Event archive

The lecture series is the third part of a lecture series, the first two parts of which took place at Saarland University in the winter semesters 2015/16 and 2016/17. In this context, well-known 'classics' of Austrian literature as well as important literary positions are presented in literary-historical sequence. The aim is to delineate the heterogeneous cultural area of Austria through selected literary examples of prominent authors. The individual analyses always focus on a central epic, dramatic or lyrical text.
The current Kassel lecture series - starting with literature at the beginning of the 21st century - goes back chronologically in literary history to the middle of the 19th century. Epic texts will be discussed, mainly novels, for example by Daniel Kehlmann, Arno Geiger, Elias Canetti, Gustav Meyrink and Adalbert Stifter.

Location: University of Kassel, Holländischer Platz, Campus Center (Lecture Hall 3)
Time: Thursdays, 2-4 p.m., winter semester 2017/18
Organization: Prof. Dr. Stefanie Kreuzer

The writer Juli Zeh has been awarded this year's Grimm Guest Professorship at the University of Kassel. The North Hessian university is thus honoring an influential author who has received numerous awards for her literary work and has also repeatedly contributed to the socio-political debate. Juli Zeh will give a public lecture and a public reading in Kassel at the end of June.

Public lecture "Eine Seite (von mir)":
Tuesday, June 20, 6 to 8 p.m.
Lecture hall 1 in the Campus Center, Moritzstr. 18

Public reading from her work:
Wednesday, June 21, 8 to 10 p.m.
Lecture hall 1 in the Campus Center, Moritzstr. 18

The reading will take place on Wednesday, May 3 at 7:00 p.m. at the University of Kassel, Arnold-Bode-Strasse 12, Lecture Hall 4.

On April 27, 2017, a public day of action on the topic of "Flight in Literature, Art and Culture" will take place at the Institute of German Studies. From 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., various actors are invited to offer specific perspectives on the topic of flight. The location is Kurt-Wolters-Straße 5. Children's book author Kirsten Boie will give a reading on her bilingual book "Bestimmt wird alles gut" in this context at 2 p.m. in room 0019/0020.

This year, the Forster Conference will take place as part of the biennial conference of the International Herder Society (October 28-30, 2016, University of Kassel). The Georg Forster Society is participating with 4-5 30-minute presentations scheduled for Saturday, October 29. As the Herder Conference is entitled Herder and the Arts, exposés are requested that focus on Forster's engagement with Johann Gottfried Herder's work or specifically his understanding of art in his engagement with Herder.

Sven Regener is this year's Grimm guest professor at the University of Kassel. With this professorship, the University of Kassel is honoring a versatile author and artist who inspires his audience with novels as well as screenplays and German-language song lyrics. Among other things, Regener (55) will give a public lecture at the end of May on the topic "Zwischen Depression und Witzelsucht: Humor in Literature" at the end of May.

"Why do we look at animals?" This is how John Berger opens his well-known essay, pointing out the paradox that we always already perceive animals within the framework of cultural settings that exclude the animal's perspective. His question can thus be modified: How do we look at animals, what directions and orientations of gaze determine our view of the animal? 

Against this background, the workshop turns to the multi-layered processes of perception that are associated with animal-human relationships in the literature of the Middle Ages. Animals and humans share spaces of action and imagination, are actors who together influence culture and are themselves culturally shaped. At the same time, the numerous projection phenomena, the transformation and fusion phantasms point to a reflective distance that is significant in relation to a demarcation from the animal that is constitutive for the human self-understanding. 

The conference will take place on March 3 and 4, 2016 at Kurt-Wolters-Straße 5, Room -1029 and is organized by LOEWE-Schwerpunkt" Tier-Mensch-Gesellschaft" and the Institute for German Studies at Kassel University, Medieval Studies and Kiel University, the Germanist Seminar and Medieval Studies.

