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Events in the Department of American Studies

The Saint Louis University Department of American Studies sponsors numerous events such as conferences and lecture series.

The SLU Department of American Studies Facebook page tracks upcoming and ongoing events, as well as news about current and past students and faculty.

Recurring Events

Mary and John Blixen Lecture Series in American Studies

Largely due to a generous gift from SLU alumna Mary Blixen (Ph.D., American studies, 2000) and John Blixen, the Department of American Studies offers a series of lectures by leading scholars in the field.

Past Lectures

  • 2016 Blixen Lecture presented by David A. Chang (University of Minnesota)
    The New Light from Tahiti: Christianity, Textuality, and the Native Hawaiian Exploration of the World
  • 2015 Blixen Lecture presented by Brent Hayes Edwards (Columbia University)
    Scrapbook Internationalism: Black Radicalism and the Archives of Hubert Harrison
  • 2014 Blixen Lecture presented by Melani McAlister (George Washington University)
    The Globalization of American Evangelicalism
  • 2013 Blixen Lecture presented by Philip J. Deloria (University of Michigan)
    Toward an American Indian Abstract: What an Unknown Artist Might Tell Us About Celebrity, the 1930s, Anthropology, Culture, Politics and a Few Other Things Besides
  • 2012 Blixen Lecture presented by Carlo Rotella (Boston College)
    Hollywood on the Charles: A Provincial Backwater Goes Global

Visual Culture Graduate Student Conference

The Visual Culture Graduate Student Conference is a biennial event organized and run by graduate students in the Department of American Studies.

Since 2008, the conference has been dedicated to providing a forum for graduate research that explores diverse aspects of visual culture within the field of American studies. Graduate-level scholars from institutions across the country have visited SLU to present their research alongside graduate students from our department.

The conference maintains a tradition of welcoming esteemed scholars to deliver keynote addresses on vital topics in the field of American studies, including Kevin Gaines (University of Michigan), Matthew Frye Jacobson (Yale University), Lisa Cartwright (University of California San Diego) and Shawn Michelle Smith (School of the Art Institute of Chicago).

Past Conferences

  • 2014 Conference: "Black & White / Red & Blue: A Graduate Visual Culture Conference"
  • 2012 Conference (PDF): "Politics of the Eye: Imagery of the American Political Landscape"
  • 2010 Conference (PDF): "Urban Cuts: Appropriation and Resistance in the American City"
  • 2008 Conference (PDF): "Constructed Light, Constructed Meanings: A Visual Culture Graduate Student Conference"