The Civil Rights Movement, Southern Literature, and Southern Food & Music
Experience a unique and intensive research and learning opportunity focusing on the American South. The Obama Institute offers this three-week American Studies Summer School traveling through Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Tennessee from the end of July to mid-August. This educational trip provides students with courses in language, literature, and cultural studies. Starting in Little Rock, Arkansas and ending in Washington DC, participants will study the Civil Rights Movement, the history of food and music in the US South, and Southern Literature. They benefit from lectures, readings, and films, as well as on-site learning. Summer School participants can receive course credits in Independent Studies, Cultural Studies, or Written English.
You can find further information in the Download section on the Summer School page.
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.
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”
On Nov 10 the Obama Institute will hold info sessions on its Direct Exchange programs. Please join us on MS Teams for more information about the exciting exchange opportunities!
Als Alternative zum Mainstream wollen unabhängige Zeitschriften, sogenannte indie mags, vieles anders machen. Trotz des oft beschworenen Niedergangs von Print boomt der Indie-Zeitschriftenmarkt seit den 2010ern ungebrochen. Im Independent-Bereich trifft außergewöhnliches Design auf unterrepräsentierte Themen und neue Perspektiven. Zum Beispiel verwenden marginalisierte Gruppen Zeitschriften als Sprachrohr für Anliegen, die im Mainstream-Markt keine Plattform finden. Migrantische und sexuelle Minderheiten nutzen Magazine als gemeinschaftsbildende Darstellungsformen. Andere Indies zielen auf alternative Lifestyles, Hobbies, Sport, Mode und Design. Das Alltägliche und Gewöhnliche wird durch die künstlerische Gestaltung ungewöhnlich.
Die Ausstellung ist als walk-by exhibition konzipiert. Durch Magazine exemplarisch illustriert werden die vier Bereiche Print/Digital, Cover, Zeit/Alltag und Sprache.
The Obama Institute welcomes Prof. Hugh Sheehy, author and Professor for Creative Writing and Literature at Ramapo College, NJ. Prof. Sheehy will spend the winter semester 2021/22 as a teaching fellow of the German Academic Exchange Service (GAAS/DAAD) at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, where he will offer seminars on the American short story as well as a creative writing workshop.
Prof. Sheehy is the author of several award-winning short stories and two forthcoming novels. His collection of stories, The Invisibles (University of Georgia Press, 2011), has won the 2012 Flannery O’Connor Award and has since been translated into French. His fiction has appeared in magazines such as Five Points, The Cincinnati Review, The Kenyon Review, Glimmer Train, The Antioch Review, Crazyhorse, and Copper Nickel, as well as in The Best American Mystery Stories 2008. His critical work has been published in several outlets, including the L.A. Review of Books. He sits on the advisory board of the Hong Kong Review. In his teaching, Prof. Sheehy focuses on creative writing of long- and short-form prose as well as poetry.
The Obama Institute and Johannes Gutenberg University are excited to have Prof. Sheehy join our team this semester. We look forward to offering JGU students a unique round of courses and workshops that will allow them to engage with American literature in new ways, by approaching writing from a maker’s perspective. We thank the GAAS/DAAD for making this visit possible.
