Past Events
Below is a selection of our past events.
We welcomed Dr Rachel Willson-Broyles who spoke about her career using her second language (Swedish) as a full time translator and teacher of Swedish classes at the classes at the American Swedish Institute (ASI). Rachel became interested in Sweden and the Swedish language at an early age. She majored in Scandinavian Studies at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, and received her BA there in 2002. She started translating while a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she received a Ph.D. in Scandinavian Studies in 2013.
For the next session of this year's Media Studies Workshop, where we will discuss Laura Kalba's next book project, Measures of Value, Mediums of Exchange: Art and the Modern Economic Imaginary, 1840-1920. A pre-circulated paper will be shared upon RSVP.
The work-in-progress shared is a draft of my book proposal for Measures of Value, Mediums of Exchange: Art and the Modern Economic Imaginary, 1840-1920. This is my first attempt at envisioning the book as a whole, after a major overhaul of its central argument in 2021-22. All feedback — including on the book's title! — is welcome. Thanks in advance for taking the time to engage with my work.
Laura Kalba is an Associate Professor of art history at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of Color in the Age of Impressionism: Commerce, Technology, and Art (Penn State, 2017). Her research and teaching explore the history of the fine, decorative, and commercial arts in Europe and its empires in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
We are pleased to welcome Hanni Geist, Senior Manager of University Relations at the DAAD Information Center in San Francisco to give an informational talk about study abroad opportunities and scholarships in Germany!
Are you interested in study, research, or internship opportunities in Germany? Do you want to improve your German language skills? Are you trying to expand your transatlantic network into Germany or North America? Do you have any other questions about transatlantic higher education? If the answer to any of the above was "yes" then this is the right talk for you!
Hanni Geist, originally from Berlin, represents the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in the Western region of the US. She promotes study and research opportunities in Germany and informs about the DAAD funding opportunities available for students and researchers to achieve their study, internship and research goals. She is also an avid podcaster for Coffee Connections, where she introduces the work and experiences of DAAD Ambassadors and other inspiring individuals with a German connection.
How can theoretical considerations of musical practices be used to inform our reading of canonical texts? What is at stake in the seemingly “fun” idea of “modding” Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (1915) with #CatContent? This talk will use Coleridge Cook’s The Meowmorphosis (2011) to “map” the mash-up (and related remix practices) in order to highlight the affordances of co-modified storytelling in the 21st century.
Thomas Gurke is DAAD Visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota. He has a degree in English Literature and Musicology. His PhD dissertation focused on the intersemiotic, aesthetic, and affective dynamics of music and literature in the texts of James Joyce. His publications focus on Modernism, contemporary fiction, ecology, the short-story, and popular culture.
A book talk with art historian Siobhan Angus. Dr. Angus is Assistant Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Carleton University and author of Camera Geologica: An Elemental History of Photography (Duke University Press, 2024). A material history of photography written from the perspective of the mine, Camera Geologica traces the medium's entanglement with settler colonialism, extractive capitalism, labour struggles, and ecological devastation from the nineteenth century to the present. Dr. Angus will present a section of her book entitled "Photography in the Industrial Atmosphere: Silver, Platinum, and Air Pollution."
The talk was followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Katerina Korola (University of Minnesota).