The Fulbright commission has granted scholarships to two American Studies Leipzig faculty members for the 2007 American Studies Summer Institute in San Francisco.
The next Picador Professor for Literature James Hopkin will arrive at American Studies Leipzig on Monday, April 9, 2007. The acclaimed British author will stay in Leipzig for the Summer Term of 2007 to teach two courses. A course on Thomas Pynchon will provide students with the perspective of a practicing writer on one of America’s most notable authors. A Creative Writing / Book Reviewing class will give students an opportunity to work hands on with a practitioner of literature.
Unless course descriptions specify otherwise, classes for our BA students start on April 10 (after registrations) and for all other students on April 2.
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.
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.
