The JFK Conspiracies: Special Event to Mark the 50th Anniversary of the Kennedy Assassination
25/10/2013
Who killed President Kennedy? Why did the Warren Commission lie? Why did Jack Ruby murder Lee Harvey Oswald? Why are there so many different theories about the assassination? November 22 1963. For decades afterwards, most Americans, and many people around the world, could respond instantly to the question: ‘Where were you when you heard the …
The March on Washington 1963 and the Untold Stories Behind the Dream
03/10/2013
Co-convened by three professors of American History and American Studies — Britta Waldschmidt-Nelson, Sharon Monteith and Marcia Chatelain, from Germany, Britain and the US — a September 2013 symposium reflected the global impact of the March on Washington by forging a transatlantic conversation in the city of the March. Hosted by the German Historical Institute …
Protest Memory: Black History Month for American Studies
30/09/2013
Nearly 100 years ago, an African American intellectual decided to launch what he called “Negro History Week”. The son of former slaves, Carter G. Woodson wanted to popularize interest in black history, and transform the past from a site of pain (at slavery and lynching) to one of pride (at activism and accomplishment). He believed …
Widening participation in CLAS: summer schools and beyond
13/09/2013
As the summer draws to a close and an autumnal chill hints at shorter days, a group of young people from all over the UK will be settling down to their final year of A level study with a renewed vigour and an eye on their future at a University. These young people were lucky …
Windows on War: An Online Poster Exhibition
19/06/2013
In 1969 as part of the legacy of Vivian de Sola Pinto (formerly Professor of English) the University acquired a rare collection of Soviet posters from WWII. These posters were hand-made almost every day during the war to keep the population abreast of progress, to maintain morale and attack the enemy. Yes, they are propaganda, …
Klop: a new student production in Russian
05/06/2013
It has been many months in the making, but the countdown is finally being marked in days. Back at the beginning of term, a small group of postgraduates in Russian and Slavonic Studies, led by Jesse Gardiner and Laura Todd, met with a group of undergraduate Russian students in the hope of recruiting them for …
Postwar American Fiction and the State of the Novel: Reflections on the Rise of Creative Writing
30/04/2013
Creative writing programmes have been part of the higher education system in the US and beyond for more than 60 years. Arguments about whether one can be taught to write are of equally longstanding. Are writers romantic figures with intuitive skills whose work thrives with exposure to worldly experience? Or can people be trained to …
Forthcoming event: ‘Ask me more about Brecht’
04/03/2013
On 13 March 2013 the Department of German Studies will host a multimedia show by Sabine Berendse and Paul Clements, entitled ‘Ask me more about Brecht: Hanns Eisler in conversation with Hans Bunge’. Bertolt Brecht was one of the leading German dramatists and poets of the twentieth century. The composer Hanns Eisler was Brecht’s most …
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