Past guest lectures
Summer term 2013
July 12
Exibition opening Student Project
"Jazz and Photography in the South" (Amerika Haus Karolinenplatz)
July 10
Grace Hale
"Another Country at Home: Filming the Folk in the US South, 1963-1983"
July 2
Bernd Herzogenrath
"Meteorology of Sound: From Thoreau to Cage and Beyond"
June 12
Werner Sollors
"A Streetcar Named Urbanism"
May 22
Miles Orvell
"Sustaining Ruins: Space, Time, and the American City"
May 16
Phil Tiemeyer
"Plane Queer: What we can Learn from Male Flight Attendants"
May 15
Michael Grey
"Bob Dylan & The Poetry of the Blues" (Amerika Haus Karolinenplatz)
Winter term 2012/13
January 30
Dr. Uta Balbier (King's College London)
"Billy Graham's Cold War Crusade: Mass Evangelism, Consumerism, and the Free World"
January 17
Andrew Gross (Universität Erlangen)
"Literature of the Barbary Wars: Commerce, Piety, and the Apostasy of Race"
January 16
Dr. Sonja John
"New Orthography to Save the Lakota Language – Help or Harm?"
December 7
Prof. Dr. Berndt Ostendorf
"The Music of the Jazz Age: 1919-1932"
December 6
Matthew A. Sutton (Washington State University)
"The Antichrist and the Rise of the American Christian Right?"
November 29
Benjamin Barber (The City University of New York)
"Global Governance and Cities Responsibilies"
Summer term 2012
02.05.2012
Barry Shank (University of Ohio)
“The CEO vs. the Community: Struggles with Neoliberalism from Jay-Z to OFWGKTA”
02.05.2012
Peter Freese (Universität Paderborn)
“Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, Empire State of Mind: A New Anthem to New York City”
08.05.2012
Konrad Jarausch (Duke University)
“Reforming the University: From the German Research Imperative to the American Democratic Model”
09.05.2012
Michelle Engert (LMU Munich)
“The People of New York vs. Dominique Strauss-Kahn: Prosecutorial Ethics and Criminal Procedure in America”
16.05.2012
Urszula Jarecka (University of Warsaw)
“Ethical Concerns in Contemporary Art”
23.05.2012
Sherrie Tucker (University of Kansas)“Torquing Back: Jitterbug Memory and National Nostalgia. Interviews with Dancers at the Hollywood Canteen”
30.05.2012
Charles Postel (San Francisco State University)“Tea Party & Occupy Wall Street: Origins and Meaning for Election 2012”
04.06.2012
David Jones (University of Warsaw)
“Sunrise at ZhongNanHai: Has the United States (Again) Helped to Open China?”
05.06.2012
David Jones (University of Warsaw)
“The OAS and the CELAC: Where Do the United States and Canada Stand Now?”
06.06.2012
David Jones (University of Warsaw)“The Rise of Romney: But Will He Fall?”
06.06.2012
Arlette Frund (Université de Tours)
“Phillis Wheatley and the Intellectual History of Black Women”
13.06.2012
Maurice Kenny & Derek Maus (SUNY Potsdam)
Poetry Reading & Discussion
18.06.2012
Niels Bjerre-Poulsen (University of Southern Denmark)
“The Vietnam War - Aftermath and Legacies”
20.06.2012
Niels Bjerre-Poulsen (University of Southern Denmark)
“The American Political System: Democracy, Power, and the Handling of Crises since the Vietnam War”
20.06.2012
Niels Bjerre-Poulsen (University of Southern Denmark)“Where Was America Born? Gangs of New York as a National Creation Myth”
26.06.2012
Clinton Heylin
“The Iconoclasm of Punk Rock”
27.06.2012
Clinton Heylin
“Blowing Against the Wind: Dylan in the Nineties”
28.06.2012
J. Hillis Miller (UC Irvine)
“Why Literature Matters”
04.07.2012
Brook Thomas (UC Irvine)
“Poems of Inclusion and Exclusion for the Birth of a New Nation between Civil Wars”
04.07.2012
Stephen Whitfield (Brandeis University)
“Franz Boas and the American Battle against Racism”
Winter term 2011/2012
08.02.2012
Prof. Dr. Heike Paul (Universität Erlangen)
"Die europäische Rezeption von 'Uncle Tom's Cabin'"
10 am, room 007
18.01.2012
"A Townhall Meeting with the Consul General Conrad Tribble"
6 pm sharp, room 201
28.11.2011
David Canon (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
"Making Sense of the U.S. Presidential Election Process"
5 pm sharp, room 201
17.11.2011