Daily newspapers are already proclaiming the end of the television age. The growing streaming market is enticing viewers with individually retrievable moving images. When will television consumers still tune into traditional programs? The fourth part of the lecture series "TV 4.0: The Moving Image Offensive" focuses on the development of television viewers' usage behavior in recent years, the influence of "second screen usage" on social behavior and examines which new behaviors are developing among viewers.

The fourth part of the lecture series Life in the Media World will take place on Tuesday, January 19, 2016 at 6 p.m. c.t. in the Gießhaus of the University of Kassel. The event is aimed at students and the interested public. You are cordially invited!

Digitization is revolutionizing the television landscape not only technically, but also in terms of content: PayTV offerings, media libraries and video platforms provide a huge range of moving image offerings. How can traditional TV broadcasters interest different viewer groups in their content in the future? What content do they expect? Two experts from the field will highlight the opportunities and risks of the growing streaming market and explain what possibilities there are to bind viewers to their own programs.

The third part of the lecture series Life in the Media World will take place on Tuesday, January 12, 2016 at 6 p.m. c.t. in the Gießhaus at the University of Kassel. The event is aimed at students and interested members of the public. You are cordially invited!

Authored series such as "Mad Man" or "House of Cards" have been booming in recent years - some critics speak of a "Golden Age of Television" in view of the leap in quality in series production. In the second part of the lecture series "Television 4.0: The Moving Image Offensive", you will find out how the forms of serial narration have changed since the 19th century and what constitutes the quality of today's authored series

The second part of the lecture series Life in the Media World will take place on Tuesday, December 8, 2015 at 6 p.m. c.t. in the Gießhaus at the University of Kassel. The event is aimed at students and interested members of the public. You are cordially invited!

The award-winning children's and young adult author Andreas Steinhöfel is coming to the University of Kassel on December 15. He will be presenting excerpts from his new novel "Anders" in a public reading at the Campus Center of the University of Kassel, Moritzstraße 18, lecture hall 3, room 1135, starting at 7 pm.

House of Cards, Homeland, Breaking Bad - US quality TV is making its way into German living rooms! Although... not necessarily only in living rooms. Video on demand offers make it possible: The viewer can watch his favorite show when, where and how he wants. Whether via the new smart TV on the couch, via tablet at the breakfast table or smartphone on the suburban train. Digitization is revolutionizing the television landscape not only in terms of technology, but also in terms of content: PayTV offerings, media libraries and video platforms such as YouTube offer a huge range of moving image offerings. 

What role will public and private television programs play in the future? Do the successes of Amazon, Netflix and YouTube show that viewers would like to be their own program directors? These questions are the subject of the lecture series "TV 4.0: The Moving Image Offensive," in which academics and practitioners will speak.

The weekly lecture and discussion series "Gender and Genre" is taking a critical look at popular television series for the second time this winter semester. The productions discussed range from "House of Cards" to "True Detective" and "The Walking Dead". Last winter semester, the lecture series examined TV series from a gender-theoretical perspective. Because of the great success, there will be a continuation this winter semester. The series begins on November 11. The lectures will take place on Wednesdays from 8 to 10 p.m. Location: Campus Center, Lecture Hall 3 / 1135.

Research on writing texts using external or given materials or sources lies at the intersection of writing and reading research. Studies on text-productive forms of reading, on strategies of understanding, reviewing, retaining, or organizing information while using external knowledge resources have so far stood unconnected to each other. The summer school aims to facilitate interdisciplinary exchange between writing and reading research with the goal of gaining research perspectives on writing with external sources and materials and on the conditions associated with it.

The 2015 Brothers Grimm Professorship goes to Paul Maar. The children's author, who became famous for novels such as "Lippel's Dream" or "Mr. Bello and the Blue Wonder", but above all for his stories about Sams, will be a guest at the University of Kassel on June 9 and 10. To mark the occasion, the Institute of German Studies is offering a teaching focus on "Children's Literature and Language" in the 2015 summer semester.