Clinton Institute Summer School 2012
8-15th July 2012

Core Teaching Faculty
Format & Programme
Application Procedure
Accommodation
Fees
Travelling to Dublin & to UCD

8-15th July 2012

School Director: Professor Liam Kennedy
(University College Dublin)

Summer school Video

The UCD Clinton Institute Summer School brings together scholars and graduate students from around the world to engage in wide-ranging discussion on interdisciplinary study of the United States. The School is aimed at advanced graduate students and junior faculty in the fields of American Studies, History, Political Sciences and Literary and Cultural Studies. The programme will offer participants the opportunity to work with distinguished figures in these fields and to investigate current developments in study of the United States and its global relations. The School’s format will include daily workshop seminars and plenary lectures. Participants work with the School’s core faculty in one of four week-long seminars.

In 2012 the faculty will include Brian Edwards (Northwestern University), Donald Pease (Dartmouth College), Werner Sollors (Harvard University), Erica Doss (Notre Dame), Liam Kennedy (University College Dublin), Glenn Hendler (Fordham University), Scott Lucas (Birmingham University) Hamilton Carroll (Leeds University)

"It gave me the unique opportunity of sharing time, ideas, many a laughter and a common passion with an incredible group of scholars and people, and to investigate, question, assess and collectively attempt to redefine the objectives, borders and the fluctuating nature of our shared field of study..... All of this contributed to making the School such a wonderfully rich and thought-provoking experience "

Corinna Baschirotto- University of Bergamo

Tuition Scholarship

There are a limited number of tuition only scholarships available. To apply complete the application form and in addition to the documents requested you also need to submit one academic reference. Closing date for the scholarship applications is the 12th March 2012.

Workshop Leaders & Workshop Titles

Professor Donald Pease
(Dartmouth College)

Title: American Studies in the Obama Era
In this workshop I intend to take up three inter-related topics. Firstly, a discussion of the specific changes in Obama’s domestic and foreign policies: the “new deal” in health care and welfare policies; the invisibilizing of pre-emptive strikes (through the use of drones and phantom helicopters); the Australia, China, USA triangle; the themes of the re-election campaign. Secondly, analysis of the motives and conditions of emergence of the Tea Party, “Arab Spring”, the Occupy Wall Street movements. Thirdly, speculative analysis of the relationship between these policies and movements and the shift in the dominant focus of American Studies scholarship to topics of reparation, redemption, and recovery.

Professor Brian Edwards
(Northwestern University)

Title: Globalizing American Studies
The workshop will look at some theories and methodologies for thinking about the global circulation of American cultural products and cultural forms (e.g., the CGI Hollywood film; social networking; the “American” style in higher education, including American Studies as a discipline), with particular attention to North Africa and the Middle East. It would suggest that paying attention to circulation (that is, now American cultural products and forms are taken up in new publics) is an important component in rethinking American studies work and practices. There would be attention to both the implications on the literary side of American studies and the social science side, since I’m suggesting a different American literary studies and cultural and public diplomacy.

Professor Erika Doss and Professor Liam Kennedy
(Notre Dame University) and (University College Dublin)

Title: On Photography
The history of photography in the United States is intricately tied up with the histories of state formation and national identity. Since the mid-nineteenth century, photography has both mirrored and shaped relations between liberalism and democracy, between public and private spheres, between domestic and foreign affairs, and between the individual and the state. In the twenty-first century it continues to map these relations, critically and symptomatically, at a time of crisis for paradigms of the nation-state and of liberal capitalism. In this workshop we will examine some of the ways in which photography functions to mediate the workings of power and formations of identity in national and transnational contexts. We will also consider some of the aesthetic, affective and ethical issues surrounding ‘photographic seeing’ and the evidentiary status of the photographic image.

Professor Werner Sollors
(Harvard University)

Title: Studying and Teaching American and African-American Literature from Anthologies
This workshop will exam some hitherto existing anthologies of general American literature as well as of black American literature, exchanging experiences using them as students and teachers, and imagining what a racially integrated literary anthology might look like.

Format and Programme

The School’s format will consist of two principle components, daily workshop seminars and plenary lectures. Participants work with the School’s core faculty of distinguished scholars in one of four week-long workshops, as listed above. All participants will be expected to present a sample of their research in the workshops and this will be circulated in advance. In addition to the daily seminar meetings, all participants attend plenary lectures given by the workshop leaders and other distinguished visitors/scholars. On the final day of the School there will be a symposium where all students present their final research paper.

Application Procedure

Application Form - please print and return by post or email.
Completed applications should include:

the application form - indicating which seminar you wish to attend and your second choice
1 current CV
1 writing sample (10 pages MAX.)

Applications to the Summer School will be judged on a rolling basis until places are filled.

Completed applications should be returned to:

Catherine Carey
Manager
UCD Clinton Institute for American Studies
Belfield House
University College Dublin
Belfield
Dublin 4
Ireland
or email Catherine.Carey@ucd.ie

Applications received after the 11th May 2012 cannot be guaranteed on campus accommodation, should your application be successful.

Accommodation

Applications received after the 11th May 2012 cannot be guaranteed on campus accommodation, should their applications be successful.

Campus accommodation is in a shared apartment. Each person will have their own single bedroom with shared living room and kitchen.

The bedroom includes a workshop desk, wardrobe/storage space, bed linen and hand towel. You should bring your own bath towel. Basic kitchen equipment is also provided.

Campus accommodation is limited and we would therefore advise early registration.