The Persistence of the Short Story: Traditions and Futures 🗓

Conferences, News

The Persistence of the Short Story: Traditions and Futures

Date: July 10-12, 2024
Location: Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz
Hosted by the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies, the Society for the Study of the American Short Story, and the American Literature Association
Venue: Campus JGU Helmholtz-Institute Mainz (HIM), Staudingerweg 18, 55128 Mainz

Program

Wednesday, July 10, 2024

3:00 pm Registration

4:00 pm Conference Opening (Senatssaal, Natural Science Building (room 07-232))

Vice-President for Research, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Prof. Dr. Stefan Müller-Stach

Dean, Faculty of the Humanities, Prof. Dr. Axel R. Schäfer

Director, Obama Institute, Prof. Dr. Alfred Hornung

Conference Organizers, Prof. Dr. Oliver Scheiding, Prof. Dr. Jochen Achilles

4:30 pm Roundtable: Short Fiction Research in a Transnational Context

Chair: Michael Basseler (Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen): Coordinator Short Forms Beyond Borders-EU Strategic Partnerships

American Literature Association (ALA): Olivia Carr Edenfield, Director (Georgia Southern University), Alfred Bendixen, Executive Director (Princeton University)

Society for the Study of the American Short Story (SSASS): James Nagel, President (University of Georgia)

European Network for Short Fiction Research (ENSFR): Michelle Ryan, Director (Université d’Angers), Ailsa Cox, Associate Director (Edge Hill University), Elke D’hoker, Communications Coordinator (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)

Studies in the American Short Story: James Nagel, Editor (University of Georgia), Kirk Curnutt, Associate Editor (Troy University)

Journal of the Short Story in English: Gérald Préher, Editor (Université d’Artois)
Short Fiction in Theory and Practice: Ailsa Cox, Principal Editor (Edge Hill University)

6.00 pm Welcome Reception

Thursday, July 11, 2024

Conference Venue: Helmholtz Institute

9:00–10:20 am Session 1: Aesthetic Dimensions

Chair: Jochen Achilles (Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg)

Ailsa Cox (Edge Hill University), “Beyond the Collection”

Elke D’hoker (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven), “Serializing the Short Story”

Michelle Ryan (Université d’Angers), “The Ethics of Short Forms in Rikki Ducornet’s Late Career Writing”

10.20–10:40 am Coffee Break

10:40–12.00 am Session 2: Historical Dimensions

Chair: James Nagel (University of Georgia)

Alfred Bendixen (Princeton University), “New Voices Confronting the Silence – The Emergence of Feminist Traditions in the American Short Story”

Monika Elbert (Montclair State University), “Wealth, Handicaps, and Poverty: Women’s Gothic Tales of Dis-Possession”

Philipp Reisner (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz). tba

12:00 am -1:00 pm Lunch

1:00–2:20 pm Session 3: Current Trends

Chair: Laura Dietz (University College London)

Michael Basseler (Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen), “Is there a Postsocialist North American Short Story?”

Gudrun Grabher (Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck), “Every Patient has Their Unique Story: The Significance of the Short Story for Medical Humanities”

Patricia MacCormack (Anglia Ruskin University), “Weird Madness: Brief Encounters Against the Anthropocene”

2:30–3:50 pm Session 4: Region

Chair: tba

Alessandra Boller (Universität Siegen), “The Politics of Encounter: B/Order Crossings in Transnational (Irish) Short Fiction”

Olivia Carr Edenfield (Georgia Southern University), “The Poetic Landscape of Breece D’J Pancake”

Gérald Préher (Université d’Artois), “The Past in the Present, or the Enduring South in Elizabeth Spencer’s Starting Over (2014)”

3.50-4:10 pm Coffee Break

4:10–5.30 pm Postgraduate Roundtable on Short Fiction Research

Chair: Alessandra Boller (Universität Siegen)

Maegan Bishop (Georgia Southern University), “Re-imagining the American Landscape: Visual Rhetoric and the Influence of Image on the 21st Century American Short-Story Cycle”

Verónica Frejo (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), “Short Stories as Videogames: A Transmedia Analysis”

Carolin Jesussek (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz), “Disability Gothic in William Alexander’s Short Story ‘The House on the Moon’”

