For more information, see Past Guest Lectures.

Summer 2025

• June 3, 6 p.m. (Seminargebäude. Room S11) Cologne Media Lecture by Prof. Dr. Alexa Weik von Mossner (U of Freiburg), "Moving Viewers: Inspiring Environmental Action Through Impact Producing,” organized by Judith Rauscher and Bieke Willem (U of Cologne)
• June 30, 2025, 6 p.m.  (Philosophikum, S67): Guest Lecture: "Black Feminist Poetics of Place in Natasha Trethewey’s Monument and Claudia Rankine’s Just Us: An American Conversation", Dr. Nathalie Aghoro(LMU München). Organized by Verena Wurth as part of the PSMP: "African-American Women's Writing".
• July 2, 2025, 12am - 1:30pm (via Zoom): Guest Lecture: “The American Coming of Age Film”, Melisa Köroğlu(U of Cologne). Organized by PD Dr. Johanna Pitetti-Heil as part of the PSSP: “Coming of Age in American Literature”
• July 15, 2025, 6 p.m. (via Zoom): Guest Lecture: “Anthropogenic Framing and Orange Is The New Black” , Diane Negra(University College Dublin). Organized by Verena Wurth as part of “Television Culture in the Anthropocene”

Winter 2024/2025

• Oct. 31, 2024, 10 a.m. (Philosophikum, S65): Guest Lecture: "Between Crime and Liberation: Alcohol Prohibition and its Unintended Consequences", Ted Richthofen (University of Bonn). Organized by Verena Wurth as part of the PSMP: "American Crime Cultures".
• Dec. 9, 2024, 6 p.m. (Seminargebäude, S23): Guest Lecture: "Southern Wild and Northern City: An Ecocritical Reading of Toni Morrison's Jazz", Prof. Dr. Catrin Gersdorf (University of Würzburg). Organized by Verena Wurth as part of the PSSP: "Toni Morrison".

Summer 2024

• June 6, 2024, 2-3:30 p.m. (SSC Gebäude, S4 Sprachlabor): Guest Lecture: "Fat Activism and Fat Life Writing" Judith Schreier (Scholar and Activist). Organized by Verena Wurth as part of the PSMP: “Food and Body Politics in American Literature and Culture.”
• June. 17, 2024, noon-1:30 p.m. (Hauptgebäude/Room XIb): Guest Lecture: “The Precariousness of Freedom: Slave Resistance as Experience, Process, and Representation”, Prof. Dr. Charmaine Nelson (U of Massachusetts). Organized by Jun.-Prof. Dr. Judith Rauscher as part of the MS "Identities: African and African American Literature," taught by Dr. Habil. Johanna Pitetti-Heil.
• June 25, 2024, 2 - 3.30 p.m. (Building 106/S12): Guest Lecture: “'We going to hold on to you': James Baldwin, Jesmyn Ward, and the Potentialities of (Radical) Care" Dr. Alexandra Hartmann (U of Paderborn): Organized by Jun.-Prof. Dr. Judith Rauscher as part of the HS: “Black Masculinity and Kinship in African American Literature and Culture.”

Winter 2023/2024

• November 30, 2023, 6-7.30 p.m. (Building 103/ S98): Guest Lecture by Prof. Travis Harris (Norfolk State University): “Stranger In My Own Country: Hip Hop, Disenfranchised Identites, and Performances of Resistance” organized as part of the seminar "HS: The Politics of American Poetry" taught by Jun.-Prof. Dr. Judith Rauscher.
   
• Decemeber 20, 2023, 6-7:30 p.m. (via Zoom): Guest Lecture by Prof. Jeffrey Allan Tucker (University of Rochester): “Contexts for Literary Analysis: Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun” organized as part of the seminar "PSMP: Black Theater" taught by Verena Wurth.

Summer 2023

• May 23, 2023, 2-3.30 p.m. (Building 105/ Hall C): Guest lecture by Andrew Erickson (University of Potsdam): “Rehearsing the Past Through Afrofuturism,” organized as part of the lecture "American Speculative Fiction" taught by Jun.-Prof. Dr. Judith Rauscher.
   
• June 13, 2023, 4-5.30 p.m. (Building 103/ S82): Guest lecture by Dr. Stefan Benz (University of Bonn): “‘This that sound of a medicine drop’: Anishinaabe Hip Hop and the  Quest for Cultural Sovereignty,” organized as part of the seminar "MS: Sound, Silence, and Noise in US Literature and Culture" taught by Dr. Mahshid Mayar.
   
• June 27, 2023, 10 a.m. (Building 105/ Hall C): Guest lecture by Dr. Mareike Spychala (University of Bamberg): “Forever Wars – Wars Forever? Military Conflict in American Speculative Narratives,” organized as part of the lecture "American Speculative Fiction" taught by  Jun.-Prof. Dr. Judith Rauscher.

