Events Archive
Past Events
January 31, 2014
First workshop with new members of the PSRU
On January 31st, the Popular Seriality Research Unit will convene in Berlin for a first workshop with its previous and new members. The workshop will also include a gender equality measure with Dr. Regina Frey from the Genderbüro.
January 15, 2014
Lectures in Berlin
Two members of the Popular Seriality Research Unit will be giving lectures in the lecture series "America the Popular" at the John F. Kennedy Institute in Berlin.
November 13, 2013:
Daniel Stein, "Black Comics and Popular Culture"
January 15, 2014:
Frank Kelleter, "Serial Television and Popular Culture in the Digital Age"
Both lectures will take place at 18:15 in room 340 (Lansstraße 7-9, Berlin-Dahlem).
December 18, 2013
Lecture in Saarbrücken
Frank Kelleter will be giving a lecture in the lecture series "American Classics" of the German-American Institute Saarbrücken.
His lecture "Fluss des Auftauchens und Verschwindens - Die Fernsehserien" will take place at 19:00 in the Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken (St. Johanner Markt 24, Saarbrücken).
November 22-23, 2013
Talk at Post-Cinema Conference (Berlin)
Shane Denson will be giving a talk on "Nonhuman Perspectives and Discorrelated Images in Post-Cinema" at the conference of "Dissolutions of Perspective in Post Cinema." The conference will take place on November 22 and 23, 2013, at the Freie Universität Berlin (Germany).
For more information refer to the blog of the Initiative for Interdisciplinary Media Research or visit the Conference website.
November 22-24, 2013
Talk at Film Music Conference (Hamburg)
Christian Hißnauer will be giving a talk on "Der Traum vom Superstar: Castingshows als neue Form des 'Musikfilms'?" at the conference of "Populäre Musikkulturen im Film: Transdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf Formen, Inhalte und Rezeption des fiktionalen und dokumentarischen Musikfilms." The conference will take place on November 22 to 24, 2013, at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg (Germany).
More information here.
November 14, 2013
Lecture: Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum
Christina Meyer gave the lecture "Popular Visions of Urban Life: The Sunday Newspaper Comics of the 19th Century" for the Grand Opening of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State University.
November 7-9, 2013
Talk at "Unrestrained Violence" Conference (Gießen)
Christian Hißnauer will be giving a talk on "Order of Violence: Filmic Narratability of Systematical Violence in NS Concentration Camps" at the international conference of "Entgrenzte Gewalt – Unrestrained Violence." The conference will take place on November 7 to 9, 2013, at the University Gießen (Germany).
More information here.
October, 2013
Administrator of the PSRU
For the second funding period, Maria Sulimma has replaced Kathleen Loock as administrator of the Popular Seriality Research Unit (PSRU). Kathleen Loock has started working as a post-doc on the subproject “Retrospective Serialization.” Previously, Maria Sulimma was an associated member of the PSRU; she is now working on her dissertation on gender(ing) in narrative complex television serials.
October 21-25, 2013
In Media Res Theme Week on "Everyday Archives"
Bettina Soller is contributing to the current theme week at In Media Res. Her post "Fan Fiction Archives as Sites of Cultural Practices" will be published on October 25, 2013, and will examine authors and reader functions in online fan fiction archives.
During the theme week, each day's contribution will consist of a video clip of up to three minutes and an essay of 300-350 words. These posts are designed to serve as a conversation starter. To participate in the discussion, you must register beforehand.
The lineup of curators for the "Everyday Archives" theme week is as follows:
Monday, October 21:
Chad Pollock (University of Arkansas School of Law), "Everyday Archives and Open Government"
Tuesday, October 22:
Zack Lischer-Katz (Rutgers University), "Archiving Until the End of the Republic"
Wednesday, October 23:
Siobhan Senier (University of New Hampshire), "Subaltern Digital Archives: Collecting and Curating Native American Literature on the Web"
Thursday, October 24:
Daniel Griffin and Anne Peterson (Tulane University), "Will Bit Rot be Beautiful?"
Friday, October 25:
Bettina Soller (Georg-August-University Göttingen), "Fan Fiction Archives as Sites of Cultural Practices"
October 9, 2013
Transnational Comic Studies (Berlin)
In March 2013, Bloomsbury has published the essay collection Transnational Perspectives on Graphic Narratives: Comics at the Crossroads. The three co-editors Daniel Stein, Shane Denson, and Christina Meyer will be speaking about the book and the broader field of "Transnational Comics Studies" on October 9, 2013, at the Berliner Kolloquium zur Comicforschung. The meeting will take place at the Humboldt University in Berlin.
September 30-October 4, 2013
In Media Res Theme Week on Showrunner Joss Whedon
Maria Sulimma is contributing to the current theme week at In Media Res. Her post "The Fanboy Next Door: Whedon and His Appeal to Self-Professed Geeks" will be published on October 2, 2013, and will critically explore notions of authorship and geekiness as related to Whedon and the texts he was involved in producing.
During the theme week, each day's contribution will consist of a video clip of up to three minutes and an essay of 300-350 words. These posts are designed to serve as a conversation starter. To participate in the discussion, you must register beforehand.
The lineup of curators for the Joss Whedon theme week is as follows:
Monday, September 30:
Leora Hadas (University of Nottingham), "Authorship in Promotional Surround: The Shakespearean and the Whedonesque"
Tuesday, October 1:
Taylor Boulware (University of Washington), "Race, Passing, and Lynching: Angel’s 'Are You Now or Have You Ever Been'"
Wednesday, October 2:
Maria Sulimma (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen/FU Berlin), "The Fanboy Next Door: Whedon and His Appeal to Self-Professed Geeks"
Thursday, October 3:
Casey McCormick (McGill University), "That Whedony Feeling"
Friday, October 4:
Roxanne Samer (University of Southern California), "Dollhouse and Echo(e)s of Future Queerness"
July 22-23, 2013
Scientific conference of the Joint Research Center for German Language and Culture
Stefan Scherer: "Verwilderter Realismus nach der Reichsgründung. Fremdheit beim mittleren Raabe: Zum wilden Mann (1874)." From July 22 to July 23, the Joint Research Center for German Language and Culture will organize a scientific conference (Wirklichkeit und Fremdheit des Realismus) at the institute for German studies at the KIT in cooperation with the BIT underthe direction of Prof. Dr. Uwe Japp (KIT) and Prof. Dr. Aihong Jiang (BIT).
June 30-July 4, 2013
"Medial Seriality and Cultural Circulation" Panel at SIEF International Congress (Tartu, Estonia)
Regina Bendix und Christine Hämmerling are organizing the panel P09 "Medial seriality and cultural circulation" at the 2013 conference of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research (SIEF). The conference takes place in Tartu (Estonia), from June 30 to July 4, 2013.
Papers
Dorothy Noyes (Ohio State University), "Spiral Democracy: Anthony Trollope’s Prosaics of Reform"
Maria Sulimma (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen), "Doing Gender in Crossmedia Serial Narratives"
Christine Hämmerling (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen), "Communal Series-Watching Turned Serial Event"
June 20-22, 2013
Interdisciplinary Conference on the German Police Procedural Tatort
From June 20 to 22, 2013, Christian Hißnauer, Stefan Scherer and Claudia Stockinger from the sub-project “Forms and Practices of Seriality in the ARD Police Procedural Tatort“ will organize an interdisciplinary conference in Göttingen that closely examines the series. The police procedural Tatort, aired by public broadcaster ARD and tailored to the federal organization of regional public broadcasters in Germany, has been in production since 1970. With funding from the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the organizers have been able to invite experts from Germany and abroad.
June 13, 2013
Guest Lecture in Berlin: "Time and History in Contemporary Graphic Narrative"
On June 13, 2013, Jared Gardner (Ohio State University) will be giving a lecture on "Time and History in Contemporary Graphic Narrative" at the John F. Kennedy Institute in Berlin. The lecture will take place at 18:15 in room 201 (Lansstraße 7-9, Berlin-Dahlem).