Amina Grunewald (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), “George Saunders’ Posthumanist agenda in a Nutshell. Cracking Open His Short Fiction”

7:00 pm Mainz City Hall

Reception by the City Authorities

City Hall-Lecture: James Nagel (University of Georgia), “The American Short Story in Academia: A Personal Report”

Friday, July 12, 2024

Conference Venue: Helmholtz Institute Mainz

9:00–10.20 am Session 5: Media and New Approaches

Chair: Oliver Scheiding (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz)

Kirk Curnutt (Troy University), “Prophecies of Extinction, Prospects for Evolution: Whither the Future of the Short Story?”

Bernardo Manzoni Palmeirim (Universidade de Lisboa), “Paying Attention in Lydia Davis and Short Forms”

Ines Maria Gstrein (University of Innsbruck), “The Affordance of the Short Story Collection. Ali Smith’s Free Love and Other Stories as a Case Study”

10:20–10:40 am Coffee Break

10:40–12:00 am Session 6: Digitization

Chair: Verónica Frejo (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)

Laura Dietz (University College London), “Digitization and Short Story Authorship: Authorial Careers on Emerging Platforms”

Jana Keck (German Historical Institute Washington), “Fact or Fiction? Computational Analysis of Short Stories in Nineteenth-Century German-American Newspapers”

Damien B. Schlarb (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz), “Short Stories, Longplay: Formal Influences of the Short Story on Digital Games and the Integration of Narrative and Play”

12:00 am–1:00 pm Lunch

1:00–2:50 pm Session 7: Science Fiction

Chair: Sabina Fazli (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz)

Andrew M. Butler (Canterbury Christ Church University), “’The Flimsiest of Tissues’: Pamela Zoline’s ‘The Holland of the Mind’”

Gary Westfahl (University of La Verne), “Confronting the Alien in the Science Fiction Short Story”

Lohmann, Sarah (ETH Zürich), “‘Like Children Dying in A Forest:’ The Science Fiction Short Story and the Morality of Machine Cognition in E.M. Forster’s ‘The Machine Stops’ and Ray Bradbury’s ‘August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains'”

Anne McFarlane (University of Leeds) tba

2:50–3:10 pm Coffee Break

3:10–4:10 pm Session 8: Diversity

Chair: Michelle Ryan (Université d’Angers)

Erik Redling (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), “Modernist Politics of Race: Allegorical Readings of Zora Neale Hurston’s Early Short Fiction”

Hertha Dawn Sweet Wong (University of California, Berkeley), “The Future of the Indigenous Short Story”

4:20–5:20 pm Session 9: Horror and Crime

Chair: Olivia Carr Edenfield (Georgia Southern University)

Will Norman (University of Kent), “Paul Linebarger, Cordwainer Smith and the Affordances of Mid-Century Science Fiction Tales”

Whit Frazier Peterson (Universität Stuttgart), “The Sunken and the Ascending: Black Horror Short Fiction”

8.00 pm Conference Dinner at Weingut Philipp Dhom, Jakob Braunwart Weg 3, 55129 Mainz (meet up tba, joint travel to the location; http://winzerfamilie-peter-dhom.de)

Maps (Hotels, Campus, and Venues)

Frankfurt Airport to Mainz (S-Bahn)

Take the train from Frankfurt Airport to Mainz Central Station (tram line: S8). Tickets can be purchased at the airport vending machines (approximately 9,90€). Both hotels are a short walk from the main entrance of the train station.

Mainz Station to University (Tram lines 51, 53, and 59)

There are a variety of buses and trams from Mainz Central Station to the JGU campus. We recommend you take the trams (lines 51, 53, or 59) to travel to campus, since they all stop at the university (cf. (2)) and the Friedrich-von-Pfeiffer Weg (cf. (3)). It will take about 5 minutes from Mainz Central Station to the JGU campus and a ticket will cost 2,50€.

Follow the directions on the map below to find your way to the conference venues. Please keep in mind that there are different venues (Wednesday: Senatssaal (cf. (B)), Natural Science Building (07-232), elevator accessible); Thursday-Friday: Helmholtz Institute (cf. (A)).

