20 Jahre Mauerfall – Berlin: Stadt der Freiheit - Humboldt-Universität ...

Playing House – Shifting Paradigms of Family andKinshipThe focus of this conference will be on U.S. - Americantraditions and concepts of family and kinship. Representations,reflections and contestations of families and kinshiprun through all aspects of American life and aremost prominently noticeable in politics, law-making, art,and the media. Discourses about family and kinship canbe used to communicate and negotiate constellations ofpower; they can serve to investigate spaces, differences,struggles, alliances, strategic endeavors and innovativeconceptualizations of family at various intersections.Over the centuries, cultural conventions and ideas aboutthe traditional family and family values have graduallyshifted, and this shift consequently has affected themanifold narratives about family and kinship. However,since “family” is an overriding discourse in social, culturaland political studies, it seems to resist analysis. The importancegiven to the metonymic quality of family discourseswith regard to wider entities (society at large,political and economic systems) suggests that “family”serves as a repository not only for reactionary positions,but also for the validity of concrete experience as opposedto abstract discourse.This year’s students & graduate conference seeks to exploreforms of narratives in U.S.-American culture thatconvey accounts of family and kinship constructions. Weinvite contributors to explore how narratives of family andkinship affirm, reproduce, resist, challenge or subvertnormative ideas of family life.What are the various social, legal and cultural prerequisitesand ramifications of kinship and family membership?How do family and nation relate on a metaphoricallevel? How do states regulate sexuality and reproductionthrough dominant discourses of family and kinship? Howrelevant are religious concepts and traditions in this discussion?The Annual Students & Graduate Conferences SeriesThe conference series sets out to support and foster thestudents' interest in academic exchange and discussions.It provides students of all levels (undergraduate, graduateand post-graduate) with a space for the discussion ofacademic topics in the absence of the usual hierarchyoften found in university seminars.More information about this and previous conferencescan be found here:http://www2.hu-berlin.de/amerika/asc/index.htmlWe thank our sponsors and supportersAmerican Studies Program, HU BerlinIES Abroad BerlinOrganizersViola Amato, Eva Brunner, Karolina Golimowska,Amina Grunewald, Katja Linke, Pierre-Héli Monot,David Rose, Ulrike Schneeberg, Isabel ScholzInformationHumboldt-Universität zu BerlinInstitut für Anglistik und AmerikanistikUnter den Linden 610099 BerlinTel.: +49-30-2093 2488 (secretariat)Fax: +49-30-2093 2405Contactfamilyconference2012@googlemail.comAll panels will take place in room 3119Unter den Linden 6All times s.t.For possible changes to the program, please consult theweb site of the conference at http://www.angl.huberlin.de/confslecs/stud_conf/studgradconf2012Institut für Anglistik undAmerikanistikHumboldt-Universität zu Berlin11th Annual Students andGraduate ConferencePlaying House – ShiftingParadigms of Family andKinshipNovember 15 – 17, 2012Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin,Room 3119

