Here you can find the News & Events of the GS PoL of the past years

This summer term, the GSPoL hosts a lecture series which focuses on "Activism & Academia." We invite all students, staff and guests to join us and participate in discussions on this important and timely topic. The program and further information are available on the website of the event. Please note that the lecture on May 2 has been rescheduled to June 13.

The Summer School will open with the Münster Lectures which seek to combine the merits of theoretical and literary insight of renowned scholars, prominent writers, and cultural activists to discuss current debates, both scholastic and social.
The Münster Lectures are open to doctoral candidates, post-doc researchers, humanities students, and the general public. The Münster Lectures aim to strengthen not only the interdisciplinary exchange among members of the university, but also bridges the gap between the university and the city of Münster.

On July 27, the participants of the summer school will be asked to present their work-in progress on the topic. The conferences will be divided in three panels: theory, poetics and politics, which will be moderated by two speakers each.
The call for abstracts is now closed. We are not accepting any paper presentations.
We welcome you to register as a regular participant. (Spaces are limited)

At this year's network conference, the GSPoL offers exciting insights into current dissertation projects and career paths for academics with a PhD in literature. Alumni, students, university lecturers and the interested (university) public are cordially invited to attend this event. Further information on the program and registration can be found here.

The GSPoL's final event of this winter term is an evening lecture with Dr. Anna Poletti (Utrecht University). Building on their research on life writing after the book, Dr. Poletti will outline how affordances and aesthetics of other media forms reshape and reinvent autobiographical narratives. Please register with this link if you are interested in joining the event on Zoom. The lecture will be held in English.

We are looking forward to welcoming the renowned thinker Prof. Dr. em. Jean-Luc Nancy at the GSPoL. Prof. Nancy will teach a PhD workshop and give a public lecture, which focuses on the abyss and its non-negative potentiality - keeping in mind that the death of god, the end of the law of causation have left us with no metaphysical "Grund" (German for "reason" as well as "ground"). Please contact us via email if you are interested in joining the event via Zoom.

We look forward to welcoming Prof. Peter Fenves, who will give a webinar and a guest lecture on "Benjamin and Derrida" at our graduate school. Please contact us by email if you are interested in joining the event via Zoom.

In the upcoming winter term, GSPoL once again hosts a lecture series, starting on Oct 07. On Mondays, 6-8 pm, members are invited to attend to this series on "Travelling Concepts". Further information can be found on our website by clicking on this announcement's title.

GSPoL cordially invites yout to Dr. Samuel Heidepriem's guest lecture on "Media and Ideology of the Modern Constitution", which will be held at JO 101 on July, 11 at 4 pm.

On the occasion of our new cooperation with Northwestern University, we would like to cordially invite you to our ceremony on June 19, 2019 at Festsaal (Ceremonial Hall) at 6 pm. Prof. Dr. Jörg Kreienbrock from Northwestern University will open this ceremony by giving a lecture on "Institut für Verbesserung der Weltliteratur. Max Kommerell und Ernst Robert Curtius im Gespräch über Calderón".

The guest lecture "A World of Translation" by Theo D'haen (KU Leuven) will be held in WWU castle's ceremonial on 6 June at 6 pm. All those interested are cordially invited to attend! (venue: Festsaal, Schlossplatz 5)

This year's lecture series, titled Why Literary Studies Matter Now: Academic Practices in an Anti-Intellectual Climate, opens up an interdisciplinary and international dialogue on the cultural and political role of literature in today's world, addressing issues such as "Realitie(s) in Literary Studies," "Factual Fictions," and "Political Correctness in Academic Discourse."

The tenth anniversary of the Graduate School 'Practices of Literature' was celebrated on June 19, 2018 with a conference. A diverse program including a networking event “Career Development” for PhD students, a guest lecture by advisory board member Dr. Nicholas Shrimpton (University of Oxford), as well as poster and project presentations by PhD students reflected the Graduate School's research activities. The GSPoL is grateful to everyone who participated and made the anniversary conference a special day with thoughtprovoking discussions!

