International Conference

Networks in American Culture/America as Network

16-17 March 2012University of Mannheim

American StudiesUniversity of MannheimSchloss, EW68131 Mannheim

http://www.anglistik.uni-mannheim.de/anglistik_iii/konferenz_2012/index.html

Conference Organizers:

Prof. Dr. Ulfried ReichardtPD Dr. Heike SchäferDr. Regina Schober

Conference Venue: The conference will take place in the main building of Mannheim University (Schloss) in room O 138 (Fuchs-Petrolub Saal). You will find O 138 on the second floor, just above the main entrance.

In recent decades `network` and `networking` have emerged not only as popular buzzwords but also as key concepts in a variety of acade-mic disciplines. The model of the network is used to describe a broad range of social, economic, media technological, and biological phenomena including social interactions, the global flows of goods and capital, the structure of the internet and social media platforms, as well as the neu-ral organization of our brains. The concept of the network typically serves to analyze processes of multilateral interconnection and the complex systems of order they give rise to. While the study of networks has proliferated in the information, social, and natural sciences, literary and cultural scholars to date have been hesitant to develop a critical network theory.

This conference brings together German and U.S. American scholars to explore the contributions that network analysis can make to the field of American Studies. Forging connections between new media, literary, cultural, and science studies, the papers probe the theoretical and political im-plications that networks and networking possess as metaphor, interdisciplinary paradigm, aesthe-tic strategy, and communicative practice.

Keynote Speakers:

Jay D. Bolter (Georgia Institute of Technology)Wendy Hui Kyong Chun (Brown University)Patrick Jagoda (University of Chicago)

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Friday, 16 March 2012

12:00 pm REGISTRATION Schloss, East Wing, O 138 (Fuchs Petrolub-Saal), 68131 Mannheim

1:00 pm OPENING AND WELCOME Prof. Dr. Annette Kehnel (Dean, School of Humanities, University of Mannheim) Prof. Dr. Ulfried Reichardt (University of Mannheim)

1:45 pm KEYNOTE I Prof. Dr. Wendy Hui Kyong Chun (Brown University): “Imagined Networks, Glocal Connections”

2:45 pm COFFEE BREAK

3:15 pm SESSION I: NETWORK AS METAPHOR Chair: Carrie Khou PD Dr. Elisabeth Schäfer- Wünsche (University of Mann- heim): “Work and Net-Work: Reflections on a Global Meta- phor” Dr. Regina Schober (University of Mannheim): “America as Network. Ideologies, Concep- tions, Representations”

4:35 pm COFFEE BREAK

5:05 pm SESSION II: CONCEPTUALI- ZING NETWORKS Chair: Dr. Stella Butter Prof. Dr. Sabine Sielke (Univer- sity of Bonn): “The Ethics of Networking and the Indiffer- ence of Seriality: Conceptuali- zing ‘Connection’” Prof. Dr. Hanjo Berressem (Uni- versity of Cologne): “‘Déjà-vu’: Serres after Latour, Deleuze after Harman, nature writing after network theory”

7:15 pm CONFERENCE DINNER

Saturday, 17 March 2012

9:00 am KEYNOTE II Prof. Dr. Jay D. Bolter (Georgia Institute of Technology): “Social Media and the Disinte- gration of American Political Narrative”

10:00 am COFFEE BREAK

10:20 am SESSION III: NETWORKS AND SERIALITY Chair: Dr. John Miller Jones

Prof. Dr. Ruth Mayer (Universi- ty of Hannover): “Serial Machines: Aesthetics, Ideology, and the Logic of Spread“ Dr. Shane Denson (University of Hannover): “Networks of Mediation: Serial Figures as Mediators of Change”

11:40 am LUNCH BREAK (CATERING)

12:40 pm SESSION IV: NETWORK AS NARRATIVE Chair: Prof. Dr. Christa Grewe- Volpp PD Dr. Heike Schäfer (Universities of Mannheim and Halle): “Networked Narratives” Dr. Jan Kucharzewski (University of Hamburg): “’The Irreducible Complexity of the Analog World’: Nodes, Networks, and Connections in Contemporary American Fiction”

2:00 pm KEYNOTE III Dr. Patrick Jagoda (University of Chicago): “Encyclopedic Novels and Network Aesthetics”

3:00 pm CONCLUSION

3:30 pm END OF CONFERENCE