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MASNEWS 03/2007: Off to New Shores

New Arrivals: The MAS Family Grows
Inside MAS: Welcome Jeannette Jones
MAS Professor Tours the World
Life after the MAS: Romania, Heidelberg, London
HCA Teams Up with the American Academy in Berlin
Global Dimensions of Racism in the Modern World

Off to New Shores

 


Dear All,

DjnewsletterWelcome to the MAS newsletter of the Heidelberg Center for American Studies at the University of Heidelberg! This edition covers some exciting fall highlights: from welcoming our new students and faculty to Alumni updates.
Please feel free to forward our newsletter to anyone interested in American Studies. Of course, we appreciate any
feedback you would like to share with us.

 

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Detlef Junker
HCA Founding Director

 

New Arrivals: The MAS Family Grows


The HCA is happy to welcome 19 students from China, Germany, Kyrgyz Republic, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Senegal, Taiwan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and the United States of America to our MAS class of 2008. They started off their time in Heidelberg on Oct. 1 when their two weeks of orientation began with the official welcome reception in the Bel Etage of the HCA.


Talb WebOne of the students from the United States is Alicia Talbot. She was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and grew up going to schools in both France and in the United States. Alicia attended several universities including one in Oviedo, Spain, and graduated in 2007, with a B.A in history and a minor in anthropology from Michigan State University. During her studies she volunteered at a respiratory camp hosted by the Mott Children’s Hospital of the University of Michigan, and has participated in projects for Volunteers for Peace in Spain and Italy.
When asked why she chose to study in Germany, Alicia replied: “I had visited Germany years ago and liked the culture and geography, but I really grew to love both Germany and its people while living in Wiesloch last fall. I really enjoyed the many German festivals and cultural activities that I was fortunate enough to participate in and the friends I made. I would also like to continue working on improving my German skills.” To her Heidelberg is a beautiful town, and she really enjoyed the university atmosphere as well as the many historical sites. Alicia came to know Heidelberg while living near by and truly missed it when she had to return to the United States. So why did Alicia decide to study American culture and history from an outside perspective? “I decided to attend the HCA program, as I wanted a graduate program that would be international, both in student and faculty population that would encourage students towards interdisciplinary studies. I think that given the current situation politically, economically and culturally in today’s world it is extremely important to have a foundation of knowledge of the world’s superpowers, as they have an immense effect on what happens around the world.”

 

Inside MAS: Welcome Jeannette Jones!


Jeannette Jones (University of Nebraska – Lincoln), a distinguished scholar in African American Studies, is the first Deutsche Bank Scholar-in-Residence at the HCA and will join the teaching staff for the MAS class of 2008.


Jone WebJeannette Eileen Jones received her B.A. in History, with minors in Philosophy and Political Science from Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. She earned her Master’s and Doctoral degrees in History from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She joined the UNL faculty in 2004 and is currently Assistant Professor of History and Ethnic Studies (African American and African Studies). Her teaching specializations are in African American history and the history of pre-colonial Africa. Her research focuses on American cultural and intellectual history, with emphases on race and representation in science, film, and popular culture.
Prof. Jones outlines her research interests: “My research looks at the ways in which race, as both a popular and scientific category, has shaped American culture and intellectual discourses. Specifically, I examine the ways in which race is articulated in literature (i.e., novels, travel narratives, poems, etc.) film, public sites, and museums, with an emphasis on the intersections of these mediums with scientific discourses. My publications include articles on images of Africa in American culture, race and representation, and race as a scientific category.”
The Deutsche Bank Scholar-in-Residence program is part of the new visiting fellows program that aims at facilitating transatlantic academic exchange.

 

MAS Professor Tours the World


Present at the creation of the MAS, Prof. Robert Jewett is now on a leave of absence working on several projects and traveling around the world to present a lifetime project of his. For the first time since its inception, this year’s MAS program takes place without Professor Jewett’s lectures on American religious history.


