“DecoloniZine: Building Community through Arts-based Projects”
May 2, 2024, 6:15 – 7:45pm, P 109a (Philosophicum)
Â
A âzineâ is a written and/or visual piece designed to explore topics of personal interest by nonprofessional (student) writers and artists. The âdo-it-yourself,â creative nature of zines has made these projects virtually accessible for anyone to create and consume. Within educational contexts, this medium encourages learners to engage with their world(s) collectively, critically, and creatively in the pursuit of producing and sharing knowledge.
Emilee Bews is a member of the Batchewana First Nation of Ojibways. She earned her B.A. in English (Indigenous Literature) from the University of Calgary and her M.A. in Education & Society at McGill University as a McCall MacBain Scholar. Emilee is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Educational Studies at McGill University.
Samantha Nepton is a member of the Pekuakamiulnuatsh First Nation of Innu. She earned her B.Ed. in Kindergarten and Elementary Education from McGill University and is pursuing her masterâs degree in education.
Feb 1, 2024 â 14:00-16:00 Philosophicum II â room 02.102
Exhibition
“Current Social Problems in Children’s Literature and Film”
Can childrenâs literature address serious or controversial topics? Are such topics simply inappropriate for children? Or is it rather a matter of the narrative strategy that is being used? Based on the Advanced Research Seminar 532 âCurrent Social Problems Expressed in Childrenâs Literature and Film,â this exhibition shows how creative, diplomatic, and inspiring childrenâs books can be in addressing topics that are difficult to grasp or cope with, even for adults.
Everyone welcome!
14:00 Opening | Introduction Prof. Dr. Mita Banerjee (Course Leader)
followed by Poster Presentations | Food & Drinks
Topics, among others:
Loneliness as a Universal Childhood Issue in the Anime series Naruto and Naruto Shippuden
Life and Death in âThe Fall of Freddie the Leafâ by Leo Buscaglia
Spookley, the Square Pumpkin
âSuperstars in Historyâ: The Civil Rights Movement
The posters and presentations in this exhibition are the results of studentsâ projects from the American Studies Advanced Research Seminar 532 âCurrent Social Problems Expressed in Childrenâs Literature,â which was taught by Prof. Dr. Mita Banerjee (mita.banerjee@uni-mainz.de) in the winter term of 2023/24.
You can download the poster for the exhibition here.
February 11 (Sun)
Philosophicum II (EG 00.212)
Jakob-Welder-Weg 20
55128 Mainz
Â
We explore connections across national and regional borders in and along the Pacific. The event will serve as a space to discuss early stage-research and on-going projects in this field.
Topics include:
Film and television that culturally crosses the pacific ocean
Literary works (novels, memoirs, poems, etc.) from and about (Trans)pacific regions
Representations and/or performances of gender in (Trans)pacific regions
(Trans)pacific mobilities and migration, including policy
The Pacific and the blue humanities
Climate change and the environment in (Trans)pacific regions
(Trans-)Pacific issues of collective memory
Understandings of geography/space/territory in relation to (Trans)pacific regions
Negotiating cultural hybridity
Revitalizations of (Trans)pacific traditional ecological epistemologies
Reflections on practices and imaginations of borders/bordering in the Pacific
The conference is organized by Sandra Meerwein and the Transpacific Studies Network (TPSN). The TPSN was established in the fall of 2022 with the goal of exploring Pacific cultures, ecologies, histories, literatures, politics, and societies in an interdisciplinary, multi-lingual, and, importantly, transregional manner.
The organizers would like to thank the following organizations for their support:
âThe Persistence of the Short Story: Traditions and Futuresâ
International Symposium Co-Hosted by the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies, the Society for the Study of the American Short Story, and the American Literature Association, and the European Network for Short Fiction Research.
