Keywords for American Cultural Studies, Second Edition

Front Cover
Bruce Burgett, Glenn Hendler
NYU Press, Dec 19, 2014 - History - 296 pages

The latest vocabulary of key terms in American Studies

Since its initial publication, scholars and students alike have turned to Keywords for American Cultural Studies as an invaluable resource for understanding key terms and debates in the fields of American studies and cultural studies. As scholarship has continued to evolve, this revised and expanded second edition offers indispensable meditations on new and developing concepts used in American studies, cultural studies, and beyond. It is equally useful for college students who are trying to understand what their teachers are talking about, for general readers who want to know what’s new in scholarly research, and for professors who just want to keep up.

Designed as a print-digital hybrid publication, Keywords collects more than 90 essays30 of which are new to this edition—from interdisciplinary scholars, each on a single term such as “America,” “culture,” “law,” and “religion.” Alongside “community,” “prison,” "queer," “region,” and many others, these words are the nodal points in many of today’s most dynamic and vexed discussions of political and social life, both inside and outside of the academy. The Keywords website, which features 33 essays, provides pedagogical tools that engage the entirety of the book, both in print and online.

The publication brings together essays by scholars working in literary studies and political economy, cultural anthropology and ethnic studies, African American history and performance studies, gender studies and political theory. Some entries are explicitly argumentative; others are more descriptive. All are clear, challenging, and critically engaged. As a whole, Keywords for American Cultural Studies provides an accessible A-to-Z survey of prevailing academic buzzwords and a flexible tool for carving out new areas of inquiry.

 

Contents

Note on Classroom Use
9
African Kevin K Gaines
16
Asian John Kuo Wei Tchen
26
Border Mary Pat Brady
34
Citizenship Lauren Berlant
41
29
116
Oneka LaBennett
212
Copyright

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Common terms and phrases

About the author (2014)

Bruce Burgett is Dean and Professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at University of Washington Bothell. He is author of Sentimental Bodies: Sex, Gender, and Citizenship in the Early Republic, and co-editor of Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Glenn Hendler is Professor of English and American Studies at Fordham University. He is the author of David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs and co-editor of Keywords for American Cultural Studies.