The Return of the Aesthetic in American Studies

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Thursday, November 29 (Campus Westend, Casino, CAS 1.801)

15:00–15:30
Welcoming Remarks and Introduction
Johannes Voelz (Frankfurt)

15:30–16:30
Panel 1: Aesthetic Theory Today I
Walter Benn Michaels (UI Chicago): “Making Art: Action, Autonomy, Adorno, and Anscombe”
Chair: Marlon Lieber (Kiel/Frankfurt)

16:30–17:00
Coffee Break

17:00–19:00
Panel 1: Aesthetic Theory Today I (continued)
Rieke Jordan (Frankfurt): “Reader, Curator”
Caroline Levine (Cornell): “Sustainable Aesthetics”
Chair: Stephan Kuhl (Frankfurt)

19:00
Opening Reception

Friday, November 30 (Campus Westend, Casino, CAS 1.811)

09:30–11:30
Panel 2: Practical Aesthetics
Bernd Herzogenrath (Frankfurt): “Towards a Practical Aesthetics”
Eugenie Brinkema (MIT): “Colors Without Bodies: Wes Anderson’s Drab Ethics”
Chair: Thomas Clark (Frankfurt)

11:30–11:45
Coffee Break

11:45–12:45
Panel 2: Practical Aesthetics (continued)
Julius Greve (Oldenburg): “Material Praxis and ‘Pragmatic Aesthetics’ in Pound and Olson”
Chair: Thomas Clark (Frankfurt)

12:45–14:15
Lunch

14:15–16:15
Panel 3: Aesthetics of Identity
Elisabeth Bronfen (Zürich): “Getting Out, Getting Even: Aesthetics of the Interracial Posthuman”
Luvena Kopp (Tübingen): “On the Politics of Spike Lee’s Aesthetics”
Chair: Linda Heß (Frankfurt)

16:15–16:45
Coffee Break

16:45–17:45
Panel 3: Aesthetics of Identity (continued)
Lee Edelman (Tufts): “‘Queerness,’ Afro-Pessimism, and the Aesthetic”
Chair: Linda Heß (Frankfurt)

Saturday, December 1 (Campus Westend, IG-Farben-Haus, IG 411)

09:30–11:30
Panel 4: Democratic Aesthetics
Jennifer Greiman (Wake Forest): “Militant, Ruthless, Round: Herman Melville, William Connolly, and the Aesthetics of Radical Democracy”
Johannes Voelz (Frankfurt): “The Aesthetics of the Populist Space of Appearance”
Chair: Magda Majewska (Frankfurt)

11:30–11:45
Coffee Break

11:45–12:45
Panel 4: Democratic Aesthetics (continued)
Russ Castronovo (Madison): “Gothic Communications: Terror and the Informational Sublime”
Chair: Magda Majewska (Frankfurt)

12:45–14:15
Lunch

14:15–16:15
Panel 5: Aesthetic Theory Today II
Hanjo Berressem (Cologne): “Aesthetics squared: Félix Guattari’s Schizo-Ecological Aesthetics”
Susanne Rohr (Hamburg): “The Aesthetics of Madness”
Chair: Simon Wendt (Frankfurt)

16:15–16:45
Coffee Break

16:45–18:45
Panel 5: Aesthetic Theory Today II (continued)
Jennifer Ashton (UI Chicago): “Nothing in Commons: The Plural Person and the Vanishing Public Good”
Winfried Fluck (FU Berlin): “What is Freedom? The Contribution of Contemporary Art”
Chair: Susanne Opfermann (Frankfurt)