Weird Fictions Research Group invites you to a talk by
Carolin Jesussek
(Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz)

Queer Ecosystems: Gothic Materialism in Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House

Wednesday, March 30, 2022
at 5:30 p.m.

You can get 2 OZN points for participating in this event.
Check how to collect OZN points online here.

Where?

This lecture will be streamed online. To attend, click the button below or enter https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86473074228 into your browser, and join the meeting.

FACEBOOK EVENT

JOIN ZOOM MEETING

What?

Looking at the world through Carmen Maria Machado’s eyes in her autobiographical In the Dream House (2019) allows us to understand why a queer person perceives everyday places as gothic. This talk addresses not only the anxieties related to moving through a heteropatriarchal world as a marginalized person but further looks into the trauma of queer intimate partner abuse through the trope of the haunted house. I consider how spaces in Dream House are gothicized, by examining the queer ecosystems in which Machado, non-human agents, and other human actors like Machado’s former partner, interact. This talk further seeks to show how the gothic is updated to contemporary times, addressing long-distance relationships, the phone, the silence around queer intimate partner abuse, and gendered understandings of violence.

Who?

Carolin Jesussek holds a Master of Education in English, German, and Geography from Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz. She is a Ph.D. candidate at the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz. Her dissertation focuses on the material and spatial dimensions of marginalization in contemporary North American gothic literature. During her current research stay at the University of Warsaw, Carolin is working on her chapter on Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House (2019), and is mentored by Dr. Agnieszka Kotwasińska.

American Studies Colloquium Series

December 19: Between The Mundane and the Heroic: Vietnamese Presence in State Socialist Poland

December 19, 2024

We are delighted to invite you to the fifth lecture of the American Studies Colloquium Series in the 2024/2025 Fall semester! This talk will examine the depictions of the (North) Vietnamese as freedom fighters within the context of the state socialist public sphere and the everyday life of Vietnamese students in Poland across generations. From idealized wartime reportages to mixed-race couples, the Vietnamese presence was marked by a multifaceted experience of adaptation, challenges, opportunities, and dynamic, interactive bonds with Polish society. This history continues to exert a profound influence on the contemporary Vietnamese diaspora and Polish-Vietnamese relationships.

Year 2024/2025

December 18: The Trump Transition – What is New and What is Not

December 18, 2024

Leadership Research Groupis inviting all those who would like to put the Trump transition to a presidential scholarship context and better understand the Trump transition decisions, the prospects for the future in domestic and foreign policy areas they bring, and the impact that Trump leadership may have on the political scene in Washington to a talk followed by a Q&A session by Professor Stephen Farnsworth.

Year 2024/2025

December 17: We Want Change NOW! The Feminist Manifesto in Theory and Practice

December 17, 2024

During the workshop “We Want Change NOW! The Feminist Manifesto in Theory and Practice”, Aleksandra Julia Malinowska, a doctoral candidate at the University of Warsaw,will delve into the history of feminist manifestos and their pivotal role in the women’s movement in the United States. We’ll explore how activists of the second wave of feminism used grassroots publications to raise awareness, voice the demands of emerging women’s groups, and build communication networks between organizations spread across the country. Together, we’ll analyze the literary techniques that make the manifesto genre a powerful tool for inspiring activist mobilization beyond the pages of the text.

American Studies Colloquium Series

December 12: Technological Imaginaries and the Universal Ambitions of Silicon Valley

December 12, 2024

Drawing on her new book, Appropriate, Negotiate, Challenge: Activist imaginaries and the politics of digital technologies (University of California Press), in this talk Ferrari shows how these discourses, which she calls “technological imaginaries”, shape how we experience digital technologies. She discusses how, for the past 30 years, Silicon Valley tech actors have produced and popularized a specific way of thinking about digital technologies, which has become mainstream. This dominant technological imaginary brings together technocratic aspirations and populist justifications. While arising out of the peculiarities of Silicon Valley and of the American 1990s, this dominant imaginary has posited its universality by presenting its tenets as if they were global, unbiased, and equally suitable for everyone, everywhere. She argues that to really curb the socio-political influence of Big Tech companies we also need to understand, critique, and resist the power of their technological imaginary.

News

ASC Library has received funding from the Social Responsibility of Science

December 12, 2024

ASC Library has received funding from the Social Responsibility of Science (SON) program — “Support for Scientific Libraries,” implemented by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.