News & Events

For its eighteenth issue, aspeers dedicates its topical section to “American (Anti-)Heroes” and invites European graduate students to critically and analytically explore US literature, (popular) culture, history, politics, society, and media through the lens of the ‘(anti-)hero.’ We welcome papers from all disciplines, methodologies, and approaches comprising American studies and related fields, and especially those that critically engage constructions and narrations of heroism.

Written by leading scholar Avital Ronell, this new book investigates the complicated image of America within the realm of philosophy. As both a country and a concept, America has long been a site where new and old ideas have converged and transformed. But within this intellectual melting pot contradictory notions emerge, and Ronell deftly explores how European philosophers and American thinkers alike have struggled to explain America’s peculiar place in the history of modern thought.

"Private Spaces in Public Places" is a unique history of how private spaces in public—such as public restrooms and dressing rooms—developed in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century.

Women, Gender, and Sexuality in American History

From the United States' earliest days, African Americans considered education essential for their freedom and progress. Linda M. Perkins’s study ranges across educational and geographical settings to tell the stories of Black women and girls as students, professors, and administrators.

The contributors to Made in Asia/America explore the historical entanglements of video games, Asia, and America, showing how examining games offer new ways of imagining empire, race, and coalition.