Summer Term 2026
Courses
Courses Summer 2026
In the summer term 2026 NamLitCult is offering the following classes:
For additional information and detailed descriptions, look up the summer term course pages. All departmental courses are also listed in the course directory (LSF) maintained by the university.
Prof. Dr. Astrid M. Fellner
“North American Borderlands: Histories and Cultural Practices”
Advanced Module C 2: Border Cultures im Master “Border Studies”
HS Advanced Topics im Kernfachmaster “American Studies / British Studies / English Linguistics”
This seminar will explore a series of literary representations that focus on border territories, border crossings, and intercultural spaces of in-betweenness. Taking our cue from Chicana border theory, we will look at different border experiences, comparing texts from the U.S.-Mexican border and the U.S.-Canadian border within a transhemispheric paradigm. Focusing on the multiple interdependencies between the United States, Canada, and their neighbors in the Americas, we will talk about a great variety of texts which deal with borders, ranging from literary texts that deal with or are set in borderlands spaces (e.g. Chicanx literature, Native American/First Nations literature) to films (e.g. Frozen River), and other cultural productions and border performances (e.g. the artwork of Guillermo Peña).
Readings:
Rodolfo Gonzales. I am Joaquín/Yo Soy Joaquín (1972)
Sandra Cisneros’s short story “Woman Hollering Creek” (1991)
Guillermo Verdecchia’s Fronteras Americanas/American Borders (1997)
Thomas King’s short story “Borders” (1993)
Courtney Hunt, dir. Frozen River (2008)
Course requirements: oral presentation, term paper.
Course texts and other materials will be made available via our on-line platform.
Blockseminar
Dates: April 24-25 and May 8-9, 2026
A 2 2, room 1.20.1
Friday, April 17 16.00-18.00 h Orientation Meeting (online)
Friday, April 24: 14.00-18.30 h
Saturday, April 25: 09.30-15.30 h
Friday, May 8: 12.00-18.30h
Saturday, May 9: 09.30-15.30h
VL American Literature at 250
Tuesday, 12-14
Musiksaal
In 2026, the United States will mark its 250th anniversary—a moment traditionally reserved for stock-taking and national reflection. Against the backdrop of urgent domestic and global challenges, this course explores how American literature has engaged with the complexities, contradictions, and contested meanings of American identity, democracy, and cultural influence in the past centuries. Through a survey of classic novels, plays, and poems we will examine both the intellectual and emotional power of these works and the cultural work they perform. Special attention will be given to processes of canon formation, revealing that “classics” emerge within multiple traditions: African American, U.S. Latinx, feminist, and LGBTQ* literatures. By tracing these diverse bodies of literature, this course interrogates how literature shapes, reflects, and critiques evolving notions of nationhood at a pivotal historical juncture.
Course Readings:
A course reader will be made available on Moodle.
UE/VL Foundations of Cultural Studies
Wednesday, 10-12
Musiksaal
This course is intended to make students familiar with the various theoretical approaches and practices common to the study of culture. It should introduce students to the intellectual roots and contemporary applications of Cultural Studies, focusing on the theoretical bases for the analyses of meaning and power in the production and reception of texts. While this class will offer various approaches to the study of cultures in the English-speaking world, it should also provide students with an opportunity to do Cultural Studies. In our analyses we will therefore draw on a wide range of cultural material (literature, television, films, and commercials) and explore the ways in which questions of representation are interrelated with issues of identity, in particular racial/ethnic, sexual, class, and regional differences.
Texts:
A course reader will be made available on Teams.
Geöffnet für Gender-Zertifikat: Basismodul
Geöffnet für Zertifikat Angewandte Pop-Studien: Pflichtmodul 1: Interdisziplinäre Einführung in die Popkultur
Geöffnet für Hok Nf American Cultural Studies und Gender Studies
BA/MA/STEX Colloquium
Tuesday, 16-18
A 2 2, room 1.20.1
This workshop-like colloquium allows candidates (BA-students, MA-students and Stex-students) to talk about the topics of their theses and the topics for their oral exams.
