American Studies About Town
Our students select great events around town and online.
February Events
Celebrating James Baldwin’s centennial, the exhibition Turkey Saved My Life - Baldwin in Istanbul, 1961–1971 captures an exceptionally fertile period for the incomparable Baldwin, defined by his sojourn to a country that would allow him to gain critical distance from, and new perspectives on, America, particularly its poisonous racism and homophobia. Consisting of sweeping photographs by Turkish photographer Sedat Pakay, one of Baldwin’s close friends, the exhibition provides an intimate travelogue portrait of an understudied yet pivotal time in Baldwin’s life.
02/01/2025 - 02/28/2025 (Monday - Saturday: 9:00 AM - 8:00 PM and Sundays: 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM)
Brooklyn Public Library Central
10 Grand Army Plz, Brooklyn, NY 11238
Dr. Robert Wechsler of the BCC Department of History has worked on an exhibit for New Rochelle Public Library on Troop 16, the story of an extraordinary New Rochelle group that was formed from a segregated African-American boy scout troop and became one of America’s leading fife, drum and bugle field corps. Researched, written and curated by Professor Wechsler and designed by Jesse Sanchez, the exhibit includes detailed narrative, images, sounds and artifacts that trace the Charles W. Dickerson Fife, Drum & Bugle Corps’ origins and members, as well as its award-winning role on a national level. The exhibit is made possible with a grant from the New Rochelle Public Library Foundation.
02/01/2025 - 02/28/2025 9:00am - 8:00pm
New Rochelle Public Library
2155 University Avenue The Bronx Building: New Rochelle Public Library, 1 Library Plaza, New Rochelle NY
Join us for the launch of "The Routledge History of Irish America." Editors Cian T. McMahon and Kathleen P. Costello-Sullivan will be in conversation with Kevin Kenny. This volume gathers over 40 world-class scholars to explore the dynamics that have shaped the Irish experience in America from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries.
02/06/2025 (Thursday) - 7:00pm - 8:30pm
Glucksman Ireland House NYU
1 Washington Mews New York, NY 10003
Register here
Join the Museum of the City of New York and the NYC Public Advocates Office this Black History Month as we celebrate the rich and vibrant legacy of Black culture, history, and contributions to New York City. This intergenerational event will showcase the diverse narratives of Black New Yorkers, past and present, through a blend of storytelling, music, art, and discussion geared towards families, adults and visitors of all ages. Attendees will also have the opportunity to engage with exhibitions highlighting the pioneering figures and communities that shaped the city.
Saturday, February 8th, 2025 from 12:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m.
Museum of the City of New York
1220 5th Ave, New York, NY 10029
Register here
In the early 1800s, a generation of Black New Yorkers was born into a world of gradual abolition. Entering an existence of precarious freedom after the American Revolution and reaching adulthood in the lead-up to the Civil War, this remarkable generation ultimately played an enormous role in political and legal conflicts over slavery’s future, influencing both the nation’s path to the Civil War and changes to the Constitution. Historian Sarah L. H. Gronningsater is joined by Professor Christopher Brown to chronicle the long history of emancipation in the United States through the experiences of this generation of history-making Black New Yorkers.
Thursday, February 13th, 2025 from 6:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.
Online or at The New York Historical
170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024
Get your ticket here
Renowned historian and Pulitzer Prize winner Dr. Eric Foner, Professor Emeritus at Columbia University and foremost scholar on Reconstruction, will be in conversation with award-winning historian Dr. Terry Anne Scott, Director of the Institute for Common Power. Join them as they discuss Dr. Foner's paradigmatic work and how we create a just and inclusive democracy.
02/18/2025 (Tuesday: 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM)
Online
American presidents have often pushed the boundaries established for them by the Constitution. John Adams waged war on the national press of the early republic; in the 1910s, Woodrow Wilson modernized, popularized, and nationalized Jim Crow laws; in the 1970s, Richard Nixon committed criminal acts that flowed from his corrupt ideas about presidential power. Constitutional law and political science professor Corey Brettschneider examines five past case studies, connecting the thread of presidential abuse of power to our current moment and illuminating the citizens who fought back.
Tuesday, February 25th, 2025 from 6:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m.
Online or at The New York Historical
170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024
Get your ticket here.
February 27, 2025 is the 165th anniversary of the Right Makes Might speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln to a New York City audience in The Cooper Union’s Great Hall. A speech of great consequence, it has been credited with propelling the then-Illinois statesman to the White House. To mark the occasion, The Cooper Union is pleased to present Steve Inskeep, the author of Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America and cohost of NPR’s Morning Edition, in conversation with ABC News anchor Linsey Davis about a great politician's strategy in a country divided and lessons for our own disorderly present.
Tuesday, February 25th, 2025 from 6:30 p.m.–8:00 p.m.
The Great Hall at The Cooper Union
7 East 7th Street, New York, NY 10003
Register here.
March Events
Celebrating James Baldwin’s centennial, the exhibition Turkey Saved My Life - Baldwin in Istanbul, 1961–1971 captures an exceptionally fertile period for the incomparable Baldwin, defined by his sojourn to a country that would allow him to gain critical distance from, and new perspectives on, America, particularly its poisonous racism and homophobia. Consisting of sweeping photographs by Turkish photographer Sedat Pakay, one of Baldwin’s close friends, the exhibition provides an intimate travelogue portrait of an understudied yet pivotal time in Baldwin’s life.
03/01/2025 - 03/15/2025 (Monday - Saturday: 9:00 AM - 8:00 PM and Sundays: 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM)
Brooklyn Public Library Central
10 Grand Army Plz, Brooklyn, NY 11238
Celebrate Women’s History Month at King Manor as we follow in the footsteps of activist Elizabeth Cisco, a Jamaica local whose activism lead to integrated schools! Participants will have the opportunity to make pins that draw attention to causes they support and write letters to elected officials to make their voices heard. This event is free and open to the public!
03/01/2025 (Saturday: 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM)
King Manor Museum
150-03 Jamaica Avenue Queens, NY 11432
When the English endeavored to wrest control of New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664, Charles II and his brother, the Duke of York, appointed Richard Nicolls to lead the English flotilla and conquer Manhattan Island. Blending might with diplomatic tact, Nicolls would make the integration of Dutch colonists a vital part of his takeover, birthing what was in many ways the blueprint of the modern city. Russell Shorto sits down with The New York Historical’s President and CEO, Dr. Louise Mirrer, to discuss New York’s origins and how they mirror those of our nation as a whole, marked both by unprecedented growth and a parallel history of destruction and subjugation.
03/04/2025 (Tuesday: 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM)
Online or at The New York Historical
170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024
Get your tickets here.
In recent years, legal discourse has oscillated between the need to protect the Constitution and a reckoning with what many argue are inherent flaws, including its treatment of race, dependence on an Electoral College, and enshrinement of an outsized influence of the Supreme Court. While the amendment process exists as a path to resolve issues that arise, only fifteen of the 11,848 amendments proposed since 1789 have passed. Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of Berkeley Law School, joins Troy McKenzie, Dean of New York University Law School, to argue that the only way to solve the urgent crises of the 21st century is to empower a new convention to draft a new Constitution that is more responsive to modern threats.
03/06/2025 (Thursday: 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM)
Online or at The New York Historical
170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024
Get your tickets here.
Celebrate Women's History Month with the Urban Park Rangers. Join the Urban Park Rangers for a hike and learn about the life and complex legacy of the 17th century religious reformer, movement leader, and colonialist, Anne Hutchinson.
03/09/2025 (Sunday: 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM)
Pelham and Split Rock Golf Course
870 Shore Road, Bronx
Celebrate Women's History Month with the Urban Park Rangers! Some made music, some made noise, all made a difference. We celebrate women who broke records, broke ground, and blazed trails. Our Urban Park Rangers lead you through Central Park to sites honoring these historic figures who acted to increase our liberty, safety, and prosperity.
03/15/2025 (Saturday: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM)
Entrance of Central Park
East 60th Street and Fifth Avenue
Celebrate Women's History Month with the Urban Park Rangers. Learn how to see through the eyes of a naturalist, as you take a lengthy hike with the Urban Park Rangers along the nature trail named in honor of longtime Bronx resident and naturalist, Cass Gallagher. Learn more about her impact to the local neighborhood and the natural world.
03/16/2025 (Sunday: 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM)
Van Cortlandt Park Bronx
Van Cortlandt Nature Center
Join NYC Department of Parks and Councilmember Selvena Brooks Powers for the viewing of a very inspiring Netflix movie “The Six Triple Eight”
Awards will be given to Nominees. Refreshments will be served.
03/20/2025 (Thursday: 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM)
Sorrentino Recreation Center
18-48 Cornaga Ave, Far Rockaway, NY 11691
Join us in person and online for a book talk on The Civil War Diary of Emma Mordecai with co-author Melissa R. Klapper and moderator Zev Eleff. The Civil War Diary of Emma Mordecai was edited by Dianne Ashton and Melissa R. Klapper and is available from NYU Press. The Civil War Diary of Emma Mordecai is one of the few surviving Civil War diaries by a Jewish woman in the antebellum South. It charts her daily life and her evolving perspective on Confederate nationalism and Southern identity, Jewishness, women’s roles in wartime, gendered domestic roles in slave-owning households, and the centrality of family relationships. While never losing sight of the racist social and political structures that shaped Emma Mordecai’s world, the book chronicles her experiences with dislocation and the loss of her home.
03/25/2025 (Tuesday: 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM)
Online or at the American Jewish Society
15 W 16th St, New York, NY 10011
Get your tickets here.
Join us for a picturesque early spring walking tour through St. John’s Memorial Cemetery. Get acquainted with some of St. John's Cemetery's permanent residents as we focus on Women’s History this month. Light rain or shine. Due to uneven terrain, the cemetery cannot accommodate visitors using wheelchairs or strollers. Please note there are no facilities onsite; we kindly suggest visiting the museum at 301 Main Street in Cold Spring Harbor for restrooms.
03/30/2025 (Sunday: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM)
The Whaling Museum & Education Center of Cold Spring Harbor
301 Main Street Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724
Get your tickets here.