Events & Student Work

Current Events

Please come to the American Studies Pre-Reg Pizza Party, next Monday, October 30 from 5:30 to 6:30 at Ramuntos. Faculty will be there to answer questions and talk about next semester’s offerings, but it will also just be a nice time to gather as a community.  All of us look forward to seeing you!
Please note: During Pre-Reg (October 30 to November 6), you will want to speak with a faculty adviser to make sure your path through the major is set. Here is a link to make an appointment with Cass Cleghorn, Chair (or with another adviser if you have one).

Feel free to email me: [email protected] if these times don’t work for you.

See you next week!

Cass.

 


 


Student Work


 


AMST 202-Introduction to Racial Capitalism, 2020-21, KEYWORDS GLOSSARY

 


The Williams Record highlights the work of AMST major Selena Castro (’17), specifically a paper on slavery and Williams that she had written for the Theories and Methods class back in 2015:
https://williamsrecord.com/455320/features/ephraim-williams-was-an-enslaver-what-will-the-college-do-about-it/


 

Congratulations to Suiyi Tang, Class of 2020, who was granted Highest Honors for her thesis “A Sense of Ourselves: The Poetics of Racial Dissociation in Babel-17” and also won the the KENNETH BROWN PRIZE in American Studies and the WILLIAM BRADFORD TURNER, CLASS OF 1914, PRIZE IN HISTORY for the “best senior thesis or essay in the field of history or institutions.”



Past Program Events


Together with the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Tribal Historic Preservation Extension Office, the department of Geosciences and the American Studies Program are excited to welcome to campus Maggie Bennett, a member of the Stockbridge Munsee Community and GIS specialist. Bennett will be giving a multimedia talk called: “Mohican Travels Through Storymapping.” Friday, Sept 22 from 2 pm to 3:30 pm in Griffin 3.  Bridging geographic information systems, photography, history, and even archaeology, storymapping allows indigenous and non-indigenous learners alike to associate modern day sites with Mohican history. All are encouraged to attend! Light refreshments will be served.

In addition: The following day, Saturday, September 23rd at 11 am, Bennett will be giving a talk at The Mission House in Stockbridge, MA, as part of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community’s exhibit/speaker series, “Our Lands, Our Home, Our Heart / Nda’keenã , Weekeyaak , Nda’anã.” The event at The Mission house is a ticketed event. Here is the link to register: https://thetrustees.org/event/88003/ For transportation to Stockbridge, please contact [email protected] by Monday September 18th at Noon.



Hi, everyone. Some of you may know that American Studies is in the process of hiring an Asian Americanist. Our first job candidate, Wesley Attewell (Ph.D., Human Geography, University of British Columbia), will be giving a talk entitled  “The Lifelines of Empire: Logistical Life in the Decolonizing Pacific” right after Thanksgiving on Monday. Nov. 29, 2021, 4:30 p.m. in Schapiro, Room 129. Attewell is a political and historical geographer of imperialism, decolonization, and diaspora. His first book, Developing Violence: Disassembling the USAID Complex in Afghanistan, is forthcoming from the University of Minnesota Press. 
The other three talks will be held next week into the following week, at the same time and location:
Yuhe Faye Wang,  “Not Accounting for Race: Economic Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment from Yick Wo v. Hopkins to Plessy v. Ferguson,” on Wednesday, December 1. 
Natalia Duong, “Chemical Diasporas: The Kinships and Afterlives of Agent Orange,” on Friday, December 3.
Rachel Kuo, “Movement Media and Feminist Solidarities,” on Monday, December 6.
Please come out and support the 30+-year-long effort to establish Asian American studies at Williams.

 


American Studies Pre-Registration Event & Crumbs Film Screening

Join American Studies faculty and majors on Tuesday, October 26, at 4:30 p.m. in Griffin 6 as we watch the 2015 Spanish-Ethiopian post-apocalyptic sci-fi film Crumbsand talk about commodity fetishism, US pop culture, and transnational American Studies. Preceding the film, AMST faculty will be on hand to discuss spring 2022 classes and the major. We will be providing Fall snacks: hot cocoa, apple cider donuts, and gluten-free treats.


