Anglophone

Studies

The Herbst-Uni (Autumn University) is an offer for pupils in the 11th and 12th grades to feel like students for a week during the autumn holidays and to take a closer look at the courses offered at the Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg. In 2022, the Autumn University will take place from 25 to 28 October. The Chair of Anglophone Cultural and Literary Studies will open its regular seminar "Narratives of Identity" (9.15 to 10.45 a.m.) to interested students on 26 October. The seminar is a compulsory course in the first semester of the Cultural Engineering programme, deals with identity as a central object of cultural studies and introduces three of the central dimensions of identity (class, ethnicity and gender). After the event, all students will have the opportunity to exchange ideas with the lecturer and the students. Further information on the Herbst-Uni and the possibility to register can be found here.

The Chair of Anglophone Cultural and Literary Studies is pleased to welcome Prof. Brycchan Carey for a guest lecture on "Olaudah Equiano, The African: An Eighteenth-Century Citizen of the World". The lecture will take place on Thursday, 26 January 2023 at 11:00 a.m. as part of the seminar "Discourses of Slavery and Abolition in the 17th and 18th Centuries" by PD Dr. Nora Pleßke (Building 40, Room 226, Zschokkestraße 32). The lecture is open to everyone who is interested.

Brycchan Carey is Professor of English at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne. He is currently President of the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies and Vice-President of the Association for Study of Literature and Environment (United Kingdom and Ireland), and served as the first President of the Literary London Society. In his numerous publications, primarily on the culture and literature of the Atlantic world, Carey has focused on discourses on slavery and the abolitionist movement, the content of which ties in seamlessly with the seminar topic. His lecture focuses on Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797), an eighteenth-century African writer and Britain's first Black civil servant, who also acted as an anti-slavery activist, navigator, and explorer. Carey has extensively edited and published Equiano's Interesting Narrative and will also discuss his experiences as an editor during the guest lecture.

The Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg invites interested high school students to the Digital Study Information Days from 20 to 23 February 2023. During the four days, the diverse range of studies offered by the nine faculties will be presented in online formats from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. each day. Interested students will also have ample opportunity to ask questions and meet people for talks. On 20 February, the Cultural Engineering degree programme, in whose cultural studies programme courses from the English Studies department are firmly anchored, will present itself between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. in the "Society, Culture and Languages" block. Jonas Müller, a CE student in his 7th semester, will give a comprehensive insight into the creative possibilities of a cultural engineer through a project presentation. You can register for and find more information about the Digital Study Info Days here. Please note that the target group of the Info Days are German-speaking students. If you are an international student looking to enrol in the Cultural Engineering programme, please contact the student advisor PD Dr. Nora Pleßke.

From 29 April to 1 May, the annual conference of the Inklings Society for Literature and Aesthetics e.V. will take place in Lecture Hall 6 of Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg under the title "Defying Death: Immortality and Rebirth in Fantasy". The Inklings Society, founded in 1983 by Gisbert Kranz (1921-2009), is dedicated to the study and dissemination of the works of the Oxford Inklings and authors close to them (besides J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, especially Charles Williams, Dorothy Sayers, George MacDonald and G.K. Chesterton) as well as to the analysis of the fantastic in literature, film and art in general. The extensive conference programme is thematically based on the Society's 40th birthday as well as the death anniversaries of two prominent Inklings (Tolkien (50th year of death) and Lewis (60th year of death)) and, in addition to reflections on the works of these two authors, also includes contributions on science fiction or Harry Potter, among others. Further information can be found on the conference website.

As part of the BMBF-funded joint project "3IOS Sleep - Pain - Stress - Cultures and Techniques of Biofeedback Systems 1960 to 1990: Material Culture Research in the Medical Technology Collection of the OVGU", the Chair of Anglophone Cultural and Literary Studies invites applications for a research assistant position with 100% working hours and remuneration according to TV-L 13 as of 1 July 2024. The externally funded position is jointly responsible for the establishment of research in the field of Medical Humanities at the OVGU and in the BMBF joint project. The application deadline is 7 June 2024, applications will be accepted via the online portal. Prof. Dr. Susanne Peters and PD Dr. Nora Pleßke are available to answer any questions you may have.

The position for research assistant (100% TV-L 13) includes the following areas of responsibility:

• independent research in the field of Medical Humanities with associated research and archive work
• active participation in collection-related research in 3-month object laboratories
• collaboration in project-related workshops and events, e.g. lecture series, exhibition and collection conference
• participation in national and international conferences and publication of research results
• preparation of a dissertation

Applicants should have the following profile:

• successfully completed academic university education (Diploma/M.A.) in Anglophone cultural and/or literary studies
• strong research interest in related cultural studies topics (e.g. material culture studies, medical humanities, science studies)
• very good methodological skills
• very good knowledge of German and English
• reliable, conscientious and structured work, commitment, initiative, ability to work in a team and scientific curiosity