Dr. phil. Paula von Gleich (Lecturer)

Research and Teaching

• North American Literature and Culture
• Blue Humanities and English-Speaking histories and cultures
• African American and Black Atlantic histories, cultures, and theories
• critical race studies
• postcolonial, transcultural, and transoceanic studies
• Feminisms and gender studies

Classes Offered

B.A. English-Speaking Cultures, University of Bremen:

• “Introduction to English Literatures Part I” &“Introduction to English Literatures Part II”
• "Key Moments in the Cultural History of the English-Speaking World"
• “Key Topics in Cultural History: North American Borderlands”
• "Key Topics in Cultural History: Caribbean Island Environments and the American Imagination"
• "Key Topics in Cultural History: Blue Cultural Studies"
• "Key Topics in Cultural History: Borders, Mappings, and Oceans"
• "Key Topics in Cultural History: The Black Atlantic"
• "Key Topics in Cultural History: Rachel Carson and the Sea"
• “Key Topics in Literature: American Prison Narratives”
• “Key Topics in Literature: Narratives of New York City”
• “Key Topics in Literature: Narratives of Slavery”
• “Key Topics in Literature: Women’s Fiction in North America”
• "Key Topics in Literature: US Latinx Writing"
• "Key Topics in Literature: The Roots and Routes of Irish America"
• "Research Colloquium: Cultural Studies of the English-Speaking World"

M.A. English-Speaking Cultures: Language, Text, Media, University of Bremen:

• "Lecture Series: Studying English-Speaking Cultures - Topics, Theories and Methods"
• “Writing Women: Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Literary Criticism”

Publications

Monographs

The Black Border and Fugitive Narration in Black American Literature. De Gruyter, 2022.

Edited Journal Issues

with Isabel Soto, editors. “Critical Perspectives on Teju Cole,” Atlantic Studies: Global Currents, volume 18, number 3 (2021).

with Cedric Essi, Gesine Wegner, Stephen Koetzing, and Samira Spatzek, editors. “White Supremacy in the United States,” Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies (COPAS), volume 20, number 2 (2019).

with Marius Henderson, Jasmin Humburg, Julia Lange, Mariya Nikolova, and Samira Spatzek. COPAS, volume 18, number. 1 (2017).

Journal Articles

“The ‘Fugitive Notes’ of Teju Cole’s Open City,” Atlantic Studies, volume 19, number 2 (2022): 334-351. DOI: 10.1080/14788810.2020.1870399

with Isabel Soto. “Critical Perspectives on Teju Cole,” Atlantic Studies, volume 18, number 3 (2021).

with Cedric Essi, Gesine Wegner, Stephen Koetzing, and Samira Spatzek. “COPAS at Twenty: Interrogating White Supremacy in the United States and Beyond,” COPAS, volume 20, number 2 (2019): 1-17. https://copas.uni-regensburg.de/article/view/336

with Marius Henderson, Jasmin Humburg, Julia Lange, Mariya Nikolova, and Samira Spatzek. “Editorial,” COPAS, volume 18, number 1 (2017). https://copas.uni-regensburg.de/article/view/285/366

with Samira Spatzek. “Meine Stadt und Versklavung? Spurensuche in Bremen” (My City and Enslavement? A Search for Traces in Bremen), Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 50-51, 2015. (edited version re-published in Hier und Jetzt! Kolonialismus und Kolonialrassismus im Unterricht, 2017, 21-24.)

“African American Narratives of Captivity and Fugitivity: Developing Post-Slavery Questions for Angela Davis: An Autobiography,” COPAS volume 16, number 1 (2015).

Book Chapters

“Slavery, Migration, and the Genealogies of Blackness in Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing,” Modern Migrations, Black Interrogations: Revisioning Migrants and Mobilities through the Critique of Anti-blackness edited by Philip A. Kretsedemas and Jamella Gow. Temple University Press, 2024.

“Fugitivity against the Border: Afro-pessimism, Fugitivity, and the Border to Social Death,” Borders, Borderthinking, Borderlands: Developing a Critical Epistemology of Global Politics edited by Marc Woons and Sebastian Weier. E-International Relations, 2017, 203-215.

“Where Flesh Meets Flesh: Laurent Cantets Vers le Sud,” Mémoires transmédiales: Geschichte und Gedächtnis in der Karibik und ihrer Diaspora edited by Gisela Febel and Natascha Ueckmann. Franke und Timme, 2017, 143-58.

