Women and U.S. Politics: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives
A Symposium in Honor of Hans-Jürgen Grabbe
Monday, Sept. 25
Axel Schäfer (University of Mainz)
Julia Nitz (University of Halle-Wittenberg)
Words of Welcome/Grußworte
Torsten Zugehör (Oberbürgermeister der Lutherstadt Wittenberg/
Mayor of Wittenberg)
Michelle Logsdon (Kulturattaché der US-Botschaft Berlin/
Cultural Attaché, U.S. Embassy Berlin)
Laudations/Würdigungen
Sabine Volk-Birke (University of Halle-Wittenberg)
Martina Kohl (U.S. Embassy Berlin)
Alfred Hornung (University of Mainz)
Hans Bak (University of Nijmegen)
Opening Address/Eröffnungsvortrag
Carmen Birkle (University of Marburg):
“‘Yes She Can’? Das Hillary-Paradoxon und amerikanische TV-Serien”
Chair: Julia Nitz (University of Halle-Wittenberg)
Musical accompaniment by Peter M. Jehle (Wittenberg)
Tuesday, Sept. 26
Morning Keynote Address
Chair: Martina Kohl (U.S. Embassy Berlin)
“Women Barred in 18th-Century Politics, but with Influence”
SESSION 1: Women in American Politics
Chair: Andreas Hübner (University of Flensburg)
“Inclusion and Equality in the German and American Political System: Jane Addams and Angela Merkel”
Sabine Sielke (University of Bonn):
“‘Stronger Together’? The Seriality of Feminism, the Gender of Misogyny, and the ‘Case’ of Hillary Clinton”
Rob Kroes (University of Amsterdam):
“Feminism and Populism: Odd Bed-fellows in Contemporary U.S. Politics”
SESSION 2: Writing the Political: Women’s Autobiographies, Memoirs, and Diaries
Chair: Udo Hebel (University of Regensburg)
“The Literary Politics of Southern Women’s Civil War Diaries”
Gabriele Linke (University of Rostock):
“The Personal and the Political in Selected African American Congresswomen’s Memoirs”
SESSION 3: Negotiating Politics: Gender and Political Causes in Modern U.S. History
Chair: Kathrin Schulze-Riewald (University of Halle-Wittenberg)
“‘A vitally necessary war measure’: Woodrow Wilson and Woman Suffrage”
Hans Bak (University of Nijmegen):
“From Union Square to Rome: Revisiting the Religious Radicalism of Dorothy Day (1897–1980)”
Marcel Arbeit (University of Olomouc):
“Caroline Gordon, a Catholic Cultural Lobbyist”
SESSION 4: The Politics of Attire: Women’s Clothes and the Political Sphere
Chair: Axel Schäfer (University of Mainz)
“Male Politicians in Women’s Clothes. Reflections on a Visual Narrative in the Early Republic”
Eva Boesenberg (Humboldt University Berlin):
“Michelle Obama and the Power of Representation”
Luther Hotel
Wednesday, Sept. 27
Morning Keynote Address
Chair: Axel Schäfer (University of Mainz)
“The 2016 Election: Post-truth, Post-feminist, or just Post-Clinton?”
SESSION 5: Women and the Politics of Space
Chair: Simon Wendt (University of Frankfurt/Main)
“Gender, Narrativity and Architecture in Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence“
Andrew Gross (University of Göttingen):
“Refugee Blues: Hannah Arendt, Statelessness, and the Concept of Liberal Democracy”
Jerzy Durczak (University of Lublin):
“Images, Words, and Politics: Sally Mann’s Hold Still“
SESSION 6: The Iconography and Visual Representation of Gender in Media Politics
Chair: Gert Buelens (Ghent University)
“Mapping ‘Rosies’: Intermedial Approaches to an American Female Icon”
Brigitte Georgi-Findlay (University of Dresden):
“Female Politicians in Contemporary American Television Series”
Axel Schäfer and Julia Nitz
Lunch
Hans-Jürgen Grabbe