American Studies students receive national recognition for outstanding essays
Two students on the University of Manchester鈥檚 American Studies programme have claimed the top awards in the British Association for American Studies national essay writing competition.
Final-year History and American Studies student Anya Carr was named winner of the British Association for American Studies undergraduate essay award, and Xavi Goodall, a third-year student currently studying at Rutgers University in New Jersey, received an honourable mention in the same competition. Both students were honoured as part of the BAAS award ceremony, which took place in June this year.
Anya鈥檚 essay offered a sparkling account of the African American actor, singer, and activist Paul Robeson鈥檚 1949 visit to 91直播. The project used Robeson鈥檚 brief trip to lens the local and global agendas that came together in this moment, as civil rights, decolonization, and the Cold War intermingled, and as various groups competed around Moss Side, Chorlton-on-Medlock, and Belle Vue to win Robeson鈥檚 support. The project argued that we should think of the city of Manchester as akin to 鈥榯he global activist hubs of London, Paris, and Harlem鈥� that other scholars have written about, and it made an innovative attempt to 鈥榞round the global in the local, and to offer a new perspective on the complex interplay between the Red, white, and Black Atlantics.鈥� A short blog post that Anya wrote describing the research .
The BAAS judges 鈥渨ere incredibly impressed by this well-argued essay鈥� which 鈥渟ituated Robeson within intersecting contexts鈥� and which 鈥渉ighlighted the complexities of post-war organising and solidarity.鈥� Anya鈥檚 work drew extensively on the University鈥檚 US newspaper holdings, as well as materials at the , the People鈥檚 History Museum archive, and the Working Class Movement Library and Archive, in Salford.
Xavi Goodall鈥檚 essay looked at references to American writer Harriet Beecher Stowe鈥檚 novel Uncle Tom鈥檚 Cabin (1851-52) in The Century Magazine, America鈥檚 most popular periodical in the late nineteenth century. Xavi uncovered a handful of references to Stowe鈥檚 novel between the 1880s and late 1890s, and used these to show that, while Stowe鈥檚 novel exerted a lasting influence on American opinions about slavery, The Century Magazine seldom discussed the literary merits of Stowe鈥檚 work or offered a neutral account of her politics. As Xavi argued, 鈥楿ncle Tom鈥檚 Cabin鈥檚 appearances in The Century were defined more by the magazine鈥檚 context than the book鈥檚 contents.鈥� The judges described the piece as 鈥渁 beautifully written and accomplished essay,鈥� and thought Xavi鈥檚 鈥渃areful and detailed analysis of The Century magazine鈥檚 complex engagement with Stowe was very strong.鈥�
Both students鈥� essays were developed and written within second-year American Studies modules. Xavi鈥檚 work on Stowe began in Dr. Gordon Fraser鈥檚 AMER22662 Uncle Tom鈥檚 Cabin as Global Media Event, while Anya鈥檚 study on Robeson was written in Dr. Andrew Fearnley鈥檚 AMER20022 US History Long Essay module. Each project made use of the printed and electronic resources held by the University, and the physical archives available around the city of Manchester.