Mainz Station to City Hall (Tram lines 51, 52, and 53)

Thursday evening, we invite participants to join us for a reception at Mainz City Hall, as well as a City Hall-Lecture held by James Nagel (cf. program above). Similar to the route from Mainz Central Station to the JGU campus, there are a variety of buses and trams from Mainz Central Station to Mainz Münsterplatz (cf. (2)). We again recommend you take the tram (lines 51, 52, or 53) and then walk to City Hall (walking distance roughly 500m).

This conference is made possible by the funding of the DFG.

Jan 31 – Student Conference “Human Enhancement” 🗓

Conferences, News, Opportunities

Jan 31, 2024 – 16.00-18.00 (s.t.) – Student Conference

“Human Enhancement: Ethics, Life Sciences, and the Human Body in Cultural Representations”

P6 (Philosophicum)

Human enhancement has become the topic of an increasingly controversial cultural, scholarly, and political discussion. Alberto Giubilini and Sagar Sanyal define human enhancement rather broadly as “any kind of genetic, biomedical or pharmaceutical intervention aimed at improving human dispositions, capacities, and well-being even when there is no pathology to be treated” (1). Using this definition as a point of departure, our student conference seeks to approach grey areas inherent in debates surrounding human enhancement through the lens of narrative ethics, using cultural representations as the focus of our discussion.

Our student panel includes the following talks:

“Marry Shelly’s Frankenstein: A Cautionary Tale or an Overused Trope?”
(Norhan Mohamed)
“Ethical Discourse and Social Impact on Human Enhancement: A Conservative Perspective”
(Haerin Park)
“Human Enhancement in Superhero Movies: Why Is Captain America’s Origin Story Morally Acceptable and What Is Special about It?”
(Jill Reuter)
“The Implications of ‘Human Enhancement’ in the Discussion Surrounding Trans-Athletes”
(Ayishat Aluko)

Everyone is welcome!

This conference is part of Dr. Julia Velten’s course “Cultural Studies VI: Human Enhancement: Ethics, Life Sciences, and the Human Body in Film.” If you have further questions about the event, please contact Dr. Julia Velten: juvelten@uni-mainz.de

Giubilini, Alberto and Sagar Sanyal. “Challenging Human Enhancement.” The Ethics of Human Enhancement: Understanding the Debate, edited by Steve Clarke, et al., OUP, 2016, pp. 1-24.

Jan 26 – Phd/Postdoc Book Launch 🗓

Career Talks, Events, News, Opportunities

Jan 26, 2024 – 17.00-19.00 – PhD/Postdoc Book Launch – Fakultätssaal (Philosophicum, 01-185)

Join us in celebrating…
the most recent publications, dissertations, and more by young scholars from the Obama Institute:

Bassimir, Anja-Maria. Evangelical News. Politics, Gender, and Bioethics in Conservative Christian Magazines of the 1970s and 1980s (Religion and American Culture). Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2022.
Scott, Daniel. Atheism and Theism in Contemporary Fantasy Fiction. Heavens of Invention. Peter Lang Verlag, 2023 (Mainzer Studien zur Amerikanistik 77).
Velten, Julia. Extraordinary Forms of Aging. Life Narratives of Centenarians and Children with Progeria. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2022.
Seibert, Johanna. Early African Caribbean Newspapers as Archipelagic Media in the Emancipation Age. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2023.
Evans, Vanessa and Mita Banerjee (eds). Cultures of Citizenship in the Twenty-First Century: Literary and Cultural Perspectives on a Legal Concept. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2023.
Scheiding, Oliver and Sabina Fazli (eds.). Handbuch Zeitschriftenforschung. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2023.
Corrigan, John, Melani McAlister and Axel R. Schäfer (eds.). Global Faith, Worldly Power. Evangelical Internationalism and U.S. Empire. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2022.

Come and discuss…
plans for publications and careers after graduation.

Meet and mingle…
with current and former PhD students, postdocs, and professors as well as students, faculty, and friends.

Everyone is welcome!

