SGDE Colloquium ft. Dr. Jennifer L Jenkins (Director, Southwest Center)

Please join us for our Spring 2026 Colloquium series! 

Help us welcome Dr. Jennifer L Jenkins (Director, Southwest Center) to present 
Screening Americans: Cinema and Citizenship at War Relocation Authority Camps in Arizona, 1942-46.

Abstract: Within four months of the Imperial Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the removal of over 112,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans to inland camps euphemistically termed “War Relocation Centers.” An estimated 70% of these so-called ‘evacuees’ were born or naturalized U.S. citizens. In July 1942, the first transports from the west coast arrived at the three-camp Colorado River site at Poston and the two-camp Gila Rivers site near Sacaton—both on Native lands that were appropriated for the war effort. The impact of such confinement was predictably traumatic, and the need for distraction and escapism through entertainment was significant.  These government-controlled ephemeral communities each had purpose-built movie theatres; films arrived regularly by post or train after clearing government approval.  Film programs changed twice a week, just as they had in pre-war civilian life. In this project I examine what kinds of films were shown at Gila and Poston, and what agenda those programs served. Titles and genres of films suggest that cinema may have been used not merely for leisure and crowd control, but for indoctrination and reinforcement of perceived American values of the time. Screening Americans seeks to uncover the untold social and cultural history of highly-controlled cinema spectatorship in the lives of Americans sequestered in the U.S. Southwest during WWII. 

This talk is free to attend and takes place in room S107 of the ENR2 building on Friday, April 24, 2026 from 3:30-5pm. All are welcome! 

ZOOM LINK: https://arizona.zoom.us/j/81234340707

Followed by Happy Hour at Screwbean (103 N Park Ave)