ALT We're excited to announce the final seminar in our 2024/25 series!! 🎉 “Thinking the (Im)possibility of (Liberatory) Ecological Alternatives” will be an interactive workshop facilitated by Mohamad Baqer elHarake online. You can register (for FREE ✨) through this link which you can also find in our bio: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/thinking-the-impossibility-of-liberatory-ecological-alternatives-tickets-1495190578269?aff=oddtdtcreator

ALT This workshop explores the (im)possibility of alternative (liberatory) ecologies of Islamicate cosmologies, particularly mysticism, in transforming humanity’s relationship with the environment against Modernity’s ecological crisis. This workshop presents a theoretical contribution to explore anti-anthropocentric possibilities inspired by the worldview of Irfan as an Islamicate episteme and praxis. It attempts to move beyond the material and logos-centric by drawing on the affective, embodied, and experiential as serious sites of thinking ecology ‘otherwise.’ Together, we will explore: How are alternatives sought? What can we do about it? Should we start unearthing lost and erased memories, practices, and modalities? And can mystical paradigms offer alternatives to Modernity's developmentalist models?

ALT Baqer holds a BA in Sociology and Anthropology from the American University of Beirut and an MA in ‘Race, Ethnicity and Postcolonial Studies’ from University College London. Upon graduating, Baqer returned to Beirut, Lebanon to pursue a career in research and consulting. By exploring issues of social justice within the Global South(s) and alongside the Arab regions erased heritage, Baqer mainly focuses on cultivating and harboring generative sites of thinking liberatory alternatives.

ALT Introducing the "American Dream/American Nightmare" conference speakers! Last, but certainly not least, the keynote for the in-person conference day will feature Dr Christopher Lloyd (University of Hertfordshire), Dr Elsa Devienne (Northumbria University), Dr Mike Collins (KCL), and Dr Jonathan Ward (KCL) in the form of a panel speaking to the American Dream / American Nightmare in 2025. 📍Portland Hall, 4-12 Little Titchfield Street, W1W 7BY 🗓️ 4th July 2025, 15:30-17:00 BST Don't forget to sign up (for free!) using the QR code or the link in our bio✨ Tipi with sign "American Indian Movement" on the grounds of the Washington Monument, Washington, D.C., during the "Longest walk" by Warren Leffler “Martin Luther King, Jr., half-length portrait, facing left, speaking at microphones, during anti-war demonstration, New York City” by Don Rice “AIDS quilt on display in Washington, D.C., with the U.S. Capitol in the background” by Carol Highsmith “Washington Crossing the Delaware” by Emma

ALT Christopher Lloyd (he/him) is an Associate Professor of Learning and Teaching at the University of Hertfordshire. He is the author of two books on contemporary culture from the US South, two edited collections on pedagogy and millennial fiction, and a forthcoming book on queerness and the nonhuman. He is the host of the Books Up Close podcast and YouTube channel, and the Vice-Chair of the British Association for American Studies.

ALT Elsa Devienne (she/her) is Assistant Professor of History and American Studies at Northumbria University. Her first book, Sand Rush: The Revival of the Beach in Twentieth-Century Los Angeles (Oxford UP, 2024) won the Willi Paul Adams Award awarded by the Organization of American Historians. She is currently working on two projects: the first is on the history of mobilisations against plastics in the US; and the second, on car dominance and mobility justice, is inspired by her daily struggles cycling and walking in Manchester, where she lives with her partner and two sons. As a member of the executive board of the British Association of American Studies since 2020 and co-lead for GREEN BAAS, its environmental and sustainability network, she has led on a number of initiatives to centre environmental justice in the field at large. Bluesky: @elsadevienne.bsky.social

ALT Dr. Jonathan Ward (he/him) is a Lecturer in Race and Diversity Studies at King's College London, in the Department of Culture, Media & Creative Industries. His research is generally interested in somatic disciplinarity and representations of the body in visual, literary, and popular culture. He is currently working on a monograph entitled “What Is It?”: Examining the Construction of the Black Male Body as Threat in American Visual Culture. His recent work examines “misremembrance” of racialized histories and coloniality in popular culture, the figure of the “White Saviour” in US popular film, the representation of Meghan Markle on Instagram, and the relationship of colonialism to Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther. He is the founder of The Abolitionist Curriculum. Twitter: @drjonward

