"Elephants and DJs: Disability in Post-Soviet Russian Comics" by Prof. José Alaniz

With Russian readers' increasing acceptance of comics - for decades derogated as a "foreign" and half-literate medium - the amount of graphic narrative work by marginalized groups has grown as well, in particular since Putin's 2012 return to the presidency. The accessibility (especially for the young), visceral impact and easy dissemination of comics (especially through the internet) has made them an attractive vehicle for voices and imagery otherwise occluded in contemporary life. This talk discusses comics by or about the disabled - themselves a population too long ignored by mainstream Russia. How do young artists like Tayana Faskhutdinova, Lyonya Rodin, Roman Sokolov and Ner-Tamin (Yulia Nikitina) represent the disabled body as site of contention and human dignity? How do their visions coincide with and complicate the rhetoric of disability rights movements in Russia? How do the visual-verbal strategies of comic art communicate the experiences of lives too often lived in the shadows? Finally, how does the 2017 publication of and national press devoted to Vladimir Rudak and Lena Uzhinova's graphic novel "I Am an Elephant" signal a new phase in disability representation in Russia? José Alaniz, associate professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and the Department of Comparative Literature (adjunct) at the University of Washington, Seattle, has published two books, Komiks: Comic Art in Russia (University Press of Mississippi, 2010) and Death, Disability and the Superhero: The Silver Age and Beyond (UPM, 2014). His articles have appeared in the International Journal of Comic Art, Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema, The Slavic and East European Journal and such anthologies as Disability in Comic Books and Graphic Narratives (2016) and Russian Children's Literature and Culture (Routledge, 2007). Since 2011 he has served as Chair of the Executive Committee of the International Comic Arts Forum (ICAF), the leading comics studies conference in the US. His research interests include Death and Dying, Disability Studies, Eco-criticism and Comics Studies. Current book projects include Resurrection: Comics in Post-Soviet Russia and Beautiful Monsters: Disability in Alternative Comics.

Location: Freie Universität Berlin, Habelschwerdter Allee 45, room JK 33/121

Workshop with Julia Leyda and Shane Denson

On December 1–2, 2016, the University of Siegen will hold the workshop "Encoding the Future: Perspectives on the Making of the Human in Ex_Machina ." Julia Leyda and Shane Denson will be keynote speakers with talks on "Cute 21st Century Postfembots" and " Ex_Machina : Post-Cinematic Frankenstein?" PSRU member Lisanna Wiele is one of the co-organizers of the workshop. More information as well as the workshop program can be found here .

Location: Siegen

Talk by Maria Sulimma in Siegen

Location: Siegen

PSRU bei der AAAS Konferenz: America through the Small Screen

Members and Associates of the Popular Seriality Research unit will present at the annual Conference of the Austrian Association for American Studies with the topic: “America Through the Small Screen: Television and Its Transformations.” Lisanna Wiele ‘s paper “‘Smile, Jessica’: Rape Culture and Televised Trauma in Jessica Jones ” is part of a panel on Television Heroines. Julia Leyda will speak on ’Winter is coming’: Contemporary QTV and Climate Change” in a panel called “Mediating Current Issues.” Both Bettina Soller and Maria Sulimma will be presenting as part of a panel on Gender, Quality, and Genre in Dramedy Television series which Maria co-organized with Julia Havas (University of East Anglia) Bettina’s paper is called “Fatherhood as Dramedy”, and Maria will be presenting “More Cringe than Comedy? The Complicated Humor of HBO’s Girls ” The conference is organized by Mario Klarer and Cornelia Klecker, and is hosted by the university of Innsbruck. It will take place from November 11-13, 2016. Fore more information and a preliminary program visit the conference website : https://www.uibk.ac.at/amerikastudien/AAAS2016.html  

Location: University of Innsbruck

Lecture by Regina Bendix at the Annual Meeting of the American Folklore Society

On October 22,  Regina Bendix will be giving a lecture at the Annual Meeting of the American Folklore Society in Miami on "Unfinished Stories: Folklife and Folk Narrative at the Gateway to the Future" . Her lecture is called "Collective Action: Creativity and Mass Mediated Narration." It is part of the panel "Folklore and Imagination: Art, Theory, and Analysis."

Location: Annual Meeting of the American Folklore Society, Miami

Kathleen Loock at "The New Seriality Studies“ symposium

Kathleen Loock was invited to participate in "The New Seriality Studies" symposium on September 23. The event is organized by Lauren M. E. Goodlad and Sean O'Sullivan and takes place at the Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University in the City of New York.  Kathleen Loock's lecture is called “Remakes, Sequels & Co.: Hollywood’s Love Affair with Serial Modes of Storytelling.” Robyn Warhol , Jared Gardner, and  Sean O'Sullivan from the Ohio State University will also be participating. Further information on the event as well as the program can be found following this link . The poster can be found here .

