Chair European Culture & Literature RUG

Chair European Literature and Culture at the Department of European Languages and Cultures (RUG- Uni Official page Chair European Culture & Literature

04/07/2022

Two students of European Languages and Cultures win prizes at VGNU National Thesis Competitions in German Studies in the Netherlands

The National Association in German Studies in the Netherlands (VGNU) has awarded two prizes to the competitors from the University of Groningen’s European Languages and Cultures programme at the 2022 National Student Conference German Studies (StuK), which took place last Friday at the University of Amsterdam. Our representatives competed against students from the universities of Amsterdam, Leiden, and Utrecht.

The winners:

Niklas Abel, BA, won the first prize in the category Best BA Thesis, for his thesis about The Influence of Stress Enhancement and Volume Enhancement on the Acquisition of Language Chunks by Learners of German as a Foreign Language.

Teun Joshua Brandt, MA, with his Research MA Thesis From a Barren Desert to a Microbial Jungle: Deep-Sea Narratives in the Anthropocene, was awarded the Second Prize in the category Best MA Thesis in a very close competition. Teun Joshua had already won the first prize with his BA thesis last year.

Congratulations Niklas and Teun Joshua!

The Normal and the Weird. Politics and Cultures of (Ab)normality in Contemporary Europe | NIAS

02/05/2022

NIAS Expert Workshop
The Normal and the Weird.Politics and Cultures of (Ab)normality in Contemporary Europe

Presented by NIAS Amsterdam, ICOG Groningen and ASCA Amsterdam

Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Amsterdam
Korte Spinhuissteeg 3

Wednesday, May 11th 2022
Hybrid Format - onsite and online

Programme and Registration: https://nias.knaw.nl/events/the-normal-and-the-weird-politics-and-cultures-of-abnormality-in-contemporary-europe/

Idea(l)s of cultural normality and constructions of the abnormal, the weird, and the deviant have always been elements of political power struggles as well as objects of cultural controversies. In today’s Europe, they have become more virulent, but also more ambivalent in many contexts: populist radical right parties and nativist movements appeal to cultural normativity and ‘a common sense Europe’ for the ‘common people’, but also present themselves as national ‘defenders’ against Europe and as ‘alternatives’ to the ‘mainstream’. Crisis- and pandemic-ridden governments promise a ‘new normal’ that will mend the social fabric, but struggle to resolve the latent conflict between ‘newness’ and normality. The contradictions inherent to these and other constructions of (ab)normality are addressed by new forms of political protest and artistic activism, which, in turn, cause new controversies about limitations of the ‘sayable’.
In this NIAS expert workshop, organized by the Theme Group The Politics of (De)familiarization, cultural scholars, political and social scientists, philosophers and cultural practitioners investigate the shifting ground of normalcy, normativity, abnormality, weirdness, and deviance in Europe’s current cultural and political landscapes, and discuss them with the public. How is the (ab)normal constructed and experienced within the current neoliberal governmentality in Europe, and which (new) approaches to the shifting ground of the normal can we articulate as scholars, activists, or artists in order to understand the current conjuncture and respond to it?

Audience: Online access is free for interested scholars and students; if you want to attend, it is mandatory to register before May 9th. Onsite participation in Korte Spinhuissteeg 3 is also possible (registration is required as well for onsite participation). Please note that space is limited, and onsite priority will be given to members of NIAS, ICOG Groningen, and ASCA Amsterdam. If you would like to participate onsite, please indicate this during registration.

The Normal and the Weird. Politics and Cultures of (Ab)normality in Contemporary Europe | NIAS Workshop by NIAS theme group members Florian Lippert and Maria Boletsi on 11 May. Click here for more info about the programme.

19/04/2022

Podium Discussion tomorrow, 20:00 in Amsterdam:

EURO-TOPIES
What were the objectives of the European Union at its creation? To what extent is the utopia of peace that united its founding members threatened today? What are the stakes and realities of today's migratory flows?

https://spui25.nl/programma/utopies-conference-euro-topies

https://www.afamsterdam.nl/community/event-rsvp/?event_id=260

Utopies: Conférence Euro-topies What were the objectives of the European Union at its creation? To what extent is the utopia of peace that united its founding members threatened today? And what are the stakes and realities of today’s migratory flows?

07/06/2021

Student of European Culture and Literature wins first prize at VGNU National Thesis Competitions in German Studies in the Netherlands

Great news from the 2021 National Student Conference German Studies (StuK), which took place on Friday at the University of Utrecht: The National Association in German Studies in the Netherlands (VGNU) awarded Teun Joshua Brandt, who wrote his BA Thesis on The Representation of the Climate Catastrophe in Contemporary German Literature, the First Prize for the best BA Thesis in German Studies in 2021.

Congratulations, Teun Joshua!

So What's the New Normal? Covid-19 and the Quest for a Global Community. Retrospective and Outlook

30/06/2020

What's the New Normal? Will we carry on as before, apart from the means necessary to contain the virus? What about the global inequalities and grievances exposed by the pandemic?

Join us this Friday at 15:00 CEST for the last lecture of our series "Cultures of the Crisis"!

So What's the New Normal? Covid-19 and the Quest for a Global Community. Retrospective and Outlook So What's the New Normal? Retrospective and Outlook.