PROGRAM
PROGRAM

PRELIMINARY Program

THE WORKSHOP TIME SLOTS HAVE NOW BEEN ALLOTTED (see table below).
Room allotment will be announced at a later date.

Wednesday, May 27

16:30–18:30 Amerikastudien Editorial Board Meeting

Thursday, May 28

09:30–14:00 Board Meeting
14:00–17:00 Registration packages available
15:00–16:00 PGF Get-Together
16:00–17:00 BIPoC Get-Together
17:3018:00 CONFERENCE OPENING and WELCOME
18:00–19:30 Keynote 1: The Kinship of Loss, Shannon Gibney
19:30–20:30 Reception

Friday, May 29

09:00–10:30 Keynote 2: Military Spouses Making Kin: Families, Friends, and Foremothers, Katharina Gerund
09:00–13:00 Registration packages available
10:30–11:00 Coffee Break
11:00–13:00 Workshops 1-6 (see table below)
13:00–14:30
13:15–14:15

Lunch Break (self-paid)
Diversity Round Table | Digital American Studies Initiative

14:30–16:30 Workshops 7-12 (see table below)
16:30–17:00 Coffee Break
17:00–18:00 FLINTA Caucus for Gender Equity
18:00–20:00 Dinner Break (self-paid)
20:00–21:30 Current Events Panel: Navigating the New Normal? Book Bans and Challenges in the USA

Saturday, May 30

09:00–10:30 Keynote 3: The Politics of Kinship, Mark Rifkin
09:00–11:00 Registration packages available
10:30–11:00 Coffee Break
11:00–13:00 Workshops 13-17 (see table below)
13:00–14:30
13:15–14:15
Lunch Break (self-paid)
PGF Meeting
14:30–16:30 DGfA/GAAS General Meeting & Award Ceremony
16:30–17:00 Mentoring Meeting
17:00 Conference Closing
TBD Conference Party

WORKSHOPS

Friday, 11:00–13:00 Panel Organizers
Panel 1: Kinship and Civil War from 1861 to the Present Julius Greve
Sascha Pöhlmann
Panel 2: Children, Childhood, and Critical Modalities of Kinship Layla Koch
Mahshid Mayar
Panel 3: Migrant Mother and Her Kin: Picturing Displacement in U.S. Visual Culture Karsten Fitz
Nicole Maruo-Schröder
Panel 4: Sideways Kinships: Counter-Hierarchical Relations in American Studies Phillip James Grider 
Andrew Wildermuth
Panel 5: Adoption, (Re-)Kinning the Politics of Family in American Studies Silke Hackenesch
Panel 6: Masculinity and Kinship: Intersections of Care, Social Justice, and Privilege Nathalie Aghoro, Peter Hintz, 
Stefan Schubert
Friday, 14:30–16:30 Panel Organizers
Panel 7: Uncanny Kinship(s): Planetary Encounters in the USA Dominik Steinhilber
Florian Wagner
Panel 8: Kinship as Relationality, Relationality as Kinship: Inquiries into Contemporary Life Writing Stefanie Müller
Katja Sarkowsky
Panel 9: Queer Affective Kinships in Contemporary American Literature Lukas Hellmuth
Anne Stellberger
Panel 10: Formed Under Pressure: Kinship and the Planetary Technosphere Maxine Broich
Laura Cwalina
Panel 11:  Interdisciplinarity as Political & Pedagogical Kinship: MAGA’s Targeting of the Sciences and the Humanities Michael Aaron Mason
Panel 12: The Scales of Queer Kinship: Contestations over (Anti-)Normativity Gero Bauer
Cedric Essi
Saturday, 11:00–13:00 Panel Organizers
Panel 13: Narratives of Human/Animal Kinship Relations on Turtle Island Alisa Preusser
Stefanie Schäfer
Panel 14: Autokinship: Mapping Kin-Like Relations within the Self in American Culture and History Katie Jacques
Panel 15: Transatlantic Kinship and Subalternity Elana Furlanetto
Anthony Chukwudumebi Obute
Panel 16: Remaking Kin with the Machines: Conceptualizing Relationality in the Technological Age Juliane Gamböck-Strätz
Ruxandra Teodorescu
Panel 17: Kinship, Community, and Belonging in Language Education Silke Braselmann
Ricardo Römhild

 

29 May | Exhibition: Book Studio Zines
29 May | Exhibition: Book Studio Zines

As part of the conference, the venue will host an exhibition of zines on Friday, May 29, 2026:

Book Studio Zines

The Book Studio, conceived by the Chair of Book Studies as a space for experiencing (and experimenting with) the materiality of the book, will present a selection from their Mini-Zine Library. Zines are small booklets often associated with subcultures and DIY production practices as well as grassroots community action. The materials on display will highlight a variety of topics and forms, and include examples made by University of Münster students.

Details coming soon.