Lecture Series Archive

Program as PDF

Tuesday, October 17, 2023 | 6:15-7:45 pm | via Zoom
Prof. Dr. Liz Przybylski & Eekwol (Lindsay Knight) | University of California Riverside Reclaiming Power in Indigenous Artistic Presence: Hip Hop, Creativity, and Gender in the Right Now

Tuesday, October 24, 2023 | 6:30-8:00 pm | Festsaal, University of Bonn
Panel Discussion with Former Members of Congress
The Biden Presidency: A Critical Evaluation

Tuesday, November 7, 2023 | 6:15-7:45 pm | Rabinstr. 8, SR 6
Prof. Dr. Gesa Mackenthun | University of Rostock
Soil, Seeds, and Sacrifice: Agricultural Imperialism and US Literature

Tuesday, November 21, 2023 | 6:15-7:45 pm | Rabinstr. 8, SR 6
Dr. Mike Cowburn | European University Viadrina
Party Transformation in Congressional Primaries

Tuesday, November 28, 2023 | 6:15-7:45 pm | Rabinstr. 8, SR 6
Prof. Dr. Kathleen Loock | Leibniz University Hannover
Hollywood's Usable Past, or, The Politics of Film Remakes, Reboots, and Sequels

Tuesday, December 12, 2023 | 6:15-7:45 pm | Rabinstr. 8, SR 6
Prof. Dr. Bryan Wagner | University of California Berkeley
The People's Court: Law and Performance from Slavery to Civil Rights

Tuesday, January 9, 2024 | 6:15-7:45 pm | Rabinstr. 8, SR 6
Prof. Dr. Regina Schober | University of Düsseldorf
American Literature and Digital Selfhood: Algorithms, Affect, Attention

Monday, January 15, 2024 | 6:15-7:45 pm | Senatssaal, University of Bonn
Dr. Nathalie Aghoro | Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich
Reclaiming the 'Site of Memory': On Commemoration and Relationality at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice

Tuesday, January 30, 2024 | 6:15-7:45 pm | Rabinstr. 8, SR 6
Prof. Dr. Christina Meyer | University of Hamburg
Serial Products and Practices of the Progressive Era

Program as PDF

Tuesday, 26 April, 2022 | 6:00-8:00 pm c.t.| Room A, IAAK
Dr. Jan Kucharzewski | Universität Mannheim
Once More into the Fray: Hunters, Sailors, and Liminal Masculinities

Tuesday, 3 May, 2022 | 6:00-8:00 pm c.t. | via Zoom
Prof. Dr. Christina Meyer | Freie Universität Berlin
Going Underground: Female Stunt Reporters in the Progressive Era

Tuesday, May 10, 2022 | 6:00-8:00 pm c.t. | Room A, IAAK
Prof. Paul Armstrong | Brown University
The Neuroscience of Literary Time-Travel: How Literary Works Cross Historical Distance

Monday, 16 May, 2022 | 8:00 pm | Atelierbühne Beul
A collaboration of the Theater2Go, Wien, and the North American Studies Program
Neil LaBute's monologue WRECKS starring Peter Wälter | Director: Pippa Galli

Tuesday, May 17, 2022 | 6:00-8:00 pm c.t. | Room A, IAAK
Dr. hab. Anna Pochmara | University of Warsaw
Temperance and Excess in the Early African American Novel

Thursday, May 19, 2022 | 6:00-8:00 pm | Lecture Hall 17, IAAK
Reading: Diane Glancy

Thursday, June 2, 2022 | 6:00-8:00 pm c.t. | via Zoom
Prof. Paul Spickard | University of California, Santa Barbara
Shape Shifters: People Changing Race

Tuesday, June 14, 2022 | 6:00-8:00 pm c.t. | Room A, IAAK
PD Dr. Birte Christ | Universität Gießen
Black Film, White Faces: Hollywood's Take on the Death Penalty, 1951-1968

Tuesday, June 21, 2022 | 6:00-8:00 pm c.t. | Room A, IAAK
Prof. Dr. Ulla Haselstein | Freie Universität Berlin
The End of Adventure: On Robert Coover's Huck Out West (2017)

Tuesday, June 28, 2022 | 6:00-8:00 pm c.t. | Room A, IAAK
Prof. Richard Williams | University of Edinburgh
Los Angeles, ‘Autopia’, and the 1960s: Reyner Banham Revisited

Tuesday, July 5, 2022 | 6:00-8:00 pm c.t. | Room A, IAAK
Prof. Dr. Frank Kelleter | Freie Universität Berlin
Media Rhetoric, White Liberalism, and the American Revolution

Program as PDF

Tuesday, October 19, 2021 | 6:00-7:30 pm
PD Dr. Karin Hoepker | University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Shipwreck, Risk, and the Novel: Poe's Poetics of the Improbable

Tuesday, November 2, 2021 | 6:00-7:30 pm
Prof. Dr. Devin Zuber | Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley
Sermons in Stones: John Muir, Swedenborg, and Environmental Imagination

Tuesday, November 23, 2021 | 6:00-7:30 pm
Dr. Mahshid Mayar | Bielefeld University
"Do they                      you?": Erasure in Solmaz Sharif's "Dear Salim" Poems

Tuesday, November 30, 2021 | 6:00-7:30 pm
Dr. Josef Braml | Secretary General of the Trilateral Commission's German Group
Geo-Economics Rivalry between the US and China – Impact on Europe

Tuesday, December 14, 2021 | 6:00-7:30 pm
Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Heinze | Technische Universität Braunschweig
How to Tell a Migration Story, or: The Politics of Authenticity

Monday, January 17, 2022 | 6:00-7:30 pm | MLK Day Lecture
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Rebecca Brückmann | Ruhr-University Bochum
Where Did We Go from There? Roots, Ruptures, and Reiterations in the Black Freedom Struggle

