North American Literary and Cultural Studies (NAMLitCult) is a section of the Department of British, North American, and Anglophone Literatures and Cultures at Saarland University. 

Dedicated to the study of the literatures and cultures of North America, our research and teaching engages North American literatures and cultures from early colonial encounters to postmodern cultural practices. While we study the literary and visual cultures from the colonial period up to the 21st century, there is a strong focus on border literatures, U.S. Latino/a literature, Indigenous Studies, Early American literatures, feminist literatures, Canadian literature, and the global dimensions of North American literatures and cultures. In general, our research projects take transdisciplinary, transhemispheric, and comparative approaches and include the theories and methods of Cultural Studies, Border Studies, Body Studies, and Gender Studies.

We host Saarland University’s Forum Geschlechterforschung, and we coordinate two certificate programs: Zertifikat Gender Studies and Zertifikat Angewandte Pop-Studien.

We collaborate with and are active in several institutions and collaborative research units:
 

NamLitCult offers three classes within the new Master in Border Studies.
Prof. Fellner is the Director of the “UniGR-Center for Border Studies” at Saarland University.
NamLitCult is part of the joint BMBF research project "Linking Borderlands: Dynamiken grenzregionaler Peripherien" and Prof. Fellner is leader of the subproject "Hybrid Borderlands."
NamLitCult is also a member of the working group “Bordertextures.”

Prof. Fellner is currently the chair of the Kulturwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft e.V. (KWG) and member of the section "Kulturwissenschaftliche Border Studies." On 27-30 September 2023, we're hosting the annual meeting of the KWG on the topic of "Popular Cultures."

Prof. Fellner and her team are proud members of the project "Distance Education for Future" (DEFEP); prject lead: Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University, Mykolaiv.

Prof. Fellner is Co-Speaker of the IRTG 1864/2 “Diversity: Mediating Difference in Transcultural Spaces” (2014-2022) that Saarland University is conducting with Trier University and Université de Montréal.

NamLitCult collaborates with partners within the framework of the EUropean Alliance network Transform4Europe.

DAAD Eastpartnership Program with Ukraine "The Bio-Politics of Borders in Times of Crisis" (2018-2020) and "Bridging Borders: Future Challenges and Cultural Dynamics" (2021-2023).

DAAD Ukraine Digital Program "Studybridge Ukraine-Saar" (2022, 2023, ongoing)

NamLitCult is a proud partner of the Borderland Stories project, in collaboration with Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University, supported by EVZ Foundation Remembrance, Responsibility, and Future within the funding line "MEET UP! Youth for Partnership" and lead organizer of the 2023 Summer School "Wartime Experiences," hosted at Saarland U as part of the NamLitCult initiative Transatlantic Dialogues (TAD). Within the TAD framework, we also organized the 2023 summer school "Wartime Experiences: Witnessing and Documenting Wartime Memories."

Prof. Fellner and NamLitCult are grateful to Volkswagenstiftung for funding our project "Borders in Crisis: Discursive, Narrative, and Mediatic Border Struggles in Ukraine, Europe, and North America" (2022-23).

Prof. Fellner is a member of the CEUS - Cluster für Europaforschung.

Prof. Fellner is a partner of Kooperationsplattform Europa between Saarland U and htw saar and leader of the subproject "Grenzräume, Interkulturelle Kommunikation und Mehrsprachigkeit (IK-Grenzraeume.eu)."

As part of the UdS initiative "DaTa-Pin Innovationsprojekte KI Lehre," Prof. Fellner and her team have launched the subproject "AI Across Borders."

Prof. Fellner is also a member of the international research network ENMMA (European Network for Minor Mobilities and the Americas.)

We also work very closely together with the German-American Institute Saarland (DAI Saarland). Together with the DAI, we organize the annual “UdS American Studies Graduate Forum.”