Location: Heyman Center for the Humanities der Columbia University in New York

Members of the PSRU at the 22nd SERCIA Conference "Cinema and Seriality"

From September 8 to 10, 2016, SERCIA will hold its 22nd Conference on "Cinema & Seriality" in Paris. Kathleen Loock , Ilka Brasch , and Felix Brinker will be presenting at the conference.  In a panel on "Seriality and Transmedia“, convened by Fatima Chinita (SG Turing), Ilka Brasch and Felix Brinker will be giving a presentation on "Opening Gambits: Staging Comics & Television in Serial Film, 1936-2008." Felix Brinker already published a Blogpost on their lecture online. In another panel on "Narration and Seriality", convened by Shannon Wells-Lassagne (SG Turing), Kathleen Loock will be talking about "Hollywood’s Serial Modes of Storytelling". Scott Higgins will be giving a keynote lecture. For more information, click here .

Location: Paris: Université Paris Diderot / Fondation des Etats-Unis / Université Paris Ouest La Défense / Université du Havre / Guest Normandie.

Coaching for Doctoral Students of the PSRU

From August 15 to 19, 2016,  a workshop for female doctoral students of the Popular Seriality Research Unit will be held at the “Akademie Waldschlösschen,” near Göttingen. During the workshop, the students will have the opportunity to plan future projects and present current work. This is an equal opportunity measure according to the DFG’s Research-Oriented Standards on Gender Equality.

Location: Akademie Waldschlösschen

Lectures by Bettina Soller and Maria Sulimma at FU Berlin

On July 15, 2016,  Bettina Soller and  Maria Sulimma will be giving lectures at Freie Universität Berlin.  Bettina Soller will be talking about "Layered Adaptations and 'Filing off the Serial Numbers'. Transitions of Fan Fiction and Authorship Performances",  Maria Sulimma 's lecture is called "'Some of the Spoilers... will not be Spoilers': Crossmedia Franchises between Simultaneity, Adaptation, and Transmedia Storytelling". Both lectures are part of a workshop by MaryAnn Snyder-Korber on "New Media Writing".

Location: Graduate School of North American Studies, Seminarraum 2 Lansstraße 5, Berlin-Dahlem

Lecture by Ilka Brasch at Freie Universität Berlin

On July 14, 2016,  Ilka Brasch will be giving a lecture at Freie Universität Berlin. Her lecture is called “Presentational Storytelling and Cinematic Literacy in Film Serials of the Silent and Sound Eras”. The lecture is part of a workshop by Martin Lüthe and Alexander Starre on "American Media/Knowledge at the Turn of the 20th Century". Follow l ink .

Location: Room 340, JFK Institute

Lecture by Kathleen Loock at Uniater Workshop in Potsdam

On July 10, 2016, Kathleen Loock will be giving a lecture at the Kunst- und Kreativhaus "Rechenzentrum" in Potsdam. The lecture is called "Serielles Erzählen: Geschichte, Formen und Funktionen." It is part of a workshop organized by  Uniater , a non-profit theater association for young adults from Potsdam and Berlin. Uniater will be performing Tom McCarthy's novel Men in Space (2007) as a five-piece theater play in 2017. 

Location: Kunst- und Kreativhaus "Rechenzentrum", Dortustraße 46, 14467 Potsdam

Lecture by Linda Williams at FU Berlin

On June 29, 2016, Linda Williams will be giving a lecture at Freie Universität Berlin. The lecture is called "Serial, Television, Melodrama.” It is part of the Ernst Fraenkel Distinguished Lecture Series at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies.

Location: Room 340, Lansstr. 7-9, 14195 Berlin

Book Presentation of Post Cinema: Theorizing 21st-Century Film

Location: Pro qm Almstadtstraße 48-50 D-10119 Berlin

Final Conference

                    SERIALITY SERIALITY SERIALITY                The Many Lives of the Field That Isn’t One On June 22-24, 2016 , the Popular Seriality Research Unit (DFG Forschergruppe 1091 “Ästhetik und Praxis populärer Serialität”) will hold its final conference in Berlin , Germany. — For further information please go to the conference website . To attend the conference, please register with Maria Sulimma ( maria.sulimma@fu-berlin.de ). — Press Release of the Freie Universität Berlin from 14 June 2016.

Location: John F. Kennedy-Institute for North American Studies Free University of Berlin Lansstr. 7-9 10625 Berlin

Lecture by Daniel Stein at HU Berlin

On June 21, 2016,  Daniel Stein will be giving a lecture at Humboldt Universität Berlin. The lecture is called "A Revolution in Novel Writing? Antebellum City Mysteries and the Beginnings of American Popular Culture." It is part of a lecture series on W.E.B. Du Bois. Related link .

Location: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Faculty of Arts and Humanities II, Department of English and American Studies, Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Dorotheenstr. 24 (Hegelplatz), room 1.501.

Research Unit at ISSN Narrative Conference, Amsterdam

Location: University of Amsterdam

Lecture by Kathleen Loock at Chemnitz University of Technology

On June 6, 2016, Kathleen Loock will be giving a guest lecture at Chemnitz University of Technology. Her lecture is entitled “The Hollywood Treatment: Cross-Cultural Remakes and the Case of Michael Haneke's Funny Games ." 

