Welcome to SAAS

SAAS History

Since its foundation in 1993, SAAS has organized biennial three-day conferences hosted by local universities. Our conferences have drawn international participants and attendees from the United States and Europe. So far, the following cities and Universities has been venues for these conferences:

17        Upcoming - Alicante 2025 (Universidad de Alicante)

16        Granada 2023 (Universidad de Granada)

15        Bilbao 2021 (Universidad de Deusto)

14        Salamanca 2019 (Universidad de Salamanca)

13        Cáceres 2017 (Universidad de Extremadura)

12        Madrid 2015 (Universidad Complutense)

11         La Laguna, Tenerife (2013, Universidad de La Laguna)

10         Alcalá, Madrid (2011, Universidad de Alcalá de Henares)

9         Barcelona (2009, Universitat de Barcelona)

8         Coruña (2007, Universidad de La Coruña)

7         Jaén (2005, Universidad de Jaén)

6         Vitoria (2003, Universidad del País Vasco)

5         Salamanca (2001, Universidad de Salamanca)

4        Santiago de Compostela (l999, Universidad de Santiago)

3       León (l997, Universidad de León)

2       Seville (l995, Universidad de Sevilla)

1       Madrid (l994, Universidad Autónoma)

These conferences have addressed topics on significant aspects of American Studies such as "History and Fiction: Fictions of History" (l994), "Urban U.S.A.: Real and Imaginary Cities" (l995) "Century Ends, Crises and New Beginnings" (l997), "Travelling Across Cultures: The Twentieth Century American Experience" (l999), "Power and Culture: Forms of Interaction and Renewal" (2001), "American Mirrors: Sef-Reflections and Self-Distortions" (2003), "Masculinities, Femininities and Hybridities in U.S. Culture" (2005), "American Secrets: The Politics and Poetics of Secrecy in American Culture" (2007) "Water and American Renewal: Critical readings. Political interventions" (2009), "The Backyard of the US Mansion: Critical Readings of Poverty and Wealth in the United States" (2011), "TRANS: The Poetics and Politics of Crossing in the US" (2013), "American Communities in a Global World: Challenges for the New Millennium" (2015), "Understanding (Human) Nature" (2017), "The Image and the Word: Interactions between American Literature, Media, Visual Arts and Film" (2019), "'Fear Narratives' and their Role/Use in the United States," (2021), "A return to (what never was) normal: Discourses of (ab)normalcy in US culture, literature, arts and politics; past, present and future" (2023), and finally the upcoming Alicante Conference, to take place in the spring of 2025. SAAS conferences have regularly attracted between 100 and 150 registrants. Their format includes plenary lectures, panel sessions (15 to 25), dialogue sessions, roundtables and workshops on specific issues or areas of study.

Most of the plenary lectures have been addressed by prestigious literary, artistic or academic personalities,--among them Robert Coover, William Kennedy, Philip Levine, Mary Gordon, Leo Marx, Robert Brustein, Emory Elliott, Robert Allen, Shirley Lim, Heinz Ickstadt, Ilan Stavans, Bobbie Ann Mason, Maxine Hong Kingston, Louise Erdrich, Karen Tei Yamashita and Marjorie Perloff. Their participation has been important to set the intellectual standards of the conventions and determine their critical orientation. All this work has been made possible by the generous and enthusiastic support of the American Embassy in Madrid and its Cultural Services, as well as of the Fulbright Comission in Madrid.