The STAR Project welcomes messages (please no call for papers or conferences) from its members that might be of interest to researchers and students of the transatlantic, either in terms of subject matter, theory or methodology.
- Check new essay by María Filippakopoulou, 'Foreign in our own country'. The International Literary Quarterly, Issue 9. http://interlitq.org/issue9/filippakopoulou/job.php
- NEW PUBLICATION: Burns and the Sugar Plantocracy of Ayrshire, by Eric J. Graham, Foreword by Professor Tom Devine: 123 pages fully referenced and indexed. Well illustrated. Price £6 (including P&P within the UK). Available from:
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Ronald Brash, Publications Distribution Manager AANHS
10 Robsland Avenue
Ayr KA7 2RW
www.aanhs.org.uk
Entirely based entirely on research on contemporary documents, this referenced and well illustrated study has pieced together the strange world of late eighteenth century Jamaica - which the Bard would have entered had not literary success smiled on him. As one Scottish observer remarked: "the state of society in this place is as low and degraded as it is possible to conceive - a perfect Sodom!"
In doing so it examines Ayrshire's social elite's deep involvement in the Caribbean, where many of their younger sons ventured to seek their fortunes. If they survived the lethal tropical diseases, their aim was to make money quickly and return home to Scotland with the profits - living out the rest of their lives as members of the landed gentry. So it was that riches obtained from the slave plantations that fuelled many estate purchases and financed agricultural improvement in eighteenth century Ayrshire. This scenario was commonplace across swathes of Scotland.
Also: 'Running the Blockade during the American Civil War'
In History Scotland magazine, October 2009:
Eric J Graham & D Richard Torrance
This article looks at the 'dare-going' of the Scottish engineer William Allen who ran the Federal naval blockade of the Confederate ports on Clyde built steamers. On his return he founded the Scotia engineering works and Albion Shipping Company, and was knighted by Queen Victoria for his services as advisor to the Admiralty.
See: http://www.ericgraham.co.uk/ for more details.
- BBC Radio Scotland and BBC Radio 7 will be repeating Billy Kay's series Scotland's Black History and The Scottish Mission. Another recent programme on the Civil Rights movement 'The Fiery Cross' will also be repeated: www.billykay.co.uk.
Message received by Philip Davies at: Philip.Davies@bl.uk
Two forthcoming Eccles Centre events offer rare opportunities for American Studies specialists: A) 'Native American Theatre: a Panel of Playwrights'
Monday 11 May, 18.30-20.00, Conference Centre, British Library, Euston Road, London
As part of the Origins Festival of First Nations Theatre and Culture, a panel of Native American theatre-makers discuss their work. What makes Native American theatre distinctive? How does it express traditional culture and relate it to the contemporary world? What are its main concerns today?
The event, chaired by Professor Helen Gilbert (Royal Holloway College, London), features a remarkable panel including Cherokee playwright Diane Glancy, Delaware playwright Daniel David Moses, and the directors of the Huron-Wendat company Ondinnok, Yves Sioui Durand and Catherine Joncas.
£6 / £4 concessions
Tickets bookable in advance at https://www.riversidestudios.co.uk/online/index.php
B) 'Elaine Showalter: American Women Writers'
'Monday 1 June, 18.30-20.00', Conference Centre, British Library, Euston Road, London
One of America's pre-eminent literary critics, feminist and social historian, Elaine Showalter discusses her monumental new book, A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx, with 'Helen Taylor', Professor of English, University of Exeter. This new work surveys both great names and the unjustly overlooked, and the evening promises a conversation of wit and insight.
£6 / £4 concessions
Tickets bookable in advance at:
http://boxoffice.bl.uk https://blowa.bl.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=https://blowa.bl.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://boxoffice.bl.uk> or by calling 01937 546546 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm) or from the British Library Information Desk.
- 'Robert Burns in a Transatlantic Context'
The Centre for Scottish Studies at Simon Fraser University celebrated the 250th birthday of Burns this year by hosting a series of public events and an academic symposium on 'Robert Burns in a Transatlantic Context' from April 7-9, 2009. The public events included:
- a musical celebration of Burns in North America featuring Jon Bartlett and Rika Ruebsaat, Kirsteen McCue and David Hamilton;
- a special mini-Gung Haggis Fat Choy celebration;
- a lecture by Dr Robert Crawford on his new biography of Burns, The Bard
- a panel on "Connecting Diasporas: Scotland, Asia and the Caribbean";
- and a Community Research Forum on "Burns in British Columbia."
The academic workshop aimed to respond to the recent surge of interest in transatlantic studies, seeking to employ emergent concepts from this new field in order to analyze Burns' uses in the Americas. Organized by Leith Davis (SFU), Sharon Alker (Whitman College), and Holly Nelson (Trinity Western U), the symposium brought together recognized scholars from Scotland, the United States and Canada to reflect on the phenomenon of Robert Burns in transatlantic culture. A volume of essays presented at the symposium is forthcoming.