Tuesday, February 1, 2022 | 6:00-7:30 pm
Prof. Dr. Julia Leyda | Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim
Black Anthroposcreens: Queen Sugar and Black Panther

Program as PDF

Tuesday, April 20, 2021 | 6:00-7:30 pm
Dr. Philipp Adorf | Universität Bonn
Trumpism Ascendant: The State of the Republican Party and Its Consequences for American Democracy

Tuesday, May 4, 2021 | 6:00-7:30 pm
Prof. Joseph Laycock | Texas State University
Re-thinking Church and State with The Satanic Temple

Tuesday, May 18, 2021 | 6:00-7:30 pm
Ellen Hinsey | Universität Göttingen
Prof. Andrew Majeske | City University of New York
The Attack on the Capitol: A Provisional Report and Risks for US Democracy

Tuesday, June 1, 2021 | 6:00-7:30 pm
Prof. Dr. Laura Bieger | University of Groningen
Authorizing Native Son: A Relational Approach to Engaged Literature

Tuesday, June 15, 2021 | 6:00-7:30 pm
Dr. Sarah Beringer | German Historical Institute Washington
U.S. Climate and Renewable Energy Politics under Biden: A New Path Forward?

Tuesday, July 6, 2021 | 6:00-7:30 pm
Prof. Dr. Moritz Schularick | Universität Bonn
The Racial Wealth Gap, 1865–2019

Tuesday, July 13, 2021 | 6:00-7:30 pm
Prof. Dr. Susanne Rohr | Universität Hamburg
Intricate Matters: The ‘Holocaust Comedy’ in the US and Germany

Program as PDF

Tuesday, November 10, 2020 | 6:00-7:30 pm
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schlie | CASSIS, Universität Bonn
The US Foreign Policy Agenda of the Next Four Years

Tuesday, November 17, 2020 | 6:00-7:30 pm
Prof. Russell J. A. Kilbourn, Ph.D. | Wilfrid Laurier University
Posthuman Memory in North American Cinema

Tuesday, November 24, 2020 | 6:00-7:30 pm
Prof. Dr. Sabine Sielke | North American Studies Program
Kolumbus, Jefferson, Bismarck & Co. vom Sockel holen? Aktuelle Konflikte um Erinnerungskulturen und Geschichtspolitik

Wednesday, 2 December 2020 | 12:00-2:00 pm 
Debating the Results of the Presidential Election 2020 
with students and alumni of the North American Studies Program (live event if possible, limited participation)

Tuesday, December 8, 2020 | 6:00-7:30 pm
Dr. A. Elisabeth Reichel | Universität Osnabrück 
Evolutionism, Pluralism, Relativism: Boasian Anthropology and the Poetry of Edward Sapir, Ruth Benedict, and Margaret Mead

Tuesday, December 15, 2020 | 6:00-7:30 pm
PD Dr. Jan Logemann | Universität Göttingen 
European Emigres and the Making of American Consumer Capitalism, 1930s to 1960s

Tuesday, January 12, 2021 | 6:00-7:30 pm
Dr. Holger Janusch | North American Studies Program 
Communicative Power America: The End and Beginning of American Exceptionalism

Monday, January 18, 2021 | 5:00-8:00 pm 
Martin Luther King Day Panel Discussion
How Black Lives Matter – in the United States and in Germany: Systemic Racism, Modes of Solidarity, and Historical Differences – with invited experts. Video. Further reading.

Tuesday, February 2, 2021 | 6:00-7:30 pm
Dr. Katharina Fackler | North American Studies Program
Oceanic Intimacies: Whaling Wives, Life Writing, and Colonial Ecologies in the Pacific, 1845-51

Lecture Series in cooperation with the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb) and AmerikaHaus e.V. NRW - Summer Semester 2020
PROGRAM 

Tuesday | 28 April 2020 | 6:00-8:00 pm
Dr. Philipp Adorf | Institut für Politische Wissenschaft und Soziologie | Universität Bonn
“Comeback or Continuation? The Relevance of Race in the Trump Era”
Watch the video on our YouTube channel

Tuesday | 5 May 2020 | 6:00-8:00 pm
Hon.-Prof. Dr. Alexander Görlach | Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
“Empathie gegen Ressentiment: Der Kampf um das Weiße Haus”
Watch the video on the bpb's Facebook page

Tuesday | 12 May 2020 | 6:00-8:00 pm
Dr. Ying Huang & Dr. Hendrik W. Ohnesorge | Center for Global Studies | Universität Bonn
"Neuer Kalter Krieg? Trump und die amerikanisch-chinesischen Beziehungen"
Watch the video on the bpb's Facebook page

Tuesday | 26 May 2020 | 6:00-8:00 pm
Andrea Rotter, M.A. | Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung
“U.S. Foreign Policy and the Presidential Race”
Watch the video on our YouTube channel

Tuesday | 9 June 2020 | 6:00-8:00 pm
PD Dr. Simone Knewitz | North American Studies Program
“‘I'm the President, and You're Fake News’: Populism and the 2020 Election”
Watch the video on our YouTube channel

Tuesday | 16 June 2020 | 6:00-8:00 pm
Dr. Gerlinde Groitl | Universität Regensburg
“Disruptor-in-Chief or New Normal? The Trump Presidency and the Erosion of the Transatlantic Alliance”

Tuesday | 23 June 2020 | 6:00-8:00 pm
Prof. em. Dr. Andreas Falke | FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
“Trump und die Demokraten zu Wirtschaft und Handel”
Watch the video on the bpb's Facebook page

Thursday | 25 June 2020 | 4:00-6:00 pm
Candice Kerestan, M.A. | Democrats Abroad
“Americans Abroad - the Key to a Democratic Victory in 2020?”
Watch the video on our YouTube channel

