Welcome to the North American Studies Program

Dedicated to the transdisciplinary and comparative study of the United States and Canada, the North American Studies Program provides an innovative space of inquiry into theories and practices of culture, transatlantic relations, and processes of globalization. In both research and teaching, we focus on the interplay of political and economic structures with literary and cultural forms and discourses, the dynamics of race, class, gender, and sexuality, and the interrogation of North America in a global context. Our distinctive strengths are in such areas as literary and cultural theory, Native and Indigenous studies, gender studies and feminist critique, environmental studies, visual culture studies, the intersections of law and culture, and dialogues between cultural studies and the natural sciences.

Established in 1990 as a joint venture of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, the North American Studies Program ranks as one of the best places in Germany to study and do research in the field and has gained an outstanding reputation for its conferences, guest lectures, and lecture series on issues of North American and cultural studies. We foster the education of students who wish to think broadly, work independently, and pursue innovative research projects. Our faculty members are experts in literary and cultural studies, political science, and economics and also include visiting scholars. In addition, students profit from our close cooperation with colleagues in the fields of history and postcolonial studies at the University of Cologne and from our long-standing alliances with U.S. and Canadian universities.



Next Events

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© Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies
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© NAS Uni Bonn

More Events

Panel Discussion
53111 Bonn | Rabinstraße ...
06:15 PM - 07:45 PM
This panel takes a close look at the political and cultural framework of the upcoming Canadian federal election. Our guest Prof. Dr. Christoph Vatter will draw ...
NAS Brown-Bag Lunch
Rabinstraße 8 | 53111 ...
12:15 PM - 01:00 PM
To discuss current events and developments on the other side of the Atlantic in an interactive and open environment, the North American Studies Program is ...
California, a Slave State
53111 Bonn | Rabinstraße ...
06:15 PM - 07:45 PM
California was conceived in slavery, as Prof. Jean Pfaelzer has argues in her book California, A Slave State (2023). Marked and marketed with “California ...
Career Forum (Forum Beruf)
53111 Bonn | Rabinstraße ...
06:00 PM
The Alumni Network invites you to Career Forum North American Studies. Students ask questions – Alumni answer. Tim Hartmann (Volkswagen), Sarah Arfeen ...
Contesting Extractivism in Contemporary Indigenous Literature
53111 Bonn | Rabinstraße ...
06:15 PM - 07:45 PM
While “Drill, Baby, Drill” resounds as the current rationale for U.S. (environmental) politics, this lecture draws attention to a different framework for ...
From NAFTA to USMCA: Economic Integration in North America
53111 Bonn | Rabinstraße ...
06:15 PM - 07:45 PM
Twenty-five years after the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) officially ...
Children’s Books & Queer Kinship in Mid-Twentieth Century America
53111 Bonn | Rabinstraße ...
06:15 PM - 07:45 PM
This lecture lays out how queer sensibilities have shaped some of the most beloved children’s literature of the mid-twentieth century. Dr. Pyke’s talk recalls ...
Juneteenth Lecture with Kinohi Nishikawa
53113 Bonn | Heussallee ...
06:00 PM - 07:30 PM
Coined by the scholar and critic Saidiya Hartman, who herself builds on the work of Hazel V. Carby and Hortense Spillers, the afterlife of slavery identifies ...
Native American Activism and the "New Indian Wars"
53111 Bonn | Rabinstraße ...
06:15 PM - 07:45 PM
In the 1960s and 70s intellectuals and activists associated with the emergent ‘Red Power’ movement developed a novel analysis of so-called asymmetrical or ...

NAS News

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© WDR

Prof. Trautsch as Expert on WDR Radio Broadcast on the Presidency of Andrew Jackson

On June 8, 1845, Andrew Jackson - one of America’s most controversial Presidents - passed away. On the 180th anniversary of his death, the West German Broadcasting Service (WDR5) aired a radio show, in which Professor Trautsch analyzes the roots of Jackson’s populism and draws parallels between America’s seventh and current President. 


Here you can listen to the history podcast on Andrew Jackson: https://www1.wdr.de/radio/wdr5/sendungen/zeitzeichen/zeitzeichen-andrew-jackson-todestag-100.html 

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© Sabine Sielke

Just published: In her essay "Vom Sockel holen: Geschichtspolitische Konflikte in den USA und Deutschland" Sabine Sielke interrogates interdependencies of current memory politics. 

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© De Gruyter

Just out: The Handbook of American Poetry, edited by Sabine Sielke and published by De Gruyter in January 2025!

This handbook offers scholars an overview of the state of research and students a sense of how American poetry – from its first forms evolving in the 17th-century settler colonies to its current digital modes – has addressed issues and experiences central to human consciousness and to political life over five centuries of cultural practice. At the same time, it aims to show how poetry, philosophy, and theory have always been involved in productive dialogues.

To find out more, you may explore the editor's introduction. The book itself will be available in our library soon. 

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© Stefan Benz

Stefan Benz is awarded the Rob Kroes Award by the EAAS (European Association for American Studies)

The EAAS (European Association for American Studies) has awarded the Rob Kroes Award for the best unpublished manuscript in American Studies by a European scholar for the year 2024 to Stefan Benz for his manuscript "Toward Myriadmindedness: The Posthuman Imagination of Michael McClure, Diane di Prima, and Philip Whalen".

Brown-Bag Lunch with Former Members of Congress
© NAS Bonn

Brown-Bag Lunch Discussion with Former Members of Congress

On November 20, 2024, the North American Studies Program of the University of Bonn, together with its cooperation partners – the AmerikaHaus NRW e.V., the Bonner Akademie für Forschung und Lehre praktischer Politik (BAPP), the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS), and the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress (FMC) – again had the pleasure of welcoming two former members of the U.S. House of Representatives to Bonn. This year, Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence and Congressman Bob Goodlatte joined us to discuss the results of the recent US presidential and congressional elections in the Bonn Universitätsforum.

Jasper Trautsch
© Jasper Trautsch

Radio interview with Prof. Trautsch on what’s at stake for the transatlantic relationship in the 2024 election

Two days before the election, the national public radio broadcaster Deutschlandradio interviewed Prof. Trautsch regarding the impact of this year’s US presidential election on transatlantic relations, the historical precursors of Trump's nationalism, and the future of the West.

 

The recording of the radio show “Information und Musik” from November 3, 2024, can be found here: 
https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/information-und-musik-100.html

Next application phase for our M.A. in North American Studies:

June 2, 2025 until July 15, 2025 (for the winter term 2025/26)

Contact

Nordamerikastudienprogramm                                   
Institut für Anglistik, Amerikanistik und Keltologie
Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
Rabinstraße 8
D-53111 Bonn

office.nas@uni-bonn.de
Phone: +49-(0)228-73-1836
Fax: +49-(0)228-73-9674 

Contributors
Frauke Grimm
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