“How Black is the Border? Border Concepts Traveling North American Knowledge Landscapes,” Knowledge Landscapes North America edited byChristian Klöckner, Simone Knewitz, and Sabine Sielke. Winter, 2016, 191-210.

Interviews and Reviews

“Nele Sawallisch, Fugitive Borders: Black Canadian Cross-Border Literature at Mid-Nineteenth Century (Bielefeld: transcript, 2018), 218 pages.” Amerikastudien/American Studies
volume 65, number 1 (2020): 103-106. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33675/AMST/2020/1/9

“Markus Nehl, Transnational Black Dialogues: Re-Imagining Slavery in the Twenty-First Century (Bielefeld: transcript, 2016), 212 pages.” Amerikastudien/American Studies, volume 62, number 4 (2018). 

with Frank B. Wilderson, III and Samira Spatzek. “‘The Inside-Outside of Civil Society’: An Interview with Frank B. Wilderson, III,” Black Studies Papers volume 2, number 1 (2016): 4-22.

Academic Service and Self-Government

• since fall 2023 founding member of the Bremen Blue Humanities Research Group, Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies, University of Bremen
• since 2022 member of the decentralized women's representative collective, Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies, University of Bremen
• 2020-2024 executive director of the Bremen Institute of Canada and Québec Studies, Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies, University of Bremen
• 2017-2023 co-editor of Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies
• 2019-2020 spokesperson of the doctoral network Perspectives in Cultural Analysis: Black Diaspora, Decoloniality, Transnationalism (also 2015-2016)
• 2017-2019 office manager for the Bremen Institute of Canada and Québec Studies and the Association for Canadian Studies in German-Speaking Countries

Grants & Fellowships

• Dissertation nominated by the Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies for the Bremen Study Award (2022)

• Grant for Open Access publication of my dissertation with De Gruyter by Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Bremen (2022)

• Grant for Open Access publication of my article “The ‘Fugitive Notes’ of Teju Cole’s Open City” with Atlantic Studies by Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Bremen (2021)

• Conference travel grants by Central Research Development Fund, University of Bremen and Evangelisches Studienwerk e.V. (2023, 2020)

• Travel grant by Evangelisches Studienwerk e.V. for a research stay at the Barnard Center for Research on Women and the Institute for Research on Women, Gender and Sexuality, Columbia University in the City of New York, USA (Oct-Dec 2016)

• PhD fellowship by Evangelisches Studienwerk e.V. (2015-2017)

• Bridge fellowship, University of Bremen (2014)

• Study semester funded by the European Erasmus Program at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth (2008)

Presentations

Guest Lectures

"Water- and Ocean-Centric Perspectives in Anglophone Literary and Cultural Studies,"  Marine Governance Group, Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity (HIFMB), University of Oldenburg, 3 July 2024.

"Salt – Water – Slavery and the Blue Humanities," Blue Humanities Summer School, Hansewissenschaftskolleg, Delmenhorst, 6 June 2024.

"Die Blauen Geisteswissenschaften und Disneys Vaiana (2016)," Science Goes PUBlic, Gastfeld, Bremen, 28 March 2024.

"Cultural and Literary Studies of the English-Speaking World and the Blue Humanities," ZMT Wednesday Lunch Seminar, Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research, University of Bremen, 17January 2024.

"The Cultural Histories of the English-Speaking World and the Blue Humanities," lecture series “Studying English-Speaking Cultures,” M.A. E-SC, University of Bremen, 10 January 2024.

"Re-imagining the Atlantic: Slavery, Migration, and the Ocean in Black American Literature and Theory," lecture series "Blue Humanities: Histories, Cultures, Literature, and Media," University of Bremen, 15 November 2023.

“Racialized Encounters in Women’s Writing from Canada,” lecture series “Studying English-Speaking Cultures” organized by Kim-Nicola Hofschröer. M.A. E-SC, University of Bremen, 25 January 2023.

“The Hold of Slavery and the Drive for Freedom in Toni Morrison’s Beloved,” lecture series “Gender – Culture – Feminism” organized by Dr. Karin Esders, University of Bremen, 14 December 2022.

“Atlantic Histories of Slavery and Migration in Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing (2016),” application hearing, Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies, University of Bremen, 7 December 2022.

