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room: PT 3.2.70
phone:+49 (0) 941 / 943 - 3475
fax:+49 (0) 941 / 943 - 3590
American Studies
University of Regensburg
93040 Regensburg, Germany
email: ingrid.gessner@sprachlit.uni-regensburg.de
Office Hours July - October 2013:
Wed., July 24, 9-10
Wed., July 31, 10-11
Thurs., Aug. 8, 9-10
Wed., Sept. 4, 9-10
Wed., Sept. 25, 9-10 > cancelled due to illness
Tues., Oct. 8, 9-10
Thurs., Oct. 10, 9-10
Office Hours Winter Semester 2013-2014:
Wed., 10-12
CV
Current Position |
|
| September 2005 to present | Assistant Professor of American Studies, Department for English and American Studies, University of Regensburg, Germany |
Education |
|
| University Regensburg | |
| 2005 | Ph.D. Dissertation: From Sites of Memory to Cybersights: (Re)Framing Japanese American Experiences |
| Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz | |
| March 2000 | First State Exam in English, History (majors), and Education (minor) |
| Nov. 1999 | M.A. in American Studies (major), Ancient and Medieval / Modern History (minors) Thesis: Kollektive Erinnerung als Katharsis? Das Vietnam Veterans Memorial in der öffentlichen Kontroverse. [Collective Memory as Catharsis? The Public Controversy on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.] Advisor: Professor Dr. Winfried Herget |
Academic Teaching Experience |
|
| May 2001 – August 2005 | Instructor of American Studies, University of Regensburg |
| August 2000 – April 2001 | Instructor, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI |
| April 2000 – July 2000 | Instructor (Lehrauftrag), American Studies Department, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz |
Research and Current Projects |
Cultural Memory Studies, Sports Cultures, Twenty-first Century American Fiction, American Wars in Literature and Culture, Visual Culture Studies, Asian American Literature and Culture, American Icons and Iconicity
Currently working on “Yellow Fever in Nineteenth-Century U.S.-American Literature and Culture” |
Administration and Academic Service |
|
| September 2002 to March 2009 | Assistant Editor, Amerikastudien / American Studies |
| October 2002 to October 2004 | Deputy Women’s representative, Fakultät IV (Language and Literature), University of Regensburg |
| May 2001 to October 2012 | Co-editor and coordinator, Current Objectives in Postgraduate American Studies in Germany (COPAS), an e-journal |
Memberships |
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Amerikastudien / German Association for American Studies (GAAS/DGfA) European Association for American Studies (EAAS) American Studies Association (ASA) Bayerische Amerika-Akademie / Bavarian American Academy (BAA) Anglistenverband, e.V. |
Awards and Grants |
|
| November 2012 | DAAD Grant, to present a paper at the American Studies Association’s Annual Meeting in San Jose, Puerto Rico |
| March 2012 | Travel Grant from the Fund for Gender Equality, School of Language, Literature, and Culture, University of Regensburg, to present a paper at the European Association for American Studies Conference, Izmir, Turkey |
| October 2011 – September 2012 | Research Fellowship from the State of Bavaria for post-doctoral project |
| October 2010 | DAAD Grant, to present a paper at the American Studies Association’s Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas |
| October 2009 – March 2011 | Mentoring Program for Young High Potential Scholars, University of Regensburg |
| September 2008 | Grant of the Verein der Freunde der Universität Regensburg to travel to and present a paper at the American Studies Association’s Annual Meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico |
| August 2008 | Luce Foundation Travel Grant, to attend the American Studies Association’s Annual Meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico |
| June 2008 | Travel Grant from the Fund for Gender Equality, School of Language, Literature, and Culture, University of Regensburg, to attend the American Studies Association's Annual Meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico |
| May 2008 | DFG Grant, to present a paper at the European Association for American Studies Conference, Oslo, Norway |
| May 2006 | First Book Award of the Bayerische Amerika-Akademie for the Doctoral Dissertation |
