Stefan Benz

“Raising the Record: Native Representations of Rhythmic Sound from Early Indigenous Writing to Hip Hop and EDM” (second book / Habilitation)

Aug. 2016 – Mar. 2022: Ph.D., American Studies, University of Mannheim:
Dissertation: "The Posthuman Imagination of the Beats: Negotiations of Self and World Beyond the Human in the Poetry of Michael McClure, Diane di Prima, and Philip Whalen" (summa cum laude)

Aug. 2018 – Nov. 2021: Wayne State University, Detroit: research visit funded by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service)

Jan. 2014 – June 2014: Swansea University, Wales: Semester Abroad

2010 – 2016: University of Mannheim: First State Examination (Teacher's Degree): English, History
 

Edited Collections

Benz, Stefan, Marcel Hartwig, & Hannah Schoch. Capitalist Crisis Poetry: Lyric Encounters with Neoliberalism in the Twenty-First Century. Guest-edited Special Issue of Amerikastudien/American Studies, Jahrgang 68, Ausgabe 2 (2023).
https://amst.winter-verlag.de/issue/AMST/2023/2

Journal Articles

"'Still we all gon rise': Indigenous Hip Hop, Racial Capitalism, and the Quest for Indigenous Sovereignty in the Work of Snotty Nose Rez Kids." Amerikastudien / American Studies, vol. 68, no. 2, 2023, pp. 247-264.

with Marcel Hartwig and Hannah Schoch. "Capitalist Crisis Poetry: Lyric Encounters with Neoliberalism in the 21st Century." Amerikastudien / American Studies, vol. 68, no. 2, 2023, pp. 147-164.

"'New World Water': The Hydrocentric Imagination of Hip Hop." Ecozon@, vol. 13, no. 1, 2022, pp. 21-36.

"Meat Thyself: New Materialist Ethics in the Poetry of Michael McClure." Antennae – The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, vol. 46, 2018, pp. 4-16.

"Sing[ing] of the Middle Way – Michael McClure's Venture for a New Mode of Thought Between Science and Mysticism." COPAS – Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies, vol. 19, no. 1, 2018, pp. 1-24.

Book Chapters

with Sabine N. Meyer. "Zum Verhältnis von Widerstand, Klang und Spiritualität in den indigenen Literaturen Nordamerikas." Ambiguität, Macht und die Formierung religiöser Identitäten. Ed. Klaus von Stosch, Cornelia Dockter. Herder, 2024.

Reviews

Review of The Spiritual Imagination of the Beats, by David S. Calonne. Amerikastudien/American Studies, vol. 64, no. 2, 2019, pp. 336-338.

Talks and Workshops 

November 2023: "'It’s in my blood to bang drums': Indigenous Rhythmic Sovereignty & Settler Colonial Rhythm Discourse," "States of Sovereignty" - 15th Biannual Native American Symposium, Southeastern Oklahoma State University

November 2023: "'Straight Outta Regina' - Indigenous Hip Hop in Canada," Guest Lecture, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg

November 2023: "'First, you should know that I have risen through the fire': An Introduction to Indigenous Hip Hop in Canada," Guest Lecture (Virtual), National University Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic, Ukraine

September 2023: "We'll sing, sing, sing out our story / Till the truth is heard": Indigenous Rhythmic Sovereignty and the Wounded Knee Massacre, Guest Lecture, Indigenous Sound Studies Group, University of California, Berkeley

September 2023: "(Re-)Negotiating Indigenous Presence and Arrival: Indigenous Hip Hop Claims the US American City," Bucerius Young Scholars Forum, German Historical Institute, Berkeley, CA

June 2023: "'this that sound of a Medicine drop': Anishinaabe Hip Hop and the Quest for Indigenous Political and Cultural Sovereignty in Detroit," guest lecture, University of Cologne

June 2023: "'We gon’ need that land back': Indigenous Hip Hop (Re)Claims Detroit," annual conference of the German Association for American Studies (GAAS / DGfA), University of Rostock

