Author: americanstudiesglasgow

Roosevelt Institute for American Studies International PhD Seminar

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Call for Papers


International PhD Seminar in American History / American Studies Middelburg, The Netherlands, 25-27 November 2026


The Roosevelt Institute for American Studies (RIAS) is a leading research center and graduate
school, partnered with Leiden University, dedicated to the study of American history, politics, and
society. Since 2003, the Institute has organized regular seminars for doctoral students pursuing
research in its areas of interest.
The RIAS will host its next in-person research seminar in Middelburg on 25-27 November 2026. We
kindly invite applications from current doctoral candidates whose research covers any aspect of
American culture, media, society, politics, or foreign relations, recent or historical.
We are particularly interested in studies in the following research areas:

  • Culture and ideology
  • U.S. in the world
  • Environmental issues
  • Race and gender studies
  • Social justice movements, civil and political rights

We welcome proposals for research papers (e.g., a dissertation chapter) or papers that give an
overview of the PhD project. Participants will present their paper and contextualize it within
their research project in a 15-minute presentation. Each presentation is followed by a group
discussion of approximately 45 minutes, providing extensive opportunities for feedback.
Applicants are invited to submit their proposals, consisting of a 300-word abstract and a CV, both
in PDF, no later than Friday, 11 September 2026. These should be addressed to the seminar
coordinator, Bálint Honos, and sent to info@roosevelt.nl. The selection of participants will be
confirmed by 25 September 2026.

To support a culture of diversity and inclusion, we strongly encourage proposals from students that
reflect the diversity of our field in terms of gender, ethnicity, and disability.
Participants will be expected to have a paper (approximately 6,000 words) ready for pre-circulation
by Friday, 6 November 2026.
The RIAS will provide accommodation and meals in Middelburg.

For further information, please consult our website at www.roosevelt.nl or contact the
seminar coordinator at b.honos@roosevelt.nl.

Methods for Ecocritical Art History

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This coming Monday 20th April (4-6pm, Hunterian Art Gallery), the Thinking Culture programme is hosting a book launch event for Methods for Ecocritical Art History (Manchester University Press, 2026). The book’s editors Prof Andrew Patrizio (University of Edinburgh) and Dr Olga Smith (University of Newcastle) will present this important intervention in ecocriticism, along with responses from Prof Carl Lavery (Theatre Studies, UofG) and Katie Strang (Curator of Mineralogy-Petrology, The Hunterian). 

Methods for Ecocritical Art History features essays by 23 international scholars, addressing themes such as ecofeminism and queer ecologies, multispecies approaches, decolonial and Indigenous frameworks, temporality and material cultures. It should be of relevance to anyone interested in how these topics intersect with arts and humanities.

All welcome: further information and booking via Eventbrite

2026 Netherlands American Studies Association Conference / American Protest Cultures: Protest, Dissent, and the Cultural Politics of the United States

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The Netherlands American Studies Association (NASA) has launched its call for papers for the 2026 Annual Conference, which will take place at Radboud University in Nijmegen from 4 to 6 November 2026.

This year’s theme, American Protest Cultures: Protest, Dissent, and the Cultural Politics of the United States, invites contributions on the many forms, histories, and meanings of protest in and around the United States.

The conference welcomes proposals for individual papers, panels, roundtables, and workshops. We are especially interested in interdisciplinary and transnational perspectives, including work that engages the United States in relation to Canada, Mexico, and broader hemispheric or global contexts.

The conference will feature keynote lectures by Prof. Stefania Milan (University of Amsterdam), Prof. Wilfried Raussert (Bielefeld University), and Prof. Stephen Tuck (London Interdisciplinary School).

The deadline for submissions is Friday, 8 May 2026. Further details are available on the conference website: https://www.americanprotestcultures.com

BAAS 2026: Andrew Hook Centre Gordon Keynote Lecture — Professor Simon Newman

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This morning at BAAS, Professor Simon Newman introduced his Gordon Lecture, ‘Fighting for Freedom, 1776–2026’ as follows:

‘I’m a social historian, and what interests me are the stories of ordinary people’

Such stories, the individual stories of enslaved black freedom-seekers, are what he told in a meticulously researched and well-received lecture. Professor Newman gave time to each story, and explained that although many of these fights for freedom coincided with the American Revolution and revolutionary struggle, the Revolution was no more than a background for some if it could help facilitate the personal freedom that they were fighting for. The point that Professor Newman was making was that across the course of history, the black American struggle for freedom was as significant as the Declaration of Independence, and that there is fierce appetite among students and educators for this history and understanding.

Newman then brought this discussion into conversation with the context of today, and the efforts of the Trump administration to ‘dismantle the legislative and judicial achievements of Civil Rights.’ Examples of this dismantling and delegitimisation included the 2025 executive order which saw the removal of slavery and racism exhibits by the National Park Service in the U.S., and the myriad ways black history is being reframed or skewed in today’s disseminations.

Professor Newman ended with an image (above) of Sharon Williams’s ‘Flag Quilt,’ an unpicked, reconfigured American flag.

Thank you to Professor Newman for such an engaging lecture which has opened so much space for reflection.

BAAS 2026 Conference: Video Archive

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Dr Chris Gair interviews Professor Simon Newman ahead of the Gordon Lecture in American Studies at BAAS 2026.
Part 1
Part 2
Professor Faye Hammill shares some conference highlights.
Catching up with PhD student and BAAS 2026 intern, Hannah Auld.
Lawrence, one of our BAAS 2026 interns, tells us about how the conference has been going so far.
Professor Jo Gill (Head of the College of Arts and Humanities) and Dr Chris Gair (Director of the Andrew Hook Centre for American Studies) welcome Americanists from around the world to BAAS.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to speak to us over the course of the conference.

BAAS 2026: Journal of American Studies Keynote –– Professor Mia Bay

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This afternoon at BAAS, Professor Mia Bay (University of Cambridge) gave an excellent Keynote lecture, sponsored by the Journal of American Studies: Talking Back to Thomas Jefferson: African Americans Discuss the Founding Father, 1776-1877


The content of Bay’s keynote derives from her current book project “The Ambidexter Philosopher: Thomas Jefferson in Black Thought.” In the lecture, Bay discussed African American ideas about Thomas Jefferson from the American Revolution through the post-emancipation era.

Bay’s research demonstrates that African American commentary was engaging with Jefferson from a very early stage, and she explores Jefferson’s emergence throughout history as a complicated figure and a mouthpiece for many, and to various political ends.

Drawing on sources that include African American commentary on Jefferson in speeches, letters, books, pamphlets and other available testimony, Bay investigates the relationship between ‘early black struggles for freedom and civil rights and African American claims on American nationalism and citizenship.’

This relationship was explored in its connection with a ‘racially divided new nation’ facing a period of intense transformation, and how this ‘developed in dialogue with the party politics, the national political imaginary and the ideals of American political icons such as Thomas Jefferson.’

Thank you so much to Professor Bay for a thoughtful, well-informed and engaging Keynote.