Current Projects & Events

Food, Ethnic Identities, and Memory
April 4, 2008

Update: See the press release!

All events are free and open to the public.

Illinois Room, Iowa Memorial Union
Coffee in the Chicago Lobby

9:00 a.m.
Welcome, Lauren Rabinovitz, Director, CESA

9:15 a.m.
Welcome, Dean Linda Maxson, CLAS

9:30 a.m.
Lisa Heldke (Philosophy, Gustavus Adolphus College), “Staying Home for Dinner: Ruminations on Local Foods in Cosmopolitan Society”

10:30 a.m.
Jeffrey Pilcher (History, University of Minnesota), “Who Chased Out the Chili ‘Queens’? Food, Race and Gender in San Antonio, Texas 1880–1943”

Illinois Room, Iowa Memorial Union

1:00 p.m.
Riki Saltzman (Iowa State Folklorist, Iowa Arts Council), “Pork, Place and Praxis: Foodways in Iowa”

2:00 p.m.
Psyche Williams-Forson (American Studies, University of Maryland), “Culinary Polygamy: Food, Place and Memory in an African and African American Household”

Iowa Memorial Union Ballroom

3:30–5:30 p.m.
Iron Chef Competition and Reception

Featuring food samples from the new Food in America Cookbook. Co-sponsored by IMU Food Services, Edible Iowa River Valley, and Iowa Cultural Corridor.

Three teams of professional chefs will battle it out for the title of Iron Chefs of Eastern Iowa! Team 1: University of Iowa IMU. Team 2: Zins Restaurant (Cedar Rapids). Team 3: New Pioneer Food Co-op (Iowa City).

Emcee: Marcia Hughes, Vice President of Iowa Cultural Corridor

Guest Judges:

• University of Iowa President Sally Mason
• Ken Mason, Lecturer, University of Iowa
• Joe Jennison, Exec. Director of Iowa Cultural Corridor
• Beth Bewley-Randall, Exec. Director of Englert Theatre and President of Iowa Cultural Corridor
• Wendy Wasserman, Publisher, Edible Iowa River Valley

Guest Commentators:

• Floyd Akins, Senior Director for Development, UI Foundation
• Riki Saltzman, Iowa State Folklorist, Iowa Arts Council
• Michael Knock, Iowa City Press Citizen Food Critic

Funding provided through a generous grant from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Harry Oster Folklore and Folk Music Memorial Fund. Additional funding provided by Graduate College, and Office of the Provost.

Anyone needing an accommodation to attend these events may call (319) 384-3490 to make arrangements.

Download a printable version of this information (PDF 1.3MB).

Fall 2008 Junior Faculty Fellows

News About the CESA Fellows

Fellows from our Junior Faculty Publications Workshop, Fall 2007 continue to use the connections they made at the University of Iowa. Two fellows, and one of the faculty co-facilitators will each be giving papers at the MELUS conference at the Ohio State University March 27-30. Joe Ponce’s paper is entitled, “The Echoes and Erotics of Comparison.” Julie Moody-Freeman will present “Food for Thought: On Cannibalism, Piracy and the Commodification of the Caribbean” and Aimee Carrillo Rowe’s paper is called “L is for…Longing and Racialized Erotics in The L Word.”

Another group of Fellows has proposed a panel for the American Studies Association Annual Conference, Fall 2008. The panel, called “Theorizing Difference at the Cultural Crossroads of the Popular and the Profane.” The panel includes Fellows Deborah Whaley, “Rustle your Bones, Honey Lambs: Torchy Brown Comics, Popular Front Politics and Hip-hop Feminists’ Revenge;” Joe Ponce, “Dream Jungle, Apocalypse Now and the Politics of Comparisons;” and Grace Wang, “A Shot at Half-Exposure: Asian Americans and Reality T.V.” Aneeka Henderson, University of Illinois, Chicago is also on the proposed panel. Her paper is entitled “Ugly Step Sisters: Black Popular Fiction on the Margins of African American Literary History.” Bridget Harris Tsemo, also a Fellow will chair the panel and commentate.

The Center is pleased to see connections continuing among the fellows and congratulate them on their work.

CESA Fellows Roster

Fall 2008 Junior Faculty Fellows were competitively selected to participate in a 2 ½ day publication workshop, November 1–3, at the Center for Ethnic Studies and the Arts, University of Iowa.

André Brock, Assistant Professor of Library Information Sciences, University of Iowa

“Kanye Speaks for the People”

e-mail: andre-brock@uiowa.edu

Mark Chiang, Assistant Professor of English, University of Illinois, Chicago

Representing Asian America: Minority Literature and Cultural Capital: Representing Asian America explores the role that culture has played in the institutionalization of Asian American Studies as a political project in the academy. The book seeks to illuminate the historical transformations of Asian American culture and cultural studies by elaborating them within a model of representation that is constituted by struggles over the symbolic capital of Asian American identity. Political, cultural and intellectual representations, then, must be seen as strategies of capital accumulation deployed by those who seek to represent Asian Americans in particular fields.

