We are pleased to announce an online lecture by
Carsten Junker
(TU Dresden)

Field Notes toward American Studies as Relational Diversity Studies

This lecture is going to be the a part
of the 2021/2022 Spring Edition of the
American Studies Colloquium Series.

Thursday, March 3, 2022
at 5:15 p.m.

You can get 2 OZN points for participating in this event.
Check how to collect OZN points online here.

poster by Joanna Bębenek

Where?

This lecture will be streamed online. To attend, click the button below or enter https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89291350296 into your browser, and join the meeting.

What?

The lecture provides reflections on the study of demographic diversity in scenarios of inequality in the broader field of American Studies. Questions to be addressed include: how can “Diversity Studies” be approached? What are the historical conditions for its institutionalization? What are its archives and theoretical frameworks? What role do ethical questions play in this endeavor? The lecture seeks to address from the ground up, as it were, the premises and repercussion of an academic project, of which the object of study—diversity—does not exist per se.

Who?

Prof. Carsten Junker is University Professor of American Studies with a focus on Diversity Studies at TU Dresden, Germany. He is teaching at the ASC during the spring semester 2022, in the framework of the University of Warsaw’s Integrated Development Program (ZIP). His research interests include North American literatures and cultures including Canada and the Caribbean from the seventeenth century to the present, with a special emphasis on the connections between formalizations of cultural patterns and social differentiations, including discursive struggles.

Prof. Junker is staying at the ASC as ZIP Visiting Professor  for two months, from February to April 2022. He is teaching the lecture “Writing against Slavery: Early American Abolitionist Discourses and their Repercussions” as a part of the MA studies program, giving a talk within the American Studies Colloquium Series, and is available for individual consultations, especially for students interested in African American literature and culture.

The Visiting Professorship is offered within the framework of the University’s Integrated Development Programme (ZIP). The University’s Integrated Development Programme (ZIP) is a comprehensive project focused on improving the quality and effectiveness of education in Bachelor, Master and Doctoral programmes, as well as supporting adaptation of the University’s offer to the needs of the economy, labour market and the society. The programme ZIP is co-financed by the European Union within the European Social Fund; its budget is PLN 39 393 989.40. More information available at: https://www.zip.uw.edu.pl/node/192

Year 2024/2025

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American Studies Colloquium Series

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November 28: Soviet-Born Jewish Literature between North America and Germany

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In this conversation, Stuart Taberner (University of Leeds) and Karolina Krasuska (University of Warsaw) will explore some of the parallels and contrasts between the experiences of Soviet Jews who migrated to Germany and the United States in successive waves since the 1960s. Specifically, they will examine the literary production of these cohorts of Soviet Jewish migrants, relating to arrival in the destination country, the reconfiguration of Jewish identity, gender, and Holocaust memory. Following a brief introduction to the historical, sociological, and literary context in Germany and the USA, Stuart and Karolina will engage in a discussion of key points of comparisons and difference.

Year 2024/2025

November 21: “House of Horrors: Familial Intimacies in Contemporary American Horror Fiction” Author’s Meeting

November 19, 2024

Join us on November 21, 2024 for an author’s meeting with Dr. Agnieszka Kotwasińska about her book “House of Horrors: Familial Intimacies in Contemporary American Horror Fiction” published last year by the University of Wales Press. Dr. Kotwasińska will be joined by Dr. Sorcha Ní Fhlainn, and the event will be moderated by Dr. Jędrzej Burszta.

Year 2024/2025

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Weird Fictions Research Group invites you to join for a fantastic (no pun intended) lecture by our guest, Dr. Sorcha Ní Fhlainn from Manchester Metropolitan University! This lecture asks you to consider the dark return of the Gothic 1980s in contemporary culture. Drawing upon ideas and examples of sequelisation, IP branding, apparatus theory, YouTube video curation, nostalgic programming, weird TV, and music, and the confluence of such forms in streaming series including Stranger Things and the current media adoption of Dark MAGA, this lecture invites you to examine the toxicity of the rhetoric of restorative projections and to query its undervalued reflective nostalgia as imagined onscreen to reclaim the future from the precarious dark present.