“We hold these truths to be self-evident,” begins the main body of the Declaration of Independence, and the definition of “America” may likewise seem utterly self-evident: the short form of the nation’s official name. Read the rest of this entry »
Were we to imagine an earlier iteration of this keywords project—one published around, say, 1989— “border” would most likely have been left off the list entirely, though “margin” or maybe “minor” might well have been included. Read the rest of this entry »
“Colonial” has very old roots. Read the rest of this entry »
The word “coolie” is first and foremost a product of European expansion into Asia and the Americas. Read the rest of this entry »
“Globalization” is a contemporary term used in academic and non-academic contexts to describe a late twentieth- century condition of economic, social, and political interdependence across cultures, societies, nations, and regions precipitated by an unprecedented expansion of capitalism on a global scale. Read the rest of this entry »
On Friday, October 12, Kirsten Silva Gruesz, Mary Pat Brady, David Kazanjian, Moon-Ho Jung, and Lisa Lowe discussed “Transhemispheric Keywords: America, Border, Colonial, Coolie, Globalization” with Keywords for American Cultural Studies co-editors Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler at a roundtable at the American Studies Association annual convention in Philadelphia. Click here for more information.
Anyone who attended the conference–or anyone who’s read the cluster of five keyword entries and is interesting on commenting on them together–can continue the conversation in this forum.
