Being (In)Visible: Representations of Disability and Ableism in Popular Culture
Student Conference (Jan 16-17, 2025)
This conference will be organized by Ayishat Aluko, Jill Reuter, and Samira Schwarz, who are all M.A. students of American Studies at JGU’s Obama Institute. The conference is funded by the Gutenberg Lehrkolleg and the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies. The organizers invite contributions from Master’s students, early stage PhD students and advanced Bachelor’s students of all fields related to disability studies.
For further details, please take a closer look at the Call for Papers.
Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted along with a 100-word biography to disabilities.studentconference@gmail.com by 15 September 2024. Selected participants can expect to be notified by the end of September 2024.
The Indian Citizenship Act at 100:
Indigenous Rights, Indigenous Futures
Conference
June 19-22, 2024
University of Bordeaux-Montaigne, France
Together with the University of Bordeaux-Montaigne, the Virginia Commonwealth University, and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, the Obama Institute is hosting an international conference on the centenary of the Indian Citizenship Act in Bordeaux, France.
Current and former members of the Obama Institute will chair panels and present papers amongst a large group of internationally renowned Indigenous Studies scholars. Check out and download the complete program here or visit the conference web page here.
Beyond liberation or assimilation: LGBTQ rights, health care, and the limits of bodily autonomy in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s Jonathan Bell – University College London
Assessing our Relationship with Nature through the Environmental Humanities: A Bioethics Approach to Sarah Orne Jewett’s A White Heron (1886) Scott Pincikowksi – Hood College
Disappearing Landscapes/Disappearing Cultures: What happens to Language and Culture when Keystone Landscapes Disappear? Scott Pincikowksi – Hood College
Inventing the Immigration Problem: The Dillingham Commission of 1907-1911 and the Origins of Modern Immigration Policy Katherine Benton-Cohen – Georgetown University
June 11 2.30–4pm, 01-618, kl. Bibl., Philosophicum
Migrants, Minorities, and Consumption (Colloquium: Transnational Approaches to American Studies) Katherine Benton-Cohen – Georgetown University
June 14 & 15 9am-5pm, 00.212, Philosophicum II
Creative Writing Workshop – OPEN TO EVERYONE Ian Afflerbach, University of North Georgia
Quiet Money: The Family Fortune that Transformed New York, the American Southwest, and the Modern Middle East Katherine Benton-Cohen – Georgetown University
Selective Anti-Imperialism, Settler Colonialism and the Lure of Racial Capitalist Progress in Spanish-Language Periodicals in Paris David Luis-Brown – Claremont Graduate University
Dos Hemisferios: Racial Capitalism and the Problem of Latinidad in Hispano-American Newspapers in Paris and New York City, 1852-1856 David Luis-Brown – Claremont Graduate University
Annual Fourth of July Obama Lecture & Summer Get-together (snacks and drinks)
with Keynote “World-losers elsewhere, conquerors here!”: The Fourth of July in American Poetry Thomas Austenfeld – Université de Fribourg and Red, White, and Blue—and Greenbacks: Money and American Identity since the Civil War Atiba Pertilla – German Historical Institute Washington plus Exhibition of Student Posters and Presentations
February 11 (Sun)
Philosophicum II (EG 00.212)
Jakob-Welder-Weg 20
55128 Mainz
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:
“The Persistence of the Short Story: Traditions and Futures”
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 10–12, 2024
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität (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-Universität 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)
European Network for Short Fiction Research (ENSFR): Michelle Ryan, Director (Université d’Angers), Ailsa Cox, Associate Director (Edge Hill University), Elke D’hoker, Communications Coordinator (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)
Studies in the American Short Story: James Nagel, Editor (University of Georgia), Kirk Curnutt, Associate Editor (Troy University)
Journal of the Short Story in English: Gérald Préher, Editor (Université d’Artois) Short Fiction in Theory and Practice: Ailsa Cox, Principal Editor (Edge Hill University)
6.00 pm Welcome Reception
Thursday, July 11, 2024 Conference Venue: Helmholtz Institute
Ailsa Cox (Edge Hill University), “Beyond the Collection” Elke D’hoker (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven), “Serializing the Short Story”
Michelle Ryan (Université d’Angers), “The Ethics of Short Forms in Rikki Ducornet’s Late Career Writing”
10:20–10:40 am Coffee Break
10:40–12.00 am Session 2: Historical Dimensions Chair: Oliver Scheiding (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz)
Alfred Bendixen (Princeton University), “New Voices Confronting the Silence: The Emergence of Feminist Traditions in the American Short Story”
Monika Elbert (Montclair State University), “Wealth, Handicaps, and Poverty: Women’s Gothic Tales of Dis-Possession”
Philipp Reisner (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz). “American Short Fiction in Light of the Chinese Exclusion Act”
12:00-1:00 pm Lunch
1:00–2:20 pm Session 3: Current Trends
Chair: Laura Dietz (University College London)
Michael Basseler (Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen), “Is there a Postsocialist North American Short Story?”