Winter 2022/2023

• Oct. 25, 2022, 2 p.m., via Zoom: Guest Lecture by Prof. Julia Leyda (Norwegian University of Science and Technology): "Theorizing Black Anthroposcreens: Queen Sugar and Black Panther,” organized as part of the seminar "OS: Ecocriticism and Mobility Studies" taught by Jun.-Prof. Dr. Judith Rauscher.
   
• Nov. 9, 2022, 2:30 p.m., via Zoom: Guest Lecture by Prof. David Caplan (Dedman College): "Erasure as Creative Poetry Writing,” organized as part of the seminar “MS: Poetry of Erasure: Theory and Practice,” taught by Dr. Mahshid Mayar.
   
• Nov. 29, 2022, 4 p.m., via Zoom: Guest Lecture by Prof. Catherine Larochelle (U of Montréal): "Canadian Childhoods in the 19th Century,” organized as part of the seminar “PSSP: American Childhoods Through Literature and Culture,” taught by Dr. Mahshid Mayar.
   
• Dec. 21, 2022, 2 p.m. (Building 103/ Room S63): Guest lecture by Anne Korfmacher (U of Cologne): “TV Series and Fan Podcasts,” organized as part of the seminar "PSSP: New Golden Age TV: Crimes and Other Disasters," taught by Verena Wurth.
   
• Jan. 9, 2023, 4 p.m., via Zoom: Guest lecture by Dr. Ina Batzke (U of Augsburg): “Gender, Race, Reproduction – and Vampires? Interrogating Reproductive Ideologies in Octavia E. Butler’s Fledgling,” organized as part of the seminar "HS: Gender, Race, and Reproduction in American Culture," taught by Jun.-Prof. Dr. Judith Rauscher.

Summer 2022

• May 24, 2022, 2 p.m. (Building 106/ Room S24): Guest Lecture by Dr. Linda Heß (U of Augsburg): “Queer Aging: The (In)Visibility of Older Queer Women in Suzette Mayr's The Widows,” organized as part of the seminar "Queer In/Visibility in American literature," taught by Jun.-Prof. Dr. Judith Rauscher.
   
• *CANCELLED* June 2, 2022, 7.30 p.m., via Zoom: “Invisible Man at 70: Keywords for Teaching Ellison’s Classic Today,” Doing/Teaching American Studies:Teach-In #3, organized by PD Dr. Stefanie Schäfer (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg/ U of Vienna).
   
• June 20, 2022, 4 p.m., via Zoom: Guest Lecture by Prof. Dr. Colleen Glenney Boggs (Dartmouth College): “Emily Dickinson and War Poetry,” organized as part of the seminar “The Poetry of Emily Dickinson,” taught by Jun.-Prof. Dr. Judith Rauscher.
   
• July 5, 2022, 2 p.m. (Building 106/ Room S24): Guest lecture by Dr. Katrin Horn (U of Bayreuth): “From Pulp to Carol: In/Visible Histories and Queer Nostalgia,” organized as part of the seminar "Queer In/Visibility in American literature," taught by Jun.-Prof. Dr. Judith Rauscher.

Winter 2021/2022

• Jan. 22, 2022, 6-7 p.m., via Zoom: Poetry Reading with American Poet Laura Passin, organized in collaboration with Mareike Spychala (U of Bamberg).
   
• Jan. 18, 2022, noon-1.30 p.m., via Zoom: Guest Lecture by Maxi Albrecht (JFKI, HU Berlin): “‘Rise Up’: Class Conflict and Neoliberal Speculative Survival in The Walking Dead,” organized as part of the seminar "Masses, Classes, and the State in American Culture," taught by Jun.-Prof. Dr. Judith Rauscher.
   
• *Cancelled* Nov. 16, 2021, 6 p.m., via Zoom: Guest Lecture by Prof. Dr. Ed Folsom (U of Iowa): "Walt Whitman's Democratic Vistas," organized as part of the seminar "Masses, Classes, and the State in American Culture," taught by Jun.-Prof. Dr. Judith Rauscher.
   
• Nov. 5, 2021, 4 p.m., via Zoom: Info Event on the Department's Exchange Program with the University of Rochester, organized by Dr. Björn Sonnenberg-Schrank.

Summer 2021

• July 7, 2021: Gastvortrag "Schwarzer Feminismus, Rassismus und Intersektionalität," von Dr. Natasha A. Kelly, organisiert von Verena Wurth mit Unterstützung des Amerikahaus NRW e.V. Köln.
   
• July 6, 2021: Guest Lecture "Refugee-Terrorist-Revolutionary: American War as Antiwar Literature," by Dr. Kelly Polasek (Wayne State University, USA).
   
