We are delighted to invite you to the third lecture of the American Studies Colloquium Series in the 2024/2025 Fall semester!

David M. Higgins
(Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide)

Reinventing the Past to Change the Future: Alt-History and Reactionary Futurity

Thursday, December 5, 2024
at 4:45 p.m.

You can get 3 OZN points for participating in this event.

Where?

Dobra 55, room 2.118
(the building features some mobility accommodations: ramp and lift)

What?

This presentation examines “alt-history” as a mode of reactionary worldbuilding, with a focus on how far-right influencers use alternate histories to reshape public understandings of the past and galvanize political action. Through examples like Tucker Carlson’s Patriot Purge and Dinesh D’Souza’s Death of a Nation, the talk explores how reactionary narratives blend science fictional techniques with conspiracy fantasies to legitimize authoritarian politics. The discussion includes a genealogy of the right-wing myth of “liberal fascism,” tracing its evolution and role in contemporary ideological landscapes shaped by historical revisionism and speculative worldbuilding.

What?

David M. Higgins (he/they) is associate professor of English and American Studies and chair of the Department of Humanities and Communication at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide, and he is a senior editor for the Los Angeles Review of Books. David is the author of Reverse Colonization: Science Fiction, Imperial Fantasy, and Alt-Victimhood, which won the 2021 Science Fiction Research Association Book Award. He has also published a critical monograph examining Ann Leckie’s SF masterwork Ancillary Justice, and his research has been published in journals such as American LiteratureScience Fiction StudiesParadoxa, and Extrapolation. In the public sphere, David has been a featured speaker on NPR’s radio show On Point, and his literary journalism has been published in the Los Angeles Review of Books and The Guardian.

Year 2024/2025

April 29: Feminism and Gender Representations in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

April 23, 2025

Join us for a lecture by Agata Zygardowicz on Buffy and her iconic impact on American television: “Feminism and Gender Representations in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Buffy the Vampire Slayer occupies a significant space in the history of feminist media, portraying themes of 1990s third-wave feminism, postfeminist aesthetics, and television genre for teens. This lecture examines how the series both reflects and critiques feminist ideals, offering a protagonist who is emotionally vulnerable, fashion-conscious, and physically powerful at the same time.

News

Recruitment for the MOST program for the Fall Semester 2025/2026

April 19, 2025

Applications for the MOST Student Exchange Program are now open! Apply until May 15.

American Studies Colloquium Series

April 24: The Minima Moralia of Autotheory: New Reflections on Damaged Life

April 16, 2025

We are pleased to invite you to the fourth lecture of the American Studies Colloquium Series in the 2025 Spring semester! This time we welcome Jonathan Alexander with a lecture titled “The Minima Moralia of Autotheory: New Reflections on Damaged Life”.

Year 2024/2025

April 15: “Becoming the Horror” – Interactive Movies as the Perfect Horror Medium

April 10, 2025

Weird Fiction Research Group kindly invites you to the fourth Weird TV meeting in spring semester. We’re continuing the subject of the game/TV relationship with Dominik Kędzierawski’s lecture about (among others) Until Dawn and Bandersnatch – “Becoming the Horror – Interactive Movies as the Perfect Horror Medium”!

News

New MA program program Gender and Sexuality (in Polish), in cooperation with the Faculty of Polish Studies and the Institute of Polish Culture!

April 8, 2025

In cooperation with the Faculty of Polish Studies and the Institute of Polish Culture, American Studies Center is launching a new MA program in Polish in Gender and Sexuality!