About the centre
About the centre
Since the seventeenth century Glasgow has been a gateway for economic, social and cultural exchange between Scotland and North America.
From the tobacco trade to the annual Transatlantic Sessions concerts, these connections provide the foundation for American Studies at the University of Glasgow, which has long been at the forefront of the study of American society and culture in the British Isles. The University of Glasgow was one of the first British universities to take seriously the study of the literature, history and politics of the United States of America. John Nichol (Glasgow’s first Regius Professor of Literature, appointed in 1862) taught American literature at a time when no British and very few American academics believed that American literature deserved to be considered part of English literature. His book American literature: an historical sketch, 1620-1880 (1882) was the first such volume to be published on either side of the Atlantic. Since then distinguished Americanists at Glasgow have included students such as Sir Denis Brogan and academic staff such as Esmond Wright, Peter Parish, William Brock, Andrew Hook and Susan Castillo.
In 1997 the University of Glasgow recognized this heritage with the creation of the Andrew Hook Centre for American Studies. The Hook Centre has become Scotland’s only centre for American Studies, and it sponsors the most extensive American Studies lecture and seminar series in Scotland, which is open to academics, students and the general public.
The Centre has featured presentations by the Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, the Oscar-winning documentary film-maker Ken Burns, and the Grammy-nominated musician Bruce Molsky, as well as scholars from North America and Europe. Furthermore, the Centre has hosted the annual conferences of the British Association for American Studies (to be held in Glasgow again in 2026), the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, and the Scottish Association for the Study of America (most recently in 2022), as well as numerous smaller conferences and symposia.
The Hook Centre brings together academics from across the university to create a focus for research and teaching in the history, literature, media and culture of the United States. Staff associated with the Centre are based primarily in the subject areas of History; English Literature; Theatre, Film and Television Studies; Music and Politics. The Centre offers a taught MLitt degree (not running in 2024-25) as well as a research PhD, and hosts a vibrant research community of postgraduates and academic staff.
Events in Semester 1, 2025-26
SEMESTER ONE SEMINARS 2025-26
Wednesday 1 October, 3:00-4:30pm, Room 202, 4 University Gardens
Professor Sinéad Moynihan (University of Exeter), ‘“For Export Only”: Irish Writers and U.S. Magazines, 1940-75’
This talk is drawn from the larger project, “For Export Only”: Irish Writers and U.S. Magazines, 1940-1975, which uncovers the extent, variety and significance of Irish writers’ contributions, mostly fiction and travel writing, to U.S. magazines at mid-century. Focusing on Mademoiselle (1935-2001), the magazine for “smart young women,” this paper traces the proliferation of Irish fiction in its pages during the 1940s and 1950s. At first glance, such stories appear to fall into two categories: “Anglo-Irish” in subject matter and/or authorial background (Mary Manning, Elizabeth Bowen, Joyce Cary) and “Hiberno-Irish” (Seán O’Faoláin, Liam O’Flaherty, Bryan MacMahon, Frank O’Connor), with childhood and/or coming-of-age the dominant themes across both categories. However, such a neat overview fails to acknowledge the ways in which the meanings suggested by several of the works are complicated by their illustrations, challenging readers primed by content published elsewhere in the magazine to expect its “Irish stories” to fit a certain mould. Of mid-twentieth century Irish literature, Eve Patten asks: “where has the persuasive ‘national’ label on Ireland’s literary output obscured the impact of alternative spatial and political formations – trans-local and transatlantic, cross-continental and cross-border – in the shaping of Irish literary tradition?” By identifying how mid-twentieth century Irish prose was written, sold, circulated and illustrated in a transatlantic magazine marketplace, this paper provides one answer to that question.
Sinéad Moynihan is Professor in American and Atlantic Studies at the University of Exeter. She has published widely on American, Irish and transatlantic literatures in Éire-Ireland, Modern Drama, MELUS, American Literary History, Studies in the Novel and other journals. She is also the author of three monographs, the most recent of which – Ireland, Migration and Return Migration: The “Returned Yank” in the Cultural Imagination, 1952 to present (Liverpool UP, 2019) – was awarded the Michael J. Durkan Prize for Books on Language and Culture by the American Conference for Irish Studies. Her current book project, “For Export Only”: Irish Writers and U.S. Magazines, 1940-1975, is supported by a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship (2025-26).
Wednesday 8 October, 4.30-6.00pm
Hook Centre Welcome Event, Humanities Hub, 1 University Gardens
The Andrew Hook Centre for American Studies warmly invites you to our Welcome Event for this year, to be held in the Humanities Hub, 1 University Gardens, 4.30pm-6pm on Wednesday 8th October. All are welcome, and we particularly invite PGT and PGR students so that we have a chance to connect with everyone working on an aspect of the United States at the University.
Wednesday 22 October, 2.30-4.00pm, Room 331, Wolfson Medical Building
Rowena Palacios (University of Edinburgh): Title TBC
Wednesday 12 November, Time and Place TBC
Nathan Corden (University of Birmingham): 'The World Awheel: Americans in the First Global Bicycle Age'
Thursday 20 November, Yudowitz Seminar Theatre, Time TBC
Bradley Simpson (University of Connecticut): Title TBC