Archives - Cultural Mediations ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University Wed, 05 Feb 2025 00:41:29 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.1 Book Talk with Dr. Myka Tucker-Abramson (Thursday, February 6th) /culturalmediations/2025/book-talk-with-dr-myka-tucker-abramson-thursday-february-6th/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=book-talk-with-dr-myka-tucker-abramson-thursday-february-6th Tue, 04 Feb 2025 18:48:41 +0000 /culturalmediations/?p=6854
Join us this Thursday, February 6th at 2:45pm in the ICSLAC seminar room (or remotely, as it is a hybrid event) as Dr. Myka Tucker-Abramson (Associate Professor, University of Warwick, Department of English and Comparative Literature Studies) will present over Zoom. Her work has been published in PMLA, Modern Fiction Studies, and Feminist Theory. This talk is taken from her forthcoming monograph, Cartographies of Empire: the Road Novel and American Hegemony (Stanford University Press 2025).

Event Details:

  • Abstract: Challenging dominant conceptions of the road novel as a distinctly American genre that reckons with domestic questions of national identity, this talk offers a new set of spatial and temporal coordinates for our understanding of the genre. I reread the road novel as a genre specific to, coterminous with, and illuminating of US hegemony’s global trajectory from its emergence to decline. More specifically, I argue that the genre takes up the tropes of automobility and travel in order to map out violent and vertiginous processes of capitalist modernization, while equally obfuscating these harsh truths through narratives of individual success and failure in achieving the so-called “American way of life.” To illustrate these claims, I turn to three road novels that emerge at different moments across US hegemony’s arc: Jack Kerouac’s paradigmatic 1956 road novel On the Road, which marks the emergence and consolidation of US hegemony; Iva Pekárková’s post-socialist transition road novel Truck Stop Rainbows (1989) which, tracking the primitive accumulation of the socialist state, presents the emergence of US unipolarity amid the Soviet Union’s collapse; and Adania Shibli’s Palestinian road novel Minor Detail (2018) that, by tethering its apartheid landscape to the US military and economic support underpinning it, refracts the terminal crisis of US hegemony. Taken together, this talk aims to reperiodise and reorganise our understanding of the genre of the road novel and its role as both key cultural product and critical lens on US hegemony.
  • PDF: included “Introduction,” from Cartographies of Empire (attached), which Myka graciously provided, for those interested!
  • ´Ü´Ç´Çłľ:Ěýemail makenziesalmon@cmail.carleton.ca for Zoom link.

]]> Happenings through the spring in Cultural Mediations /culturalmediations/2016/happenings-through-the-spring/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=happenings-through-the-spring Thu, 02 Jun 2016 20:42:51 +0000 http://carleton.ca/culturalmediations/?p=2943 It appears as though every blog entry I write starts with the phrase, “so much is happening!” And yet, it is true! ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ recently hosted the Future of the PhD in Humanities conference and I’m very thankful that I was able to attend most of the conference on both days. So many discussions and so much information to process. I wish you could have all been there. Paul Keen, who organized this conference, is a faculty member in the English Literature Department as well as in ICSLAC plus the Associate Dean (Student & Postdoc Affairs) for the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs. He recently spoke about the conference in the FGPA newsletter – you can find his article  There are so many things to discuss and I know that we will have the chance at some of our events in 2016-17.

I know that we are in the height of conference season. Thanks to travel bursaries from FGPA and additional support from our own coffers, we were able to support 13 PhD students to attend conferences and to do on-site archival research. Overall, between both sources, these 13 students received over $12,000 in funding! Congratulations to everyone who has presented, will present or is currently at Congress presenting! The usual rules apply – only 1 grant per student per academic year (September – August) so if you are planning your conferences for next year, please keep this in mind. You will find links to the funding application on our own website.

The groundhogs and the pipes and drums of the Ceremonial Guard are all over our end of campus which can only mean one thing: our first year students are busy preparing for their first Comprehensive Exam. Send them a kind word, reassure them and wish them the best. You have this!  We believe in you!

Cermonial Guard

I have tried to reach out to everyone for their annual audit review but if we haven’t met yet, just remember – I’m here in the summer although for the months of June and July my hours will be on Monday – Thursday only.   Send me a note and we can set up a time to meet. I can give you the information you need to know about the ins and outs of the second comprehensive exams, thesis proposal and depositing your thesis plus a few steps in between.

Our incoming class is working on submitting official transcripts and preparing for their first meeting with Sarah Casteel, Graduate Coordinator to determine their course selections for the fall. I hope that you can all remember the excitement of that first meeting to discuss your PhD program!  New faces and new projects always lend excitement to our Institute!

If you are an upper year student and you have not yet registered for the summer semester, you will now have to submit a late registration to us for approval and submission to FGPA.

One last thing (just in case you are still reading!), most of our returning students have heard my reminder to review your audit to ensure that you are meeting the requirements and the milestones. Please also take the time to review your funding package and when the various awards are distributed. Everyone is expected to maintain registration for the full year, not just September to April so please take the time to review your funding every year as well as your audit. You can do both of these in ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ Central and if you need help, just call me!

I hoped to have a lovely photo of the Ceremonial Guard marching or at least a groundhog to share with you all but, alas, today was not the day!  Stay tuned and keep in touch. Have a wonderful summer and I look forward to seeing all of you soon.

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