Greetings-

I am interested in presenting my research at the 2008 AHA conference, and
would like to either form a session of interested participants, or if there
is already something in the works for which I might fit, join an existing
panel.

My research concerns the 1917 Indianapolis murder trial of a white baseball
manager accused of killing an African American waiter. The trial is a
fascinating one because it involved competing discourses about race and
social reform, particularly temperance. These discourses were mediated
through contrasting images of the bodies of white women, black men, and
white (Irish-Catholic) men. Through the lens of the trial I explore the ways
in which these ideas were constructed and reconstructed, and framed in a
predominantly white Protestant community that was called to identify what
(or, rather, who) posed the greatest threat to Indiana society at a time
when racial tension within the city was increasing, and a prohibition
statute had just been passed by the state legislature.

I think this research could fit under a number of different categories,
including prohibition, the body, and race and gender.

Anyone interested in forming a panel around any of these topics, or others
for which this research might fit, can email me at [log in to unmask]

Thanks!

David Jones
University at Albany