
UdS American Studies Graduate Forum 2019
Liquid Trajectories: Flight, Mobility, and Migration
November 29-30, 2019
In cooperation with the German-American Institute Saarland, the Chair of North American Literary and Cultural Studies at Saarland University (UdS) will hold a 2-day American Studies Graduate Forum that invites advanced Master students, doctoral students, as well as advanced scholars to present their current projects-in-progress in a workshop-style setting. The forum will offer participants a chance to discuss their research with peers as well as with experienced scholars. This year, we invite submissions dealing with issues of mobility, migration, and the sea.
Historically, oceans have been spaces of movement, peopled by fishers, pirates, seafarers, tourists, offshore workers, scientific investigators, coast guards, castaways, and refugees. Under the pressure of current developments and global movements, oceans and the oceanic have received renewed attention. In an era marked by increased migration, oceans have become the site of intense media scrutiny and scholarly debate. The UdS American Studies Graduate Forum 2019 offers a setting in which a decidedly humanities-driven, cultural studies and literature studies approach to issues of flight, mobility and migration in relation to oceanic spaces will be discussed. Focusing on stories of flight, mobility, and migration, this workshop seeks to highlight the imaginaries of the seas and oceans in cultural representations.
Topics can include but are not limited to:
- Entangled histories of oceans with regard to the Black, Red, and White Atlantic and Pacific
- Fugitive writings and refugee stories
- Oceans as sites of resistance
- Diverse forms of mobility and motility across oceans
- Oceans as boundaries or as transcending boundaries
- Oceans as relational ecospaces
- Oceanic myth-making
Confirmed Keynote Speakers:
- Lynn Itagaki (U of Missouri)
- Massimiliano Demata (University of Turin), and
- Nicole Poppenhagen (U of Flensburg)
Conference Program
The program for our ASGF2019 "Liquid Trajectories" is finally out! You can download it here!
CfP
Presentations should be approximately 20 minutes in length and will be followed by a discussion and feedback round with all participants and experts. Saarland U will seek to offer assistance in travel funding to selected presenters; recipients of the funding will be selected based on their proposals.
In order to submit a proposal, please send an email, including a title, a 250-word abstract and a short biographical note to by September 1, 2019.
Download the Call for Papers here.