June 13, 2013
"Imagining Media Change": Symposium (Hannover)
The Initiative for Interdisciplinary Media Research and the American Studies department at the Leibniz University of Hannover are organizing the symposium "Imagining Media Change" on June 13, 2013.
In the midst of the ongoing digitalization of our contemporary media environment, recent media and cultural studies have developed a renewed interest in the production and staging of technological innovation, in the occurrence and impact of media change, and in the ways these transformations inform the production, circulation, reception, and aesthetics of popular texts and media forms. The emergence of "new media" in particular, it would seem, prompts us to rethink the role of mediating technologies within social and cultural spheres, and to explore how our everyday lives are transformed by a newly digitalized technical infrastructure. The symposium "Imagining Media Change" takes a broad view of media-historical and counter-historical developments and transformations since the nineteenth century, focusing in particular on the reflexive interactions between media undergoing change and media being used to imagine the parameters, effects, and significance of media-technological transformations. We are interested in historical and contemporary visions of change as they are articulated in or pertain to a wide range of media (including film, television, literature, and other visual, aural, textual, or computational media). The one-day symposium aims to bring together a variety of disciplinary perspectives and interests and to facilitate discussion of the material, political, aesthetic, and speculative dimensions of media change. Keynote lectures will be held by Jussi Parikka (University of Southampton, UK) and Wanda Strauven (University of Amsterdam, NL).
For more information about the symposium "Imagining Media Change," please contact felix.brinker@engsem.uni-hannover.de or refer to the blog of the Initiative for Interdisciplinary Media Research.
June 12, 2013
Guest Lecture in Berlin: "Complex Television & Transmedia Storytelling"
On June 12, 2013, Jason Mittell (Middlebury College) will be giving a lecture on "Complex Television & Transmedia Storytelling" at the John F. Kennedy Institute in Berlin. The lecture will take place at 16:15 in room 201 (Lansstraße 7-9, Berlin-Dahlem).
June 6-8, 2013
International Conference: Popular Seriality
From June 6 to 8, 2013, towards the end of the first funding period, the Popular Seriality Research Unit (PSRU) will hold an International Conference in Göttingen. Talks will be given by members of the PSRU and well-known researchers in the field of popular seriality. Among the scholars who will attend the conference are Sudeep Dasgupta, Jared Gardner, Julika Griem, Scott Higgins, Judith Keilbach, Christina Meyer, Lothar Mikos, Sean O'Sullivan, Irmela Schneider, Sabine Sielke, Ben Singer, William Uricchio, Constantine Verevis, Tanja Weber und Christian Junklewitz. Jason Mittell will give the keynote lecture.
This conference is open to the public; there will be no conference fees. If you wish to attend the conference, please register with Kathleen Loock via e-mail: Kathleen.Loock@phil.uni-goettingen.de.
May 24-26, 2013
Second Workshop on Popular Entertainment Cultures
Brigitte Frizzoni, Kaspar Maase and Mirjam Nast are organizing the second workshop of the newly founded Committee on "Popular Entertainment Cultures". It will take place from May 24 to 26, 2013, at the Ludwig-Uhland Institute for Empirical Cultural Studies (University of Tübingen).
Further Information and Call for Papers (in German)
May 17, 2013
Talk about Dracula (Braunschweig)
On May 17, Ruth Mayer will be giving a talk on icons, modules, series, and Dracula at the at the conference "total: Universalismus und Partikularismus in der postkolonialen Medientheorie." The conference will take place from May 16 to 18, 2013, at the University of Braunschweig (Germany).
May 8, 2013
Guest Lecture at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland)
On May 8, Stefan Scherer will talk about „Ursprung populärer Serialität. Die Geburt der heutigen Serienformen in den Unterhaltungsblättern des 19. Jahrhunderts." at the University of Fribourg, following the invitation of Prof. Dr. Arnd Beise.
May 3-5, 2013
Talks at Television Conference (Regensburg)
Christian Hißnauer and Andreas Jahn-Sudmann will be presenting papers at a television conference in Regensburg. Christian Hißnauer will be giving a talk on documentary teleplays of the 1960s; Andreas Jahn-Sudmann will be speaking about serial outbidding. The conference will take place from May 3 to 5, 2013.
April 30, 2013
Workshop 2 with William Uricchio
The second workshop with the Fellow of the Popular Seriality Research Unit (PSRU) William Uricchio will be taking place on April 30, 2013. Members and associated members of the PSRU will be discussing their current and new seriality-related projects with William Uricchio. An earlier workshop was scheduled for April 23, 2013.
April 19-21, 2013
Illustration, Comics, and Animation Conference
Shane Denson, Daniel Stein, and Lukas Etter will be presenting papers on various aspects of popular seriality at the Illustration, Comics, and Animation Conference, which is organized by Michael A. Chaney and takes place at Dartmouth College (April 19-21, 2013).
For more information, see this post on the Media Initiative Blog (University of Hannover).
April 25, 2013
Lecture in Berlin: "Media Change and Its Implications for the Study of Culture"
On April 25, 2013, our Fellow William Uricchio will be giving a lecture at the John F. Kennedy Institute in Berlin. He will be talking about on "Media Change and Its Implications for the Study of Culture."
Abstract
The new millennium has brought with it rapid shifts in the organization and use of media, and in several crucial sectors, we are reaching a 'tipping point.' These shifts, in turn, have implications for American Studies, where media have often been read as sites of identity, cultural extension, synecdoche or simply as points of contrast and self-definition. By charting trends in the contemporary mediascape and larger cultural sphere, we can explore emerging dynamics that will have significant implication for the field’s ongoing research agenda. The discussion will include paradoxes such as the extreme concentration in media ownership and yet unparalleled fragmentation in production and access; the contested status of culture as we move from media artifacts to access; the challenges of global formats and identity politics; and the implications of interactive narratives for established notions of authorship and the text. Exemplary rather than exhaustive, these dynamics offer an opportunity both to reflect on the limits of inherited approaches to media and area studies and to consider alternative strategies as we look ahead.
April 23, 2013
Workshop 1 with William Uricchio
The first workshop with the Fellow of the Popular Seriality Research Unit William Uricchio is scheduled for April 23, 2013. Members and associated members of the PSRU will be discussing their current and new seriality-related projects with William Uricchio. A second workshop is planned for April 30, 2013.
April 18, 2013
Talk about "The Politics of Serial Storytelling"
Daniel Stein has been invited to give a guest lecture at the Ohio State University. On April 18, 2013, he will be talking about "The Politics of Serial Storytelling: American City Mysteries and Popular Culture in the Antebellum Era."
Abstract
The success of European feuilleton novels such as Eugène Sue’s Les Mystères de Paris (1842-43) and George Reynolds’s The Mysteries of London (1844-46) led to the emergence of an American popular genre of serial novels with political ambitions: the city mysteries by authors such as George Lippard, Ned Buntline, and George Thompson. The city mysteries combined revelatory sensationalist prose with melodramatic narrative techniques in order to propose socially-conscious moral reform agendas through the medium of popular literature. The talk will focus on the connections among serial storytelling, genre development, and political agitation, suggesting that the city mysteries performed vital cultural work in the antebellum era by politicizing the American public, negotiating conflicting conceptions of national identity, and popularizing serial forms of narrative that would shape modern American culture in the decades to come.
Announcement on the Ohio State University website.
April 16, 2013
Presentation in the Lichtenberg Colloquium
On April 16, 2013, at 10:15 a.m., our Fellow William Uricchio will give a presentation in the Lichtenberg colloquium. He will be talking about “The Trouble with Television“.