Gudrun M. Grabher (Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck), “Every Patient has Their Unique Story: The Significance of the Short Story for Medical Humanities”
Patricia MacCormack (Anglia Ruskin University), “Weird Madness: Brief Encounters Against the Anthropocene”
Alessandra Boller (Universität Siegen), “The Politics of Encounter: B/Order Crossings in Transnational (Irish) Short Fiction”
Olivia Carr Edenfield (Georgia Southern University), “The Poetic Landscape of Breece D’J Pancake”
Gérald Préher (Université d’Artois), “The Past in the Present, or the Enduring South in Elizabeth Spencer’s Starting Over (2014)”
3.50-4:10 pm Coffee Break
4:10–5.30 pm Postgraduate Roundtable on Short Fiction Research
Chair: Alessandra Boller (Universität Siegen)
Maegan Bishop (Georgia Southern University), “Re-imagining the American Landscape: Visual Rhetoric and the Influence of Image on the 21st-Century American Short-Story Cycle”
Verónica Frejo (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), “Short Stories as Videogames: A Transmedia Analysis”
Carolin Jesussek (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz), “Disability Gothic in William Alexander’s Short Story ‘The House on the Moon’”
6:30 pm University Lecture Hall (P5)
University Hall-Lecture: James Nagel (University of Georgia), “The American Short Story in Academia: A Personal Report” (online)
Friday, July 12, 2024 Conference Venue: Helmholtz Institute Mainz
9:00–10:00 am Session 5: Diversity
Chair: Michelle Ryan (Université d’Angers)
Erik Redling (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), “Modernist Politics of Race: Allegorical Readings of Zora Neale Hurston’s Early Short Fiction”
Hertha Dawn Sweet Wong (University of California, Berkeley), “The Future of the Indigenous Short Story; or Indigenous Short Story and Futurity”
10:10-11:10 am Session 6: Horror and Crime Chair: Olivia Carr Edenfield (Georgia Southern University)
Will Norman (University of Kent), “Paul Linebarger, Cordwainer Smith and the Affordances of Mid-Century Science Fiction Tales”
Whit Frazier Peterson (Universität Stuttgart), “The Sunken and the Ascending: Black Horror Short Fiction”
11:10–11:30 am Coffee Break
11:30 am –12:50 pm Session 7: Media and New Approaches
Chair: Oliver Scheiding (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz)
Kirk Curnutt (Troy University), “Prophecies of Extinction, Prospects for Evolution: Whither the Future of the Short Story?”
Bernardo Manzoni Palmeirim (Universidade de Lisboa), “Paying Attention in Lydia Davis and Short Forms”
Ines Maria Gstrein (Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck), “The Affordances of the Short Story Collection: Ali Smith’s Free Love and Other Stories as a Case Study”
Laura Dietz (University College London), “Digitization and Short Story Authorship: Authorial Careers on Emerging Platforms”
Jana Keck (Universität Stuttgart), “Fact or Fiction? Computational Analysis of Short Stories in Nineteenth-Century German-American Newspapers”
Damien B. Schlarb (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz), “Short Stories, Longplay: Formal Influences of the Short Story on Digital Games and the Integration of Narrative and Play”
Anna McFarlane (University of Leeds), “Science Fiction and the Fix-Up”
Andrew M. Butler (Canterbury Christchurch University), “‘The Flimsiest of Tissues’: Pamela Zoline’s ‘The Holland of the Mind’”
Sarah Lohmann (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich), “‘Like Children Dying in a Forest’: The Science Fiction Short Story and the Morality of Machine Cognition in E.M. Forster’s ‘The Machine Stops’ and Ray Bradbury’s ‘August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains’”
Gary Westfahl (University of La Verne), “Confronting the Alien in the Science Fiction Short Story” (online)
Take the train from Frankfurt Airport to Mainz Central Station (tram line: S8). Tickets can be purchased at the airport vending machines (approximately 9,90€). 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 2,50€.
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: Fakultätssaal (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 Münsterplatz (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 – 16.00-18.00 (s.t.) – 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 “any kind of genetic, biomedical or pharmaceutical intervention aimed at improving human dispositions, capacities, and well-being even when there is no pathology to be treated” (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 Shelly’s 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 America’s Origin Story Morally Acceptable and What Is Special about It?” (Jill Reuter)
“The Implications of ‘Human Enhancement’ in the Discussion Surrounding Trans-Athletes” (Ayishat Aluko)
Everyone is welcome!
This conference is part of Dr. Julia Velten’s course “Cultural Studies VI: Human Enhancement: Ethics, Life Sciences, and the Human Body in Film.” If you have further questions about the event, please contact Dr. Julia Velten: juvelten@uni-mainz.de
Giubilini, Alberto and Sagar Sanyal. “Challenging Human Enhancement.” The Ethics of Human Enhancement: Understanding the Debate, edited by Steve Clarke, et al., OUP, 2016, pp. 1-24.