Location: Chemnitz University of Technology

Workshop mit Brigitte Frizzoni und Christa Capaul in Zürich

Members of the Popular Seriality Research Unit will meet with Dr. Brigitte Frizzoni and the Swiss screenwriter Christa Capaul for a workshop at the University of Zürich. The workshop is scheduled for June 2, 2016, 10 AM prior to the 4 th congress of the dgv-section “Kulturen populärere Unterhaltung und Vergnügen”. The participants will discuss the talk “Welcome to the Soap Factory – The World of Industrial Series Writing” by  Nathalie Knöhr . The talk presents insights into the sub-project “Writing Series: The Occupational Culture of Present-Day German Televised Entertainment”, directed by Prof. Dr. Regina Bendix .

Location: Zürich More information on the congress “Action! Artefakt, Ereignis, Erlebnis,” (June 2-4, 2016) can be found under this link: http://www.kpuv.de/Tagung2016.html

Talk by Maria Sulimma at DGfA Osnabrück

Location: University of Osnabrück

Guest Lectures by Frank Kelleter in China

Frank Kelleter  will give two lectures during his stay at the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Center from May 5-13, 2016, as part of the HNC's 30th anniversary celebration:  11 May: "Seriality and Contemporary American Television" (at Hopkins-Nanjing Center) 12 May: "Elements of a Theory of Seriality" (at University of Nanjing)

Popular Culture – Serial Culture

On April 28-30, 2016, Lisanna Wiele and Daniel Stein will hold a conference on  "Popular Culture – Serial Culture. Nineteenth-Century Serial Fictions in Transnational Perspective, 1830s-1860s" at the University of Siegen.  

Location: Museum für Gegenwartskunst Unteres Schloß 1 57072 Siegen

Julia Leyda and Maria Sulimma at EAAS 2016 in Romania

On April 24, 2016,  Julia Leyda and  Maria Sulimma will be participating in a panel on “Gender and “Quality” in American Television” at the European Association for American Studies Conference in Constanta, Romania. Their panel will also include papers by Jennifer S. Clark (Fordham University) and Hannah Mueller (Cornell University).   From the panel description: Responding to the immense popularity of certain US American television series within the categories of “quality” TV (QTV), the discipline of American Studies has increasingly turned to television as an object of research, thereby practicing the field’s characteristic interdisciplinarity as well as exploring implications of what it means to approach American Studies as Media Studies. In our panel we enter these discussions from the perspective of Gender Studies and Feminist Media Studies, to consider which conceptions of quality are ascribed to a variety of female-centered US television series ( Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, Masters of Sex, Girls, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt ). From a feminist standpoint, we see that QTV series first earned prestige on the backs of male heroes and only then broadened to include women-centered shows such as those mentioned above. This panel’s goal is to elucidate notable features of female-centered QTV and to examine the difficulties inherent in this seemingly simple task; we will discuss the ways in which woman-centered programming often reveals the instabilities inherent in the term and to examine reasons for this breakdown of coherence around this contested concept.   Session 72: Gender and “Quality” in American Television Chair: Maria Sulimma , Free University of Berlin, Germany Maria Sulimma , Free University of Berlin, Germany: “Not That Kind of Girl: Television’s Troubled Relationship with Academia and TV Criticism” Jennifer S. Clark, Fordham University, USA: “‘Mary Tyler Moore Can Sell Pantyhose, but How Can Mary Hartman Sell Anything?’: Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman as a Quality Soap Opera” Hannah Mueller, Cornell University, USA: “The Inside of a Vagina: The Exploration of Female Sexuality in Masters of Sex” Julia Leyda , Free University of Berlin, Germany: “Quality Cuteness: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” Programm and more information: http://eaas2016.org/

Location: Ovidius University, Constanta, Romania

Lecture by Daniel Stein at Kulturhaus Lÿz

On April 12, Daniel Stein will be giving a lecture at Kulturhaus Lÿz in Siegen. The lecture is called "Die Geheimnisromane deutscher Auswanderer in den USA um 1850: Ein historischer und literarischer Überblick.“ It is part of a public event hosted by the Deutsch-Amerikanische Gesellschaft, Siegerland-Wittgenstein e.V.

Location: Kulturhaus Lÿz in Siegen, „Kleines Theater“ St.-Johann-Str. 18

Talk by Nathalie Knöhr at the University of Michigan

On April 8,  Nathalie Knöhr will be giving the talk “Tales from the Soap Factory – Ethnographic Insights into the World of Industrial Storytelling” at the University of Michigan. The talk is hosted by the Department of Communication Studies. Nathalie Knöhr visits the Communication Studies Department at the University of Michigan from April 4 to 11, 2016 to collaborate with Amanda Lotz and Annemarie Navar-Gill. Her stay in Ann Arbor is enabled through the Research Unit’s Mentorship Measure.

Location: University of Michigan, North Quad

Conference on "The Wire" at Columbia University

Frank Kelleter is one of the speakers at " The Wire - The Conference" (Columbia University, New York, April 8-9, 2016). Together with Jason Mittel l and Linda Williams , he will participate in a panel on "Seriality and Narrative Experience." Other conference participants include "The Wire" actors Jamie Hector, Felicia Pearson, Wendell Peirce, and Sonja Sohn. More information and full conference schedule here .