Mainz, Germany, July 10â12, 2024
Johannes Gutenberg-UniversitÀt (JGU), Mainz, Germany Conference Venue: Helmholtz Institute Mainz Staudingerweg 18, 55128 Mainz
Director, Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies: Prof. Dr. Alfred Hornung
Conference Organizers: Prof. Dr. Oliver Scheiding, Prof. Dr. Jochen Achilles
4:30 pm Roundtable: Short Fiction Research in a Transnational Context
Chair: Michael Basseler (Justus-Liebig-UniversitÀt Giessen): Project Manager Short Forms Beyond Borders-EU Strategic Partnerships
American Literature Association (ALA): Olivia Carr Edenfield, Director (Georgia Southern University), Alfred Bendixen, Executive Director (Princeton University)
Society for the Study of the American Short Story (SSASS): James Nagel, President (University of Georgia; online)
10:40â12.00 am Session 2: Historical Dimensions Chair: Oliver Scheiding (Johannes Gutenberg-UniversitĂ€t Mainz)
Alfred Bendixen (Princeton University), âNew Voices Confronting the Silence: The Emergence of Feminist Traditions in the American Short Storyâ
Monika Elbert (Montclair State University), âWealth, Handicaps, and Poverty: Womenâs Gothic Tales of Dis-Possessionâ
Philipp Reisner (Johannes Gutenberg-UniversitĂ€t, Mainz). “American Short Fiction in Light of the Chinese Exclusion Act”
12:00-1:00 pm Lunch
1:00â2:20 pm Session 3: Current Trends
Chair: Laura Dietz (University College London)
Michael Basseler (Justus-Liebig-UniversitĂ€t Giessen), âIs there a Postsocialist North American Short Story?â
Gudrun M. Grabher (Leopold-Franzens-UniversitĂ€t Innsbruck), âEvery Patient has Their Unique Story: The Significance of the Short Story for Medical Humanitiesâ
Patricia MacCormack (Anglia Ruskin University), âWeird Madness: Brief Encounters Against the Anthropoceneâ
4:10â5.30 pm Postgraduate Roundtable on Short Fiction Research
Chair: Alessandra Boller (UniversitÀt Siegen)
Maegan Bishop (Georgia Southern University), âRe-imagining the American Landscape: Visual Rhetoric and the Influence of Image on the 21st-Century American Short-Story Cycleâ
VerĂłnica Frejo (Universidad AutĂłnoma de Madrid), âShort Stories as Videogames: A Transmedia Analysisâ
Carolin Jesussek (Johannes Gutenberg-UniversitĂ€t Mainz), âDisability Gothic in William Alexanderâs Short Story âThe House on the Moonââ
6:30 pm University Lecture Hall (P5)
University Hall-Lecture: James Nagel (University of Georgia), âThe American Short Story in Academia: A Personal Report” (online)
Friday, July 12, 2024 Conference Venue: Helmholtz Institute Mainz
Erik Redling (Martin-Luther-UniversitĂ€t Halle-Wittenberg), âModernist Politics of Race: Allegorical Readings of Zora Neale Hurstonâs Early Short Fictionâ
Hertha Dawn Sweet Wong (University of California, Berkeley), âThe Future of the Indigenous Short Story; or Indigenous Short Story and Futurityâ
10:10-11:10 am Session 6: Horror and Crime Chair: Olivia Carr Edenfield (Georgia Southern University)
Will Norman (University of Kent), âPaul Linebarger, Cordwainer Smith and the Affordances of Mid-Century Science Fiction Talesâ
Whit Frazier Peterson (UniversitĂ€t Stuttgart), âThe Sunken and the Ascending: Black Horror Short Fictionâ
11:10â11:30 am Coffee Break
11:30 am â12:50 pm Session 7: Media and New Approaches
Chair: Oliver Scheiding (Johannes Gutenberg-UniversitÀt Mainz)
Kirk Curnutt (Troy University), âProphecies of Extinction, Prospects for Evolution: Whither the Future of the Short Story?â
Bernardo Manzoni Palmeirim (Universidade de Lisboa), âPaying Attention in Lydia Davis and Short Formsâ
Ines Maria Gstrein (Leopold-Franzens-UniversitĂ€t Innsbruck), âThe Affordances of the Short Story Collection: Ali Smith’s Free Love and Other Stories as a Case Studyâ
Laura Dietz (University College London), âDigitization and Short Story Authorship: Authorial Careers on Emerging Platformsâ
Jana Keck (UniversitĂ€t Stuttgart), âFact or Fiction? Computational Analysis of Short Stories in Nineteenth-Century German-American Newspapersâ
Damien B. Schlarb (Johannes Gutenberg-UniversitĂ€t Mainz), âShort Stories, Longplay: Formal Influences of the Short Story on Digital Games and the Integration of Narrative and Playâ
Anna McFarlane (University of Leeds), âScience Fiction and the Fix-Upâ
Andrew M. Butler (Canterbury Christchurch University), ââThe Flimsiest of Tissuesâ: Pamela Zolineâs âThe Holland of the Mindââ
Sarah Lohmann (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule ZĂŒrich), ââLike Children Dying in a Forestâ: The Science Fiction Short Story and the Morality of Machine Cognition in E.M. Forsterâs âThe Machine Stopsâ and Ray Bradburyâs âAugust 2026: There Will Come Soft Rainsââ
Gary Westfahl (University of La Verne), âConfronting the Alien in the Science Fiction Short Storyâ (online)
Take the train from Frankfurt Airport to Mainz Central Station (tram line: S8). Tickets can be purchased at the airport vending machines (approximately 9,90âŹ). Both hotels are a short walk from the main entrance of the train station.
