Events
Guest lectures, readings, CfPs & conferences, summer schools
You will find upcoming guest lectures, readings, summer schools as well as the latest call for papers and conferences here. Watch out for regular updates.
Guest lectures
Hybrid Symposium: Comics, Popular Visual Culture & Colonialism
January 27, 2023 | 11:30-18:30
This day-long symposium aims to bring together academics, comic artists, students, and local community members to discuss how comics and other forms of popular visual culture are used to remember colonial histories, particularly in the German and Dutch contexts. Divided into two parts, the symposium will first address the colonial past in visual cultures more generally, with confirmed talks by Dr. Philipp Erdmann + Dominic Eickhoff (Münster) and Dr. Felicity Jensz (Münster). The focus will then move to the topic of postcolonial storytelling in contemporary comics with talks by PhD candidate Alicia Lambert (Louvain) and Dr. Britta Schilling (Utrecht) + Eeva Langeveld (Münster), as well as two roundtables with comic artists. The first roundtable will highlight comics in the German context and will focus on the topics of knowledge and didactics. The second will make space for reflecting on form and collaboration, particularly regarding comics in the Dutch context.
The symposium will be held from 11:30-18:30 on Friday, January 27, 2023 at the English Seminar (Johannisstraße 12-20) in Münster. All interested participants are welcome to join. Registration is required. To join in person, please send an email to comicssymposium@uni-muenster.de. To join via Zoom, please register here.
Human Rights Day Event: "Human Rights and Other Trifles"
A political revue by Hope Theatre NairobiThursday, December 8th, 2022, 19.30
Studiobühne der Universität, Domplatz 23, Münster
Admission freeOn December 10, 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations. According to Article 1, all human beings are "born free and equal in dignity and rights", and Article 2 prohibits all forms of discrimination. In the meantime, this document has been signed by almost every country in the world. And still we are far away from equality in the world. Age, disability, ethnic origin, gender, language, religion, political and ideological conviction, national or social origin, property or birth - there are many ways and reasons to discriminate against others.
In the political revue on the topic of "Human Rights", the actors of the Hope Theatre from Nairobi also speak from their own experiences. They know what looks on the street in Germany can mean, but they have also experienced the civil war in their own country and they know the attitude of the rich Kenyans towards the slum dwellers. They realize how difficult it is to be seen in Germany as actors and actresses and not as refugees or needy people, but they also know the applause of the enthusiastic audience.
With their performances, they seek contact and exchange with the audience. They would like to establish that the world is not seen globally only when it comes to economic advantages or political statements, but also when it comes to human values and responsibility.
The ensemble of Hope Theatre Nairobi also deals with political issues in an entertaining way, whereby the change of perspective and the examination of the issues also from the African side are an important part of the performance. Alternating between play scenes, songs, hip-hop, traditional dances and interactive encounters, the audience experiences a kaleidoscope of moods, perspectives, techniques and forms of performance. It is part of the principle of Kenyan life as well as of theater to spread joy, to communicate critically but with relish, and to connect.
The performance in German and English will be moderated in German.Conception, text and music by Winfred Akinyi, Stephan Bruckmeier, Margit Niederhuber, Judith Kunz, Monica Oduor, Thomas Unruh and Karin Wirnsberger.
A production of Kenya Art Projects e.V. and Hope Art Theatre Nairobi NGO in cooperation with the Office of the Ombud for Gender Equality of the Austrian Federal Chancellery, kikuna e.V. and the Ensemble of the Hope Theatre Nairobi.
Organizer: One World Forum Münster e.V., in cooperation with Volkshochschule Münster, Afrikanische Perspektiven e.V., Postcolonial, Transnational and Transcultural Studies (PTTS) of the English Department & Exile Kulturkoordination e.V.