Rachel Wheeler (Indiana University Purdue)
"Environmentalism as Religion - Locavores and the New Kosher"
7 pm sharp, room 201
Summer term 2011
30.05.11
Daryle Williams (University of Maryland)
"Hilário Congo, Free Africans, and 'Full Liberty' in Nineteenth-Century Rio de Janeiro"
08.06.11
John David Smith (University of North Carolina at Charlotte)
"'We must live through all time, or die by suicide': The Crisis of the Union, 1860-1861"
15.06.11
Prof. Barry Shank (Ohio State University, Columbus, OH)
"'Heroin,' the Velvet Underground, and the Creation of the Popular Anti-commodity"
28.06.11
Christoph Ribbat (University of Paderborn)
"Boxing Nostalgia: American Culture at the Gym"
30.06.11
Katharina Vester (American University)
"Stirring the Melting Pot: Jüdische Identität in amerikanischen Kochbüchern"
06.07.11
Jenna M. Gibbs (Florida International University)
"Performing the Temple of Liberty: Antislavery, Race, and Citizenship in the Early American Republic (1807-1820s)"
12.07.11
Taylor Hagood (Florida Atlantic University)
"American Football and the Aesthetics of Headlessness in Faulkner's The Hamlet"
Winter term 2010/2011
04.11.10
Steven Hoelscher (University of Texas, Austin)
"The Decline of Public Space in American Cities"
Summer term 2010
12.05.10
Tanis MacDonald (Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario)
"Gender, Country, and the 'Civic House of Memory' in Canadian Literature"
19.05.10
David Neufeld (University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta)
"Reading the Yukon: Indigenous Story Maps and Western Cartography"
20.05.10
Jørn Brondal (University of Southern Denmark)
"U.S. Race Relations and the American Dilemma"
31.05.10
Constance B. Schulz (University of South Carolina)
"Photography in the New Deal Era"
02.06.10
Nassim Balestrini (University of Regensburg)
"Essentialism, Self-Invention, and Post-Nationalist American Studies: A Reading of Sandra Cisneros's Caramelo (2002)"
09.06.10
Liza Piper (University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta)
"Nutrition, Science, and Changing Environments in North America"
15.06.10
Elizabeth Ammons (Tufts University)
"Rising Waters: American Literature and the Fight for Environmental Justice"
17.06.10
Paula Martín Salván (University of Córdoba)
"Historical Violence and Domestic Secrets: Models of Community in Four 9/11 Novels"
30.06.10
Michèle Dagenais (Université de Montréal, Québec)
"Montréal and its Waters: An Entangled History"
05.07.10
Christian Hawkey (Brooklyn, New York)
Poetry Reading and Discussion (with After-Party)
07.07.10
Hartmut Lutz (Universität Greifswald)
"Canadian Environments in Aboriginal Literature"
14.07.10
Caroline Rosenthal (Universität Jena)
"The Vanishing Landscape of the True North"
23.07.10
Taylor Hagood (Florida Atlantic University/LMU)
"Mississippi, Obesity, Faulkner, and the Historico-Political Construction of Normality in the United States"
Winter term 2009/2010
25.11.09 (Wednesday at Six Lecture Series)
Prof. David Holloway, Ph.D., University of Derby
"A New Public Culture? Culture and Citizenship in the Bush-Era United States"
02.12.09 (Wednesday at Six Lecture Series)
Prof. Dr. Philipp Schweighauser, University of Basel
"What's Wrong with Closure? or The Failed Quests of DeLillo's Detectives"
19.01.2010
Prof. Ann Fitzgerald, Trinity College, Hartford
"Tattoo: Margin or Mainstream"
20.01.2010
Prof. Paul Lauter, Ph.D., Trinity College, Hartford
"The Market and the Cathedral: Immigration, Identity, and Conflict"
Summer term 2009
06.05.09 (Wednesday at Six Lecture Series)
Prof. Gregory Dowling, Ph.D., Ca' Foscari University of Venice
"The Literary Image of Venice"
20.05.09 (Wednesday at Six Lecture Series)
Prof. Liam Kennedy, Ph.D., Clinton Institute for American Studies, University College Dublin
"Photography and the City"
27.05.09 (Wednesday at Six Lecture Series)
Prof. Timothy Breen, Ph.D., Northwestern University
"The Crisis: The Most Popular Revolutionary Publication that Modern Americans have Chosen to Forget"
