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Thursday, May 29, 2014

Geography 8230 - Fall 14

THE GEOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT is offering course 8230 in Theoretical Geography called "Thinking Space after Deleuze and Guattari" taught by Arun Saldanha for Fall 2014 Semester. Below is the course description.

Fall 2014
Geog 8230 Theoretical Geography
Thinking Space after Deleuze and Guattari
Arun Saldanha, saldanha@umn.edu
The work of Deleuze and Guattari has been steadily gaining traction in geography and elsewhere to rethink established themes such as capitalism, the body, the nation-state, technology, human-nonhuman interactions, and urban systems, as well as to introduce new ones. But what can D&G contribute to the discipline's claimed object, space itself? There is no doubt they have a keener sensitivity to spatial complexity than the theoretical traditions they critique: Marxism, psychoanalysis, semiotics, anthropology. However, it is rarely fleshed out what this sensitivity exactly consists of. Working out the formal characteristics of D&G's geography, if there is a consistent one at all, should be beneficial to anyone trying to adapt their notoriously baffling conceptual apparatus to their own intellectual or artistic output. Doing this in an interdisciplinary context furthermore allows considering the difficulties and limits of extending D&G's theories across disparate areas of knowledge and practice.
This seminar aims to collectively understand key passages from the D&G corpus. Each week corresponds to a real-world geographical problem, such as finance capital, plate tectonics, derelict urban spaces, insurrection, and depression. Each week we read an exemplary passage of Deleuze, Guattari, or D&G, alongside and at tension with a kindred more accessible text pertaining to the same spatial thematic. By the end of the semester you'll have a pretty good sense of the singular richness of the spatialities D&G offer. You'll appreciate the fact they're less baffling than they appear at first sight. The seminar therefore aims to empower students as readers of contemporary continental philosophy.
A Thousand Plateaus is the focus of the course. Additional readings will be by Rachel Carson, Charles Darwin, Manuel De Landa, Elizabeth Grosz, Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri, David Harvey, Henri Lefebvre, Nicole Loraux, Doreen Massey, Brian Massumi, Richard Sennett, Baruch Spinoza, Nigel Thrift, Tiqqun, Michel Tournier, Jan Zalasiewicz, and others.

Susie Hatmaker Published Piece

SUSIE HATMAKER has published a piece titled, "On Mattering: A Coal Ash Flood and the Limits of Environmental Knowledge," in the interdisciplinary, open-access journal Environmental Humanities. You can find the piece here.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Michigan State University Migration Conference CFP

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY announces a call for papers for its third annual graduate conference "Migration Without Borders" The conference will take place on Oct. 10th and 11th at Michigan State University and will feature Dr. Jose C. Moya as the keynote. Click here for more information.

Princeton University Postdoc

THE WOODROW WILSON SCHOOL at PRINCETON UNIVERSITY announces an opening for a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Urban Policy and Planning. Click here for more information and to apply.

Sex and the State CFP

SEX and the STATE announces its call for papers/presentations for its 3rd Global Conference. This year's conference will be held in Montreal from Oct. 17th - 19th. Click here for more information.

Kanne awarded the Mulford Q. Sibley Award for Best Senior Paper.

CONGRATULATIONS to undergrad student Kathleen Kanne, awarded the 2013-2014 Mulford Q. Sibley Award for Best Senior Paper for her paper entitled, "Deselection in the Early Days of Peace Corps Training".

Garvey awarded the William C. Nelson Scholarship.

CONGRATULATIONS to current undergrad student Laura Garvey, awarded the 2014-2015 William C. Nelson Scholarship for U of M American Studies majors.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Steven M. Cohen Talk

THE CENTER for JEWISH STUDIES presents a lecture by Steven M. Cohen. His talk is titled "Reflections on the Most Important Study of American Jewry in the 1st Century: 'Portrait of Jewish Americans' by the Pew Center for Religion and American Life." The lecture will be held on Monday, June 16th at 7:30pm at Temple Israel. Click here for full event details.

Charles University in Prague American Studies Position

CHARLES UNIVERSITY in PRAGUE has an open full-time academic position in American Studies: US Policy Studies. Click American Studies at Charles University in Prague.pdf to learn more about the position and apply.

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Teaching Positions

THE OSHER LIFELONG LEARNING INSTITUTE is looking for graduate students to develop and lead short 6 or 8 week courses for the institute. Click here to find out more about the position and to apply.

Miami University (Ohio) American Studies Visiting Assistant Professor Position

MIAMI UNIVERSITY has an open Visiting Assistant Professor position in American Studies. Click here for more information and to apply.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Lisa Park Talk

PLEASE JOIN US for a talk by Professor Lisa Park on Thursday, May 8th from 11 am - noon in the Scott Hall Commons. The title of the talk is: The Borders Within: Public Charge and the Racial Politics of Immigrant Health Care.

PROFESSOR LISA PARK PRESENTS:
The Borders Within: Public Charge and the Racial Politics of Immigrant Health Care
Abstract
In the 1990s, Latina and Asian immigrant women of childbearing age were targeted for a series of health care fraud detection programs run by federal immigration authorities and the state Department of Health at international ports of entry in California. This presentation examines how these programs used a long-standing yet little known immigration policy called public charge to control immigrant women's labor and their bodies. I argue that it is, in fact, another iteration of a gendered and deeply racial tool for criminalization of low-income immigrants during a period of heightened neoliberalism. Currently, public charge provisions allow for the forced removal of immigrants as well as the denial of entry of potential immigrants based upon a largely discretionary determination of an individual's potential to become a public burden. Immigrants' potential health care costs are one of the most frequently cited sources of this burden. And, with the passage of the Affordable Care Act, which explicitly excludes unauthorized immigrants from health insurance, there is concern that public charge determinations will increase as hospitals are faced with significantly lower federal reimbursements to care for those who are uninsured and low-income, and that immigrants - of various citizenship status - will avoid health care institutions as they become increasingly identified with immigration control.

