Networks
Association members form or join networks based on shared professional and scholarly interests. These communities take the shape of study groups, forums, networks, and associations. Below is a list of EAAS networks, organized alphabetically.
American Studies Network
The American Studies Network (ASN) is a group of European centers involved in American Studies. The idea of a network of centers arose during the European Association for American Studies (EAAS) meeting in London in April, 1990. The ASN was founded in November, 1990 in Berlin at a meeting of interested directors of American Studies centers. The initial group of eight members has expanded to include 13 institutions from all over Europe and is now welcoming associated members from outside of Europe. All members take an interdisciplinary approach to American Studies; are independent organizations with some of their own sources of funding, not exclusively linked to a university; have some research facilities; and are committed to a role of public service to the community at large. To find out more about the ASN and the current ASN President and Board point your browser to https://americanstudiesnetwork.com/.
One of the specific ASN projects is the establishment of the American Studies Network Book Prize, a prize of €500 for a remarkable book published in English by a European scholar on any aspect of American Studies. The jury for that biennial prize, presented at the EAAS conferences, is composed of representatives from the EAAS and the ASN. The deadline for submitting books for this prize is announced on the EAAS's website’s news section in the year preceding the EAAS conference.
EAAS Digital Studies Network
The mission of the EAAS Digital Studies Network is to facilitate the communication and collaboration between scholars, researchers and postgraduate students in Europe with an interest in issues pertaining to the broader production and theorization of digital literary forms, digitality and popular culture, experimentation with print and digital writing and typographic practices, locative media and narrative as well as digital humanities within the context of American Studies. The Network seeks to connect with institutions, organizations, and postgraduate programs in Europe that specialize in this area of research so as to foster the channeling of information, effective contact between its members, and representation in EAAS biannual conferences and other fora as well as symposia with the aim of promoting digital studies research in Europe.
For information, please email the main coordination members Tatiani Rapatzikou trapatz@enl.auth.gr (Greece); Frank Mehring f.mehring@let.ru.nl (The Netherlands); Stefan Brandt stefan.brandt@uni-graz.at (Austria)
Other members of the steering team are Marc Priewe (Germany); Manuel Portela (Portugal); María Mencía (U.K.)
Poetry Network
The Poetry Network brings together academics and postgraduates from across Europe and further afield with the aim of deepening our readings, knowledge, and understanding of North American poetry. The network engages with work from Early American poets to the present day, from print cultures to digital contexts. In doing so, we seek to map and re-map significant and neglected legacies within literary history, thereby tracing new forms of inclusion. We understand our work to renew the vital role poetry plays in the study of North American culture, society, politics and aesthetics. At its core, the Poetry Network offers space for scholars across Europe to reflect more deeply on shared intellectual practices and our responsibility as educators.
We are committed to facilitating cross-institutional collaborations as they evolve. Since 2022, the group has been meeting on a monthly basis to close read poems and pursue collective idea exchange, which is carried to biennial meetings of the EAAS in the form of roundtables and panel discussions. As a result we also share our various pedagogies with the aim of negotiating best practices.
Membership of the network is spread across Europe. Interested members of the EAAS can subscribe to events and updates by visiting this page: https://listserv.uni-muenster.de/mailman/listinfo/eaas-poetry . For any further inquiries please contact our speaker Gulsin Ciftci (University of Muenster, Germany) or coordinating member Lucy Cheseldine (University of Leeds, UK) using poetrynetwork.eaas@gmail.com.
European Early American Studies Association (EEASA)
The European Early American Studies American fosters international collaboration between early Americanists throughout Europe. As such, it provides a multilateral European alternative for the practice of early American history - an increasingly international field - different from bilateral relationships between individual Europeanists and scholars and institutions in North America.
The network relies on the successful establishment of an early American network within Britain (the British Group in Early American History). It also builds on the networks established in early American history (marked by the formation of a Scientific Committee on early American history) at the first European network on early American history held in Paris, December 2006.
The principal aim of the European Network in Early American History is to establish fora where European scholars meet to exchange ideas and do research. One feature of this network is the wide variety of European countries that are represented in the network. Key partners in the network are the University of Warwick, the University of Paris, the Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture and the University of Cambridge, but it extends beyond the well-established early American historical networks in Britain and France to include substantial representation from southern and eastern Europe. The activities of the network are disseminated through a dedicated website for early American history in Europe.
Naomi Wulf Prize
The Naomi Wulf Prize is named in honor of the late French historian Naomi Wulf, one of the founders of EEASA, actively involved in organizing the 2008 and 2010 EEASA conferences. The prize entails a cash prize of 500 Euros, plus consideration for publication in the Journal of Early American History (after going through the usual review process), plus a one-year free subscription to the same journal. The peer-reviewed Journal of Early American History, first published in 2011, is dedicated to the advancement of scholarly understanding of the history of the colonization of the Americas, from the late fifteenth century to 1830, and appears three times annually.
