Due to the current COVID-19 crisis, the executive board of the German Association for American Studies (GAAS), together with the local organizers at the Heidelberg Center for American Studies, decided that the 2021 annual meeting of the GAAS will take place online from June 17-19, 2021. The conference theme will remain “Participation in American Culture and Society.”
The annual conferences after Heidelberg will be held in Tübingen (2022), Rostock (2023), and Oldenburg (2024). For further information along the way, please, check the GAAS and conference websites (dgfa.de and dgfa2020.com).
Participation in American Culture and Society
Participation is a core value of American citizenship and at the same time one of the nation’s most ambivalent concepts. In colonial America, a larger share of white males had the right to vote than in any other society in the world. The Federal Constitution of 1787 was a milestone in the history of political participation because it tied political power to national elections.
In the nineteenth century, universal white manhood suffrage gave rise to the first electoral mass democracy worldwide. The struggle of women, racial and ethnic minorities, and immigrants for full participatory rights has been a major theme in U.S. history and remains a challenge today and into the future. This challenge reaches far beyond the realm of politics and encompasses full and equal access for groups and individuals to participate in a wide variety of social, cultural, religious, and economic activities. [READ MORE…]
Local Organizers
- Prof. Manfred Berg (History)
- Prof. Ulrike Gerhard (Geography)
- Prof. Günter Leypoldt (Literature and Culture)
- Dr. habil. Margit Peterfy (Literature and Culture)
- Prof. Jan Stievermann (Religious History)
- Dr. habil. Martin Thunert (Political Science)
- Prof. Welf Werner (Economics)
67th Annual Meeting of the German Association for American Studies (DGfA) | Heidelberg, June 17-19, 2021 