Nov 27 – Obama Lecture with Obama Dissertation Prize & Galinsky Prize 🗓

Nov 27 – Obama Lecture with Obama Dissertation Prize & Galinsky Prize 🗓

Nov 27, 2025 – 10.00-ca. 12.30 – Obama Lecture – Fakultätssaal (Philosophicum, 01-185)

Please join us for our annual Obama Lecture on Thanksgiving, where we will highlight outstanding work in Transnational American Studies and show appreciation for the work of young scholars by awarding the Obama Dissertation Prize as well as the Hans Galinsky Memorial Prize for student and graduate theses.

Everyone welcome!

Please see the flyer below for details or download it here.

Nov 20 – Film Screening / 30th Anniversary USA Library at JGU 🗓

Nov 20 – Film Screening / 30th Anniversary USA Library at JGU 🗓

Film screening of The Librarians at 6:30 p.m. on November 20 in the “Muschel,” lecture hall N3

 

This week the USA Library celebrates its 30th anniversary: On November 20, 1995, the Library for North America Studies first opened its doors at Mainz University.

The collection, originating from the holdings of the Camp Lindsey Library—an Air Force library in Wiesbaden—included numerous print media, journals, as well as digital databases and reference works. Since then, the library, now renamed the USA Library, has continued to grow and comprises more than 80,000 print media as well as access to digital newspapers, journals, and e-books. The Library, which is open to the public, contains to a wide range of literature on the history, culture, politics, and social aspects of the United States.

As part of the anniversary celebration, the University Library, in cooperation with the Obama Institute, will show the documentary The Librarians at 6:30 p.m. on November 20 in the “Muschel,” lecture hall N3.

The film covers the book bans at public schools in Texas.

More information can be found here About the Film – The Librarians Film | Official Site

There is also a small exhibition on book bans in the United States, located in the area between the GFG and the Central Library as well as in the AMA display case.

 

Direct Exchange – Info Sessions 2025 for Programs in 2026/27 🗓

Direct Exchange – Info Sessions 2025 for Programs in 2026/27 🗓

On Nov 13 the Obama Institute will hold an info session on its Direct Exchange programs. Please join us in room P 2 (Philosophicum) for more information about the exciting exchange opportunities!

Nov 13, 18:00-19:30
P 2 (Philosophicum)

Please find all details about the session on the flyer, which is available for download here and on the Exchange page, where you can also browse general information on the programs in order to get a headstart on what your options are and what an application would entail.

Looking forward to talking to you in person on Nov 13, when we will be happy to answer all your questions!

Anne Bull, Sandra Meerwein, Samira Deq, and Julia Velten

Nov 11 – Autorenlesung: Drew Hayden Taylor liest aus COLD 🗓

Nov 11 – Autorenlesung: Drew Hayden Taylor liest aus COLD 🗓

Autorenlesung

Alles beginnt mit einem Flugzeugabsturz…

11. November 2025, 13:30, N.106, Campus Germersheim

Drew Hayden Taylor liest aus seinem Roman COLD.

Aus dem Englischen von Leo Strohm
ca. 445 Seiten
Erscheinungstermin: 30. Oktober 2025

 

Alles beginnt mit einem Flugzeugabsturz… Die einzigen Überlebenden – die Pilotin und eine Journalistin – hoffen in der eisigen Wüste Ontarios auf Rettung… Währenddessen versucht Elmore Trent, Professor für Indigene Literatur und Kultur, nach einer Affäre mit seiner studentischen Hilfskraft, verzweifelt seine Ehe zu retten. Und Paul North, Eishockey-Spieler der IHL, sieht sich mit dem wenig glamourösen Ende seiner Karriere konfrontiert. Sehr schnell wird klar, dass jemand – oder etwas? – die vermeintlich isolierten Figuren verbindet. Etwas, das auf sie alle Jagd macht…

Drew Hayden Taylor, preisgekrönter kanadischer Schriftsteller und Theaterautor, verlagert in seinem Bestseller traditionelle indigene Geschichten in die modernen Straßen Torontos und verwebt Unterhaltung, Krimi, Thriller und Horror zu einer temporeichen Erzählung mit lebensnahen Charakteren. Nebenbei behandelt er dabei Themen wie Vertreibung und Trauma und liefert eine satirische Kritik an der aktuellen indigenen Literatur.

Drew Hayden Taylor (*1962 in Curve Lake First Nation, Kanada) ist ein preisgekrönter indigener Dramatiker, Romanautor, Filmemacher und Journalist.

Er hat alles gemacht, von Stand-up-Comedy im Kennedy Center in Washington D. C. bis hin zur künstlerischen Leitung der ersten indigenen Theatergruppe Kanadas (Native Earth Performing Arts). Drew Hayden Taylor ist Autor von bislang 36 Büchern – COLD ist der erste Roman, der ins Deutsche übersetzt ist. In Deutschland ist er einem breiteren Publikum durch seine Dokumentation Searching for Winnetou (2018) bekannt.

www.drewhaydentaylor.com

Bilder + Texte: Merlin Verlag

 

You can download the poster for the event here.

July 4 Event 2025 – Lecture, Exhibition, Get-together, Food and Drinks 🗓

July 4 Event 2025 – Lecture, Exhibition, Get-together, Food and Drinks 🗓

Fourth of July Event at the Obama Institute

July 4, 2025, 2-6 p.m., P5 & Foyer P2-P5 (Philosophicum)

2-4 p.m. I Keynote Lecture I P5

Speculative Plantations: Reimagining Past, Present, and Futures through Gothic Horror
Amy King, PhD
Tuskeegee University, AL, USA

What could be possible when we apply a “speculative” framework to texts and contexts that may magnify, combine, bend, and/or even break audiences’ expectations of genre and what, exactly, constitute plantation settings?

 

4-6 p.m. I Student Project Exhibition I Foyer P2-P5
with Food and Drinks

Posters and presentations by students from Dr. Sonja Georgi’s CS III course.

How can we tell, preserve, and engage with stories of resistance in the U.S. of 2025?

Check out last year’s event in the video and find further information about this year’s event on the poster below or download it here.