Tuesday | 30 June 2020 | 6:00-8:00 pm
Ralph C. Freund | Republicans Overseas Germany
“Entering the Battleground: A Republican Perspective on the Election Year 2020”

Tuesday | 7 July 2020 | 6:00-8:00 pm
Prof. Dr. Sabine Sielke | North American Studies Program
“Engendering the Race: How Gender Matters in the 2020 Presidential Election”

29 October 2019
Prof. Dr. Hanjo Berressem (Dept. of American Literary and Cultural Studies, Universität zu Köln)
"Transatlantic Ecologies in the Shadow of Donald Trump"

5 November 2019
Dr. Rosary O’Neill (Playwright, New York City)
"Degas in New Orleans: Harnessing History to Create Entertainment"

19 November 2019
Dr. Matt Sheedy (North American Studies Program, University of Bonn)
"Are Ex-Muslims Atheists? Rethinking Secular Identities in the Age of the Alt-Right"

4 December 2019
Dies academicus 2019
"Climate Change and Technology Innovation: How Can We Reduce Emissions Massively?"
Panel discussion moderated by Dr. Peter Schniering
Newspaper article featuring photo from event

7 January 2020
Natalie J. Hungate (Center for European Integration Studies, University of Bonn)
"LGBTQ+ Couples in Europe and the US: Not all Rainbows and Sunshine, but Skies are Clearing"

14 January 2020
Dr. Dominik Schrey (Dept. of Media Culture Studies, University of Freiburg)
"The Next Best Thing to Going Home: A Mimesis Theory of Nostalgia"

20 January 2020
Martin Luther King Day Lecture 2020
Prof. em. Dr. Michael Zeuske (Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, University of Bonn)

Program as PDF

9 April 2019
Prof. Michael C. Herron (Dartmouth College)
"Contemporary Controversies in American Elections: Fraud and Allegations of Voter Suppression"

30 April 2019
Dr. Adrian de Silva (University of Luxembourg)
"Trans and Social Change: Developments in the Federal Republic of Germany and Beyond"

7 May 2019
Dr. Josch Hoenes (Independent scholar)
"'You're the best of both worlds' - 'You don't belong here': Visual Politics of Trans* Visibility in US-American Culture"

13 May 2019
Forum Beruf North American Studies

28 May 2019
Dr. Adam Hjorthén (John F. Kennedy Institute, FU Berlin)
"What's the Use of Ancestry? Mormonism, Tourism, and Genealogy in Swedish-American Relations"

4 June 2019
"Changing the World One Poem at a Time": A Reading & Discussion with Canadian Writer Gary Geddes

25 June 2019
Prof. Lilly J. Goren (Carroll University)
"'What News, What News, In this Our Tottering State?' Political Theory, Superhero Narratives, and Dystopian Imaginaries in an Unstable World"

2 July 2019
Dr. Regina Schober (Universität Mannheim)
"From Spiderweb to Neural Nets: The Network Model in US-American Literature"

Program as PDF

23 October 2018
Prof. Steven Bruns (University of Colorado Boulder)
"Nostalgia and Memory in the Music of George Crumb"

26 October 2018
COLUMBUS DAY LECTURE 
Prof. Priscilla Layne (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill | American Academy in Berlin)
"Dissecting Race Across the Atlantic: Teaching German Studies in the US"

6 November 2018 - University of Cologne
Panel discussion "Fake News and American Democracy" with Cameron Abadi, Andreas Falke, and Sabine Sielke

8 November 2018
Dr. Andrew Pendakis (Brock University)
"On the Strange Return of Marx"

14 November 2018
Dr. Patrick Horst (Hamburg)
"Nach den Midterms: Was haben wir zu befürchten, was dürfen wir hoffen, womit können wir rechnen?"

8 January 2019
Sarah J. Grünendahl, M.A. (Hochschule Düsseldorf/Universität Siegen)
"'Refuge from Militarism'? U.S. War Resisters in Canada"

21 January 2019
MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY LECTURE
PD Dr. Elisabeth Schäfer-Wünsche
"The Making of Americans: How to Remember Martin Luther King and Malcolm X"

Program as PDF

17 April 2018
Prof. Glenn Gebhard (Loyola Marymount University)
“Truth, Myth, and Documentation”

24 April 2018
Dr. Matt Sheedy (North American Studies Program)
“White Saviours in Purgatory: Destabilizing Settler Colonial Myths in The Revenant and Idle No More”

8 May 2018
Prof. Lilly Goren (Carroll University | North American Studies Program)
“Politics and Images: Nostalgia and the Remaking of Modern America”

29 May 2018
Dr. Juliane Braun (German Historical Institute, Washington, DC) &
Dr. Benjamin Fagan (Auburn University)
"Science, Slavery, and Transoceanic American Studies"

19 June 2018
Prof. Eleanor Ty (Wilfrid Laurier University)
“Asianfail and the Myth of the Model Minority”

25 June 2018
Prof. Edward Levitas (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
"Does Diversity Drive Innovation? The Impact of Gender and Race in Engineering Teams"

26 June 2018
Prof. Michelle Mart (Pennsylvania State University) 
"Food, Nostalgia, and the Search for Pleasure: Rethinking What to Eat" 

10 July 2018
Prof. Michelle Boulous Walker (University of Queensland)
"Slow Philosophy in an Age of Haste: What Are Universities for?"

Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017, 6:00-8:00 pm
Dr. Marcus Pindur (Deutschlandradio)
Planloser Präsident oder neuer Nationalismus? Neun Monate Donald Trump im Weißen Haus

Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017, 6:00-8:00 pm
Prof. Glenn Gebhard (Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles)
American Rebels in Cuba – Film screening and Q&A
in cooperation w/ Academy for International Education

Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017, 6:00-8:00 pm
Dr. Christian Klöckner (North American Studies Program | Columbia University)
“Find out what the future will cost you”: Finance’s Postapocalyptic Futures in Nathaniel Rich’s Odds Against Tomorrow

Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017, 6:00-8:00 pm
Dr. Patrick Horst (North American Studies Program)
The End of the Career – and the Beginning of a New One? Strategic Retirements and Political Ambition

Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017, 6:00-8:00 pm
Dr. Timothy Kaposy (Niagara College of Applied Arts and Technology)
Vernacular, Mixed and Forensic Images: On the Visual Culture of Climate Change

Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2017, 6:00-8:00 pm
Prof. Christopher Newfield (University of California, Santa Barbara)
What Happened to Solar Innovation? Reflections on the Cultural Analysis of Technology Policy

Thursday, Nov. 30, 2017, 6:00-8:00 pm
COLUMBUS DAY LECTURE 2017
Prof. Dr. Claus Leggewie (Universität Gießen)
Trump, the Anti-European
in cooperation w/ Amerika Haus e.V. NRW & Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung 

Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017, 6:00-8:00 pm
Jürgen Hardt (Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation, Federal Foreign Office, Berlin)
The Trump White House: An Inside View on Transatlantic Cooperation and Global Issues
in cooperation w/ Amerika Haus e.V. NRW & Forum Internationale Wissenschaft
[photo from event]

Monday, Dec. 18, 2017, 6:00-8:00 pm
Prof. Justin S. Vaughn (Boise State University)
Presidential Greatness: How Americans Think about It and How Political Scientists Measure It

Monday, Jan. 15, 2018, 6:00-8:00 pm
MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY LECTURE 2018
Prof. Dr. Britta Waldschmidt-Nelson (Universität Augsburg)
A Dream Denied? The Situation of African Americans 50 Years after the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
in cooperation w/ Amerika Haus e.V. NRW

Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018, 6:00-8:00 pm
Prof. Michael Herron (Dartmouth College)
Polarized America and the Election of Donald Trump

Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018, 5:30-8:00 pm
Prof. Dr. Katrin Hansen (Westfälische Hochschule)
Frauen in Top-Positionen: Von 'Glasdecken' und anderen Hindernissen
(including Gender Prize award ceremony, in cooperation w/ Gleichstellungsbüro)

Program as PDF

May 2, 2017
Prof. Dr. Robin Curtis (Universität Düsseldorf)
"Waiting, Wandering, and Wondering: 'Post-Cinematic' Spaces in the Multiple Present"

May 16, 2017
Prof. Benjamin Fagan (Auburn University)
"Speaking Out in Thunder Tones: Democracy and the Early Black Press"

May 23, 2017
Prof. Claudia Sadowski-Smith (Arizona State University)
"The Work of Global Border Writing"

May 30, 2017
Prof. Gary Cross (Pennsylvania State University)
"Ironies of Modern Nostalgia: An American Perspective"

Mai 31, 2017 - Universität zu Köln
Prof. Dr. Klaus Benesch (LMU München)
"A Matter of Scale: Is Close Reading to American Studies What Place Is to Space?"

June 13, 2017 
Prof. Christopher Newfield (UC Santa Barbara)
"Don't Blame Populism: The Cultural Psychology and Technology of Trump's Victory"
(in cooperation with the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb)

June 27, 2017 
PD Dr. Birgit Spengler (North American Studies Program)
"Globalization and Its Others: Spatio-Temporal World-Making in Contemporary Popular Culture"

July 4, 2017 
Prof. Sarah Wasserman (University of Delaware)
"Black Lives and Matter: Policing Harlem in Himes and Ellison"

July 10, 2017 
Prof. Elizabeth M. Dillon (Northeastern University)
"Performance and Materiality in the Atlantic World: From Jonkonnu to Yankee Doodle Dandy"

Program as PDF

November 22, 2016
Dr. Jonas Bens (FU Berlin)
"When the Cherokee Became Indigenous"

November 29, 2016
Dr. Jörg Vianden Ed.D. (University of Wisconsin-La Crosse)
"White Men on U.S. Campuses: Stories and Counterstories about Privilege, Diversity, and Responsibility for Social Change"

December 13, 2016
Dr. Jared Sonnicksen (Technische Universität Darmstadt)
"Dementia and Democracy in North America: Two Approaches to a Growing Challenge"

Martin Luther King Day Lecture 2017
January 16, 2017
Prof. Dr. Anke Ortlepp (Universität Kassel)
"Air Travel, Black Consumers, and U.S. Citizenship: The Struggle for Desegregation of American Airports"

January 31, 2017
Prof. Dr. Stefani Engelstein (Duke University)
"Split Genealogies: The History of Philology between Natural Sciences and Humanities"

in cooperation with the US Consulate General (Düsseldorf), the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) and the Center for International Security and Governance (CISG)

Download overview

Tuesday, April 26, 2016 | 6:00 to 8:00 pm | Festsaal, Main building
Prof. Jackson Janes · Johns Hopkins University
"Challenges and Choices: The Presidential Election and Its Significance for German-American Relations"
Welcome address: Consul General Michael R. Keller 
Talk followed by a reception (See pictures from the event)

Monday, May 2, 2016 | 6:00 to 8:00 pm | Lecture hall XVII, IAAK
Prof. Dr. Andreas Falke · FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
"Economic Issues in the 2016 Election"
Response: Prof. James D. Bindenagel (CISG)

Tuesday, May 24, 2016 | 6:00 to 8:00 pm | Festsaal, Main building 
Dr. Henrike Viehrig · North American Studies Program
"Economy, Ecology, Elections: Energy in US-American Politics"

