Banned Books in Conversation
28 April, 18:00-20:00, SpecOps: Nicholas Johnson will be discussing Art Spiegelman's Maus (1986).Registration here
29 May, 20:00-21:30, Aula (Schloss): Roundtable discussion "Navigating the New Normal? Book Bans and Challenges in the USA", with Emily Drabinski, Maude Hines, Kelly Jensen, Corinna Norrick-Rühl
Register here.
17 June, 18:00-20:00, SpecOps: Julia Reckermann and Merle Bergmann will be discussing Something Happened in Our Town (2018) by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins and Ann Hazzard.Registration here
In response to the steep increase in book banning and (attempted) censorship in the USA and beyond, the University of Münster’s Chairs for Book Studies (Prof. Dr. Norrick-Rühl) and American Studies (Prof. Dr. Schultermandl) have founded a “Banned Books Network Münster” (BBNM). Two postdoctoral researchers at the Chair of American Studies, Dr. Jennifer Gouck (2025 WiRe fellow) and Dr. Sarah Pyke, are co-founders of this initiative. Our purpose is to raise awareness of the increase in book banning, and to create space for engagement with banned books and the wider repercussions of these bans. Our events are inclusive in nature, and we hope to engage students, teachers, colleagues and the wider reading public with our initiative.
Thanks to everyone who joined us for our previous stimulating discussions. The next event will take place on March 26, 2026. Registration is requested, but not mandatory.
If you would like to know more and stay up to date about our events, please join our email mailing list by registering here: https://listserv.uni-muenster.de/mailman/listinfo/banned-books-network. We will only distribute network-specific information through the list. You can unsubscribe at any time.
We highly recommend the websites of PEN America and the American Library Association (ALA), which both share statistics and infographics about challenged and banned books.
We are delighted to share that our student Kareshan Mayurathan has founded a banned books book club as an adjacent event series. The dates and books can be found on the poster below:
