GraduiertenkollegMASNEWS 03/2007: Off to New Shores
New Arrivals: The MAS Family Grows
Inside MAS: Welcome Jeannette Jones
MAS Professor Tours the World
Life after the MAS: Romania, Heidelberg, London
HCA Teams Up with the American Academy in Berlin
Global Dimensions of Racism in the Modern World
Off to New Shores
Dear All,
Welcome to the MAS newsletter of the Heidelberg Center for American Studies at the
Please feel free to forward our newsletter to anyone interested in American
Studies. Of course, we appreciate any feedback you would like to share with us.
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Detlef Junker
HCA Founding Director
New Arrivals: The MAS Family Grows
The HCA is happy to welcome 19 students
from China, Germany, Kyrgyz Republic, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Senegal,
Taiwan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and the United States of America to our MAS class of 2008. They started off
their time in Heidelberg on Oct. 1 when their two weeks of orientation began
with the official welcome reception in the Bel Etage of the HCA.
One of the students from the United States is Alicia Talbot. She was born in
Ann Arbor, Michigan, and grew up going to schools in both France and in the
United States. Alicia attended several universities including one in Oviedo,
Spain, and graduated in 2007, with a B.A in history and a minor in anthropology
from Michigan State University. During her studies she volunteered at a
respiratory camp hosted by the Mott Children’s Hospital of the University of
Michigan, and has participated in projects for Volunteers for Peace in Spain
and Italy.
When asked why she chose to study in Germany, Alicia replied: “I had visited
Germany years ago and liked the culture and geography, but I really grew to
love both Germany and its people while living in Wiesloch last fall. I really
enjoyed the many German festivals and cultural activities that I was fortunate
enough to participate in and the friends I made. I would also like to continue
working on improving my German skills.” To her Heidelberg is a beautiful town,
and she really enjoyed the university atmosphere as well as the many historical
sites. Alicia came to know Heidelberg while living near by and truly missed it
when she had to return to the United States. So why did Alicia decide to study
American culture and history from an outside perspective? “I decided to attend
the HCA program, as I wanted a graduate program that
would be international, both in student and faculty population that would
encourage students towards interdisciplinary studies. I think that given the
current situation politically, economically and culturally in today’s world it
is extremely important to have a foundation of knowledge of the world’s
superpowers, as they have an immense effect on what happens around the world.”
Inside MAS:
Welcome Jeannette Jones!
Jeannette Jones (University of Nebraska –
Lincoln), a distinguished scholar in African American Studies, is the first
Deutsche Bank Scholar-in-Residence at the HCA and will join the teaching staff
for the MAS
class of 2008.
Jeannette Eileen Jones received her B.A. in History, with minors in Philosophy
and Political Science from Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. She
earned her Master’s and Doctoral degrees in History from the State University
of New York at Buffalo. She joined the UNL faculty in
2004 and is currently Assistant Professor of History and Ethnic Studies
(African American and African Studies). Her teaching specializations are in
African American history and the history of pre-colonial Africa. Her research
focuses on American cultural and intellectual history, with emphases on race
and representation in science, film, and popular culture.
Prof. Jones outlines her research interests: “My research looks at the ways in
which race, as both a popular and scientific category, has shaped American
culture and intellectual discourses. Specifically, I examine the ways in which
race is articulated in literature (i.e., novels, travel narratives, poems,
etc.) film, public sites, and museums, with an emphasis on the intersections of
these mediums with scientific discourses. My publications include articles on
images of Africa in American culture, race and representation, and race as a
scientific category.”
The Deutsche Bank Scholar-in-Residence program is part of the new visiting
fellows program that aims at facilitating transatlantic academic exchange.
MAS Professor Tours the World
Present at the creation of the MAS, Prof. Robert Jewett is now on a
leave of absence working on several projects and traveling around the world to
present a lifetime project of his. For the first time since its inception, this
year’s MAS
program takes place without Professor Jewett’s lectures on American religious
history.
Robert Jewett is the Harry R. Kendall Professor Emeritus at Garrett-Evangelical
Theological Seminary and the Northwestern University doctoral program. He has
been a mainstay of the MAS program, offering students
an in-depth explanation of American religious history. His lecture series, “The
Almost Chosen People: Religion in America,” has been widely popular among
students both from the HCA and from other areas in the
University.
Sadly, this year Professor Jewett will not be able to teach in the MAS program, because he is working on a number of exciting projects.
Jewett’s commentary on Romans in the Hermeneia series was published this year
after 27 years of work. In the commentary Jewett interprets the letter as a
missionary document aimed at overcoming cultural conflicts caused by imperial
behavior. Jewett’s new emphasis on the issues of honor and shame is likely to
be more readily understood in Africa and Asia than in the guilt and forgiveness
cultures of the west. To evaluate this commentary requires scholarly
conversation by specialists around the world.
