American History Workshop – “Constructing America: Identities, Infrastructure and Institutions” – May 4 & 5

In whose image is America constructed? What does “America” mean? In what ways has the world constructed America, just as America has shaped itself? The American History Workshop invites you to join us in considering these and other questions at our annual graduate student conference:

Constructing America: Identities, Infrastructure and Institutions

May 4, 2018 8:30am – 6pm

May 5, 2018 9am – 4pm

1014 Tisch Hall

Our keynote speaker is Professor of American Studies, Laura Barraclough (Yale University). Her talk, “Colonizing and Decolonizing Frontier Imaginaries in the U.S. West,” will be Friday May 4 at 4pm. Her talk will examine three sites in which imaginaries of the “western frontier” have been constructed and deconstructed in relationship to structures of settler colonialism, migration, and inequality. These include: rural land-use protections for horse-keeping and western heritage in Los Angeles; Mexican Americans use of the charro (gentleman horseman) to secure public and private space in California, Texas, and Nevada; and the Gila River Indian Community’s purchase and operation of a Wild West-style theme park just outside of Phoenix. Her goal is to have us think about the malleability of frontier myths: how they have been used to secure settler colonialism, but can also be repurposed for spatial justice, decolonization, and sovereignty.

We’ll be hosting panelists representing 14 universities across the U.S. and Canada, whose disciplines range from History, American Studies, Urban Planning, English, Architecture and more. Please see the attached posters and full schedule. Breakfast and lunch will be provided both Friday and Saturday.

Please register here if you are interested in attending.

Please contact Daniela Sheinin ([email protected]) with any questions.

Co-sponsored by:  The Department of History, Museum Studies Program, and the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies