American studies

My name is Melissa, and I was born and raised in Long Beach, California, and spent my adult life in Southern California.

I went to USC and received my English literature degree there, as well as an American Studies degree.

And then I moved to San Diego, where I studied in the UC San Diego Ethnic Studies Department.

where I earned my PhD in 2020, actually at the onset of the COVID pandemic.

And then he says something that really brought back another conversation I had with another person from a very different realm.

Her name is Helen Weibrau, and she turned down admission to Stanford in American Studies to become a shepherd.

And she wrote this amazing book called The Salt Stones.

It's just fabulous.

We were like, what is in there? And I actually did a summer study.

Columbia University had like an American Studies summer study at Calhoun once.

I remember that idea.

It was really cute on the inside.

Let me tell you a little bit about him.

He's a professor of history and director of the American Studies Program at Oklahoma State University, and he holds a PhD in American Studies from the University of Minnesota.

His research explores the relationship between war and American society since the 19th century.

He's published three books, which we touch on in this episode today as well.

And the slow starvation of elephants in Japan was just incredible.

So maybe just before we go to your quote, maybe we could go out of Europe for a minute, talk a little bit about why you also decided to include zoos in America and in Australia and in Japan, and perhaps just tell us a little bit about that story of the elephants.

So, you know, I am trained as an Americanist, right? So I have a PhD in American studies.

And so when I first started looking at this topic, I was interested in, I thought I was going to tell the story about American zoos during World War II.

So, if you like your coffee hot but your bones chilled, sit back and start your day with a morning cup of murder.

Elizabeth Beth Lachtfeld whose life was described as a charmed one by sources, graduated from Notre Dame with a degree in American Studies, and, traveling the world, built herself a wildly successful architectural consulting firm.

In 2004, though, she sold it all in exchange for a more quiet life in Nantucket, closer to her close-knit family, where she filled her days with philanthropic work and wrote a book entitled Tell Me About Your Dreams.

in which she showcased artwork created by her father.

And I went to Connecticut, Connecticut College, where I got a B.A. in political science.

And then I came to New York and I got a master's degree at Columbia University in American Studies.

And from there, I went to the CUNY Graduate Center where I got a Ph.D. in English.

I studied under a lot of people, but David S. Reynolds was kind of my mentor.