Contact
Prof. em. Dr. Winfried Herget
herget@uni-mainz.de

Jan 16 – Guest Lecture “twen. Zum Design von Literaturbeiträgen in einem Zeitgeistmagazin der frühen Bundesrepublik” 🗓

Lectures, News

Philipp Pabst
(Universität Münster)

“twen. Zum Design von Literaturbeiträgen in einem Zeitgeistmagazin der frühen Bundesrepublik”

Jan 16, 2024, 4:15pm, 00-212 (Philo II)

Das Zeitgeistmagazin twen war in den 1960er-Jahren tonangebend in Fragen moderner Lebensführung für junge Menschen. Vor allem als Ikone des Zeitschriftendesigns ist die von Willy Fleckhaus gestaltete Zeitschrift noch heute bekannt. Weniger weiß man über die literarischen und literaturkritischen Beiträge, die einen festen Bestandteil in jedem Heft bildeten. Das ist insofern verwunderlich, da namhafte Autor:innen wie Alfred Andersch, Arno Schmidt, Simone de Beauvoir und Allen Ginsberg in twen publizierten. Der Vortrag geht diesem Bereich exemplarisch nach und fragt dabei, wie Literatur und Literaturkritik im Medium Zeitschrift in Szene gesetzt werden.

Dr. Philipp Pabst studierte Germanistik, Geschichte und Philosophie an der Universität Münster sowie der Universitá degli Studi di Napoli Federico II. 2019 Promotion mit einer Arbeit über das Populäre in der Literatur der frühen Bundesrepublik. Seitdem Postdoc am Germanistischen Institut der Universität Münster. Arbeitsschwerpunkte: Literatur und Populärkultur, kulturwissenschaftliche Zeitschriftenforschung, televisuelle Serialität sowie Weltanschauungen in der deutschsprachigen Literatur um 1800 und um 1900.

You can download the poster for the event here.

Dec 11 – Symposium with Chinese Delegation: Chinese and Western Literary and Artistic Thoughts 🗓

Events, News

Symposium with Chinese Delegation:

The comparative study of Chinese and Western literary and artistic thoughts in the light of interacting civilizations

Monday, 11 December, 10 a.m.-12 noon & 2-4 p.m.

Philo II, room 02.102, Jakob-Welder-Weg 20

A high potential delegation from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Institute of Literature, will visit the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies from Dec. 10-13, 2023.

The symposium is open to students, colleagues and friends interested in exchanging ideas with these Chinese experts and relating our knowledges to non-Western thought patterns. The visit of the Chinese delegation will also include information and advice for exchanges with China.

The symposium on „The comparative study of Chinese and Western literary and artistic thoughts in the light of interacting civilizations” will feature presentations on the fields of research by the six directors and scholars from the elite institution of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing: Literatures in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, Early Modern Literary Studies, Folk Literary Studies, and Digital Information Studies. In the discussions these presentations will be linked to forms of literature and culture in the West, especially Europe and North America.

The interdisciplinary platform of the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies is especially qualified for entertaining these interactions between different civilizations.

Please see below for the flyer or click here to open it.

Professor Alfred Hornung will host this event. If you have further questions about the event, please contact him at hornung@uni-mainz.de.

Dec 8 – Online Career Talk Series: Young Researchers in Transnational American Studies 🗓

Career Talks, Events, News

Career Talk Series: Young Researchers in Transnational American Studies

02: Journal Editing at the Journal of Transnational American Studies

Friday, 8 December, 4-6.30 p.m.

Online on MS Teams; please click here in order to access the meeting.

This link will open the meeting in your browser or the MS Teams application, if you have it. You don’t need to have it installed in order to join the meeting; you can do so using your browser.

Everyone is welcome to join us for the second event of our Career Talk Series Young Researchers in Transnational American Studies!

Please see below for details or click here for the flyer.

On December 8, 2023, we will hear from five researchers who dedicate part of their work time to editing the Journal of Transnational American Studies (JTAS). JTAS has two editorial homes – one at Stanford University and the other at JGU’s Obama Institute – and the team behind it works from all over the world.

Next to presentations of their currents projects, we will also discuss aspects of screening submissions, finding reviewers, copy editing, and preparing galley proofs for publication on the eScholarship platform of California. The symposium will also include the way in which this editorial work aids in building a professional academic career.

Professor Alfred Hornung will host this event. If you have further questions about the event, please contact him at hornung@uni-mainz.de.