Research Seminar Series
About the Research Seminar Series
The Centre's monthly Research Seminar Series highlights academics' current research on the United States. Topics cover American society, culture, media, politics, business, law, politics and foreign policy. Seminars may have a contemporary or historical perspective
Call for presentations
The US Studies Centre welcomes proposals for presentations to be included in the series. Enquiries should be directed to:
Associate Professor Lyn Carson
Academic Program Director
Email:
Phone: +61 2 9351 3089
Past Research Seminar Series
Learn about past Research Seminar Series events organised by the United States Studies Centre in 2008
- November 2008 - Between Virtue and Power: The Persistent Moral Dilemma of US Foreign Policy
- October 2008 - Who won the Cold War?
- September 2008 - Human Costs of the Conflict in Iraq
- August 2008 - Suburbanising the Mind: Hollywood and
the Globalisation of American Suburbia - June 2008 - High-level US Public Diplomacy & International Public Opinion
- May 2008 - Black Metropolis: Harlem, 1915-1930
- April 2008 - Yellow Future: Oriental Style in Contemporary Hollywood Cinema
April 2008
Yellow Future: Oriental Style in Contemporary Hollywood Cinema
Dr Jane Chi Hyun Park has a PhD in Radio-TV-Film from The University of Texas at Austin and a MA in English from the University of California, Irvine and previously worked at the University of Oklahoma.
Her research focuses on representations of race and ethnicity, particularly of Asiatic peoples and cultures in film and popular media, including television, popular music, and video games.
In April 2008 Dr Park spoke at the Research Seminar Series about her her book manuscript, entitled Yellow Future: Oriental Style in Contemporary Hollywood Cinema (University of Minnesota Press, forthcoming), which examines the ideological role of Asiatic imagery in US films from the 1980s to the present.
May 2008
Black Metropolis: Harlem, 1915-1930 - Shane White, Stephen Garton & Stephen Robertson
In May 2008 Shane White & Stephen Robertson presented at the Research Seminar Series on the Black Metropolis Project.
White, Garton and Robertson aim produce an ethnographic study of everyday life in Harlem as it became the black capital of the world. The project examines the full range of activities that took place in Harlem between 1915 - 1930, as well as the work and leisure lives of ordinary African New Yorkers.
Read more about Black Metropolis: Harlem, 1915-1930
June 2008
High-level US Public Diplomacy & International Public
Opinion- Dr Benjamin E. Goldsmith
Dr Benjamin E. Goldsmith is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. His research and teaching are in the areas of international relations, comparative foreign policy, and political psychology.
Before joining the University of Sydney in 2008, Dr Goldsmith previously taught at other universities in Australia, Singapore, and the United States.
Dr Goldsmith presented his paper (written jointly with Yusaku Horiuchi of Australian National University) US Public Diplomacy and International Public Opinion at the June 2008 Research Seminar Series.
The paper examines the question of global public opinion on the US post 9/11 by estimating the effects of U.S. high-level visits to foreign countries on public opinion on U.S. foreign policy in those countries.
View Dr Goldsmith’s Research Seminar Presentation.
August 2008
Suburbanising the Mind: Hollywood and
the Globalisation of American Suburbia - Dr Rafael Pizarro
In August 2009 Dr Pizarro was a guest speaker at the United States Studies Centre Research Seminar Series.
A Colombia national who obtained his Masters and PhD in America, Dr Rafael Pizarro has become a leader in the fast-emerging field of sustainable urban planning and development.
Dr Pizarro was appointed to the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney in 2005.
During his presentation Dr Pizarro spoke about the results of a three-year research project which found that the American-style suburban model of spread-out, low-rise, free-standing houses is rapidly spreading through Colombia and the rest of Latin America.
“I hypothesize that the popularity of American-type suburbs in Latin America after WWII is related to the image of the American city in comics, magazines, film and TV. To this end, I wrote my Doctoral Dissertation on the influence of these images in the development of American-type suburbs in the Caribbean region of Colombia. The Dissertation, retitled “Suburbanising the Mind: Hollywood and the Globalisation of American Suburbia” is now a book-in-progress.”
View Dr Pizarro’s Research Seminar Presentation.
September 2008
Human Costs of the Conflict in Iraq - Michael Otterman & Richard Hil
In September 2008 Research Seminar Series Michael Otterman and Dr Richard Hil presented a human portrait of the Iraqi Diaspora as told by those who experienced it first-hand: Iraqis themselves.
The presentation gave first hand accounts of Iraqi immigrants visited by Otterman and Hil in both Sweden and Syria.
In February 2008, Otterman visited Syria and Jordan to speak with Iraqi refugees about their lives before, during and after the 2003 US-led invasion. Richard Hil recently returned from Sweden where he interviewed members of one of the world's largest Iraqi exile community outside the Middle East.
Otterman and Hil will recounted the real world experiences of many of the Iraqis they met, plus contextualize the current five-million-plus Iraqi refugee crisis with relevant history of the conflict.
New York-native, Michael Otterman, is a visiting scholar at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney and author. Dr Richard Hil is Senior Lecturer in the School of Arts and Social Sciences at Southern Cross University, Australia and author.
October 2008
Who Won the Cold War? - Professor Joe Siracusa
In October 2008, Professor Joe Siracusa visited the US Studies Centre to talk about his latest research and new book Reagan, Bush, Gorbachev co-authored with Norman Graebner and Richard Dean Burns.
Professor Siracusa is the Director Global Studies, School of Global Studies, Social Science & Planning at RMIT University.
Reagan, Bush, Gorbachev is a current day account of the Cold War. The book provides an analysis of policy and rhetoric of the United States and Soviet Union during the 1980s.
November 2008
Between Virtue and Power: The Persistent Moral Dilemma of US Foreign Policy
Professor John Kane attained his doctorate at the London School of Economics and is now Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Policy, Griffith University, Australia.
Professor John Kane joined us in November to discuss his newly published book Between Virtue and Power: The Persistent Moral Dilemma of US Foreign Policy.
Between Virtue and Power is a survey of US history, which looks at the tensions between American virtue and power and how those tensions have influenced foreign policy. It examines the various challenges, including emerging Nationalism, isolationism, and burgeoning American power, which have at times challenged not only foreign policy but American national identity.
