What American lives can be made with an education in the various fields encompassed by American Studies?
At a time when every aspect of higher education is being questioned and the value of humanities degrees doubted, the James L. and Shirley A. Draper Conference in Early American Studies takes a wide-ranging look at the diverse ways in which the study of American history and culture, past and present, has shaped lives and careers since the mid-1970s. The conference brings together former and current students and advisees of Draper chair Robert A. Gross to reflect on the opportunities, experiences, and professions opened up by their undergraduate and graduate educations in such areas as American history, literature, art, music, popular culture, government, and sociology and in the interdisciplinary field of American Studies. Graduates of Amherst College, the College of William and Mary, and the University of Connecticut, among other schools, the participants are now active in the law, government, philanthropy, business, education, and the arts. Their impact extends from the entertainment industry to environmental policy, from journalism to public service, from teaching schoolchildren to pursuing social justice. How have their post-graduate commitments and values been shaped by their formal education? In what ways did that education prepare them, if at all, for the challenges they have faced? And what critical lessons do they derive from experience for how American Studies should be taught today? This fourth Draper Conference takes a wide view of higher education, as it affects the ways we live as citizens of the United States and of a transnational world.
The Draper Conference will open on Thursday, October 9, at 5 p.m. with a keynote address by David Nevins, president of the Showtime television network, on the theme "American Dreams on Small Screens." It will be followed on Friday, October 10, with a series of roundtable discussions of the relevance of American Studies in diverse spheres of American life. Participants include Hollywood screenwriters and producers, radio and print journalsits, former and current public officials, and educators from K-12 schools to colleges and universities. All sessions are open to members of the University community.
For further information, see http://draperconference2014.org/index.html
For more information, contact: Robert Gross at robert.gross@uconn.edu