Welcome to the Obama Institute
for Transnational American Studies!
The Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz offers a dynamic and wide-ranging program in both research and teaching for all students interested in topics related to the Americas in a global context.
With a special focus on interculturality, transnationalism, and interdisciplinarity, our expertise lies in the fields of Early American Studies, Indigenous Studies, Life Writing/Life Sciences, Political & Intellectual History, Film & Media Studies, Religion and American Culture, and Materiality.
Contact
Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies
University of Mainz
Jakob-Welder-Weg 20
55128 Mainz
Germany
+49 6131 39-22357
+49 6131 39-29097
Email
May 29 – Suspense/Desire/Repetition: Serial Poetics and the Early American Novel 🗓
Prof. Matthew Pethers (University of Nottingham) May 29, 2018, 6-8 p.m., P 103 (Philosophicum) While literary critics have increasingly addressed questions of temporality across a wide range of early American genres, book historians have yet to fully consider the...
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May 23 – Town Hall Meeting with U.S. Consul General James Herman 🗓
The Future of Transatlantic Relations: A Town Hall Meeting James W. Herman (U.S. Consul General, Frankfurt) May 23, 2018, 4-6 p.m., P 5 (Philosophicum) The Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies invites all students and faculty to a open-mike hall...
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May 16 – Film Screening “I Am Not Your Negro” at Ciné Mayence 🗓
I Am Not Your Negro (2017), dir. Raoul Peck May 16, 2018, 8.30 p.m., Ciné Mayence Raoul Peck's acclaimed 2017 documentary I Am Not Your Negro will be screened at Ciné Mayence, followed by a discussion with Prof. Mita Banerjee (Obama Institute), Prof. Axel Schäfer...
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May 11 – A Break from Nation Time: Anarchist Utopias in the Black Arts Movement 🗓
Sean Lovitt, M.A. (University of Delaware) May 11, 2018, 10-12 a.m., P 103 (Philosophicum) The Black Arts Movement is normally associated with Black Nationalism, which, although a crucial influence, cannot account for the heterogeneity of the social movements that...
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Interns Wanted!
Studentische Unterstützung amerikanischer und kanadischer Austauschlektor*innen Sie studieren BA AMERICAN STUDIES im Kernfach und möchten sich im Wintersemester 2018/19 ein Praktikum am Obama Institute als „Independent Studies“ anrechnen lassen? Ihre Aufgaben: Sie...
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May 3 – Beautiful Deceptions: Aesthetics, Politics, and the Early American Novel
Philipp Schweighauser (University of Basel) May 2, 2018, 10-12 a.m., P 10 This talk starts with a brief overview of the three main subgenres of the early American novel—the picaresque, the gothic, and the sentimental—before zooming in on deception. The stories these...
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