BAA Conference 2022

Representations and Uses of the American Revolution in Past and Present

Thursday, July 7

3 p.m. Introduction

• Volker Depkat (University of Regensburg)
• Karsten Fitz (University of Passau)
• Susanne Lachenicht (University of Bayreuth)

3:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Visual Memories of the American Revolution
Chair: Karsten Fitz (University of Passau)

• Thomas Giese (Düsseldorf):
  Reframing Leutze: "Washington Crossing the Delaware" in a new Context
• Erika Piola (Library Company of Philadelphia):
  Watching the "Watchman's Cry": Anatomy of an Antebellum Engraving of the End of the American Revolution
• Lauren B. Hewes (American Antiquarian Society):
  The 19th-Century Reuse and Revival of Paul Revere's "The Boston Massacre"
• Mark Thistlethwaite (TCU School of Art):
  The American Revolution's Evolving Visual Imagery in the 21st Century, So Far

6 p.m. Award Ceremony
BAA Dissertation Award

7 p.m. Keynote I
Chair: Heike Paul (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg)

• Alan Taylor (University of Virginia):
  The American Revolution and the Contemporary Culture War

Friday, July 8

9 a.m.-10:30 a.m. The American Revolution in Historiographical Traditions
Chair: Andrew O'Shaughnessy (Monticello)

• Bertrand van Ruymbeke (University of Paris 8):
  "La plus grande et la plus importante des révolutions": French Contemporaneous Writings on the American Revolution (1780s-1790s)
• Csaba Lévai (University of Debrecen):
  Interpretations of the American Revolution in Communist Hungary
• Ghislain Potriquet (University of Strasbourg):
  The Coming of Age of American History in France, 1870-1900

11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Young Scholars' Forum
Chair: Volker Depkat (University of Regensburg)

• Markus J. Diepold (University of Regensburg)
  “No Knife Near Our Dish”: The Material Culture of Food, Hospitality, and Commensality in 18th Century Haudenosaunee-European Diplomacy
• Lisa Seuberth (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg):
  Whiteness as Usual? American Africanism in the 21st-Century Novel
• Thomas Stelzl (University of Passau):
  Discussing War and Peace: Representations and Uses of the Past in German-American Foreign Policy

2 p.m.-4 p.m. Revolutions, Independence and Political Exiles
Chair: Ursula Prutsch (LMU Munich)

• Susanne Lachenicht (University of Bayreuth):
  German Exiles in Revolutionary France: Changing Perspectives on the American Revolution
• Alessandro Bonvini (University of Naples "Federico II"):
  Echoes of the American Revolution in the Risorgimento: Views from the Republican Diaspora in the United States (1835-1860)
• Charlotte Lerg (LMU Munich):
  19th-Century German Exile Historiography in America: Writing 1848 into an Atlantic Revolutionary Tradition

4:30 p.m.-5:45 p.m. Keynote II
Chair: Susanne Lachenicht (University of Bayreuth)

• Sarah M.S. Pearsall (Johns Hopkins University)
  Representing Revolution

6 p.m. BAA Members' Meeting
 

Saturday, July 9

9 a.m.-11a.m. Loyalists and Conservatives
Chair: Volker Depkat (University of Regensburg)

• Jannik Keindorf (University of Duisburg-Essen):
  Counter-Revolutionary Solidarity? Loyalist Refugee Communities in Jamaica in the Aftermath of the American Revolution
• Alexander Kruska (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg):
  "As Gently as the Ripe Apple Falls from the Tree": The Foundation of the American Republic in 19th-Century German Conservative Thought
• Annabelle Meier (Georg-August-University Göttingen):
  An Aspirational "Quiet" Revolution: The Perception of American Independence in German Constitutionalism

11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Staging, Singing, and Dancing the American Revolution
Chair: Kerstin Schmidt (KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt)

• Nassim Balestrini (Karl-Franzens-University Graz):
  Staging the American Revolution: Dramatic Genres and/as Political Discourse
• Vanessa Vollmann (University of Passau):
  Reimagining Milestones: Myths of the American Revolution in the Musical "Hamilton"

1:30 p.m.-2 p.m. Special Program

• Bertrand van Ruymbeke (University of Paris 8):
  Presentation of AMERICA 2026

2 p.m.-2:30 p.m. Wrap up

The 21st International Academy Conference was organized by the Bavarian American Academy (BAA). The organizers wish to thank the DFG-Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for their generous support.

Photos: ©Leonhard Simon