Honors Program Undergrad Scholarship Adviser Position

THE HONORS PROGRAM is seeking to hire a PhD candidate as a Graduate Assistant in the Office for National and International Scholarships. This is a 25% appointment for the 2014 - 15 school year. Click here for more information and to apply.

Tiya Miles talk

THE IAS HERITAGE COLLABORATIVE and MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY present a talk by Tiya Miles, She will be delivering a talk titled "One of the Longest Unwritten Chapter: the Interrelated Histories of African and Native America." The talk will take place on Friday, May 23rd at 6:30pm at the Historic Fort Snelling Visitor Center. Click here for full event details.

Annis and Esparza awarded the American Studies Stanley Andersen Summer Fellowship.

Current grad students Amber Annis and Rene Esparza have been awarded the 2014 American Studies Stanley Andersen Summer Fellowship.


Eddens and Pha have been awarded the Audrey Christensen Award

Current grad students Aaron Eddens and Kong Pha have been awarded the Department's Audrey Christensen Award for 2014-2015.


Boynton as been awarded the Josie Fowler Peace and Justice Prize

Current grad student Matt Boynton has been awarded the Department's Josie Fowler Peace and Justice Prize for 2014-2015.



Atwood-Hoffman and Patel awarded the Mulford Q. Sibley Graduate Fellowship

Current grad students Sarah Atwood-Hoffman and Soham Patel have been awarded the Department's 2014 Mulford Q. Sibley Graduate Fellowship for Summer Research.

Boynton, Huang, and Obando awarded the CLA Graduate Research Partnership Program (GRPP) Fellowship

Current grad students Matt Boynton, Mingwei Huang, and Mario Obando have been awarded the CLA Graduate Research Partnership Program (GRPP) fellowship for summer 2014.


Karissa White Tenure Track Appointment

KARISSA WHITE has been appointed to a tenure track position in Native American Studies at Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin. In addition to teaching, she'll also be working in collaboration with the Native American & Indigenous Culture Center on campus to engage in museum-related outreach activities focused on building relationships with local tribal colleges and communities.

Asian American Studies 10th Anniversary Party

ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES is celebrating its 10 year anniversary. The event will feature a full array of Asian American artists and will take place on Saturday, May 10th from 8:00 - 10:00pm at Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis. Click AAS celebration.pdf for full event information.

Mary Rizzo published article

MARY RIZZO, Ph.D., an AmSt. Alum recently had an article published in the open-access journal Public. Her article is titled "More than Fun and Games?: Play, Public Humanities, and Engaged Democracy." Click here to access the article.

Incoming Graduate Cohort

WE ARE PLEASED TO announce the incoming graduate cohort for 2014. We look forward to having Christine Bachman-Sanders, Jennifer Doane, Joseph Whitson, and Lei Zhang joining us in the fall. Below are the brief bios of the cohort.

Christine Bachman-Sanders received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Gender Studies from Middlebury College in 2009, and is currently finishing her Master of Arts degree in Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University. Her work examines transgressive possibilities that exist along the boundaries between queer and normative structures and texts. Her Masters thesis analyzes the juncture of American optimism, political uncertainty, and the threat of the subversive "Other" through an examination of Hollywood musical comedies made during the first decade of the Cold War. While she hopes to continue her work on sexuality and the Cold War in the American Studies program, she has recently become interested in the intersection between the "new woman," the bicycle, and the civilizing project of accessing a "wider world" through notions of progress at the turn of the 20th century, and the ways in which class, race, gender, and sexuality complicate and are complicated by the project of American empire building.
Jennifer Doane received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities where she studied English and Spanish. She received her Master of Arts in Asian American Studies from the University of California Los Angeles. Currently, Doane is in American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, and teaches an undergraduate course on Asian American History. Her research interests include intersections of race, gendered desire, family formation, the transnational adoption industry, and the nation state, specifically in apocalyptic or futuristic temporalities. She is interested in how these cultural forms have the potential to collapse racial hierarchies, hegemonic practices, and create alternative forms of kinship networks but often rearticulate our contemporary Western anxieties and imperialist projects.
Joseph Whitson graduated summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota in 2012 with a degree in American History and Global Studies. He has worked in the field of public history and museum development with various organizations, both nonprofit and governmental, including the Minnesota Historical Society and Three Rivers Park District. He is interested in how new technologies can make public history accessible to a more diverse range of people, specifically how GIS and other advances in mapping can change and improve the way history is presented to the public.
Lei Zhang is currently an M.A. candidate of English language and literature at Renmin University of China in Beijing, P.R. China. His research interests include transnational American studies, transpacific studies, Chinese American literature and memory studies. In the fall of 2013, as a FASIC (Foundation for Australian studies in China) Fellow, he carried out his research on the impact of America's Asia policy on Australia's "Asian Century White Paper" at Deakin University in Melbourne. In the past few years, he was also funded to attend a few conferences and forums in South Korea, Poland, U.S. and Australia. For his dissertation, he is keen to look at the representations of Asian immigrants to US and Americans in Asia in literature, films and media within a framework of mutual reflections on both sides of the Pacific. Currently, He is working on his M.A. thesis, "Cultural Memory of the Sixties in Thomas Pynchon's California Trilogy."