Tuesday, June 14, 2016 | 6:00 to 8:00 pm | Lecture hall XVII, IAAK
Prof. Dr. Sabine Sielke · North American Studies Program
"Engendering the Race: How Gender Matters in the US Presidential Election"

Tuesday, June 28, 2016 | 6:00 to 8:00 pm | Medienzentrum der bpb
Dr. Torben Lütjen · Universität Göttingen
"Donald Trump und was zuvor geschah: Geschichte und Anatomie des amerikanischen Konservativismus"
Welcome address: Thomas Krüger (President, bpb)

Tuesday, July 12, 2016 | 6:00 to 8:00 pm | Festsaal, Main building
Prof. Christopher Newfield · University of California, Santa Barbara
"Is the United States Post-Democratic? Mobilizing Economic and Racial Grievances in the 2016 Campaign"

Tuesday, July 19, 2016 | 6:00 to 8:00 pm | Lecture hall XVII, IAAK
PD Dr. Elisabeth Schäfer-Wünsche & Christian Klöckner, M.A. · North American Studies Program
"Politics of Celebrity: The Case of Donald Trump" (Read full script)

Tuesday, October 25, 2016 | 6:00 to 8:00 pm | Festsaal, Main building
Dr. Marcus Pindur · Deutschlandradio
"Präsidentschaftswahlkampf in Zeiten des Populismus"
Columbus Day Lecture 2016

Thursday, November 3, 2016 | 6:00 to 8:00 pm | Lecture hall IV
PD Dr. Thomas Greven · John F. Kennedy Insititute, FU Berlin
"Richtungswahl in den USA: Zur Gegenwart und Zukunft der Republikanischen Partei"

May 12, 2016
Prof. Vivien Green Fryd (Vanderbilt University)
"Kara Walker's About the Title: Reenacting the Trauma of Colonialism and Slavery"

June 7, 2016
Ethan Rafal (Photographer)
"Shock and Awe: A Presentation|Performance"

July 5, 2016
Brachland-Ensemble
"Ready for Boarding: Der CIA-Folterreport als Live-Hörspiel"

Program as PDF

October 27, 2015 
Prof. Christopher E. Forth 
University of Kansas | Universität Erfurt
“Fat American or Fattened American? Corpulence, Consumption and Animality”

November 3, 2015 
Dr. Juliane Braun 
North American Studies Program
“‘Strange Beasts of the Sea’: Captain Cook’s Last Voyage and the Transoceanic American Empire”

November 4, 2015 
Martha Bayles 
Boston College
“Dancing in Chains: Why Music Cannot Keep the World Free”

November 10, 2015
Columbus Day Lecture
Consul General Michael Keller 
U.S. Consulate General, Düsseldorf
“TTIP, Trade, Diplomacy”

November 17, 2015
Prof. Dr. Sabine Sielke 
North American Studies Program
“‘Der Mensch als ‘Gehirnmaschine’: Kognitionswissenschaft, visuelle Kultur, Subjektkonzepte”

November 24, 2015 
Ian Robinson, Ph.D. 
North American Studies Program
“Toronto on Screen: Cinema and Politics of Place since the 1980s”

December 1, 2015 
Prof. Glenn Gebhard 
Loyola Marymount University | AIB, Bonn
Cuba: The Forgotten Revolution (Film Screening and Q&A)

December 8, 2015 
Prof. Dr. Hubert Zapf 
Universität Augsburg
“Cultural Ecology and the Transdisciplinary Knowledge of Literature”

January 18, 2016 
Martin Luther King Day Lecture
PD Dr. Carsten Junker
Universität Bremen | Universität Leipzig
“The Ambivalences of Early Abolitionism: A Reevaluation”

January 26, 2016 
George Thomas, M.A. 
University of California, Davis | Universität Mainz
“Telling Time in the Twentieth-Century American Novel”

February 2, 2016 
Kelly Kawar, M.A. 
North American Studies Program
“The Ethics of Life in Saul Bellow”

Program as PDF

April 21, 2015
Prof. Arthur Gross-Schaefer, J.D.
Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles | AIB, Bonn
“The History, Necessities, and Abuses of Academic Freedom”

May 5, 2015
Prof. Dr. Joyce Goggin
University of Amsterdam
“Flirting with Disaster: Hollywood Film and the Shock Doctrine”

May 12, 2015
Ellen Hinsey
Skidmore College, Paris | DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program
“What Poetry Knows: Tyranny, Freedom and the Mystery of Art”

May 19, 2015
Dr. Sabine N. Meyer 
University of Osnabrück | Käte Hamburger Center “Law as Culture”
“Conceptualizations of Sovereignty in Postmodern Native American Literature”

June 16, 2015
Prof. Dr. Barbara Lüthi 
University of Cologne
"Fighting Jim Crow: The Freedom Riders of 1961 and the Dilemma of Mobility"

June 30, 2015
Prof. Nathalie Kuroiwa-Lewis 
Saint Martin’s University, Lacey, WA
"The Rhetoric of Invisible Victimage: Obama’s 21st Century Wars"

July 7, 2015
Dr. Philipp Löffler 
University of Heidelberg
"After Literary History: 21st Century American Literature and the 21st Century American Literature and the Idea of the Contemporary"

Program as PDF

October 1, 2014 
A Conversation with Martha Bayles about her latest book on Popular Culture, Public Diplomacy and America’s Image Abroad

October 13, 2014 
Prof. Dr. Lawrence Howe
Roosevelt University | University of Southern Denmark
"Mark Twain and America’s Ownership Society: Property and Its Discontents"

October 28, 2014
Prof. Dr. Eric Sandeen
University of Wyoming | Radboud University Nijmegen
"Edward Steichen’s The Family of Man Sixty Years On: Looking Back at 1950s America"