Lecture series "Black German Studies: Transatlantic Perspectives" Dec. 2022 - Feb. 2023
The lecture series “Black German Studies: Transatlantic Perspectives” responds to the question posed by Tiffany Florvil and Vanessa Plumly in their 2018 volume Rethinking Black German Studies: “Who and what do we engage with when we use the category of Black German Studies?” Co-organized by the Chair for German Literature, Comparative Literary Studies and Transatlantic Literary History and the Chair for English, Postcolonial and Media Studies in partnership with the Transatlantic Studies Network, the series seeks to offer space for exchange and reflection on the research field of Black German Studies and for engagement with scholars, authors/artists, and activists who contribute to this discourse. With a particular focus on transatlantic exchange, the lecture series consciously includes multiple, differently-located voices, drawing attention to scholarship from across the Atlantic that invigorates the study of Black German texts, as well as recognizing and centering the work that is being done in this area particularly by Black scholars, artists, and activists, located in Germany. In doing so, continuities between the transatlantic transfer that has been recognized, for example, in Audre Lorde’s impact in the Afro-German movement of the 1980s and the impact of Black US-American scholars in German Studies today are made apparent, as are the problematic implications of the tendency to look to the U.S. when it comes to discourses of Blackness in Germany. Such topics will be explored by several academic lectures, a film screening, a reading, and an evening dedicated to the poetry and transnational activism of May Ayim. In recognition of the continued potential for scholarship, discussions, and ethical practices emerging from Black German Studies to offer lessons and impulses for research and teaching beyond the emergent discipline, the lecture series makes space for these discussions at the University of Münster, inviting students, colleagues, and community members to take part.
Further information and updates can be found here.
Zeiten des Bewusstwerdens - Politische und soziale Auseinandersetzungen im Sudan
Lecture1 JUN 2022 | 19:30 h (Zoom)
With Dr. Ishraga Mustafa Hamid and Omer OthmanFurther information is available here.
Sudan: Kampf um politische und soziale Erneuerung
Lecture6 APR 2022 | 19:00 h (Audi Max, English Department, Johannisstraße 12)
With Dr. Ishraga Mustafa Hamid and Omer OthmanWith the fall of long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir in April 2019, the path to a free, democratic future seemed to open up for the people of Sudan. In this spirit of optimism, Sudanese author Dr. Ishraga Mustafa Hamid initiated the "Bread and Roses" literary scholarship. This gave young women in particular the opportunity to write down their experiences, reflect on them and pass them on. The motto was "Writing for Social Change".
In October 2021, the military staged a coup and is currently in control of the government. However, many Sudanese people continue to fight for the goal of political and social renewal. They protest in the streets, risking their lives. In this difficult situation, the writing project was completed as planned. Texts by more than 60 young authors are now available in print in Arabic. Themes include the 2019 revolution in Sudan, resistance to the military regime, experiences of violence and abuse, equality and the environment.
The association Afrikanische Perspektiven has accompanied the project from the beginning. Donations have supported female authors, writing workshops, as well as the publications. Now, texts from the literary scholarship will be presented and information about the situation in Sudan will be provided in two events: The first event will take place on Wednesday, April 6, 2022, at 7 p.m. in the Audi Max of the English Seminar, Johannisstr. 12, Münster.
There, Dr. Ishraga Mustafa Hamid will report on the writing project. A selection of the texts translated into German will be read by the actress Sarah Giese. The literary scholar Omer Othman will moderate and provide information about recent events in Sudan. The event will also be broadcast online. The Zoom link is https://wwu.zoom.us/j/62561526105. The event will take place in German, there will also be a summary translation into Arabic online.
The second event will be online only, the date and Zoom access details to be announced.
The events of Afrikanische Perspektiven e.V. take place in cooperation with the English Seminar of the Uni Münster - Postcolonial Studies, the Volkshochschule and the Eine-Welt-Forum Münster e.V.. They are sponsored by the Cultural Office of the City of Münster and the Advisory Council for Municipal Development Cooperation.
Further information is available here.
