Prof. Dr. Kerstin Schmidt

Professor and Chair of American Literary History

Director, Bavarian American Academy (BAA)
President, Society for the Study of Contemporary Drama in English (CDE)

Responsibilities

19th- and 20th-century North American literature and culture; modern/postmodern American drama and theater; ethnic literatures in the U.S. and Canada; diaspora studies; visual culture studies/documentary photography; media theory/radio culture; theories of space/place in literature, photography, and architecture.

Contact

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
Amerika-Institut
Schellingstr. 3 VG
D-80799 München

Room: S 208
Phone: 2180 2697
Email: Kerstin.Schmidt@lmu.de

Office hours:
by appointment

Current Events

BAA Conference “Labor, Unions, and the Future of Work,” Amerikahaus Munich, July 10-12, 2025, discussion with Prof. Mary Anne Trasciatti on the Triangle Factory Fire Memorial in New York City.

“Shaping Narratives in the Digital Age,” Artist Talk with Michael Yates Crowley and Michael Rau (New York City), Welt/Bühne: Festival für internationale Gegenwartsdramatik, Residenztheater München, June 3, 2025, 6pm.

“Reeducation 2025” - Panel-Gespräch mit Lena Gorelik u.a.: “Wie lässt sich von historischer Gewalt erzählen?”, NS-Dokumentationszentrum München, 17. Mai 2025.

Book Talk with Prof. Martin Puchner (Harvard University) on Puchner’s Culture: The Story of Us, from Cave Art to K-Pop (Norton 2024), Amerikahaus Munich, May 6, 2025, 7 pm.

“American Cityscapes: Walking as Embodied Practice,” Venice International University Research Network on Cities and Global Change, April 7-8, 2026, Venice, Italy.

Workshop with Keynote by Prof. Dr. Steven Hoelscher (Univeraity of Texas, Austin), "Visualizing the Environment: American Landscape Photography from Ansel Adams to Dawoud Bey." Feb. 06, 2025, 7pm, Amerikahaus München.

Prof. Dr. Kimberly Juanita Brown (Dartmouth College), "Antiblackness and the Politics if the Visual." Dec. 12, 2024, 7 pm, Amerikahaus München.

Prof. Dr. David Savran (City University of New York), "Tell it to the World: The Broadway Musical Abroad - German Book Launch." Nov. 20, 2024, 6 pm, Studiobühne TWM