“Patrisse Khan-Cullors’ Black Lives Matter Memoir and the Feminist Legacy of the Black Power Movement,” in the seminar “Social Movements” by Dr.  Jennifer S. Henke, B.A.Anglistik/Amerikanistik, University of Greifswald, online, 1 July 2022.

“Getting into and Working as an Early-Career Scholar in the Field of North American Studies in Germany,” student-organized conference Futures in Academia, University of Bremen, online, 1 December 2021.

“Un/En/Gendering Black Power: Confinement and Flight in Life Writing of the Black Power Movement,” lecture series “Gender – Culture – Feminism” organized by Dr.  Karin Esders, University of Bremen, 8 January 2020.

“African American Narratives of Captivity and Fugitivity: Angela Davis: An Autobiography,” Forum INPUTS organized by Dr.  Carsten Juncker, Institute for Postcolonial and Transcultural Studies, University of Bremen, 15 January 2015.

“Afrikanische Literatur an der Grenze zu Europa,” lecture series at the city library Bremen, 2014.

“Grenzkonzepte und die US-Amerikanisch-Mexikanischen Borderlands,” in the seminar “Grenzrepräsentationen in Literatur und Film” by Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Arend, M.A.Transnationale Literaturwissenschaft, University of Bremen, 2014.

“Pressing at the Borders: Border Concepts from the US-Mexican Borderlands to the Strait of Gibraltar,” in the seminar “Texting the Border” by Prof. Dr. Sabine Broeck, M.A. Transcultural Studies, University of Bremen, 2013.

Conference Presentations

“Maligned White Women and Interracial Solidarities and Confrontations in Canadian Women’s Fiction” 44th annual GKS conference, Grainau, 3-5 March 2023.

“The Genealogy of Blackness in Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing,” annual ASA meeting, online, 13 October 2021.

“Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing and the Genealogy of ‘black is black is black,’” Science, Culture, and Postcolonial Narrative, annual conference of the German Association for Postcolonial Studies, University of Oldenburg/online, 13-15 May 2021.

“Black Genealogies in Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing,” 4th Biennial Women’s Network Symposium, European Association for American Studies in collaboration with the Polish Association for American Studies, “Feminisms in American Studies in/and Crisis: Where Do We Go From Here?,” online, 29 April 2021.

“‘A Slave in a Captive Society’: Captivity and Flight from Frederick Douglass’s Autobiographies to George Jackson’s Prison Letters,” BAAS digital conference #BAAS2021, British Association for American Studies, online, 5-11 April 2021.

“‘Do you think it’ll be any different in Canada?’: Fugitive Narration from Josiah Henson’s Slave Narrative to Ishmael Reed’s Flight to Canada,” 41st annual GKS conference, Grainau, 14-16 February 2020.

“Fugitive Narration Held Captive and the Genres of the (Non-)Human,” 66th annual conference of the German Association for American Studies, University of Hamburg, 13-15 June 2019.

“‘You’ll be in jail wherever you go’: Imprisonment and Flight in Assata Shakur’s Autobiography,” 2nd international conference of the Black Americas Network, Center for InterAmerican Studies, University of Bielefeld, 18-19 October 2018.

“‘Surely I would find a way to flee’: The (Im)Possibility of Flight in Lawrence Hill's Someone Knows My Name,” annual conference of the Emerging Scholars’ Forum of the GKS , University of Bern, Switzerland, 29 June-1 July 2018.

“The Fugitive Notes of Open City,” international conference Die un-sichtbare Stadt: Perspektiven – Räume – Randfiguren in Literatur und Film, University of Bremen, 7-9 February 2018.

“No Home on the Run? Fugitivity in Black American Neo-Slave Narratives,” annual ASA meeting, Denver, Colorado, United States, 17-20 November 2016.

“Memorizing Border Crossings: Teju Cole’s Open City and the Double Fugitive,” 11th biennial CAAR conference, Liverpool Hope University, United Kingdom, 24-28 June 2015.

“How Black is the Border? Border Concepts Traveling Inter-American Knowledge Landscapes,” 62nd annual GAAS conference, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, 28-31 May 2015.

“The Black Border: Border Concepts in African American Narratives of Captivity and Fugitivity,” Summer Institute ‘Borders, Borderthinking, Borderlands,’ University of Bremen, 15-25 May 2015.