Location: Columbia University, New York

Nathalie Knöhr and Annemarie Navar-Gill at SCMS 2016

On March 30, 2016, Nathalie Knöhr and Annemarie Navar-Gill will present their joint paper “Handling Noisy Feedback Loops: Comparing Uses of Social Media in the Production Cultures of US and German Television Writers” as part of the panel “Production Studies Across the World” at the 2016 Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference in Atlanta (Mar 30-Apr 3). The panel also features presentations by Kath Dooley (Curtin University of Technology), Priya Jaikumar’s (University of Southern California), and Kimberly Owczarski(Texas Christian University). Panel A21 Production Studies across the World CHAIR Kath Dooley • Curtin University of Technology Kath Dooley • Curtin University of Technology • “Models of Collaboration: Fostering Screen Production Students’ Teamwork Skills” Priya Jaikumar • University of Southern California • “Mumbai’s Film Location Managers: New Social and Spatial Codes of a Professionalizing Practice” Annemarie Navar-Gill • University of Michigan • and Nathalie Knöhr • Georg-August-University Göttingen • “Handling Noisy Feedback Loops: Comparing Uses of Social Media in the Production Cultures of US and German Television Writers” Kimberly Owczarski • Texas Christian University • “The Relativity Theory: Ryan Kavanaugh, Managerial Power, and the Collapse of a Mini-Major Studio” Program and more information : http://www.cmstudies.org/?page=upcoming_conference

Location: Hilton Atlanta

Lecture by Felix Brinker at the University of Tübingen

On February 26,  Felix Brinker will be giving a lecture at the University of Tübingen. His lecture is called "Transmedia Storytelling and the Work of Audience-Produced Paratexts in Disney‘s 'Marvel Cinematic Universe'". It is part of the "Transmedial Narratology: Theories and Methods Winter School".

Location: Universität Tübingen

Lecture by Ruth Mayer at ICI Berlin

Location: ICI Berlin

Lecture by Julia Leyda at the Chemnitz University of Technology

On December 15, Julia Leyda will be giving a guest lecture at Chemnitz University of Technology . Her lecture is called “Female-Centered TV in the Age of Precarity”.

Location: Chemnitz University of Technology, 2/N006

Lecture by Maria Sulimma at the University of Michigan

On December 7,  Maria Sulimma will be giving the talk “Investigating Gender and Seriality in HBO’s Girls : The Hauntings of Television’s Critical Sphere” at the University of Michigan. The talk is hosted by the Department of Communication Studies.

Location: University of Michigan, North Quad

Lecture by Julia Leyda at the University of Innsbruck

On November 27, Julia Leyda will be giving a keynote lecture at the University of Innsbruck. Her lecture is called “Breaking Bad: A Recessionary Western”. It is part of the International Workshop: "The Analysis of Fictional Dialogue in Film and Television Series: Between Narratology and Pragmatics".

Location: University of Innsbruck

Lecture by Lisanna Wiele at the University of Pittsburgh

On November 23, Lisanna Wiele will be giving a lecture at the University of Pittsburgh. Her lecture is called "An Introduction to the American City Mysteries". It is part of the "History of Mass Media" class.

Location: University of Pittsburgh

Lecture by Maria Sulimma at Ohio State University

On November 23,  Maria Sulimma will give the talk “’I don’t WANT to kill any of you’ - Gendered Discourses of Authority and Authorization” at Ohio State University. The Talk is hosted by Project Narrative. The talk will investigate issues of authorship, paratextuality, and authorization practices in regard to The Walking Dead , specifically the comic book series and television show. Due to the genre and the multi-protagonist nature of the franchise, character deaths are an intrinsic part of its self-understanding summarized in the repeated mantra ‘No one is safe.’ By investing author figures with the power to kill or save individual characters, paratexts like DVD bonus materials, the comic book’s letter column or the after show Talking Dead circulate and establish concepts of authorship and further interest in the show’s serial continuation, as well as organize its position within the franchise. Further, The Walking Dead sarcastically draws on the theme of survivalism to situate itself within the larger cultural phenomenon of the zombie, as well as communicate its serial survival appeal as differentiating it from other zombie narratives. For more information: https://projectnarrative.osu.edu/events/maria-sulimma

Presentation by Lisanna Wiele at the University of Pittsburgh

On November 20, Lisanna Wiele will give a presentation at the University of Pittsburgh. Her presentation is called "Politics in Print: (In)visible Agendas in Antebellum City Literature". It is part of the Popular Print Culture Working Group in the Cultural Studies Department.

Location: University of Pittsburgh

Lecture by Christian Hißnauer at the University of Basel

On November 20, Christian Hißnauer will talk about Real-Life-Storytelling at the University of Basel. His lecture is called "Die Geschichte ist weitergegangen - die im wirklichen Leben". It is part of a workshop on "Scripted Reality".

Location: University of Basel

Lecture by Martin Lampprecht at the Kaiserslautern University of Technology

Following an invitation by the Atlantische Akademie Rheinland-Pfalz, Martin Lampprecht will give a lecture at the Kaiserslautern University of Technology on November 17. His lecture is called "Serial Nation - Amerikanische TV-Politdramen als Visionen der Macht".

Location: TU Kaiserslautern

Additional lecture by Daniel Stein at the University of Graz

On November 10, Daniel Stein will will give a lecture at the University of Graz. His lecture is called "On the Evolutionary Significances of Gaps as a Storytelling Principle in Serial Comic Books". It is part of the lecture series "Significant Absence: Gaps in Signifiers across Media".