„Dekolonisierung des Denkens“
lecture series (AUG 2021 - MAR 2022)The lecture series is organized by Afrikanische Perspektiven e.V. and takes place in cooperation with Postcolonial, Transnational and Transcultural Studies (PTTS), Volkshochschule Münster, and Eine-Welt-Forum Münster e.V. , among others. It is supported by the Kulturamt (Stadt Münster) and the Peter Hammer Verein für Literatur und Dialog e.V. .
8 AUG 2021 | 12:00 h (Studiobühne der Universität)
Der gute Deutsche: Rudolf Manga Bell
Lecture by Christian Bommarius (publicist) in German
7 SEPT 2021 | 19:00 h (Zoom)
Dekolonisierung des Rechts
Lecture and discussion with Karina Theurer (European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR)) in German27 OCT 2021 | 19:00 h (Franz-Hitze-Haus) | 8€/ 4€
Die Macht der Bilder - Die Folgen der negativen Afrika-Darstellung
Lecture by Dr. M. Moustapha Diallo in German4 NOV 2021 | 19:00 h (Zoom)
Gedichte auf Luganda
Lecture by Dr. Susan Nalugwa Kiguli (lyricist) in German21 JAN 2022 | 19:00 h (Plenarsaal des LWL-Landeshauses)
Afrika-Berichterstattung in der "Tagesschau" von 1952–2018
Lecture by Dr. Fabian Sickenberger in German8 FEB 2022 | 19:00 h (Studiobühne der Universität)
Pisten
Lecture by Penda Diouf and Gifty Wiafe in German and French
Followed by a talk with Dr. M. Moustapha Diallo
21 Mar 2022 | 19:00 h (Uni Münster Weiterbildung, Königsstr. 47, 48143 Münster)
Decolonize Yourself
Lecture with Ania Faas, Zandile Darko, and Dr. M. Moustapha DialloYou can find further information on the lecture series and the individual talks listed below here.
Further events t.b.a.
"Sprache und Kolonialismus" (Language and Colonialism) lecture series (2 JUN - 23 JUN 2021)
The lecture series is organized by the Germanistisches Institut der Universität Münster & Kommission für Mundart- und Namenforschung Westfalens.
You can find more information on the lecture series and the individual talks listed below here.2 JUN 2021 | 18:30h
Koloniale Mikrotoponyme: (Historische) Benennungspraktiken, (aktuelle) Umbenennungen
Lecture by Dr. Verena Ebert (Würzburg) in German9 JUN 2021 | 18:30h
Die deutsche Sprache im postkolonialen Namibia
Lecture by Dr. Christian Zimmer (Freie Universität Berlin) in German16 JUN 2021 | 18:30h
Unserdeutsch (Rabaul Creole German): Das linguistische Erbe der Hiltruper Missionare im Südwestpazifik
Lecture by Prof. Dr. Péter Maitz (Universität Bern) in German23 JUN 2021 | 18:30h
Kolonialismus im Wörterbuch. Einblicke in die Arbeit der Dudenredaktion
Lecture by Dr. Laura Neuhaus (Dudenredaktion, Berlin) in German
"Contingent Belonging Un/bedingte Zugehörigkeit" lecture series (18 JAN–29 JAN 2021)
You can find more information on the lecture series and the individual talks listed below here.
18 JAN 2021 | 18:00 Uhr (s.t.)
"From the Other Side": Grenzregime im Blickfeld der Kunst
Lecture by Prof. Dr. Ursula Frohne (Uni Münster) in German20 JAN 2021 | 18:15h
Hintergründe und Bedingungen räumlicher Mobilität: Positionen und Perspektiven der Migrationsforschung
Lecture by Prof. Dr. Jochen Oltmer (Uni Osnabrück) in German21 JAN 2021 | 18:00h
“Illegal Alien” or “Refugee”: Border Crossings Into El Paso, Texas
Lecture by Dr. Ina Batzke (Augsburg University)26 JAN 2021 | 18:00h
Leben und Sterben mit der Grenze: Grenzregime, Migration und Identitäten in Mexiko und den USA im 20. Jahrhundert
Lecture by Prof. Dr. Silke Hensel (Uni Münster) in German
27 JAN 2021 | 18:00h
Refugees and the Right to Have Rights: From the Borders of Europe through Contingent Belonging in Münster
Lecture by Dr. Jesper Reddig (Münster University)29 JAN 2021 | 18:00h
The Cemetery of the Companionless: Towards a World Literature of Undocumented Lives in Elif Shafak’s 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in this Strange World
Lecture by Prof. Dr. Mita Banerjee (Mainz University)African Perspectives
You can find the information about the upcoming events, organized in collaboration with Afrikanische Perspektiven e.V. here.
