Voluntariness On The Road – June 21 & 22

In June 2022, the subproject “Voluntariness as Political Practice: The Emerging United States and American Citizenship,” welcomes distinguished American scholars in Erfurt and beyond.

On June 21, you have the chance to meet Deirdre Cooper Owens (University of Nebraska–Lincoln) at the Carl-Schurz-Haus in Freiburg for her talk “Why History Matters in Understanding American Medicine: From the Black Birthing Crisis to COVID-19” and the role of voluntariness.

On the same day you can join Van Gosse (Franklin & Marshall College) at the DAI in Heidelberg for his talk regarding voluntary political participation: “The First Reconstruction: Black Politics in America from the Revolution to the Civil War”.

On June 22, Deirdre Cooper Owens will additionally be in Bonn for a Juneteenth Special: “Reshaping Freedom: Harriet Tubman’s Abolitionism and the Path to Citizenship” and you can sign up for this talk via info@amerikahaus-nrw.de to zoom in.

Otherwise, we are looking forward to seeing many of you in Erfurt on June 23 and 24 for our workshop “Dis-Cover Fellow Citizens: Voluntary Civic Engagement in the Early Republic and Antebellum America” with our American and German colleagues. Find the detailed program for the workshop here. If you are interested in attending the workshop, please send an email directly to Pia

Previous Post
Voluntariness Up For Debate – Lecture and Workshop with Sandrine Kott
Next Post
Voluntariness On Tour – Our Project on the “Neuererwesen” in Jena

What Else Is New?

Special Issue on Voluntariness at Rethinking History

Members of our research group have compiled a special issue for the journal Rethinking History on the topic of “The Politics of Voluntariness in Modern History.” The issue is edited by Jürgen Martschukat and Alexandra Oeser and all pieces are available for download as open access articles on the journal’s website. Get the links right here.

New Conference Report and Podcast Episode online

On October 24 & 25, 2024 the international workshop „From Contested Ownership to (In)Voluntary Returns. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Postcolonial Fight for Restitution and Repatriation“ took place in Erfurt. You may read the conference report on HSozKult or listen to an interview with Flower Manase, visiting Mercator Fellow to the CRC “Structural Change of Property” in 2024, on the CRC’s podcast “Appropriate”.

Conference Report on the Workshop “Voluntariness, Women, and Development”

New conference report online!
On July 4 and 5, 2024, Maria Framke, working on the research project “Hidden Histories: Women in Rural Development Programs in India, c. 1920-1966” and affiliated with our group, organized the workshop “Voluntariness, Women and Development in Late Colonial and Postcolonial Societies.” Read more here…