Location: University of Graz

Lecture by Daniel Stein at the University of Graz

On November 9,  Daniel Stein will give a lecture at the University of Graz. His lecture is called “Racial Stereotypes in Black Comics: A Media-Conscious Historical Survey" .

Location: 34.D2, Attemsgasse 25, 8010 Graz

Lunchtime talk by Lisanna Wiele at the American Antiquarian Society

On November 9,  Lisanna Wiele will give a lunchtime talk on the sub-project "Serial Politicization" at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, MA.

Lecture by Ruth Mayer at the University of Kent

On November 9,  Ruth Mayer will give a lecture at the University of Kent. Her lecture is called “In the Nick of Time? Detective Film Serials, Temporality, and Contingency Management, 1919-1926". It is part of the research colloquium on film studies at the School of Arts.

Location: University of Kent

Lecture by Martin Lampprecht at Saarland University

Martin Lampprecht will give a lecture at the final Quality TV conference. His lecture is called "Endzeitfernsehen? Medienwandel, Nostalgie und serielle Temporalität in der TV-Kultur der Gegenwart". The "Quality TV 3.0 - Auf der Suche nach dem nächsten ‚goldenen Zeitalter" conference will be held on 6 and 7 November at Saarland University.

Location: Saarland University

Lecture by Kathleen Loock at Columbia University

On October 13, Kathleen Loock will give a lecture at Columbia University. Her lecture is called "Jawsmania and Sequelitis: Hollywood Sequel Redux". From September 17 to October 18, 2015,  Kathleen Loock  is Visiting Scholar at Columbia University.

Location: Columbia University, Dodge 511

Coaching for Doctoral Students of the PSRU

On October 8 and 9, 2015, 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”. This is an equal opportunity measure according to the DFG’s Research-Oriented Standards on Gender Equality.

Location: Akademie Waldschlösschen

Lecture by Nathalie Knöhr at the University of Bonn

On September 25,  Nathalie Knöhr will give a lecture at the University of Bonn. Her lecture is called "Die Kunst des Pitchens – Selbstvermarktung als Teil der Arbeitskultur deutscher Serienschreibender". It is part of the conference "Ästhetisierung der Arbeit. Kulturanalysen des kognitiven Kapitalismus" hosted by the Kommission Arbeitskulturen der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Volkskunde (dgv) from September 24 to 26, 2015. Kaspar Maase gives a keynote: "Wie kann abhängige Arbeit schön sein?! Ästhetisch-ethnographische Anmerkungen".

Location: Universitätsforum Bonn, Heussallee 18-24, 53113 Bonn

Talks by Felix Brinker and Maria Sulimma at Leibniz University Hannover

On July 24,  Felix Brinker and Maria Sulimma will be giving guest lectures at Leibniz University Hannover as part of Bettina Soller 's seminar "Narratives of World-Building." Felix' lecture is called “The Contemporary Superhero Film Franchise as Narrative Network: The 'Marvel Cinematic Universe' & the Logics of Neoliberal Popular Culture,” and Maria will be speaking about "'She is not your mother anymore': The Walking Dead and the Attraction of Serial Survival."

Location: American Studies, Leibniz University Hannover

Lecture by Ruth Mayer at the conference "Kurz & Knapp"

The conference "Kurz & Knapp: Erzählen und Wissen in kleinen Formen" , organized by  Ruth Mayer and Michael Gamper (German studies) and financed by the VW Foundation, will take place from July 8 to 11 at the Tagungszentrum Herrenhäuser Schloss in Hannover.  Ruth Mayer will talk about "Kulturelles Wissen in Kurzform: Der frühe Film zwischen Erschließen und Erzählen." More information is available  here .

Location: Tagungszentrum Schloss Herrenhausen Herrenhäuser Straße 5, 30419 Hannover

Jaws: Book Launch and Panel Discussion in Dresden

On July 8,  Kathleen Loock will be in Dresden to participate in a  panel discussion on the occasion of the  book launch of Der weiße Hai revisited: Steven Spielbergs  Jaws  und die Geburt eines amerikanischen Albtraums .  Kathleen Loock has contributed an essay on the Jaws sequels to this collection which has been edited by Wieland Schwanebeck and published by Bertz+Fischer ( table of contents ). The event is followed by a film screening of Jaws . For more information, see Wieland Schwanebeck's website .

Location: Kino in der Fabrik, Tharandter Str. 33, 01159 Dresden

Members of the PSRU at the 12th Congress of the Societé Internationale d'Ethnologie et de Folklore

On June 24, 2015, Regina Bendix ,  Nathalie Knöhr , and  Christine Hämmerling will be participating in the 12th Congress of the Societé Internationale d'Ethnologie et de Folklore (SIEF). In a panel on "Writing, performing, filming, producing, watching: television worlds“, co-convened by Regina Bendix,   Nathalie Knöhr talks about "The multiemotionality of series writing", and  Christine Hämmerling about "'Realism' in a crime series: viewers' disputes about televisions impact on society“. For more information, click here .

