Drop-in Session 1 with the Committee on Departments, Programs, and Centers

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Discussion

Abstract

Building on 2025's successful run of online conversation sessions, we are proposing two such sessions at the ASA conference in Chicago. Led by members of the Committee on Departments, Programs, and Centers, discussion will focus on the American Studies issue you bring to the table. We will explore such questions as: How do I advocate for American Studies with deans and other administrators? How can I increase the number of majors in my program? What do I do about the ongoing attacks on American Studies, on the humanities, and on academic life and research in general? How do I advocate for American Studies thinking, teaching, and research at an institution that has no department, program, or institute of that name? In general, how do I improvise in the face of oppression?

Sub Unit

• Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association

Chairs

• Glenn S. Hendler, Fordham University

• Jamin C Rowan, Brigham Young University-Provo

Panelists

• Heidi Ardizzone, Saint Louis University

• Jess A Goldberg, New Mexico Highlands University

• George J Sanchez, University of Southern California

Commentator

• Melinda Knight, Montclair State University

Biographical Information

Glenn Hendler, Professor of English and American Studies at Fordham University, is author of two books--Public Sentiments and David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs—and co-editor of three: Sentimental Men; an edition of Walt Whitman's temperance novel Franklin Evans; or, The Inebriate, and three editions of Keywords for American Cultural Studies. He teaches 19th-century U.S. culture, children's literature, critical theory, and music & sound studies.

More biographies to be added later....