Barbara Buchenau is Professor of North American Studies: Literary and Cultural Studies. She served as UDE’s Vice-Rector of Social Responsibility, Diversity and International Affairs from April 2018 to March 2022, and has directed the inter-university research group Scripts for Postindustrial Urban Futures: American Models, Transatlantic Interventions funded by the Volkswagen Foundation from 2018 to 2023. As a principal investigator in the DFG Research Unit 2600 Ambiguity and Distinction: Historical and Cultural Dynamics (2019 – 2023) she investigates prominent figures of thought bridging divides of faith, race, and belonging that have accompanied the slow transition from colonial settings to national rule in North America. As a member of the Aurora European University Alliance and lead of its work package 3 on Learning for Societal Impact (2020-2023) she is invested in internationalizing the curricula and improving academic contributions to the sustainable development goals. Her teaching and research are concerned with the fields of cultural theory, cultural history, urban studies, multilingual early Americana, historical forms of popular culture, cultural pluralism and multiculturalism. She is also interested in Canadian and Caribbean literature and cultural history. She is inviting student research in three fields in particular: the era of pluralization in North American writings, the diverse intersections between literature and the land in North America, and the cultural and political work of stereotypical and typological representations of minority groups in texts, maps and visual art. Before joining the faculty of Duisburg-Essen, she taught Postcolonial Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Bern in Switzerland (Assistenzprofessorin). She received her academic training in American literature and culture at the University of Göttingen.