Seminar für Englische Philologie

Previous Guest Lectures



  • May 10, 2017
    Prof. Norbert Finzsch
    (University of Cologne)
    "'We know the lesbian habits of kleitoriaxein [...] which justifies the resection of the clitoris': Cliterodectomy in the West, 1600 to 1960"

  • July 5, 2016
    Prof. Julia Leyda
    (Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam, and Graduate School for North American Studies, JFKI, FU Berlin)
    "Cute 21st Century Post-Fembots"

  • June 15, 2016
    Prof. Jeffrey Sconce
    (Northwestern University Chicago)
    "'Prosthetic Irritation"

  • May 5, 2016
    Prof. Nathalia King
    (Reed College and John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies)
    "Gertrude Stein's 'Negro Sunshine:' Repetition and the Representation of Race"

  • February 10, 2016
    Prof. Jan D. Kucharzewski
    (Universität Hamburg)
    "I'm the captain now: Nautical Masculinities in American Literature and Film"

  • November 18, 2015
    Prof. Mary Cappello
    (American Academy Berlin/University of Rhode Island)
    "Cloud Writing"

  • June 29, 2015
    Prof. Carla L. Peterson
    (University of Maryland)
    "Urbanity and Taste: The Making of African-American Modernity in Antebellum New York"

  • May 13, 2015
    Prof. Bill Brown
    (University of Chicago)
    "The Unhuman Condition (Hannah Arendt and Bruno Latour)"
    The lecture was hosted by the DFG-Graduiertenkolleg 1787 "Literatur und Literaturvermittlung im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung" and the American Studies section of the English Department.

  • July 9, 2012
    Prof. Dr. David Serlin
    (University of California, San Diego)
    "Spectacles of Empire: Popular Entertainment and Visual Culture in Late-Nineteenth-Century America"

  • June 25, 2012
    Prof. Dr. Charles Postel
    (San Francisco State University)
    "Populism and Modernity in American Culture"

  • June 12, 2012
    Prof. Dr. Kathleen Fitzpatrick
    (Modern Language Association)
    "Planned Obsolescence: Publishing, Technology, and the Future of the Academy"

  • June 8-9, 2012
    "Workshop "Popular Seriality" at the Lichtenberg-Kolleg Göttingen
    with talks by Jason Mittell (Middlebury College/Göttingen), Frank Kelleter (Göttingen), Ruth Page (University of Leicester), Sean O'Sullivan (The Ohio State University), Kathleen Loock (Göttingen), Robyn Warhol (The Ohio State University), Ruth Mayer (Hannover), Matt Hills (Cardiff University), Daniel Stein (Göttingen), Shane Denson (Hannover), Kathleen Fitzpatrick (MLA), and others."

  • May 29, 2012
    Prof. Dr. Wang Shouren
    (Nanjing University, China)
    "Automobiles and American Fiction of the 1950s"

  • May 3, 2012
    Prof. Dr. Henry Jenkins
    (University of Southern California)
    "Comics...and Stuff: Material Culture, Media History, and Graphic Storytelling"

  • Workshop Series with Prof. Dr. Jason Mittell (Middlebury College)
    Workshop I: Media Studies in the U.S. (November 29, 2011); Introduction: Dr. des. Daniel Stein
    Workshop II: Book Project "Complex Television" (January 17, 2012); Introduction: Dr. Shane Denson
    Workshop III: Thesis Writing Workshop for B.A., M.A., and doctoral students (February 9, 2012)

  • December 5, 2011
    Prof. Dr. Gesa Mackenthun
    (Universität Rostock)
    "Beyond your Cooks and Krusensterns: Oceanic Exploration and 'Submarine' Knowledge in Poe and Melville"

  • November 16, 2011
    Ulrich Blumenbach
    (Translator of David Foster Wallace)
    Reading from his new translation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road
    In cooperation with "Literarisches Zentrum Göttingen"

  • November 8, 2011
    Keith Knight
    (Cartoonist, "The K Chronicles," "The Knight Life")
    Slide Show Presentation
    Introduction: Dr. des. Daniel Stein

  • June 7, 2011
    Prof. Dr. Hayden White
    (University of California, Santa Cruz)
    "Featured Thinker" at the ZTMK
    One-day workshop organized by Prof. Dr. Bärbel Tischleder and Prof. Dr. Rebekka Habermas
    Panel Chairs: Prof. Dr. Bärbel Tischleder and Prof. Dr. Frank Kelleter; Position Papers by Dr. des. Daniel Stein, Birte Otten, and Emily Petermann

  • June 6, 2011
    Prof. Dr. Elizabeth Hewitt
    (Ohio State University)
    "Finance and Early American Storytelling"