| December 2005 | Dr. Katharina Sailer Dissertation Award, University of Regensburg |
| July 2005 | Publication grant of the women’s representative, School of Language and Literature, University of Regensburg |
| September 2003 | Grant of the Verein der Freunde der Universität Regensburg to visit and conduct research at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY |
| August 2003 | Postgraduate grant of the Bayerische Amerika Akademie to conduct research at UCLA, UC Berkeley, CSU Sacramento, and in San Jose, Oakland, and Washington, D.C. (National Archives, Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution) |
| June 2003 | Fulbright Scholar, American Studies Summer Institute "Visual Culture and History in America", Amherst, MA |
| August 2000 – April 2001 | Graduate student scholarship, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI |
| April – September 2000 | Research grant for the doctoral thesis (State of Rhineland Palatinate) |
| January 1999 | Research grant for the master’s thesis at the John F. Kennedy Institute, Berlin (Free University Berlin; USIA) |
| August 1994 – May 1995 | DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) American Studies Program Scholarship; University of California, Davis, CA |
Publications
Books
From Sites of Memory to Cybersights: (Re)Framing Japanese American Experiences. American Studies – A Monograph Series 141. Heidelberg: Winter, 2007. [Abstract in English and American Studies in German 2006: Summaries of Theses and Monographs. A Supplement to Anglia, 77-79]
Kollektive Erinnerung als Katharsis? Das Vietnam Veterans Memorial in der öffentlichen Kontroverse. Mainzer Studien zur Amerikanistik 44. Frankfurt: Lang, 2000.
Articles and Essays
“Continuity or Change? The Aesthetics of Remembering 9/11.” Radical Planes? Refiguring Crisis and Continuity in Post-9/11 Literature. Ed. Dunja Mohr and Birgit Däwes. Amsterdam: Rodopi, forthcoming 2013.
“Contagion, Crisis, and Control: Tracing Yellow Fever in Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Culture.” Cultural Representations of (American) Medicine: A Study in Interdisciplinarity. Ed. Carmen Birkle and Johanna Heil. Heidelberg: Winter, forthcoming 2013.
“War, Visual Politics and Cultural Memory: Revisiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.” Visual Cultures - Transatlantic Perspectives. Ed. Volker Depkat. Heidelberg: Winter, 2012. 153-73:
“Editorial: Setting Out into the Second Decade of the Twenty-First Century” (with Susanne Leikam, Sascha Pöhlmann, Klara-Stephanie Szlezák, and Juliane Schwarz-Bierschenk). COPAS: Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies 12 (2011) <http://www-copas.uni-regensburg.de/editorial.php>.
“Must-See Sights: The Politics of Representing U.S.-American History.” Pictorial Cultures and Political Iconographies. Ed. Udo J. Hebel and Christoph Wagner. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2011. 377-400.
“Liberating Dachau: Transnational Negotiations of Holocaust Memory” Transnational American Memories. Ed. Udo J. Hebel. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2009. 243-65.
“Moving Beyond Manzanar: Transnationalizing Japanese American Internment Experiences.” Virtually American? Denationalizing North American Studies. Ed. Mita Banerjee. Heidelberg: Winter, 2009. 77-96.
“(Re)Framing Memory: Japanese American Internment Experiences in Reality and Virtuality” The Merits of Memory: Concepts, Contexts, Debates. American Studies – A Monograph Series 143. Ed. Hans-Jürgen Grabbe and Sabine Schindler. Heidelberg: Winter, 2008. 301-27.
“Editorial: Approaching the Second Decade (1999-2008).” (with Birgit Bauridl and Juliane Schwarz-Bierschenk). COPAS: Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies 9 (2008) <http://www-copas.uni-regensburg.de/editorial.php>.
“Publications in American Studies from German-Speaking Countries, 2007.” Amerikastudien / American Studies 53.2 (2008). 235-76.
“Britney Spears’ Lieblingsbrause: Super Bowl Commercials dekodieren, Amerikabilder vergleichen.” Der Fremdsprachliche Unterricht Englisch 87 (2007): 32-37.
“Erasure and Visual Recovery: Displaying Japanese American Internment Experiences.” Visual Culture Revisited: German and American Perspectives on Visual Culture. Ed. Ralf Adelmann et al. Köln: Herbert von Halem Verlag, 2007. 216-42.