Literary Encounters with Africa: Reading and Conversation with Yirgalem Fisseha Mibrahtu
Saturday, 28 Oct. 2023, 18.00 | VHS-Forum of Volkshochschule Münster, Aegidiimarkt 2, Münster
© Yirgalem Fisseha Mebrahtu "I am alive" is the name of Yirgalem Fisseha Mebrahtu's collection of poems, which was published by Wunderhorn in April. Mebrahtu wrote the poems during and after her years of imprisonment in Eritrea. They are about justice, human rights and the longing for peace. In the fall, Mebrahtu's correspondence with Tanja Kinkel will be published by Akono-Verlag. In the personal and moving correspondence, the two writers share their experiences about writing in different worlds - one from Eritrea, the other from Germany.
On October 28, Yirgalem Fisseha Mebrahtu will present some of her texts in Tigrinya. The German translation will be read by Sarah Giese. The conversation with Mebrahtu will be moderated and translated by Mekonnen Mesghena.Noel Araya will accompany the event musically on the piano, followed by Eritrean food.
Yirgalem Fisseha Mebrahtu (*1981, Adi-Keh/Eritrea) is a writer and journalist. She has been living in Munich since 2018 and was a fellow of the PEN Germany Writers in Exile program. In 2019, she was awarded the Freedom of Speech and Expression Award by PEN Eritrea.
Mekonnen Mesghena studied journalism and history at the University of Dortmund. He heads the Migration and Diversity Unit at the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Berlin. Since June 2023, he has been a member of the German government's Expert*innenrat Antirassismus. He writes for domestic and international magazines, broadcasters and websites.
Admission is free, a donation is requested. Registration is preferred for the meal: info@afrikanische-perspektiven.de or via phone: 015772536608.
This event is organized by Afrikanische Perspektiven e.V., the Volkshochschule Münster, the Eritrean Cultural Association in Münsterland e.V., the One World Forum Münster e.V. and Postcolonial, Transnational and Transcultural Studies (PTTS) at the English Department of the University of Münster, and is sponsored by the Environment and Development Foundation of NRW, and by the Cultural Office and the Integration Council of the City of Münster.
Reading Session with Fred Khumalo
Wednesday, 30 Aug. 2023, 19.00 | JO1, Johannistraße 4, Münster
© Afrikanische Perspektiven e.V. Paris 1958, the waiter of an upscale restaurant is on trial, accused of murder, and remains silent. In his novel Dancing the Death Drill, Fred Khumalo therefore lets others tell: Of the First World War, of the recruitments of the British colonial power in South Africa, of the sinking of the troopship "SS Mendi" in the English Channel in 1917, of more than 600 dead, among them many Black soldiers who were to fight against the German Empire, of a man who saved himself by killing others, and of an observer of this moment.
With his gripping story, Fred Khumalo also describes a historical event of the colonial era that is significant for South Africa.
Fred Khumalo (*1966, South Africa) writes about socio-political and historical issues, identity and racism. The conversation with him is moderated and translated by Prof. Dr. Manfred Loimeier, the actor Casten Bender reads from the novel.
Entrance is free, a donation is requested.
This event is coordinated by Afrikanische Perspektiven e.V. and Postcolonial, Transnational and Transcultural Studies (PTTS) at the English Department of the University of Münster, and is sponsored by the NRW Environment and Development Foundation, the Cultural Office of the City of Münster and the One World Forum Münster e.V.