• June 8, 2021: Auerbach Lecture "Heaven’s Allotment: Contradictions of Class, Race, and Gender in the Melodramas of Douglas Sirk and Todd Haynes," by Prof. Dr. Sandy Flitterman-Lewis (Rutgers University, USA).

Winter 2020/2021

• Jan. 11, 2021: Guest Lecture "Self and Things: A Posthumanist Reading of Sylvia Plath's Poetry," by Dr. Mahshid Mayar (University of Bielefeld).
   
• Dec. 21, 2020: Guest Lecture on Muriel Rukeyser and Poetry Reading by Dr. Laura Passin (Colorado, USA).
   
• Dec. 14, 2020: Guest Lecture "The Garden Poetry of Anne Spencer" by Prof. Dr. Melissa Zeiger (Dartmouth College, USA).
   
• Nov. 23, 2020: Guest Lecture "Emily Dickinson's Garden Ecology of Crisis" by Prof. Dr. Christine Gerhardt (University of Bamberg).

Summer 2025

• Apr. 16 & 17, 2 - 7 p.m.: Workshop: "Sustainability and Social Justice in Speculative Fiction," part of the workshop series Local Practices - Transatlantic Conversations, organized by Judith Rauscher and Jade Arbo (U Federal de Pelotas)
• June 4, 10-11.30 a.m.: Master Classwith Prof. Dr. Alexa Weik von Mossner (U of Freiburg): "Studying Eco-Documentaries: From Emotional Engagement to Social Impact," organized by Judith Rauscher and Bieke Willem (U of Cologne)

Summer 2024

• July 19, 2024 5 - 8 pm (CET) / 9am - noon (PST), (hybrid): Workshop: "Gender and Environment in Speculative Fiction," organized by Judith Rauscher, Verena Wurth and Nora Castle

Summer 2023

• May 24, 2023, 12 - 2 p.m. (International House, Kringsweg 6): Poetry Workshop with American poet and essayist Rita Dove: "Can I Get a Witness?," organized by Judith Rauscher and Giulia Sperduti

Winter 2022/2023

• Oct. 13-14, 2022 (a.r.t.e.s/ Room Skyfall): Symposium: "Eco-temporalities and Geo-politics," organized by Verena Wurth, Friederike Ahrens, Sarah Mund, Lorenzo Gineprini, Felix Lussem (members of the Environmental Humanities Reading Group of a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School). The workshop "Eco-temporalities and Geo-politics" took place in cooperation with MESH and is co-funded by the Competence Area IV, U of Cologne, and the AG Eco Media. For more information, see here or contact ehrg-artes@uni-koeln.de.
   
• March 21, 2023, 5-7 p.m. CET, via Zoom: Workshop: "Energy and Popular Culture," organized by Verena Wurth and Victoria Herche in collaboration with the Network for Energy and Literature as part of the Workshop Series Local Practices - Transatlantic Conversations with U of Oregon (USA)

Winter 2021/2022

• Jan. 29 & Feb. 12, 2022, 4 - 8 p.m., via Zoom: Creative Writing Workshop with American Poet Laura Passin, organized in collaboration with Mareike Spychala (U of Bamberg)
   
• Feb. 3, 2022, 7.30 - 9.15 p.m., via Zoom: Teach-In 2: "Re-reading bell hooks - Being with bell," organized by Nele Sawallisch (U of Trier)
   
• Dec. 6, 2021, 5.30 - 7.30 p.m., via Zoom: Workshop: “Ecomedia Writing: Local Practices, Transnational Conversations,” organized by Verena Wurth (U of Cologne) and Stephen Rust (U of Oregon)

Winter 2020/2021

• March 16-17, 2021: Workshop: "Critical Environmental Education and American Popular Culture," co-organized by Betsy Wheeler (U of Oregon) supported by the Bayerische Forschungsallianz (BayFor)
   
• Feb. 4, 2021: Teach-In: “The 1776-Report and its Afterlives: Critical Reponses from American Studies,” co-organized with Stefanie Schäfer (U of Vienna). Click here for a critical bibliography to the 1776-Report.

Summer 2021 

Sept. 23-25, 2021, via Zoom: Conference "Speculative Fiction and Ethics," annual conference of the German Association for the Study of the Fantastic (GFF), organized by Jun.-Prof. Dr. Judith Rauscher (U of Cologne), Mareike Spychala (U of Bamberg), Sara Tewelde-Negassi (U of Cologne), Lorena Bickert (U of Bamberg)

Special Events:

• Sept. 23: Keynote Lecture by Prof. Dr. Ingo Cornils (U of Leeds): "Dark Mirrors: German Science Fiction in the 21 Century"
• Sept. 24: Author Reading by Sofia Samatar: "Fairy Tales for Robots"
• Sept. 25,: Panel-Diskussion mit deutschen SFF Autor*innen: "Queere Fantastik: Gegenwart und Zukunft"