Abstract
Long a fixture whose very existence in the household, let alone location there, belied constructions of taste and cultural belonging, television for the most part managed to enjoy an unobtrusive taken-for-grantedness, quietly sustaining habits and gathering dust. However its latest technological incarnation has changed all that. The medium enjoys a new-found ubiquity (from sides of buildings to smart phone screens), form (on-demand and interactive) and function (including interpersonal communication), provoking the industry and prominent academic theorists alike to declare 'the end of television'. This latest turn in the medium offers an opportunity to explore the idea of televisuality. Drawing on over 135 years of ideas, expectations and deployments of the television medium, the talk will chart deep structures of continuity ... and moments of conceptual rupture ... in the process arguing that the medium enjoys a far more dynamic character than seems to be assumed. Indeed, as we face widespread shifts in our media technologies and practices, television's history of ongoing transformation might usefully be called upon for insights and object lessons of media in transition. Less ‘we’ve seen it all before’ than an interrogation of media identity and the continuities of cultural aspiration, the point of the talk is to consider the nature of the medium’s change and the implications of different ways of exploring it.
April 9-10, 2013
Lecture in Hamburg: "The New Arts of Documentary"
William Uricchio, Fellow of the Popular Seriality Research Unit, will be giving a lecture on "The New Arts of Documentary" at the Media and Communication Studies Department in Hamburg.
Abstract
It’s happening again. The documentary, long underappreciated for its transformational impact on film form, is again offering new ways of representing and intervening in the world. At a moment where location-aware HD video cameras are nearly ubiquitous, where networked computers have broken the distribution bottleneck, and where game play, crowd-sourcing and the social turn have redefined media practice, documentary makers have been quick to respond. Only this time, rather than simply using new technologies to represent social change, the documentary form is itself the subject of technological change … with dramatic implications for social voice and mode of engagement. Inherited assumptions regarding who speaks, what constitutes a text, and how we define reading practices, are challenged in this new turn, which carries forward Vertov’s promise to position film as part of a social network and Direct Cinema and Cinéma Vérité’s efforts to redefine the filmmaker-subject relationship. The talk will explore some of these new developments, but will also take pains to show how they help to illuminate some of our long forgotten historical practices.
For further information on this and similar topics, see the Open Documentary Lab at the MIT and a joint project with IDFA's Doc Lab.
April 5-6, 2013
Talk at "Western Global" Conference
Christian Hißnauer will be giving a talk on "'Test the West': Western Elements in the German Police Procedual Tatort" at the "Interculturality, Transmediality, and Hybridity of the Western Genre" conference in Mainz (Germany). The conference will take place on April 5 and 6, 2013, and concludes the "Western Global" project, that was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
March 8, 2013
Society for Cinema & Media Studies Conference 2013
Andreas Jahn-Sudmann will present a paper entitled "Agon and Transseriality: Skyscrapers, TV Series and the Dynamics of Serial Outbidding (Überbietung)" at the Society for Cinema & Media Studies Annual Conference, which will be held in Chicago from March 6 to 10, 2013. The panel, "Trans-Seriality," is scheduled for March 8, 2013.
For further information click here.
February 7, 2013
Talk about Serial Storytelling in Superhero Comics
On February 2, 2013, Daniel Stein will be giving a paper on serial storytelling in superhero comics. The talk is in German and part of the Göttinger philologisches Forum. Christina Meyer will present a response paper.
For more information, click here.
January 30, 2013
Talk on Representations of Women in TV Commercials
On January 30, 2013, Christine Hämmerling will be giving a paper on the representations of women in television commercials. The talk will be in German and starts at 6.30 p.m. in room ZHG 004 on the Göttingen Campus. It is part of a lecture and workshop series at the University of Göttingen that is concerned with the construction and representation of gender roles in public and the media.
For further information on the lecture series (in German), see the Equal Opportunities Office website.
January 16, 2013
Talk on Mass Culture, Yellow Press, and Color Comic Strips
On Wednesday, January 16, 2013, Christina Meyer will hold a talk on mass culture, the emergence of the yellow press in the US, and the role of color comic strips. The presentation, from 6 to 8 pm in room 103 of the Conti-Hochhaus (Hannover), will take place in the context of the seminar “Massenkultur: Unterhaltung, Konsum, Medialität” (Mass Culture: Entertainment, Consumption, Mediality), which is being taught jointly by Ruth Mayer and Michael Gamper.
Post on the Media Initiative Blog (University of Hannover)
January 6, 2013
MLA-Panel "Rewards and Challenges of Serial Scholarship"
Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Frank Kelleter, Jason Mittell, and Mark Sample have organized a panel on "Rewards and Challenges of Serial Scholarship“ that will be held on January 6 at this year’s MLA Convention in Boston (January 3-6, 2013).
The panel considers the value and challenges of serial scholarship, that is, research published in serialized form online through a blog, forum, or other public venue. Each of the participants will give a lightning talk about his or her stance toward serial scholarship, while the bulk of the session time will be reserved for open discussion.
November 16-17, 2012
Workshop: Reflections on Technology in TV Series
Stefan Scherer and Andreas Hirsch-Weber are organizing a workshop that investigates reflections on technology in U.S.-American and European television series. The workshop will take place on November 16 and 17, 2012, at the KIT (Karlsruhe Institute for Technology).
November 14, 2012
Talk on Mass Culture, Serial Culture, Popular Culture in Hanover
On November 14, Frank Kelleter will be giving a talk on Mass Culture, Serial Culture, Popular Culture, with Reference to the Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its Variations at the University of Hannover. The talk, from 6 to 8 pm in room 103 (Conti-Hochhaus), will take place in the context of a seminar on Mass Culture: Entertainment, Consumption, Mediality, which is being jointly taught by Ruth Mayer and Michael Gamper. Frank Kelleter has recently published a chapter entitled “‘Toto, I Think We’re in Oz Again’ (and Again and Again): Remakes and Popular Seriality” in Film Remakes, Adaptations and Fan Productions: Remake | Remodel, edited by Kathleen Loock and Constantine Verevis.
Visit the Initiative for Interdisciplinary Media Research website
Further Information: Film Remakes, Adaptations and Fan Productions: Remake | Remodel
November 1-3, 2012
FLOW Conference in Austin, Texas (USA)
Shane Denson will speak at this year's FLOW Conference in Austin, Texas (USA). His proposal has been accepted for a panel on "Game Studies as Media Studies." It is based on a project that Shane Denson is currently developing with Andreas Jahn-Sudmann (on "Digital Seriality: The Serial Aesthetics and Practice of Digital Games"). Jason Mittell will also be at the conference and give a talk in a panel on "Teaching TV."
Visit the Initiative for Interdisciplinary Media Research website.
Abstract
Shane Denson: Ludic Serialities
In order to think through the affordances and consequences of conceiving game studies as part of humanities-oriented media studies – as opposed both to non-disciplinary approaches to games as focal objects for many disciplines, as well as to strong disciplinary programs following from "ludological" assertions of digital games' medial exceptionality – I propose looking at a widespread but undertheorized aspect of video games: viz. the seriality that characterizes games at virtually every level of their material, cultural, and intermedial expression. Seriality informs gameplay through formal-algorithmic structures of repetition/variation and the intra-ludic seriality of progressive game "levels"; sequels, remakes, and other explicit serialization practices constitute inter-ludic serialities; finally, fan practices and transmedial phenomena beyond the games themselves instantiate extra-ludic serialities. Careful attention to serial structures offers both a broad basis for cross-media comparisons (from dime novels, film serials, TV series, etc.), as well as the means for identifying salient differences of digital interactivity.
July 10-13, 2012
EASA Workshop
Regina Bendix and Christine Hämmerling of the sub-project “Quotidian Integration and Social Positioning of Pulp Novels (Heftromane) and Television Series,“ together with Brigitte Frizzoni (University of Zurich), are co-organizing and will be co-chairing a workshop on “Serial Disquiet: Criminal Entertainment in Times of Global and Private Uncertainties” at the 2012 conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA). The conference topic is "Uncertainties and Disquiet“; it will take place from July 10 to 13, 2012, at the Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense.