Location: SIEF2015, A226

Lecture by Constantine Verevis at FU Berlin

On June 22, fellow Constantine Verevis (Monash University, Melbourne) will be giving a lecture at the John F. Kennedy Institute, Berlin. The lecture is organized by the Popular Seriality Research Unit. More Information: Trading Places: Das doppelte Lottchen and The Parent Trap In 1961, Walt Disney Productions released The Parent Trap , a story of identical 13 year-old twins, Susan Evers and Sharon McKendrick, who meet for the first time at a summer camp and gradually realise they are sisters (separated at birth) whose divorced parents took custody of one child each. With Hayley Mills starring in the dual role of the twins, The Parent Trap was a huge popular and commercial success for the Disney studio: theatrically re-issued (1968); extended through three sequels (1986–1989); and remade in 1998, “introducing” Lindsay Lohan in the twin role of Annie and Hallie, raised respectively in London and California. Perhaps less well known is that Disney’s 1961 version of The Parent Trap was itself already a remake of German, Japanese and British versions – Das doppelte Lottchen (1950/), Hibari no komoriuta (1951), and Twice Upon a Time (1953) – each in turn derived from Erich Kästner’s 1949 novel Das doppelte Lottchen . This paper inquires into the transnational connections between Kästner’s novel and the US and German versions (and their remakes). While the doppelgänger is a familiar figure in German fiction, this paper extends its analysis beyond Kästner’s twin figures of Lisa (from Vienna) and Lottie (from Munich) to chart not only a cartography of transnational flows – a political economy of textual production and reception – but also indicate the way in which the exchange of twins – Luisa and Lotte, Susan and Sharon, Charlotte and Louise, Annie and Hallie – is symptomatic of the that between original and remake copy. Constantine Verevis is Associate Professor in Film and Screen Studies at Monash University, Melbourne. He is author of Film Remakes (Edinburgh UP, 2006) and co-author of Australian Film Theory and Criticism, Vol. I: Critical Positions (Intellect, 2013). His co-edited volumes include: Second Takes: Critical Approaches to the Film Sequel (SUNY P, 2010), After Taste: Cultural Value and the Moving Image (Routledge, 2011), Film Trilogies: New Critical Approaches (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2012)/, Film Remakes, Adaptations and Fan Productions: Remake/Remodel (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2012), B Is for Bad Cinema: Aesthetics, Politics and Cultural Value (SUNY P, 2014), US Independent Film After 1989: Possible Films (Edinburgh UP, 2015), and Transnational Film Remakes (Edinburgh UP, forthcoming).

Location: John F. Kennedy Institute

Lecture by Kathleen Loock at NECS 2015 Conference

At the NECS 2015 Conference “Archives of/for the Future”,  Kathleen Loock will talk about “The Remake as Archive”. See Preliminary Program . 

Location: University of Łódź

Bettina Soller, Maria Sulimma, and Julia Leyda at Console-ing Passions 2015

On June 19th,  Bettina Soller and  Maria Sulimma will give a joint talk at the “Console-ing Passions – International Conference on Televison, Video, Audio, New Media and Feminism” in Dublin, Ireland. Their paper “‘You Know, Government Isn’t Just a Boys’ Club Anymore:’ Female Protagonists in Contemporary US-American Political Drama and Comedy Series” is part of a panel on “Female Centrality in Television” which is chaired by Madeline Lyes. Other presenters include Laura Canning, Sheamus Sweeney, Sarah Hagelin and Michele Leigh. On June 18th,  Julia Leyda will talk about "Abjection, Animality, and Cuteness in Here Comes Honey Boo Boo " in a panel on "The Aesthetics and Affects of Cuteness". More Information here .

Location: Marker Hotel

Lecture by Jennifer Greenhill at FU Berlin

On June 6, Jennifer Greenhill (University of Southern California) will talk about early 20th-Century Magazine Seriality. Her lecture is called "'Black spots and queer blotches': Magazine Pictures and the Biodynamic Blur." It is part of  Frank Kelleter 's course "A Revolutionary Culture: Sources of America's Political Imaginary."

Location: GSNAS seminar room 2 (Villa)

Lecture by Christian Hißnauer at the Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)

On June 2, 2015,  Christian Hißnauer talks about "Spiel│Film. Fernsehspiel, Kinofilm und der Fernsehroman Am grünen Strand der Spree. Zur Spezifik des Fernsehens um 1960." within a seminar on "Am grünen Strand der Spree als populärer Medienkomplex der Nachkriegszeit" at the Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT). Additional Link .

Location: Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT).

Guest lecture by Julia Leyda at the University of Freiburg

On June 2,  Julia Leyda will talk about "Affect, Animality, Abjection: Poor Women and Rural Domesticity in Recessionary US Screen Culture" in a guest lecture at the University of Freiburg.

Location: University of Freiburg

Lecture by Frank Kelleter at the University of Bonn

On May 29,  Frank Kelleter will give a talk at the Annual Convention of the German Association for American Studies on the seriality of the news ("Four Theses on the News"). More information is available  here .

Location: University of Bonn

Meeting in Berlin

Location: Fabeckstr. 15, Berlin Dahlem

William Uricchio at JFKI Colloquium

20. May - William Uricchio (MIT): “Sears, the Catalogue, and the American Mode of Consumption” All talks will take place Wednesdays from 6:00 – 8:00 pm and the JFK Institute in Dahlem. More information will be made available soon.