 

Dear AMST majors (and prospective majors),

I hope that the first week of the return to an in-person academic year has gone relatively smoothly.
I want to welcome everyone back (or here for the first time, in some cases)! Despite the pandemic conditions, our program is thriving, with our courses full and a hefty increase in the numbers of majors in the Class of 2023.
Our best ambassadors are you, our wonderful majors.
Please keep spreading the word about our program and major, as not everyone knows what AMST is. I would also encourage any of you to come to me to suggest ideas for events for the majors, possible speakers, thoughts about the major, etc. Anything. My door is always open to you all.
In order to kick off the new year and gather AMST students and faculty together, we are sponsoring an ice cream social outside Lickety Split on Spring Street, Tuesday, September 21, 4-5 p.m. Our admin, Robin Keller, and I will be there handing out tickets for free ice cream. Please come. If you know of any prospective majors, please bring them (but serious prospective majors, please).
I look forward to seeing everyone in person on Tuesday. Do not hesitate to reach out to me or Robin if you have any questions.


AMST Senior Celebration Luncheon on Thursday, May 27 from 12:00 p.m. -1:00 p.m. Location: Hollander Hall, look for the tent in the parking lot. Food will be provided by Mezze Bistro & Bar.  We ask that you wear your masks to attend the event.


Please join the American Studies Program in celebrating the work of our three talented senior honors theses writers:
Arselyne Chery, “Countering Narrative Silence: Writing On and About Haitian Refugee Experiences in the United States, 1970s-1980s” (Advisor: Jan Padios)
Quess Green, “”The Beat Was My Salvation’: A Creative Exploration of Vogue Fem via Sound Production & Embodied Performance.” (Advisor: Dorothy Wang)
Audrey Koh, “‘Kill the time that is oppression itself’: Hauntings of Korean/American Womanhood” (Advisor: Dorothy Wang)

American Studies senior honors theses presentations

When
Mon May 17, 2021 5pm – 6:30pm Eastern Time – New York

 


Come learn about American Studies at the Williams American Studies alumni event

Ever wonder what you can do with an American Studies degree?

The Williams College American Studies Program welcomes back five of its talented alums during the program’s 80th anniversary year:

Stevon Cook (’08) runs a private strategic advising and consulting practice focused on education policy and DEI strategic planning. He served as President of the San Francisco Board of Education in 2018 and 2019; during his tenure, he passed policies on K-12 Black Studies, reforming school assignment and expanding access to college courses for all students. For over four years, he was the CEO of MIssion Bit, a nonprofit focused on ending generational poverty through coding education. He also hosted a podcast called Cook on Monday Morning, which interviewed leaders across a variety of industries. Cook is a fourth-generation San Franciscan and graduate of public schools and currently lives in San Francisco.

Lauren Shuffleton Drago (’12) was an AMST and English double major. She is the Assistant Director of Planning for Lynn, MA, a vibrant, arts-obsessed gateway city navigating complex social and economic challenges. She previously worked for the city of Somerville, MA’s Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development. While at Williams, she was active with affordable housing advocacy in Williamstown. After graduation, Drago worked at Bain and Co. as the Global Editorial Coordinator and then earned her master’s degree in urban and environmental planning from Tufts University. She lives in Reading, MA.

Naomi Jackson (’02) is Assistant Professor of English at Rutgers University-Newark and the author of a critically acclaimed novel, The Star Side of Bird Hill (Penguin Books, 2015), which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize. Jackson studied fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and. received an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town on a Fulbright Fellowship. Jackson’s writings have appeared in Harper’s, The Washington Post Poets & Writers, among others. She is the recipient of numerous  residencies and fellowships. She lives in the Bronx.

Monica Torres (‘13) is a digital journalist and the senior work/life reporter for HuffPost who covers the U.S. workforce and management trends. She was previously the lead reporter at Ladders, where she covered the U.S. workforce, management trends, career anxieties, and the future of work. Her writing on technology and politics has been featured in Quartz, Fusion, and Real Life magazine. She is a graduate of NYU’s Studio 20: New Media and Digital Innovation program and is a member of Poynter’s Diversity in Digital Leadership inaugural class. In her off time, she writes fiction. She lives in Brooklyn.

Tyler Tsay (‘19) is a consultant at BCG and the Director & Founder of The Speakeasy Project, a literary artist organization representing interdisciplinary (queer) poets of color. While at Williams, he served in various leadership roles including Co-Chair of MinCo, Chair of AASiA and Chair of Speakfree. He was part of a core group of organizers pushing for Asian American Studies and served on the CPC Asian American Studies Working Group. He is also a published poet and was the recipient of the Bullock Poetry Prize from the English Department in his freshman year. He lives in D.C.

