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As an academic discipline American studies today faces a world in which the specific cold-war logic of the American Century has ceased to exist in many of the arenas in which it used to be particularly effective: public diplomacy, popular culture, collective memory, urbanity. Whereas generations of scholars in our field took it for granted that American culture and American goods had a major, if conflicted role to play in the global campaign for democratization, this straightforward political instrumentalization of (cultural) production is today much less certain. When approaching American literature, culture, media, history, and politics as European and U.S. American academics in these times of massive right-wing recalibration, if not outright revolution, we believe that it is useful to better “ground” our scholarly analyses in the contexts in which they will be taking effect. This Spring Academy will take place in the shape of an excursion across the Dutch-German border, most likely in the month of March and it will include the participation of American and AURORA University Alliance scholars and students. It will be guided by a critical inquiry into Sustainable Development Goal 16 on Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/peace-justice/). Students are expected to develop a research project such as the final thesis and to develop it in the context of our continued discussion.
This class will allow students to improve their Information Literacy, Analysis, Oral and Written Communication, Teamwork, and Intercultural Knowledge competences. |