“Border Concepts in African American Narratives: Developing a Post-Slavery Perspective,” Postgraduate Forum of the GAAS, Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, 10-12 October 2014.

“Der Zaun und das Meer: Literarische Manifestationen der Grenze zwischen Afrika und Europa,” 4th Young Scholars Workshop for Mediterranean Studies of the Centre for Mediterranean Studies, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 15-16 November 2013.

“Begegnungen im Dazwischen: Lauren Cantets In den Süden,” 8th Congress of the Association des francoromanistes allemands, Leipzig, 20-21 September 2012.

Conference and Event Organization

• with the decentralized women’s representative collective, Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies, University of Bremen. Guest lecture “Was macht eigentlich das Referat Chancengleichheit/Antidiskriminierung?“ by Anneliese Niehoff, University of Bremen, 20 June 2024.
• with Corina Wieser-Cox, Kerstin Knopf, and Niklas Bohlen. "English-Speaking Cultures: Literature and Culture Student Conference," University of Bremen, 01-02 February 2024. With keynote lectures by Dr. Jennifer Leetsch and Dr. Mariya Nikolova.
• with the decentralized women’s representative collective, Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies, University of Bremen. Guest lecture "Antidiskriminierungsberatung an der Universität Bremen" (Anti-Discrimination Work at the University of Bremen) by Ursel Gerdes (ADE), 22 November 2023.
• with the decentralized women’s representative collective, Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies, University of Bremen. Guest lecture “#IchBinHanna #IchBinReyhan – Aktuelle (Gender-)Debatten über die deutsche Wissenschaftskultur“ by Dr. Jennifer S. Henke (University of Greifswald), online, 30 March 2023.
• with Kerstin Knopf and Katrin Mutz. Teacher Training Day “Kanada und Québec / Canada and Québec / le Canada et le Québec,” Haus der Wissenschaft, University of Bremen, 15 June 2022.
• with Maya Hislop. Panel “Modern Migrations, Black Interrogations: Revisioning Migrants and Mobilities through the Critique of Anti-blackness” at the Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association, online 13 October 2021.
• with Samira Spatzek and Karin Esders. International symposium “Unthinking the HUMANITIES,” University of Bremen, planned for 12-13 June 2020 (funded by the International Office and BYRD among others), cancelled due to the Corona pandemic.
• with Jutta Ernst and Kerstin Knopf. “Intersectionality: Theories, Policies, Practices,” 40th annual GKS conference, Grainau, Germany, 14-17 February 2019 (funded by the DFG).
• with Samira Spatzek,Sabine Broeck, and Karin Esders. “Commemorating Toni Morrison (1931–2019),” reading, University of Bremen, December 2019.
• with globale e.V.and Kerstin Knopf. Guest lecture “Indigenous Theatre – The Changing Face of Storytelling” by Drew Hayden Taylor, University of Bremen, October 2018.
• with Andrea Strutz and Kerstin Knopf. “GeschichteN – HiStories – HistoireS,” 39th annualGKSconference, Grainau, 16-18 February 2018.
• with Kerstin Knopf, Jana Nittel, and Katrin Mutz. 2nd Canada and Québec Study Day, BICQS, University of Bremen 16 May 2018 (funded by the Canadian Embassy in Berlin, Délégation générale du Québec à Munich among others)
• with Marius Henderson, Jasmin Humburg, Julia Lange, Mariya Nikolova, and Samira Spatzek. Postgraduate program at the annual GAAS conference (Postgraduate meeting and panel discussion), Leibniz Universität, Hanover, Germany, 8-11 June 2017; annual Postgraduate conference of GAAS, University of Hamburg, Germany, 6-8 October 2016.
• with Doctoral Network, University of Bremen. „Performative Dimensionen von Rassismus und seiner Kritik sowie performative Gegenentwürfe: Ein theatraler Workshop für Nicht-Schauspieler*innen“ with Lara-Sophie Milagro (Label Noir), University of Bremen, 20-22 January 2018; Doctoral Workshop on Afro-Pessimism with Prof. Dr. Jaye Austin Williams, August 2016;  Critical Whiteness and Empowerment workshop with Kim Annakathrin Ronacher and Pasquale Virginie Rotter, 2015; Writing workshop for doctoral students with Isabell May, 2014.