Mainz Station to University (Tram lines 51, 53, and 59)
There are a variety of buses and trams from Mainz Central Station to the JGU campus. We recommend you take the trams (lines 51, 53, or 59) to travel to campus, since they all stop at the university (cf. (2)) and the Friedrich-von-Pfeiffer Weg (cf. (3)). It will take about 5 minutes from Mainz Central Station to the JGU campus and a ticket will cost 2,50âŹ.
Follow the directions on the map below to find your way to the conference venues. Please keep in mind that there are different venues (Wednesday: FakultĂ€tssaal (Faculty room, 01 – 185); Thursday-Friday: Helmholtz Institute (cf. (A)).
Mainz Station to City Hall (Tram lines 51, 52, and 53)
Thursday evening, we invite participants to join us for a reception at Mainz City Hall, as well as a City Hall-Lecture held by James Nagel (cf. program above). Similar to the route from Mainz Central Station to the JGU campus, there are a variety of buses and trams from Mainz Central Station to Mainz MĂŒnsterplatz (cf. (2)). We again recommend you take the tram (lines 51, 52, or 53) and then walk to City Hall (walking distance roughly 500m).
This conference is made possible by the funding of the DFG.
Jan 31, 2024 â 16.00-18.00 (s.t.) â Student Conference
“Human Enhancement: Ethics, Life Sciences, and the Human Body in Cultural Representations”
P6 (Philosophicum)
Human enhancement has become the topic of an increasingly controversial cultural, scholarly, and political discussion. Alberto Giubilini and Sagar Sanyal define human enhancement rather broadly as âany kind of genetic, biomedical or pharmaceutical intervention aimed at improving human dispositions, capacities, and well-being even when there is no pathology to be treatedâ (1). Using this definition as a point of departure, our student conference seeks to approach grey areas inherent in debates surrounding human enhancement through the lens of narrative ethics, using cultural representations as the focus of our discussion.
Our student panel includes the following talks:
“Marry Shellyâs Frankenstein: A Cautionary Tale or an Overused Trope?” (Norhan Mohamed)
“Ethical Discourse and Social Impact on Human Enhancement: A Conservative Perspective” (Haerin Park)
“Human Enhancement in Superhero Movies: Why Is Captain Americaâs Origin Story Morally Acceptable and What Is Special about It?” (Jill Reuter)
“The Implications of âHuman Enhancementâ in the Discussion Surrounding Trans-Athletes” (Ayishat Aluko)
Everyone is welcome!
This conference is part of Dr. Julia Veltenâs course âCultural Studies VI: Human Enhancement: Ethics, Life Sciences, and the Human Body in Film.â If you have further questions about the event, please contact Dr. Julia Velten: juvelten@uni-mainz.de
Giubilini, Alberto and Sagar Sanyal. âChallenging Human Enhancement.â The Ethics of Human Enhancement: Understanding the Debate, edited by Steve Clarke, et al., OUP, 2016, pp. 1-24.
        
