(Re-)Shaping the Public Sphere: Cultural Productions as/and Interventions (PGF 2024)

(Re-)Shaping the Public Sphere: Cultural Productions as/and
Interventions (PGF 2024)
34th ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE POSTGRADUATE FORUM (PGF) OF THE GERMAN ASSOCIATION FOR AMERICAN STUDIES (GAAS/DGFA)
November 21-23, 2024

34th Annual Conference of the Postgraduate Forum (PGF) of the German Association for
American Studies (GAAS/DGfA)

The organizers of the 2024 Postgraduate Forum are pleased to announce the annual call for
submissions for this year’s conference to be hosted at the Friedrich-Alexander-University of
Erlangen-Nuremberg from November 21-23, 2024. Since its inception in 1989, the PGF has
been a platform for early career researchers in the broader field of American studies, offering
them the opportunity to present and discuss their ongoing projects and to engage in critical
conversations with scholars working in similar as well as different disciplines.

Conference Theme and Format
In recent years, discussions about censoring cultural productions have become prominent in
the US American public sphere. Conservative states such as Texas or Florida have cut parts
of school syllabi that aim for a democratic representation of marginalized communities. Laws
like the “Parental Rights in Education” (the so-called “Don’t Say Gay Bill”), ban classroom
discussions on gender identity and sexual orientation in Florida state and encroach upon the
US American democracy. In light of this increasingly polarizing political climate, cultural
productions play an important role in (re)shaping discourses on e.g. race, ethnicity, gender,
and sexuality. Cultural productions have the power to intervene in dominant public discourses,
to express alternate ways of knowing, and to assert a right to difference.
The conference aims to examine the intersections of aesthetics, changing cultural contexts of
the production, distribution, and (public) reception of US-American literature and other forms
of cultural productions such as movies, comics and visual art since 1945 in an increasingly
fragmented public sphere.

Topics may include (but are not limited to):
● socio-cultural, political, and economic interdependencies of cultural productions and
practices
● cultural productions, and their ability to shape and interact with the public sphere
● public sphere as the arena of opinions and specific infrastructures that enable and
condition cultural production, distribution, and reception
● praxeological concepts of cultural productions, which include socio-cultural contexts,
political and institutional frameworks
● strategies utilized by cultural productions to activate attention
● public contexts of literature and other forms of cultural productions
● knowledge production through forms of cultural productions
● ethics and politics of cultural productions
Alongside submissions dedicated to the conference topic, we also invite and encourage
contributions from the broader field of American studies, including, among other disciplines,
media studies, history, political science, sociology, and economics. We welcome participants
to present work in progress, provide an overview of their project for discussion, workshop case
studies with the group, present essays, or focus on methodological and theoretical questions.
We especially encourage young scholars with little to no conference experience to participate
in the conference.
In addition to panels, a keynote lecture, and the annual PGF meeting, we are also planning a
cultural workshop in Nuremberg. During this workshop, you can present your own cultural
productions, such as creative writing, music, and visual arts to discuss them, have a test
audience, or just share them with your peers.

Application
Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be submitted along with a 50-word biography to
pgf@dgfa.de by August 17, 2024. If you want to contribute to the workshop with a cultural
production of your own, please send in a separate 250-word proposal for each contribution.
Presentations should not be longer than 15 minutes. Selected participants can expect to be
notified by early October 2024.

Accessibility
As organizers of the 2024 PGF Conference, we are committed to ensuring all events and
contents are accessible to all. We plan to host the PGF Conference 2024 as a hybrid event.
We will notify you when we open our form for registration on our website, in which you may let
us know if you need reimbursement of travel expenses, or about other special needs that you
may have. In case institutional funding for the travel expenses to Erlangen is unavailable to
you, we will do our best to support you financially to the degree that our budget permits.
The deadline for registration is October 26, 2024.
Do not hesitate to approach us at any time if you have any questions or concerns
(pgf@dgfa.de).

For further information, please visit the conference website:
https://www.literaturundoeffentlichkeit.phil.fau.de/en/veranstaltungen-und-publikationen/events
/re-shaping-the-public-sphere