Professor Dr. Silvia Schultermandl
Professorship of American Studies (Prof. Schultermandl)Information for Students
IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS!
In the interest of streamlining our correspondence and avoiding mis-communication, please take note of the following:
* If you are interested in writing your BA or MA thesis with Prof. Dr. Schultermandl, please reach out beforehand to receive information on the process.
* If you need a letter of recommendation, please include your CV, your letter of motivation, the full postal address of the agency to which you apply. Please reach out 4-6 weeks before your application deadline.
Research Interests
- American fiction and life writing, from the 18th century to the present
- Literary theory
- Transnational American Studies
- Family and kinship studies
- Transnational Feminism
- Social media
Current Projects
- Transoceanic Kinship (special issue for Atlantic Studies: Global Currents, together with Dr. Katharina Fackler, Uni Bonn)
In the context of the recent “oceanic turn” (DeLoughrey 2016), the world’s oceans have not only been (re-)valued as objects of study, but they have inspired a range of formative new theories and methodologies in literary and cultural studies. On the metaphorical level, the oceans’ watery ways provide models for “nonlinear or nonplanar thought” (Blum 2013: 152), placing notions of circulation, fluidity, mobility, and mingling at the center of attention. Thereby, they also beckon a (re-)consideration of “transoceanic connections” (Burnham 2016: 154) between different bodies of water, their cultures, and histories (e.g. DeLoughrey 2007). Increasingly venturing below the ocean’s surface, scholars immerse themselves in the sea’s material and nonhuman dimensions, inquiring into the realm of the biological, the geophysical, and the ecological (e.g. Steinberg 2013).
This special issue sets forth from Hester Blum’s argument that we may “find capacious possibilities for new forms of relationality through attention to the sea’s properties, conditions, and shaping or eroding forces” (2013: 152), investigating its particular applicability to questions of kinship. More specifically, it uses the notion of kinship as a critical idiom and conceptual lens to examine the oceanic turn’s potential for rethinking forms of (human and nonhuman) belonging. In other words, it considers kinship a particularly salient concept through which to explore the new concepts and ideas coming from oceanic studies.
- Palgrave Studies in Mediating Kinship, Representation, and Difference
This book series brings together analyses of familial and kin relationships with emerging and new technologies which allow for the creation, maintenance and expansion of family. We use the term “family” as a working truth with a wide range of meanings in an attempt to address the feelings of family belonging across all aspects of social location: ability, age, race, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, gender identity, body size, social class and beyond. This book series aims to explore phenomena located at the intersection of technologies including those which allow for family creation, migration, communication, reunion and the family as a site of difference. The individual volumes in this series will offer insightful analyses of the representations of these phenomena in media, social media, literature, popular culture and corporeal settings.
- Gender – Affect – Politics: A Three-Part Radio Series
In this series, the Intimate Readings Research Group discusses how narratives in different media establish a sense of identity and community through shared emotional experiences, how they mobilize publics and counterpublics, and how they create potential affective worlds that allow readers and audiences to question dominant ideas of gender and sexuality.
The 3-part series “Gender, Affect, and Politics” is a feature for the monthly queerfeminist magazine “genderfrequenz” (Gender Frequency) at the Graz-based free radio station Radio Helsinki (92,6 MHz). You can stream the episodes on Sundays at 5 p.m. or listen to them later on the website of the Cultural Broadcasting Archive (CBA).
Episode 1 | Feb. 21st, 2021 | Public Feelings and How to Study Them
Episode 2 | March 21st, 2021 | Literature, Social Media, and Affective Worldmaking
Episode 3 | April 18th, 2021 | “Feeling Bad? It Might Be Political!” – Interview with Ann CvetkovichStreaming:
https://helsinki.at/program/shows/gender-frequenz-sozialpolitisch-feministisch-unbeugsam
https://fellowship-geschlechterforschung.uni-graz.at/en/symposia/gender-affect-and-politics-a-3-part-series-by-the-intimate-readings-research-group/
CV
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
Since 2021 Professor and Chair of American Studies
University of Münster2019–2021 Associate Professor of American Studies
Department of American Studies, University of Graz2012–2018 Assistant Professor of American Studies, tenure track;
Department of American Studies, University of GrazFall 2014 Fulbright Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies
Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts2007–2012 Assistant Professor, non-tenure-track;
Department of American Studies, University of Graz2006–2007 Lecturer, English Department
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
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Teaching
Vorlesung
- Vorlesung: Survey of American Literary History [094980]
[ - | | wöchentlich | Di. | Prof. Dr. Silvia Schultermandl]
Seminare
- Oberseminar: Doktorandenkolloquium (American Studies) [095116][ - | Prof. Dr. Silvia Schultermandl]
[ - | Prof. Dr. Silvia Schultermandl]
[ - | Prof. Dr. Silvia Schultermandl]
[ - | Prof. Dr. Silvia Schultermandl]
[- | Prof. Dr. Silvia Schultermandl] - Seminar: American Literature and Mobility (not G) [095070]
[21.04.2021 | | wöchentlich | Mi. | Prof. Dr. Silvia Schultermandl]
Übung
- Übung: Reading Class: Gruppe II, 6. Sem. (Literature & Culture) [094988]
[20.04.2021 | | wöchentlich | Di. | Prof. Dr. Silvia Schultermandl]
Sonstige Lehrveranstaltung
- Grundkurs: Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies II: Gruppe IX [094976]
[ - | | wöchentlich | Mi. | Prof. Dr. Silvia Schultermandl]
- Vorlesung: Survey of American Literary History [094980]
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Latest Publications
Books
Books (Monographs)
- . . Ambivalent Transnational Belonging in American Literature.: Routledge. [Accepted]
Edited Books
- (Eds.): . Ethnicity and Kinship in Contemporary European and North American Literature. : Routledge.