The GSPoL is pleased to welcome Dr. Jan Behrs (Northwestern University) for a public lecture and masterclass on literary innovation.

The GSPoL is pleased to welcome Prof. Patrick Miller from Northeastern Illinois University (Chicago, USA) for an evening lecture and workshop.

To the celebrate the Graduate School's ten-year anniversary, the graduate school has come up with a diverse conference program illustrating the GS PoL's three pillars: literature and theory, literature and society as well as literature and the professional world. Next to PhD poster presentations, it includes academic exchange in the form of a keynote lecture by Dr. Nicholas Shrimpton (University of Oxford) as well as a networking event for PhD students, advisory board members, and alumni.

***Unfortunately, the event had to be cancelled. The lecture will be held on a later date (tba). ***
The GSPoL gives a warm welcome to University of Wuppertal's PD Dr Christoph Jürgensen: On June 5, 2018, he will be giving a guest lecture on forms of self-presentation of authors in digital contexts ("Digital ist besser? Formen der Autorinszenierung im Internet"), 18:15 at Vom-Stein-Haus (Schlossplatz 34), room 17. Everyone interested is welcome to join the talk and discussion.

What shape can science communication take on today next to a traditional press release, a lecture series or a tweet introducing a new publication? Science Communication Today: More Content, More Colour - More Importance? aims to elaborate on these question with a lecture by Philipp Niemann, head of science communication at Karlsruher Institut für Technologie and a following discussion with various experts in science communication and researchers.
This event was inspired by the exhibition and book launch of Traveling Exhibition UpSideDown and its associated academic graphic novel based on Münster's second international circus conference UpSideDown | Circus and Space (June 2017, organized by GSPoL PhD student Franziska Trapp).

The GSPoL is pleased to have held a productive Münster Lectures 2018 exploring the relationship between feminist* theory and activism. Cultural theorist and author Laina Dawes from the Department of Music at Columbia University (USA) and Sonja Eismann, co-founder, co-publisher and editor-in-chief of Missy Magazine: Magazin für Pop, Politik und Feminismus (Berlin, Germany) introduced their work and located it in the field of theory and activism, inviting fruitful discussion with the audience. Find impressions of the event here:

This conference aims to address the role of gender in popular culture, how it is represented and read. The discussion will focus on the political power of such representations and their impact on cultural practices; their critical and subversive potential. In order to do so, we would like to engage with various aspects of popular culture and look forward to discussing gender (re-)presentations and performances in a range of different media, including Film, Music, TV, Literature, Comic, Social Media, and other online media.

This winter term, we cordially invite all PhD students and guests to attend our new lecture series. Five international guests will present and discuss their papers on concepts and developments that have shaped our understanding of literature in the new millennium. 

The GSPoL project group Cine Club would like to invite anyone interested in joining them for their new film series " Alternate Realities". Every wednesday the Cine Club meets at the German Department, room VSH18, 20:00, to screen and discuss a movie with the subject "Alternate Realities in Film".

The GSPoL is pleased to receive Prof. Dr. Monika Fludernik (Freiburg University) for an evening lecture and corresponding masterclass on May 12/13, 2017.

The GSPoL is pleased to receive Prof. Dr. Anne Fleig (FU Berlin) for an evening lecture and corresponding masterclass on May 4/5, 2017. Guests interested in joing the masterclass can register at julia.langhof@uni-muenster.de. Please note that the lecture and masterclass will be held in German.

The 'Cine Club', a GSPoL project group, would like to invite anyone interested in joining them for a film screening on Monday, February 20th, at 8 p.m. in VSH 116, Schlossplatz 34.

After screening and discussing Wong Kar-Wai's melancholy tale of love and loneliness "In the Mood for Love", followed by meta-comedy "Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance" (Alejandro G. Iñárritus), British satire "Four Lions" (2010) by Chris Morris, "Mulholland Dr." by David Lynch (2001) and "La Grande Bellezza" by Paolo Sorrentino (2013), the next movie to be analysed is "Inside Llewyn Davis".

The GSPoL extends a warm welcome to Dr. Tomislav Zelic from Zadar University, Croatia, for a public lecture and following masterclass concering the idea of "Mediterranianism" as a tool for discourse analysis in the tradition of Said's "Orientialism" (1977) and Todorova's "Balkanism" (1997). The Mediterranean Sea as catalyst of European identity formation connecting self-autorization and self-authentification furthers the (self)distinction between the European Self as Other. Dr Zelic asserts that this literary-imaginative process can be seen in German literary history analyzing baroque and German contemporary literature as example.

The GSPoL is pleased to welcome Prof. Dr. Lars Koch from Dresden to a public lecture and masterclass. The lecture focusses on different art activists fighting against global capitalism: Friedrich von Borries, Milo Rau, and the Centre for Political Beauty, three main figures but with different approaches in the field of aesthetic intervention. Examining the aesthetical self- and external reference, and their different approaches to disrupt and redefine reality conventions as well as cultural perception, the lecture seeks to point out the interrelationship of politics and art.

The 'Cine Club', new project group of the GSPoL, would like to invite anyone interested to join them for the first screening on Monday 12th of December at 6 p.m. in VSH, Schlossplatz 34. The first film to be watched and discussed was be Wong Kar-Wai's melancholy tale of love and loneliness from 2002: "In the Mood for Love". This time we will take an analytic look at the meta-comedy "Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance".

The GS PoL is pleased to welcome Dr. Kristin Dombek to a reading for Münster Lectures 2016 on the topic of "The Selfishness of Others" from her recently published book The Selfishness of Others: An Essay on the Fear of Narcissism.

From September 28-30th, the Chair of English, Postcolonial & Media Studies and Open University will be co-hosting a unique collaborative Symposium. Compiling the very first Cambridge History of Black and Asian British Writing, editors Professor Susheila Nasta (Open Univesity) and Professor Mark Stein (Münster) have invited their contributors to a three-day research and cooperation workspace through which the writing process shall be enhanced and productively facilitated.
The Event includes an Evening to Celebrate Black and Asian British Writing on Thursday 29 September with readings from renowned authors, showcasing literature from the UK’s Black and Asian writers. More

The seventh annual conference of the Association for Research in the Fantastic under the title The Fantastic Now: Research in the Fantastic in the 21st Century aims to include the greatest possible number of diverse voices and perspectives to do justice to the multiplicity and interdisciplinarity of the field in order to discuss its societal and cultural implications.
The conference will takeplace at the Westfälische-Wilhelms University of Münster, English Seminar, from the 22nd to 24th of September 2016.

The GS PoL is happy to welcome Dr. Kelemen (Eövös-Loránd-Universität Budapest (ELTE)) as lecturer for a masterclass funded by the smartNETWORK program  Ipid4all. The workshop will focus on objects and exhibits - practices of exhibiting in literature and philology.

Lis Hansen, a member of the GS PoL, is co-organizing a workshop on the topic of literature and material marginalization in Berlin. The workshop will focus on how marginalized objects can be written (about) and analyzed.

On June 22nd 2016, smartNETWORK, the association of the graduate schools of the humanities and social sciences, will host the seventh networking day at Johannerstraße 4. Opportunities provided by the European Union for young researchers will be the day's topic.

For further information, click here

At the second general assembly of all PhD students of the WWU, the ASta representatives for the PhD students will be elected. After that, a film screening of PhD Movie 2 with free snacks and drinks will provide a casual setting for an informal get-together.

The GS PoL is pleased to announce a workshop in cooperation with Dr. Viola Voß and the ULB, which will focus on the optimal publication of a dissertation.

The GS PoL is happy to welcome Prof. Dr. Benthien from Hamburg. She will hold a lecture on cultural theory of shame and guilt.

Thu 09.06.2016, 9 - 10 I Festsaal, Schlossplatz 5

The GS PoL is happy to welcome Prof. Dr. Markus Kuhn from the University of Southern Denmark to a public lecture on the topic of scenic narration.

The PhD Research Group (Promotionskolleg) Literary Theory as Theory of Society, which took up work in the summer term 2012, is an independent college of the Graduate School Practices of Literature and it is funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation. The official ending of the project will be celebrated with a closing ceremony on May 3rd 2016. Prof. Dr. Eckart Gobel from the Univserity of Tuebingen will hold a lecture on "Paria und Patria. Hannah Arendts 'Gespensterwelt'"at the event.

Further information on the conference which is organised by three GS PoL members is now available on this flyer. Please find the abstract and contact information (in German) here:

Through the lecture series of the Cluster of Excellence about conversion from Antiquity until the present day, the GS PoL is excited to announce a lecture and masterclass with Prof. Detering on the topic of Dylan's conversions and life paths in pop culture.

Social media is an all-encompassing tool to connect people which is used more and more in academic areas. The term Science 2.0 describes the changes social media introduces in academic research and publishing to more open, and collaborative processes.

In his lecture, Clemens Ruthner will explore the question how the principle of liminality (Victor Turner) is a defining factor of the genre "fantastic literature". Furthermore he will examine if and how fantastic literature and literature in general can overcome liminality through "undead" key figures e.g. the vampire.
Place and Time: Thu, 14.01.2015, 18:15 - 19:45, Senatssaal (Schlossplatz 2)

On augst 20th Prof. Dr. Jörg Kreienbrock will hold a masterclass on „Parallelpoesie: Zur Relation von Dichtung und Theorie nach deren Ende“.

From 3rd - 4th July 2015 the conference Briefe als Träger und Trigger von Affekten will examine the connection between letter and affect that is often claimed as natural. Download programme here.

The German media channel WDR currently reported on the conference Semiotics of the Circus that was a cooperation of the GS PoL and the Cirque Buffon. The report is now available on the webside of the WDR - featuring an interview with GS PoL student and conference organizer Franziska Trapp.

The College of Philology at the Westfälische Wilhelms-University in Münster is looking for interested and qualified doctoral candidates in the area of Literary Studies starting October 1st 2015. In the Graduate School, 'Practices of Literature', you will have the opportunity to complete your doctorate degree within three years and to prepare yourself for an academic career in university or non-university professions.

On 27th and 28th April Prof. Dr. Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht will hold a lecture and a masterclass at the GS PoL on 'Stimmungen lesen'? Über eine vergessene Dimension des literarischen Erlebens.

The conference Briefe als Träger und Trigger von Affekten (03.-04.07.) will be devoted to the connection between letter and affect, that is often claimed as natural. PhD students that want to apply can apply until 15th April 2015.

A media group consisting of postgraduates from Münster have started their own YouTube-channel to document lectures and events in the area of literary studies. The channel LitFlix is now online!

The Gesellschaft für Anglophone Postkoloniale Studien accepts proposals for the annual conference Ideology in Postcolonial Texts and Contexts (14th-16th May, WWU Münster) by March 31st.

The aim of the conference is to take the multiple discursive links into account and to ask how the different dimensions of work shape the presentation of one’s (own) life. On the one hand, the conference will take a look at auto/biographies and other auto/biographical media, i.e. on genres that allow an explicit focusing on an individual’s life or on the individual as a foil for more general, epistemological reflection. On the other hand, auto/biographical forms will be taken into account, that serve as a data basis for the science of history, sociology or psychology.

On 19th of February Dr. Gabriele Radecke will hold a lecture on Theodor Fontane's notebooks: "Notizbuch-Editionen. Zu Materialität und Medialität von Theodor Fontanes Notizbüchern und ihrer editorischen Repräsentation". On 20th February there will be an additional masterclass on "Digitale Editionen" with Dr. Radecke and Mathias Göbel, that will give an introduction to edition philology as well as "TextGrid".

Click here to get to the official homepage of the conference 'Semiotics of the Circus'. (Photo: © Max Eicke - maxeicke.com / Design: Friedrich Schäper)

To see the CFP please click here.

The GS PoL is pleased to announce the publication "Poetik des Terrors" of Dr. Michael König.

The GS PoL would like to announce the lecture "viele kleine Kopftuchmädchen … ”: Eine postkolonial -feministische Kritik an neo-kolonialen Diskursen über Muslimische Frauen of Color, held by Ismahan Wayah (GS PoL).

