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.

AFRO 50 - Teach-In 201: Critical Black Feminisms, Black Lives, Black Studies in Resistance

3rd Annual Dakhóta Omníčiye - Keep Moving Foward

"On May 4th of 1863, Dakhóta people who had been imprisoned at a concentration camp below Fort Snelling at Bdóte were taken by steamboat and exiled from Mnísota Makhóčhe. To mark our return & assert our continued presence on this sacred land where the rivers meet, we invite all Očhéthi Šakówiŋ Oyáte to return home, unify in peace, and share community knowledge, teachings, and stories with one another."

Phidáuŋyayapi ye/do!

All are welcome to the

3rd annual Dakhóta Omníčiye

May 2nd-4th, 2019

Flyer by Marlena Myles

FAQ's

Why am I being contacted? To mark your calendar! If you wish to present fill out the call for presenters by April 5th, 2019. Please share this with your contacts and listservs.

Cost? Free

Where? Historic Fort Snelling at Bdote: 200 Tower Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55111

Who can participate? Anyone and everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend. 

When will the daily itinerary be available? ASAP-forthcoming

How can I help? If you would like to volunteer please contact me. 

Who is sponsoring this? Minnesota State Historical Society

Are meals provided? Yes on a first come first serve basis

Thank you for all the work you do, and I look forward to seeing you and yours on May 2nd - 5th. I hope you can return this year or come for the first time to support amazing Indigenous people to reflect upon what 'keep moving onward' means to you along with the communities they serve. 

Gaye Theresa Johnson - "The Future of Radical History: Democracy, Love and the Metaphor of Two Worlds"

The Department of American Studies would like to invite you to join us for The Annual David Noble Lecture.

David Noble was an American studies professor at the University of Minnesota who retired in 2009 after 50 years of teaching. Noble made substantial contributions to American studies. Each spring, we present the annual David Noble Lecture in his honor, which features a groundbreaking scholar of American studies who offer fresh perspectives on our history and culture.

Our guest speaker this year is University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Alumna, Dr. Gaye Theresa Johnson, presenting "The Future of Radical History: Democracy, Love and the Metaphor of Two Worlds."

Assistant Professor Gaye Theresa Johnson, Ph.D. writes and teaches on race and racism, cultural history, spatial politics, and political economy at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Her first book, "Spaces of Conflict, Sounds of Solidarity: Music, Race, and Spatial Entitlement in Los Angeles" (University of California Press) is a history of civil rights and spatial struggles among Black and Brown freedom seekers and cultural workers in LA. Johnson’s current work includes an edited volume on "The Futures of Black Radicalism," co-edited with Alex Lubin, and a single-authored book currently titled "These Walls Will Fall: Protest at the Intersection of Immigrant Detention and Mass Incarceration." In it, she demonstrates how visual and aural protest art constitutes one of the most significant discourses of resistance to 20th and 21st century anti-immigrant and pro-carceral policy and practices, revealing how expressive cultures enact an alternative narrative history about migration, race, and power.  

Johnson has also contributed journal articles and book chapters to historical, cultural studies, and ethnic studies volumes. She has been a visiting researcher at Stanford University’s Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity, as well as at the African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa.  She is active with the Los Angeles Community Action Network’s struggle for housing and civil rights on LA’s skid row and is the 2013 recipient of the Freedom Now! Award for her efforts.  She is a member of the board of directors for the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE) and an advisory board member for the Rosenberg Fund for Children.

The event is on Tuesday, April 9, 2019, from 7-9 PM in Walter Library Room 402 and will be live streamed at https://umn.zoom.us/j/878908342.

PARKING:

Weisman Art Museum Garage

333 East River Road

Minneapolis, MN, 55455

East River Road Garage

385 East River Parkway

Minneapolis, MN, 55455

Church Street Garage

80 Church Street SE

Minneapolis, MN, 55455

ACCESSIBILITY:

Exterior access via power door west side, and entrance on first floor.

Tunnel access via northeast side in basement connected to Johnston, and southeast side in basement connected to Smith.

Elevator.

Adapted restrooms.

For more information please email American Studies at amstdy@umn.edu

The Indian System - Film Screening

THE DEPARTMENT OF AMERICAN INDIAN STUDIES is hosting a film screening of The Indian System followed by a conversation with the producer Sheldon Wolfchild on Thursday, March 28 at 5:30 PM in Rapson Hall Room 100. For more information, click here.

Critical Conversation Series: "Critical Latinx Indigeneities: Understanding Emerging Frameworks of Indigenous Futurity within Latinized Entanglements"

THE DEPARTMENT OF CHICANO AND LATINO STUDIES are hosting Critical Conversation Series: “Critical Latinx Indigeneities: Understanding Emerging Frameworks of Indigenous Futurity within Latinized Entanglements” with Dr. Luis Urrieta on Monday, March 11 from 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM in Walter Library Room 402. For more information, click here.