sk anyone what it means to be an American, or
to define the global cultural legacy of the United
States, and you’re likely to receive answers as diverse as
our nation’s populace, landscape, and neighborhoods.
This diversity is the key strength of the interdisciplinary
American Studies program at Purdue, says Rayvon Fouché,
new director of the program and an associate professor in
the School of Interdisciplinary Studies.
American studies, which is in its 50th year at Purdue,
is in the midst of a transformation, he explains. “It’s
about asking questions that are humanities-based, and
are bigger than, say, history or sociology or anthropology.
That’s the part I really like about American studies at
this moment; it’s asking some of the bigger social and
cultural questions that can’t be answered from one
solitary disciplinary space.”
And rather than focusing solely on how we might
define American society as we look inward, the discipline
encompasses the transnational flow of American culture
and identity back and forth across U.S. borders. The
discipline has a strong focus on U.S. exchange with
borderlands like Mexico, as well as places like Japan, China,
and South Korea, where representations of American
culture have become very popular.
Though the program has traditionally been strong in
the study of literature, race, and identity, says Fouché, an
additional strength he would like to build upon at Purdue
is research on the cultural implications of science and
technology. With a diverse academic background in the
humanities, science and technology studies, and African-American studies, he gives an example from his own work
on the use of technology in sports. He points out that when
watching some competitions today, “we also are watching
competitions between engineers and designers, because
athletic bodies are so close in nature that the difference
often comes down to the technologies they use.”
Are these exciting advances in the world of sport,
violations of the idea of a pure and authentic athletic
body, or something else entirely? These questions aren’t
esoteric; sports governing bodies frequently must rule on
whether to allow new devices or practices, and do so based
in part on the social and cultural meanings we assign to
these technologies.
Fouché’s next research project is an analysis of the
relatively recent transition from analog devices or processes
to digital ones in different domains—from writing to
music to art—and the resulting cultural questions around
authenticity, fidelity, and performance. “I’m interested
in this tension between seemingly technical things and
seemingly non-technical things,” says Fouché, “and my
argument is that a Steinway piano is deeply technological—
as deeply technological as a Casio keyboard.”
In addition to building new areas of emphasis within
the undergraduate and graduate programs, Fouché has
focused on reprising the program’s colloquium series by
inviting speakers from a wide range of interdisciplinary
academic fields to campus. “What I’m trying to promote in
American studies is scholarship that demands expertise
beyond one scholarly domain,” he says. “Whether in
engineering, science, or humanities, these efforts will
create transformative knowledge for the future.”
By Stacey Mickelbart. Photo by Bobby Dorn. Illustration by Inozemtsev Konstantin/
Shutterstock.com.
RAYVON FOUCHÉ
