Talk about the crisis of liberal democracy, the decline of the West, and the end of transatlantic relations as we knew them is ubiquitous these days. It is largely triggered by the election of Donald Trump to the office of US president and the tumultuous turmoil European-American relations were thrust into in response.
A closer look, however, reveals that the much noted "Atlantic Drift" set in already shortly after the end of the Cold War, that the history of European-American relations during the Cold War was one of conflict and confrontation just as much as it was one of cooperation and unity, and that the further back in history one goes, the more ambivalent and contradictory European-American relations appear.
Taking the complexity, multi-dimensionality, and ambivalence of European-American relations throughout the ages as points of departure, and pursuing a historical perspective encompassing the early modern and modern periods, the Annual Conference of the Bavarian American Academy seeks to critically re-assess the topics, dimensions, processes, and problems of transatlantic relations from a multi-disciplinary angle. It will thematize the political, economic, and cultural dimensions of European-American relations from the seventeenth century to today, and reflect them in categories of cooperation and conflict, convergence and divergence. Its overall scholarly aim is to arrive at a deeper and fuller understanding not only of transatlantic relations as such, but also of the situation in which we are currently acting.
Keynote venue: NS-Dokumentationszentrum München, Max-Mannheimer-Platz 1, Munich
Conference venue: Amerikahaus, Barer Straße 19a, Munich
Conference Program (376 KB)
Abstract & Bios (481 KB)
18.00: Conference Opening (Venue: Amerikahaus)
19.00: Keynote Address (Venue: NS-Dokumentationszentrum)
Transatlantic Relationships: The Bond that Went Freelance
Reception (Venue: Amerikahaus)
9.00: Panel 1: Transatlantic Relations in the Early Modern Period
Chair: Susanne Lachenicht (University of Bayreuth)
Making Comparisons in Atlantic History: Representation in the Age of Revolutions
An Imperial History of the American Revolution in the Age of Atlantic History
10.30: Coffee Break
11.00: Panel 2: Challenges Confronting the Transatlantic West in World Politics
Chair: Jürgen Gebhardt (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg)
How Europe Should Cope with Trump and Transatlantic Fragmentation
Going Our Separate Ways?: Transatlanticism in an Era of Great Power Competition
Nato: Current Issues and Future Prospects
13.00: Lunch Break
14.00: Panel 3: German Americans in the Atlantic World
Chair: Heike Paul (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg)
Transatlantic Pioneers: German-American Brewers in 19th Century United States
The “German Peril”: German-American Relations Before World War I. A Historical and Media-
Analytical Examination
15.30: Coffee Break
15.45: Award Ceremony
Spevack Award of the Lasky Center for Transatlantic Studies
16.00: Panel 4: Music and Film in Transatlantic Relations
Chair: Kerstin Schmidt (University of Eichstaett-Ingolstadt)
"Back in the Fatherland”: White Power Music and Trans-Nationalism
Cold War Elvis: The Double-Edged Sword of U.S. Popular Culture in 1950s Europe
Honorable Soldiers, Courageous Resistance, and an Unbeatable Band of Brothers: Hollywood Films
and National Narratives of the War in Europe
18.30: BAA Members Meeting (members only)
9.00: Panel 5: Transatlantic Relations and Economics
Chair: Erik E. Lehmann (University of Augsburg)
Renewing the Transatlantic Relationship in the Era of Industrie 4.0
Multilateralism vs. Bilateralism in International Economic Relations
10.30: Coffee Break
11.00: Panel 6: Historical Perspectives on Transatlantic Relations
Chair: Volker Depkat (University of Regensburg)
Slovaks and Czechs in America during World War I on the Project of a Czechoslovak Statehood
Transatlantic Troubles in Historical Perspective: What’s New, What’s Not
13.00: Wrap Up and End of the Conference
The 19th International Academy Conference is organized by the Bavarian American Academy (BAA). The organizers wish to thank the following institutions for their generous support:
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Graphic: © ganserlion.com
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