Welcome to the Start of the Fall 2023 Semester!

Welcome back American Studies students, faculty, alumni, and supporters! 

We hope you had an enjoyable and restful summer and a fantastic first week back!

Please join us for a Welcome Week open house on Thursday, Sept. 7 from 12-1pm in Fine Arts 545-B (in the American Studies office suite) to kick off the fall 2023 semester!  

Come pick up a (free!) boxed lunch in Fine Arts 545-B. 

You can say hi to your professors, and find out more about a degree in American Studies, or learn about our three minors (in Public Humanities,  Asian American Studies, or American Studies) and find out about our other exciting programs for this academic year. 

Read on for some news and notes from our professors!

We look forward to seeing you there!

Fall News and Notes from the Department of American Studies

After years of service to the department and the university, Dr. Patrice McDermott has stepped down from her position as Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs in the Provost's office. Dr. McDermott will be working in the CAHSS Dean's office to support the Breaking the M.O.L.D. Mellon grant this academic year.

Dr. Tamara Bhalla recently co-authored an essay in Receptionjournal with Dr. Lindsay DiCuirci (English) called "Me Time": Motherhood, Reading, and Myths of Leisure." Dr. Bhalla is the recipient of the Breaking the M.O.L.D Professional Development Award for 2023-2024 and will be using the award to develop her current book project and for leadership development.

This summer, Dr. Casiano participated in the Baltimore Field School 2.0 as a faculty fellow. As part of the field school, he served as a panelist on the session, "Demystifying Bureaucracies: Community-led Preservation, Planning, and Affordable Housing in Baltimore."

Dr. Connor Donnan wrote a chapter in a Native American Reader(2022) which recently won an award from a Catholic book association. Dr. Donnan also published  "'No Irish Need Apply' Revisited: Anti-Irish Language in Baltimore's Local Newspapers between 1840 and 1880," New Hibernia Review, vol 27, issue 1, Spring 2023, 73-94. 

This summer, Dr. Sarah Fouts submitted her manuscript, Right to Remain: Street Food Vendors and Day Laborers in Post-Katrina New Orleans, which is under contract with UNC Press. This fall Dr. Fouts is working with a team to produce two short documentaries that chronicle the stories of two Mexican restaurateurs, one in New Orleans and one in Baltimore. The project is funded by the Library of Congress and Maryland Folklife Network and will premiere on November 9 at the Creative Alliance.

In January 2023, Dr. Nicole King received the Crystal Eagle Award from the Owners' Counsel of America, a national organization of eminent domain lawyers, along with Sonia Eaddy for their work fighting against the abuse of eminent domain law in Baltimore. She also gave the keynote talk for the university-wide Faculty Development Day at University of Portland in Oregon titled "The City and the Campus: Models for Becoming the University for/with Portland" in May 2023. She wrote the article "Baltimore Traces: Public Humanities, Zines, and the Connecting the Classroom," which will be published in The Routledge Companion to Publicly Engaged Humanities Scholarship. She worked on the 2023 summer intensive as part of the Baltimore Field School 2.0 project with Dr. Sarah Fouts.