You are invited to this Zoom event:

Williams American Studies alumni event

When
Thu May 13, 2021 4:30pm – 6:30pm Eastern Time – New York

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


“Asian American Histories, the Chinese Diaspora, and U.S.-China Relations” by Gordon H. Chang, Olive H. Palmer Professor of Humanities and Professor of History at Stanford University, in conversation with Dorothy Wang, Professor and Chair of the American Studies Program, Williams College

The Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Williams College in partnership with the American Studies Program at Williams is pleased to present “Asian American Histories, the Chinese Diaspora, and U.S.-China Relations” by Gordon H. Chang, Olive H. Palmer Professor of Humanities and Professor of History at Stanford University, in conversation with and moderated by Dorothy Wang, Professor and Program Chair, American Studies Program, Williams College.

This program will take place on Monday, April 26, 2021, from 7:15-8:25 p.m. E.T. Registration is open for this event and a Zoom link will be sent on the day of the event. This event is open to the public. More information can be found here.

Note: a small group discussion with Gordon H. Chang and students will take place after the public event on Monday, April 26, from 8:30-9:00 p.m. and will have a separate Zoom link. In order to register for this small group discussion, please email Jen Ceolinski ([email protected]). The first 25 students who register for this small group discussion will be invited to get dinner at Blue Mango between 4 and 8 pm on the evening of the event, courtesy of OIDEI. A gift card will be mailed out to those who are not on campus. Ordering instructions for Blue Mango will be sent out to those registered on the day of the event. Please contact Jen Ceolinski to register and if you have any questions.

Gordon H. Chang is Professor of History at Stanford University and the Olive H. Palmer Professor of Humanities. He is currently serving the University as the Senior Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and is the Stanford Alumni Association Fellow in Undergraduate Education. He has been on the Stanford faculty since 1991. In 2019, he published Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The Epic History of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) and, as co-editor, The Chinese and the Iron Road: Building the Transcontinental Railroad (Stanford University Press). These books draw from more than seven years of work conducted by the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project at Stanford which he has co-directed.

You are invited to a Zoom webinar.
When: Apr 7, 2021 12:45 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Topic: Anti-Asian American Violence: A Conversation on Atlanta and Beyond Please click the link below to join the webinar:


Anti-Asian American Violence: A Conversation on Atlanta and Beyond” with Asian Americanist professors Jan Padios (AMST), Kelly Chung (WGSS), and Dorothy Wang (AMST) and students
Wed., April 7, 2021, at 12:45 p.m.
The Zoom webinar link is below.
MinCo is providing lunch from Blue Mango for the first 50 student attendees in Williamstown:
Please fill out this form to RSVP for the lunch (you must attend the webinar in order to get the Blue Mango food).
And here is the attendee link for the Zoom webinar:
You are invited to a Zoom webinar.
When: Apr 7, 2021 12:45 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)Topic: Anti-Asian American Violence: A Conversation on Atlanta and Beyond Please click the link below to join the webinar:

Critique/Black/Feminism(s)

Please join us on Feb 19, 2021, 1-3 p.m., for a conversation on Zoom about philosophy, literature, and democratic crises with Axelle Karera (Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Emory University) and Selamawit Terrefe (Assistant Professor of English, Tulane University), moderated by Joy James (Ebenezer Fitch Professor of Humanities, Williams College).
Co-sponsored by the American Studies Program and Africana Studies Department

 

 

 

 


The American Studies Program presents:

“U.S. Secret Wars in Africa,” a Zoom talk, by award-winning investigative journalist Nick Turse
Nov. 4, 2020, 4 p.m.

Co-sponsored by the W. Ford Schumann ‘ 50 Program in Democractic Studies, African Studies, and the Department of History

Nick Turse (Ph.D. in Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University) is an award-winning investigative reporter and the author of several books, including, most recently, Next Time They’ll Come to Count the Dead: War and Survival in South Sudan (2016), and The New York Times bestseller Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam (2013), as well as Tomorrow’s Battlefield: U.S. Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa (2015).

Turse has reported from the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa, and has written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Nation, Harper’s Magazine, The Village Voice, and bbc.com, among other print and online publications. He has received a Ridenhour Prize for Investigative Reporting, a James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and two American Book Awards. Turse is a fellow at The Nation Institute and has been a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute. He is the managing editor of TomDispatch.com, a contributing writer for The Intercept, and the co-founder of Dispatch Books.

 


 

American Symphony: Other White Lies

by Suiyi Tang

The Accomplices

Amazon Listing

 

 

 


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