Cherríe Moraga

RAIN TAXI is hosting Cherríe Moraga on Thursday, May 2 at 7:00 PM in the Mission Room at The Hook & Ladder Theater. For more information, click here.

"Colonial Debts, Imperial Insolvencies, and Extractive Nostalgias" - Max Haiven / "Desperate Holdings Real Estate & Landmind Spa"

THE RIGS INITIATIVE is hosting a 2-part series on Debt, Indebtedness, Inequality, and Resistance on

May 1-2. Max Haiven will present “Colonial Debts, Imperial Insolvencies, and Extractive Nostalgias” on

Wednesday, May 1 from 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM in the Carlson School of Management, Room L114. For

more information, click here. There will be an artist talk with Cassie Thorton on “Desperate Holdings Real

Estate & Landmind Spa” on Thursday, May 2 from 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM in Walter Library, Room 402. For more information, click here.

Christine Bachman-Sanders - Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship

Congratulations to Christine Bachman-Sanders who received the 2019-2020 University of Minnesota’s Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship!

Scott Hall Research Day

Scott Hall research day is on Wednesday, May 8 from 9:30 AM – 3:05 PM in Scott Hall 105. For more information, click here.

RIGS Spring Celebration

THE RIGS INITIATIVE is hosting their Spring Celebration for their graduating students, the end of the spring semester, and Karen Ho for her two years as Director on Friday, May 3 from 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM in the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Wilkins Room 215. For more information, click here. To RSVP, click here.

AMST 8920 Personal narratives in Interdisciplinary Research

THE DEPARTMENT OF AMERICAN STUDIES is offering AMST 8920 Personal Narratives in Interdisciplinary Researchthis Fall 2019. This course is taught by Jennifer L. Pierce and will meet on Wednesdays from 1:25 PM to 3;20 PM. This course examines epistemological, theoretical, and methodological questions related to research analyzing personal narrative sources such as oral histories, in-depth interviews, autobiographies, memoirs, diaries, and letters. For more information, see below.

American Studies 8920 (Fall 2019)  Personal Narratives in Interdisciplinary Research

Jennifer L. Pierce, Professor of American Studies

Wednesdays, 1:25 to 3:20 p.m.

Course Description:  This course examines epistemological, theoretical, and methodological questions related to research analyzing personal narrative sources such as oral histories, in-depth interviews, autobiographies, memoirs, diaries, and letters.  As narrative constructions about selves, these sources can provide unique insights into subjectivity, meaning, emotion, and desire that other kinds of social science and historical evidence cannot.  The evidence presented in personal narratives is unabashedly subjective and its narrative logic presents a story of an individual subject changing and developing over time.  Their analyses can provide important insights into the history of the self and its variations at the same time that they have the potential to enrich theories of human agency and social practices.  Analyses of personal narratives can also illuminate historical, cultural, and social dimensions.  In this light, personal narratives are never solely individual.  

We begin by reading about epistemological, theoretical, and methodological issues related to personal narrative analysis in work by literary scholars, historians, and social scientists.  The next section focuses on a number of studies analyzing personal narratives drawing from different kinds of sources such as oral histories, memoir, letters, and diaries in fields such as American studies, feminist studies, ethnic studies, history, anthropology, and sociology.  In the final section, we consider hybrid forms of personal narrative analysis, the difficulties researchers encounter when they find “ephemeral traces of subjectivity,” and the politics and ethics of conducting personal narrative research.      

Some of the books may include:  G. Thomas Couser, Vulnerable Subjects: Ethics and Life Writing; Mamie Garvin Fields with Karen Fields, Lemon Swamp and Other Stories: A Carolina Memoir;  Saidiya Hartmann, Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route; Martin F. Manalansen IV, Global Divas: Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora; Sharon Luk, The Life of Paper: Letters and a Poetics of Living Beyond Captivity; Tiya Miles, Ties That Bind: The Story of a Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom; Aren Aizura, Mobile Subjects: Transnational Imaginaries of Gender Reassignment; and Arlie Hochschild, Strangers in Their Own Land.

Leslie Schwartz - The Lost Chapters: Finding Recovery and Renewal One Book at a Time

THE HENNEPIN COUNTY LIBRARY is hosting Leslie Schwartz on Wednesday, April 24 from 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM at the Minneapolis Central Library, Pohlad Hall, 2^ndFloor for discussion on her book “The Lost Chapters: Finding Recovery and Renewal One Book at a Time.” For more information on this event and others, see below.

Hennepin County Library is offering a series of free programs that focus on addiction, criminal justice, and incarceration.

Upcoming programs at the Minneapolis Central Library, Pohlad Hall, 2nd floor, include:

Wednesday, April 24, 7 – 8:30 p.m.

Leslie Schwartz, author of The Lost Chapters: Finding Recovery and Renewal One Book at a Time

Register online at https://hclib.bibliocommons.com/events/5c5c7d5853f3b32000161e17

We also will be offering a criminal justice film series in the fall.

Thursday, October 3, 7-9 p.m.

True Conviction film screening and conversation with Jamie Meltzier and Christopher Scott

Thursday, October 10, 7-9 p.m.

The Stairs film screening and conversation with Hugh Gibson

Thursday, October 17 , 7-9 p.m.

Milwaukee 53206 film screening and conversation with Keith McQuirter and Dennis Walton

Thursday, October 24, 7-9 p.m.

Tribal Justice film screening and conversation with Anne Makepeace and judges Claudette White and Abby Abinanti

Registration for the film series will begin on the library’s website - www.hclib.org - in September.