On May 19-20, 2022, the Research Society for American Periodicals will be holding its annual meeting online. As part of the program, we invite brief proposals for two-minute lightning talks on pedagogy, digital projects, archival collections, or any other developments related to the study of serials and periodicals in the Americas.

Rather than delving deep into any particular topic, we envision these lightning talks as a chance to raise awareness of new ideas, resources, and opportunities for collaboration in the field. While not required, we especially encourage folks to bring something concrete to share: a lesson plan, an assignment, a project website, an archival collection, or any of the many other kinds of vehicles for our research and teaching today. 

To be considered, please submit a title, a 50-100 word description of the proposed lightning talk, and a brief CV via email to Chris LaCasse (Christopher.J.LaCasse@uscga.edu) by May 13, 2022. 

RSAP Online – 2022

Lightning Talks

Lightning Talks are designed to build community, promote research, and inspire future collaborations.  Each talk is only two minutes in length, but we hope these brief overviews will bring awareness to new scholarship, archives, and resources that may support future work in periodical studies.  Immediately following our last speaker, we will host a social hour, during which these conversations and many others may continue. We sincerely hope this new feature of RSAP Online helps foster new partnerships!

Magdalena Zapędowska, Smith College, Lecturer in English Language and Literature, Smith College

“An 1862 Concert for the Weekly Anglo-African”

I want to highlight a moment of Black organizing during the early Civil War, whose story unfolds through several issues of the Weekly Anglo-African. In March 1862, editor Robert Hamilton organized a concert in New York to aid the newspaper and raise funds for a vocational school for Black youth. This event foregrounds connections among 19th-century Black institutions, the multiple roles Black editors took on to keep the newspaper running, and seriality as a vehicle for mobilizing readers as a live audience.

Sidonia Serafini, ACLS/Mellon Dissertation Completion Fellow, University of Georgia (sidonia.serafini@uga.edu) 

“Black (Agri)cultural Periodicals”

Often disregarded as unprogressive, the Hampton-Tuskegee model of industrial education offered an important periodical press platform for rural Black southern communities. The periodicals that emerged out of these Institutes, including Hampton’s Southern Workman (1872-1939) and Tuskegee’s Negro Farmer (1914-18), featured the voices of well-known intellectuals, such as George Washington Carver and Alice Dunbar-Nelson, as well as lesser-known everyday artists, such as farmer John W. Lemon and homemaker Mrs. C. J. Calloway. Reexamining such periodicals makes visible how rural Black southerners of the Jim Crow era reclaimed the land by positioning the natural world not as a site of violence but as a site of cultural vibrancy and communal strength, autonomy, and knowledge.

Cynthia Patterson, Associate Professor, University of South Florida

“The Negro Chautauqua Movement”

As scholars such as Andrew Rieser have noted, “By the turn of the [twentieth] century, Chautauqua had established itself as a crucible of the white public.” Although occasionally mentioning guest appearances by Booker T. Washington and others, most histories of the Chautauqua movement fail to mention the presence of non-white attendees, beyond the wait staff working behind the scenes. However, a vibrant “Negro Chautauqua” movement flourished from 1885 to 1925. Traces of this movement exist in digitized periodicals; however, a treasure trove of materials from sponsoring Black Baptist and A.M.E. church archives promises to reveal more about this important movement.

E. James West, Lecturer in US History, University of York

“Building the Black Press”

This project focuses on the Black press and the built environment – it explores why Black press buildings matter, their practical and symbolic function, and their importance as a physical extension of the Black press’ role as a “voice for the race.” This project is connected to the publication of my recent book A House for the Struggle, and I’m currently working on a follow-up book about the redevelopment/repurposing of Black media buildings in Chicago.

Samantha Donoso, The University of Texas at Arlington Department of English

“American Spanish Language Newspapers in the Archive: The Culture of Reprinting and the Impact on Female Representation”

In my lightning talk, I will describe my research using The University of Arizona Library Digital Collections periodical archive. This archive supports our understanding of the social, political, and domestic concerns of the Mexican population in the American Southwest. My original query was to explore El Fronterizo, a Spanish language newspaper from Tucson, Arizona, to uncover poetry by female authors, yet what I found was a collection of reprinted poetry which created a new set of questions regarding how gender was represented and how the culture of reprinting was used to promote a specific narrative.

Mary Feeney, The University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, Arizona (mfeeney@arizona.edu) 

Melissa Jerome, University of Florida, George A. Smathers Libraries (mmespino@ufl.edu) 

Ana J. Krahmer, University of North Texas, Library Digital Newspaper Program

“A Sampling of Spanish-Language Historical Newspapers in Chronicling America”

Chronicling America, the digitized historical newspaper database sponsored by the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities, now includes over sixty Spanish-language newspapers published in eight states and one U.S. territory. The National Digital Newspaper Program awardees in Arizona, Florida, and Texas have contributed about a third of these titles. We will highlight a few Spanish-language newspapers from our states that offer a glimpse of Latinx/Hispanic communities and provide unique perspectives on international events.

Katherine Poland and William A. Schlaack, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections (IDNC, https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/) are home to dozens of digitized newspapers representing a diverse range of groups from across the state. As the result of a partnership with JSTOR’s project “Documenting White Supremacy and its Opponents in the 1920s,” UIUC assisted with the digitization of two Klan-related newspapers. The prospect of putting these on IDNC proved concerning to Library staff. As a result, we developed the Library’s first harmful content statement for a digital collection. This talk will briefly explore the why and how of writing such a statement.

Mark Noonan, Professor of English, New York City College of Technology (CUNY).

“City of Print: New York and the Periodical Press”As Director of the NEH funded summer institute (2015 and 2020), Mark will discuss the rich resources on the recently launched website, of City of Print, City of Print: New York and the Periodical Press