ALT Introducing the “American Dream/American Nightmare” conference speakers! Our second roundtable of the in-person day is on the theme “The American Gothic, Weird Fiction, and Bodily Horror” and will feature Dr Jimmy Packham (University of Birmingham), Dr Juha Virtanen (University of Kent), and Dr Jade Jenkinson (University of Nottingham). 📍Portland Hall, 4-12 Little Titchfield Street, W1W 7BY 🗓️ 4th July 2025, 11:30-12:45 BST Don’t forget to sign up (for free!) using the QR code or the link in our bio ✨ Tipi with sign "American Indian Movement" on the grounds of the Washington Monument, Washington, D.C., during the "Longest walk" by Warren Leffler “Martin Luther King, Jr., half-length portrait, facing left, speaking at microphones, during anti-war demonstration, New York City” by Don Rice “AIDS quilt on display in Washington, D.C., with the U.S. Capitol in the background” by Carol Highsmith “Washington Crossing the Delaware” by Emmanuel Leutze

ALT Jimmy Packham (he/him) is a senior lecturer in North American Literature at the University of Birmingham, with research specialisms in the Gothic (British and US) and the blue humanities. His first book, Gothic Utterance (2021, UWP), explored the role of haunted and revenant voices – and their ethical imperatives – in the nineteenth-century US Gothic tradition. He has recently completed two books: The Seabed: A Human and Literary History, co-authored with Laurence Publicover (Bristol) (forthcoming from U Chicago P) and Coastal Gothic, 1719–2020, for Cambridge UP's Elements in the Gothic series. He is the co-convenor of the Haunted Shores research network. Jimmy is pictured smiling

ALT Juha Virtanen’s (he/him) previous publications include Poetry and Performance During the British Poetry Revival 1960-1980: Event and Effect, as well as the poetry books Back Channel Apraxia, -LAND, and DOOM ENGINES. He has written academic articles on various topics ranging from the possibility of radical politics in comic book supervillains to hostile environments and Necropolitics in contemporary poetry, and he has most recently been thinking about vertigo and sinking in the work of Jeff VanderMeer. His current longer-term research project focuses on a complex spectrum of “apocalyptic feelings”, which he explores – in part – through speculative writing, ecology, and autoethnographic methodologies; in addition, his current creative practice centres on the idea of wrecks and wreckage. He is Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Literature at the University of Kent, and currently lives along the coast in Thanet. IG: @j.p.virtanen Juha is pictured smiling

ALT Jade completed her PhD in 2024 and has since contributed a chapter to the forthcoming volume Global Indigenous Horror (2025). She is currently adapting her thesis into a monograph and preparing articles for journals including Literature, Critique and Empire Today and Comparative American Studies. She works for a doctoral training partnership supporting PhD students with training and placements, serves on the Code of Conduct Board for the British Association of American Studies, and is a copyeditor for the University of Wales Press’s Gothic series. Jade is pictured smiling

ALT Introducing the “American Dream/American Nightmare” conference speakers! Our first panel of the in-person day is on the theme of “Two-Spirit, Trans, and Drag Potentialities in the North American Context” and will feature Albert McLeod (Nisichawayasihk Cree), Izzy Hardin, and Lea Pešec (University of Graz). 📍Portland Hall, 4-12 Little Titchfield Street, W1W 7BY 🗓️ 4th July 2025, 13:45-15:00 BST Don’t forget to sign up (for free!) using the QR code or the link in our bio ✨ Tipi with sign "American Indian Movement" on the grounds of the Washington Monument, Washington, D.C., during the "Longest walk" by Warren Leffler “Martin Luther King, Jr., half-length portrait, facing left, speaking at microphones, during anti-war demonstration, New York City” by Don Rice “AIDS quilt on display in Washington, D.C., with the U.S. Capitol in the background” by Carol Highsmith “Washington Crossing the Delaware” by Emmanuel Leutze