09.06.09 (Wednesday at Six Lecture Series)
Prof. Jan Nordby Gretlund, Ph.D., University of Southern Denmark, Odense
"The Fiction and Humor of the American South: After 2000"
10.06.09 (Wednesday at Six Lecture Series)
Prof. Kanishka Goonewardena, Ph.D., University of Toronto
"Space and Ideology in Toronto and Los Angeles"
16.06.09 (Wednesday at Six Lecture Series)
Prof. Katherine Verhagen, Ph.D., University of Toronto
"African-Canadian Slave Narratives and Revisioned History"
01.07.09 (Wednesday at Six Lecture Series)
Prof. Michael Wutz, Ph.D., Weber State University, Ogden
"A (Literary) Walking Tour Through the Modern Media Ecology"
08.07.09 (Wednesday at Six Lecture Series)
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Gerhard Weinberg, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
"USA and World War II"
Winter term 2008/2009
14.01.09: Prof. Dr. Udo Hebel (University of Regensburg)"Mission Impossible? Writing an Introduction to American Studies"
10.12.08: Prof. Dr. Christa Buschendorf (University of Frankfurt)"'The Highpriest of Pessimism': Zur Rezeption Schopenhauers in der amerikanischen Philosophie um 1900"
03.11.08: Prof. Emory Elliott, Ph.D. (UC Riverside)
Colloquium "The Future of American Studies"
29.10.08: Prof. James O. Horton, Ph.D. (George Washington U) & Prof. Lois E. Horton, Ph.D. (George Mason U)"Race and the Legacy of Slavery in America" -- supported by the BAA --
Summer term 2008
Fulbright Lecture Series: Media, Technology, Society
08.07.08: Prof. Bond Love (University of California-Irvine / University of Bielefeld)"On Gender and Genre in the U.S. Television Sitcom"
01.07.08: Prof. Paul Youngman (University of North Carolina-Charlotte / University of Hamburg)"Digital Realities or Digital Myths: The Computer and Its Network in Contemporary Literature"
24.06.08: Prof. Timothy Barnard (College of William and Mary / University of Paris III)"Transnationalisms in Hollywood's Silent Film"
17.06.08: Prof. Matthew Martin (Wesleyan College / Vilnius Pedagogical University)"Eudora Welty’s Fiction and Photography as a Reaction to 1930s Stereotypes of Poor Southerners"
10.06.08: Prof. Joseph Tabbi (University of Illinois at Chicago / LMU München)
"Electronic Literature as World Literature"
03.06.08: Prof. Michael Maher (University of Louisiana-Lafayette / University of Regensburg)"Internet-Delivered News: The Promises and Perils for Democracy"
27.05.08: Prof. John Cumbler (University of Louisville / University of Groningen)"On the Use of New Media: Mass-printed Publications, Books, and Pamphlets and the Mobilization Against Slavery"
20.05.08: Prof. Benjamin Alpers (University of Oklahoma-Norman / University of Leipzig)"Violence in World War II Combat Films"
06.05.08: Prof. Denise Pilato (Eastern Michigan University / University of Catania)"A Woman in the Business of Invention: An Illuminating Profile"
29.04.08: Prof. Matthew Wilson (Pennsylvania State University / University of Lodz)"Violence, Philadelphia, and the African-American Novel: Frank Webb and John Edgar Wideman"
22.04.08: Prof. Charlotte Nekola (William Paterson University / University of Liege)"When Paris Was New York: What Broadsides Show Us About Edgar Allan Poe's 'Murders in the Rue Morgue'"
Winter term 2007/08
30.01.08: Prof. Jay Bolter, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech, Atlanta):"The Scopic Regimes of American Culture"
12.12.07: Prof. Dr. Bernd Stöver (Universität Potsdam):"Langer Krieg oder Langer Frieden: Was war der Kalte Krieg?"
05.12.07: Prof. Peter Ling (University of Nottingham):"King's Duragraha: Gandhian Nonviolence and the 1963 Birmingham Campaign"
21.11.07: Prof. Sonya Michel (University of Maryland):"Modern Times: Constructing the American Male Breadwinner through Culture and Social Policy"
07.11.07: Prof. Kirby Farrell (University of Massachussetts Amherst):
"Mafia as New World Trope: The Case of The Sopranos"
31.10.07: Prof. Joseph Tabbi, Ph.D. (University of Illinois, Chicago):"World Fictions"