April 2023: "'500 Years and Still Drumming': Settler Colonial Rhythm Discourse & the Quest for Indigenous Rhythmic Sovereignty in North American Literature and Culture," guest lecture, University of Mannheim

March 2023: "Indigener Hip Hop als Ausdruck Politischer und Kultureller Souveränität", Fridtjof-Nansen-Akademie

March 2023: "Ausgelöscht, assimiliert, emanzipiert? Indigene kulturelle Traditionen Nordamerikas zwischen siedlerkolonialer Unterdrückung und Widerstand", Fridtjof-Nansen-Akademie

June 2022: "Hip Hop and/as Political Education" (workshop, hosted together with Stefan Danter), annual conference of the German Association for American Studies (GAAS / DGfA), University of Tübingen

May 2022: "'Indigenous rising and raging / recording our truth all on these pages': Sacramento Knoxx’s Medicine Bag (2021)," IASPM-US 2022 Conference: Grooves and Movements, University of Michigan

June 2021: “Nonhuman Participation and Human(ist) Anxiety in Diane di Prima’s ‘Biology Lesson,’” annual conference of the German Association for American Studies (GAAS / DGfA), University of Heidelberg

Feb. 2021: “‘The ocean ain’t your motherfuckin’ trash can!’ – Common et al.’s ‘Trouble in the Water’ (2014) as Environmental Activism,” workshop: Hip Hop Ecologies, University of Konstanz

Nov. 2020: “Hip Hop and Politics, Hip Hop as Politics,” symposium: The 2020 Election in Perspective, University of Mannheim

Sept. 2020: “Of Ecological Critique and Queer Utopias: Nicky Drayden’s Escaping Exodus (2019),” annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Fantastikforschung, University of Augsburg [event cancelled]

Oct. 2019: “Travelling through a Strange Land: Posthuman Landscapes in Diane Di Prima’s ‘Biology Lesson’ and Michael McClure’s ‘Double Moiré,’” annual conference of the European Beat Studies Network, Nicosia

Sept. 2019: “Unveiling the ‘Hidden Religions:’ The Countercultural Spirituality of Diane di Prima and the Way towards Hippy Esotericism,” international conference: The Prolonged Death of the Hippie 1967-1969, University of Basel

June 2019: “‘REALITY IS A POINT, A PLATEAU, A MYSTERY:’ (Re-)Visions of Non-Linear Time and Space in Michael McClure’s Poem ‘Double Moiré for Francis Crick,’” annual conference of the European Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Athens

June 2019: “Queer Jewish Utopia between High and Pop Culture in Ezra Furman’s Transangelic Exodus (2018),” annual conference of the German Association for American Studies (GAAS / DGfA), University of Hamburg

Sept. 2018: “A Road Beyond the Bifurcation of Nature: The Relation of Mind and Nature in the Poetry of Michael McClure and Philip Whalen,” annual conference of the European Beat Studies Network, Vienna

June 2018: “The Subject’s Colorful Emergence from the World: Whiteheadian Color and Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony,” annual conference of the European Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, University of Copenhagen

Apr. 2018: “A Philosophy of Dissent: Whiteheadian Cosmology and the Poetry of Michael McClure,” American Studies Graduate Student Conference, University of Leipzig

Nov. 2017: “‘Sing(ing) of the Middle Way’ – Michael McClure’s ‘New Rationality’ of Science and Mysticism,” annual conference of the Postgraduate Forum of the GAAS (DGfA), Humboldt University of Berlin

Sept. 2017: “Mending Schisms: The Scientific Beat in the Poetry of Michael McClure,” annual conference of the European Beat Studies Network, Paris

Nov. 2016: “Humanity as Migrant in the Poetry of Robinson Jeffers,” international conference: The Environment and Human Migration: Rethinking the Politics of Poetry, University of Bamberg