Brown-Bag Lunch Discussion with Former Members of Congress
On November 20, 2024, the North American Studies Program of the University of Bonn, together with its cooperation partners – the AmerikaHaus NRW e.V., the Bonner Akademie für Forschung und Lehre praktischer Politik (BAPP), the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS), and the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress (FMC) – again had the pleasure of welcoming two former members of the U.S. House of Representatives to Bonn. This year, Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence and Congressman Bob Goodlatte joined us to discuss the results of the recent US presidential and congressional elections in the Bonn Universitätsforum. Apl. Prof. Dr. Jasper Trautsch of the University of Bonn’s North American Studies program moderated the event.
The former members of Congress not only analyzed and drew lessons from the elections, but also discussed their consequences for the transatlantic partnership and the future of American democracy. The topics that were analyzed ranged from foreign and economic policy to changing voting patterns and the challenges to the system of checks and balances in a unified government.
During the panel discussion, the many attendants, who were offered a brown-bag lunch during the event, had the opportunity to ask questions and join in the lively debate.
Radio interview with Prof. Trautsch on what’s at stake for the transatlantic relationship in the 2024 election
Two days before the election, the national public radio broadcaster Deutschlandradio interviewed Prof. Trautsch regarding the impact of this year’s US presidential election on transatlantic relations, the historical precursors of Trump's nationalism, and the future of the West.
The recording of the radio show “Information und Musik” from November 3, 2024, can be found here:
https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/information-und-musik-100.html
WDR Radio Broadcast on the History of the Statue of Liberty with Prof. Trautsch as Expert
On August 5, 1884, the cornerstone for the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty was laid. On the occasion of the 140th anniversary of this event, the West German Broadcasting Service (WDR5) aired a radio show, in which the fascinating history of America’s most iconic monument is analyzed and which features an interview with Professor Trautsch.
Here you can listen to the history podcast on the Statue of Liberty:
The North American Studies Program welcomes Professor Bryan Wagner
The North American Studies Department is pleased to welcome Professor Bryan Wagner as a visiting scholar funded by a Lessenich fellowship. Professor Wagner will be researching and teaching in Bonn in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Sabine N. Meyer in June and July.
Bryan Wagner is Professor in the English Department and affiliated faculty in the American Studies Program, Folklore Program, and Center for the Study of Law and Society at the University of California, Berkeley.
His research focuses on African American expression in the context of slavery and its aftermath, and he has particular interests in legal history, vernacular culture, urban studies, and digital humanities.
His first book, Disturbing the Peace: Black Culture and the Police Power after Slavery (Harvard University Press, 2009), offers a new theory of black vernacular tradition based on the tradition’s historical engagement with criminal law. By interpreting outlaw legends and blues lyrics via the cues they take from the modern law of slavery and police, we discover a historical consciousness derived from the experience of legal dispossession that does not reduce to cultural inheritance.
His second book, The Tar Baby: A Global History (Princeton University Press, 2017), interprets the global tradition of the tar baby, a folktale that exists in hundreds of versions derived over centuries on at least five continents. We know the tar baby was circulating at the same time and in many of the same places as the philosophy of property and politics developed in colonial law and political economy, and it can also be shown that the story is addressed to many of the same problems—labor and value, enclosure and settlement, crime and captivity—presented in tracts and charters associated with the so-called great transformation in world history. When the tar baby is read alongside these philosophical cognates, it begins to look less like a hidden transcript coding context-bound and interest-based resistance, and instead more like a universal history that seeks to grasp all at once the interlocking processes by which custom was criminalized, lands were colonized, slaves were captured, and labor was bought and sold, even as it also reflects on the experience of disenchantment and the impact of science on the conflict over resources.
Other books include Looking for Law in All the Wrong Places (Fordham University Press, 2019), an essay collection, edited with Marianne Constable and Leti Volpp; The Wild Tchoupitoulas (Bloomsbury, 33 ⅓ Series, 2019), a study of a classic funk album that helped to set the template for the commercialization of processional second-line music; and The Life and Legend of Bras-Coupé: The Fugitive Slave Who Fought the Law, Ruled the Swamp, Danced at Congo Square, Invented Jazz, and Died for Love (Louisiana State University Press, 2019), a documentary history of an eminent maroon.
He directs two multidisciplinary projects in the digital humanities: Louisiana Slave Conspiracies, an interactive archive of trial manuscripts related to slave conspiracies organized at the Pointe Coupée Post in the Spanish territory of Louisiana in 1791 and 1795, and Tremé 1908, which tells the story of one year in the everyday life of an extraordinary neighborhood that was a crucible for civil rights activism, cultural fusion, and musical innovation. He is currently working on a public humanities project, An Open Classroom on New Orleans Culture, which is producing and sharing open educational resources with educators in collaboration with partnering organizations including Neighborhood Story Project and New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts.
Job Advertisement: Senior Lecturer Economics
The Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University of Bonn is looking for a new position to be filled starting October 1, 2024, for a period of four years:
Senior Lecturer ("Akademische/r Oberrätin/Oberrat") (m/f/d) for North American Studies | Economics
Application deadline is May 17, 2024.
"Entangled Lives, Entangled Freedom(s)" - Talk by Prof. Meyer at the University of Texas at Austin, USA
On February 26, 2024, Prof. Sabine N. Meyer, Co-director of the North American Studies Program at the University of Bonn, gave a lecture on "Entangled Lives, Entangled Freedom(s): The Transformative Potential of Contemporary Black Indigenous Literature" at the University of Texas at Austin, USA.
Panel Discussion with Former Members of Congress
On October 24, 2023, the North American Studies Program of the University of Bonn together with its cooperation partners, the Bonner Akademie für Forschung und Lehre praktischer Politik (BAPP), the AmerikaHaus NRW e. V., the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, and the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress (FMC), had the pleasure of hosting former members of the U.S. House of Representatives Val Demings and Luke Messer in the Festsaal of the University of Bonn. PD Dr. Jasper Trautsch (Senior Lecturer, North American Studies, University of Bonn) moderated the evening.
The former members of congress discussed the presidency of the 46th President of the United States Joe Biden, including topics ranging from his foreign and environmental politics but also the differences with his predecessor, the 45th President of the United States Donald Trump.
During the panel discussion and in a lovely reception afterwards, guests had the opportunity to ask questions and join in the lively discussion.
Ambassador's Award 2023
On the 19th of October 2023, in a ceremony presided over by Vice-Rector Prof. Dr. Birgit Ulrike Münch as part of the University of Bonn's International Days, three former students of our North American Studies Program received the prestigious Ambassador’s Award for outstanding master's theses in the field of American Studies. Monique Mauel, Meropi Papagheorghe, and Leonhard Flemisch were awarded the prize by Consul General Pauline Kao, who also gave a hopeful speech about the importance of transnational partnerships.
The titles of the outstanding theses are:
"'Keep Calm and Keep Bleeding': Twenty-First Century Representations of Menstruation on Screen" by Monique Mauel,
"A Play of Selfies: Cindy Sherman and Reluctant Autobiography on Instagram" by Meropi Papagheorghe, and
"Drawing Testimony: Strategies of Documentary Representation in Joe Sacco's Comic Paying the Land" by Leonhard Flemisch.
Career Support and Funding for Female Academics
According to the Federal Statistical Office, in 2022, only slightly over one-fourth of full-time professorships at German universities and colleges were occupied by women. From 2020 until now, the University of Bonn has sponsored 90 female scientists through the STEP program.