CURRENT PROJECTS
America Unfound(ed): Decolonial American Studies
This book is conceived as a companion piece to The Myths That Made America. It focuses on anti-foundational narratives in American history, culture, and literature.
The Global Sentimentality Project
Led by Heike Paul, this project connects scholars interested in the aesthetics and politics of the sentimental and facilitates collaboration and exchange. The Global Sentimentality Project offers fellowships, organizes workshops and public talks, and runs a book series. The first volume (out in May 2022) is the Lexicon of Global Melodrama. Heike Paul is also the spokesperson of the Research Training Group (GRK 2726) "The Sentimental in Literature, Culture, and Politics."
Reeducation Revisited:
Transnational and Comparative Perspectives on the Post-World War II Period in the US, Japan, and Germany"
Heike Paul is part of a research team to examine US-American reeducation policies in its various aspects in Germany and Japan after World War II in a transnational and comparative perspective. The project looks at political, cultural, and social entanglements, at the role of military institutions, the mass media, and civil society. Its overall aim is to establish “Comparative Reeducation Studies.” It is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) from 2018 through 2023.
Semantiken des Verzichts:
Perspektiven auf die Wohlstandsgesellschaft und ihre Kosten
The idea of "doing without" currently shapes controversial public debates and is often associated either with a rather sweeping critique of consumerism or defamed as an attempt at prohibition and a deprivation of personal liberties. The aim of this BAdW-funded project is to provide an interdisciplinary approach to the topic by developing a systematic (re)construction of the various semantics of the notion of "doing without" and to explore possibilities of an informed dialogue among cultural studies, educational studies, and political sciences. Heike Paul is one of the project leaders of this working group.