Dr. Matthias Thiele will hold a public lecture on "Ambulantes Aufzeichnen als Verfahren der Welterkundung um 1800 und um 2000: Adelbert von Chamissos Reise um die Welt und Kevin Sites Global Hot Zone" on the 15th of January. There will be an additional masterclass on the 16th of January. 

We are pleased to announce the publication "Selbstverortungen. Migration und Identität in der zeitgenössischen deutsch- und englischsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur" of Dr. James Orao, who was the first PhD graduate of the Graduate School in 2012.

We would like to congratulate member of the Graduate School 'Practices of Literature' Dr. Christoph Pflaumbaum on the publication of his PhD thesis entitled "Melancholisches Schreiben nach Auschwitz. Studien zu Wolfgang Hildesheimer, Jean Améry und W. G. Sebald".

The Graduate School is pleased to announce the latest publication by a member of the Graduate School 'Practices of Literature, Dr. Matthias Schaffrick, entitled "In der Gesellschaft des Autors. Religiöse und politische Inszenierungen von Autorschaft".

The GSPoL interview with game designer Kevin Menzt is now online - as well as the Youtube-channel "About:Games", hosted by the project group "Gamestudies", which offers tutorials and "Let's analyze" Videos as an introduction to the theory of computer game analysis.

The Graduate School Practices of Literature proudly presents Kevin Mentz, Gamedesigner working for Daedalic Entertainment, which is currently holding the Studio of the Year Award 2013. He will give a talk on "Story breaking and breaking stories" at Thursday, September 4th 2014.

The College of Philology at the Westfälische Wilhelms-University in Münster is looking for interested and qualified doctoral candidates in the area of Literary Studies starting April 1st 2015. In the Graduate School, 'Practices of Literature', you will have the opportunity to complete your doctorate degree within three years and to prepare yourself for an academic career in university or non-university professions.

We would like to congratulate Dr. Innokentij Kreknin on the publication of his PhD thesis entitled "Poetiken des Selbst. Identität, Autorschaft und Autofiktion am Beispiel von Rainald Goetz, Joachim Lottmann und Alban Nikolai Herbst".

Special Guests from Kiel at the WWU: The GSPoL will host a special lecture on Rambo and Tatort. The event takes place on wednesday 25th of June, 6 pm, room JO1 (Johannisstraße). Please note that the lectures will be held in German.

In the framework of the Graduate School Scholarship Programme, up to four scholarships are to be awarded to international PhD-students working in the field of literary studies. The official announcement will be published anytime soon.

The College of Philology at the Westfälische Wilhelms-University in Münster is looking for interested and qualified international doctoral candidates in the area of Literary Studies starting October 1st 2015. In the Graduate School, 'Practices of Literature', you will have the opportunity to complete your doctorate degree within three years and to prepare yourself for an academic career in university or non-university professions.

The Europakolleg will host a lecture series on literary figurations in europe. The event takes place on wednesdays, 16. pm, room JO1 (Johannisstraße). Please note that the lectures will be held in German.

In April, the Europa Kolleg will host the international conference "Living Europe, Writing Europe: Literary Perceptions of Urbanization and ‹Provincializing› European Identities". The event is is organized by doctoral students of different fields of research and is addressed to young academics.

We would like to cordially congratulate Dr. Maren Conrad on the publication of her PhD thesis entitled "Aufbrüche der Ordnung, Anfänge der Phantastik. Ein Modell zur methodischen Balladenanalyse, entwickelt am Beispiel der phantastischen Kunstballade".

Upon the invitation of Hans Böckler PhD Research Group (Promotionskolleg) Literary Theory as Theory of Society, Dr. Thomas Ernst (Universität Essen/Duisburg) will hold a public lecture on his recent publication Literatur und Subversion. Politisches Schreiben in der Gegenwart.

We would like to cordially congratulate Kirstin Frieden, Caren Heuer, Christoph Plaumbaum und Anna Thiemann on the completion of their doctoral degrees in 2013.

