On October 17 and 18, 2024, more than 80 researchers celebrated ten years of border studies in the Greater Region. To mark the jubilee, border researchers from the UniGR-Center for Border Studies (UniGR-CBS) met with international scholars from 30 countries to discuss border struggles and border alliances.

Exchange and International Networking
As a UniGR-CBS partner, Saarland University hosted the conference in order to strengthen the dialogue and international networking of the spatial, linguistic, and cultural specialization of the cross-border interdisciplinary UniGR Center of Expertise. The conference organizers, Astrid M. Fellner and Eva Nossem (Saarland University) were also particularly interested in the exchange between established and junior scholars as well as between different languages, cultures, and academic disciplines.

UniGR-CBS Working Groups
The impressive conference program with 16 panels and 67 speakers, as well as two workshops, provided ample opportunity for this. For example, the inter-university working groups of the UniGR Center of Expertise presented in five panel sessions their research results from the Greater Region, innovative approaches to cultural border studies, and development perspectives for the cross-border region.

International Keynote Speeches
The international keynote speakers, who developed the conference theme from different disciplinary perspectives, rounded off the numerous parallel panels. On the first day, political scientist Martina Tazzioli (University of Bologna) presented various perspectives on the overcoming of state institutions of violence in the context of border regimes. On the second day, human geographer Paul Richardson (University of Birmingham) illustrated the instrumentalization of past and present as a powerful means of enforcing and legitimizing border demarcations.

UniGR-CBS Birthday Cake
Another highlight of the conference program was the ceremonial cutting of the birthday cake by the UniGR-CBS Steering Committee members. In this context, the Head of the UniGR-CBS, Christian Wille, took the opportunity to thank all members and colleagues of the UniGR Center of Expertise for their successful work over the past ten years.

Graduation Ceremony of the Master in Border Studies
The two-day UniGR-CBS jubilee conference was rounded off with a graduation ceremony dedicated to the most recent graduates of the Master in Border Studies. The tri-national Master’s program with a spatial and cultural track has been embedded in the UniGR Center of Expertise since 2017 and is now very well-networked throughout Europe with an alumni association.

Further information about the UniGR-CBS Jubilee Conference:
center-border-studies.uni-gr.eu/index.php/en/unigr-cbs/conferences/conference-2024-border-struggles-and-cross-border-alliances

The Kulturwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft e.V. (KWG) is holding its annual meeting at Saarland University in Saarbrücken. Prof. Dr. Astrid M. Fellner, in her function as chair of the association, and Jun.-Prof. Dr. Jonas Nesselhauf, as the head of the KWG office, are happy and proud to organize and host the conference and to welcome all participants to Saarbrücken.

The topic of the KWG 2023 is "Popular Cultures / Populäre Kulturen."

Check out the program and register here.

Don't miss the special events:

• the keynote lectures by Prof. Rickerby M. Hinds (UC Riverside) and Prof. Stefan Krankenhagen (Universität Hildesheim)
• the Dreamscape performance, and
• the roundtable discussion on "Popkultur im Saarland: Kulturräume auf dem Weg aus der Peripherie ins Zentrum" with Uwe Conrad (Mayor of the City of Saarbrücken); Martin Grasmück (Director of Saarländischer Rundfunk), Peter Meyer (founder of PopRat Saarland e.V.), Nil Berber (Department Director for Culture, Industrial Culture, Preservation of Momuments within the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Saarland), and Kathy Zorn (Kulturgut Ost GmbH)

When?

27 - 30 September 2023

Where?

Saarland University, Saarbrücken

This event is funded by Kulturwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft e.V. (KWG), Saarland University, the Chair of North American Literary and Cultural Studies (NamLitCult) at Saarland University, the German-American Institute Saarland (DAI Saarland), and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).

Reading American TV Series: An Interdisciplinary Conference

Oct. 5-7, 2017

Saarland University

Keynote Speakers:
Stacey Abbott (University of Roehampton)
Diane Negra (University College Dublin)

Program

For further information and registration, please contact us at amerikanistik[at]mx.uni-saarland.de.

Click here for the CfP.

Deadline for submissions: 15 July 2017

Please send your abstract plus short biographical note to
amerikanistik[at]mx.uni-saarland.de

Saarland University hosted the 9th biennial MESEA conference
(The Society for Multi-Ethnic Studies: Europe and the Americas) from

May 29 to June 1, 2014.

The topic of this year's conference was:

"Crossing Boundaries in a Post-Ethnic Era:
Interdisciplinary Approaches and Negotiations."

Keynote Speakers:
Anssi Paasi (University of Oulu, Finland)
José David Saldívar (Stanford University)
Mita Banerjee (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)
Cherríe Moraga (Stanford University)
Celia H. Rodríguez (University of California, Berkeley

Click here for the program.

The detailed program including workshops can be found here.

Click here to find out more about the conference.