Today, we continue our recent trend of featuring undergraduate excellence by sharing with you more details about the American Studies Honors Symposium this Thursday, April 19, from 5 – 7pm in Burdine 436A:
This symposium will showcase the remarkable research of our undergraduate honors thesis writers in the Department of American Studies. Part One–consisting of three papers–will explore diverse topics related to Texas and its borderlands, including research on hydraulic fracturing; state educational standards in the social studies curriculum; and an analysis of the drug war in Mexico and local efforts to resist violence with art and social activism. Part Two–comprised of three papers–will examine various modes of creative expression, ranging from rock-and-roll and its unlikely alliance of Patti Smith, Allen Ginsberg, and Walt Whitman; boy choir schools and coming of age narratives in American culture; and sport, Jack Kerouac and the creative process. Each presentation will be approximately ten to fifteen minutes in length. After each panel, there will be a discussion with the audience. There will be a short break between panels, as well as a reception after the panels are completed.
Kelli Schultz, “Our TEKS: A Theatrical Exploration of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills through Thornton Wilder’s Our Town”
Julie Reitzi, “Making Due and Making Change: Women and Youth of Ciudad Juarez Respond to the Drug War”
David Juarez, “Beating the Score: Jack Kerouac and the Sometimes Fantastical World of Baseball”
Miriam Anderson, “Just the Fracks: Hydraulic Fracturing in a Culture of Contradicting Proof”
Laci Thompson, “Always On a Tightrope: The Power of Contradiction and the Beauty of Rock Music as Seen Through the Work of Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg and Patti Smith”
Alexandria Chambers, “Rob(b)ed Boys: Employing Fiction to Introduce the Choirboy School Upbringing into the American Coming-of-Age Discourse”
We hope to see you there!
AMS :: ATX 