Fakultätssaal, Philosophicum I (Jakob-Welder-Weg 18)
Organized by Berenike Jakob, Carolin Jesussek, and Franziska Rauh
We are delighted to invite you to the conference “Metamorphoses in Contemporary Literature” from May 22-24 at Mainz University.
The conference focuses on the motif of metamorphosis in contemporary literature, with a particular focus on posthumanism, ecocriticism, and (queer) feminism. In addition to paper sessions, the program features a reading and craft talk by Anelise Chen, author and Assistant Professor of Fiction at the Columbia University School of the Arts. On Friday, May 23rd at 6:30 p.m., she will read from her forthcoming hybrid memoir, Clam Down.
Those interested are welcome to attend the conference and the reading. The full program can be found on the conference website.
The conference is a collaborative project between the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies and English Literature and Culture at the Department of English and Linguistics, as well as General and Comparative Literature at the Gutenberg Institute for World Literature and Written Media. It is organized by doctoral candidates from the three participating departments: Franziska Rauh (General and Comparative Literature), Berenike Jakob (English Literature and Culture), and Carolin Jesussek (American Studies).
Organized by Jill Reuter, Ayishat Aluko, and Samira Schwarz at the Obama Institute
We are delighted to welcome you to Mainz in January for the “Being (In)Visible: Representations of Disability and Ableism in Popular Culture” student conference, organized by M.A. students Jill Reuter, Ayishat Aluko, and Samira Schwarz. Eight students in all phases of their studies will discuss various papers regarding disabilities and ableism. Please find the program below and here. We look forward to expanding the discussion on disabilities and ableism and invite students and researchers from all fields to join.
The conference’s focus is on contemporary tales of metamorphosis. We are especially interested in human to non-human transformations from (queer)feminist, ecocritical, posthuman, and new materialist perspectives to explore the functions that metamorphoses fulfill in literary texts as well as the literary techniques applied in telling stories of transformation.
This conference seeks to open up discussions about literary metamorphoses and to highlight academic work that is dedicated to contemporary literary studies, comparative literature, rewritings of classical myths, and topics of human/non-human transformation. We aim to provide a platform for early career researchers in particular.
In addition to our panels, we are also delighted to welcome Anelise Chen, author of the upcoming hybrid memoir Clam Down (June 2025, Penguin House) and assistant professor of fiction and director of undergraduate studies in creative writing at the Columbia University School of the Arts, for both a reading from her forthcoming novel and as host of our PhD networking event in form of a creative writing workshop on May 22nd.
For further details, please take a closer look at the Call for Papers.
Proposals of no more than 300 words should be submitted along with a short biography to the conference organizers Berenike Jakob, Carolin Jesussek, and Franziska Rauh (metamorphoses@uni-mainz.de) by January 31st. If you are a PhD student interested in joining us for the writing workshop with Anelise Chen (May 22nd), please indicate so when submitting your abstract.
Being (In)Visible: Representations of Disability and Ableism in Popular Culture
Student Conference (Jan 16-17, 2025)
This conference will be organized by Ayishat Aluko, Jill Reuter, and Samira Schwarz, who are all M.A. students of American Studies at JGU’s Obama Institute. The conference is funded by the Gutenberg Lehrkolleg and the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies. The organizers invite contributions from Master’s students, early stage PhD students and advanced Bachelor’s students of all fields related to disability studies.
For further details, please take a closer look at the Call for Papers.
Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted along with a 100-word biography to disabilities.studentconference@gmail.com by 15 September 2024. Selected participants can expect to be notified by the end of September 2024.
The Indian Citizenship Act at 100:
Indigenous Rights, Indigenous Futures
Conference
June 19-22, 2024
University of Bordeaux-Montaigne, France
Together with the University of Bordeaux-Montaigne, the Virginia Commonwealth University, and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, the Obama Institute is hosting an international conference on the centenary of the Indian Citizenship Act in Bordeaux, France.
Current and former members of the Obama Institute will chair panels and present papers amongst a large group of internationally renowned Indigenous Studies scholars. Check out and download the complete program here or visit the conference web page here.
Beyond liberation or assimilation: LGBTQ rights, health care, and the limits of bodily autonomy in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s Jonathan Bell – University College London
Assessing our Relationship with Nature through the Environmental Humanities: A Bioethics Approach to Sarah Orne Jewett’s A White Heron (1886) Scott Pincikowksi – Hood College
Disappearing Landscapes/Disappearing Cultures: What happens to Language and Culture when Keystone Landscapes Disappear? Scott Pincikowksi – Hood College
Inventing the Immigration Problem: The Dillingham Commission of 1907-1911 and the Origins of Modern Immigration Policy Katherine Benton-Cohen – Georgetown University
June 11 2.30–4pm, 01-618, kl. Bibl., Philosophicum
Migrants, Minorities, and Consumption (Colloquium: Transnational Approaches to American Studies) Katherine Benton-Cohen – Georgetown University
June 14 & 15 9am-5pm, 00.212, Philosophicum II
Creative Writing Workshop – OPEN TO EVERYONE Ian Afflerbach, University of North Georgia
Quiet Money: The Family Fortune that Transformed New York, the American Southwest, and the Modern Middle East Katherine Benton-Cohen – Georgetown University
Selective Anti-Imperialism, Settler Colonialism and the Lure of Racial Capitalist Progress in Spanish-Language Periodicals in Paris David Luis-Brown – Claremont Graduate University
Dos Hemisferios: Racial Capitalism and the Problem of Latinidad in Hispano-American Newspapers in Paris and New York City, 1852-1856 David Luis-Brown – Claremont Graduate University
Annual Fourth of July Obama Lecture & Summer Get-together (snacks and drinks)
with Keynote “World-losers elsewhere, conquerors here!”: The Fourth of July in American Poetry Thomas Austenfeld – Université de Fribourg and Red, White, and Blue—and Greenbacks: Money and American Identity since the Civil War Atiba Pertilla – German Historical Institute Washington plus Exhibition of Student Posters and Presentations
