“Think Transatlantic“ is this year‘s topic for LSU’s 3rd annual event in cooperation with the German Embassy in Washington D.C. Academic Programs Abroad, the German Section of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, and the German Club at LSU are organizing a week that focuses on the present and past of German-American relations in the broader European context. There will be information tables at free speech alley during the week. The week will end with an interdisciplinary symposium with the title “Transatlantic Relations: History, Legacy, and Perspectives” on Friday, November 9, an important date in recent German history. The Program in Comparative Literature is also participating in the Symposium. Each year the Program organizes a Graduate Student Conference under the auspices of the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers. Several Comparative Literature Graduate Students will be giving papers on the topic of Transatlantic Literary Relationships and will participate on a round table with Professor Lawrence Kritzman of Dartmouth College to discuss the implications of Transatlantic studies for Comparative Literature as a discipline. They are Carrie O’Connor, Guillermo Severiche, Pengyi Huang, Jacqueline Zimmer Salen, Lazara Bolton and Jingyuan Liu.
The symposium will bring several distinguished speakers to LSU: Paul Michael Luetzeler from Washington University in St. Louis, Lawrence Kritzman from Dartmouth College and Günter Bischof from the University of New Orleans. Presenters from LSU are David Culbert (History), Harald Leder (Foreign Languages), Amy Catania, Brian Daigle, and Jesse Russell (Comparative Literature). They will explore different aspects of the transatlantic relationships from historical and literary perspectives. Presentations will take place from 9:15 am to 1:00 pm in E131 Howe Russell, and from 1:00pm.-4:30pm in the Hill Memorial Library. A reception at the International Cultural Center on 3365 Dalrymple Drive will follow accompanied by a poetry reading by Victoria Mansberger. Students will create a blog to share their thoughts about the presentations.
Please consult the program for more information about individual presentations and times. This event is free of charge and open to the public.
“Think Transatlantic” is an initiative for students and scholars at 50 universities throughout the United States. LSU is proud to be part of this ongoing effort to introduce the LSU community to different aspects of Germany and German-American relations. The Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers publishes the journal Literary Imagination and the electronic newsletter Literary Matters.