IMPERIAL ISLANDS: CFP for an edited volume on Art, Architecture, and U.S. imperialism in the Caribbean and Pacific

Joseph Hartman Announcement
Location
United States
Subject Fields
American History / Studies, Architecture and Architectural History, Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Asian History / Studies, Latin American and Caribbean History / Studies

IMPERIAL ISLANDS: VISION AND EXPERIENCE IN THE AMERICAN EMPIRE AFTER 1898

The Empire of the United States began with a bang in 1898. The U.S. Navy docked the Maine battleship in Havana’s bay to protect Americans living in war-torn Cuba. It exploded mysteriously. The U.S. blamed Spain and joined rebel forces to liberate the island. Three months later, the U.S. (not Cuban) flag replaced Spain’s atop Havana’s Morro Castle. Cubans found themselves under the power of a new American Imperium.  By the end of the so-called “Splendid Little War,” the United States had taken possession of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. Spurred by military successes and dreams of Empire, the U.S. annexed Hawai’i that same year. Massive infrastructural investments and bureaucratic overhauls from the United States redefined the ex-colonies of Spain and the island cultures of the Caribbean and Pacific, creating a visible confrontation between local indigenous, African, Asian, Spanish and U.S. imperial expressions. This book seeks essays that reconsider how the United States and the island nations of the Americas and Southeast Asia were transformed through histories of visual, spatial, and material culture after 1898; including, but not limited to, studies on photography, print culture, popular media, performance, urbanism, and architecture.

            I invite papers that engage with questions: How does Empire define vision and experience? How might images, materials, and built objects serve as a form of resistance to Empire? Do images and built environments reflect, countersign, or challenge ideals of local and/or imperial cultures? Does the cultural geography of islands factor into imperialism? Essays might address, among other topics, forms of resistance to U.S. cultural presence; the role of architecture in expressions of state power; visual regimes of race and racism; or gendered representations of the United States and its foreign holdings in the Pacific and Caribbean. Papers examining the consumption and production of art in support or critique of U.S. imperialism at the turn of the century in the major cities of Cuba, Guam, Hawai’i, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico are encouraged. Essays that telescope back to the nineteenth century, looking at the imperialist rhetoric of the Monroe Doctrine, and project forward, thinking of the ongoing significance of vision and experience in the U.S. Empire, Latinx and Filipinx communities, and the islands of the Caribbean and Pacific, are especially welcome. Queries concerning submission topics are warmly encouraged.

Essay abstracts (approximately 250 words) and a CV should be sent by January 20, 2018 to Joseph R. Hartman at hartmanjr@umkc.edu

Selected authors will be notified by February 5, 2018. First full drafts of essays are due by March 20, 2018. 

For those invited to contribute to the book project, essays should be 6,000 to 8,000 words (author-date system in Chicago style with a list of references, and minimal endnotes, are preferred.)

The use of images is critical. Authors should note which images are most important to include. Image copyright is the responsibility of the author and should be established prior to submitting the final version of the essay. When submitting final essays, proof of copyright permission will be needed.

Contact Information

Joseph R. Hartman, University of Missouri-Kansas City

Contact Email
hartmanjr@umkc.edu