Department of American Studies

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Department Response to the Twin Pandemics

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease known as COVID19, ripped the frayed band-aid off of an America that we have refused to collectively recognize.

Daniel Reyes, MA student in Folklore, was the Featured Student Storyteller during February’s Remembrance & Renewal Storytelling Festival, co-sponsored by the American Studies department.

American Studies major, Abbas Hasan, authored an incredibly thoughtful opinion piece, “The Case for American Studies,” about our department in The Daily Tar Heel.

Dr. Jenny Tone-Pah-Hote lives on in her luminous work, Crafting An Indigenous Nation: Kiowa Expressive Culture in the Progressive Era, and through her connections to students, faculty and colleagues at Carolina and across this nation.

Recent News

Carter Sickels (Folklore MA, 2010) won the 2021 Southern Book Prize for his novel, “The Prettiest Star.”

05/03/21

In March, Department Chair Dr. Sharon P. Holland was the keynote speaker at Duke University’s 2021 Feminist Theory Workshop, hosted by its Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies department.

05/03/21

Each year, Assistant Professor Dr. Ben Frey and several of his colleagues have accompanied students of the Cherokee language to Western Carolina University to attend a symposium. This year the pandemic prevented such a journey, so he produced a documentary (by Trevor Trout), “ᎣᏂ ᏣᎳᎩ ᎦᏬᏂᎯᏍᏗ ᏓᏂᎳᏫᎬᎢ: The Last Symposium.”

05/03/21

Michael J. Bramwell, PhD candidate and Visiting Guest Curator at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts at Old Salem, joined Dr. Jon F. Sensbach (Prof. of History @ U of Florida) in a discussion on “THINGS: A Global Conversation About The Tools of the Trade, Resistance, and the Decorative Arts of Enslavement.”

05/03/21

Smithsonian Magazine recently featured an article by West Virginia state folklorist, Emily Hilliard (Folklore MA, 2011), “’Making a Living by the Sweat of Her Brow’: Hazel Dickens and a Life of Work.”

05/03/21

American Studies professor Dr. Dan Cobb and the members of his Undergraduate Research Consultant Team—Mackenzie Collura-Repp, Samara Perez Labra, Gabrielle Walton, and Grace Yannotta—announced the publication of the website for their ongoing project “The Experiential World of D’Arcy McNickle.”

05/03/21

Lehman Brady Fellow Marie T. Cochran was interviewed in The Atlantic Journal-Constitution on her “Notes of an Affrilachian Daughter in the Time of COVID” exhibit.

05/03/21

The New York Times featured journalist, cookbook author and American Studies professor, Von Diaz, on collecting dishes that tell stories about life on the island, and the flavors that bring her back to it.

05/03/21

See “News” at top for more.

There are no upcoming events at this time.