American Studies

Teaching and research at the Division of American Studies approach US-American literature and culture in tight conjunction. Literary texts and cultural artefacts are situated in their historical contexts and considered in their role as elements within a larger social field. 

One important object of the Division's research are processes of political transformation, immigration, and their relevance for conceptualizations of nationhood and nation formation. Kirsten Twelbeck's research project "Imagining the Nation. Constructions of Community after the American Civil War" is located in this realm. This research project intersects with research in the realm of diaspora or transnational studies, particularly with regard to trans-Pacific interactions. A second major area of research is concerned with issues of seriality and mediality. Shane Denson and Ruth Mayer collaborate in a research project on "Serial Figures in Media Change" which is part of a larger research unit "Popular Seriality - Aesthetics and Practice" (Georg-August Universität Göttingen). Christina Meyer conducts research on early American comic strips.