ROB CHESTER'S AMST 603
HOMEPAGE
Cultural Memory and Popular
Culture
Rob Chester
American
Studies
University of Maryland
rchester@umd.edu
Mary Sies' Homepage
American Studies 603
Class Homepage
American Studies
Department Homepage
University of
Maryland Homepage
My
Wired Bibliography
Key
Texts for My Syllabus
Syllabus
Background
and Academic
Interests
Hello, and welcome to my website. My name is
Rob Chester, and I am a graduate student in the American studies
department at the University of Maryland, College Park. My scholarly
interests are in the production and interpretation of cultural memory,
identity, and ideas about the nation. I am interested in the ways that
narratives of the United States past compete for legitimacy, and how
hegemonic orthodoxies are contested by more marginalized strands
of cultural memory. I concentrate on popular culture,
most particularly Hollywood film, but also popular literature, television,
and so forth, focusing mainly on memory and war in the twentieth
century. Most recently I have written essays on Reagan's 'Star Wars,' and
the
movies Pearl Harbor (2001),
and Tears of the Sun (2003).
Although I am from England, I have studied the United States
throughout my time in higher education. I have a BA (1st class) in
American studies and history from the University of Nottingham (1999), and
an MA
in American studies from the University of Wyoming (2003). My MA thesis
was a study of the cultural life of Admiral Husband Kimmel, the
U.S. Commander-in-Chief of the Navy on the day of Pearl
Harbor. Using letters from the public sent to Kimmel, popular
historical novels set around Pearl Harbor, and Pearl Harbor, I
examined the ways in
which people responded to Admiral Kimmel's charges that the government had
conspired to both
solicit the Japanese attack and leave him and his men
unawares. Kimmel's narrative struggled for sixty years (with little
success) for space against
the 'official'
narrative of a sneak attack by a treacherous foe, met
with righteous indignation by the American people.
I am a
Bode Wise fellow in
the department, and I am
currently teaching two sections of the undergraduate
introduction to American studies. If I had any spare time, I would read
more novels, watch more films, and explore more of the
U.S. I love music, mostly what they call alternative country, but also
lots of indie and trancey dance. I am an avid fan of Forest Green Rovers
Football Club,
a small soccer team from Gloucestershire and undisputedly the best
team in the world. Their website is here:
Forest Green Rovers Official Homepage