November 4, 2014 
Dr. Christina Ziegler-McPherson
Hoboken Historical Museum | University of Bremen
"Invasion of the Other: Anti-Immigration Politics in the United States, 1840–2014"

November 24, 2014
Columbus Day Lecture 2014
Prof. James D. Bindenagel
Center for International Security and Governance, University of Bonn
"Building the Transatlantic Relationship: From Naming America to Unifying Germany and Beyond"

December 2, 2014 
Dr. Angela Condello
University of Rome III | Käte Hamburger Kolleg “Recht als Kultur”
"Exemplarity as a Form of Normativity: How Individual Narratives Have Shaped American Legal Culture and the Construction of ‘Privacy’"

December 9, 2014
Britanni Sonnenberg reads from her novel Home Leave

December 16, 2014
Dr. Thorsten Kathke
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne
"FUTURE SHOCK Is ‘Where It’s At’: Diagnosing the State of America’s Society in the 1970s"

Monday, January 19, 2015 | 6:00-8:00 pm | Festsaal
Martin Luther King Day Lecture 2015
Prof. Dr. Manfred Berg (University of Heidelberg)
"The Dream Revisited: Racial Integration and Black Advancement since the Civil Rights Era"

January 29, 2015 
Prof. Layli Maparyan
Wellesley Centers for Women
"Building Cultures of Inclusion across Race, Ethnicity, and Religion: Comparing Notes across the U.S. and Germany to Cultivate Social Change Leadership"
In cooperation with the U.S. Consulate General, Düsseldorf

Program as PDF

Tuesday, May 6, 2014 • 6:00-8:00 pm • Room A, IAAK
Prof. Bryant Simon, Ph.D. (Temple University | University of Erfurt)
"What’s the Real Cost of a Big Mac? The High Costs of Cheap Food"

Tuesday, May 13, 2014 • 6:00-8:00 pm • Lecture hall XVII, IAAK
Forum Beruf North American Studies

Tuesday, May 20, 2014 • 6:00-8:00 pm • Dekanatssaal
Prof. Dr. Greta Olson (University of Giessen | Käte Hamburger Center "Law as Culture")
"The Centrality of the Constitution to US American Culture –
Arguments from the Left and the Right"

Tuesday, June 3, 2014 • 6:00-8:00 pm • Room A, IAAK
Dr. Lena Laube (Forum International Science, University of Bonn)
"Grenzzäune und 'Remote Control': Die Selektivität der US-Grenzpolitik"

Tuesday, June 24, 2014 • 6:00-8:00 pm • Room A, IAAK
Prof. Dr. Dieter Stein (IAAK, University of Bonn)
"From Open Access to Open Science: Towards a New Culture of Scientific Discourse"

Thursday, July 3, 2014 • 6:00-8:00 pm • Room A, IAAK
Prof. Dr. Elena Esposito (Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia)
"The Reality of Ratings"

Monday, July 14, 2014 • 6:00-8:00 pm • Room A, IAAK
Prof. Stefani Engelstein, Ph.D. (University of Missouri-Columbia)
"Economizing Desire: The Sibling (in) Law"

Monday, October 21, 2013 • 4:00–6:00 pm • Festsaal, Main Building
Sen. Chris Steineger (Former Kansas State Senator)
“Contemporary American Politics: Obama’s Second Term and Beyond”

Columbus Day Lecture 2013
Tuesday, November 5, 2013 • 6:00–8:00 pm • Room A, IAAK
Prof. Dr. Susanne Lachenicht (Department of Early Modern History, University of Bayreuth)
“Conquest, Expansion, Colonization: Risk and Risk Assessment in the Early Modern Atlantic World”

Tuesday, November 12, 2013 • 6:00–8:00 pm • Room A, IAAK
Dr. Stefanie Müller (Department of American Studies, University of Frankfurt)
“National and Economic Incorporation in HBO’s Deadwood”

Thursday, January 9, 2014 • 4:00–6:00 pm • Room 3.002, Institute of Oriental and Asian Studies, Regina-Pacis-Weg 7
Christian Schmidt, M.A. (American Studies, University of Bayreuth)
“Postblack Aesthetics: ‘Redefining Complex Notions of Blackness’ in Contemporary African American Literature”

Tuesday, January 14, 2014 • 6:00–8:00 pm • Lecture Hall XVII, IAAK
Prof. Cristanne Miller (Department of English, University at Buffalo)
“‘All the slain soldiers’: Poetry and the American Civil War”

Thursday, January 16, 2014 • 6:00–8:00 pm • Lecture Hall VIII, Main Building
Prof. David Damrosch (Department of Comparative Literature, Harvard University)
“From Auerbach's Istanbul to Spitzer's Baltimore: The American Afterlife of Philology”

Martin Luther King Day Lecture 2014

Tuesday, January 21, 2014 • 6:00–8:00 pm • Room A, IAAK
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Martin Lüthe (John F. Kennedy Institute, FU Berlin)
“Motown Memories: Forms and Functions of Facing the Music”

Program as PDF

Monday, April 22, 2013 • 6:00 – 8:00 pm • Room B (IAAK)
Prof. Russell Kilbourn (Department of English|Film Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University)
“Camera Arriving at the Station: Cinematic Memory as Cultural Memory”

Monday, May 6, 2013 • 6:00 – 8:00 pm • Room B (IAAK)
Prof. Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr. (Theatre Arts Program, Loyola Marymount University)
“Falling Darkness: Changes in Genre Film and Television in the United States after 9/11”

Tuesday, May 14, 2013 • 6:00 – 8:00 pm • Room A (IAAK)
Prof. Rolf J. Goebel (Department of Foreign Languages, University of Alabama in Huntsville)
“From Postcoloniality to Global Media Culture: Reflections on Metropolitan Topography”