  • May 17, 2011
    Prof. Dr. Jared Gardner
    (Ohio State University)
    "The Birth of the Open-ended Serial and the Future of Storytelling"

  • April 6 - 8, 2011
    Eröffnungskonferenz der DFG-Forschergruppe "Ästhetik und Praxis populärer Serialität"
    mit Beiträgen von Lorenz Engell (IKKM der Bauhaus Universität Weimar), Knut Hickethier (Universität Hamburg), Thomas Klein (Mainz), Brigitte Frizzoni (Zürich), Ursula Ganz-Blättler (Lugano), Oliver Fahle (Bochum), und Hans-Otto Hügel (Hildesheim). Weitere Informationen hier.

  • December 16, 2010
    Prof. Dr. Ruth Mayer
    (Universität Hannover)
    "Serialität und Fu Manchu"
    12. Kulturwissenschaftliches Labor des ZTMK

  • October 19, 2010
    Prof. Dr. Jason Mittell
    (Middlebury College)
    "Media Studies as an Inter-Discipline"
    Lecture in the colloquium of the Lichtenberg-Kolleg

  • October 10, 2010
    Carl Weissner
    (Translator of William Burroughs and Charles Bukowski)
    Reading from his novel Manhattan Muffdiver
    In cooperation with "Göttinger Literaturherbst"

  • October 9, 2010
    Rebecca Goldstein
    (Author of The Mind-Body Problem, Betraying Spinoza, 36 Arguments for the Existence of God)
    Reading from her novel 36 Arguments for the Existence of God
    In cooperation with "Göttinger Literaturherbst"

  • July 5, 2010
    Prof. Dr. Robin Reid
    (Texas A&M University-Commerce)
    "Where No Straight Man Has Gone Before: Queering Star Trek"

  • June 30 - July 2, 2010
    "Remake | Remodel: New Perspectives on Remakes, Film Adaptations, and Fan Productions" organized by Kathleen Loock
    Contributions by Constantine Verevis (Monash University, Australia), Frank Kelleter (Göttingen), and Robin Reid (Texas A&M University-Commerce, USA).
    See the program and the conference website for more information on speakers and topics.

  • June 16, 2010
    Prof. Dr. Werner Sollors
    (Harvard University)
    "Making America: On A New Literary History of America"

  • June 15, 2010
    Prof. Dr. John David Smith
    (University of North Carolina)
    "The Meaning of African American Slavery Today"

  • May 26, 2010
    Prof. Dr. Jani Scandura
    (University of Minnesota)
    "Living on Leftovers: After Relocation for Japanese Americans"

  • May 18, 2010
    Prof. Dr. Derek Maus
    (SUNY College at Potsdam)
    "Violence, Eroticism and 'Väterliche Züchtigung' in the Colonial Societies of Thomas Pynchon's V. and J.M. Coetzee's Dusklands"

  • May 6, 2010
    Eliot Weinberger
    (Author of An Elemental Thing, dt. Das Wesentliche, and Oranges and Peanuts for Sale)
    Reading from his essay collection An Elemental Thing
    In cooperation with "Literarisches Zentrum Göttingen"

  • May 3 and 4, 2010
    Prof. Dr. Li Jinzhao
    (Beijing Foreign Studies University)
    "Forever Foreigners, Honorary Whites, and Flexible Citizens: Contemporary Chinese American Culture and Identity"
    Workshop:"American Studies in China and Germany" (with American Studies faculty and students)

  • January 27, 2010
    Prof. Dr. Alessa Johns
    (University of California, Davis)
    "Before Germans Took After Indians: Anna Jameson and Native American Spurs to European Reform"

  • October 24, 2009
    Ulrich Blumenbach
    (Translator of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, dt. Unendlicher Spaß)
    Discussing his translation of Foster's novel with Daniel Stein, accompanied by readings from Infinite Jest
    by Benjamin Berger and Anja Katharina Schreiber from Deutsches Theater
    In cooperation with "Göttinger Literaturherbst"

  • October 21, 2009
    Joey Goebel
    (Author of Torture the Artist, dt. Vincent, and Commonwealth, dt. Heartland)
    Reading from his novel Commonwealth
    In cooperation with "Göttinger Literaturherbst"

  • July 16, 2009
    Prof. Dr. Jörg Türschmann
    (Universität Wien)
    "Die Folgen von Folgen: Narrativer Exzess als Abusus und Therapeutikum in Literatur und Film"

  • July 6, 2009
    Prof. Dr. He Chengzhou
    (Nanjing University, China)
    "Gaze, Performativity, and Gender Trouble in Farewell My Concubine"