The lecture on digital humanities will take place in the WWU Festsaal at 6 pm.  Please note that the lecture will be in German.

The lecture will take place in the Senatssaal at 6.15 pm. Please note that the lecture will be in German.

What is our understanding of plagiarism, what are the effects and how can researchers deal with this topic? On the 14th of February 2013 the smartNETWORK invites all members of the participating graduate schools to their 4th Network-Day. The event takes place in the facilities of the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” (Johannisstraße 4).

We are pleased to announce the publication of Dr. Boris Hoge’s book Schreiben über Russland. Die Konstruktion von Raum, Geschichte und kultureller Identität in deutschen Erzähltexten seit 1989 (Writings on Russia: The construction of Space, History and Cultural Identity in German Literature after 1989). Dr. Hoge completed his PhD with Graduate School
Practices of Literature last year. 

The lecture will take place in the Festsaal (Schlossplatz 4) at 6.15 pm. Please note that the lecture will be in German.

80 years ago, book burnings took place all over Germany, also in Münster: National Socialists and right-wing students’ groups literally purged writings they considered to be oppositional to their ideology, even to be degenerate. A local initiative commemorates the book burnings.

Prof. Dr. Thomas Bauer (Arab and Islam Studies) has been awarded the German Research Foundation’s prestigious Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz Prize 2013. We would like to congratulate Prof. Dr. Bauer.
The DFG commented: “Thomas Bauer is an Islamic studies scholar who has combined the philological interpretation and editing of texts with an approach that is as broad as it is innovative, taking in historical considerations relating to culture and mentality, making his work potentially unique in the world. Bauer is known for his research into Arabic poetry, including the Onager Episode and the Abbasid Period.”

The Graduate School Practices of Literature and the PK LitG Literary Theory as Theory of Society will host a workshop with Dr. Carrie Smith-Prei (University of Alberta) on the topic “Failures, precarious feminisms and the political potential of the awkward”. The event will take place on the 15th and 16th of January 2013 and includes a public lecture and a workshop for the graduate students of the GS PoL and PK LitG.

The newly-established Europa-Kolleg unites three individual projects from English, German and Slavic studies that are funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The event will last about two hours and takes place at the Festsaal of the University on the 27th November 2012, at 6 pm at the Festsaal (Schlossplatz 5). Everyone interested is kindly invited to join the event.

The Graduate School Practices of Literature and the Promotionskolleg Literary theory as Theory of Society (University of Münster) will host a workshop with Prof. Dr. Klaus-Michael Bogdal (Bielefeld) on the 21st and 22nd of November 2012.

On the 21st of May 2012 KD Wolff will give a lecture on the topic Von der 68er Studentenbewegung zum Klassikerverlag (18.15-20.00, Festsaal of the University). Seminar of the GSPoL and of the PK LitG: 22nd of May 2012 (10.00-12.00 and 13.00-15.00), Alexander-von-Humbold Haus (Hüfferstraße 61), Room 139.

On 11th of April 2012 the official opening ceremony of the PhD Research Group (Promotionskolleg) Literary Theory as Theory of Society took place in the Festsaal of the University.

The members of the Graduate School Practices of Literature would like to cordially congratulate James Orao who successfully defended his doctoral thesis.

The GSPoL organized a graduate conference titled “Anything goes? Literary theory in the 21st Century” at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster (21st and 22nd May 2010).

The Graduate School Practices of Literature organised a five-day field trip to the German Literarature Archive Marbach (7th - 12th February).

The Münster Lectures seek to combine the merits of theoretical and literary insight, inviting both a well-known scholar and prominent a writer to discuss current debates, scholastic and social likewise. Shedding new light on controversial debates functions as a mode of cultural encounter, the lectures and discussions are open for participation to scholars, students, and the interested public. The Münster Lectures strengthen not only the interdisciplinary exchange among members of the university, but also bridges a gap between the university and the city of Münster

This year's lecture series will create an interdisciplinary dialogue by addressing issues such as "Realitie(s) in Literary Studies", "Factual Fictions", as well as "Political Correctness in Academic Discourse", and more. Further information and a detailled schedule coming soon!