LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

Indigenous protest in Peru

These materials concern a protest in Bagua, Peru on 5 June 2009 against a free trade agreement with the USA. According to official sources, 34 people (10 civilians and 24 police) lost their lives during an attempt by 600 Peruvian soldiers and riot-police to remove an indigenous blockade of the Belaunde Terry Highway at Devil's Curve in the northern Peruvian Amazon. They are based on an article published in Social Movement Studies: Hughes, N (2010) Indigenous Protest in Peru: the 'Orchard Dog Bites Back' Vol 9, No1, pp85-90, January. The materials are an example of how easy-to-use and cheap technologies can be used by lecturers to address the nexus between teaching, research and technology.

Area Studies colleagues: Request for help from colleague in classics concerning study abroad

Classics in the Subject Centre (CSC) at the Higher Education Academy is supporting research for a project entitled: Mapping Internationalisation in the Classics.

Call for papers: Teaching across cultures: interdisciplinary thinking and student diversity in an international context

Unfortunately this event has been cancelled. The Subject Centre and the School of Art, Media & Design, University of Gloucester are looking for contributions to our forthcoming event on 1st November 2003. This conference is aimed at those who teach cultural material as part of Anglophone Area studies programmes in the Higher Education sector (particularly American, Australian and Canadian Studies) as well as those involved in teaching elements of Anglophone cultures in Education, Film, History, Media/Media Communications, Human Geography, Postcolonial Studies and Sociology courses. The focus of the conference is on classroom practice.

Student study day: Beat Writing Day
Event date: 23 January, 2009
Location: Department of American and Canadian Studies, University of Birmingham

The Black and Asian Studies Association and Black Studies in Britain
Event date: 24 April, 2009
Location: Institute of Latin American Studies, 86 Bedford Street South, University of Liverpool

Globalisation: a conference for undergraduate students
Event date: 4 March, 2009
Location: Loughview Suite, Jordanstown Campus, University of Ulster

Borders and traffic: comparative perspectives on teaching the Americas
Event date: 17 October, 2008
Location: Council Chamber, Singleton Abbey, Swansea University

Teaching literatures of the Americas
Event date: 18 October, 2007
Location: Rm LG33, Building 28 (Learning Centre), Edgbaston Campus, University of Birmingham

Sharing good practice in teaching Area Studies (14 Nov 05)
Event date: 14 November, 2005
Location: CILT, London

Discover American Studies: free CD-ROM

Decentering Area Studies
This paper was first presented at a round-table discussion on the 'Future of Area Studies' held at Woburn House, London on 24 March 2004. This presentation was deliberately provocative and polemical, and more than a trace of these characteristics remain in this more developed version.

Mapping the World: collaborative support for research on overseas mapping
The aim of this project is to open up a major under-used resource for research in a wide range of disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences by targeted series-level cataloguing of post-1850 overseas mapping. This will facilitate remote access to key materials by converting map library catalogue records, which at present are held on cards and accessible only to researchers visiting the libraries in person. The areas of coverage include Africa, North and South America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand as well as much of Asia and the Middle East. The individual countries covered range from the tiniest Pacific islands to the vast areas of British Antarctica, from Mediterranean islands such as Cyprus and Malta to countries the size of Nigeria and Canada. Initially, different areas of the world were allocated to each partner but now each institution can also derive CURL records for areas already covered. For example, six libraries have completed work on Australia, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.

DOMIC: Documentaries on modern international conflict
DOMIC is a two-year project launched to improve cross disciplinary access to television documentary archives held in the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London. The project supported by Research Support Libraries Programme (RSLP) began in January 2000. The archival collections to be covered relate to the Vietnam, Falklands and Gulf Wars, the Cold War, the Arab-Israeli Wars, conflict in the former Yugoslavia, chemical and biological testing and the development of nuclear technology and its impact on international relations and defence policies. Summary guides and detailed catalogues covering some 92,000 items are available on line.

Spencer Collection
Presented in 1931 by John James Spencer of Glasgow. The collection contains over hundred items, mainly contemporary pamphlets, broadsides, maps, together with a few manuscripts, relating to the Darien Scheme, an attempt to found a Scots trading colony at Darien in the isthmus of Panama at the end of the 17th century.

Cuban Women Writers Collection
The collection was donated in late 2001 by Professor Catherine Davies of the University of Manchester. It consists of literary works by Cuban women writers of the 20th century.

Caribbean Collection
Covers all aspects of the modern experience in the Caribbean and the diaspora (particularly the United Kingdom). The focus is on the Anglophone and Hispanic islands, but the Francophone and Dutch are also covered. The collection consists of approx. 2700 textbooks, monographs, official reports and pamphlets which principally supports an undergraduate half degree, but also some research. In addition there are about 150 videocassettes which are a mixture of off-air recordings and commercial purchases.

Teaching social sciences in area studies programmes
Discusses the origins of different area studies programmes (e.g. of American studies, Russian studies, European studies). Defines the relationship of area studies to social sciences. Assesses the current situation of, and logistical challenges to, social science teaching in area studies. Gives pointers to future developments.

American Studies

A general overview of the nature and variety of American Studies degree courses in United Kingdom universities, including notes on the differing structures and content of degree courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, opportunities for study abroad and the wide range of resources available for students and lecturers in American Studies.

The Area Studies Network