Nov 27 – Obama Lecture with Obama Dissertation Prize & Galinsky Prize 🗓

Nov 27 – Obama Lecture with Obama Dissertation Prize & Galinsky Prize 🗓

Awards, Events, Lectures, News

Nov 27, 2025 – 10.00-ca. 12.30 – Obama Lecture – Fakultätssaal (Philosophicum, 01-185)

Please join us for our annual Obama Lecture on Thanksgiving, where we will highlight outstanding work in Transnational American Studies and show appreciation for the work of young scholars by awarding the Obama Dissertation Prize as well as the Hans Galinsky Memorial Prize for student and graduate theses.

Everyone welcome!

Please see the flyer below for details or download it here.

Nov 25 – Guest Lecture: Childrearing Discourses, Early U.S. Periodicals, and the THE MISSIONARY HERALD, 1810s 🗓

Nov 25 – Guest Lecture: Childrearing Discourses, Early U.S. Periodicals, and the THE MISSIONARY HERALD, 1810s 🗓

General, Lectures, News

Guest Lecture by Layla Koch (University of Heidelberg)

“O that our Children”: Childrearing Discourses, Early U.S. Periodicals, and the The Missionary Herald, 1810s

November 25, 2025, 6-8pm, P 6 (Philosophicum)

The Panoplist, later renamed to The Missionary Herald, was more than a magazine detailing the projects of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. In the early 1800s, countless Protestant Americans relied on the popular monthly periodical to stay informed about broader benevolence in the Early Republic, establish affective, evangelistic communities, and discuss the most anxiety-inducing responsibility of the time: raising the first generation of U.S. Americans. By discussing childraising discourses in The Missionary Herald, this talk will demonstrate how early U.S. magazines effectively tied together the concerns of their readership and their own specialized interests at the dawn of the nineteenth-century print revolution.

Layla Koch is a third-year PhD candidate in American studies at the University of Heidelberg under the supervision of Jan Stievermann. Her project explores U.S. children’s roles and shifting understandings of childhood in the U.S. foreign missionary movement, 1810-1866. Layla has studied abroad at Yale Divinity School and Uppsala University, Sweden. Currently, she serves as the editor of Digital Childhoods, the companion blog of the Society for the History of Children and Youth.

You can download the poster for the event here.

Nov 20 – Film Screening / 30th Anniversary USA Library at JGU 🗓

Nov 20 – Film Screening / 30th Anniversary USA Library at JGU 🗓

Events, News

Film screening of The Librarians at 6:30 p.m. on November 20 in the “Muschel,” lecture hall N3

 

This week the USA Library celebrates its 30th anniversary: On November 20, 1995, the Library for North America Studies first opened its doors at Mainz University.

The collection, originating from the holdings of the Camp Lindsey Library—an Air Force library in Wiesbaden—included numerous print media, journals, as well as digital databases and reference works. Since then, the library, now renamed the USA Library, has continued to grow and comprises more than 80,000 print media as well as access to digital newspapers, journals, and e-books. The Library, which is open to the public, contains to a wide range of literature on the history, culture, politics, and social aspects of the United States.

As part of the anniversary celebration, the University Library, in cooperation with the Obama Institute, will show the documentary The Librarians at 6:30 p.m. on November 20 in the “Muschel,” lecture hall N3.

The film covers the book bans at public schools in Texas.

More information can be found here About the Film – The Librarians Film | Official Site

There is also a small exhibition on book bans in the United States, located in the area between the GFG and the Central Library as well as in the AMA display case.

 

Direct Exchange – Info Sessions 2025 for Programs in 2026/27 🗓

Direct Exchange – Info Sessions 2025 for Programs in 2026/27 🗓

Events, Exchange Programs, General, News, Opportunities

On Nov 13 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 13, 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 13, when we will be happy to answer all your questions!

Anne Bull, Sandra Meerwein, Samira Deq, and Julia Velten

Nov 11 – Autorenlesung: Drew Hayden Taylor liest aus COLD 🗓

Nov 11 – Autorenlesung: Drew Hayden Taylor liest aus COLD 🗓

Events, News

Autorenlesung

Alles beginnt mit einem Flugzeugabsturz…

11. November 2025, 13:30, N.106, Campus Germersheim

Drew Hayden Taylor liest aus seinem Roman COLD.

Aus dem Englischen von Leo Strohm
ca. 445 Seiten
Erscheinungstermin: 30. Oktober 2025

 

Alles beginnt mit einem Flugzeugabsturz… Die einzigen Ăśberlebenden – die Pilotin und eine Journalistin – hoffen in der eisigen WĂĽste Ontarios auf Rettung… Währenddessen versucht Elmore Trent, Professor fĂĽr Indigene Literatur und Kultur, nach einer Affäre mit seiner studentischen Hilfskraft, verzweifelt seine Ehe zu retten. Und Paul North, Eishockey-Spieler der IHL, sieht sich mit dem wenig glamourösen Ende seiner Karriere konfrontiert. Sehr schnell wird klar, dass jemand – oder etwas? – die vermeintlich isolierten Figuren verbindet. Etwas, das auf sie alle Jagd macht…

Drew Hayden Taylor, preisgekrönter kanadischer Schriftsteller und Theaterautor, verlagert in seinem Bestseller traditionelle indigene Geschichten in die modernen Straßen Torontos und verwebt Unterhaltung, Krimi, Thriller und Horror zu einer temporeichen Erzählung mit lebensnahen Charakteren. Nebenbei behandelt er dabei Themen wie Vertreibung und Trauma und liefert eine satirische Kritik an der aktuellen indigenen Literatur.

Drew Hayden Taylor (*1962 in Curve Lake First Nation, Kanada) ist ein preisgekrönter indigener Dramatiker, Romanautor, Filmemacher und Journalist.

Er hat alles gemacht, von Stand-up-Comedy im Kennedy Center in Washington D. C. bis hin zur kĂĽnstlerischen Leitung der ersten indigenen Theatergruppe Kanadas (Native Earth Performing Arts). Drew Hayden Taylor ist Autor von bislang 36 BĂĽchern – COLD ist der erste Roman, der ins Deutsche ĂĽbersetzt ist. In Deutschland ist er einem breiteren Publikum durch seine Dokumentation Searching for Winnetou (2018) bekannt.

www.drewhaydentaylor.com

Bilder + Texte: Merlin Verlag

 

You can download the poster for the event here.