Institute for German Studies (IGS) Distinguished Lecture 2019

Ways of Mattering: From Authors to the World and Back Again - Professor Rebecca Braun (Lancaster University)

Professor Braun’s talk will explore how German authors have mattered to the world over the last two centuries, as well as how (physical) matter from the world has shaped the evolution of German literature. Drawing on contrasting conceptual and methodological approaches from Cultural Studies and Science & Technology Studies that encourage us to rethink notions of human agency, Rebecca Braun shows how the changing face of authorship in the Federal Republic of Germany acts as a microcosm that reflects significant wider socio-political change and, in so doing, helps us better understand it. But does it matter? The voices of three contemporary writers will help Professor Braun provide an answer.

No registration required - all welcome. 

A wine reception will take place after the event.

About the speaker

Rebecca Braun is Professor of Modern Languages and Creative Futures at Lancaster University, where she directs the multidisciplinary Institute for Social Futures. She works across languages and cultures to explore how creative practice can shape our engagement with societies of the future.

Her recent research projects have focused on bringing together the different perspectives of academic researchers, creative practitioners and professionals from across the creative sector and have included establishing innovative exchanges with the Ministry of Defence. Her publications include a co-edited 2016 special issue of Celebrity Studies on literary celebrity and a forthcoming co-edited handbook on World Authorship in OUP’s 21st-century Approaches series, both of which foreground new ways of including voices from beyond academe.

She is also the co-editor (with Benedict Schofield) of Transnational German Studies, part of the Transnational Modern Languages series forthcoming in 2020 with Liverpool University Press. In 2014-15 she used an Arts and Humanities leadership fellowship to set up the interdisciplinary research hub Authors & the World, which remains a key element for much of her work in developing concepts and practices of authorship.