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Lehrstuhlvertretung
room: PT 3.2.73
phone:+49 (0) 941 / 943 - 3477
American Studies
University of Regensburg
93040 Regensburg, Germany
email: damien.schlarb@ur.de
Office hours during the winter semester 2024/2025
Tuesday, 3-4pm
Wednesday, 3-4pm
To register, please send an email to american.studies@ur.de at least 24 hours in advance.
Research Interests
* Nineteenth-Century American Literature
* Postsecularism / Literature & Religion
* Early American Studies
* Digital Game Studies
* New Media Studies
* Transnational American Studies
I am a scholar of American literature and culture. I earned my PhD at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA, (U.S.A.), where I have lived, worked, and taught on the university level for almost ten years before coming to JGU, Mainz. Because of my transnational educational background and experience, my purpose in both my teaching and my research consists in fostering linguistic and cultural literacies. I seek to mediate between different cultural contexts and reservoirs of knowledge, be they German and American, or literature and digital games, to create new knowledge. My work centers on how media become meaningful by both being self-reflexive and affording human (self-)reflection.
My nineteenth-century literary research focuses on the American Renaissance, Herman Melville, the long eighteenth century, and discourses of religion, skepticism, and biblical criticism in America. My first book, Melville’s Wisdom: Religion, Skepticism, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century America, has appeared with Oxford University Press in 2021. My other literary interests include the American short story, Afrofuturism, and, most recently, the work of sci-fi writer N.K. Jemisin.
My current research project (Habilitation), situated in American humanist Culture Studies, focuses on the concept of work in and through digital games (video games or computer games). I explore how recent mass-market and independently produced ("indie") games such as Horizon Zero Dawn (2017), Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018), or the Stanley Parable (2011) produce, co-produce, and reflect American culture and how these production processes link up with broader cultural phenomena involving technology. My interest lies, among others, with the cultural categories of gender, race (esp. Blackness), space, work, and the political economy.
At JGU, I teach courses in American Literature (from the 16th to the 21st century) and Culture Studies (digital games, technology, and the political economy). I have also taught American Literature and Composition at Georgia State University (Atlanta, GA) for almost 10 years. In my teaching, I emphasize a close connection between thinking and writing, helping students who speak English as a second language (ESL) harness their potential and become profficient and confident in their communicative abilities.
CV
BERUFLICHER WERDEGANG
10/2024- Professor für American Studies (Lehrstuhlvertretung), Universität Regensburg
01/2016 - 10/2024 Wissenschaftlicher Assistent, Lehrstuhl Prof. Oliver Scheiding, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (JGU)
10/2022 – 10/2023 Vertretungsprofessur Frühe Amerikanistik / Early American Studies (Lehrstuhl Uni.-Prof. O. Scheiding), JGU
08/2011 – 12/2015 Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter, Lehrstuhl Prof. Oliver Scheiding JGU
08/2007 – 05/2011 Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of English, Georgia State University (GSU), Atlanta (U.S.A.)
QUALIFIKATIONEN
08/2007 – 05/2016 Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) English, Promotionsstudium, Georgia State University, Atlanta (U.S.A.)
05/2016 Dissertation: „The Pondering Repose of ‚If‘: Herman Melville’s Literary Exegesis“
Director (Erstbetreuer): Reiner Smolinski (Prof. of Early American Literature) Second Reader (Zweitbetreuer): Marc Noble (Prof. of Nineteenth-Century American Literature)
Third Reader (Drittbetreuer): Paul Schmidt (Prof. of Victorian Literature)
05/2013 Verteidigung der Promotionsskizze / Zulassung zur Dissertation (Prospectus Defense)
04/2011 2. Zulassungsprüfung (Doctoral Examinations, Secondary Concentration) Thema: Literary Theory
10/2010 1. Zulassungsprüfung (Doctoral Examinations, Primary Concentration) Thema: American Literary Romanticism
08/2007 – 05/2011 Promotionsvorbereitendes Studium
08/2005 – 08/2006 Master of Arts English, Georgia State University, Atlanta (U.S.A.)
10/2002 – 08/2007 Magister Artium in American Studies (Hauptfach), Philosophie (Nebenfach),
Rechtswissenschaften (Nebenfach), Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz
PUBLICATIONS
Monographs
Melville's Wisdom: Religion, Skepticism, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century America. Oxford University Press, 2021.
