About
DFG Research Network (wissenschaftliches Netzwerk DFG # BA 3567/4-1) "Cultural Performance in Transnational American Studies" 2014-2018 (36 months + extension)
This network explores the potential of an integration of Performance Studies approaches into the field of (transnational) American Studies. It investigates how, which, and with what outcome issues that, in the wake of the transnational turn, have become central to the American Studies agenda can be addressed more adequately by the study of ‘cultural performances.’ Based on the idea of culture as a corporeal, communal, and dynamic event rather than a stable textual product, the individual projects arranged in three culturally and spatially specific clusters--the city, the nation, the globe—position the local particularities of cultural performance vis-à-vis the dynamics of global mobility. Firstly, they examine the role and impact of ‘cultural performances’ as particular acts of cultural expression (like daily rituals, festive occasions, or theatrical events) in transnational contact zones—sites in which cultures meet, grapple with each other, and inevitably negotiate questions of socio-political agency, representation, and power. Secondly, they develop and evaluate ‘cultural performance’ as a methodological approach for the study of transnational processes. In sum, the network scrutinizes the benefits and limitations of a deeper and more reflective integration of a Performance Studies approach into American Studies. By bringing together scholars of Performance and American Studies from the US, Europe, and Asia, it constitutes an exemplary site of transnational collaboration and establishes a dialogue across disciplinary boundaries.
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Publications
Birgit M. Bauridl and Pia Wiegmink, eds. (2016)
Approaching Transnational America in Performance
The volume is uniquely located at the interdisciplinary crossroads of Performance Studies and transnational American Studies. As both a method and an object of study, performance deepens our understanding of transnational phenomena and America's position in the world. The thirteen original contributions make use of the field's vast potential and critically explore a wide array of cultural, political, social, and aesthetic performances on and off the stage. They scrutinize transnational trajectories and address issues central to the American Studies agenda such as representation, power, (ethnic and gender) identities, social mobility, and national imaginaries. As an American Studies endeavor, the volume highlights the cultural, political, and (inter)disciplinary implications of performance.
Sel. Related Publications by Network Members
Balestrini, Nassim Winnie. “‘Transnational and Postcolonial Perspectives on Communicating Climate Change through Theater.’” Addressing the Challenges in Communicating Climate Change Across Various Audiences, edited by Walter Leal Filho et al., Springer, Forthcoming.
Bauridl, Birgit M.“Auma Obama Transangular: Performing Presidency between Africa, Europe, and America.” Obama and Transnational American Studies, edited by Alfred Hornung, Winter, 2016, pp. 25–44.
- - - . “Marching Towards Kullman’s Diner: Performing Transnational American Sites (of Memory) in Bavaria.” Politics and Cultures of Liberation: Media, Memory, and Projections of Democracy, edited by Hans Bak, Frank Mehring, and Mathilde Roza, Brill, 2018, pp. 211–240.
Bauridl, Birgit M., and Pia Wiegmink. “Cultural Performance and Transnational American Studies.” Routledge Companion to Transnational American Studies, edited by Alfred Hornung, Nina Morgan, and Takayuki Tatsumi, Routledge, Forthcoming.
- - - , editors. Approaching Transnational America in Performance. Peter Lang , 2016.
- - - .“Toward an Integrative Model of Performance in Transnational American Studies.” Amerikastudien/American Studies, vol. 60, no.1, 2015, pp. 157-168.
Braun, Juliane. Creole Drama: Theatre and Society in Antebellum New Orleans. University of Virginia Press, Forthcoming. www.upress.virginia.edu/title/5146
Buurman, Nanne. “The Blind Spot of Global Art? Hans Ulrich Obrist’s Ways of Curating.” Situating Global Art. Topologies - Temporalities – Trajectories, edited by Nanne Buurman et al., Transcript, 2018, pp. 301–326.
Horn, Katrin. Women, Camp, and Popular Culture: Serious Excess. Palgrave, 2017.
Lippert, Leopold. “Fantasies of the Wild West in the Austrian 1990s: Harald Sicheritz’ Wanted.” German-American Encounters in Bavaria and Beyond, 1945-2015, edited by Birgit M Bauridl et al., Peter Lang, 2018, pp. 267-286.
- - - . Performing America Abroad: Transnational Cultural Politics in the Age of Neoliberal Capitalism. Winter, 2018.
- - - . “Theatrical Aesthetics and Transatlantic Representation in Robert Hunter’s Androboros.” XVII-XVIII: Revue de la Société d’études anglo-américaines des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, no. 74, 2017, doi:10.4000/1718.832.
- - - . “Transatlantic Perspectives, Maritime Mobility, and the Work of Susanna Rowson.” Maritime Mobilities, edited by Alexandra Ganser et al., Palgrave, Forthcoming.
Saal, Ilka. “Introduction: The Americas in Transnational Performance .” Theatre Annual: A Journal of Theatre and Performance of the Americas, Edited by Ilka Saal, vol. 70, 2017.
- - -. “Theatricality in Contemporary Visual and Performance Art on New World Slavery.” Oxford Handbooks Online: Literature (June2016). www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199935338.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199935338-e-36.
- - -. “The Taste for Whiteness: Kara Walker’s Marvelous Sugar Baby(2014).” Food, Fatness, and Fitness. Critical Perspectives. 27 April 2015. Web. foodfatnessfitness.com/2015/04/27/the-taste-for-whiteness-kara-walkers-marvelous-sugar-baby-2014/.
Zittlau, Andrea. “Dust on Dust: Performing Selk’Nam Visions, Tracing Absent Bodies.” Missing Memorials, Absent Bodies, edited by Luisa Gandolfo, Palgrave, Forthcoming.
Project Directors
| Dr. Birgit M. Bauridl Lehrstuhl für Amerikanistik / American Studies Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik Universität Regensburg 93040 Regensburg E-Mail: birgit.bauridl@ur.de | Dr. Pia Wiegmink Department of English and Linguistics American Studies Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz Colonel-Kleinmann-Weg 2 (room 04-455) 55128 Mainz E-Mail: wiegmink@uni-mainz.de |
Network Staff
Katharina Sherman, B.A. (Regensburg European American Forum UR)
Contact
Network Directors
Dr. Birgit M. Bauridl & Dr. Pia Wiegmink
culturalperformancenetwork@gmail.com
Network Administration / Mittelverwaltung
American Studies
University of Regensburg
93040 Regensburg / Germany
E-Mail: american.studies@ur.de
Phone: +49 941 943-3477
Fax: +59 941 943-3590
Katharina Esther Sherman - 30.01.2020 10:09 