ALT Albert McLeod (FAB) is a Status Indian with ancestry from Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation and the Metis communities of Norway House and Cross Lake in northern Manitoba. His family’s involvement in the Hudson’s Bay Company fur trade began in the early days of European contact and has spanned many generations. Born and raised in the small village of Cormorant, Albert’s family moved to the town of The Pas in 1963 where he lived until he was nineteen. In 1979, Albert moved to Vancouver and joined the Greater Vancouver Native Cultural Society (Canada’s first Two-Spirit community organization). Later, in Winnipeg, he was one of the organizers of the Nichiwakan Native Gay Society, (Winnipeg first Two-Spirit community organization) and participated in the first annual international Two-Spirit gathering in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1988. Albert has attended over twenty of the 37 Annual International Two-Spirit Gatherings. He has over thirty years of experience as a human rights activist and is one

ALT Trans Potentiality and State Mobilisation of Historical Figures” Izzy Hardin (they/them) has just finished their Master of Studies in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Oxford. They graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 2024 with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts, where they focused on history, gender studies, and theatre. They are from Asheville, North Carolina. Izzy is pictured laughing

ALT “What Happens When the American Body Goes Drag?” Lea Pešec (she/her) is a doctoral candidate at the University of Graz in cultural studies with a diverse academic background, including degrees Sociology (BA), English Language and Literature (BA), and English and American Studies (MA). She has completed her joint MA degree with a focus on cultural studies at the University of Graz and the University of Bamberg, and graduated with distinction. Her Master’s thesis explored drag queen autobiographies as written performances. Currently, Lea is working on her PhD dissertation on the topic of exploring drag performers’ online and offline identities in the contemporary US-American context. Lea is also an affiliated student with the Aging in Data Project and a board member of the Austria’s Young Americanists network. In terms of research, Lea has an interest in gender and queer studies, visual studies, identity, and digitalization. She is also a photographer with national and international awa

ALT We're excited to introduce the "American Dream/American Nightmare" conference online day keynote! Dr Lucy Bond (University of Westminster) will be speaking on "Capitalising on the Past: Heritage, Industry, and the Environmental Racism in the American Gulf States". 📍Online 🗓️ 3rd July 2025, 9:45-10:45 BST Don't forget to sign up (for free!) using the QR code or the link in our bio ✨ Tipi with sign "American Indian Movement" on the grounds of the Washington Monument, Washington, D.C., during the "Longest walk" by Warren Leffler “Martin Luther King, Jr., half-length portrait, facing left, speaking at microphones, during anti-war demonstration, New York City” by Don Rice “AIDS quilt on display in Washington, D.C., with the U.S. Capitol in the background” by Carol Highsmith “Washington Crossing the Delaware” by Emmanuel Leutze

ALT Lucy Bond (she/ her) is Head of the School of Humanities and Reader in Literature and Memory Studies at the University of Westminster. She has published widely on the culture and politics of memory and trauma. Her work includes: Frames of Memory After 9/11: Culture, Criticism, Politics and Law (Palgrave, 2015), and the New Critical Idiom guide to Trauma (Routledge, 2020, co-authored with Stef Craps). Lucy has also published a number of edited collections, including: The Transcultural Turn: Interrogating Memory Between and Beyond Borders (de Gruyter, 2014); Memory Unbound: Tracing the Dynamics of Memory Studies (Berghahn, 2016); and Planetary Memory in Contemporary American Fiction (Routledge, 2018). Lucy is pictured smiling.

ALT With thanks to our funders British Association for American Studies, University of Westminster, and The Centre for Indigenous and Settler Colonial Studies!

ALT Introducing the "American Dream/American Nightmare" conference speakers! Our final event of the day is a Conversation with Curtis Chin, author of "Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant" (2023). 📍Online 🗓️ 3rd July 2025, 17:00-17:45 BST Don't forget to sign up (for free!) using the QR code or the link in our bio ✨

ALT Curtis Chin: A co-founder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop in New York City, Curtis Chin (he/him) served as the non-profits’ first Executive Director. He went on to write comedy for network and cable television before transitioning to social justice documentaries. Chin has screened his films at over 600 venues in twenty countries. He has written for CNN, Bon Appetit, the Detroit Free Press, and the Emancipator/Boston Globe. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Chin has received awards from ABC/Disney Television, New York Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and more. His memoir, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant was published by Little, Brown in Fall 2023. His essay in Bon Appetit was selected for Best Food Writing in America 2023. Curtis is pictures smiling.

ALT With thanks to our funders British Association of American Studies, Centre for Indigenous and Settler Colonial Studies, and the University of Westminster!