“Publications in American Studies from German-Speaking Countries, 2005.” Amerikastudien / American Studies 51.2 (2006): 263-304.
“Recovering Japanese American Experiences for the EFL Classroom.” Visual Culture in the American Studies Classroom: Proceedings of the U.S. Embassy Teacher Academy 2003. Ed. Udo J. Hebel and Martina Kohl. Regensburg: RPO, 2005. 139-71.
“Publications in American Studies from German-Speaking Countries, 2004.” Amerikastudien / American Studies 50.1-2 (2005): 367-417.
“Publications in American Studies from German-Speaking Countries, 2003.” Amerikastudien / American Studies 49.2 (2004): 271-307.
“Das Trauma des Vietnamkrieges: Erinnerungspolitik und Gedächtniskultur im Spiegel des Vietnam Veterans Memorial.” Praxis Geschichte 6 (Nov. 2003): 28-34.
Radio Program
“‘Feinde in den eigenen Reihen’: Die Internierung japanischstämmiger Amerikaner im Zweiten Weltkrieg.” Hörbild und Feature: Radiozeitreisen. Narr. Irina Wanka, Tets Asato/Helmut Stange, Paul Tani/Reinhard Glemnitz. Ed. Ulrich Klenner. Bayern 2. 17 Feb. 2008.
Edited Journals
Ed. COPAS: Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies 2-13 (2001-2012)
Asst. Ed. Amerikastudien / American Studies 48-54 (2003-2009)
Review
Rev. of Invading Bodies: Medizin und Immigration in den USA 1880-1920, by Barbara Lüthi. Amerikastudien / American Studies 56.1 (2011). 154-57.
Presentations
Conference Presentations and Invited Lectures
“Disease on Display: Representing Yellow Fever in Nineteenth-Century Illustrations and Photography.” American Studies Association (ASA) Conference Dimensions of Empire and Resistance: Past, Present, and Future. San Juan, Puerto Rico, 16 Nov. 2012.
“The Aesthetics of Remembering 9/11: Towards a Transnational Typology of Memorials.” Invited Lecture. University of Notre Dame, Indiana, 12 Nov. 2012.
“Video Tributes to the Dead: New Ways of Mourning.” Invited Lecture. University of Notre Dame, Indiana, 12 Nov. 2012.
“Of He-Nurses and She-Doctors: Fighting and Writing Yellow Fever in the American South.” Lecture Series “Gender and Disease.” University of Regensburg, 26 June 2012.
“‘Volunteers to the Fever District’: Narrative Enactments of Postbellum Healing of the Nation’s Wounds.” European Association for American Studies, Biennial Conference 2011 The Health of the Nation. Izmir, Turkey, 31 Mar. 2012.
“Sites of Tragedy and Terror in the United States and Beyond.” Teacher’s Conference Place and Space in North American Cultural Studies and Literature. Augsburg, 2 Feb. 2012.
“Continuity or Change? The Aesthetics of Remembering 9/11.” International Conference 9/11 Ten Years After: History, Narrative, Memory. Bavarian American Academy, Munich, 15 July 2011.
“American and European Spaces of Trauma.” Conference Teaching Spaces: British and American Literature and Culture. University of Regensburg, 8 July 2011.
“Contagious Fear and Fear of Contagion: Yellow Fever in Nineteenth-Century U.S.-American History and Culture.” Invited Lecture. University of Potsdam, 28 June 2011.
“Contagion, Crisis, and Control: Tracing Yellow Fever Epidemics in Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Culture.” International Conference Literature and Medicine. Marburg, 12 Feb. 2011.
“Times of Cholera and Yellow Fever: Tracing Epidemics in American History and Culture.” Regensburg, 13 Jan. 2011.
“Memory Removed: Off-Site 9/11 Memorials, Continuity and Change.” American Studies Association (ASA) Conference Crisis, Chains, and Change: American Studies for the 21st Century. San Antonio, Texas, 19 Nov. 2010.
