While the America projected to the world for centuries was an idyllic haven of freedom, tolerance and prosperity, a “Mother of Exiles” calling the tired, the poor and the “huddled masses yearning to be free,” this image failed to fit the domestic (or indeed international) reality of America’s history of conflict and segregation. Whether conceived in terms of a ‘frontier,’ a geographical landmass or an ideological ‘space,’ America itself has historically shaped the identities of the ‘nation of emigrants’ who constitute the parts of her sum. The intersection of American ‘space’ and American ‘identity’ (both with each other and the world at large), has been the source of much debate, undergoing numerous revisions. From the amalgam fiction of the Melting Pot thesis of the early twentieth century, through to (Neo)-Pragmatism’s embrace of pluralism and beyond, America’s concept of its own identity seems to be in continued conceptual flux. This symposium seeks to explore the ineluctable problems/conflicts peculiar to American cultural identity, and to elucidate what it means to be American in both the domestic and global matrix.

Postgraduate students of all disciplines within the field of American Studies (including literature, film, history, geography, philosophy, visual arts, performance arts, new media, politics, sociology, cultural studies, ecology, law, economics, and international relations) are invited to submit proposals for 20-minute papers in the area of American studies, with possible topics including but not restricted to:

- (Re)-Constructing National Identity
- Conflict resolution
- Problems within (and without) of Cultural Diversity
- Representations of Gender
- Representations of Race
- Historical interpretation and Periodisation
- (Re)-Configuring America’s Collective Memory
- American Exceptionalism
- The Hyphenated Identity

Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be emailed to the IAAS Postgraduate Caucus Co-Chairs:
Louise Walsh (Clinton Institute for American Studies, UCD) and Kate Kirwan (University College Cork) at iaas.symposium@gmail.com Please note that you must be a member of the IAAS to participate, see membership form attached.

DEADLINE FOR RECEIPT OF ABSTRACTS: FRIDAY 11TH DECEMBER 2009