JewettRobert Jewett is the Harry R. Kendall Professor Emeritus at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and the Northwestern University doctoral program. He has been a mainstay of the MAS program, offering students an in-depth explanation of American religious history. His lecture series, “The Almost Chosen People: Religion in America,” has been widely popular among students both from the HCA and from other areas in the University.
Sadly, this year Professor Jewett will not be able to teach in the MAS program, because he is working on a number of exciting projects. Jewett’s commentary on Romans in the Hermeneia series was published this year after 27 years of work. In the commentary Jewett interprets the letter as a missionary document aimed at overcoming cultural conflicts caused by imperial behavior. Jewett’s new emphasis on the issues of honor and shame is likely to be more readily understood in Africa and Asia than in the guilt and forgiveness cultures of the west. To evaluate this commentary requires scholarly conversation by specialists around the world.
Ten symposia have been organized where Jewett is presenting his work, including ones at the national meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Washington, D.C., Great Britain and South Africa. In September 2007, Jewett departed for symposia scheduled in Seoul and Beijing, along with a month of lectures at the University of Beijing. Future symposia are being organized in Hong Kong, Taiwan, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Brazil, Scandinavia, Rome and Spain, and in the U. S., at Fuller and Duke Seminaries. The results of these discussions will be published in a book to be edited by K. K. Yeo.
Just before departing from Heidelberg, Jewett finished reading the proofs for Mission and Menace: Four Centuries of American Religious Zeal, to be published early next year by Fortress Press. This book grew out of the lectures and seminars led by Robert Jewett and Ole Wangerin in 2003-2005. The latter is also working on a German translation of the book.
We hope that Professor Jewett will be back for next year’s MAS.

 

Life after the MAS: Romania, Heidelberg, London


What became of Raluca Gheorghita (MAS Class of 2005) after graduation? Raluca reports on her studies in London and her work for Procter & Gamble in Romania


Raluca WebAfter finishing the
MAS in Heidelberg, I was offered a Marie Curie Fellowship from the European Commission to attend a Master Program in European Studies at University College London. This was a public policy-oriented master and I got to learn a lot about the practical functioning of the EU and its institutions and about EU policy making. London, as a town, was a completely different experience from Heidelberg, yet I enjoyed its amazing cultural and social life and the feeling of being in the middle of things…
I finished the M.A. in September 2006 and then I returned to Romania and I obtained a job with Procter & Gamble where I am currently employed. What I appreciate about this job is that it places me in direct contact with P&G employees from all over the world and it also allowed me to develop my German language skills. I am now proud to say I can speak German as well :)).
Nevertheless I still have not given up on my dream of getting a job with an EU institution or another international organization in the public affairs/public policy sector.
I wish you all good luck in the different corners of the world you may be in now and I hope to come back to beautiful Heidelberg soon.

 

Further News from the HCA

 

HCA Teams Up with the American Academy in Berlin


In April 2007 the HCA and the American Academy in Berlin launched a new program: The Baden-Württemberg Seminar.


N22007fDesigned to bring some renowned fellows of the American Academy to the state of Baden-Württemberg, the Baden-Württemberg Seminar was inaugurated in April 2007 with speeches by both Minister President Günther Oettinger and former Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. During the spring the HCA helped coordinate appearances of Vermont writer Thomas Powers in Heidelberg and Stuttgart, and of Susana Elm, Professor of History, at the Zentrum für Altertumswissenschaften in Heidelberg. Her talk on the Pagan Challenge was exceptionally well attended, as Susanna Elm is one of the leading scholars in ancient history. The second event in June took place at the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart. It was a presentation by Julie Mehretu, an artist from New York. In the same month the famous poet C.K. Williams read selected poems in the Literaturhaus, Stuttgart. Ronald Steel, Professor of International Relations and History, completed the spring seminar of the Baden-Württemberg Seminar with a presentation on July 10 at the Carl-Schurz-Haus in Freiburg. He talked about “The Atlantic Community: Dream and Reality.” These events demonstrate that the Baden-Württemberg Seminar is an excellent opportunity to attract even more American scholars with diverse backgrounds to come to Heidelberg and to other places in Baden-Württemberg respectively.
The current program of the Baden-Württemberg-Seminar can be found
here.

 

Global Dimensions of Racism in the Modern World


From July 12 to 14, 2007, the HCA and the Curt Engelhorn Chair of American History hosted an international conference on “Global Dimensions of Racism in the Modern World: Comparative and Transnational Perspectives,” which brought together twenty-five scholars from six countries and four continents.


Hca Web The conference sought to reexamine major problems in the historiography of racism and successfully introduced fresh perspectives and methodological innovations that help us comprehend how notions of “race” and racism created, shaped, and legitimized systems of domination. Exploring the international dimensions of racism also means going beyond traditional black/white paradigms and approaches that focus solely on Europe or the United States.
The conference addressed comparative problems concerning racism and slavery as well as the history of racist regimes in Germany, South Africa, and the United States. Furthermore it explored other forms of racist domination, particularly imperialism and colonialism. Transnational perspectives will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of both the emergence of racism in the modern world and how it operated in different cultures.
The event was sponsored by the Fritz-Thyssen-Foundation and by the Schurman Association for the Promotion of American History at the University of Heidelberg.
The complete conference report can be downloaded as PDF-document (ca. 370 KB)
here.

The HCA and its entire staff wish you and your friends and relatives A BLESSED HOLIDAY SEASON and A HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

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