Opportunity for Glasgow PGR to give a Research Paper at Keele University

Call for Expressions of Interest: PGR Visiting Speaker Exchange

The Andrew Hook Centre for American Studies (AHC) invites expressions of interest from Glasgow postgraduate researchers for an opportunity to present their work at the David Bruce Centre for the Study of the Americas at Keele University during the academic year 2025-26.

The Andrew Hook Centre and David Bruce Centre, both interdisciplinary research institutes, are seeking to collaborate on a range of activities. Our first venture was an online colloquium, held on 13 November 2024, on the US Presidential Election. In 2025-26 the Hook will provide the opportunity for one Glasgow doctoral candidate to present on their research at Keele; the David Bruce Centre will in turn send one Keele PGR to present at the Andrew Hook Centre.

For the Glasgow student, the Hook Centre will provide expenses for travel and accommodation (if required), and will provide, if necessary, academic and practical support in preparing the paper.

If you are a Glasgow PGR currently researching your doctoral thesis on topics related to North America and would be interested in this opportunity, please send a short description of your research project (250-300 words), along with your name and email address, to the Andrew Hook Centre for American Studies, arts-american-studies@glasgow.ac.uk by October 10, 2025.

Applications will be considered by the Director of the Centre, Chris Gair, and other members of the AHC committee, including the Deputy Director, Dr. Sarah Dunstan.

Graduate Journal aspeers Call for Papers by PGT Students

In its nineteenth issue, aspeers will feature a general section and a topical one. While the general section accepts submissions on any American studies topic (e.g. revised versions of term papers or chapters from theses), the topical section will focus on the theme “American Spaces of Resistance,” calling for submissions that explore US literature, (popular) culture, society, history, politics, and media through the lens of ‘resistance.’

aspeers, the first MA-level peer-reviewed journal for American studies in Europe, will accept submissions by October 19, 2025.
Please find the two calls for papers below. For more information, please have a look at https://www.aspeers.com/2026

For the general section of its nineteenth issue, aspeers seeks outstanding academic writing demonstrating the excellence of graduate scholarship, the range of concerns scrutinized in the field, and the diversity of perspectives employed. We thus explicitly invite revised versions of term papers or chapters from theses written by students of European Master (and equivalent) programs. For this section, there are no topical limitations. Contributions should be up to 7,500 words (including abstract and list of works cited). The submission deadline is October 19, 2025.


=== Topical Call for Papers on “American Spaces of Resistance” ===

The ‘No Kings’ protests on June 14, 2025, incited millions of people across the United States to oppose the policies of Donald Trump’s second presidency, manifesting an outspoken resistance against forms of autocracy. While the fervor and visibility of protesting has wavered throughout US history, sites and moments of resistance (against the government, specific policies, businesses, individuals, etc.) dominate the nation’s collective memory: from the anti-monarchist sentiment linking ‘No Kings’ to the Boston Tea Party, from the abolitionist movement to demonstrations against the Vietnam War, from the Stonewall uprising to Occupy Wall Street or the #MeToo movement.

In fact, US culture has mobilized diverse material and symbolic spaces to give expression to a multitude of forms of resistance throughout history, often also transcending direct political action. Literature and the arts have served as creative vessels for the voicing of disagreement (e.g. in utopian/dystopian imaginations), and popular and folk culture have given visibility to vernacular forms of defiance through polysemy and ambivalence. Spaces of resistance also matter geographically in American culture, e.g. in the perceived urban/rural divide or through the metonymic importance of regions like the US South. This multiplicity begs a number of critical questions: Does resistance form a pivotal part of a mythic US national character—or is it instead a mere momentary aberration from a cultural norm (as might be visible from a transnational perspective)? What identities and communities are constructed and imagined around a tangible or felt resistance? What is even understood as resistance, against and by whom in particular? Are the causes connected to resistance habitually framed as progressive, or at times also as reactionary (e.g. in upholding a status quo), or even as anarchic—and how has that been (re)evaluated in later eras?

For its nineteenth issue, aspeers dedicates its topical section to “American Spaces of Resistance” and invites European graduate students to critically and analytically explore US literature, (popular) culture, history, politics, society, and media through the lens of ‘resistance.’ We welcome papers from all disciplines, methodologies, and approaches comprising American studies and related fields. Potential papers could cover (but are not limited to):

– Representations of resistance and counter-hegemonic narratives in literature, film, TV, music, games, etc.
– Social and civil rights movements, grassroots activism; collective resistance and coalitions of resistance
– The role of geographic places, spaces, and mobilities in cultural and political practices of (counter-)protest
– Material and symbolic transgressions of borders and boundaries; subcultural, folk, or indigenous spaces as sites of resistance
– Digitally based resistance movements; fandom as a space of resistance
– ‘Radical’ identity constructions (e.g. around gender, sexuality, disability, ‘race’) as forms of resistance
– The aestheticism(s) of resistance
– Resistance in the public sphere and through public performance (e.g. civil disobedience); in labor (e.g. malicious compliance); in political theory and philosophy (e.g. Black radicalism)
– Resistance and counter-resistance movements in different political contexts (e.g. far-right self-understandings of the January 6 Capitol Riots or the ‘sovereign citizen’ movement as resistance)

aspeers, the first graduate-level peer-reviewed journal of European American studies, encourages fellow MA students from all fields to reflect on the diverse meanings of “American Spaces of Resistance.” We welcome term papers, excerpts from theses, or papers specifically written for the nineteenth issue of aspeers by October 19, 2025. If you seek to publish work beyond this topic, please refer to our general Call for Papers. Please consult our submission guidelines and find some additional tips at www.aspeers.com/2026.

Alexander Trocchi at 100

The Andrew Hook Centre for American Studies and Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow invite you to a symposium to mark the centenary of Alexander Trocchi’s birth. Please see the flyer and a provisional programme below and attached. More details will be posted in due course.

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