CTAS > Research
Research
The Center for Transnational American Studies at the University of Copenhagen brings together a cohort of research-active staff whose interests encompass a wide range of American studies topics. Current research being conducted by individual core staff members includes Chinese-American relations; U.S. environmental history; transnational migration in literature of the U.S. South; and comparative analysis of racial apartheid in the U.S. South and South Africa. For more details of publications and current research by individual staff at the Center, please see the individual staff profiles.
In the last couple of years, Engerom and its TRAMS research program has built up a strong cohort of PhD students working within American studies. These PhD students are also attached to the Center for Transnational American Studies. For more details about these PhD students and their project, please see their individual profiles.
Research projects
Core staff at the Center for Transnational American Studies are also involved in the following collaborative research projects:
Understanding the South
-research project in collaboration with the universities of Manchester, Florida, and Cambridge
"Understanding the South, Understanding Modern America" is an international and interdisciplinary project dedicated to exploring the historical importance of the U.S. South in shaping American culture, and to examining the region's relationship to the rest of the world from the colonial era to the contemporary period. The project is funded principally by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in Great Britain, with additional support from each of the partner institutions: the universities of Manchester, Cambridge, Copenhagen, and Florida.
For more information on "Understanding the South," see http://arts.stage.manchester.ac.uk/southnetwork/. See also the project discussion board, launched in February 2010: http://understandingthesouth.wordpress.com/
Research collaboration with American studies at the University of Leeds
The spring 2010 semester will see the further development of a research link-up between staff at the Center for Transnational American Studies and Americanist colleagues at the University of Leeds. This link-up is being developed under the auspices of a broader collaboration between the humanities faculties at Copenhagen and Leeds (see http://www.humanities.ku.dk/partnerships/leeds_partnership/). Initial links between American studies at Leeds and Copenhagen were established in spring 2009, when Dr. Kate Dossett (Leeds) travelled to Copenhagen to participate in the Nordic Association for American Studies conference, and to discuss further collaboration.
In early March 2010, Dr. Martyn Bone (associate professor of American literature and Center coordinator) and Dr. Leigh Anne Duck (visiting associate professor in American literature and culture, 2009-2010) will travel to Leeds with two PhD students, Rasmus Andersen and Mads Fuglede, to participate in four days of American studies events, including a one-day seminar entitled "Labor, Punishment and Transnationalism in American Studies."
In May 2010, a cohort of Leeds Americanists, staff and PhD students, will come to Copenhagen for a faculty-level three-day PhD seminar (also featuring staff from the University of Oslo). Bone, Duck, Dossett and Dr. Simon Hall (Leeds) will be involved in this seminar, and further plans for a future American studies seminar in Copenhagen will be discussed.
Contemporary America Project (CAP)
To integrate research and teaching, the Contemporary America Project (CAP) originated in 2001 with the goal of publishing an authoritative textbook for use in Scandinavia. By 2005, that goal was broadened to include a global audience. The primary product, Contemporary America, is comprehensively updated and is published now in its 3rd edition. Its original placement in the highly-regarded Contemporary States and Societies Series (London: Palgrave Macmillan) has been complemented by publishing houses in the US (NY: St. Martin's) and China (Beijing: Renmin University). CAP also published Trading Cultures: Nationalism and Globalization in American Studies (2002) and Transnational America: Contours of Modern US Culture (2004). Seven of KUA's American Studies colleagues joined scholars from Africa, Europe, and the United States in contributing essays to these books. Future research and teaching outreach goals will look at the unfolding and sometimes chaotic relationship between nation and globe as it affects political, social, cultural, and economic life.
Engerom students are involved in the project through courses charting contemporary America and its dilemmas which are offered every year at the valgfag level. These courses result in large numbers of BA projects, MA theses and PhD dissertations. To further the project, an annual student study excursion to the United States-Boston, New York and Washington-connects project leaders and student participants to a larger national, transnational and global group of policymakers and activists. More than 350 Engerom students have participated thus far, and several have returned to the U.S. for placements in Congress, with interest groups, the diplomatic corps, and the media.