This colloquium consists of two parts:
1) “Blockkolloquium” in April for those students who will participate in the oral state exam (LS I, LS I & II, LAG, LAR, LAB). All topics can be presented and discussed. Please bring handouts for your brief presentations. This “Blockkolloquium” will take place on April 7, 2026.
Please sign up for the Blockkolloquium via email by April 2, 2026 (amerikanistik[at]mx.uni-saarland.de).
2) Workshop for those students who will write/or are working on their BA, MA or Staatsexamensarbeit. A major goal of this course is to guide students through the process of writing a research paper. All candidates in NamLitCult who are working on a written thesis are therefore encouraged to attend regularly.
This colloquium starts on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. Further meetings will be announced in the first session.
Please sign up via LSF.
Research Colloquium
Tuesday, 18-20
A 2 2, room 1.20.1
This research colloquium offers writers of Ph.D. dissertations a forum for presentations of their work-in-progress. It will start on April 14, 2026.
Prof. Dr. Paul Morris
HS Canadian Literature and the Representation of the Environment
Blockseminar in June/July
C 5 3, 1.20
Introductory Session: June 11
Seminar Meetings: Monday and Friday afternoon/evening from June 15 – July 10
The Canadian national imaginary is the product of many influences. One of the most important has been the evolving sense of the formative power of the environment in the northern half of North America. From the colonial period through confederation and the twentieth century to the largely urban society of the twenty-first century, the particular qualities of the Canadian environment have determined the nature of Canadian economic and cultural development. Canadian identity, the country’s sense of self-understanding, is intimately linked to its relation to, and perceptions about, the surrounding natural environment.
The proposed course will provide a survey of various literary expressions of the Canadian environment and its relation to the national imaginary. In a brief introductory section, we will discuss early European perceptions of the environment from the nineteenth century. We will then examine the once powerful thesis forwarded by Northrop Frye (and Margaret Atwood) that traced the dominant contours of a specifically Canadian national identity in the nation’s relationship to the environment. Finally, we will discuss more recent perceptions of the environment, in particular the perceived threats to the environment posed by human development.
List of Required Reading (tentative list):
- Selected Readings: Susanna Moodie, Confederation Poets, Northrop Frye, Margaret Atwood (copies to be provided by the instructor)
- Margaret Atwood, Surfacing, 1972
- Thomas King, The Back of the Turtle, 2014
- Michael Christie, Greenwood, 2019
N.B. Course Requirements:
- Course readings / discussions
- Presentation on a relevant topic of the student’s choice
- Final essay of approximately 15 - 20 pp.
Tentative Schedule (Alterations to the schedule possible – according to student availability):
| Date | hours of instruction | ||
| Friday June 12 | 16:00-18:00 | Introduction | 3 |
| Monday June 15 | 16:00-18:00 | Selected Readings | 4 |
| Friday June 19 | 16:00-19:00 | Selected Readings | 4 |
| Monday June 22 | 16:00-19:00 | Margaret Atwood, Surfacing, 1972 | 4 |
| Friday June 26 | 16:00-19:00 | Margaret Atwood, Surfacing, 1972 | 4 |
| Monday June 29 | 16:00-19:00 | Thomas King, The Back of the Turtle, 2014 | 4 |
| Friday July 3 | 16:00-19:00 | Thomas King, The Back of the Turtle, 2014 | 4 |
| Monday July 6 | 16:00-19:00 | Michael Christie, Greenwood, 2019 | 4 |
| Friday July 10 | 16:00-19:00 | Michael Christie, Greenwood, 2019 | 4 |
Dr. Tobias Schank
“Digital Media Studies”
Gruppe 1: Mo 12.15-13.45: B 3 1, 2.18
Gruppe 2: Di 12.15-13.45: C 5 3, 1.20
Geöffnet für:
- CSM
- Zertifikat Digitalität. KI. Gesellschaft
Digital media suffuse and impact daily life in an unprecedented scope, continuously growing their significance as tools that can be implemented to both stabilize and counter positions/agents of power. As scientific advances, business ventures, leisure activities, and human relations in general continue to shift and expand in digital spheres, scholars are tasked with the development of tools to understand, critically assess, and make transparent the purviews and effects of digital media. Consequently, it is fundamental to establish and expand digital media literacy among future academics and professionals.