Readings
t.b.a.
CfPs & conferences
CfP: Plague as Metaphor (Special Issue of Open Cultural Studies)
Deadline: 30 April, 2023CfP: Disruptive Imaginaries (Joint Annual Conference of the Science Fiction Research Association and the German Research Association for the Fantastic)
Deadline: 1 March, 2023
Conference: 15-19 August, 2023, TU DresdenCfP: Cultures of Skin: Skin in Literature and Culture, Past, Present, Future (International Conference)
Deadline: 1 February, 2023
Conference: 7-8 July 2023, University of Surrey, UKCfP: Postcolonial Infrastructure (Annual GAPS Conference)
Extended Deadline: 31 January 2023
Conference: 18-20 May 2023, University of Konstanz
Further information here.CfP: Uncovering British Chinese Cultures (International Conference)
Deadline: 25 January 2023
Conference: 8-9 August 2023, TU DresdenCfP: Envisioning Queer Black and Indigenous Self-Representations within the Digital Literary Sphere (Special Issue of AmLit)
Deadline (for full essays): 16 January, 2023CfP: Decolonizing the Study of Memory (Special Issue)
Deadline: 10 January, 2023Summer schools
Various universities and other academic organisations offer summer schools where students can explore a particular subject in a kind of block seminar format over one or several weeks during the semester break. This gives students the chance to study new topics not offered at their home universities, or to explore a familiar topic from a new angle, with different teachers and classmates in a different setting. Sometimes students can get credit points which are also accepted at their home university (preferably check beforehand).
Upcoming summer schools
Summer School: Tacet ad Libitum!
Towards a Poetics and Politics of Silence
24-29 JULY 2022Silence (tacere or Schweigen) has been considered by Franz Rosenzweig among others as a subversive act or defiant stance of the tragic hero against overwhelming power mechanisms of necessity, i.e., totalization and universality. It has also, however, been regarded as an epiphenomenon (or a result) of marginalization and oppression by postcolonial theorists. The latters’ understanding marks silence as an end, a potential violent effect of the logics of exclusion and marginalization by “signifying machines”. The former understanding marks silence as a means of rendering mechanisms of powers inoperative. Therefore, the significance of silence appears to oscillate within an aporia of means and ends, singularity and universality, a-thesiology and thesiology, performance and logos. For the Münster Lectures and Summer School to be mutually complementary, we want to re-explore these known aporias from the perspective of silence as a concept which may occasion an ethics, poetics, and politics of “pure means” or violent ends. Can a logic of silence call for something more than resignation or defiance, complicity or conformity, and if so, how can the notion of silence be expanded into the realm of political action, or into new realms with new voices? The Summer School will be divided into three sections: Theory, Poetics and Politics. We do, however, foresee a continuous interaction between the three fields.
More information: silencemuenster.wordpress.com/
GAPS summer academy
A summer academy on anglophone postcolonial literatures and cultures is organized biannually by interested students under the auspices of the Association for Anglophone Postcolonial Studies (GAPS). The GAPS summer school offers students from all universities the opportunity to explore various different aspects of the New Literatures in English in a one-week 'package' of lectures, seminars and authors' readings. Creative writing workshops are also possible. Lecturers and authors come from various German and international locations. Each Summer School takes place in a different city.
Students can have their ASNEL summer school 'credits' accepted for thematically relevant components of any degree programme offered at Münster’s English department (e.g. Magister, Lehramt, B.A., M.A.of Education, M.A. National & Transnational Studies), and at any level (e.g. Proseminar, BA seminar, Hauptseminar - but not Kolloquium).
Details can be checked on the summer school website and should be discussed with one of your Münster lecturers (e.g. Prof. Mark Stein or Dr. Silke Stroh) in advance.The most recent GAPS Summer Schools took place in Frankfurt in September 2017 ("Performing Postcolonialisms").