Intersecting Empires

Kristin Hoganson

Intersecting Empires, as Revealed by the Berkshire Hog

Kristin Hoganson will join staff and postgraduates to discuss her latest research in a seminar setting. Her current work takes on the conventional wisdom about the agricultural roots of the modern American empire by focusing on the case of the Berkshire hog, considered by its promoters to be the ultimate Anglo-Saxonist pig. The story of this animal ­stretching back to the appropriation of the Indian corn that became the staple of its diet and forward to its role in nourishing British power ­helps reposition the so-called U.S. heartland at the crossroads of empires.

Professor of History, Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Illinois, she specialises in the study of United States in world context, in American imperialism, and in globalization. Her books include Consumers’ Imperium:The Global Production of American Domesticity, 1865-1920, and Fighting for American Manhood: How Gender Politics Provoked the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars. Her current book-in-progress is called Once Upon a Place: The U.S. Heartland Between Security and Empire. It considers the making of the heartland myth, and its implications for how we think about security and empire, in light of the long history of circulation through this region. She is also working on a document collection on American empire around 1898. She is the Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History at Oxford University for 2015-16.

Places for this discussion are open to American Studies staff members and postgraduates. But others can email zoe.trodd@nottingham.ac.uk to enquire about availability and to receive the advance readings.