© Kai Sina

Transatlantic Studies Network

In the area of transatlantic research, the WWU has special potential. Several professorships, distributed among three different departments, deal with transatlantic issues. In the field of history, the Chair of Modern and Contemporary History has a special focus on North American history (Prof. Dr. Heike Bungert), and in historical educational research a focus on German-American educational research (Prof. Dr. Jürgen Overhoff). Since 2020, there has been the Lichtenberg Professorship of Modern German Literary Studies and Comparative Literature with a focus on Transatlantic Literary History (Prof. Dr. Kai Sina).

At the English Department, both the Chair of Book Studies (Prof. Dr. Corinna Norrick-Rühl), which deals with the international book market, and the Chair of American Studies (Prof. Dr. Silvia Schultermandl) are interested in transatlantic issues.

Many of these departments have already been working together for several years now in a teaching collaboration, the Interdisciplinary Certificate in North American Studies. In 2021, an initial network meeting was held under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Sina and Prof. Dr. Norrick-Rühl to further mobilize this special potential as well as to bring together research interests.

Since then, network members have met regularly for various types of events:

  • Transatlantic Studies Research Colloquium (network-internal discussions of work in progress, especially by doctoral and post-doctoral students).
  • Transatlantic Studies Brown Bag Lunch (lecture format, network internal)
  • Workshops on Transatlantic Literary and Publishing History (at the German Literature Archive, Marbach)
  • Transatlantic Studies Lecture Series (lecture format, public)

Other outputs associated through network members currently include:

The network is supported with funds from the Volkswagen Foundation.