Indigenous Print Cultures, Media, and Literatures 🗓

Indigenous Print Cultures, Media, and Literatures 🗓

Conferences, Events, General, News, Summer School

Date: July 6-9, 2022
Location: Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz
Hosted by the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies and the Humanities Research Center at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU)
Venues: Atrium Maximum, Campus JGU Helmholtz-Institute Mainz (HIM) Faculty Room, Philosophicum I

We are delighted to welcome you to Mainz in July this year for the “Indigenous Print Cultures, Media, and Literatures” Symposium, co-organized by the Obama Institute at JGU and the Humanities Research Center at VCU. Please find the tentative program below or download it here. Additionally, we are happy to provide maps and directions to help you, e.g., get from the hotel to the venues. Please find the maps below the tentative program or click here to download the maps. Public transportation in Mainz will cost you 1,50€ per short distance trip.

We will upload a separate document including WiFi access, setting up speaker/participant accounts, as well current Covid-19 regulations and restrictions soon. If you have any questions, please reach out to Anette Vollrath (anette.vollrath@uni-mainz.de).

If you would like to take a look at the hotels’ websites, please feel free to go to Hotel Königshof or Hotel Hammer.

Tentative Program

Wednesday, July 6, 2022 (Atrium Maximum, Campus JGU)

16:00 Registration

17:00 Welcome Reception:

Vice-Presidents for Research JGU, Prof. Dr. Stefan MĂŒller-Stach

Vice President for Research and Innovation, VCU, Dr. P. Srirama Rao

Director of the Obama Institute, Prof. Dr. Alfred Hornung

Symposium Organizers, Profs. Cristina Stanciu, Oliver Scheiding

17:45 In-person Keynote Lecture

Chair: Mark Rifkin (University of North Carolina at Greensboro)

Mishuana Goeman (Tonawanda Band of Seneca, Professor of Gender and American Indian Studies, University of California, Los Angele). â€œCarrying Our Ancestors Home: The Importance of Storytelling, Digital Projects, and Centering Tribal Voices”

18:30 Virtual Keynote Lecture

Gerald Vizenor (UC Berkeley, Emeritus), “Waiting for Wovoka: Scenes from a Novel of Good Cheer and Native Hand Puppet Parleys”

19:00 Reception (Atrium Maximum)

Thursday, July 7, 2022 (Venue: Helmholtz-Institute Mainz (HMI))

9:00-10:30 Session 1

Indigenous Print Cultures and Language

Chair: Jutta Ernst (U of Mainz)

Noenoe Silva (UH Manoa): “The Twentieth-Century Hawaiian-Language Newspapers”

Christopher Pexa (U of Minnesota). “‘Bringing the Language Together’: OchĂ©ti Ć akĂłwiƋ Pasts and Futures in the Iapi Oaye (The Word Carrier) Newsletter”

Philip Round (U of Iowa): “The Role of Indigenous Languages in the Production of Native Texts/Periodicals at the End of the Nineteenth Century”

10:30-11:00 Coffee Break

11:00-12:30 Session 2

A Lasting Legacy of Periodicals and Politics

Chair: Mark Rifkin (UNC Greensboro)

Adam Spry (Emerson College), “The Demosthenes of White Earth: Theodore Beaulieu, The Progress, and the Recovery of an Indigenous Intellectual Tradition”

Jill Doerfler (U of Minnesota, Duluth), “‘A Few Honest Words’: Writing for the Anishinaabeg Today in the Twenty-first Century”

David Stirrup (U of Kent), “‘Indian Curiosity’: Re-presenting 19th-Century Ojibwe Survivance in 21st-Century Art and Drama”

12:30-13:30 Lunch

13:45-15:15 Session 3

Boarding School Publications

Chair: Cristina Stanciu (Virginia Commonwealth U) and Frank Newton (U of Mainz)

Lionel LarrĂ© (UniversitĂ© Bordeaux-Montaigne), “A Magazine not only About Indians, but Mainly by Indians: Native Representations in the Carlisle Publications at the Beginning of the 20th Century”

Frank Newton (U of Mainz), “Indigenous Dialogues: Early 20th Century Native American Discourse in Boarding School Publications”

Jane Griffith (Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Canada), “Nineteenth Century Printing Programs and Indian Boarding Schools: What Archival Newspapers Reveal About Settler Colonialism Today” (Zoom)

