Research
We are all actively engaged in carrying out research on various aspects of the Americas. Learn more about our research activity below.
Our permanent and temporary staff members are published in prestigious journals, including:
- Journal of American History;
- European Journal of American Studies;
- Royal Historical Society;
- American Quarterly;
- American Literary History;
- Revista de Indias;
- Slavery and Abolition;
- Photography and Culture;
- American Nineteenth Century History;
- Feminist Studies.
Our work has been recognised through various prizes, including:
- the British Association of American Studies book prize for 2017 (Peter Knight);
- the Arthur Miller Institute First book prize for 2017 (J Michelle Coghlan);
- the Warren Centre Faculty Fellowship at Harvard 2018-2019 (Geidel).
We get prestigious grants and fellowships, including the following:
- Molly Geidel was a fellow at the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University (2018-19).
- Peter Knight received two AHRC grants: one from the EU Committee on Science and Technology for a project on conspiracy theories in Europe (2016-20), and another from the Arts and Humanities Research Council for a project on the history of financial advice (2016-19).
We work closely with local cultural and heritage partners in Manchester, drawing on their collections of Americas-related materials and bringing our expertise to public venues. Projects include:
- Douglas Field curating Off Beat: Jeff Nuttall and the International Underground at the John Rylands Library;
- Douglas Field in collaboration with the John Rylands Research Institute and Library on the Interdisciplinary Lives and Afterlives of Letters Network, which in turn led to the new Manchester Centre for Correspondence Studies (MCCS);
- Peter Knight co-curating the Show Me the Money: The Image of Finance, 1700 to the Present exhibition at the People's History Museum in Manchester;
- Natalie Zacek curating the Black History Month exhibition, Bittersweet: Slavery and Abolition in Manchester (2017), at the Portico Library and Gallery, Manchester;
- With the support of the SALC Social Responsibility and Engagement awards, Eithne Quinn collaborated with the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre on their Hip Hop Collection (2017), an open resource for researchers, teachers and the public.
We also consult for media and policy projects, including:
- Eithne Quinn has drawn on her expertise on rap music to serve as an expert witness in several court cases in the United States and the UK;
- Douglas Field worked as a consultant on Raoul Pecks's award-winning film 'I Am Not Your Negro';
- Natalie Zacek consulted for an episode of Britain’s Lost Masterpieces (BBC Four 2018), and for Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC One, 2017). Zacek was also an interviewee for Turkey’s TRT World news channel (25/6/20) and Cornelia Street Productions’ series 'Enslaved’ (Epix, CBC and BBC2).
We take part in international research partnerships, including:
- our conference with the British Association for American Studies ‘American Studies Spectacles and Spectatorship’ (2017);
- our ongoing American Studies partnership with Brown University, University of Copenhagen and University of Mississippi, whose latest gathering was here in Manchester in May 2018.
