Symposium All Goes Onward and Outward
On 18 June 2007, a one-day symposium to commemorate the 60th anniverary of the first Dutch chair in American Studies, the 60th anniversary of the Marshall Plan in the Netherlands, and the 30th anniversary of the Netherlands American Studies Association (NASA) was held at the Agnietenkapel of the Universiteit van Amsterdam, where, 30 years earlier, the founding meeting of the NASA took place. To commemorate these historic occasions, we discussed the role of American Studies in the Netherlands with current (senior and junior) scholars and current American Studies students. The presentations focused on the questions how American Studies can contribute to the public debate on social-political and cultural issues such as multiculturalism and how American Studies relates to other disciplines within the humanites and the social sciences. In addition, one session focused on an exciting Dutch translation of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (Grasbladen edited by Jacob Groot and Kees ‘t Hart). In this way, the broad range of different disciplinary backgrounds that constitute American Studies was adequately represented. The symposium was organized by Jaap Kooijman, Rob Kroes, Marja Roholl, and the students of the VASA, the student association of the Amsterdam students of American Studies.