Events, Exchange Programs, General, News
On Oct 23, Oct 29, and Oct 31 the Department and the Obama Institute will hold info sessions on their various exchange programs.
Oct 23: General Info, 6pm s.t., P2
Oct 29: Direct Exchange American Studies, 6pm s.t., P3
Oct 31: ERASMUS Exchange, 6pm s.t., P2
Please find more details regarding each session on the flyer, which is available for download here and on the Exchange page.
Events, Lectures, News
Florian Freitag (Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz)
July 2, 2019
JGU Campus Gemersheim

On 2 July, Dr. habil. Florian Freitag delivered his inaugural lecture (Antrittsvorlesung), entitled “Muscle Beach and the History of American Bodybuilding” at the Department of Translation Studies (Germersheim). With this talk, Dr. Freitag completed his habilitation and officially received the venia legendi from Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz. The Obama Institute congratulates Dr. Freitag.
Events, Lectures, News
Brennan Collins (Georgia State University)
July 5, 2019
9-11 p.m., (Fakultätssaal 01-185, Philosophicum)
Transdisciplinary collaboration between local universities can thrive when
scholars combine resources and begin to create projects with a local
audience in mind. The Atlanta Studies Network supports an interdisciplinary group of scholars, students, instructors, professionals, and community members who engage with the Atlanta metro area as a space for research, teaching, and activism. Through the development of digital resources, events, methods, projects, and platforms this network seeks to promote research and understanding of Atlanta’s past, present, and prospective future. Over the past 8 years, the network has created a geospatial storytelling platform that combines thousands of maps from multiple institutions, a teaching site where k-12 and college instructors can share assignments and syllabi focused on our city, an online journal with
thousands of readers, digital museums about historically significant spaces in the city, and may other events, projects, and resources. This presentation will provide an overview of the Atlanta Studies Network with a particular focus on mapping, 3D visualization, and digital curation.
Brennan Collins is the Associate Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Georgia State University for Digital pedagogy and Atlanta Studies. The interdisciplinary nature and technology focus of these program allows him to work with a diverse faculty in exploring inventive pedagogies. He is particularly interested in creating transdisciplinary and interinstitutional projects and platforms that explore the urban landscape to develop student critical thinking and create opportunities for community engagement. This work explores the intersection of the Humanities with the emerging fields of mapping, digital heritage, data visualization and curation, and immersive learning. He teaches courses in Multiethnic U.S. Literature and comics.
You can download the poster for the event here.
Events, Lectures, News
4th of July Events at the Obama Institute
July 4, 2019, 2–8 p.m., Philosophicum
2-4 p.m. (P4, Philosophicum) ………………………………
Guest Lecture
“Loyalty, Patriotism, and Nationalism in Times of Crisis”
Prof. Richard King
(University of Nottingham, UK)
What might the 4th of July mean to Americans and us in general? From America’s Frederick Douglass to German American Hannah Arendt and on to Jürgen Habermas, the nature of loyalty, patriotism and nationalism have proven to be elusive but still necessary.
4-6 p.m. (Fakultätssaal 01-185, Philosophicum)
………………………………..
(Graduate) Student Project Presentations
Project pitches by Frederick Billmeier, Neslihan Bulut, Jacqueline Dagdadan, Josephine Koennecke, Frank Newton, Daniel Scott, Johanna Seibert, Filiz Touchton, Katharina Weygold
Performance presentation “Streaming America” (Niklas Müller, Maike Schiffler, Anna Sophie Ullmann)
6-8 p.m. (Fakultätssaal 01-185, Philosophicum)
……………………………….
Öffentliche Antrittsvorlesung
“Reading and the Futures of Literary Studies”
Dr. Tim Lanzendörfer
(JGU, Obama Institute)
You can download the poster for the event here.
Events, Lectures, News
Gregory Betts (University College, Dublin/Brock University, Canada)
July 2, 2019
4-6 p.m., P 207 (Philosophicum)
Indigenous art has always been interconnected with the avant-garde, and it is increasingly fallacious to speak of the difference between Indigenous and avant-garde art. My talk will highlight some of the achievements and dynamics of avant-gardism in the contemporary Canadian context, including highlighting some of the implications of the Indigenous Renaissance on the category of avant-garde art and literature. The first part of my talk will elaborate on the idea of avant-gardism, especially in Canada, while the second half will focus on what happens to this category when we attend to Indigenous art and culture.
Gregory Betts is the current Craig Dobbin Professor of Canadian Studies at University College Dublin. While he is a poet, with six books to his name, he is primarily known for his research into the Canadian avant-garde. On that subject, Betts wrote the definitive study called Avant-Garde Canadian Literature: The Early Manifestations (University of Toronto Press) and recently, just this year, published an essential status-update of contemporary avant-garde writing called Avant Canada: Poets, Prophets, Revolutionaries (co-edited with Christian Bök, published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press). He is the former Director of Canadian Studies at Brock University, where he is a Professor of Canadian Literature.
You can download the poster for the event here.