Lecture by Andreas Jahn-Sudmann at Ruhr University Bochum

Within the lecture series "Das Dokumentarische", Andreas Jahn-Sudmann talks about " Das digitale Spiel und die Geste des Dokumentarischen“ in a colloquium of the Ruhr University Bochum. Related Link .

Location: Ruhr-Universität Bochum, GABF 04/611

Workshop with William Uricchio

A workshop with Popular Seriality Research Unit fellow William Uricchi o will take place at the John F. Kennedy Institute in Berlin on May 18, 2015. Members of the PSRU will be discussing their current media studies-related projects with him.

Location: John F. Kennedy Institute

Lecture by Christian Hißnauer at BürgerUni Coesfeld

On May 6, 2015,  Christian Hißnauer will be invited by the BürgerUniversität Coesfeld to talk about " 45 Jahre Tatort – Fernseh- und Gesellschaftsgeschichte im Krimiformat " Additional Link .

Location: Regionalzentrum Coesfeld , WBK – Wissen Bildung Kultur, Osterwicker Straße 29, 48653 Coesfeld

Lecture by Daniel Stein at the Graduate Academy of the University of Tübingen

On April 24, 2015, Daniel Stein will talk about "Serial Authorship and Comics in the Digital Age". The lecture is part of a workshop on "Mediality and Materiality of Contemporary Comics" at the Graduate Academy of the University of Tübingen, held from April 24 to 26. Click here to see the program.

Location: Lecture Graduate Academy of the University of Tübingen

"Managing Mass Culture" conference

From April 23 to 25,2015, the conference "Managing Mass Culture: Serialization, Standardization and Modernity, 1880-1940" will take place at the University of Hanover. Ilka Brasch , Frank Kelleter , Kathleen Loock , Ruth Mayer , and Christina Meyer will be attending the conference, which is part of Ruth Mayer's and Ilka Brasch's sub-project "Serializing Mass Culture: Popular Film Serials and Serial Structures in the United States, 1910-1940" and Christina Meyer's project "Series of Multimodal Forms of Narration: The Yellow Kid Newspaper Comics of the Nineteenth Century". The conference is organized by Ilka Brasch ,  Ruth Mayer , and Christina Meyer . Additional Link .

Location: Leibniz Universität Hannover, Conti Campus/Niedersachsensaal

Shane Denson and Jason Mittell at CUNY Conference

Shane Denson and Jason Mittell will be speaking at the conference “Thinking Serially: Repetition, Continuation, Adaptation” at The Graduate Center of the CUNY, New York. The conference is organized by the Department of Comparative Literature and will take place April 23 –25, 2015. Shane Denson will speak about "Ludic Serialities: Levels of Serialization in Digital Games and GamingCommunities." From the conference website: “This conference asks: how do we understand serials differently from other works (e.g., the serialized novel versus the epic)? How does seriality speak to the act of binging and the notion of deferred satisfaction, the suspension of expectation, and the manipulation of the spectator? What does seriality tell us about re-readings? How do we understand the relationship between seriality and history?” More information will be posted here shortly.

Scott Higgins at JFKI Colloquium

22. April - Scott Higgins (Wesleyan University): “Matinee Melodrama: Story as Play in American Serials” All talks will take place Wednesdays from 6:00 – 8:00 pm and the JFK Institute in Dahlem. More information will be made available soon.

Lecture by Nathalie Knöhr at the Ohio State University

On April 22, Nathalie Knöhr will talk about "Writing Series: The Pitfalls and Opportunities of Creative Collaboration" in the course of Ohio State University's Project Narrative . For more information, click here .

Location: Ohio State University, Denney 311

Conference "Digital Spaces: Game, Design, Art"

Daniel Stein is one of the organizers of the conference "Digital Spaces: Game, Design, Art" taking place on April 19, 2015 at Siegen. The conference is part of the Playin' Siegen Urban Games Festival.  Andreas Jahn-Sudmann of the Popular Seriality Research Unit will be giving the talk "Ludic Seriality, Ludic Time, and the Mediation of Post-Cinematic Temporality. " More Information and Conference Programm.

Location: KrönchenCenter/vhs

Lecture by Kathleen Loock for "Masterclass digitale Serienentwicklung"

On April 18, 2015,  Kathleen Loock will give a talk on the history, form, and functions of serial narratives as part of the "Masterclass digitale Serienentwicklung" (directed by André Hille). This is a joint event of the Aufbau-Verlag Berlin and "Textmanufaktur."

Amy Borden at JFKI Colloquium

15. April - Amy Borden (Portland State University): "Tasty Links: Film Cycles and the Intermedial Contexts of the Sausage Machine” All talks will take place Wednesdays from 6:00 – 8:00 pm and the JFK Institute in Dahlem. More information will be made available soon.  

Lecture by Nathalie Knöhr at the Ohio State University (IU/OSU Joint Conference)

On April 11, Nathalie Knöhr will talk about "Writing Series – The Pitfalls and Opportunities of Creative Collaboration" at the Eight Annual IU/OSU Folklore and Ethnomusicology. For more information, click here .

