Josef Raab war akademischer Wegbereiter und Wegbegleiter; er war Türöffner, Förderer, Ermunterer - ein Netzwerker, Initiator, kritisch-konstruktiver Dialogpartner und schließlich mit Leib und Seele Amerikanist. Als solcher sah er immer über den Tellerrand, profilierte national wie international das von ihm mitbegründete Feld, war neugierig und aufgeschlossen, begeistert und begeisternd in Forschung und Lehre. Aber Josef Raab war nicht nur das, sondern auch ein liebenswerter Mensch, in dessen Nähe man gerne war - weil er mit Geduld zuhörte, gemeinsam nachdachte, Witze machte und Witzen zuhörte, über sich selber lachen konnte. Herzlich, ganz herzlich, und herzhaft war Josef Raab zu und mit seinen Mitmenschen, denen er Respekt, Geduld und eine vernünftige Portion Widerstand entgegensetzte. Im Institut und im wissenschaftlichen Feld fehlt nun mit ihm ein Ruhepol und eine Waage – eine Person, die die Dinge irgendwie gelassener sieht als die meisten um sie herum; eine Person, die Ausgleich zu schaffen vermag.

Wir verlieren unseren einmaligen Denker, der verständnisvoll, empathisch, aber zugleich mit Leidenschaft und charmantem Nachdruck für die Dinge eintritt, die ihm am Herzen liegen.

The multi-disciplinary artist and director Bocafloja (New York) is going to visit Essen this month and will present his latest performative documentary on racialized masculinities titled Bravado Magenta. Through self-cartography and storytelling the Afro-Latino artist, with a background in rap-music, addresses the construction of gender roles in the context of race and ethnicity in the Americas.
You are all cordially invited to the film screening and subsequent discussion which will take place on
May 20, 2019 at 4pm in S03 V00 E33.

Over the course of the last few decades, video games

have blossomed into a main feature of contemporary popular culture with millions of players around the globe. The development and sale of video games has become a multi-billion dollar industry. Similarly, the study of video games has moved from the unassuming pages of (analog and digital) fan sites to major journalistic sites and academic journals. As an interdisciplinary field, Video Game Studies draws from numerous disciplines. Although American Studies has also productively engaged with the phenomenon, the study of video games continues to occupy a fringe position within the field. In its critical engagement with video games, the conference hopes to contribute to and expand current debates with a thematic focus on a topic central to American Studies: spatiality. Contributions to the conference will bring the rich theoretical repertoire of the study of space in American Studies into conversation with questions about the production, representation, and experience of space in video games. 

Key Note Speakers

• Michael Nitsche (Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts),
• Barbara Buchenau (UDE)  

The conference is open to interested scholars and the general public free of charge.

> Booklet

On March 25-29, 2019, German, Dutch, and American students took part in the 5^th edition of the trinational Spring Academy RUDESA. The Nijmegen days have been dedicated to the critical analysis of memorial sites and performances (e.g. The Liberation Museum, the Canadian War Cemetery, the memorial walk on the Oversteek Bridge, and the tales of war veterans), with their ritualistic functions and intrinsic contradictions. The program included lectures and interventions by Prof. Els de Graauw (Baruch College, CUNY) and the human rights activist Jerry Afriyie. The Essen days have engaged two central concerns of the UDE American Studies Department: City Scripts and Ambiguity. The two research foci stem from the Graduate Research Group “Scripts for Postindustrial Urban Futures,” funded by VW, and the DFG Forschergruppe “Ambiguität und Unterscheidung: Historisch-kulturelle Dynamiken.” On Thursday, 28.03.2019, RUDESA participants met at the Zeche Zollverein, where the doctoral students of the Graduate Research Group “Scripts for Postindustrial Urban Futures” guided students through the Ruhr Museum and into group discussion on sustainable scripts, creative scripts, and inclusive scripts in Ruhrgebiet and US cities. At the end of the day, the keynote lecture by Prof. Gordon Sayre (University of Oregon) on “Thomas Jefferson, the Comte de Buffon, and the polemic over American Degeneracy” illuminated the comparable ways in which transatlantic transfers – whether of scientific knowledge or urban models – have been addressed in American history. On the UDE side, RUDESA was made possible with the kind support of the International Office, the Fakultät für Geisteswissenschaften, the Department of Anglophone Studies, and the Förderverein Universität Duisburg-Essen e.V.

The English Language Movie Society (ELMS) is a group of students and staff that meet during the semester to watch movies in their original language. During the semester we meet every other Tuesday at 6 pm in room S05 T00 B83. Admission is completely free and everyone is welcome to come.