Journal Articles and Internet Publications
“Melville’s Wisdom: Making the Past Speak to the Present,” OUPBlog. Oxford University Press, 28 July 2023.
mit Andreas Jungherr. “The Extended Reach of Game Engine Companies: How Companies Like Epic Games and Unity Technologies Provide Platforms for Extended Reality Applications and the Metaverse,” Social Media and Society (2022), 1-12.
mit Florian Freitag, et al. “Immersivity: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Spaces of Immersion,” Ambiances: International Journal of Sensory Environment, Architecture and Urban Space. (2020). Web.
“The Whale's Three Jobs: Herman Melville's Historical Exegesis in Moby-Dick,” Amerikastudien / American Studies 62.1 (2017), 87-107.
Book Chapters
“Video Game Semiosis,” Semiotiken in den Kulturwissenschaften / Semiotics in Cultural Studies. Hrsg. Nadja Gernalzick und Thomas Metten, Transcript, 2024. [in press]
“The Residence Within: Silence, Immersion, and Contemplative Play in Videogames.” In Silence: Acoustic Dimensions of Immersion. Hrsg. Laura Mücke und Florian Freitag. London: Routledge, 2024. [in press]
“Filling Out the Map: The Anxiety of Situatedness and the Topological Poesis of Cartographic Maps in Video Games,” Video Games and Spatiality in American Studies, Hrsg. Dietmar Meinel, De Gruyter, 2022, 137-152.
“8 Herman Melville (1819-1891),” Handbook of the American Short Story, Hrsg. Erik Redling und Oliver Scheiding, De Gruyter, 2022, 153-170.
“35 N.K. Jemisin (1972-),” Handbook of the American Short Story, Hrsg. Erik Redling und Oliver Scheiding, De Gruyter, 2022, 661-682.
“Glitches,” The Encyclopedia of Video Games, 2nd Ed., Hrsg. Mark J.P. Wolf, vol. 2, ABC Clio Greenwood, 2021, 424-426.
“Metagames / Metagaming,” The Encyclopedia of Video Games, 2nd Ed., Ed. Mark J.P. Wolf, vol. 2, ABC Clio Greenwood, 2021, 620-622.
“Metalepsis,” The Encyclopedia of Video Games, 2nd Ed., Ed. Mark J.P. Wolf, vol. 2, ABC Clio Greenwood, 2021, 627-630.
“Narrative Glitches: Action Adventure Games and Metaleptic Convergence,” Playing the Field: Video Games and American Studies, Hrsg. Sascha Pöhlman, De Gruyter, 2019, 195-210.
“Sentimental Contracts: The Affective Narrative Structure of Puritan Covenant Theology in Jonathan Winthrop’s A Model of Christian Charity,” Doing Cultural History, Hrsg. Judith Mengler und Kristina Müller-Bongard, Transcript, 2018.
“William Cullen Bryant’s ‘The Prairies’ and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s ‘The Rhodora; On Being Asked, Whence is the Flower,’” The History of American Poetry, Hrsg. Oliver Scheiding, Clemens Spahr, René Dietrich, WVT, 2015, 65-78.
Reviews
Beautiful Deceptions: European Aesthetics, the Early American Novel, and Illusionist Art, von Philipp Schweighauser, Amerikastudien / American Studies 65.3 (2021).
Melville’s Mirrors: Literary Criticism and America’s Most Elusive Author, von Brian Yothers, Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik (ZAA) (2020).
Alchemical Construction of Genders in Anglo-American Fiction, 1799-1852: Visions of Utopia as Androgynous, von Evert Jan van Leeuwen, Amerikastudien / American Studies 58.4 (2013).
The Characteristic Theology of Herman Melville: Aesthetics, Politics, and Duplicity, von Bradley A. Johnson, Amerikastudien / American Studies 58.1 (2013).
CONF./PRESENT.