The Workshop investigates diversely mediated mystery formats and their audiences, focusing on the tension between the fictional pleasure and political undesirability inherent to crime. Participants are: Ulrike Davis-Sulikowski (University of Vienna), Maloe Sniekers (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Stijn Reijnders (Erasmus University Rotterdam), and Elke Frietsch (University of Zürich).
For the workshop description and abstracts of the talks, click hier.
July 9, 2012
Guest Lecture by Prof. Dr. David Serlin (UCSD)
On Monday, July 9, at 2.15 p.m., Prof. Dr. David Serlin from the University of California, San Diego, will give a guest lecture on “Spectacles of Empire: Popular Entertainment and Visual Culture in Late-Nineteenth-Century America.” The talk is open to the public, and will take place in room ZHG 103 (Platz der Göttinger Sieben) in Göttingen.
July 6, 2012
Workshop with Prof. Dr. Mark B. N. Hansen (Duke University)
The American Studies department / English Seminar at the Leibniz University of Hannover and the Initiative for Interdisciplinary Media Research have organized a workshop with media theorist Mark Hansen (Duke University). The workshop will take place on July 6, 2012, from 2 to 5 p.m. in Building 1502 (Room 615). The aim is to discuss selected media-theoretical texts by Mark Hansen. If you want to participate, please sign up via e-mail: shane.denson (at) engsem.uni-hannover.de.
For further information click here or visit the Initiative for Interdisciplinary Media Research website.
July 5, 2012
Guest Lecture on Comics, Graphic Novels, and Superheroes
On Thursday, July 5, at 2 p.m., Prof. Dr. Dirk Vanderbeke (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena) will give a guest lecture on “Comics, Graphic Novels and Superheroes in the 20th and 21st Centuries.” The talk is part of Prof. Dr. Brigitte Glaser’s seminar on “The Graphic Novel.” It is open to the public, and will take place at the “Medienraum” of the English Department (SEP 0.244, Käte-Hamburger-Weg 3) in Göttingen.
July 3, 2012
Guest Lecture by Prof. Dr. Mark B. N. Hansen (Duke University)
On the occasion of his visit to the Leibniz University of Hannover, media theorist Mark Hansen will give a guest lecture on “The End of Pharmacology?: Historicizing 21st Century Media.” The lecture will take place on July 3, at 10 a.m. in Building 1502 (Room 615) in Hannover. It is part of a series of lectures and workshops organized by the American Studies Department / English Seminar and the Initiative for Interdisciplinary Media Research.
For further information click here or visit the Initiative for Interdisciplinary Media Research website.
July 2, 2012
Guest Lecture by Prof. Dr. Mark B. N. Hansen (Duke University)
On the occasion of his visit to the Leibniz University of Hannover, media theorist Mark Hansen will give a guest lecture on “Feed Forward, or the ‘Future’ of 21st Century Media.” The lecture will take place on July 2, at 6 p.m. in Building 1502 (Room 615) in Hannover. It is part of a series of lectures and workshops organized by the American Studies department / English Seminar and the Initiative for Interdisciplinary Media Research.
For further information click here or visit the Initiative for Interdisciplinary Media Research website.
June 21-23, 2012
NECS Annual Conference
Andreas Jahn-Sudmann will participate in the panel “As Time Goes by on Contemporary Screens: Television, Seriality and Memory” at the 2012 conference of the European Network for Cinema and Media Studies (NECS).The conference topic is “Time Networks: Screen Media and Memory”; it will take place from June 21 to 23, 2012, in Lisbon (Portugal) and will be hosted by the New University of Lisbon and the University of Coimbra.
The panel is interested in the ways television series tell their own history via a special historiographical narrative and aspects of intermediality, and in how they are nostalgic and creators of nostalgia, also telling the story of media history. Andreas Jahn-Sudmann will be giving a talk on “Televisual metaseriality, memory and ‘the very special episode.’” The other participants are: Daniela Wentz (University of Weimar), Gabriele Schabacher (University of Siegen) und Kathrin Niemeyer (University of Geneva).
For more information about the workshop and the conference, click here.
June 15-17, 2012
Workshop on Popular Entertainment Cultures
Kaspar Maase and Mirjam Nast will be speaking at the first workshop of the newly founded Committee on "Popular Entertainment Cultures". The workshop will take place from June 15 to 17, 2012, at the Ludwig-Uhland Institute for Empirical Cultural Studies (University of Tübingen).
Further information on the workshop (in German)
June 12, 2012
Guest Lecture by Kathleen Fitzpatrick (MLA)
On Tuesday, 12 June, at 4 p.m. Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Director of Scholarly Communication at the MLA, will give a guest lecture based on her recent monograph Planned Obsolescence: Publishing, Technology, and the Future of the Academy. The talk will take place at the Presentation Room on the first floor of the Historical University Library Building in Göttingen (Papendiek 14).
June 8-9, 2012
Lichtenberg Workshop on "Popular Seriality"
From June 8-9, 2012, Jason Mittell, the Lichtenberg-Kolleg, and the Popular Seriality Research Unit (PSRU) will organize a workshop on "Popular Seriality." Four invited speakers - Sean O'Sullivan (Ohio State University), Matt Hills (Cardiff University), Ruth Page (University of Leicester) und Robyn Warhol (Ohio State University) - will be representing various approaches. From the PSRU, Jason Mittell, Frank Kelleter, Kathleen Loock, and Ruth Mayer will also be giving talks. There will be two panel discussions on the topics “Distinction” and “Media Transformations” with members of the PSRU and Kathleen Fitzpatrick (Modern Language Association). The workshop will take place at the Historic Observatory in Göttingen.
May 28, 2012
Keynote Lecture at Exploring the Digital Medium Symposium
Jason Mittell, Fellow of the Popular Seriality Research Unit, will be giving a keynote address entitled “Playful TV: The Ludic Impulse of American Television” at the symposium on “Gaming the Humanities“ of the „Exploring the [Digital] Medium“ working group. The symposium will take place at the Uppsala University in Sweden on May 28, 2012.
Further information about the working group and the symposium.
May 22, 2012
Guest Lecture "'Events Occur in Real Time': 24's Split Screen as Diagram of Time"
On May 22, 2012, Daniela Wentz will be giving a guest lecture entitled “’Events Occur in Real Time‘: 24’s Split Screen as Diagram of Time.” The event is part of the American Studies Research Colloquium "The State of Cultural Theory (Canon and Evaluation / Popular Seriality)" and will take place from 4.15 to 5.45 p.m. in the “Medienraum” of the English Department in Göttingen. Daniela Wentz teaches in the Media Philosophy program at the Bauhaus University Weimar and is working on her dissertation project “Space in Television.”
May 17, 2012
Keynote Lecture at “Contemporary Screen Narratives“ Conference
Jason Mittell, Fellow of the Popular Seriality Research Unit, will be giving a keynote address entitled “Lengthy Interactions with Hideous Men: The Serial Poetics of Television Antiheroes” at the conference “Contemporary Screen Narratives.“ The conference will take place at the University of Nottingham (UK) on May 17, 2012.
Further information about the conference.
Jason Mittell will also be giving this lecture at Södertörn University in Stockholm (Sweden) on May 29, 2012, and at the Lichtenberg Workshop on “Popular Seriality“ in Göttingen on June 8, 2012.
May 8, 2012
Talk in Bern
On May 8, at 6 p.m., Frank Kelleter will be giving a talk on popular seriality at the University of Bern.
May 3, 2012
Guest Lecture by Henry Jenkins
On May 3, 2012, Prof. Henry Jenkins, Provost's Professor of Communication, Journalism & Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California (USC) will be giving a guest lecture on “Comics...and Stuff: Material Culture, Media History, and Graphic Storytelling.” The lecture is open to the public and will take place at 6 p.m. at the Historic Observatory in Göttingen.