15:15-15:30 Coffee Break

15:30-17:00 Session 4

Indigenous New Media and Literature

Chair: Philip Round (U of Iowa)

Bethany Hughes (U of Michigan), â€œLittle Chahta News Bird: Biskinik and Twitter as Sovereign Spaces”

RenĂ© Dietrich (KU EichstĂ€tt-Ingolstadt), “This Land and All my Relations: Podcasts and the Indigenous Digital Mediascape”

Dallas Hunt (U of British Columbia). “The Archive in Conflict: The Contours of Resource Extraction Literatures in Canada”

17:30-18:30 Keynote Lecture (Zoom)

Chair: Chadwick Allen (U of Washington)

Beth Piatote (UC Berkeley): “The Indigenous Archive and The Beadworkers: Stories“

19:15 Reception (City Hall, Mayor-Mainz)

Friday, July 8, 2022 (Venue: Helmholtz-Institute Mainz (HMI))

9:00-10:30 Session 5 

Indigenous Writing, Rights, and Activism

Chair: Matt Bokovoy (U of Nebraska Press)

Cari M. Carpenter (West Virginia University), “‘What the Curious Want to Know’: Ora Eddleman Reed Advising Land Development and Rejecting Racial Stereotypes in Indian Territory”

Cristina Stanciu (Virginia Commonwealth U), “Gender and the Editors of the Indian Boarding School Press”

Miranda Johnson (U of Otago, New Zealand), “Indigenous Writing, Indigenous Rights: Activisms in the Post-War South Pacific”

10:30-11:00 Coffee Break

11:00-12:30 Session 6

Progressive Era Indigenous Periodicals and Magazines

Chair: Axel SchĂ€fer (U of Mainz)

Jonathan Radocay (UC Davis), “California Indian Paper Routes: Winnemem Wintu Futures in Progressive-Era Periodicals”

Kelly Wisecup (Northwestern University), “Simon Pokagon and Periodical Networks”

12:30-13:45 Lunch

14:00-15:30 Session 7 

Indigenous Printscapes and Indigeneity

Chair: Padraig Kirwan (Goldsmiths, University of London)

Kathryn Walkiewicz (UC, San Diego), “Indigenous Printscapes: Media Culture in Late Nineteenth-Century Indian Territory”

Frank Kelderman (U of Louisville), “Children’s Pages, Indigenous Writing: Reframing Labor, Learning, and Leisure, 1880-1913”

Mark Rifkin (University of North Carolina at Greensboro), “Indians Gone ‘Wild’: The Politics of Ethnographic Form in Zitkala-Ć a’s Stories”

15:30-16:00 Coffee Break

16:00-17:30 Session 8

Project Presentations: Indigenous Modernities

Chair: Chris Andersen (U of Alberta)

Kirby Brown (U of Oregon, Eugene), Co-editor of the Routledge Handbook to North American Indigenous Modernisms(2022)

Oliver Scheiding (U of Mainz), Editor of Anthology Project: “Indigenous Periodicals: American Indian Newspapers and Magazines, 1880-1930”

19:00-23:00 Dinner at “Strausswirtschaft Peter Dohm, Mainz” (Vinery Peter Dohm). Local transportation will be provided. http://winzerfamilie-peter-dhom.de

Saturday, July 9, 2022 (Venue: Faculty Room, Philosophicum I)

10-11:15 Session 9

Reassessing Indigenous Archives

Chair: Jill Doerfler (U of Minnesota, Duluth)

Chadwick Allen (U of Washington, Seattle), “Canoeing the Whale: Fred Graham’s Te Waiata o te Moana-nui-a-Kiwaat the Burke Museum(s)”

Birgit DĂ€wes  (Europa-UniversitĂ€t Flensburg), “Rethinking the Archive: Indigenous Museums, Temporality, and Representation”

11:15-11:30 Coffee Break

11:30-12:30 Final Discussion, Roundtable 

Chadwick Allen, Cari Carpenter, Mishuana Goeman, Mark Rifkin, Philip Round, Oliver Scheiding, Kelly Wisecup

Optional: Guided City Tour / Gutenberg Museum and Library

Maps (Hotels, Campus, Venues)

Map 1: Mainz Central Station to Hotel Hammer / Hotel Königshof

Map 2: Mainz Central Station to Mainz University Campus

Map 3: Mainz University Campus and Symposium Venues

Fig. 1: Venues: Atrium Maximum (top left), Philosophicum I (top right), Helmholtz-Institute (bottom)

Research Summer 2022

Research Summer 2022

Events, Lectures, News

The Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies welcomes several internationally renowned scholars in the summer term of 2022. Please join us for their contributions to our course and research program!

