2020 EAAS Conference - April 30-May 2, 2021

20/20 vision: Citizenship, Space, Renewal

EAAS 2020 Conference coincides with the 400th anniversary of the establishment of the Plymouth Plantation. Falling on the quadricentennial, EAAS 2020 invites broader contemplations of American history, politics, and culture. The conference seeks to underscore questions of optics, distance, and acuity. The concept of “20/20 vision,” an optical term denoting “normal” visual clarity and sharpness of sight, invites a reflection on historical distance, focal points, visibility and invisibility of socio-historical, cultural, and literary aspects of American citizenship, space, and renewal until today.

 

EAAS Statement on Academic Freedom in Support of L’Association Française d’Études Americaines (AFEA)

04 May 2021

The EAAS is a pan-European association of twenty-one national and regional American Studies associations and is the largest American Studies association in the world. We are committed to the research, study, and teaching of all areas of American culture and society, and we promote co-operation and intercommunication between European scholars of the United States from all parts of Europe and across all academic disciplines, established and emergent.

We are committed to the principles of academic freedom and the freedom of expression. We note with grave concern recent developments in France that question or seek to undermine these principles, and we send our solidarity and support to all academics in France working to expand our understanding of the world in which we live. For centuries, France has stood as a beacon of intellectual freedom and of progressive thinking. That is the France that has, rightly, held a pre-eminent position in the development of theories of cultural, political and social justice, and to which generations of scholars have turned for inspiration. We ask that the French government publicly commits itself to the fundamental principle of academic freedom and to supporting the right of all academics to pursue their research and critical enquiries without fear of reprimand or censure.

The Board of the European Association for American Studies