Tuesday, May 28, 2013 • 6:00 – 8:00 pm • Room A (IAAK)
Dr. Justin Sully (North American Studies Program, University of Bonn)
“Wonks, Pundits and Statistical Panic in Contemporary US Political Culture: The Case of Nate Silver"

Wednesday, June 5, 2013 • 6:00 – 8:00 pm • HS 104 (Main building)
Prof. Grace Elizabeth Hale (Dpt. of History, University of Virginia | University of Erfurt)
“Out of Place, Out of Time: Filming the ‘Folk’ in the US South in the 1960s and 1970s”

Tuesday, June 25, 2013 • 6:00 – 8:00 pm • Room A (IAAK)
Prof. Dr. Moritz Schularick (Bonn Graduate School of Economics, University of Bonn)
“Mind the Gap: The Making of America’s Imbalances”

Tuesday, July 9, 2013 • 6:00 – 8:00 pm • Room A (IAAK)
Dr. Sarah Wasserman (North American Studies Program, University of Bonn)
“Fun with the Future-Past: Amusement and Obsolescence in 1930s New York”

Martin Luther King Day Lecture 2013

Tuesday, January 22, 2013 • 6:00 – 8:00 pm • HS XVII (IAAK)
Prof. Dr. Jodi Melamed (Department of English, Marquette University|HU Berlin)
“The Racial Politics of Neoliberalism: Martin Luther King’s Previsions”

Tuesday, November 20, 2012 • 6:00 – 8:00 pm • Room A (IAAK)
Prof. Dr. David Caplan (Department of English, Ohio Wesleyan University)
“Reclaiming Rhyme: On Contemporary American Poetry, Hip Hop, and Rhyming Culture”

Tuesday, December 4, 2012 • 6:00 – 8:00 pm • Room A (IAAK)
Mai-Linh Hong, J.D. (Department of English, University of Virginia)
“Regulating the Militia: Black Power and the Right to Bear Arms”

Tuesday, December 11, 2012 • 6:00 – 8:00 pm • Room A (IAAK)
Dr. Marcel Hartwig (Department of English, University of Siegen)
“‘Old World Contagions’ and Preventive Medicine: The Fate of American Voluntary Health Insurance Systems”

Tuesday, December 18, 2012 • 6:00 – 8:00 pm • Room A (IAAK)
Prof. Dr. Suleiman Osman (George Washington University)
“The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn: Gentrification and the Search for Authenticity in Postwar New York”

Flyer as PDF

Tuesday, May 22, 2012 • 6:00 – 8:00 pm • Festsaal
Prof. Joyce Mushaben (Department of Political Science, University of Missouri - St. Louis)
"It's the Women, Stupid: Female Voters and Gender Policies in the 2012 Elections"

Tuesday, June 26, 2012 • 6:00 – 8:00 pm • Universitätsclub
Dr. Torben Lütjen (Institut für Parteienrecht und Parteienforschung, University of Düsseldorf)
"The Great Divide: Warum Amerika ideologisch so gespalten ist"

Tuesday, July 3, 2012 • 6:00 – 8:00 pm • Festsaal
Prof. Dr. Sabine Sielke (North American Studies Program)
"Why Race (Still) Matters in US-American Culture – and How It Does in the 2012 Presidential Race"

Wednesday, July 11, 2012 • 6:00 – 8:00 pm • Universitätsclub
Prof. Dr. Christian Hacke (Institut für Politische Wissenschaft und Soziologie, Universität Bonn)
"Wer macht das Rennen? Mögliche politische Konsequenzen der US-amerikanischen Präsidentschaftswahlen 2012"

Monday, October 29, 2012 • 6:00 – 8:00 pm • Festsaal 
Prof. Dr. Crister S. Garrett (Institute for American Studies, University of Leipzig)
“America Debates Itself: Exceptionalism, Declinism, and the Electoral Season of 2012”

Program as PDF

Thursday, April 12, 2012 • 4:00-6:00 pm • Room B
Dr. Olaf Stieglitz (Institute of Anglo-American History, University of Cologne)
"Revisiting the 1950s – from Consensus to Conflict, from Nostalgia-Trap to Retro-Chic"

Tuesday, April 17, 2012 • 6:00–8:00 pm • Room A 
Dr. Henrike Viehrig (North American Studies Program)
"The Paradox of Presidential Power"

Thursday, May 3, 2012 • 4:00–6:00 pm • Room B
Dr. Bryan van Sweringen (John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies, FU Berlin)
"'Popkulturkampf': The American Fifties Out on the Frontier of Freedom"

Wednesday, May 23, 2012 • 11:00 am • HS VII
Simone Knewitz, M.A. (North American Studies Program)
"Von Tobacco Road zu Hurrikan Katrina: Krisen, Katastrophen und der US-amerikanische Süden"

Wednesday, May 23, 2012 • 3:00–4:00 pm • Festsaal 
PD Dr. Elisabeth Schäfer-Wünsche (North American Studies Program)
"What is an American? Überlegungen zu einem umstrittenen Begriff" (Antrittsvorlesung)

Thursday, May 24, 2012 • 12:00–2:00 pm • HS 17
Prof. Roger L. Nichols (Department of History, University of Arizona)
"Indians and American Society since 1960"

Thursday, June 14, 2012 • 7:00–9:00 pm • HS 17
Prof. Dr. Sabine Sielke (North American Studies Program)
"Race, Ethnicity, Nordamerika(studien)" [Video]
[as part of Salon 17's lecture series "Making Race?! Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf 'Rasse' und 'Ethnizität"]

Thursday, June 28, 2012 • 6:15-7:00 pm • Festsaal
Prof. Dr. Sabine Sielke (North American Studies Program)
"Nostalgia for New York"
[as part of the symposium "Intercultural Sites in the Global City"]

