Project Fellows Patrice Douglass and Anson Koch-Rein

In July 2024, the manifesto project had the great pleasure of hosting two renowned researchers from the United States: Patrice Douglass, Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at UC Berkeley and Anson Koch-Rein, Professor of Humanities and Gender Studies at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) joined the research project as project fellows.

The joint research program of the chair and project fellows included several formats:

On July 9, 2024, a 'Theory Reading Circle' was held, featuring a discussion of a recent publication by Patrice Douglass (Douglass, Patrice D. "Whither the Queer History of Slavery?" The Cambridge History of Queer American Literature, edited by Benjamin Kahan. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2024, pp. 72–88.).

Furthermore, both researchers gave lectures for students at the workshop "Manifesto NOW!" (see news entry from July 12, 2024).

Both project fellows and all members of the team of the Chair of American Studies with a Focus on Diversity Studies gave short pitches on relevant theories they work on at the "Theories in Dialogue" meeting on July 15, 2024, which served as a basis for lively discussions.

As part of the established format of the "North American Studies Colloquium" of both chairs of American Studies at TUD, Laura Handl presented her PhD project on July 16, 2024.

The "Close Reading Manifesto Lab" on July 17, 2024 included a discussion of The Ahuman Manifesto (2020) by Patricia MacCormack and the "#AltWoke Manifesto" (2017).

As a conclusion and highlight of their stay, Patrice Douglass and Anson Koch-Rein gave keynote lectures at the international conference "manifestoNOW! Purposes and Effects of an Escalating Form in the US and Beyond" organized by the chair. Patrice Douglass gave insights into the 'manifestary' memoirs of Black Liberation Army activist Assata Shakur in her contribution "Liberate Assata", and under the title "Trans Abstraction: A Photographic Manifesto," Anson Koch-Rein focused on the conceptual potential of photopgraphic abstraction in the context of social discourses on trans embodiment.