This event is organized in collaboration with the Lichtenberg-Kolleg, and the American Studies division at the University of Göttingen. We are grateful for the generous support provided by the U.S. Consulate General in Hamburg.
Abstract:
Comics are an ideal vehicle for mediating and interpreting our relationship with “stuff”?both “the stuff of dreams” (Kim Deitch) and “the stuff of our lives” (Seth). When we use the phrase “and stuff” in everyday speech, we mean something vague, something like “Etc.” It’s often seen as a sign of faltering confidence in our own expertise, but “and stuff” is a fascinating phrase because of the ways it links together the material world of things and the kind of emotional “baggage” that becomes attached to them. This talk will draw upon preliminary work which Prof. Jenkins is doing on a new book which examines the work of contemporary graphic novels. In this talk, “stuff” will refer to material culture, old media, historical memories?the residual of times gone by and media systems since dismantled. Comic authors have been particularly interested in the memory traces which such “stuff” carries with it?the ways old icons and artifacts embody old values into the presence: offering vehicles through which we sift autobiographical and collective memories, becoming the focus of nostalgic desires and fantasies, and representing the locus of conflicting claims and bids on legacy and tradition.
Announcement on the Lichtenberg-Kolleg website.
May 3-5, 2012
Conference on “The Nonhuman Turn in 21st Century Studies”
Shane Denson will be giving a talk on “Object-Oriented Gaga: Theorizing the Nonhuman Mediation of Twenty-First Century Celebrity” at the conference on “The Nonhuman Turn in 21st Century Studies.” The conference will take place from May 3 to 5, 2012, at the Center for 21st Century Studies at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (USA).
Abstract for the talk at Shane Denson's media initiative blog.
Conference schedule and further information.
May 3, 2012
Workshop with Henry Jenkins
Before his guest lecture at 6 p.m., Henry Jenkins will be offering a workshop for members and associated members of the Popular Seriality Research Unit. The workshop takes place at 3:30 p.m. at the Lichtenberg-Kolleg. Henry Jenkins and the participants of the workshop will be discussing a chapter from his forthcoming book Spreadable Media (NYU Press). Spreadable Media is co-authored with Sam Ford and Joshua Green, and focuses broadly on various forms of participation and engagement in contemporary media.
April 26, 2012
Talk at the Ludwig-Uhland Institute for Empirical Cultural Studies (Tübingen)
On April 26, 2012, Tonia Sophie Müller will present her dissertation project at the colloquium of the Ludwig-Uhland Institute for Empirical Cultural Studies, University of Tübingen. Her dissertation is part of the sub-project "Collecting: Pulp Novels (Heftromane) between Popular Culture and Canon."
April 19, 2012
Talk in Mannheim
On April 19, at 5 p.m., Frank Kelleter will be giving a talk on "Seriality, Repetition, and American Popular Culture" at the University of Mannheim.
March 27, 2012
Jason Mittell Launches Open "Peer-to-Peer Review" of Complex TV Online
Television scholar Jason Mittell, currently Lichtenberg-Fellow at the Popular Seriality Research Unit has started open peer-to-peer review of his forthcoming book on MediaCommons Press. He is putting up chapters of Complex TV: The Poetics of Contemporary Television Storytelling on the website for open access prior to submitting the manuscript to NYU Press. Read more about the process in this post on his blog Just TV. To read the book chapters and provide feedback, please visit the MediaCommons Press website.
March 26-30, 2012
PSRU Retreat
From March 26 to 30, 2012, the members of the Popular Seriality Research Unit will leave for a five-day retreat at the Gut Siggen Seminar Centre. During the retreat, they will discuss results of the sub-projects and potential follow-up projects.
March 19, 2012
Lecture on American Television Series
On March 19, 2012, Jason Mittell, Fellow of the PSRU, will be giving a Studium Generale lecture at the University of Groeningen (Netherlands). He will be talking about "From The West Wing to Lost: How American Television Storytelling Got Complex."
Jason Mittell will also be giving this lecture at the University of Paris (France) on April 6, 2012.
March 16-17, 2012
Symposium "Networks in American Culture/America as Network"
Ruth Mayer and Shane Denson will participate in the Symposium on “Networks in American Culture/America as Network” at the University of Mannheim. In the session “Networks and Seriality,” Ruth Mayer will be giving a talk on “Serial Machines: Aesthetics, Ideology, and the Logic of Spread”; Shane Denson will talk about “Networks of Mediation: Serial Figures as Mediators of Change.”
For further information, click here.
February 9, 2012
Workshop 3 with Jason Mittell
The third workshop in the workshop series with Jason Mittell is directed at students who are writing their theses (B.A., M.A., doctoral) about a seriality-related project. Participants will discuss their approaches, methodology, concepts and problems with Jason Mittell. The workshop takes place on February 9, 2012, time and place TBA.
This event is organized in collaboration with the Lichtenberg-Kolleg and the Graduate School of Humanities Göttingen (GSGG).
Advance registration required (contact: Kathleen.Loock(at)phil.uni-goettingen.de).
February 7, 2012
Presentation in the Lichtenberg Colloquium
On February 7, 2012, at 11:00 a.m., Jason Mittell will give a presentation on "Serial Storytelling and the Television Author Function" in the Lichtenberg colloquium.
Jason Mittell will also be giving this lecture at the following universities:
University of Mannheim, 23 February 2012
University of Groeningen (Netherlands), 20 March 2012
John F. Kennedy Institute, Freie University Berlin, 19 April 2012
University of Hamburg, 30 April 2012
January 31, 2012
Lecture on "Forensic Fandom and Participatory Technologies of Complex Television"
On January 31, 2012, Jason Mittell, Fellow of the Popular Seriality Research Unit, will be giving a lecture at the "Future of Film Studies“ lecture series at the University of Mainz. He will be talking about "Forensic Fandom and Participatory Technologies of Complex Television."
Jason Mittell will also be giving this lecture at the University of Groeningen (Netherlands) on March 20, 2012.
January 31, 2012
Workshop on the Effects of Police Procedurals
On January 31, 2012, the University of Applied Sciences in Altenholz (Schleswig-Holstein) will host a workshop that discusses to what extent the representation of police work in television series affects real-life police work. The workshop will be organized by the Department of Police and brings together police officers, scholars from different disciplines, screenwriters, and actors. Two members of the Popular Seriality Research Unit (PSRU), Christine Hämmerling and Christian Hißnauer, have been invited to talk about narrative structures of and audience reactions to the German police procedural Tatort.
January 27-28, 2012
Coaching for Doctoral Students of the PSRU
On January 27 and 28, 2012, a 1.5-day workshop for doctoral students of the Popular Seriality Research Unit will be held at the “Akademie Waldschlösschen,” near Göttingen. The workshop consists of a “fireside chat" with faculty on the evening of January 27, and a full-day seminar on “Project and Self-Management in Academia” on January 28.
This is an equal opportunity measure according to the DFG’s Research-Oriented Standards on Gender Equality. The concept has been developed in collaboration with the Equal Opportunities Office at the University of Göttingen.
January 26, 2012
Humanities Laboratories on “Wikis and Participatory Fandom”
On January 26, 2012, at 4 p.m., Jason Mittell, Fellow of the Popular Seriality Research Unit, will present a paper on “Wikis and Participatory Fandom” at the Center of Modern Humanities in Göttingen (ZTMK). The lecture is part of the Humanities Laboratories organized by the ZTMK and will take place at the Institute for Cultural Anthropology / European Ethnology. The event will be chaired by Birgit Abels (Cultural Musicology); Regina Bendix and Bettina Soller will serve as commentators. For further information click here.