Thursday, 15 November 2012until 15:00 Arrival; Registration15:00 Welcome - Isabel Scholz, HU Berlin15:30-17:00 PANEL 1: Playing House –Normative Family ModelsJulia Hillenbrand, Gutenberg Universität MainzMotherhood and Self-Realization: Changing FeministEvaluations from the First to the Third WaveNewton Freire Murce Filho, UFG BrazilChanging Families in Highly Recommended Children’sPicture Books: A Comparative StudyUlrike Schneeberg, HU BerlinThe Monster under the Bed: The Normative Function of aFrightening Picture Book MotifModeration: Amina Grunewald, HU Berlin17:00 – 17:30 Coffee break17:30-19:00 PANEL 2: Queer House –Alternative Family ModelsFlorian Zappe, FU Berlin“Who gives a shit how your mother died or if you have areal father.” – The Radical Subversion of Oedipal Familialismin the Novels of Kathy AckerViola Amato, HU Berlin“Is Growing up in Silence Better Than Growing up Different?”,or: How to Raise Your Intersex ChildAlicia VandeVusse, University of Chicago, USAConsuming Sperm: Trajectories of Alternative Inseminationin the United StatesModeration: Katja Linke, HU Berlin20:00 Conference Dinner (Restaurant 12 Apostel)Friday, 16 November 201210:00-11:30 PANEL 3: Black Families and(Post-)Racial FantasiesAndre Dechert, WWU MünsterBreaking Free from Stereotypes. “The Cosby Show” andthe African-American CommunityDr. des. Barbara Antoniazzi, FU Berlin(Im)perfect Fathers and Postracial Fantasies:Representing the Black Family in the Age ofNeoliberalismLauren Fannin, Georgia State University, USABeyond Ann Romney: Understanding the Experiences ofAfrican American Stay at Home MomsModeration: Viola Amato, HU Berlin11:30 – 12:00 Coffee break12:00-13:30 PANEL 4: Making New Homes –Family and DiasporaHenning Marquardt, Leibniz Universität HannoverDefining Religious Ideologies: Family Representations inClaude McKay’s “Banana Bottom”Nicole Poppenhagen, Gutenberg Universität Mainz“You lie with stories”: Mother-Daughter Conflicts andTransnational Storytelling in Chinese American LiteratureEdward Barry, HU BerlinWestern Reverberations in the Asian Diaspora: How toCreate the Most Notorious Family in the Western WorldModeration: Karolina Golimowska, HU Berlin13:30 – 15:00 Lunch Break (Mensa, HU Berlin)15:00-17:00 Panel 5: Empty House –Absent Parents, Missing LinksSilvia Chirila, HU BerlinKinship and Community in Toni Morrison’s Novel “Home”Sandra Heil, HU BerlinWhat If Your Mother Never Meant To? –The Absent Mother in the Novels by Louise ErdrichCandela Delgado Martin, University of Seville, SpainUnconventional Motherhood: Silent Female Bonding inMarilynne Robinson’s HousekeepingModeration: Eva Brunner, HU Berlin17:00 – 17:30 Coffee break17:30-19:00 Panel 6: Let’s Play Together –Family as CommunitySonja Schillings, FU BerlinFamilies of the Secret: Child Abuse and Utopias ofAlternative Rule in Hardboiled FictionNina Schnieder, Universität Potsdam“We’re Bringing the Band Back Together”: AlternativeFamily Concepts in Robert Schwendtke’s HollywoodAction Film “RED” (2010)Rebecca Schäfer, Gutenberg Universität MainzMonstrous Mutterkult? Lady Gaga, the Family Discourse,and Alternative Modes of KinshipModeration: Ulrike Schneeberg, HU Berlin20:00 Dinner/Get Together (Café/Bar “Aufsturz”)Saturday, 17 November 201210:00-11:30 Panel 7: Broken Homes –Collapsing Family IdealsStefan Hippler, Universität Würzburg“Intricate Waves of Love and Hatred”: Representations,Models, and Functions of ‘Family’ in Michael Cunningham’sFlesh and Blood (1995)Benjamin Betka, Goethe Universität Frankfurt a.M.Housing Halloween – 60 Years of Cinematic FamilyHorror between Commodified Rites of Passage and RealTissue TerrorCharles Leichtfuss, Philipps Universität Marburg“Facing Up to Their Responsibilities”: Representations ofWorking Class Parenthood in the Lyrics of Bruce SpringsteenModeration: Isabel Scholz, HU Berlin11:30 – 12:00 Coffee break12:00-13:30 Panel 8: Dream House –Disrupting SuburbiaAgnieszka Styła, University of Gdańsk, PolandProdigal Children or Prodigal Parents? – Family Grudgesin the selected novels of Jonathan Franzen, MarilynneRobinson, and Anne TylerTalel Ben Jemia , FU BerlinGilmore Girls and Millennial Family Values on NetworkTelevisionPablo Gómez Muñoz, University of Zaragoza, Spain“We Can’t Go On Pretending that This Is the Life WeWanted:” Revisiting 1950s American Suburbia throughContemporary FilmModeration: David Rose, HU Berlin13:30 - 14:00 Conclusion and Goodbye!Karolina Golimowska, HU Berlin