Theatersaal at Amerikahaus - Bavarian Center for Transatlantic Relations in Munich, Germany © Leonhard Simon

Keynote Speakers

We are proud to announce Prof. Dr. Karen V. Hansen (Brandeis University), Prof. Dr. Paul Apostolidis (London School of Economics), and Prof. Dr. Carmen Birkle (Marburg University) as keynote speakers of our conference.

Karen V. Hansen

Karen V. Hansen is the Victor and Gwendolyn Beinfield Professor of Sociology at Brandeis University, with appointments in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and History. Her driving curiosity about ordinary people’s lives led her to research and write her award-winning book, Encounter on the Great Plains: Scandinavian Settlers and Dakota Indians, 1890 to 1930. The author or editor of six landmark books and numerous scholarly articles, Hansen listens with respect for voice and struggle, as she develops a fresh approach to the coexistence between Native American Indians and immigrant settlers to the U.S. Hansen’s work has been generously supported by the Swedish Fulbright Commission, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Raikes Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, among others.

Paul Apostolidis

Paul Apostolidis is Professor of Political Theory in the Government Department at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research explores work and political action in the present era of precarity fostered by global capitalism, with an emphasis on Latino migrants in the United States and empirically informed methods of critical theory. He is currently writing a book about night-time labour and working-class politics, and he is the author of The Fight for Time: Migrant Day Laborers and the Politics of Precarity (Oxford University Press 2019) and Breaks in the Chain: What Immigrant Workers Can Teach America about Democracy (University of Minnesota Press, 2010), among other books and articles. As Visiting Expert Scholar in Residence in the Mellon-funded ‘Latinx Futures’ project based at the University of California Riverside, Prof Apostolidis is developing a regional popular-education initiative in response to environmentally and socially destructive effects of the logistics industry’s expansion. Before joining LSE’s faculty in 2019 he held the T. Paul Chair of Political Science at Whitman College (USA) and directed a nationally recognized undergraduate community-based research program in partnership with Pacific Northwest Latino organisations. He now serves as LSE’s Academic Lead for Student Civic Engagement.

Carmen Birkle

Carmen Birkle is a professor of North American Literary and Cultural Studies at Philipps-Universität Marburg. She was president, vice president, executive director, and international delegate of the German Association for American Studies and currently serves as treasurer for the European Association for American Studies. She is Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Philipps-Universität (2017-23). Apart from being the author of two monographs – Women’s Stories of the Looking Glass (1996) and Migration—Miscegenation—Transculturation (2004) – and of numerous articles and (co-)editor of 15 volumes of essays and special issues of journals, she is also General (Co-)Editor of the journal Amerikastudien / American Studies (open access). Her current work on a monograph is situated at the intersection of American literature, culture, and medicine in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Moreover, her contribution to a larger interdisciplinary project on “Geschlecht—Macht—Staat” focuses on female presidents in U.S.-American TV series. A monograph on Muriel Gardiner and the edition of Gardiner’s correspondence are projects gradually taking shape.

 

EAAS 2024 Organizing Team

Dr. Christoph Straub

Managing Director Bavarian American Academy


E-Mail
eaas2024@amerikahaus.de


Telephone
089 55 25 37-42