January 17, 2012
Workshop 2 with Jason Mittell
The second workshop in the workshop series with Jason Mittell is part of the American Studies Research Colloquium "The State of Cultural Theory (Canon and Evaluation / Popular Seriality)." Jason Mittell will present and discuss his current book project. This workshop will be hosted by Shane Denson and takes place on January 17, 2012, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the modern library building of the SUB in Göttingen (Großer Seminarraum).
January 17, 2012
Meeting in Göttingen
On January 17, 2012, members of the sub-projects "Quotidian Integration and Social Positioning of Pulp Novels (Heftromane) and Television Series" (Kaspar Maase and Mirjam Nast) and "Authorization Practices of Serial Narration" (Frank Kelleter and Daniel Stein) will meet for an internal discussion session.
December 15-17, 2011
“Cultural Distinctions Remediated”—Conference in Hanover
Like any discursive phenomenon, categories of cultural distinction (such as “high” art, “low” culture, or the less well-researched area of the “middlebrow”) require the substrate of some medium or medial field—be it language, mass media, or new media—in order to articulate the differences upon which they turn. Cultural clout or capital, for example, is accumulated, and the conditions of such accumulation are defined and regulated, in media ranging from the popular press to specialized academic and legal treatises. At the same time, the categories of cultural distinction not only take shape within media but apply as well to concrete media and media products. Individual novels, films, and music productions are classed according to oppositions such as high vs. low, art vs. kitsch, quality vs. trash, mainstream vs. alternative, while at times whole media are more generally relegated to a lowly status (such as was the case with “primitive” or preclassical cinema or with the videogame in the eyes of many today) or, on the other hand, accorded a higher one (e.g. the “graphic novel” vis-à-vis the pulpy comics from which it evolved). Clearly, these examples attest to the fact that cultural distinctions are negotiable and historically indexed, but more importantly, they point to the role of media transformations in the historical revision and renegotiation of distinction categories. The conference “Cultural Distinctions Remediated: Beyond the High, the Low, and the Middle” (December 15-17, 2011, University of Hanover) aims to shed light on such processes of transformation, in which the medial “double articulation” of distinction categories—i.e. the fact that they are both articulated in media and apply to media—is most crucially at stake, by looking critically at what happens when existing media and attendant categories are “remediated” by newer ones: How are categories of cultural distinction transformed, or how do they relate to a transformed media landscape? These questions will be pursued across a wide range of media and from comparative (both cross-medial and historical) perspectives.
Confirmed keynote speakers are Lynn Spigel (Northwestern University) and Jason Mittell (Middlebury College), who is a Fellow of the Popular Seriality Research Unit (PSRU). He will be giving a keynote on "The Complexity of Quality: Cultural Hierarchies & Aesthetic Evaluation in Contemporary Television." Furthermore, members and associated members of the PSRU will participate in the conference. They will be speaking on the following topics:
Bettina Soller, “Authorship as a Category of Cultural Distinction: Collaborative Writing and the Solitary Genius”
Andreas Jahn-Sudmann, “Desperately Seeking the Mainstream: Independent Games and the Cultural Logic of Distinction”
Shane Denson, “Lady Gaga's Mainstream Queer: A Serial Media Remix”
Click here for a copy of the conference program.
Click here for Conference Poster, Program, and Paraphernalia.
December 12-16, 2011
In Media Res Theme Week on "Popular Seriality"
Beginning with an introductory post by Frank Kelleter, members of the Popular Seriality Research Unit (Shane Denson, Andreas Jahn-Sudmann, Ruth Mayer, Daniel Stein, and Jason Mittell), will organize a theme week on "Popular Seriality" from December 12-16, 2011 at In Media Res. Each day's contribution, consisting of a video clip of up to three minutes accompanied by an essay of 300-350 words, is designed to serve as a conversation starter aimed at involving a broad audience in discussion of key PSRU topics. To participate in the discussion, you must register beforehand.
The lineup of presenters/curators for the theme week, along with the tentative titles is as follows:
Monday, December 12:
Frank Kelleter, “That Soothing Balm of Latent Discontent: MAD MEN Unstresses the 21st Century”
Tuesday, December 13:
Shane Denson and Ruth Mayer, "Plurimediality and the Serial Figure”
Wednesday, December 14:
Jason Mittell, “Serial Characterization and Inferred Interiority”
Thursday, December 15:
Andreas Jahn-Sudmann, “TV Series, Metaseriality and the Very Special Episode”
Friday, December 16:
Daniel Stein, “Authorizing Alternative Authorships: The Popular Serialities of Superhero Blockbuster Spoofs”
December 9-11, 2012
Opening Lecture at Austria’s Young Americanists Workshop
On December 10, 2011, Jason Mittell, Fellow of the Popular Seriality Research Unit, will be giving an opening lecture at the annual Austria’s Young Americanists Workshop on “American Studies and/as/vs Media Studies." He will be talking about “Media Studies and American Studies as Interdisciplines.” The workshop will take place at the University of Inssbruck (Austria) from December 9 to 11, 2011.
Further information about the workshop.
8 December, 2011
Talk at the Lecture Series “Classics of Children’s Literature”
On December 8, 2011, Regina Bendix will give a talk about seriality in James Krüss’ Timm Thaler. The talk will start at 6.15 p.m. in the Pauliner Church. It is part of a public lecture series about international classics of children’s literature that accompanies a large exhibition of children’s literature organized by the Working Group “Children’s Literature,” the Working Group “Historical Children’s Research” and the Göttingen State and University Library during the winter term 2011/2012. Later in the winter term, Frank Kelleter and Gerhard Lauer will also be giving talks on canonical (and serial) children’s books.
Further information about the exhibition and the lecture series.
November 29, 2011
Workshop 1 with Jason Mittell
The first workshop in the workshop series with Jason Mittell is directed at B.A./M.A. students and doctoral students. Jason Mittell will provide a an introduction to media studies in the U.S. and discuss his research with the participants. The workshop will be hosted by Daniel Stein and takes place on November 29, 2011, from 3 to 6 p.m. at the modern library building of the SUB in Göttingen (Großer Seminarraum).
This event is organized in collaboration with the Lichtenberg-Kolleg and the Graduate School of Humanities Göttingen (GSGG).
Advance registration required (contact: Kathleen.Loock(at)phil.uni-goettingen.de).
November 25-26, 2011
Keynote at “LOST in Media”: Conference in Weimar
Jason Mittell, Fellow of the Popular Seriality Research Unit, will be giving a keynote address entitled “Getting Lost in Transmedia: The Perils and Possibilities of Mapping an Island Across Media” at the conference “Lost in Media.” The conference will take place at the Bauhaus-University Weimar on November 25 and 26, 2011. The focus will be on the television series Lost as a form of reflection and projection of media change.
Andreas Jahn-Sudmann will also be giving a talk at this conference. He will be speaking on “Watching Lost and Exploring Outbidding (Überbietung) as a Serial Form.”
For further information and the conference program click here.
22 November, 2012
Guest Lecture on Repetition and Seriality in Television and Psychoanalysis
On November 22, 2011, Michaela Wünsch will be giving a guest lecture on repetition and seriality in television and psychoanalysis. The event is part of the American Studies Research Colloquium "The State of Cultural Theory (Canon and Evaluation / Popular Seriality)" and will take place from 4.15 to 5.45 p.m. in the “Medienraum” of the English Department in Göttingen. The guest lecture will be held in German. Michaela Wünsch is Fellow of the Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry (ICI), where she is working on her project “Death Drive, Repetition Automatism and Seriality in the Intersections between Psychoanalysis, Cybernetics and Popular Culture.“
November 10, 2011
Internal Workshop of the PSRU
On November 10, 2011, at 2 p.m., the members of the Popular Seriality Research Unit will meet in Göttingen for an internal workshop (Besprechungszimmer, Humboldtallee 32). They will plan the PSRU Retreat in March 2012, and discuss potential follow-up projects.