Research Interests: Asian American literary and cultural studies; Minority politics, culture and cultural capital; Race in 20th century American film and literature

e-mail: mchiang@uic.edu

Sean Christian, Assistant Professor of English and African American Studies, Wheaton College

“Making Use of the Harlem Renaissance’s Collaborative Impulse in Brother to Brother”

e-mail: christi@wheatoncollege.edu

Julie Moody-Freeman, Assistant Professor of African and Black Diaspora Studies, DePaul University

“Food for thought: On Cannibalism, Piracy, and the Commodification of the Caribbean”: The Pelegostos and Tia Dalma subplots in Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man’s Chest as well as Malibu rum ads divert attention away from an historical context that connects imperialism and capitalism to piracy, slavery, and rum making. Furthermore, the sideshow of cannibalism and voodoo in Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man’s Chest as well as Caribbean minstrelsy in the Malibu rum television spots detract attention from the undergirding economic and political powers gained literally on the backs of exploited peoples, past and present in the Caribbean region.

Research Interests: Women Writers from Africa and the African Diaspora, Caribbean Narratives and Criticism, Feminist Theory, and the Rhetoric of Colonialism and Post-Colonialism

e-mail: jmoodyfr@depaul.edu

Tamiko Nimura, Assistant Professor of English and African American Studies, University of Puget Sound

Different Dark Colors: Multiracial Coalitions, Multicultural Literatures: is the first book-length study of coalition in multicultural American literatures, and contributes to African American and Asian American literary studies by using “coalition” as trope and methodology to compare and contrast American ethnic literatures.

Research Interests: African American literature (20th century), Asian American literature, Women of color feminism, Multicultural literatures and literary theories

e-mail: tnimura@ups.edu

Martin Ponce, Assistant Professor of English, Ohio State University

“The Cross-cultural Musics of Jessica Hagedorn’s Postmodernism”: This chapter of a book project on diasporic Filipino literature examines how the references to and uses of music in Jessica Hagedorn’s literary work reveal and enact a hybrid, cross-media aesthetic practice. I suggest that the variety of musical styles she alludes to in her poetry,stories, and novels – including African American, Spanish/Andalusian, and Filipino musical styles – figure and model a form of cross-cultural expressivity that traverses racial and ethnic boundaries.

Research Interests: Asian American and African American literature and culture; queer studies; theories of diaspora, imperialism, and nationalism

Email: ponce.8@osu.edu

Miriam Thaggert, Assistant Professor of English and African American Studies, University of Iowa

“Escape from Harlem: Josephine Baker and the Ziegfeld Follies.” This article examines the circulation of the celebrity image as a commodity and as a trademark. In addition to analyzing Baker’s unusual 1935 appearance in the American revue, the Ziegfeld Follies, the article examines The Follies’ emphasis on America and American rhetoric, its construction of an ideal white femininity, and its unapologetic interest in commodity culture and consumerism.

Research Interests: African American literature and film, photography, American visual culture, museum studies, race and technology.

e-mail: miriam-thaggert@uiowa.edu

Grace Wang, Assistant Professor of American Studies, University of California, Davis

Soundtracks of Asian American Identity: Music, Race, and National Belonging: this project use oral interviews and literary texts to examine the cultural work that music plays in the production of contemporary Asian American identities. Drawing on a capacious sense of what it means to make music – activities ranging from driving children to piano lessons to writing poetry about listening to jazz – Soundtracks of Asian American Identity listens closely to how Asians and Asian Americans utilize particular discourses about Western classical music, jazz, and rock ‘n’ roll to craft meaning about their social identity.

Research Interests: Asian American literature and culture, comparative ethnicities, American Studies

email: grwang@ucdavis.edu

Deborah Whaley, Assistant Professor of American Studies and African American Studies, University of Iowa

“Black Cat Got Your Tongue?: Making Space for Race, Gender and Sexualities in DC Comics’ Catwoman”

e-mail: deborah-whaley@uiowa.edu

Past Projects & Events

Jr. Faculty Publication Workshop: Ethnic Identities and the Arts
University of Iowa
Center for Ethnic Studies and the Arts
November 1–3, 2007

Participants Named

The Center for Ethnic Studies and the Arts will sponsor a 2 ½ day publication workshop for junior faculty from UI and other universities and colleges, November 1–3, 2007. Three University of Iowa faculty have been selected to participate: Assistant Professor André Brock, POROI and School of Library Information Sciences; Assistant Professor Miriam Thaggert, English and African American Studies; Assistant Professor Deborah Whaley, American Studies and African American Studies.

Six participants from universities across the country have also been selected to participate: Assistant Professor Mark Chiang, English, University of Illinois, Chicago; Assistant Professor Shawn Christian, English and African American Studies, Wheaton College; Assistant Professor Julie Moody-Freeman, African and Black Diaspora Studies, DePaul University; Assistant Professor Tamiko Nimura, English, University of Puget Sound; Assistant Professor Martin Ponce, English, Ohio State University; Assistant Professor Grace Wang, American Studies, University of California, Davis.

