The Americas Research Seminar Series is an interdisciplinary seminar programme, which focuses on history, film and literature in the Americas. We welcome a range of speakers, whose research interests span North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean, from the Early Modern Period through to the present day.

SEMINAR PROGRAMME 2018/2019

Monday 25th February 2019

4-6pm, S0.18 Social Sciences building, main campus, University of Warwick

Presentation, discussion, refreshments. All are welcome.

Dr John Wills (Kent)

“Bam. Shot Me”: Depictions of the American West in Early Video Games

This research paper tackles how computer and video games in the 1970s used the history of the American West as their inspiration, and through a familiar historical narrative, helped introduce a nation to a new medium of digital play. In particular, it looks at The Oregon Trail (1971+), an education title designed for school use, and Boot Hill (1977), a Midway arcade game. Both games proved highly successful thanks to their fusion of new technology with old storytelling.
However, the two titles offered highly divergent takes on the American experience; one based around a recreation of a slow and strategic crossing of the Plains (the game amounting to a form of ‘mundane realism’), the other, a speedy showdown of gunfighter action (that helped pioneer the ‘shooter’ video game genre and link games with violence). Together, the titles offer valuable insight into early video game culture and the enduring hold of frontier mythology. The paper draws from research for a forthcoming book entitled Gamer Nation.

SEMINAR PROGRAMME 2017/2018

Wednesday 17th January 2018

1.00-2.00 in OC1.08

Carlos Perez Ricart, University of Oxford,

Mexican drug policy in the XX Century: A Process of “Americanization”?

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Wednesday 24th January 2018

1.00-2.00 in OC1.08

Courtney Campbell, University of Brimingham,

'Four Fishermen, Orson Welles, and the Making of the Brazilian Northeast’.

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Wednesday 28th February 2018 - Cancelled

1.00-2.00 pm in H0.60

Ariadna Acevedo Rodrigo, Cinvestav, Mexico City,

From Indigenismo to Multiculturalism: The Promise and Peril of Ethnic Identity in Twentieth-Century Mexico.

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Warwick Latin American Film Festival

20 October - La Ciénaga (The Swamp) (Lucrecia Martel), R2.41 between 18:00-21:00

3 November - También la Lluvia (Even the Rain) (Icíar Bollaín, 2010)

10 November - El baño del Papa (The Pope's Toilet) (César Charlone, 2007)

1 December - Amores Perros (Love's a Bitch) (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2000)

Other Events

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For previous seminars please see our ARCHIVE.

 

The Americas Research Seminar Series is kindly sponsored by the Humanities Research Centre.