  • July 3, 2009
    Prof. Dr. Eric S. Rabkin
    (University of Michigan)
    "American Science Fiction Film: No Final Frontiers"

  • June 24, 2009
    Prof. Dr. Udo Hebel
    (Universität Regensburg)
    "Transnationalizing Plymouth Rock? The Politics of U.S. American Memory from the Nineteenth to the Early Twentieth Century"

  • June 17 and 18, 2009
    Prof. Dr. Paula Moya and Prof. Dr. Ramón Saldívar
    (Stanford University)
    Talks:
    "The Time of the Possible Self in Helen María Viramontes’ Short Story 'The Moths'" (Moya)
    "Race and Narrative Theory in Postrace America: Ethnic Literature Post 9/11" (Saldívar)

    Panel Debate: "Race Discourses in the 21st Century" (additional panelists: Prof. Dr. Frank Kelleter, Dr. habil. Karen Schönwälder, Dr. Barbara Buchenau)

  • June 15, 2009
    Prof. Dr. Robert Cherny
    (San Francisco State University)
    "The Transformation of American Politics, 1890-1917"

  • May 28, 2009
    Prof. Dr. David Hall
    (Harvard University)
    "Practices of Writing: The Social and Material History of Texts in Early New England"

  • May 11, 2009
    Prof. Dr. He Chengzhou
    (Nanjing University, China)
    "Intercultural Performance: Shakespeare, Ibsen, and O'Neill on the Chinese Stage"

  • February 12, 2009
    Prof. Dr. Hans-Otto Hügel
    (Universität Hildesheim)
    "Serien mit Gedächtnis"

  • January 20, 2009
    Prof. Dr. Norbert Finzsch
    (Universität zu Köln)
    "Free People of Color and the Fight Against Slavery"

  • October 21, 2008
    "The School of McSweeney's": Eli Horowitz, Lydia Davis, and Nick Hornby Reading and discussing their work
    In Cooperation with "Göttinger Literaturherbst."

  • May 8 - 11, 2008
    "Haunted Narratives – The Politics and Poetics of Identity Formation and Life Writing, Part II," University of Bern, co-organized by Prof. Philipp Schweighauser

  • April 25 - 27, 2008
    "Terrorism, Media, Literature: Don DeLillo and the Ethics of Fiction," co-organized by Prof. Philipp Schweighauser and Prof. Peter Schneck (Osnabrück)
    Contributions by David Cowart (author of Don DeLillo: The Physics of Language), Linda Kauffman (editor of American Feminist Thought at Century's End), Bärbel Flad (DeLillo's editor for Kiepenheuer & Witsch), and Frank Heibert (German translator of DeLillo's work).

  • January 23, 2008
    Prof. Dr. Michael Hochgeschwender
    (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
    "Streitbares Christentum: Evangelikalismus und Fundamentalismus in der Geschichte der USA"


  • October 13, 2007
    Mark Z. Danielewski
    (Author of House of Leaves, dt. Das Haus, and Only Revolutions)
    Reading from his novel House of Leaves, together with German translator Christa Schuenke
    In cooperation with "Göttinger Literaturherbst"


  • October 12, 2007
    Alexander Osang
    (Author of Die Nachrichten; SPIEGEL contributor)
    Reading from his novel Lennon ist tot
    In cooperation with "Göttinger Literaturherbst"

  • July 17, 2007
    Prof. Dr. Paula Moya
    (Stanford University)
    "The Dialogic Potential of Multicultural Literature"

  • July 5, 2007
    Dr. Laura Bieger
    (Kennedy Institut, FU Berlin)
    "Material Fictions, Fictitious Realities: The 'New' Las Vegas and Its Politics of Space and Image"

  • June 24 , 2007
    Prof. Dr. Nicole Shelton
    (Princeton University)
    "Divergent Attributions, Divergent Experiences: Whites and Ethnic Minorities in Interracial Interactions"

  • June 7, 2007
    Prof. Dr. Kristina Bross
    (Purdue University)
    "In a Wilderness Condition: The American Captivity Narrative"

  • November 1, 2006
    Prof. Dr. Daniel M. G. Raff
    (Wharton University of Pennsylvania)
    "Evolving Channels of Distribution for Books and the 'Retail Revolution'"

  • July 14, 2006
    Dr. Christine Gerhard
    (Universität Dortmund)
    "Race, Region, Reconstruction: Das Ende der Sklaverei im amerikanischen Roman"

  • July 14, 2006
    Dr. Jochen Meissner
    (Universität Leipzig)
    "An Intellectual Declaration of Independence: Eric Williams' Capitalism and Slavery 60 Jahre danach"

  • July 7, 2006
    Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hochbruck
    (Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg)
    "The Wizard of Lighting: David Belasco and the American Stage"

  • June 8 - June 11, 2006
    "American Studies as Media Studies," 53rd Annual Convention of the German Association of American Studies
    Contributions by James W. Cortada (IBM Global Services), Pamela Church Gibson (London College of the Arts), John Johnston (Emory University), John Durham Peters (University of Iowa), Daniel Czitrom (Mount Holyoke College), Margaret Morse (University of California, Santa Cruz), Winfried Fluck (FU Berlin). For individual titles and full program click here.

