The United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney and the Australian and New Zealand American Studies Association invited scholars, especially postgraduate students and early career researchers, to participate in an international conference exploring the practice, pedagogy, and politics of American Studies beyond US borders. As the United States experiences profound challenges to academic freedom, attacks on diversity and inclusion initiatives, and intensifying pressures on higher education, this conference asks: What does it mean to study America now, and elsewhere — from a geographic or analytical perspective? How do distance, positionality, and local contexts shape our scholarly questions, methods, and interventions? What particular perspectives emerge from the Australasian and Indo-Pacific regions?

This conference centred scholars working in and on the Australasian/Indo-Pacific region, recognising both the geographic location of participants and the regional focus of scholarly work. Research that examines the history, society, culture, and politics of US-Pacific relations, American power in the Indo-Pacific, transpacific cultural flows, Asian American studies, Indigenous Pacific perspectives, and comparative approaches that position the United States within broader regional frameworks was especially welcomed.

DownloadANZASA 2026 — Program, Abstracts and Speaker Biographies — Doing American Studies outside the US — now

Keynote speakers

  • Dr Christopher Capozzola, Professor of History, MacVicar Faculty Fellow and Senior Associate Dean for Open Learning at MIT
  • Dr Chih-Ming Wang, Research Fellow (Professor) and Deputy Director, Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica
  • Dr Lily Wong, Associate Professor in the Departments of Literature and Critical Race, Gender and Culture Studies at American University

Inquiries

For inquiries, contact: americanstudiesnow2026@gmail.com

Organising committee

Kate Rivington | Monash University

Kathryn Schumaker | United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney

Paul Michel Taillon, Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland

Rodney Taveira | United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney

Submit to the Australasian Journal of American Studies

The Australasian Journal of American Studies or AJAS (ISSN 0705-7113) is the official journal of the Australian and New Zealand American Studies Association. It aims to publish the best submissions from around the world on all themes and all periods relating to United States history, culture, politics, film, literature, and society.

AJAS is published twice a year, in Summer and Winter. All submissions are peer-reviewed by anonymous experts selected by the editors. Articles appearing in this journal are indexed in Historical Abstracts; America: History and Life; and the MLA. The journal is part of both JSTOR and EBSCO Australian/New Zealand Reference Centre database, with content appearing immediately on these platforms upon publication. All work published in AJAS becomes the property of the Editors on behalf of the Australian and New Zealand American Studies Association.

Biennially, the Australasian Journal of American Studies awards $250 to the winner of the Peter Coleman Prize. The Peter Coleman Prize recognizes the best article by a postgraduate student published in the journal. Submissions should be between 7,000 to 14,000 words long and be based on original research. They should include the student’s name and contact details and be formatted according to our submissions guidelines.

Submissions

  • Manuscripts should follow the rules of Chicago Manual of Style 18 and the AJAS Style Guide, available on our website.
  • Double-spaced text in MS Word.
  • Using Times New Roman 12 point font.
  • Footnotes following the conventions of the latest version of the Chicago Manual of Style.
  • We have no limitation on the number of images that can be included. However, authors are responsible for obtaining permissions to use images under copyright restrictions, and must provide documentation showing that permission has been granted.
  • Contributors should include their institutional affiliation, brief biographical details, and an abstract of 50-200 words.
  • Authors are encouraged to review previous issues of AJAS, available on JSTOR.
  • The Editorial Board is responsible for the selection and acceptance of all contributions, but the opinions expressed and the accuracy of statements made therein remain the responsibility of individual authors. Papers are considered with the understanding that they have not been published and are not under consideration elsewhere.

Submit to ajas.anzasa@gmail.com

Australian and New Zealand American Studies Association

USSC, ANZASA, and the University of Sydney acknowledge the Gadigal people as the traditional custodians of the land on which this conference will take place.