May 9
2–4pm, P3, Philosophicum I

Imagined Pasts: Historical Thinking and Black Immigrants
Herman L. Bennett, City University of New York

May 10
2–4pm, 01-6182–4pm, P5, Philosophicum I

Ethnic Formation Now and the Problem with the Past 
Herman L. Bennet, City University of New York

4–6pm, P 205, Philosophicum I

Visual Arts as Research: Examples from the Studio
Ruth Stanford, Georgia State University, Atlanta

May 16
2-4pm, P3, Philosophicum I

Leaving America: Emigrant Culture When the Dream Is Over 
Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera, Universidad de Puerto Rico-MayagĂŒez 

May 17
10am–12pm, P106, Philosophicum I

Juanita Harrison’s “Great, Wide, Beautiful World”
Cathryn Halverson, Minot State University, North Dakota

2–4pm, P5, Philosophicum I

On the Puertoricanization of U.S. Higher Education
Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera, Universidad de Puerto Rico-MayagĂŒez

May 24
12–2pm, P207, Philosophicum I

From Lemonade to Homecoming: Beyoncé’s Spatial Politics
Patricia Coloma Peñate, Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia

4–6pm, P205, Philosophicum I

The Phenomenology of Heinrich Sisstrunk: A Portrait of a First Settler in the New World
Patricia Coloma Peñate, Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia

June 13
2–4pm, P3, Philosophicum I

The Muslims Are (Always) Coming!: How Religion as a Category of Analysis Complicates American Immigration Narratives
Moustafa Bayoumi, Brooklyn College, City University of New York

June 14
2–4pm, P5, Philosophicum I

“It don’t Gitmo better than this”: Why Guantanamo Bay May Be the Best Worst Place for Understanding Transnational American Studies
Moustafa Bayoumi, Brooklyn College, City University of New York

6–8pm, Online (Zoom, click here for access) Meeting ID: 894 5748 9483 Code: 185247

U.S. Regional Vision and Politics
Wade Turvold, Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Honolulu, Hawai’i

June 15
12–2pm, 14SR01, BKM

Bonds of War: How Civil War Financial Agents Sold the World on the Union
David K. Thomson, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, Connecticut

You can find a poster overview of all events here.

“Africans, Americans, and Colonial Germany” Symposium, Apr. 29, 2022

“Africans, Americans, and Colonial Germany” Symposium, Apr. 29, 2022

Conferences, Events, News

SYMPOSIUM

Africans, Americans, and Colonial Germany

An online symposium on Zoom (use meeting code 207060)

April 29, 2022

The Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies organizes a symposium on the heritage of Colonial Germany and the presence of people of African descent in German society. This trilateral investigation ranges from Germany to Africa, America and back, addresses the German engagement in the slavery trade and the institution of slavery, the violent effects of colonization still felt on site and visible in the spoils on display in the museums, and the systemic discrimination of Black people. Fellows of the Obama Institute, former and present colleagues will present aspects of their current research involving the relations between Namibia and Germany, the racist treatment of Africans, African Americans and Afro-Germans and the legacy of German colonialism in the Pacific.

We welcome Ruth Stanford (Georgia State University, USA), Heike Raphael-Hernandez (University of WĂŒrzburg, Germany), Herman Bennett (City University of New York, USA), Pia Wiegmink (University of Bonn, Germany) and a student presentation by Ahngeli Shivam (University of Mainz, Germany).

Download the poster with program here.