  • March 22, 2006
    Elliot Perlman
    (Author of Seven Types of Ambiguity; Sieben Seiten der Wahrheit, trans. Matthias Jendis, München: DVA, 2008.)
    Reading from his novels Three Dollars, Seven Types of Ambiguity, and from his short story collection The Reasons I Won't Be Coming

  • January 21, 2006
    Prof. Dr. Barrett Watten
    (Wayne State University, Detroit)
    "Authorship Under Erasure: Poetics and the Expanded Field"

  • January 21, 2006
    Prof. Dr. Cheryl Walker
    (Scripps College, Claremont)
    "Death of the Author Criticism and Current Feminist Readings"

  • January 20, 2006
    Prof. Dr. Fotis Jannidis
    (TU Darmstadt)
    "Constructing the Author: A Literary Pragmatics Approach"

  • January 17, 2006
    Dr. Margit Peterfy
    (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz)
    "John Augustus Stone's Metamora (1829) and the White Indian:
    A Study in Hybridity"

  • July 2, 2005
    Prof. Dr. George Yúdice
    (New York University)
    "An Interamerican Perspective on Cultural Theory"

  • July 2, 2005
    Dr. Friedhelm Schmidt-Welle
    (Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut, Berlin)
    "Lateinamerikanische kulturtheoretische Konzepte:
    Transkulturation, Heterogenität, Hybridität und ihr Verhältnis zum Postkolonialismus"

  • May 11, 2005
    Prof. Dr. King-kok Cheung
    (UCLA)
    "Assimilation and the Chinese Heroic Tradition: The Use of Chinese Epics in the Work of Maxine Hong Kingston and Frank Chin"

  • November 03, 2004
    Juniorprofessor Dr. Ulrich Mücke
    (Neuere und Neueste Geschichte der Romania, Universität Göttingen)
    "Bartolomé de Las Casas und die Eroberung Amerikas"

  • July 10, 2004
    PD Dr. Martin Klepper
    (Universität Hamburg)
    "The Inspection of a Well-Knit Stocking: Gender Trouble in Charles Brockden Brown's Arthur Mervyn"

  • July 10, 2004
    Prof. Dr. Sabine Sielke
    (Universität Bonn)
    "Seduction, Production, and the Frontiers of Female Desire: Notes on Excess and Erasure in the Early American Novel"

  • July 09, 2004
    Prof. Dr. Laura Korobkin
    (Boston University)
    "'Your shamefaced Son is too handsome': Sex, Law, and Fiction in Early New England"

  • April 13 - Juli 13, 2004
    Ringvorlesung "Amerika und Deutschland - Ambivalente Begegnungen"
    Contributions by Prof. Dr. Dirk Kaesler (Universität Marburg), Prof. Dr. Winfried Fluck (FU Berlin), Prof. Dr. Gesine Schwan (Europa-Universität Viadrina), Karsten D. Voigt (Auswärtiges Amt), Prof. Dr. Charles Kupchan (Georgetown University), Prof. Dr. Detlev Claussen (Universität Hannover), Prof. Dr. Werner Sollors (Harvard University), Konrad Heidkamp ("Die Zeit"), Omar Akbar (Stiftung Bauhaus), Prof. Dr. Harald Wenzel (Universität Erfurt), Georg Klein. For individual titles and full program click here.

  • January 14, 2004
    Prof. Dr. Peter Freese
    (Universität Paderborn)
    "The Depiction of Growing Up in American Literature"

  • July 07, 2003
    Prof. Dr. Winfried Herget
    (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz)
    "Genre Expectations and Innovative Impulses
    in the American Drama around 1900"

  • May 15, 2003
    Tristan Egolf
    (Author of Lord of the Barnyard, dt. Monument für John Kaltenbrunner)
    Reading from his novel Skirt and the Fiddle

  • January 30, 2003
    Prof. Dr. Werner Sollors
    (Harvard University)
    "Multilingual America: The Significance of Languages for U.S. Multiculturalism"