The 65th American Studies Association of Texas (ASAT) Conference will be held November 2-4, 2022, at Collin College-Frisco, Texas. Our conference theme is “Space & Autonomy.” While scholars and researchers in various disciplines have examined the relationship between space and autonomy for centuries, perhaps millennia, our need to negotiate between these two concepts has never been more pressing: we have had to reconsider our personal and public spaces in the face of a pandemic; we have had to reconceive of the geography of our urban spaces and infrastructure to confront climate change; we have had to maneuver around the constantly shifting political climate in a fractious nation; and we have had to negotiate the ever expanding realm of cyberspace. Space is all around us. It is part of our everyday lives. Our freedom to explore and negotiate space is both private and public, intimate and impartial, often governed by our relationship to specific spaces or places. “Place is security,” argues Yi - Fu Tuan, “space is freedom: we are attached to the one and long for the other” (3).

We ask prospective presenters to write abstracts that examine the complex relationship between space and autonomy, but we will also consider presentations that deal with issues relating to American culture in any form or fashion, especially ones that focus on Texas.