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.

---

• Instagram

---

Dr Chris Gair interviews Professor Simon Newman ahead of the Gordon Lecture in American Studies at BAAS 2026.

---

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.

Professor Simon Newman will present his Hook Centre Gordon Keynote Lecture, ‘Fighting for Freedom, 1776–2026’ at 10:45 in James Watt South. See you there.

Follow us on Instagram at @uofgamstudies to watch the interview.

Join us for Simon’s Keynote, ‘Fighting for Freedom, 1776–2026’ tomorrow at 10:45 in James Watt South, Stevenson Lecture Theatre.

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.

One of this morning’s sessions was a journals workshop chaired by Professor Faye Hammill, co-editor of Modernism/modernity, the official journal of the Modernist Studies Association.

Dr Will Norman and Dr Katie McGettigan, co-editors of the Journal of American Studies (official journal for BAAS), began the workshop with an extremely informative session on their work at JAS. Some of the topics they covered included the editor role and what it involves, how to select appropriate journals for article submission, writing cover letters, navigating desk rejection, approaches to the revisions process, special issues, and the peer review process.

The session then continued with an outline by Dr Helen Gibson of her work at the European Journal of American Studies, a quarterly open access journal focusing on European views on the society, culture, history, and politics of the United States. Gibson is editor of the history, social sciences, and international relations strand of EJAS. Though catering to Americanists of all generations, the journal stands out for its active encouragement of doctoral and post-doctoral students, and it was fascinating to hear the similarities and differences between ways of working and approaches to submission at both EJAS and JAS.

Dr Will Rees then spoke generously about his experience as an early-career researcher in publishing an article with EJAS. It was useful and engaging to hear an author’s perspective on the topics just introduced by the rest of the panel.

Moving on, questions were fielded by Dr Chris Gair and included a wide array of topics from the peer review process to AI policies and approaches to transforming dissertations and PhD chapters into articles for journal submission.

Thank you very much to the panel and to attendees for a very stimulating discussion.

Welcome from BAAS day 2!

We are getting ready for the first panels to begin. In the meantime, some more key events throughout the day are as follows:

The Journal of American Studies Keynote will commence at 13:00. Professor Mia Bay will present on “Talking Back to Thomas Jefferson: African Americans Discuss the Founding Father, 1776–1877” in Boyd Orr LT1.

At 16:15, the BAAS AGM & ‘Academic Freedom and American Studies in the Age of Trump’ will begin in Boyd Orr A.

From 18:00 in Hunter Halls, join us for the Drinks Reception/ banquet, buffet, and bar, with Jon Ritchie & That Swing Sensation — Scotland’s record-breaking Big Swing Band.

See you later!