. Williams, President, To The Annual Meeting Of The Florida Historical Society Tallahassee, November 13th, 1924, Arthur T. Williams

Florida Historical Quarterly

President's Report for FHS, 1924

Minutes Of The Annual Meeting Of The Florida Historical Society At Tallahassee, Thursday, November 13th, 1924, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

The twenty-second annual meeting of The Florida Historical Society was called to order in the Methodist Church of Tallahassee at 10.30 A. M., November 13th, 1924. Dr. Edward Conradi of The State College for Women delivered the invocation.

Miami In 1843, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

From The News, St. Augustine, Florida, December 30, 1843

Some Officials Of The City Government Of Pensacola, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

Lists the members of Pensacola's city government, 1821-1875

Address Before The Florida Historical Society, Duncan U. Fletcher

Florida Historical Quarterly

An address given by Duncan U. Fletcher

Narvaez And De Soto: Their Landing Places And The Town Of Espirito Santo, A. H. Phinney

Florida Historical Quarterly

But little is known of Ponce de Leon’s two voyages to Florida. It is said that the first time he landed somewhere between the present Jacksonville and New Smyrna. We have no knowledge as to where he was defeated by the Indians when he came the second time. After Ponce de Leon came Narvaez in 1528. We have quite a full account of his expedition, written by his Treasurer, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca. From this history we are able to definitely know where Narvaez found a landing place.

Jacksonville And The Seminole War, 1835-1836, Florida Historical Society

Florida Historical Quarterly

No abstract provided.