Welcome to the Obama Institute
for Transnational American Studies!

The Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz offers a dynamic and wide-ranging program in both research and teaching for all students interested in topics related to the Americas in a global context.

With a special focus on interculturality, transnationalism, and interdisciplinarity, our expertise lies in the fields of Early American Studies, Indigenous Studies, Life Writing/Life Sciences, Political & Intellectual History, Film & Media Studies, Religion and American Culture, and Materiality.

Contact

Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies
University of Mainz
Jakob-Welder-Weg 20
55128 Mainz
Germany
+49 6131 39-22357
+49 6131 39-29097
Email

Feb 5 – Exhibition “Exploring Graphic Fiction” 🗓

Feb 5, 2026 – 16:00-18:00Fakultätssaal, 01-185 (Philosophicum) Exhibition "Exploring Graphic Fiction" Spätestens nach Art Spiegelmans Comic-Roman Maus über den Holocaust (seriell veröffentlicht zwischen 1980 und 1991) ist Graphic Fiction ein ernstzunehmendes Genre...

OI Expert Contribution to ZDF’s Terra X History “Amerikas Rechte im Wandel: Die Geschichte einer Radikalisierung ” 🗓

Watch Professor Axel Schäfer contribute his expertise to this ZDF Terra X History short episode from Jan 11, 2026 below or on our video page. https://youtu.be/t8KAolpnL2A?si=GEwZmAaHVdQqx8Yk

Jan 28-30 – Ausstellung: Ein unendlich dunkles Erbe / Jan 29 – Gespräch mit Prof. Dr. Jens Temmen und Fotograf Lewis Bush (in English) 🗓

"Ein unendlich dunkles Erbe"Gespräch mit Prof. Dr. Jens Temmen und Fotograf Lewis Bush (in English) Podiumsgespräch und Führung durch die Ausstellung (in englischer Sprache) Donnerstag, den 29. Januar 2026, 18.00 Uhr Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur |...

Jan 28 – TPC Workshop XVI: Magazines and Mobility 🗓

Magazines and Mobility (Workshop XVI) Research Group "Transnational Periodical Cultures" Jan 28, 2026, 10am - 4pmGermersheim CampusRoom A.119 Please find below the program for workshop XVI on “Magazines and Mobility”. You can download the flyer here. For further...

Jan 22 – Guest Lecture: Vanishing Oil in John Joseph Mathews’s SUNDOWN (1934) 🗓

Guest Lecture by Jannis Buschky, M.A. (University of Konstanz) Vanishing Oil in John Joseph Mathews’s Sundown (1934) January 22, 2026, 6-8pm, P 6 (Philosophicum) When Osage writer John Joseph Mathews wrote his novel Sundown (1934) about the Osage oil boom in the early...

Jan 20 – Guest Lecture: The Literary World According to MUNSEY’S – Epistemic Style in US Mass Magazines around 1900 🗓

Guest Lecture by Alexander Starre (John F. Kennedy Institute, FU Berlin) The Literary World According to Munsey’s:Epistemic Style in US Mass Magazines around 1900 January 20, 2026, 16.15-17.45, 02.102, Philo II (Jakob-Welder-Weg 20) During the magazine revolution of...