Thursday, July 12, 2012 • 4:00–9:00 pm • Room B
The Real American – Joe McCarthy (2011)
Filmscreening and Discussion with Dr. Simone Höller

Tuesday, January 17, 2012 • 6:00–8:00 pm • HS 17
Prof. Dr. Heike Paul (University of Erlangen-Nürnberg)
"The Legacy of the Black Power Movement in the Twenty-First Century"

Tuesday, November 8, 2011 • 6:00–8:00 pm • Festsaal
Janice G. Weiner, U.S. Consul General (Düsseldorf)
"Diversity and Pluralism as Key Goals of U.S. Foreign Policy"

Wednesday, April 27, 2011 • 6:00–8:00 pm • Room B
Prof. Dr. Barbara Hedderich (Department of Economics, Hochschule Ansbach)
"Homo Oeconomicus – Streifzug durch die Geschichte eines Entscheidungsmodells"

Wednesday, May 4, 2011 • 6:00–8:00 pm • HS 17
Prof. Susan Strasser (Department of History, University of Delaware|John F. Kennedy Institute, FU Berlin)
"Woolworth to Wal-Mart: Mass Merchandising and the Changing American Culture of Consumption"

Tuesday, May 17, 2011 • 6:00–8:00 pm • Conference Room
Vera Grant, M.A. (W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Harvard University)
"New Thoughts on an Old Occupation Zone: The Aesthetics of Propaganda, Race, and Fraternization on the Rhine, 1918-1923"

Thursday, May 26, 2011 • 6:00–8:00 pm • HS 17
Prof. Dr. Christina von Braun (Department of Cultural Studies, Humboldt-Universität Berlin)
"Der menschliche Körper als 'Goldstandard' des Geldes"

Monday, June 6, 2011 • 6:00–8:00 pm • HS 17
Prof. Kristin Hoganson (Department of History, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign|LMU München)
"Buying Into Empire: American Consumption at the Turn of the Twentieth Century"

Tuesday, June 28, 2011 • 6:00–8:00 pm • Conference Room
Dr. Todd Carmody (Department of English, UC Berkeley|Excellence Cluster "Languages of Emotions", FU Berlin)
"'Days with Paul Robeson': Spirituals, Solidarity, and the East German Archive"

Tuesday, July 5, 2011 • 6:00–8:00 pm • Conference Room
Dr. Hannes Bergthaller (Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, National Chung-Hsing University, Taiwan)
"Wars on Bugs: Cold War Ecology in the Works of Robert Heinlein, William S. Burroughs, and Rachel Carson"

Thursday, January 20, 2011 • 6:00-8:00 pm • HS 17
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Simon Wendt (Institut für England- und Amerikastudien, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)
“‘This nonviolent stuff ain’t no good. It'll get ya killed’: Armed Self-Defense and the Civil Rights Movement”

Thursday, October 14, 2010 • 6:00-8:00 pm • Festsaal
Prof. Dr. Anke Ortlepp (Amerika-Institut, LMU München)
“Staging Gender, Staging Class: Airtravel, Architecture, and Design in the Postwar Period”

Tuesday, December 1, 2009 • 6:00-8:00 pm • Room A
Prof. Jane Feuer (Dept. of English, University of Pittsburg/Universität Tübingen)
"Town Meetings of the Imagination: Northern Exposure and Gilmore Girls"

Tuesday, December 8, 2009 • 6:00-8:00 pm • HS 17
Prof. Katherine Donohue (Department of History, Central Michigan University/Universität Bochum)
"The Political Odyssey of F. J. Schlink: Capitalism, Communism, and Consumerism in the 1930s"

Wednesday, December 23, 2009 • 12:00-2:00 pm • HS 17
Prof. Dr. Gunther Hirschfelder (Institut für Germanistik, Vergleichende Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft, Uni Bonn)
"Weihnachten auf dem Weg in die Zukunft"

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 • 6:00-8:00 pm • HS 17
Prof. Dr. Heinz Ickstadt (John F. Kennedy-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin)
"New York as Cultural Space"

Thursday, January 14, 2010 • 6:00-8:00 pm • Room TBA
Prof. Paul Lauter (Department of English, Trinity College Dublin)
"The Market and the Cathedral: Immigration, Identity, and Conflict"

Additionally, a series of film screenings was offered (in cooperation with the English Department Film Society), including such classics as "King Kong," "Manhattan," "Taxi Driver," and "Gangs of New York".

Tuesday, May, 19, 2009 • 18:00-20:00 pm • Conference Room
Sophia Komor, M.A. (Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Hamburg)
"Screaming Silence, (Un)Veiling Violence: Will Eno's Dramatic Art"

Tuesday, July 14, 2009 • 18:00-20:00 pm • HS 17
Prof. Dr. Bernd Greiner (Institut für Sozialforschung, Hamburg)
“Die USA in Vietnam – Ursachen und Folgen entgrenzter Gewalt”

Thursday, July 23, 2009 • 18:00-20:00 Uhr c.t. • HS 5
Dr. Michael Butter (Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies, Universität Freiburg)
“Entführt, missbraucht, indoktriniert: antikatholische Verschwörungstheorien und amerikanische Literatur – von Maria Monk bis Dan Brown”

"Perfekte Tarnung? Warnen, Tarnen, Täuschen in Natur und Kultur"
Ringvorlesung des Forums Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung

Tuesday, January 20, 2009 • 18:00-20:00 pm • HS 17
Prof. Dr. Sabine Broeck (American Studies, Universität Bremen)
"The Erotics of African-American Endurance: White (West)-German Public Sentiment between Pornotroping and Civil Rights Solidarity"