The prize is awarded following every bi-annual conference to a participant after they have submitted a written version of their paper to the EEASA board, and indicated their agreement to have the paper considered for the prize. The selection process involves the EEASA board and one member of the JEAH editorial board. The prize will be awarded within four months of the conference and is announced on the EEASA and JEAH websites.
The European Study Group of 19th Century American Literature
The European Study Group of Nineteenth-Century American Literature was established at the 2006 conference of the European Association of American Studies (EAAS) in Cyprus by a group of European Americanists, among them Magdalena Zapedowska (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland), Marie-Claude Perrin-Chenour (Université Paris-Ouest Nanterre-La Défense, France), Ralph Poole (Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, Austria), Asuncion Lopez-Varela (Complutense University Madrid, Spain), Mariana Net (Romanian Academy, Romania), Ausra Paulauskiene (LCC International University Klaipeda, Lithuania), and Verena Laschinger (Erfurt University, Germany). The group has received enthusiastic support of academics from all over Europe. Participants from the Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Spain, Turkey, Italy, Austria and the US made the group’s annual sessions a great success. In the course of a three day long get-together the group usually focuses on lesser-known texts by American women writers of the nineteenth century, which thus far included works by Fanny Fern, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Phoebe Cary, Julia Ward Howe, Harriet Jacobs, and Edith Wharton. All meetings were moderated by leading US-scholars of 19th-century American literature (Marianne Noble, Cynthia Davis, Paula Bernat Bennett, Jeffrey Steele, Gary Williams, Farah Griffin, Daniel Walkowitz), whose expertise helped to make the touring project an arena for transnational scholarly exchange. The meetings, which allow both an informal and interactive exchange of ideas and a more formal lecture proceeding, provide an excellent opportunity for scholars specializing in 19th-century American literature to engage in a supportive and inspiring intellectual community, which constitutes a forum for the exchange of information and ideas leading to further research and publications in the area.
For more information on the group’s publications and planned as well as past meetings visit the website or contact Verena Laschinger verena.laschinger@uni-erfurt.de.
LGBTQ+ Studies Network
The mission of the LGBTQ+ Studies Network is to promote the study of LGBTQ+ issues in the past and present and to create a scholarly and thriving community of European and international Americanists specialized in various disciplines and focusing on different cultures by encouraging academic collaboration on articles, conference organizations, edited collections, and a variety of interdisciplinary/joint projects.
Our ambition is to develop and create opportunities across four areas:
1. Research projects (The EAAS LGBTQ+ Studies Journal, EAAS Conferences, LGBTQ+ Studies Network panels and conferences, archival and history projects), favoring intersectional/comparative approaches.
2. Social and Cultural Events (exhibitions, book signing events, theater productions)
3. Education projects (Summer schools, targeted workshops)
4. International networking/sponsoring (EAAS mentor-mentee program, Special Topic seminars)
Our goal is to empower students — engaging in LGBTQ+ studies and research — as well as to extend beyond the Humanities barrier and disseminate knowledge through interdisciplinary collaborations.
Our values:
Cooperation – Innovation – Respect – Visibility – Inclusivity
Please direct any queries about the network and its webinar to lgbtqstudiesnetwork@gmail.com.
EAAS Postgraduate and ECR Network
We are delighted to announce the formation of the EAAS Postgraduate and ECR Network. Building upon the already existing structures for postgraduates and ECRs in the national organizations within the EAAS, the newly founded Network comprises emerging scholars engaged in the field of (European) American Studies. The Network seeks to enhance the visibility of early career researchers within the EAAS and create a space for personal and professional exchange across the different European sister organizations. It also aims to provide a dynamic forum to discuss the concerns and prospects of ECRs within the EAAS, particularly promoting representation, inclusion, diversity, and equity. Additionally, the Network is geared towards establishing structures for communication and information exchange across media platforms, for example, by increasing the reach of Calls for Papers and other announcements relevant to postgraduates and ECRs. It is envisioned to serve as a platform for research collaboration and as a node that increases PG/ECR opportunities for mobility. By encouraging collaboration across national borders, the Network helps to ensure the continued participation of postgraduates and ECRs in the EAAS, thereby contributing to the stability and future growth of the association overall.
The first official meeting of the newly founded Network will be held online soon. All Postgraduates and ECRs are welcome! An official invitation for this meeting will be distributed via the EAAS mailing list.