In this class, we will provide an overview of what digital media are, how they work, and how they can be studied as ‘texts’ or ‘cultural artifacts’ in Cultural Studies. To that effect, we will build a set of basic theoretical skills that are vital for the critical assessment of digital media and their influence on both individuals and society at large. This includes an elementary engagement with Marxist, feminist, queer, post-colonial, and ecocritical theory – with a focus on how these approaches relate to the idiosyncrasies of digitality. In a select number of examples, we will foray into applying those skills in sample analyses, a course element that will be specified and practiced in greater detail in the class Digital Media Studies Advanced.
Readings may include (final syllabus will be presented in the first session):
Tba.
Requirements:
Regular attendance, active participation, including reading/watching and writing assignments, participation in class discussion, a short presentation (15min).
Bärbel Schlimbach, M.A.
PS Conflicts and Struggles: Representations of “Violence” in North American Literatures
Wednesday, 16-18
A 2 2, room 1.20.1
This seminar examines how North American literatures represent “violence” in various forms—from physical to psychological violence and from individual conflicts to structural oppression. Rather than treating violence as a single event or spectacle, we explore it as a defining aspect in national narratives, in narratives of resistance and in shaping identities. Students are introduced to selected theoretical readings to enable critical engagement with our primary texts. Our primary readings cover colonial times to the present and include, among others, Charles Brockden Brown’s “Insomnia,” Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” and Percival Everett’s novel The Trees. By analyzing our texts, we trace how writers depict violence connected to colonial conflicts, the history of slavery, gendered oppression and economic inequality and how literary texts influence our understanding of present and past by representations of violence as testimony, critique, resistance and starting point for change.
Requirements
Active participation, including reading and writing assignments, participation in class discussion, a short presentation and a seminar paper.
Readings
All shorter primary texts and secondary readings will be made available. Students need to buy Percival Everett’s novel The Trees, preferably in this edition:
Everett, Percival. The Trees. Picador, 2023. ISBN/EAN: 9781035036615
Dr. Arlette Warken
VL Introduction to Cultural Studies: North America: Canada
Thursdays, 16-18
B 3 1, HS I
Although Canada is the second largest country in the world and the largest country in the Americas, it is often overlooked, forgotten or neglected in the study of North America. The interdisciplinary scope of this course will allow students to gain not just an overview but also a deeper understanding of Canadian society and culture, thereby broadening and deepening their knowledge about North America.
This course is designed as a lecture series in which experts from various disciplines share their expertise in Canadian society and culture in the form of introductory overviews and specific case studies. Classes will include video recordings of guest lectures, as well as activities and discussions that help students engage with the materials presented.
The videos were recorded here in Saarbrücken by the North American Literary and Cultural Studies section as part of a project on Virtual Canadian Studies for the Gesellschaft für Kanada-Studien.
All the necessary readings will be made available online via Moodle.
Isis Luxenburger
Introduction to Media Studies: Tech Dreams and Nightmares. AI, Robots and Technology in North American Sci-Fi Media (Movies, Series & Games)
Monday, 10-12
B 3 1, room 2.17
Geöffnet für:
Zertifikat Angewandte Popstudien (Pflichtmodul 1: Interdisziplinäre Einführung in die Popkultur)
Zertifikat “Digitalität. KI. Gesellschaft”
From voice assistants and VR headsets to algorithmic governance and AI companions, technologies once confined to science fiction have become part of our everyday lives. Media are everywhere around us; we consume, use, mediate, and digest them daily. Most of these media are—and have become—digital; books, newspapers, or physical films become relics when they are transferred into the well-connected and omnipresent digital sphere. As media mirror and influence the societies they are produced in, media productions such as movies, series, and games are a rich subject within cultural studies.
Science fiction has long oscillated between utopian dreams of progress and dystopian fears of control and collapse. Narratives about artificial intelligence, robotics, and immersive technologies not only entertain but also reflect cultural hopes and anxieties, shaping public discourse and even inspiring real-world innovation. From the sleek optimism of virtual worlds to the chilling visions of surveillance states, these stories interrogate what it means to be human in a technologically saturated future.