The website is: http://www.sfu.ca/personal/leith/TransatlanticBurns.htm
Many thanks to Professor Leith Davis, Director of the Centre for Scottish Studies, Simon Fraser University, Canada for sharing the information.
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The latest double issue of Agenda. Atlantic Crossings poetry magazine includes a 50th birthday supplement for the Irish-American poet Greg Delanty, originally from Cork, now living in Vermont. A major portion of the 262-page issue consists of a party in verse from both sides of the Atlantic. As the 'Arts & Books', Independent puts it (Friday 13 February 2009, p. 32), 'this issue handsomely brings his poetry to the fore [...] and show him to be an important voice for today and the future.' The introduction stresses the inventiveness of a poet who 'mixes Cork slang, American drawl, classical allusions, mythological refenrences, Biblical and liturgical language, Gaelic Irish and straight English, as well as puns and cliches into a linguistic hot-pot'. This year celebrating its 50th anniversary, Agenda is a long-standing poetry journal and a vital part of the national archive.
[posted by Maria Filippakopoulou, 13 February 2009]
Past announcements:
Jane Austen and the North Atlantic - Essays from the 2005 Jane Austen Society
Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Edited by Sarah Emsley
Includes: "Two Naval Brothers, One City: Charles and Francis Austen in Halifax, Canada," by Sheila Johnson Kindred; "Jane Austen and North America: Fact and Fiction," by Brian Southam; "Insular Austen, Oceanic Austen: 'Bits of Ivory' and Beyond," by Peter W. Graham; "Canadian and American Readers of Jane Austen's Happy Endings," by Sarah Emsley
Published by the Jane Austen Society/Sarsen Press; £3.30 + postage
E-mail: enquiries@jahmusm.org.uk
Clyde Built Blockade Runners, Cruisers and Armoured Rams of the American Civil War, by Eric Graham
Scotland's Black History programme and STAR, Billy Kay, Radio Scotland
Early Scottish Maritime Exchange publications:
The Early Transatlantic Trade of Ayr 1640-1730 by Tom Barclay & Eric J Graham, foreword by Professor Tom Devine (Ayrshire Archaeological & Natural History Society, monograph 30) - visit http://www.aanhs.org.uk/. This an indepth study of the earliest sustained trading by Scots to the New World. Seawolves: Pirates & the Scots by Eric J.Graham, foreword by Professor T.C. Smout (Birlinn Press), 202 pages, illustrated, referenced and indexed - visit www.Birlinn.co.uk. Based on the great piracy trials heard before the the High Admiralty Court of Scotland, it relates the Scots involvement with 'black flag' piracy. One that triggered the Act of Union and destroyed their attempts to break into the slave and Far Eastern trades (1695-1725). In doing so it reveals the characters and events behind Defoe's 'General History of the Pirates' and RLS's 'Treasure Island'. CD-ROM The Records of the High Court of Admiralty of Scotland 1620 - 1750 compiled and edited by Sue Mowat & Eric J. Graham, foreword by Professor T.C. Smout. A catalogue of the 3,700 cases heard by this court with synopsis of the case, its pursers and defenders. Offers a unique insight in Scots dealings at home and abroad - including slaving, piracy, privateers and transatlantic ventures. Visit www.maritime-scotland.org.uk
Scottish Gaelic Learners in North America
From Michael Newton, May 2005
A Chairdean choire / Dear friends and colleagues - My long delayed article about Scottish Gaelic learners in North America is finally available on the online journal eKeltoi. Many of you contributed to the survey, and may find some of your responses in the article. Many thanks again for participating!http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/celtic/ekeltoi/volumes/vol1/1_1/newton_1_1.html.
Abstract: The Scottish Gaelic learners' movement is a recent development in North America that parallels the mainstream Scottish heritage movement in some ways, but is strongly oppositional to it in others. This essay describes characteristics of this phenomenon by analyzing the range of people involved, their motivations for learning, their goals, the creation of community among learners, the interaction between language learning and discourses of ethnicity, and the interface between Gaelic learners in North America and native Gaelic communities in Scotland and Cape Breton Island.
History Scotland magazine article: 'Scotland and America: Forever Tartan?' - Dr Michael Newton has an article in the new issue (Sept/Oct 2004) of History Scotland (printed in Scotland, but distributed to major bookshops all around America). The article is entitled 'Scotland and America: Forever Tartan?' and examines the lack of Scottish Studies in American academic institutions.
Books on Canada Online - The Association for the Export of Canadian Books and participating publishers and suppliers support the development of Canadian Studies in Canada and abroad, by publishing each year Books on Canada. An online version of this publication is now available online and is designed primarily for academics and institutions interested in Canada and Canadian Studies. The titles chosen by Canadian publishers represent some of the best writing and research being produced in this country in languages and literature, history, politics, sociology, business and economics, geography, arts and culture, education, law, women's and gender issues, and Aboriginal studies, to name but a few.