| UPDATED PROGRAM
UPDATED PROGRAM

CLICK HERE for the digital version of the conference program!

The rooms that have been previously allotted may be subject to change on short notice.

Please note: Rooms designated with "ES" are located at the English Department, Johannisstr. 12-20. 
All other conference-related events will take place at the Schloss, Schlossplatz 2.

  • QUIET SPACE: Festsaal, Schlossplatz 5
  • BIPoC Safer Space: S 151
  • Space for private, special needs: S 062 
    (Please inform us during the conference if/when you need access to this room).

Wednesday, May 27

 Room
16:30–18:30 Amerikastudien Editorial Board Meeting ES 203

Thursday, May 28

 Room
09:30–14:00 Board Meeting ES 131
14:00–17:00 Registration packages available Foyer
15:00–16:00 PGF Get-Together ES 131
  Presentation, Carina Reibold: Dissertationen im Verlag publizieren: Buchveröffentlichungen mit J. B. Metzler ES 130
16:00–17:00 BIPoC Get-Together ES 131
17:30–18:00 CONFERENCE OPENING and WELCOME Aula
18:00–19:30 KEYNOTE 1: Shannon Gibney
The Kinship of Loss		 Aula
19:30–20:30 Reception Foyer

Friday, May 29

 Room
09:00–10:30 KEYNOTE 2: Katharina Gerund
Military Spouses Making Kin: Families, Friends, and Foremothers		 Aula
09:00–13:00 Registration packages available Foyer

10:30–11:00

COFFEE BREAK

Foyer
Meet the Editors, Astrid Franke and
Timo Müller: American Studies – A Monograph Series		 Winter Verlag Stand (Foyer)
10:30–17:00 Exhibition: Book Studio Zines (more information below) Foyer
11:00–13:00 WORKSHOPS 1-6 (see table below)
13:00–14:30 LUNCH BREAK (self-paid) City
13:15–14:15 Digital American Studies Initiative: "Teaching, Learning, and AI: An Open Exchange" S 9
13:00–14:30 Diversity Round Table Senatssaal
14:30–16:30 WORKSHOPS 7-12 (see table below)
16:30–17:00 COFFEE BREAK Foyer
17:00–18:00 FLINTA Caucus for Gender Equity Aula
18:00–20:00 DINNER BREAK (self-paid) City
20:00–21:30 CURRENT EVENTS PANEL: Navigating the New Normal? Book Bans and Challenges in the USA Aula

Saturday, May 30

 Room
09:00–10:30 KEYNOTE 3: Mark Rifkin
The Politics of Kinship		 Aula
09:00–11:00 Registration packages available Foyer
10:30–11:00

COFFEE BREAK

Foyer
Meet the Editors, Astrid Franke and 
Timo Müller: American Studies – A Monograph Series		 Winter Verlag Stand (Foyer)
11:00–13:00 WORKSHOPS 13-17 (see table below)
13:00–14:30 LUNCH BREAK (self-paid) City
13:00–14:30 PGF Meeting Senatssaal
14:30–16:30 DGfA/GAAS General Meeting & Award Ceremony Aula
16:30–17:00 Mentoring Meeting Senatssaal
17:00 Conference Closing Aula
20:30 Conference Party YOLK

WORKSHOPS
Friday, 11:00–13:00 Panel Chairs Room
Panel 1: Kinship and Civil War from 1861 to the Present Julius Greve
Sascha Pöhlmann		 S 1
Panel 2: Children, Childhood, and Critical Modalities of Kinship Layla Koch
Mahshid Mayar		 S 2
Panel 3: Migrant Mother and Her Kin: Picturing Displacement in U.S. Visual Culture Karsten Fitz
Nicole Maruo-Schröder		 S 8
Panel 4: Sideways Kinships: Counter-Hierarchical Relations in American Studies Phillip James Grider 
Andrew Wildermuth		 S 9
Panel 5: Adoption, (Re-)Kinning the Politics of Family in American Studies Silke Hackenesch Senatssaal
Panel 6: Masculinity and Kinship: Intersections of Care, Social Justice, and Privilege Nathalie Aghoro, Peter Hintz, 
Stefan Schubert		 S 055
Friday, 14:30–16:30 Panel Chairs Room
Panel 7: Uncanny Kinship(s): Planetary Encounters in the USA Dominik Steinhilber
Florian Wagner		 Senatssaal
Panel 8: Kinship as Relationality, Relationality as Kinship: Inquiries into Contemporary Life Writing Stefanie Müller
Katja Sarkowsky		 S 1
Panel 9: Queer Affective Kinships in Contemporary American Literature Lukas Hellmuth
Anne Stellberger		 S 2
Panel 10: Formed Under Pressure: Kinship and the Planetary Technosphere Maxine Broich
Laura Cwalina		 S 8
Panel 11:  Interdisciplinarity as Political & Pedagogical Kinship: MAGA’s Targeting of the Sciences and the Humanities Michael Aaron Mason, 
Michael Wong, Yagmur Su Kolsal		 S 055
Panel 12: The Scales of Queer Kinship: Contestations over (Anti-)Normativity Gero Bauer
Cedric Essi		 S 9
Saturday, 11:00–13:00 Panel Chairs Room
Panel 13: Narratives of Human/Animal Kinship Relations on Turtle Island Alisa Preusser
Stefanie Schäfer		 S 9
Panel 14: Autokinship: Mapping Kin-Like Relations within the Self in American Culture and History Mita Banerjee
Katie Jacques		 Senatssaal
Panel 15: Transatlantic Kinship and Subalternity Elena Furlanetto
Anthony Chukwudumebi Obute		 S 8
Panel 16: Remaking Kin with the Machines: Conceptualizing Relationality in the Technological Age Juliane Gamböck-Strätz
Ruxandra Teodorescu		 S 2
Panel 17: Kinship, Community, and Belonging in Language Education Silke Braselmann
Ricardo Römhild		 S 1

 

29 May | Exhibition: Book Studio Zines
29 May | Exhibition: Book Studio Zines
© Book Studio 2022

Book Studio Zines

As part of the conference, Ellen Barth, from the Chair of Book Studies will host an exhibition of zines on Friday, May 29, 2026. 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.

As Josef Beery has stated in Teaching the History of the Book: “Time spent working with letterforms, illustration, and page building, as well as printing and binding techniques, immerses students in the story of the book” (2023, 108). Through a range of different workshops and bookish events, the Book Studio offers staff and students the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in areas of printing, bookbinding and book construction, illustration, erasure poetry, artists’ books, paper marbling, zine making, and more.