If you are interested in becoming part of the network or have any questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us via eaaspostgraduatenetwork@gmail.com.
The Southern Studies Forum
The Southern Studies Forum of the EAAS had been active since 1988, when it was launched in West Berlin, Germany.
The SSF's purposes are: to tighten the exchanges of ideas and experiences among scholars interested in the United States South, to be interdisciplinary and multinational. Cooperation with scholars from the United States and from all over the world has allowed during the years to create a community of scholars, who have developed researches, discussed their achievements and created a network of friendship.
The European co-founders were, (in alphabetical order): Valeria Gennaro Lerda (Italy), Jan Gretlund (Denmark), Lothar Hönnighausen (Germany) and Tjebbe Westendorp (The Netherlands); Tom Inge, (United States) contributed with his encouragement, his scholarship and his friendship, in every phase of the life of the Forum.
There is no chair, no secretary, no membership dues, and no paperwork whatsoever. Everything in the SSF is based on trust, intuition, and a sense of good fellowship. In 2013 the members celebrated the 25th anniversary of SSF.
The list of the events organized by the members of the SSF shows both the participation in the EAAS biennial Conferences as a workshop on the South, and the independent Symposia in the off-years of the EAAS. The organizers have published ten collections of essays.
Information of the members of the Southern Studies Forum is disseminated through a newsletter. If you are interested in being included on the mailing list, write to the current editors, Thomas Ærvold Bjerre th.bjerre@sdu.dk and Urszula Niewiadomska-Flis urszula.niewiadomska.flis@gmail.com
Workshops at the EAAS Biennial Conferences and Off-Year Symposia 1988-2022
Visual Culture and Media Studies Network
The Visual Culture and Media Studies Network is a virtual platform intended to create closer ties and connections among scholars from different disciplines working on visual and media studies with a special emphasis on North American topics. It places the study of visual culture and media in a comparatist, dialogical, and transcultural framework that supports the aim of studying U.S.-American culture in relationship with other nations and cultures as a productive and necessary way of recognizing the complexity of cultural exchange and interaction.
The network fosters scholarly exchange on research related to film, television, photography, painting, design, graphic arts, and new digital media. Please follow the Visual Culture and Media Studies Network's activities by checking this website.
The Visual Culture and Media Studies Network is recognized as an official research network by the European Association of American Studies. It is organized by Astrid Böger (University of Hamburg) and Christof Decker (University of Munich).
West of the Rest
As the fastest-growing geo-cultural region in North America across most metrics, the American West matters to the future of the United States of America and the global community. Consequently, the American West matters to the evolution of American Studies and related disciplines, and to the illumination—through comparison—of the meanings invested in places as distant as Siberia, the Australian Outback, the Moon, and Mars. The West of the Rest network is dedicated to facilitating and promoting an invigorated and sustainable study of the West, its meaning to Americans and to people in the most far-flung locales, as its connections span the globe.
Chiefly informed by New/Post-West and Global West schools of thought, our network’s efforts are geared toward (re)centering scholarly attention on the American West along decidedly hemispheric, historical, transnational, multicultural, gender-diverse, and intersectional lines. While scholarly in intent and practice, our network also seeks to promote broader public engagement with Western lifeworlds. Aiming to cross-fertilize local and regional subjectivities with hemispheric and transnational critical appreciation, our network seeks to attract not only scholars of the West who are based in Europe (through the EAAS), but also—thanks to the network’s US-based partners—American colleagues with a view to growing an exchange ecology which is predicated on close, interdisciplinary collaboration.
Intent on reducing barriers (e.g. geographic, income, ability, etc.) to participation, the West of the Rest network is fully committed to sustainably capitalize on the Covid-induced virtual turn in academia. This means that in addition to locally organized gatherings of network members and participation at EAAS conferences, we envision online-only programming (e.g. invited talks, roundtable discussions, workshops, book talks, symposia, etc.) as a regular component of the network’s activities.
The West of the Rest network invites and welcomes scholars of all ranks. Please contact west.oftherest.eaas@gmail.com for more information or visit the network on Facebook. Membership is free and entirely based on voluntary participation.
The Women’s Network
The mission of the EAAS Women’s Network is to facilitate contact between EAAS members interested in subjects and issues dealing with women and gender. It seeks to enhance cooperation among European Americanists through a network of scholars with common research interests. It also encourages collaboration on projects and publications, and works towards organizing parallel lectures, workshops, panel discussions, roundtables, performances, exhibits, and keynote addresses at EAAS meetings, with the end goal of increasing the visibility of women and women’s and gender issues.
To join the EAAS WN mailing list, please send a request to eaaswomensnetwork@gmail.com
The Women’s Network also has its own website.