We are pleased to announce the 5th roundtable that will take place on Friday, May 24, 2024 online and in person at the RIAS in Middelburg. 

Professors Deborah Cohn will give her presentation on ‘Promoting a Field in Fluc: American Studies Abroad and the United States Bicentennial‘ , where she will talk about international conferences in the 1970s. The conferences were meant to both assess the global impact of the Bicentennial and to strengthen the activity of American studies scholars around the world. The events were organized by the Bicentennial Committee for International Conferences of Americanists, which was chaired by Robin Winks (Yale) and supported by the (US) American Studies Association, the US Information Agency, and the US Department of State. The paper explores the planning and execution of these conferences in order to offer insights into a key moment of the dissemination of American studies abroad, as well into the changes that the field was undergoing in response to the civil rights and women’s movements and the Vietnam War.

Professor Joseph Heathcott will discuss his topic titled ‘ Photography at the End of Progress: Documerica and the Environmental Imaginary in the 1970s’. Between 1971 and 1977, the Environmental Protection Agency sent dozens of leading photographers around the United States to record conditions in urban, suburban, rural, and wilderness areas. Known as Documerica, it was the largest federally sponsored photography program since the New Deal, and it left a rich legacy of over 15,000 unique still images. Professor Heathcott will provide an overview of the program and discuss some of the major themes that emerge from this trove of images. Drawing on work in progress, he will focus on the rise of an environmental consciousness in the 1970s and its representation in photography.

You can click here for the full invitation and the online link 

Please register here before May 23, 2024