19 May 2008
The programme was created at The University of Manchester in the academic year of 1947 to 48 – along with the first ever British professorial chair in American Studies.
The first incumbent was the Romanian-born Isaac Kandel, a Manchester-educated and New York-based educational theorist who by chance is also the subject of a new biography.
In the decades that followed Kandel’s appointment, major scholars including Marcus Cunliffe, Dennis Welland, Maldwyn Allen Jones, and Bob Burchell - occupied professorial chairs at Manchester.
They were all important figures in the emergence of American Studies as a serious academic discipline.
The concert will launch an International Conference on the American South at the University from May 22 to 24.
It is the first of a series of international meetings based around the theme of Understanding the South, Understanding America organized jointly by the Universities of Manchester and Florida.
The current chair of American Studies and conference organiser, Professor Brian Ward, said, “While this is an important interdisciplinary conference with delegates from Europe and the US we are especially thrilled to be able to welcome award-winning Jazz singer and author, Sandi Russell.
“She’ll kick off proceedings with her spell-binding one-woman show ‘Render Me My Song: African American Women Writers from Slavery to the Present’.”
Born in Harlem, Sandi has worked with such jazz greats as Lionel Hampton, Roy Eldridge and Jean Toussaint and has been favourably compared with Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan.
She was also praised by the late Humphrey Lyttleton and a recent Guardian review described her as a “formidable vocal force”.
Ward added: “Amid the excitement of an election year, experts in US history, politics, literature, culture, film and music will gather to explore the importance of the South in shaping the post-War US and its relationship with much of the modern world.
“The conference will demonstrate how a greater understanding of the American South is crucial to understanding the modern US and the nature of its global cultural, economic, ideological, diplomatic and political connections”.
For more information on the conference and Sandi Russell’s performance visit: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/southconference/
The conference is called: Understanding the South, Understanding Modern America: The American South in Regional, National, and Global Perspectives and will take place from May 22-24.
Sandi Russell’s show is at the Flowers Theatre, the Chancellors Hotel and Conference Centre, Chancellors Way, Moseley Road, Manchester, M14 6NN at 8.00pm on Thursday May 22. Tickets cost £5.00 (£4.00 for students) and must be purchased in advance by emailing brian.ward@manchester.ac.uk.
Any journalists who would like to interview Sandi or attend the concert and conference can contact:
Mike Addelman
Media Relations Officer
Faculty of Humanities
The University of Manchester
0161 275 0790
07717 881 567
michael.addelman@manchester.ac.uk
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