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Elvis’s America: 1956 Drawing from the expertise of scholars in music, literature, design, women’s studies, American culture, and politics, the series will contextualize 1956, the moment of Elvis Presley’s first emergence, and in the end, perhaps, unveil or re-envision the kinds of social and political changes that most profoundly affected the cultural landscape then and into the following decades. As America’s baby boomers enter maturity, a look back to the influences that shaped cultural and political thought seems particularly relevant to our current self-understanding. Given that the series’ starting point will be Elvis Presley, the narrower or secondary topic is to look for a better understanding of Elvis as a phenomenon whose remarkably lasting image remains alive and well in American culture. The lectures and the lecturers: Tuesday, September 22, 4pm A specialist in twentieth-century American history, with a particular interest in public policy, political ideology, and the role of government in society, Larry Gerber received his BA, MA, and PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. Before coming to Auburn in 1983, he taught for the University of Maryland (European Division), the University of Arizona, and Brown University. He is the author of The Irony of State Intervention (2005) and The Limits of Liberalism (1983). He has also published articles in Business History Review, Labor History, Social Science History and Journal of Policy History. 1956 film: The Man Who Knew Too Much, 6pm Tuesday, September 29, 4pm Barbara A. Baker, PhD, is the director of the Women’s Leadership Institute and editor of Pebble Hill Books at Auburn University. Among her many professional activities, she serves the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities as a research fellow, and university representative to Imagining America. She is the author of The Blues Aesthetic and the Making of American Identity in the Literature of the South, the editor of Albert Murray and the Aesthetic Imagination of a Nation, and has taught and written about southern and black aesthetics in American literature. The museum café will be open to serve its lunch menu from 1956 film: The Bad Seed, 6pm Tuesday, October 6, 4pm Ashley Callahan is an independent scholar based in Athens, Georgia, and a part-time instructor at the University of Georgia. She served as the curator of decorative arts at the Georgia Museum of Art from 2000-2008 where she produced numerous exhibitions. She is the author of the books Modern Threads: Fashion and Art by Mariska Karasz (2007) and Enchanting Modern: Ilonka Karasz, 1896-1981 (2003) as well as numerous articles. Her research interests include Georgia decorative arts and modern American design. Tuesday, October 13, 4pm Atlanta native, Joni Mabe graduated from the University of Georgia with an MFA in painting and drawing. Founder, collector, owner, and curator of The Panoramic Encyclopedia of Everything Elvis, for fourteen years she traveled the world with her collection before permanently locating it in Cornellia, Georgia in 1999. Located in The Loudermilk Boarding House Museum, Mabe's Panoramic Encyclopedia of Everything Elvis holds over 30,000 Elvis items including the legendary “Elvis’ Wart” & the "Maybe Elvis Toenail." The museum is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records and is home to the annual Big E Festival, now in its 10th year. 1956 film: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 6pm * Note: On Late Night, Thursday, October 15, Joni Mabe will give an artist’s talk about her work. Michael T. Bertrand is an associate professor of history at Tennessee State University. The University of Illinois Press recently released a paperback edition of his first book, Race, Rock, and Elvis. He is currently working on a manuscript that addresses the 1956 attack on Nat “King” Cole in Birmingham, Alabama. He is the founder and editor/moderator of H-Southern-Music. Tuesday, October 27, 4pm “I Like Ike, but I Love Lucy: Women in 1956” George Plasketes is professor of Radio, Television, and Film in the Department of Communications and Journalism at Auburn University where he teaches such courses as Popular Culture, Mass Marketing, and Scriptwriting. He is a member of the Popular Culture and American Culture Associations, and is an advisory and discography editor for Popular Music and Society. Plasketes’ articles on music, the mass media, and popular culture have been published in various journals and anthologies. He is the author of several books including Images of Elvis Presley in American Culture 1977-1997: The Mystery Terrain. 1956 film: Mystery Train, 6pm Tuesday, November 10, 4pm James M. Salem, emeritus professor of American Studies at the University of Alabama, has published plays, songs, articles, and essays and is the author of eighteen books, including several reference works on drama in America. His last book, The Late Great Johnny Ace and the Transition from R&B to Rock ‘n’ Roll, was published in 1999 by the University of Illinois Press as part of its Music in American Life series. His research on American popular music and the1950s has appeared in Prospects: An Annual of American Cultural Studies, American Music, American Studies Journal, Columbia Journal of American Studies, American National Biography, Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History, and the Encyclopedia of the Blues.
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