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) founded the “Banned Books Network Münster” (BBNM) in January of 2025. Two postdoctoral researchers at the Chair of American Studies, Dr. Jennifer Gouck 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 critical 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.
In the winter term of 2026, former M.A. student Kareshan Mayurathan founded a banned books book club as an adjacent event series. We are thrilled that students have used the work of the BBNM as a starting point for their own engagement with banned books.
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.
If you would like to learn more about banned books, 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.
CURRENT EVENTS
- Banned Books Week (October 2026). Please visit https://indico.uni-muenster.de/event/3982/ for further details and registration options.
- Winter term event series (to be confirmed)
PAST EVENTS (in reverse chronological order)