The workshop will be co-directed by: Professor and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Collegiate Fellow Lauren Rabinovitz, American Studies and Cinema and Comparative Literature; Associate Professor Aimee Carrillo-Rowe, Rhetoric; Professor Kent Ono, Professor of Asian American Studies and Communication, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The CIC (Consortium for Institutional Cooperation) is a co-sponsor of this event. Funding for this event has been provided by: The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Graduate College, and the Office of the Provost.

The publications workshop allows each participant to discuss with other scholars and senior faculty a journal article or book chapter that he or she is preparing about a topic in ethnic identities and the arts. The workshop also provides opportunities for conversation and networking among peer scholars working in ethnic studies areas.

In addition, two public sessions will be open to the entire UI community:

• Professor Kent Ono, Professor of Asian American Studies and Communications, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign will present a public lecture “The Test of Japanese American Loyalty During World War II: Documenting Decisions to Resist The Draft” on Friday, November 2nd, 4–5:30 in LR1 Van Allen. In addition to co-authoring Shifting Borders: Rhetoric, Immigration, and California’s Proposition 187 (2002), Professor Ono edited Asian American Studies after Critical Mass (2005) and A Companion to Asian American Studies (2005).

  World War II tested Japanese American loyalty to the U.S., an issue recently reappraised in new documentaries aired on PBS-TV. This talk examines the U.S. incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II and the Japanese American men who resisted being drafted into the military. Those who decided to resist did so by standing up for the Constitution, their rights of citizenship, and a fair trial. How do new documentaries depict these defiant acts? Do they create a cultural memory of masculine heroism or tragic citizenship? How is this struggle for civil rights something about which all Americans should be proud?

  Professor Ono’s lecture is drawn from his new book on film and video exploration of the wartime mass internment of Japanese Americans.

• “Publishing Your First Book in the Humanities” Workshop, Thursday, Nov. 1, 3:30–5, Terrace Room, IMU. Three University of Iowa faculty will lead a discussion and answer questions about the publishing process in the humanities — from how to select a press to the steps of manuscript preparation and evaluation. Panel participants are: Associate Professor Aimee Carrillo-Rowe, Rhetoric; Associate Professor Claire Fox, English and Latin American Studies; Associate Professor Priya Kumar, English. Panel participants all have new books out and will share their recent experiences working with university presses as they completed scholarly books.

For more information please contact Lauren Rabinovitz, Director of the Center for Ethnic Studies and the Arts, 319-384-3490, cesa@uiowa.edu. Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires accommodation in order to participate in the lecture, please call (319) 384-3490.

CESA Book Discussion

Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Chicago Room of the IMU
6:30-9:00 p.m.
Dessert will be served

The UI Center for Ethnic Studies and the Arts, Department of American Studies is sponsoring a colloquium on Wendy Brown’s new book: Regulating Aversion, Tolerance in the Age of Identity and Empire.

Wendy Brown is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. Her books include Edgework: Essays on Knowledge and Politics, Politics Out of History, and States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity.

In what we hope will be a richly rewarding and entertaining discussion, faculty and graduate students are invited to a workshop-discussion on Brown’s provocative new book, which examines the dark and troubling undercurrents of “tolerance.”

Discussion participants will read the book ahead of time and come prepared with points of view, discussion questions. Space is limited, and seats may fill prior to this date. All participants must register for this event by September 18th.

Books will be available from Prairie Lights Bookstore (15 South Dubuque) and a few copies will be available on reserve at the Main Library.

For questions about this event and to register, contact: Cinda Nofziger, Center for Ethnic Studies and the Arts, by email at cesa@uiowa.edu, or by phone at 319-384-3490.

Funding provided by: The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Graduate College, and Office of the Provost.

Anyone needing an accommodation in order to attend these events, call 384-3490 to arrange.

Fall 2006 Lecture Series: “Thinking Outside the Box: Ethnic Identities and the Arts”

All lectures begin at 3:00 p.m. in room 704 Jefferson Building.
They are open and free to the public.
A reception will follow each lecture.

Friday, Sep. 22

Frances Aparicio, Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies, University of Illinois, Chicago

“Gendered Transculturation in Six Feet Under”

Friday, Oct. 20

Leslie Bow, Director of Asian American Studies and Associate Professor of English and Asian American Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison

“Anomalies of Segregation: Racial Interstitiality in the Jim Crow Era”

Friday, Nov. 3

Bluford Adams, University of Iowa Associate Professor of English and American Studies

“Peasants or Progressive Farmers?: Immigrants on the Land in Gilded Age New England”

Friday, Nov. 10

Bridget Harris Tsemo, University of Iowa Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and African American Studies

“Corporeality and Capitalism in Spike Lee’s She Hate Me”

Spring 2007

March 23, 2007: E. Patrick Johnson, Director of Performance Studies and Associate Professor of African American Studies, Northwestern University

April 6, 2007: Noliwe Rooks, Associate Director of African American Studies, Princeton University

Partially funded by: The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Graduate College, Office of the Vice President for Research, and the Office of the Provost.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all University of Iowa-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires an accommodation in order to participate in this program, please contact Center for Ethnic Studies and the Arts in advance at 319-384-3490.