November 10-11, 2011
Keynote Lecture at “(Dis)Orienting Media and Narrative Mazes” Conference
On November 10, 2011, Jason Mittell, Fellow of the Popular Seriality Research Unit, will give a keynote lecture on "Serial Orientations: Mapping the Narrative Worlds of Contemporary Complex Television" at the conference “(Dis)Orienting Media and Narrative Mazes.” The conference will take place at the Ruhr-University Bochum from November 10th to November 11th 2011. The focus will be on media as technologies and sites of orientation and disorientation as well as media narratives employing this (dis)orientation as theme and structure. For further information and the conference program click here.
November 8, 2011
Talk by American Cartoonist Keith Knight
On November 8, from 4 to 6pm, the American cartoonist Keith Knight will offer a power point presentation about his serial autobiographical comic strip "The K Chronicles," the syndicated comic strip "The Knight Life," and the political cartoon "(Th)ink." The event will take place at the "große Seminarraum" at the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek (SUB) Göttingen. It is open to the public. More information on Knight's work is available at http://www.kchronicles.com/.
November 3, 2011
Talk at the Ludwig-Uhland Institute for Empirical Cultural Studies (Tübingen)
On November 3, 2011, Christine Hämmerling will present her dissertation project on the German police procedural Tatort at the colloquium of the Ludwig-Uhland Institute for Empirical Cultural Studies, University of Tübingen. Her dissertation is part of the sub-project "Quotidian Integration and Social Positioning of Pulp Novels (Heftromane) and Television Series."
November 2, 2011
Talk at the Cultural Anthropology/European Ethnology Research Colloquium (Göttingen)
On November 2, 2011, Christine Hämmerling will present her dissertation project on the German police procedural Tatort at the Cultural Anthropology/European Ethnology research colloquium, at the University of Göttingen. Her dissertation is part of the sub-project “Quotidian Integration and Social Positioning of Pulp Novels (Heftromane) and Television Series.”
November 2-5, 2011
Conference “American Studies Today”
From November 2-5, 2011, the John-F.-Kennedy Institute in Berlin will hold an international conference on the current state of North American Studies. The “American Studies Today” conference will focus on the analysis of recent developments in the field and discuss new directions of research. Frank Kelleter will be a respondent in the “Media” section of the conference, where prospective Fellow of the Popular Seriality Research Unit, William Uricchio (MIT, Boston), will be giving a paper. Ruth Mayer and Mita Banerjee (Mainz) will be presenting a paper in the “Postcolonialism/Transculturalism” section; their respondent will be Ulla Haselstein (Berlin).
October 22, 2011
Jason Mittell Speaks at the FROG Vienna Games Conference
Jason Mittell, Fellow of the Popular Seriality Research Unit, will give a talk called "Playing for Plot in the Lost and Portal Franchises" at the FROG Vienna Games Conference (October 21- 23, 2011). The Vienna Games Conference 2011 will address issues related to the "Future and Reality of Gaming" (FROG) sharing research and insights on the future of the games industry, game design, game theory, game culture and education. For more information and the conference program, click here.
October 18, 2011
Guest Lecture about Krazy Kat in Bern (Switzerland)
On October 18, 2011, at 4 p.m., Daniel Stein will give a guest lecture about "Another Kind of Modernism: George Herriman's Krazy Kat and Early American Newspaper Comics." The guest lecture will be part of Prof. Dr. Gabriele Rippl's "American Modernisms" lecture series.
October 17, 2011
Meeting in Bern (Switzerland)
On October 17, 2011, members of the sub-project “Authorization Practices of Serial Narration” (Daniel Stein) and the associated project “Seriality and Intermediality in Graphic Novels” (Gabriele Rippl, Stephanie Hoppeler, Lukas Etter) will meet for a one-day internal discussion session in Bern.
October 14-15, 2011
Workshop on the Methodology of Comics Studies in Bern (Switzerland)
Shane Denson and Daniel Stein of the Popular Seriality Research Unit will participate in the workshop "Interdisciplinary Methodology: The Case of Comics Studies" in Bern. The workshop will take place on October 14 and 15, 2011. Shane Denson will talk about "Multistable Frames: Notes Towards a (Post-)Phenomenological Approach to Comics," and Daniel Stein presents a paper on "Authorship in Comics: Historical and Theoretical Observations."
For more information about the workshop, click here.
October 11, 2011
Lecture on “Televisual Rhetoric and Mapping Fictional Spaces”
On Oktober 11, 2011, Jason Mittell, Fellow of the Popular Seriality Research Unit, will be giving a lecture at the IT University in Copenhagen (Denmark). He will be talking about “Televisual Rhetoric and Mapping Fictional Spaces.”
October 7-9, 2011
Conference on the German Police Procedural Tatort
From October 7 to 9, 2011, a conference on the German police procedural Tatort will take place in Bad Herrenalb. The conference is organized by the Protestant Academy Baden (in Bad Herrenalb) and the KIT (Karlsruhe Institute for Technology); it will be held in German. The members of the sub-project "Forms and Practices of Seriality in the ARD Police Procedural Tatort"—Stefan Scherer, Claudia Stockinger, Christian Hißnauer, and Björn Lorenz—have participated in the organization and will each give a talk at the conference.
For the conference program and registration information click here.
September 21-24, 2011
Conference of the German Association for Cultural Anthropology
Mirjam Nast will give a talk about Perry Rhodan and popular seriality at the Conference of the German Association for Cultural Anthropology. The conference will take place from September 21-24, 2011, at the Ludwig-Uhland Institute for Empirical Cultural Studies at the University of Tübingen. Mirjam Nast is research associate in the sub-project "Quotidian Integration and Social Positioning of Pulp Novels (Heftromane) and Television Series."
For further information click here.
June 18, 2011
Workshop DGfA Conference
Members of the Popular Seriality Research Unit will participate in a workshop on "The Transcultural Work of Comics and Graphic Narratives" at the Annual Conference of the German Association for American Studies (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Amerikastudien/DGfA) in Regensburg. The workshop (June 18, 2:00-5:30pm) is co-organized and co-chaired by Daniel Stein; Shane Denson will talk about "Frame, Sequence, Medium: Comics in Plurimedial and Transnational Perspective".
For more information about the workshop and the conference, click here.
May 18, 2011
Lecture on “Mediatization & Serialization” in Hanover
On May 18, 2011, at 6 p.m., Shane Denson will give a lecture on "Mediatization & Serialization." The lecture is open to the public and will take place at Königsworther Platz 1 (“Conti-Hochhaus,” room 615) in Hanover. Shane Denson is a member of the Popular Seriality Research Unit and a research associate in the sub-project "Serial Figures and Media Change."
For further information on this lecture, click here.
May 17, 2011
Guest Lecture by Jared Gardner (Ohio State University)
On May 17, 2011, at 6 p.m., Jared Gardner from Ohio State University will give a guest lecture on “The Birth of the Open-ended Serial and the Future of Storytelling.” The lecture is open to the public and will take place at the modern library building of the SUB in Göttingen (Großer Seminarraum).
May 9-10, 2011
Workshop Sub-Project “Collecting: Pulp Novels (Heftromane) between Popular Culture and Canon”
The sub-project "Collecting: Pulp Novels (Heftromane) between Popular Culture and Canon" has organized a workshop in Göttingen that takes place on May 9 and 10, 2011 in the modern library building. At the workshop, the directors and the research associate of the sub-project (Gerhard Lauer, Kaspar Maase, and Tonia Sophie Müller) will present their ongoing research and first results to librarians, private collectors, and book historians. Workshop commentators are: Heinz J. Galle, Christine Haug (LMU München), Georg Jäger (LMU München), Elmar Mittler (Universität Göttingen) und Jörg Räuber (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Leipzig).