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Eingeladene Vorträge
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Sonstige Vorträge
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Organisation von Konferenzen, Panels, Gastvorträgen und Gastprofessuren
Eingeladene Vorträge
05/2024 “Insurrection Without Change?: U.S. Independence, Enlightenment Thinking and the Revolutionary Era in American Literature” (Jun.-Prof. Nele Sawallisch, Amerikanistik), Trier
01/2022 “Melville’s Wisdom”, Joint Guest Lecture for the Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Harriet Beecher Stowe Author Societies, auf Einladung von Ariel Silver (Präsidentin der Nathaniel Hawthorne Society), Online
06/2019 “Melville’s ‘Second Naivete’: Biblical Hermeneutics and Aesthetics”, 12 International Melville Society Conference. Session 6: Melville’s Secular and Religious Origins (Expert Roundtable), New York University (NYU), auf Einladung von Brian Yothers, New York
06/2019 “Nothing Is True, Everything Is Playable: History and Travel in Video Games.” Lecture Series: Transdisziplinäre und interkulturelle Perspektiven auf Tourismus: Reisen in die/der Geschichte, Dept. of Translation Studies, JGU, auf Einladung von Florian Freitag, Germersheim
05/2017 “Irregular, not Irreverent: Religion and Theology in Moby-Dick and The Scarlet Letter,” Universität Innsbruck, auf Einladung von Gudrun Grabher, Innsbruck (AT)
Sonstige Vorträge
06/2023 “Videogames, Playbor, and the Futures of Work”, Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Amerikanistik (DGfA), Workshop 7: All That is Solid Melts Into Data, Org. Regina Schober & Alexander Dunst, Universität Rostock, Rostock
06/2022 “‘Don’t Look Too Close’: Big Tech and the Rhetoric of Disruption”, Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Amerikanistik (DGfA), Workshop: Markets for the Masses, Org. Simone Knewitz & Elisabeth Reichel, Universität Tübingen, Tübingen
06/2022 “Melville’s Skeptical Energies”, Melville’s Energies—13th International Conference of the Herman Melville Society, Panel 12.35: Faith’s Retreat, Org. Brian Yothers, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle / Université de Paris / Sorbonne Université, Paris (FR)
06/2022 “Melville’s Wisdom”, Melville’s Energies—13th International Conference of the Herman Melville Society, Panel 4.12: Recent Publications in Melville Studies, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle / Université de Paris / Sorbonne Université, Paris (FR)
01/2022 “Viral Games: Viruses, Errors and Glitches in Videogames”, Convention of the Modern Language Association (MLA). Session 92V: Viral Media, Org. Rielle Navitski, Washington D.C, (U. S. A.) 06/2019 “Melville, the Wisdom Books, and the Alternative Origins of Postcritique”, 12 International Melville Society Conference. Session 9: Melville and the Bible, Org. Ariel Silver, New York University (NYU), New York (U.S.A.)
05/2019 “Filling out the Map: Traversal, Colonizing, and Conquest in 3rd-Person AARPGs”, Playing the Field II: Video Games, American Studies, and Space. Org. Dietmar Meinel, Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut (KWI), University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen
04/2018 “‘Breaking It is Part of the Fun’: Unanimous Disruptions in Video Games”, Playing the Field: Video Games and American Studies, Org. Sascha Pöhlmann, Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU), München
03/2018 “Religious Publishing and the Intellectual Climate of New York City as a Space of Literary Production”, C19: The Annual Conference of Nineteenth-Century americanists, Session P55: Religious Climates and the Formation of U.S. Literary History, Org. James Van Wyck, Albuquerque (U.S.A.)
06/2017 “Cross-Readings and Traversal: Redburn & the Erosion of Biblical Authority”, 11th International Conference of the Herman Melville Society, Panel 12: Melville’s Crossing: Liverpool, Org. John Bryant, King’s College, London (UK)
07/2016 “Sentimental Contracts: The Narrative Structure of Puritan Covenant Theology”, Session 2.1: Literary Studies Meet Legal History: Narrative Elements in Texts, Org. Cathleen Sarti, Universität Trieste, Trieste (IT)
05/2016 “Landscape and Poetic Form in Herman Melville’s Clarel.” Annual Conference of the American Literature Association (ALA), Session 1-F: The Uses and Forms of Poetry in America, Org. Oliver Scheiding, San Francisco (U.S.A.)
06/2015 “‘Now I believe in them with delight, when before I but thought of them with terror’: Ghosts in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Short Fictions”, SEA-OIEACH Joint Conference/Annual Conference of the Society of Early Americanists, Panel 11: Textual Economies and Early Short Narratives, Org. Oliver Scheiding, University of Chicago, Chicago (U.S.A.)