"Transnational Memory and Transformations of the 'Other': Visualizing Japanese American Experiences." Invited lecture Kulturkontakt, Gedächtnis, Erinnerung. Graduiertenkolleg "Kulturkontakt und Wissenschaftsdiskurs," University of Rostock, 23 June 2010.
“A Probe into the Matter: Diseases in U.S. American History.” Mentoring Program for Young High Potential Scholars, University of Regensburg, 15 June 2010.
“Diseases in U.S. American History and Culture: An Anamnesis.” Regensburg European American Forum (REAF), 14 May 2009.
“War, Visual Politics and Cultural Memory: Fighting Images in Post-Vietnam America.” Conference Contested Memory and Post-Vietnam America. U Erfurt, 30 Jan. 2009.
“Creations of a Triple-Conscious Mind: Tamiko Thiel's Transnational Virtual Reality Installations.” American Studies Association (ASA) Conference Back Down to the Crossroads: Integrative American Studies in Theory and Practice. Albuquerque, New Mexico 18 Oct. 2008.
“Guarding the Nation’s Icons: The National Park Service as Steward of U.S. History?” European Association for American Studies, Biennial Conference 2008 ‘E Pluribus Unum’ or ‘E Pluribus Plura’? Workshop 24 – U.S. Icons. Oslo, Norway, 10 May 2008.
“Guarding and Presenting the Nation’s Icons: The National Park Service as Steward of American History.” Conference Iconic Britain – Iconic America. University of Regensburg, 12 Oct. 2007.
“Liberating Dachau: Transnational Discourses of Holocaust Memory.” American Studies Association (ASA) Conference The United States from Inside and Out: Transnational American Studies. Oakland, California, 14 Oct. 2006.
“Amerikanische Geschichte und Erinnerungspolitik in den Denkmälern und Museen der National Mall in Washington, D.C.” 6. Kontaktstudium für Geschichts- / Sozialkundelehrer an der Universität Regensburg Geschichtsunterricht und Amerikastudien: Positionen, Perspektiven, Fallstudien. University of Regensburg, 6 July 2006.
“American Woman (2003) von Susan Choi.” Anglistisch-Amerikanistisches Literaturgespräch. University of Regensburg, 21 June 2006.
“‘Don’t be evil’: In Search of the Future of the Internet.” Annual Conference of the GAAS American Studies as Media Studies. University of Göttingen, 10 June 2006.
“Singlehood, Female Identity, and Urban Life Styles: From Ally McBeal to Sex and the City.” Conference British and American TV Series in the Classroom. University of Regensburg, 19 May 2006.
“Gendering Urbanity in Contemporary American TV Series.” Conference British and American TV Series in the Classroom. University of Regensburg, 19 May 2006.
“The Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Politics of Remembering: The Wall, the Three Servicemen Statue and the Vietnam Women's Memorial.” University of Erlangen-Nürnberg Lecture Series “Der Vietnamkrieg: 30 Jahre Krieg, 30 Jahre Erinnern.” University of Erlangen, 11 Jan. 2006.
“Moving Beyond Manzanar: Transnationalizing Japanese American Internment Experiences.” International Conference Virtually American? Denationalizing North American Studies. University of Siegen, 6 Oct. 2005.
“(Re)framing Memory: Japanese American Internment Experiences.” International Conference The Merits of Memory: Uses and Abuses of a Concept. Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg / LEUCOREA Foundation, Lutherstadt Wittenberg, 25 June 2005.
“Recovering Japanese American Experiences,” U.S. Embassy Teacher Academy History and Politics and Visual Culture. Akademie für politische Bildung Tutzing, 4 Oct. 2003.
Workshops and Sessions Organized and Chaired
“From Bodybuilding to Nation Building: Health and Disease in the Nineteenth Century – Workshop 2.” European Association for American Studies, Biennial Conference 2011 The Health of the Nation. Izmir, Turkey, 30 March – 2 Apr. 2012.
“Coping with Crisis: Toward a Transnational Aesthetics of Anxiety” (with Birgit Däwes). Annual Conference of the GAAS Transnational American Studies. University of Regensburg, 17 June 2011.
