On Nov 10 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 10, 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 10, when we will be happy to answer all your questions!
Josephine Links – Director and Author of We All Bleed Red (2024)
Oct 12, 2026, 2 pm, room 00.212 (Philo II, Jakob-Welder-Weg 20)
In her documentary We All Bleed Red (2024), Josephine Links takes us behind the work of photographer Martin Schoeller, whose portraits span an extraordinary range of American life: from presidents and celebrities to drag queens, unhoused individuals, transgender people, and Indigenous communities.
How did the idea for the film come about? What does it teach us about the American dream? And how is a documentary feature made? Join us for a conversation about Martin Schoeller, American society, photography, and documentary filmmaking – with the director herself.
Workshop
Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies
Supreme Court Amendments and Evangelicals
July 16, 2026
2-4 p.m.
Obama Institute conference room (02.102) Philo II, Jakob-Welder-Weg 20
Please join us for our Workshop on Supreme Court Amendments and Evangelicals.
We are happy to welcome doctoral student Alexander Brackebusch from the University of Munich, and Associate Professor of History and Politics, Emma Long, from the University of East Anglia. Alexander Brackebusch will introduce us to his research, and we will facilitate a conversation between Alexander, Emma Long, Axel Schäfer and Anja-Maria Bassimir.
Alexander Brackebusch is writing his thesis on “Morality Amendments” to the Constitution, asking “why political actors continue to propose these amendments despite their exceedingly low likelihood of success.” He is especially interested in proposed amendments by actors associated with the Christian Right.
Emma Long has worked on two main topics – the Constitution and Supreme Court; and Evangelicals. In her forthcoming book, Lobbying for the Lord: The National Association of Evangelicals and the Growth of Post-war Evangelical Political Activism, Emma explores Evangelical politics in the 1940s and 50s. She has also studied Supreme Court decisions, especially in connection with reproductive rights, as in her articles “Reproductive Care and Justice” (2024) and “Last Word: Will Abortion Sway the 2024 US Presidential Election?” (2024).
Guest Lecture by Cliff “Ubba” Kodero (Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA)
The Political Economy of Black Masculinity and Fatherlessness: The Obama Biographies
July 13, 2026, 5 pm, room P 7 (Philosophicum)
In this developing project, Kodero utilizes life writing to investigate the political economy of Black masculinity through the intersecting biographies of Barack, Malik, Mark, and George Obama. Moving beyond conventional biography, the study examines how a fractured patriarchal legacy produced vastly different masculine identities across distinct global landscapes. Central to this analysis is how each brother navigates complex social spaces between Black and white, negotiating identity across continents. By evaluating primary-source memoirs, the research demonstrates how the brothers deploy their narrative capital to leverage their family lineage, contest institutional erasure, and resist predetermined structural roles while producing vastly different expressions of manhood and Blackness.
Dr. Cliff “Ubba” Kodero is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. A scholar of international relations and global political economy, Dr. Kodero’s research uncovers how global structures, geography, and power intersect with personal identity. He is the co-editor of the newly released volume, Navigating Diaspora: Migrant Perspectives on Race, Ethnicity, and Identity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026), which examines how displacement and transnational social dynamics shape the modern migrant experience. He is a citizen of Kenya, grew up in a small town in Migori, Kenya, and is a lover of football and a father of two girls and a boy.
Guest Lecture by Ren Haiyan (Hunan Normal University, China)
Racialization as Script: Narrative Permission and Differential Racial Time in Interior Chinatown
July 14, 2026, 5 pm, room P 7 (Philosophicum)
In Interior Chinatown, Charles Yu uses the screenplay form, role lists, and the conventions of the police procedural to expose racialization as a script that precedes the individual. Near the end of the novel, his reconstruction of the history of Chinese exclusion reveals the institutional foundations of this script while bringing into view the unequal temporalities produced by the U.S. racial order. Racialized groups may inhabit the same historical present, yet they inherit different relations to national memory, bear different burdens of recognition, and are granted unequal access to futurity. Through the novel, Yu challenges the power of any racial role to exhaust the person, defending instead the right to possess a history, sustain relationships, and imagine a future not predetermined by racial function.
Ren Haiyan is Professor in the Department of English at Hunan Normal University and Executive Deputy Director of the Humboldt Center for Transdisciplinary Studies, which she co-founded. She serves on the editorial board of HiN – Alexander von Humboldt im Netz. Her research interests encompass travel writing, critical theory, and Humboldtian studies. Her recent publications include Robinson Crusoe on the Move: The Knowledge and Imagination of the Modern West (FLTRP, 2023) and the edited volume Montanhas e pescadores: Crítica cultural chinesa contemporânea (Autêntica, 2024). You can download the poster for the event here.
Anlässlich des 250. Jahrestages der Unabhängigkeitserklärung der Vereinigten Staaten veranstalten das Leibniz-Institut für Europäische Geschichte (IEG) und das Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies an der Johannes Gutenberg Universität-Mainz (JGU) gemeinsam eine Buchvorstellung mit Podiumsdiskussion zum amerikanischen Nationalfeiertag.
Der international renommierte Amerikahistoriker Professor Dr. Philipp Gassert (Universität Mannheim) wird die zentralen Thesen seines jüngst im dtv-Verlag erschienenen Buches Die bipolare Nation. Was Amerika der Welt gegeben hat. Im Guten wie im Schlechten vorstellen. Mit ihm diskutieren der Direktor des Leibniz-Instituts für Europäische Geschichte, Professor Dr. Johannes Paulmann, und der Sprecher des Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies an der JGU, Professor Dr. Alfred Hornung.
Gerade im Jubiläumsjahr 2026 stellt sich die Frage, wie die Vereinigten Staaten ihre demokratischen Ideale, gesellschaftlichen Konflikte und globalen Führungsansprüche neu verhandeln. Vor dem Hintergrund aktueller politischer, gesellschaftlicher und kultureller Entwicklungen lädt der Veranstaltung dazu ein, die historischen Wurzeln der tiefen Polarisierungen in den USA zu verstehen und ihre Bedeutung für die Zukunft Amerikas und seiner Beziehungen zur Welt zu diskutieren.