“Heroes in Print: Media Representations and Changing Frames of Heroism” Symposium, Mar. 4-5, 2022

“Heroes in Print: Media Representations and Changing Frames of Heroism” Symposium, Mar. 4-5, 2022

Conferences, Events, News

 

 

SYMPOSIUM

Heroes in Print: Media Representation and Changing Frames of Heroism

An Online Symposium organized by

Simge BĂŒyĂŒkgĂŒmĂŒs (Obama Institute for Transnational Periodical Studies)

March 4-5, 2022

The symposium “Heroes in Print: Media Representations and Changing Frames of Heroism” aims to create an open-discussion space for people who’s study heroism – from aspects of psychology, literature, history, or media studies – and people who contribute to the creations or representations of heroes through media or social organizations. As an initiative of the Obama Institute for Transnational Periodical Studies, magazine and print representations of frames regarding heroism will be highlighted through the involvement of magazine editors and organization directors. Their contributions to the ionization of heroes, whether human or non-human agents, will be viewed through an academic viewpoint that considers the historical, psychological and philosophical aspects of the creation and maintenance of heroic ideals. Changes in the heroic images during the Covid-19 pandemic are most welcome to be involved and scrutinized in the presentations so as to be able to capture the most recent undulations in heroic ideals.

 

We welcome Prof. Dr. Scott T. Allison (University of Richmond, USA), Prof. Dr. Barbara Korte (University of Flensburg, Germany) and Prof. Dr. Simon Wendt (Goethe University of Frankfurt, Germany) as frontier names in Heroism Studies.

Additionally, we look forward to contributions from:

Burnt Roti Magazine (UK) – https://www.burntroti.com/about

The Heroic Imagination Project (USA) – https://www.heroicimagination.org/

My Hero Project (USA) – https://myhero.com/about

Download the program and the poster here.

Dec 10 – “The Status of American Democracy” – Lecture Series (zoom) 🗓

Dec 10 – “The Status of American Democracy” – Lecture Series (zoom) 🗓

Events, Lectures, News

“The Status of American Democracy”

Moustafa Bayoumi (Brooklyn College, City University of New York)
David Sirakov (Atlantic Academy Rheinland-Pfalz)
Sean M. Theriault (The University of Texas at Austin)
Chad E. Seales (The University of Texas at Austin)

Friday, 10 December, 2.15 p.m. – 6 p.m.

Zoom Access: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83617326549?pwd=ODMzRmVyUTZ2RmNFVDV6K0VERkZkdz09
Meeting Code: 874368

Everyone is welcome to join us for this series of guest lectures on the status of American democracy!

Please see below for all details or click here for an overview of the program.

 

The Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies organizes a lecture series by internationally renowned fellows of the Obama Institute and eminent critics of current crises and challenges of democracy as visible in the United States of America and elsewhere. For long, American democracy has served as an exemplary model for the introduction and practice of democratic principles which have inspired and determined transnationally the growth of nations. Germany is certainly one of the prime examples.
In his publications, Barack Obama has repeatedly addressed issues of democracy in crisis and questioned for whom democracy works at home and abroad. „And so the world watches America 
 to see if our experiment in democracy can work“ and he continues to believe „in the possibility of America—not just for the sake of future generations of Americans but for all of humankind“ (A Promised Land). We will begin with the following lectures:

2.20 p.m.
“That’s the thing about the Americans. They’ll believe anything but the truth.”: What reading Guantánamo Bay Literature Can Tell Us About the Future of American Democracy
– Moustafa Bayoumi

Abstract: Since near the beginning of the War on Terror, the American penal colony in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba has been considered by many to be an “exceptional” space, a prison seeking to exist beyond the reach of the laws of war. But what happens if we consider Guantánamo Bay as something “ordinary” instead? In so doing, do we discover, within this very ordinariness, an even more pressing threat to the future of American democracy? This lecture takes up these questions and examines them through reading some of the contemporary literature that has been produced out of Guantánamo Bay.

Bio: Moustafa Bayoumi is the author of How Does It Feel To Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America (Penguin) and This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror (NYU Press). He is also the co-editor (with Andrew Rubin) of The Edward Said Reader (Vintage), which was recently reissued in an expanded edition as The Selected Works of Edward Said (1966-2006). Bayoumi is a regular contributor to The Guardian and The Nation and is a professor of English at Brooklyn College, City University of New York.

3.15 p.m.
The Populist Moment: Populism and Polarization in the US
– David Sirakov

Abstract: Political and societal polarization in the U.S. at least over the past 30 years has paved the way for the rise of populism and the electoral victory of Donald J. Trump. In his talk, David Sirakov explores the meaning and interrelation of these two phenomena that so profoundly shape US politics and society today.

