CAASblog

Hi all,

Jason here, with my concluding post about the conference, and a couple of pictures. As you can tell from Chris and Maureen’s posts (here and here), “States of Emergency” was a thought-provoking and exciting conference. Thanks are definitely due to Bryce Traister, the organizer, for his tremendous efforts (and success!) in putting together such a terrific conference. Following Bryce’s own lead, I also want to pass on CAAS’s thanks to Christine Wall, the Admin Assistant for the Centre for American Studies at the University of Western Ontario: Christine put a lot of work into the conference for us, and we are very grateful for everything!

We also would like to thank various organizations for their support: at Western, the Centre itself, as well as the VP Research, the Deans of Social Sciences, Information and Media Studies, Arts and Humanities and Law, and the Chairs of English and History. We would also like to thank the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the US Consulate General, Public Affairs Section, in Toronto.

And, finally, thanks to my fellow bloggers, Maureen Mahoney and Chris Lockett for offering their time and intellectual energy to this effort! Thanks!

In closing, I’d like to remind everyone that we can continue the conversations started in London, and begin some new ones, at next year’s conference in Windsor. Keep an eye on this website for updates! Our regular cfp blog will return soon. –Jason

Pictures:

Our intrepid executive, at the beginning of the convention.

The Saturday evening banquet

My blog post was written on Saturday just before the banquet, after two days of great panels. Alas, technological problems delayed posting to today. Enjoy!

It’s hard not to notice the prevalence of masculinity at this year’s conference. On Sunday morning, I’m going to continue this trend with my paper on urban crisis and shifts in ideal manhood. My highlighting this fact shouldn’t be taken as a complaint (even if the stock and trade of any graduate student is originality), because each paper on manhood that I have heard has been incredibly interesting. The diversity of arguments presented has made the conference that much more stimulating. Prior to this weekend, I had not even considered a masculine identity of Vietnam draft dodgers outside a framework of emasculation or gender binaries. Nor had I given much thought to the many limitations imposed upon African American males by a socially constructed group narrative; it’s likely that next week I won’t be able to resist re-visiting DuBois’ “The Talented Tenth.” Panelists didn’t stop there- today included papers on masculinity as defined by and through processes of ‘becoming’; crisis of white masculinity caused by apocalyptic fears when black males enter public space; and comparisons of the cultural stability of Protestant vs Irish – Catholic masculine ethic.

Certainly masculinity hasn’t hogged the gender lime-light. Same-sex marriage, the family, women and femininity have also been discussed by attendees. But I just couldn’t help but point out how themes of crisis and emergency have brought manhood to the fore.

Maureen

Jason here. The conference has begun and is already terrific! I was at the panel “Screening Emergency,” with a series of excellent papers on a wide range of films (including some gothic content, fittingly enough for Friday the 13th).

We also just had our executive meeting, where we decided, among other topics, that our next conference will be in Windsor, Ontario. Stay tuned for details!

We’re all looking forward to the keynote tonight, Russ Castronovo, from University of Wisconsin-Madison, presenting his paper, “Speaking Fiction to Power,” followed by the always fun reception.

Coming up soon, some guest blogging by our Atlantic Rep, Chris Lockett, and our grad rep, Maureen Mahoney. (More from yours truly when I have an actual keyboard, and not my tiny phone…)