Teaching and Research News

FOTO CREDIT: TWO FINE PEOPLE

Dear All,

In this section, I would like to keep you posted about my teaching and research, all of which has taken on some new shape and trajectories recently; perhaps, with the exception of Ahab in Love. The Creative Reception of Moby-Dick in Popular Culture, which I am still hoping to get into print before nth-covid wave is over.

Teaching NEWS:

I am happy to announce that in the summer semester 2022, I’ll be teaching an advanced research-course in the American Studies-program at the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Vienna. The MA-course is titled “‘This is (not) America’: Constructing and Contesting ‘Americanness’”. It is part of the Cultural and Media Studies module. I have also been invited by Prof. Dr. Giorgio Mariani to teach two workshop units on Contemporary American Poetry in the joint language/translation/linguistics/literature/cultural studies PhD program at La Sapienza University in Rome in mid-May 2022. Looking forward to it!

Research News:

As part of the ERC/FWF funded project Poetry off the Page, the “PoP Team” is traveling to London, UK, from Nov 29-Dec 5, 2021, to do research at the Apples and Snakes Archive and the British Library. We have also been invited to take part in a “Poetry and Theory” Workshop at the University of Hamburg on Jan. 13, 2022.

As for forthcoming publications, I am thrilled to have an article titled “Teaching Melville Through the Lens of Popular Culture” forthcoming in the new Wiley-Blackwell A New Companion to Herman Melville – edited by Wyn Kelley and Christopher Ohge.

I am currently writing a handbook essay on “Poetry Slams” for DeGruyter Handbook. Literatur und Performance. Hg. Lucia Ruprecht und Bettina Brandl-Ris.

Also in preparation is a special issue for NALANS on Narratives, Melville and Media (Issue Editors: M. Zeki Çıraklı & Martina Pfeiler)

Upcoming Talks:

I am excited to join the symposium “From Poetry to Song Lyrics: Analysing and Teaching Verse” at the University of Bamberg organized by Prof. Pascal Fischer und JProf. Theresa Summer. The title of my presentation is: “Cultural Agency and Vocal Vitality: Taking Lyric Poetry into (and out of) the Mediatized 2020s Classroom.” (Feb. 4-5, 2022).

Recent Talks:

Recently, I have given a paper titled “Denouncing and Censoring Ahab: Melville’s Creative Resistance to U.S. Hegemonic Whaling Culture“ at the (Virtual) Annual Conference of the American Studies Association (ASA) in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Conference Theme: Creative Revolt. Panel: “Cultures of Denunciation – Defamation, Canceling, and Creative Resistance in Nineteenth Century American Literature” (Organizers: Prof. Stefan Brandt and Senior Researcher Dr. Alexandra Urakova). (https://www.theasa.net).

I have also presented a paper on “Transcoding Moby‐Dick: Historicizing Herman Melville’s Global Popularity.” at the 1st CLAM Conference organized by the University of L’Aquila in Italy. (https://www.clam-icla.com)