The Picador-Fulbright Roundtable on American film, literature, and society was attended by some forty students and members of the University of Leipzig community. The overwhelming response by participants was “When can we do that again?!”.

Picador Professor John Haskell and Fulbright-Leipzig Chair Ben Alpers joined students and colleagues to kick off the roundtable in the Villa Tillmanns over some pizza and beer (and sparkling water) to talk about film, literature, and American society.

ZDF Heute, and its on-line news organization, zdfheute.de, interviewed ASL today about the implications of the New Hampshire primary for the future course of the presidential election process. The internet news portal zdfheute.de is accessed by over a half million people each day both in Germany and worldwide.

MDR Info, the most listened to source for news in Mitteldeutschland (Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia), interviewed ASL for the afternoon news program regarding the visit by President Bush to the Middle East and America’s efforts to encourage a Middle East peace process.

Radio Berlin-Brandenburg (Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg), the largest radio news source for northeastern Germany, interviewed ASL live today about the presidential primaries.

Radio Mephisto, the main student-run radio station for the University of Leipzig and with a listenership of approximately thirty-thousand people in Leipzig and the surrounding region, interviewed ASL live in studio today about the presidential primaries and what the results in New Hampshire mean for the future course of the election season.

American Studies Leipzig is proud to offer a roundtable on The Sweet Smell Of Success on Wednesday, 9 January 2008, 7pm in Villa Tillmanns, Wächterstraße 30.

The January issue of Kreuzer Leipzig features the current Picador Professor John Haskell. The article reflects on Haskell’s impressions of Leipzig describing how the author observes life in the city. To read the full article, please click here.

Senior Editor for International News at the Leipziger Volkszeitung, Dr. Anita Kecke, interviewed American Studies Leipzig about the results from the Iowa Caucus and what they mean for the future course of the presidential primaries. Crister Garrett noted that the results dramatically showed that in an overwhelmingly white and rural state like Iowa, voters are ready to vote for a black candidate like Barack Obama. In what was a stunning surprise to all observers, presidential candidate Hilary Clinton managed to get a majority of votes only among voters over sixty.

German Public Radio (Deutschlandfunk) interviewed ASL live on 3 January 2008 for the morning news program and the reports on the primary elections taking place in Iowa, New Hampshire, and beyond. Questions included the importance of early primaries and caucuses for setting the tone and course of the presidential election, which candidates had the best chances, what a Democratic president could mean for international politics, and how the Republican party was trying to improve its chances for re-winning the White House.

The American Studies Alumni Association (ASAA) and ASL hosted their third annual Christmas Holiday Bash on December 20th at the Villa Tillmanns. The festivities got underway with the traditional “ASAA Christmas Lecture,” which was presented by Leo Schmieding this year. Leo introduced some findings from his dissertation on Hip Hop in the GDR during his short but very entertaining talk on “Rap your Presents!