Location: Ohio State University, Bloomington, IN, USA

Guest Lecture by Kathleen Loock at the University of Kent

On April 1, 2015,  Kathleen Loock will talk about '"Just when you thought it was safe ... ': The Jaws Sequels" at the University of Kent. This guest lecture is given within the Research Seminar of the Centre for the Interdisciplinary Study of Film and the Moving Image ( CISFMI ). For further information, see link.

Location: University of Kent

Research Talk by Kathleen Loock at the University of Kent

On April 1, 2015,  Kathleen Loock will talk about "Sound Memories: 'Talker Remakes,‘ Paratexts, and Cinematic (Self-) Historicization" at the University of Kent. This research talk is given within the Melodrama Research Group and the Network of Research: Movies, Magazines, Audiences (NoRMMA) . For further information, see link .

Location: University of Kent

Talk by Martin Lampprecht at The Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut Tübingen

On March 26, 2015  Martin Lampprecht talks about "König von Amerika: House of Cards und die Dramatisierung der Politik" at The Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut Tübingen. 

Location: Talk with Martin Lampprecht at The Deutsch-Amerikanisches Institut Tübingen

Shane Denson and Andreas Jahn-Sudmann at SCMS conference

Shane Denson and  Andreas Jahn-Sudmann will be participating in a panel on “Digital Seriality” at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference in Montreal. The panel is co-chaired by Andreas Jahn-Sudmann and Scott Higgins. Further speakers are Dominik Maeder and Daniela Wentz (Related Link ). Shane Denson will be chairing a panel on “Post-Cinema and/as Speculative Media Theory” (Related Link ).

Location: Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth Hotel, 900 Boulevard René-Lévesque Ouest, Montréal, QC H3B 4A5, Canada

Talks by Sean O'Sullivan, Frank Kelleter, and Ilka Brasch at UC Berkeley

Sean O'Sullivan , Frank Kelleter , and Ilka Brasch will participate at the 3rd International Berkeley Conference on Film and Media: Serialities 1915/2015 , hosted by the Department of Film & Media at the University of California Berkeley (February 26-28). See preliminary program excerpt. Other speakers include Bärbel Babette Tischleder and Jeffrey Sconce. The conference is organized by Linda Williams.   Thursday 2/26 Alumni House: 4-5:30 Plenary: Sean O’Sullivan, “The Sonnet-Season and American Television: 1915/1999/2014”   Friday 2/27 Alumni House (Panel #1): 9-10:30 am Theory-ality: A Series of Theories (chair: Linda Williams) Frank Kelleter, “Five Ways of Looking at Popular Seriality”   Alumni House (Panel #3A) 3:45-5:15 pm Suspensions, Repetitions, Finales (chair: Anne Nesbet) Ilka Brasch, “Meta-Serial Moments: Reflections on Repetition in Film Serials Between 1915 and the Early 1920s”  

Location: Alumni House, PFA Berkeley, CA

Maria Sulimma at "Transmedia Storytelling and Its Reception"

Research Unit members Maria Sulimma and  Kathleen Loock will be attending the conference"Transmedia Storytelling and Its Reception: Economies and Politics of Participation" to take place at the Schloss Herrenhausen, Hanover. From February 25 to 27,2015, the conference  will take place  On February 26, Maria Sulimma will speak on "Negotiating Serial Flow: The Walking Dead as Transmedia Phenomenon" in the Panel "Building Transmedia Storyworlds. " From the conference program: “Hailed by many as a paradigm shift in the way stories are told and experienced, transmedia storytelling has in recent years become a firmly established practice and presence in mainstream media. The conference “Transmedia Storytelling and Its Reception: Economies and Politics of Participation” brings together a group of national and international experts who will engage with mainly two aspects of the phenomenon. The first is the theorisation and specification of transmedia storytelling as a storytelling mode and a cultural product, for example in relation to intermediality, franchising, games and the notion of storyworlds. The second concerns the reception of transmedia narratives. Transmedial story set-ups can be highly complex and, especially when they involve the so-called social media, can challenge the traditional unidirectional model of textual communication. At the same time they raise questions about the means of creating audience immersion, about offers of participation and interactivity – or a lack thereof – and about the implications of transmedial narratives for notions of production and reception. Addressing psychological and physiological aspects of transmedia reception as well as questions of transmedia literacy and reception aesthetics, the conference offers an array of perspectives on the reception of transmedial narratives.” The conference convenors are Dr. Monika Pietrzak-Franger (University of Hamburg) and Dr. Lucia Krämer (Leibniz University Hanover) More Information and Preliminary Programme: Link .

Research Unit Retreat

From February 10 -14, 2015, 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.

Location: Gut Siggen

Lecture by Andreas Jahn-Sudmann for "Masterclass digitale Serienentwicklung"

On January, 24, 2015  Andreas Jahn-Sudmann talked about "Erzählen und populäre Serialität: Serielle Formen und Verfahren des Fernsehens und digitalen Spiels" as part of the "Masterclass digitale Serienentwicklung" (André Hille), a joint event of the Aufbau-Verlag Berlin and "Textmanufaktur".

Workshop with John Durham Peters

A workshop with John Durham Peters will take place in Berlin on January 19, 2015. Members of the Popular Seriality Research Unit and graduate students of the John F. Kennedy Institute will be discussing their current media studies-related projects with him.

Location: John F. Kennedy Institute