11/2014 “‘A Rendezvous of Advanced Philosophers and Free Thinkers’: Skepticist Publishers and the Literary Scene of Early Nineteenth-Century New York.” Religious Press and Print Culture. Mainz, Germany, Panel 2: Nineteenth-Century Religious Press and Print Culture, Org. Anja-Maria Bassimir, JGU, Mainz
05/2014 “Old-Testament Templates in Herman Melville’s Short Fiction.” Annual Conference of the American Literature Association (ALA), Session 3-I: New Approaches to the Short Story, Org. Oliver Scheiding, Washington, D.C. (U.S.A.)
Organisation von Konferenzen, Panels, Gastvorträgen und Gastprofessuren
07/2023 “Playing at a Distance,” Gastvortrag: Sonia Fizek (Cologne Game Lab, TU Köln), Organisator, Mainz
05/2023 “Melville’s Sacred Texts,” Panel bei der American Literature Association Conference (ALA), Session 3-F, 25. Mai 2023, Organisator und Moderator auf Einladung von Jonathan Cook (Vorsitzender Search Committee der Herman Melville Society), Boston U.S.A.)
10/2021 – 02/2022 DAAD Gastdozentur für Hugh Sheehy (Creative Writing, Ramapo College, NJ), Hauptantragsteller und Betreuer, Mainz
12/2021 – 02/2022 Immersion & Video Games (Online Vortragsreihe). Organisator, Mainz Vortragende: - Melanie Fritsch (Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf) - Thi Nguyen (University of Utah) - Sarah Thorne (Newfoundland and Labrador’s University, Kanada) - Noah Wardrip-Fruin (University of California Santa Cruz) - Timothy Welsh (Loyola University)
05/2021 Funny Women (DFG), “Panel II: Literary Strategies”, Moderator, München
05/2020 Playing the Field III: American Studies, Video Games, Immersion, internationale Konferenz, Organisator, Mainz [Aufgrund v. COVID-19 abgesagt]
07/2019 “Developing a Local University Ecosystem: Transdisciplinary, Collaborative Local Scholarship,” Gastvortrag: Brennan Collins (Georgia State University), Organisator, Mainz
11/2018 Stille, Sound, Musik: Akustische Ebenen der Immersion (SoCuM) Panel III: „Dramaturgische Momente der Stille“, Moderator, Mainz
10/2018 Transnational Conversation: New and Emerging Approaches to Early American Studies (DFG), international Workshop, Panel 3: “Revolutionary Media and the Media of Revolution”, Organisator & Moderator, Mainz
10/2017 From Abolition to Black Lives Matter: Past and Present Forms of Transnational Black Resistance (DFG), Panel 1: “Histories of Resistance”, Moderator, Mainz
10/2017 The American Short Story: New Horizons (DFG), internationale Konferenz, Mitglied des Organisationsausschusses, Mainz
10/2017 Creative Writers Roundtable, “The Program Era: Creative Writing and the Short Story,” Hugh Sheehy (Ramapo College, NJ), Organisator & Moderator, Mainz
12/2016 “The Refuge of Objects / Objects of Refuge” (Uni Mainz, U Delaware, Mainz Winterthur Museum), Symposium, Panel 6: “Refuges of Print Culture”, Moderator, Mainz
11/2010 South Atlantic Modern Language Association Convention, Conference Program Layout; On-Site Organisator, Atlanta (U.S.A.)
11/2009 South Atlantic Modern Language Association Convention, Conference Program Layout; On-Site Organisator, Atlanta (U.S.A.)
08/2009 New Voices, Graduate Student Conference, Organisator mit Andrew Davis, Amber Estlund, Phil Purser, Atlanta (U.S.A.)
11/2008 South Atlantic Modern Language Association Convention Conference Program Layout; On-Site Organisator, Louisville (U.S.A.)
TEACHING
WiSe 2024/2025
35800 Introduction to American Studies
35815 Introduction to English and American Literary Studies
35825 American Literature II: The 20th and 21st Centuries
35840 Digital Games and American Culture: Approaches to New Media, Technology, and Culture
