American Studies Leipzig has hosted a group of 15 students, instructors and community members from Widener University (Chester, Pennsylvania, USA). Widener University is one of America’s oldest liberal arts institutions, established in 1821.

American Studies Leipzig, the DAAD, and the Holtzbrinck Veranstaltungsforum hosted the first Picador reading at the Galerie Pierogi on Thursday night. Picador Professor Tristan Hughes read from two of his novels in the gallery, located in an old industrial complex in Leipzig Plagwitz. Some 50 people attended the reading.

Unfortunately, electronic registration for your BA modules is not yet available. So registration will proceed much like in the previous semester:

American Studies Leipzig cordially invites you to join the first public reading by a Picador Professor.

Deutschlandfunk conducted a live interview with American Studies Leipzig for the midday news show on Friday, 16 February. The main topic was the House of Representatives Resolution to be passed on the same day whereby Democrats, and some thirteen Republicans, would express their support for America’s troops but also express disapproval of President Bush’s troop build-up in Iraq. Other questions during the interview related to the evolving Bush Administration strategy on Iran, and possible outcomes in the ongoing negotiations to create a unified government in Palestine.

The United States Ambassador to Germany, William R. Timken, visited American Studies Leipzig on 5 February for an afternoon roundtable. Some thirty students joined the Ambassador and his wife, Sue, for a discussion about German-American relations in the context of the German “twin presidencies” of the EU and the G8, about diverse aspects of European-American relations, and American politics and society more generally.

The United States Ambassador to Germany, William R. Timken, visited American Studies Leipzig on 5 February for an afternoon roundtable. Some thirty students joined the Ambassador and his wife, Sue, for a discussion about German-American relations in the context of the German “twin presidencies” of the EU and the G8, about diverse aspects of European-American relations, and American politics and society more generally.

The United States Ambassador to Germany, Mr. William R. Timken, will visit American Studies on Monday, 5 February. He will participate in a roundtable with some thirty students to discuss German-American relations, especially in the context of Germany’s Presidencies of the EU and the G8. The Ambassador will be accompanied by his wife, Mrs. Sue Timkin.


Short Bio of Ambassador Timkin.

American Studies held the first Picador Professor Roundtable at Villa Tillmanns on Wednesday evening. The Roundtable is meant to offer students and other members of the university community an opportunity to exchange ideas about literature and culture with the current Picador Professor in an informal and relaxed setting. The theme for this roundtable was “Literatures, Cultures, and National Identities”.

The student radio station mephisto 97.6 with a listenership of around 15,000 people in the greater Leipzig region conducted an interview with American Studies for its Wednesday morning show “Mephisto Brings the World to Leipzig (Mephisto holt die Welt nach Leipzig)”. Questions centered around several trends that seem to point to a larger political turn in the American landscape: growing protests against the war in Iraq, the growing greening of corporate America, and the broad popularity of Senator Barack Obama as a presidential candidate.