Bio: Dr. Sirakov is the director of the Atlantic Academy Rheinland-Pfalz. He studied political science and public law at the University of Trier and obtained his doctorate on the U.S.-Russian relations in the Bush-Putin era (2000-2008) at the Technical University Kaiserslautern. His research focuses on polarization in U.S. Congress and American society, the rise and challenges of authoritarian populism, U.S. foreign policy and transatlantic relations. Amongst others, he is a member of the advisory boards of the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies.

4.15 p.m.
American Politics and the Midterm Elections 2022
– Sean M. Theriault

Abstract: Professor Theriault will describe the status of American politics at the end of 2021 with an eye toward the 2022 midterm elections. He will place these elections into a broader context taking into consideration both the lessons from history and the polling of today.  He will end his presentation with his predictions of what is likely to transpire in November 2022.

Bio: Professor Theriault, who is a University Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Government Department at the University of Texas,  is fascinated by congressional decision-making. He is the author of five books and numerous articles and is currently researching the effect of interpersonal relationships within the U.S. Congress. Professor Theriault, whose classes include the U.S. Congress, Congressional Elections, Party Polarization in the United States, and the Politics of the Catholic Church, has won a number of the biggest teaching awards given on campus.  Before obtaining his Ph.D. from Stanford University (2001; M.A. in Political Science in 2000), he attended the University of Richmond (B.A., 1993), and the University of Rochester (M.S. in Public Policy Analysis, 1996).

5.15 p.m.
The System Will Not Be Labeled: Industrial Food and American Democracy
– Chad E. Seales

Abstract: This talk examines the relationship between the industrial food system and participatory democracy in the United States. It focuses on the lack of transparent labeling for Genetically Modified (GM) foods, despite citizen support for effective federal legislation, to show how the marketing of biotechnology obscures relationships between production and consumption. On the side of production, biotech companies clearly brand and market GM seeds to farmers, in order to protect their proprietary claims. However, on the side of consumption, biotech companies do not reveal GM ingredients of food products produced through industrial agriculture. The goal of the talk is to consider how the producer/consumer split is part of a broader American secularism that hides the very industrial and consumer religions it produces within neoliberal democratic ideals of free markets, personal choice, and moral goodness.

Bio: Chad Seales is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Brian F. Bolton Distinguished Professor in Secular Studies. He taught at New College of Florida in Sarasota and George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia before arriving at The University of Texas at Austin. He earned a B.A from the University of Florida, an M.T.S. from Candler School of Theology at Emory University, and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research addresses the cultural relationship between religion and secularism in American life, as evident in the social expressions of evangelical Protestants, the moral prescriptions of workplace chaplains and corporate managers, and the salvific promises of neoliberal capitalism. He is the author of Religion Around Bono: Evangelical Enchantment and Neoliberal Capitalism (Penn State University Press, 2019), and The Secular Spectacle: Performing Religion in a Southern Town (Oxford University Press, 2013),and has published articles on industrial religion, corporate chaplaincy, religion and film, and secularism and secularization in the United States.

Nov 25 – Thanksgiving Obama Lecture, Obama Dissertation Prize & Galinsky Memorial Prize – Antrittsvorlesung Reisner 🗓

Nov 25 – Thanksgiving Obama Lecture, Obama Dissertation Prize & Galinsky Memorial Prize – Antrittsvorlesung Reisner 🗓

Events, Lectures, News

Nov. 25, 2021 – 15.30-17.30 – Obama Lecture – Dekanatssaal (ReWi, 03-150)

Come join us for the annual Thanksgiving Obama Lecture, where we will hear a lecture on “Graphic Narratives of the Middle Passage” by Prof. Dr. Daniel Stein from the University of Siegen and will give out awards for outstanding undergrad and PhD work.

Please see the flyer below for details.

Nov. 25, 2021 – 18.00 – Antrittsvorlesung Reisner – Online (MS Teams)

Following the Obama Lecture and Award Ceremonies, please join us online on MS Teams for Dr. habil Philipp Reisner’s Öffentliche Antrittsvorlesung on “Crises of Faith in Jonathan Franzen’s Fiction and the Role of Theology in American Studies”

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