In response to the steep increase in book banning and attempted book challenges in the USA and beyond, the University of Münster’s Chairs for Book Studies and American Studies have co-founded “Banned Books Network Münster” (BBNM). Our purpose is to raise awareness of the increase in book banning, to create spaces for engagement with banned books, and to discuss 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.
At the second event of this series, Dr. Jennifer Gouck (WiRe fellow, University of Münster) will speak about The Hate U Give (2017), a young adult novel by Angie Thomas. The book is widely acclaimed for its portrayal of police violence and racism - and widely challenged and banned for the same reasons. In the German context, it received the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis 2018, the only literary award (across any genre) given by the German government.
The event will take place at SpecOps on Thursday, July 3, 2025 at 6pm. Registration is requested, but not mandatory. Please follow this link for more information. We look forward to seeing you there.
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.