Ten symposia have been organized where Jewett is presenting his work, including
ones at the national meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in
Washington, D.C., Great Britain and South Africa. In September 2007, Jewett
departed for symposia scheduled in Seoul and Beijing, along with a month of
lectures at the University of Beijing. Future symposia are being organized in
Hong Kong, Taiwan, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Brazil, Scandinavia, Rome
and Spain, and in the U. S., at Fuller and Duke Seminaries. The results of
these discussions will be published in a book to be edited by K. K. Yeo.
Just before departing from Heidelberg, Jewett finished reading the proofs for
Mission and Menace: Four Centuries of American Religious Zeal, to be published
early next year by Fortress Press. This book grew out of the lectures and
seminars led by Robert Jewett and Ole Wangerin in 2003-2005. The latter is also
working on a German translation of the book.
We hope that Professor Jewett will be back for next year’s MAS.
Life after the MAS: Romania, Heidelberg, London
What became of Raluca Gheorghita (MAS Class of
2005) after graduation? Raluca reports on her studies in London and her work
for Procter & Gamble in Romania
After finishing the MAS in
I finished the M.A. in September 2006 and then I returned to Romania and I
obtained a job with Procter & Gamble where I am currently employed. What I
appreciate about this job is that it places me in direct contact with P&G
employees from all over the world and it also allowed me to develop my German
language skills. I am now proud to say I can speak German as well :)).
Nevertheless I still have not given up on my dream of getting a job with an EU
institution or another international organization in the public affairs/public
policy sector.
I wish you all good luck in the different corners of the world you may be in
now and I hope to come back to beautiful Heidelberg soon.
Further News from the HCA
HCA Teams Up with the American Academy
in Berlin
In April 2007 the HCA and the American Academy in Berlin
launched a new program: The Baden-Württemberg Seminar.
Designed to bring some renowned fellows of the American Academy to the state of
Baden-Württemberg, the Baden-Württemberg Seminar was inaugurated in April 2007
with speeches by both Minister President Günther Oettinger and former
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. During the spring the HCA
helped coordinate appearances of Vermont writer Thomas Powers in Heidelberg and
Stuttgart, and of Susana Elm, Professor of History, at the Zentrum für
Altertumswissenschaften in Heidelberg. Her talk on the Pagan Challenge was
exceptionally well attended, as Susanna Elm is one of the leading scholars in
ancient history. The second event in June took place at the Staatsgalerie in
Stuttgart. It was a presentation by Julie Mehretu, an artist from New York. In
the same month the famous poet C.K. Williams read selected poems in the
Literaturhaus, Stuttgart. Ronald Steel, Professor of International Relations
and History, completed the spring seminar of the Baden-Württemberg Seminar with
a presentation on July 10 at the Carl-Schurz-Haus in Freiburg. He talked about
“The Atlantic Community: Dream and Reality.” These events demonstrate that the
Baden-Württemberg Seminar is an excellent opportunity to attract even more
American scholars with diverse backgrounds to come to Heidelberg and to other
places in Baden-Württemberg respectively.
The current program of the Baden-Württemberg-Seminar can be found here.
Global Dimensions of
Racism in the Modern World
From July 12 to 14, 2007, the HCA and the Curt Engelhorn Chair of
American History hosted an international conference on “Global Dimensions of
Racism in the Modern World: Comparative and Transnational Perspectives,” which
brought together twenty-five scholars from six countries and four continents.
The conference sought to reexamine major problems in the historiography of
racism and successfully introduced fresh perspectives and methodological
innovations that help us comprehend how notions of “race” and racism created,
shaped, and legitimized systems of domination. Exploring the international
dimensions of racism also means going beyond traditional black/white paradigms
and approaches that focus solely on Europe or the United States.
The conference addressed comparative problems concerning racism and slavery as
well as the history of racist regimes in Germany, South Africa, and the United
States. Furthermore it explored other forms of racist domination, particularly
imperialism and colonialism. Transnational perspectives will contribute to a
more comprehensive understanding of both the emergence of racism in the modern
world and how it operated in different cultures.
The event was sponsored by the Fritz-Thyssen-Foundation and by the Schurman
Association for the Promotion of American History at the University of
Heidelberg.
The complete conference report can be downloaded as PDF-document
(ca. 370 KB) here.
The HCA
and its entire staff wish you and your friends and relatives A
BLESSED HOLIDAY SEASON and A HAPPY NEW YEAR
Curt und Heidemarie Engelhorn Palais
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Tel.: + 49 6221 543710
E-Mail: hca@uni-hd.de
www.hca.uni-hd.de
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