This course introduces students to the study of media and its interrelations with culture, society, and technology, laying particular emphasis on film studies and gender representations within media on the theoretical level. After an overview of media history, media theory, and media analysis, we will explore how science fiction imagines technological futures—both as salvation and as threat—and what these visions reveal about North American culture. Although the course focuses on the genre of speculative media, students will be provided with a toolkit to critically analyze media productions in general and from various angles.
We/you will work with several sci-fi productions, depending on their availability on streaming platforms (Netflix, Prime, Disney+, AppleTV) during the semester. Possible media productions to investigate are e.g.:
Films
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Blade Runner (1982)
Total Recall (1990)
The Fifth Element (1997)
The Matrix franchise (1999–2021)
A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Minority Report (2002)
I, Robot (2004)
WALL-E (2008)
Surrogates (2009)
Tron: Legacy (2010)
Total Recall (2012)
Prometheus (2012)
Her (2013)
Pacific Rim (2013)
Ex Machina (2014)
Chappie (2015)
Alien: Covenant (2017)
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Ready Player One (2018)
Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
Rebel Moon (2023/2024)
Series
Almost Human (2013–2014)
Westworld (2016–2022)
Altered Carbon (2018–2020)
Lost in Space (2018–2021)
Love, Death & Robots (2019–present)
Upload (2020–present)
Severance (2022–present)
The Peripheral (2022–present)
Silo (2023–present)
Fallout (2024–present)
Games
Mass Effect 2 (2010)
Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011)
Mass Effect 3 (2012)
Detroit: Become Human (2018)
Cyberpunk 2077 (2020)
You will watch some of the films completely, I will use excerpts from others in class. You may, of course, watch as many as you like! If you have a specific American sci-fi production in mind, which you would like to work on although it is not on this list, no problem! Any North American (= from the US or Canada) (co-)production can be chosen. Over the first weeks of the semester, you will have time to explore the corpus and find a media production and topic to work on in your presentation and short paper / oral exam
Readings and material
A selection of texts will be provided; the films we will work with are available on YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and AppleTV, respectively.
Please note that you do not have to have access to all streaming platforms listed here! We will see during the first session, which ones are available to you and adjust the course accordingly!
Requirements
The introductory part of the course will be accompanied by readings, the application part of watching clips/films and small writing assignments, students will give a presentation, either in class or as a recording (depending on the number of participants), and write a short paper, which has to be handed in until September 30. Students of “LA Sek 1” will have to take an oral exam instead of writing a paper.
Dr. Lisa Johnson
UE CS II North America: Soundscapes of Mobility: Music, Migration, and Culture
Blockseminar. Plus, virtual office hours on demand during the semester
Dates: April 24-25, 2026 and June 26-27, 2026
B 3 1, room 2.18
Friday, April 24: 12.00-18.30 h
Saturday, April 25: 09.00-15.30 h
Friday, June 26: 12.00-18.30h
Saturday, June 27: 09.00-15.30h
Geöffnet für:
BA Cultural Studies und Management
BA und Lehramt Englisch
Zertifikat Angewandte Pop-Studien: Pflichtmodul 1: Interdisziplinäre Einführung in die Popkultur
How does music travel across borders, and how do sound and rhythm express experiences of migration, displacement, belonging, and resistance? This seminar explores music as a cultural text through which social, political, and emotional dimensions of mobility in the Americas are articulated and negotiated. Focusing on popular musical genres such as reggae, hip-hop, soul, and jazz, the course examines how sound, lyrics, performance, and circulation shape cultural meanings across different historical and social contexts. Students will analyse music not simply as entertainment, but as a powerful form of cultural expression that reflects and produces identities, memories, and political claims.
Drawing on approaches from American Studies, Cultural Studies, and Ethnography, the seminar combines close listening with critical reading and discussion. Musical texts will be discussed alongside scholarly literature as well as selected literary, visual, and media materials, situating them within broader debates on migration, diaspora, popular culture, and transnationalism. Throughout the course, students will engage with songs, performances, and music-related media as primary cultural sources. Case studies from North American and Caribbean contexts highlight how music creates transnational connections, challenges borders, and gives voice to lived experiences of movement and immobility.
Requirements
Assessment formats may include short written assignments, oral presentations, and a final paper or project. Requirements will be adjusted according to BA and MA level.