American Studies @ Boston University

Indecent Disposal: FCC and the Censoring of Late-Night | Los Angeles Review of Books Deborah L. Jaramillo looks at the relationship between the FCC and the television industry over time.

Prof. Jaramillo publishes article in LA Review of Books.

Deborah Jaramillo’s article “Indecent Disposal: FCC and the Censoring of Late-Night” in the LA Review of Books can be read here: lareviewofbooks.org/article/inde...

Please join us on October 29th for our American Studies for the Future Lecture series with speakers Jilene Chua and Neferti X. Tadiar! The dates and times for the series can be found below and on our website. www.bu.edu/americanstud...

Congratulations to American Studies Affiliate Faculty Adriana Craciun who was recently awarded the prestigious 2025-26 Harvard Radcliffe Fellowship. Her research will explore increasing plant life in the arctic regions of Greenland and Svalbard. www.bu.edu/pardee/2025/...

Boston University Program’s Name Change Reflects Its Transnational Focus American Studies, formerly American & New England Studies, blends the global and the local

This summer, it became official: we changed the name of our program from The American & New England Studies Program to, simply, “American Studies.” Check out this interview with Director Joseph Rezek about the name change, the program's long history, and the future of American Studies at BU.

Congratulations to Katheryn Viens on her newly published article "Mobs or the Martial Ideal? The Mutable Definition of Patriotism in Local Historical Narratives." Remembering the American Revolution at 250 1 (2024): 68-90.

Find the link to the article here: journals.h-net.org/.../2025_Vie....

Join us for a one-day symposium on transpacific Indigenous studies with guest speakers Quynh Nhu Le, Bayley J. Marquez, Tiara Na’puti, and Erin Suzuki. Speakers will present their research across a range of Indigenous geographies in Native America, the Pacific Islands, and Asia.

White card on a red background reads The Boston University American Studies Program congratulates Perri Meldon on her new position as National Coordinator for the ACE Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship Program! bu.edu/americanstudies. Boston University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Congratulations, Perri! In this role, Perri supports 16 recent PhDs on nationwide projects about public lands and public humanities. @bostonu.bsky.social

Astrid Tvetenstrand's (AMNESP 2023) exhibition, Exhibiting China, will run from August 11 to November 1, 2025 at the Boston Athenaeum. In 1850, the Boston Athenaeum held its first exhibition in its new building at 10½ Beacon Street. Among the 268 paintings featured were five Chinese portraits. Owned by prominent China Trade merchant and Athenaeum proprietor Augustine Heard (1785–1868), the portraits depict five Chinese business people who facilitated trade for Americans in China throughout the nineteenth century. These paintings were produced in the studio of the Chinese artist Lam Qua (1801–1860), who specialized in Western-style portraits for Western clients. Thanks to generous loans from their current holding institutions, Exhibiting China reunites them 175 years later. Displayed alongside a selection of other works featured in the 1850 exhibition, the five portraits restore a context no longer visible in the Boston Athenaeum’s collection. Seen together, the portraits prompt us to think about who American merchants worked with and how they amassed the fortunes that supported institutions back home. Tvetenstrand is the current Polly Thayer Starr Curatorial Fellow in American Art at the Boston Athenaeum. She earned her Ph.D in the American and New England Studies Program at Boston University.

We’re excited to announce that Exhibiting China, curated by Astrid Tvetenstrand (American and New England Studies ‘23), will run at the Boston Athenaeum from August 11-November 1, 2025. bostonathenaeum.org/whats-on/exh...

Three graduates in red gowns, cap, and hoods stand facing an audience of family and friends. In the background is a large window overlooking the city of Boston.

A view of the Charles River and the skyline of the city of Boston. In the foreground are treetops and the rooftops of row houses. The sky is cloudy.

A beautiful day and a gorgeous view—perfect for the @bucas.bsky.social American Studies convocation. #BU @bostonu.bsky.social

Flyer congratulating a BU American Studies Ph.D. student. Text reads: The Boston University American Studies Program congratulates Fallon Murphy, recipient of the 2025-2026 Leonard and Louise Riggio Fellowship at Emory University! Fallon's project is titled "To Be a Walking Filing Cabinet": Alice Walker's Preservation Practices as Poetry." Boston University logo appears below.

Congratulations, Fallon!