- (Eds.): . Click and Kin: Transnational Identity and Quick Media. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
- (Eds.): . Localizing Global Phenomena: The Contact Spaces of American Culture. Vienna: LIT.
Articles
Articles in Edited Books
- . . ‘Introduction: Ethnicity and Kinship in Contemporary European and North American Literature.’ In Ethnicity and Kinship in Contemporary European and Northamerican Literature, edited by , 1-21. Routledge.
- . . ‘Palimpsestuous Historiographies in Lisa Lowe’s "The Intimacies of Four Continents" and Karen Tei Yamashita’s "I-Hotel”.’ In Palimpsests in Ethnic and Postcolonial Literature and Culture: Surfacing Histories, edited by , 21-39. Palgrave Macmillan.
- . . ‘Auto Assemblages in SNSs: Intermediality and Transnational Kinship in Online Academic Life Writing.’ In Intermediality, Life Writing, and American Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches, edited by , 191-210. Berlin: De Gruyter.
- . . ‘Stuplimity and Quick Media Epistolarity in Lauren Myracle’s "Internet Girls Series”.’ In The Epistolary Renaissance: A Critical Approach to Contemporary Letter Narratives in Anglophone Fiction, edited by , 225-240. Berlin: De Gruyter.
- . . ‘Out of Line: Shifting Border Paradigms in Cooper, Morrison and Yamashita.’ In Crossing Borders: Essays on Literature, Culture and Society in Honor of Amritjit Singh, edited by , 3-16. Madison, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.
- . . ‘Nature and the Oppressed Female Body in Nora Okja Keller’s "Ecofeminist Aesthetics”.’ In Ecocriticism and Geocriticism: Overlapping Territories in Environmental and Spatial Literary Studies, edited by , 171-188. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
- . . ‘Introduction.’ In Click and Kin: Transnational Identity and Quick Media, edited by , 3-24. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
- . . ‘Of Literary Letters and IMs: American Epistolary Fiction as Regulative Fictions.’ In Click and Kin: Transnational Identity and Quick Media, edited by , 118-136. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
- . . „Transnationale Familien als Ort fluider Identitäten.“ In Spannungsfeld “Gesellschaftliche Vielfalt“: Begegnungen zwischen Wissenschaft und Praxis, herausgegeben von , 155-170. Bielefeld, Germany: transcript.
Articles in Journals
- . . ‘Online Life Writing.’ JAAAS 1.1: 143-150.
- . . ‘The Affective Aesthetics of Transnational Feminism.’ WiN EAAS Women’s Network Journal 1: 1-23.
- . . ‘Introduction: Autobiography 2.0 and Quick Media Life Writing.’ Autobiography 2.0 and Quick Media Life Writing, special issue: Interactions: Studies in Communications and Culture 9.2: 143-154.
- . . ‘Reading for Connectivity: Aesthetics and Affect in Intermedial Autobiographies 2.0.’ Autobiography 2.0 and Quick Media Life Writing, special issue: Interactions: Studies in Communications and Culture 9.2: 251-263.
- . . ‘Aestheticizing Absence: Representations of the Twin Towers’ Shadow in 9/11 Literature and Film.’ Interactions 23.1-2, No. spring-fall 2014: 231-242.
- . . ‘'Imagination is a tricky power’: Transnationalism and Aesthetic Education in Shirley Geok-lin Lim’s Work.’ Asiatic 8.1, No. June 2014: 40-54.
- . . ‘Writing the Self Beyond the Nation-State: The Transnationalism of Olaudah Equiano’s "Interesting Narrative".’ Transnational Dimensions of Literature and the Arts. Special Issue of University of Bucharest Review 4.1: 32-45.