“Potential and Realisation of New Publication Formats in German American Studies II“ (with Juliane Schwarz-Bierschenk). Annual Conference of the GAAS American Economies. Humboldt U Berlin, 29 May 2010.
“Potential and Realisation of New Publication Formats in German American Studies“ (with Juliane Schwarz-Bierschenk). Annual Conference of the GAAS Education and the USA. University of Jena, 5 June 2009.
“Dis/Enchanted? Religion and Ethnicity in American Culture” (with Bärbel Höttges). Annual Conference of the GAAS Religion in the USA. University of Bochum, 1 June 2007.
“Crossing Boundaries: Interpreting Transnational Modes of Memory.” American Studies Association (ASA) Conference The United States from Inside and Out: Transnational American Studies. Oakland, California, 14 Oct. 2006.
Conference Sessions Chaired
“Michelle Obama - Ein amerikanisches Leben? Session with Katja Gelinsky and Christine Heinke.“ Conference Das Phänomen Michelle Obama. University of Regensburg, 28 Jan. 2011.
“Visual Cultures: Session with Miles D. Orvell and Udo Hebel.” International Conference Pictorial Cultures and Political Iconographies. University of Regensburg, 23 April 2010.
Panel Discussion Organized
“Electronic Publishing and Open Access.” Annual Conference of the GAAS Transnational American Studies. University of Regensburg, 18. June 2011.
Talks/Lectures Organized
Tamiko Thiel, “From Beyond Manzanar to ReConstructing the Wall: Transnational Virtual Reality Installations.” REAF: Regensburg European American Forum, University of Regensburg, 30 June 2008.
Teaching
Lecture Courses
Lectures as part of lecture series on Modern Theories of Literature (Summer 2002 – Summer 2006):
- "Postmodern and Poststructuralist Perspectives"
- "Cultural Studies and Beyond"
Lectures as part of lecture series on American Cultural Studies (Winter 2001/02 – Winter 2008/09):
- "Coordinates in Time: Major Events, Challenges, and Defining Moments in American Cultural History"
- "Tracing the Fabrics of Contemporary Everyday Life: Recurrent Issues in American Religion, Civil Religion, Sports"
- "American Civil Religion and Cultural Memory"
- "U.S. Women’s History / Gender Studies"
- "Multilingual America"
Undergraduate Seminars
- Youth in American Fiction (Summer 2012)
- Fighting Images: America at War (Winter 2008/09)
- 21st-Century American Fiction (Summer 2006, Summer 2008)
- American Literature I: From the Beginnings through the End of the Nineteenth Century (Winter 2003/04, Winter 2004/05, Winter 2005/06, Winter 2007/08)
- Survey Course USA: Understanding America (Winter 2002/03, Summer 2003, Summer 2005, Summer 2006)
- American Literature and Culture of the 1960s (Summer 2002)
Graduate Seminars
- American Spaces: Building Many Americas or Uniting the States (European-American Studies and American Studies Master-Programs) (Winter 2011/12)
- Fundamentals: Approaches, Concepts, Theories (European-American Studies and American Studies Master-Programs) (Winter 2010/11, Winter 2012/13)
- Fundamentals of American Studies (American Studies Master-Program) (Winter 2005/06, Winter 2007/08, Winter 2008/09)
- Visual Cultures of America (Summer 2004)
Review Courses for Exam Candidates
- Vorbereitungskurs Grundwissensprüfung (Schwerpunkt Amerikanistik) (Winter 2008/09)
- Repetitorium für Examenskandidaten (nicht vertieft; Schwerpunkt Amerikanistik) (Winter 2005/06, Summer 2006)
Introductory Literature Course
- Introduction to English and American Literary Studies (Summer 2001, Winter 2001/02, Winter 2007/08, Summer 2008, Summer 2009, Summer 2011)
Courses Taught at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
- English 125: Legacies of Memory (Spring 2001)
- English 125: Ways of Reading (Fall 2000)
Course Taught at the University of Mainz
- Integrated Language Course (Summer 2000)