Flyer for a lecture entitled "The Cherokee Press and the Racialization of Print, 1826-1835. "Lecture takes place May 8, 2025 at 4:00pm in CAS 132 on the Boston University campus. Prof. Rezek’s forthcoming book, The Racialization of Print, tells a long story about the mutual entanglement of ideologies of race and technologies of print in the Anglophone world from 1600 to 1860. In this lecture, he will share a case study from the early nineteenth century: a story about the racial, social, and political ideologies that swirled around the establishment of the first printing press in the Cherokee nation in 1827. Building on Cherokee scholar Kathryn Walkiewicz’s theorization of “sovereign printscapes,” he discusses the career and writings of Elias Boudinot, founding editor of The Cherokee Phoenix  (1828-1832). Boudinot was authorized by the Cherokee National Council to raise funds to purchase a printing press and cast types in the new Cherokee syllabary recently invented by Sequoyah. Prof. Rezek shows how Boudinot reckoned with, even as he contested, the racialization of print in the age of Indian Removal. Lecture is presented by the Boston University American Studies Program.

We're excited that Professor Rezek is emerging from sabbatical to deliver tomorrow's 'American Studies for the Future' Keynote Lecture. We haven't seen him in a while, but we assume he still resembles his photo!

Flyer with details for an event on incarceration, race, and systemic injustice on May 1st, 6pm to 7pm in room 207 at 808 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, Massachusetts. A QR code is on the flyer for RSVPs

The BU African American & Black Diaspora Studies Program, American Studies Program, College of Fine Arts, and the Thurman Center are co-sponsoring this Community Conversation about incarceration and injustice on May 1st at 6pm at the Howard Thurman Center.

A flyer with multiple overlapping colors features large white text that reads "The Cherokee Press and the Racialization of Print, 1826-1835." Beside the text is a historical document, the Constitution of the Cherokee Nation. Below that is information about this lecture: Lecture by Dr. Joseph Rezek, May 8, 2025, CAS 132 at 4pm, Boston University, American Studies Program. A footnote reads Image from the Collections of the American Antiquarian Society. Summary of the lecture reads: The Racialization of Print, tells a long story about the mutual entanglement of ideologies of race and technologies of print in the Anglophone world from 1600 to 1860. In this lecture, I will share a case study from the early nineteenth century: a story about the racial, social, and political ideologies that swirled around the establishment of the first printing press in the Cherokee nation in 1827. Building on Cherokee scholar Kathryn Walkiewicz’s theorization of “sovereign printscapes,” I discuss the career and writings of Elias Boudinot, founding editor of The Cherokee Phoenix (1828-1832). Boudinot was authorized by the Cherokee National Council to raise funds to purchase a printing press and cast types in the new Cherokee syllabary recently invented by Sequoyah. I show how Boudinot reckoned with, even as he contested, the racialization of print in the age of Indian Removal.

In a lecture on May 8th, Dr. Joseph Rezek will discuss the ideologies that circulated around the first printing press in the Cherokee Nation--a case study from his forthcoming book, THE RACIALIZATION OF PRINT. [Document from the Collections of the American Antiquarian Society] @rezekjoe.bsky.social

Text, framed in red, reads The Boston University American Studies Program congratulations Meghan Townes, 2025 MESDA Summer Institute Fellow! Below that is the logo for Boston University in white lettering on a red background. Below that is text that reads Boston University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.

Congratulations to Meghan Townes, recipient of the William C. and Susan S. Mariner Ceramics Fellowship at the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem! @meghantownes.bsky.social

Text on a black screen reads The Boston University American Studies Program congratulations Reut Odinak on a successful dissertation defense! Text on a red rectangular screen reads "Womb for Rent: The Politics of Surrogacy, Reproduction, and Motherhood on Television." Below that is a logo for Boston University and another logo for Boston University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.

Text on a red background reads The Boston University American Studies Program congratulates Betsy Walters on a successful dissertation defense. Text on a black background reads Oscar's New Rules: Industrial Shifts, Cultural Controversies, and the Changing Status of the Academy Awards in the 21st century. Below that are logos of Boston University and the Boston University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.

Congratulations, @betsywal.bsky.social!

Hello Bluesky! 👋 We’re the Boston University American Studies program (formerly American and New England Studies). Happy to be here! Visit our site for more info: www.bu.edu/amnesp/