May 9, 2011
Guest Lecture by Christine Haug (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
On May 9, 2011, at 6.30 p.m. Christine Haug from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München will give a guest lecture on pulp novel series and their distribution around 1900. The lecture will be held in German and takes place at the modern library building of the SUB in Göttingen. It is open to the public. The event is organized by and closely related to the sub-project "Collecting: Pulp Novels (Heftromane) between Popular Culture and Canon."
April 6-8, 2011
Opening Conference
The Opening Conference of the Popular Seriality Research Unit (PSRU) will take place at the Paulinerkirche in Göttingen from April 6 to 8, 2011. At the conference, members of the PSRU and associated members will present their projects and discuss them with leading researchers from other universities. Confirmed keynote speakers are Lorenz Engell (IKKM of the Bauhaus University Weimar) and Knut Hickethier (University of Hamburg). Other speakers include: Thomas Klein (Mainz), Brigitte Frizzoni (Zurich), Oliver Fahle (Bochum), Ursula Ganz-Blättler (Lugano / Hildesheim), and Hans-Otto Hügel (Hildesheim).
The conference is open to the public; if you plan to attend, please contact Kathleen Loock (Kathleen.Loock(at)phil.uni-goettingen.de). This conference will be held in German; a larger, international conference (in English) is planned for 2013.
March 22, 2011
Lecture at Middlebury College (USA)
On March 22 at 4.30 p.m. Frank Kelleter will give a lecture on seriality at the Department of Film and Media Studies of Middlebury College (USA). He will be talking about "Remakes and Popular Seriality."
March 12, 2011
Society for Cinema & Media Studies Conference 2011
Frank Kelleter and Andreas Jahn-Sudmann will present their project "The Dynamics of Serial Outbidding (Überbietung)" at the Society for Cinema & Media Studies Conference, March 10-13, 2011, in New Orleans. Their panel is scheduled for March 12, 2011, and entitled “Institutional Practices and Ideals: Television Economics and Policy.”
For further information click here.
March and April, 2011
Talks on Seriality
In March and April, 2011, Shane Denson has given talks on seriality at different conferences. At the conference "What Happens Next: The Mechanics of Serialization" (March 25-26, 2011) in Amsterdam (Netherlands), Shane Denson talked about "Rethinking the Serial-Queen Melodrama: Serial Narration and Medial Self-Reflexivity in Transitional-Era Cinema." At the conference "Mediatized Worlds: Culture and Society in a Media Age" (April 14-15, 2011) in Bremen, Shane Denson talked about "Mediatization, Techno-Phenomenology, and Popular Serial Entertainment."
January 13, 2011
Talk at the Ludwig-Uhland Institute for Empirical Cultural Studies Research Colloquium (Tübingen)
On January 13, 2011, Mirjam Nast will present the sub-project “Quotidian Integration and Social Positioning of Pulp Novels (Heftromane) and Television Series” at the Ludwig-Uhland Institute for Empirical Cultural Studies Research Colloquium (University of Tübingen).
December 16, 2010
Humanities Laboratories on Seriality and Fu Manchu
On December 16 at 4 p.m. Ruth Mayer will present her current work on “Image Power: Seriality, Iconicity, and The Mask of Fu Manchu” at the Center of Modern Humanities in Göttingen (ZTMK). The lecture is part of the Humanities Laboratories organized by the ZTMK and will take place at the Institute for Cultural Anthropology / European Ethnology. The event will be chaired by Frank Kelleter; Axel Schneider, expert in East Asian Studies, and Thomas Kempa from the department of Intercultural German Studies will serve as commentators. For further information click here.
November 19, 2010
ASA Panel
Several members of the Popular Seriality Research Unit will present their projects at this year’s American Studies Association Annual Meeting, “Crisis, Chains, and Change: American Studies for the 21st Century,” November 18-21, 2010, San Antonio, Texas (USA). The panel is entitled “The Cultural Work of Popular Seriality: Aesthetics and Practices” and will be chaired by Frank Kelleter, who will also serve as commentator. Shane Denson will speak about “Media Crisis, Serial Chains, and the Mediation of Change: Frankenstein on Film”; Daniel Stein will speak about “Practicing Authorship and Authorizing Practices in Serial Superhero Comics.”
For further information click here.
November 1 and 5, 2010
China: Lectures on Seriality
This November, Frank Kelleter will be giving two lectures on seriality at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences (IAS) of Nanjing University in China. On November 1, he will be talking about "Popular Seriality I: The Sopranos and the Art of Serial Narration," and on November 5, he speaks on "Popular Seriality II: The Wizard of Oz: Remakes, Adaptations, Serializations."
October 19, 2010
Lecture by Jason Mittell (Middlebury College, USA)
On October 19 at 11 a.m. Jason Mittell will give a lecture on “Media Studies as an Interdiscipline.” The lecture is part of the Lichtenberg-Kolleg colloquium and will take place at the Historische Sternwarte in Göttingen. Jason Mittell is Associate Professor of American Studies and Film & Media Culture at Middlebury College, VT (USA), and will be a Fellow of the Research Unit “Popular Seriality” at the Lichtenberg-Kolleg in 2011/12.
June 30-July 2, 2010
Conference “Remake | Remodel: New Perspectives on Remakes, Film Adaptation, and Fan Productions”
From June 30 to July 2, 2010, the University of Göttingen hosts an international conference on film remakes, adaptations, and fan productions. Scholars from Great Britain, Ireland, Poland, USA, Cyprus, Australia, and Germany will meet at this interdisciplinary conference. Keynote Lectures will be given by Constantine Verevis from Monash University (Australia), Robin Reid from Texas A&M University (USA), and Frank Kelleter—speaker of the Research Unit “Popular Seriality.”
The conference is funded by the Graduate School of Humanities Göttingen (GSGG), the Universitätsbund Göttingen e. V., and the U.S. Consulate General in Hamburg. The conference is organized by Kathleen Loock.
For the conference program click here.
May 30, 2010
Panel Discussion: HBO’s The Wire and American Economies
At the annual convention of the German Association for American Studies (DGfA) in Berlin (May 27-30, 2010), Frank Kelleter—speaker of the Popular Seriality Research Unit (PSRU) —participates together with Richard Price (writer for The Wire), Patricia Williams (Columbia University), Mary Pattillo (Northwestern University), and Tavia Nyong’o (New York University) in a panel discussion on the HBO series The Wire and American Economies. The panel discussion will be hosted by Bärbel Tischleder who is also a member of the PSRU.
July 16-17, 2009
Workshop 2: “Popular Seriality—Aesthetics and Practice”
Scholars from Göttingen, Darmstadt, Hannover, Tübingen, Bern, and Karlsruhe will meet in this interdisciplinary workshop to present a joint proposal for the DFG-sponsored Popular Seriality Research Unit. As invited experts and commentators, Prof. Dr. Jörg Türschmann (Vienna, Austria) and Prof. Dr. Ursula Ganz-Blättler (Lugano, Switzerland) will provide feedback and criticism. On July 16 at 6:15 p.m. Prof. Türschmann will give a keynote lecture. The talk is open to the public and takes place at the Rote Saal of the Historische Sternwarte.
For the workshop program click here.
February 12-13, 2009
Workshop 1: “Popular Seriality—Aesthetics and Practice”
Scholars from Göttingen, Darmstadt, Hannover, Tübingen, Würzburg, Bern, Wien, and Karlsruhe will meet in this interdisciplinary workshop to present a joint proposal for the DFG-sponsored Popular Seriality Research Unit. As invited experts and commentators, Prof. Dr. Irmela Schneider (Cologne) and Prof. Dr. Hans-Otto Hügel (Hildesheim) will provide feedback and criticism. On February 12 at 6:15 p.m. Prof. Hügel will give a keynote lecture on series and memory. The talk is open to the public and takes place at the convention center of the Historische Sternwarte.
For the workshop program click here.