Contact: Peter Rollins, 918-243-7637 Media Contact: Laurie Mellas-Ramirez, 277-5915

Feb. 3, 2002 CONFERENCE EXPLORES POPULAR AMERICAN CULTURE FEB. 12-15 Renowned author Rudolfo Anaya will be the keynote speaker for the Feb. 12-15 regional meeting of the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association held at the Albuquerque Hilton Hotel and Fairfield Inn by Marriott. Some 80 areas of study will be covered including computers, ethnicity and gender, film/TV/radio, literature, geography, rights issues, American myths and methodologies, visual arts, and America's wars and war eras. The meeting is open to the public for a $25 registration fee. The luncheon featuring Anaya is set for Saturday, Feb. 15, at noon at the Hilton. The cost is $30 and advance registration is required. Local educators may attend the meeting free of charge if accompanied by five or more students, but must also register in advance. High school and college students are encouraged to attend. A dozen speakers will address "Manifest Destiny," examining the United States as an "empire for liberty." UNM English Professor Jesse Alemán chairs the section topic, which has special relevance in today's world. "The significance of Manifest Destiny, as an idea and action, is its ability to turn the U.S.'s legacy of imperialism into a divine mission to spread liberty," Alemán said. "In our bellicose rhetoric towards Iraq, for instance, we still hear echoes of Manifest Destiny as it was circulating in the 19th century, especially during the U.S.-Mexico War. As a truly nationalist discourse, then, 'Manifest Destiny' has functioned to establish and maintain the U.S.'s hemispheric and, recently, global dominance as a new world empire." More than 1,200 people attended the 2002 association meeting in Albuquerque, said organizer Peter C. Rollins, Ph.D, director of the Popular Culture Center at Oklahoma State University and editor of "Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and TV Studies. "Scholars of literature, the arts and architecture, cultural geography and anthropology will share their perspectives on American life in the Southwest," Rollins said. "Our region has a fascinating legacy of literary, visual and media images which are too often overlooked." A complete schedule of the meeting is available at www.swtexaspca.org . For registration information, call Ron Briley, assistant headmaster, Sandia Preparatory School at 344-1671 or e-mail at snrbrile@nedcomm.nm.org. ###

The University of New Mexico
Public Affairs Department
Hodgin Hall, 2nd floor
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0011
Telephone: (505) 277-5813
Fax: (505) 277-1981