Thomas Austenfeld, Ph.D

  

 

126. Keynote – Annual Fourth of July Obama Lecture at the Obama Institute, University of Mainz:  “‘World-losers elsewhere, conquerors here!’ The Fourth of July in American Poetry.”  July 4, 2024, Mainz University. 

 

125. “Lowell in Context: Religion.”  Presentation at the American Literature Association Conference, Chicago, May 25, 2024.

 

124. “Teaching Southern Literature Today.” One-day workshop at the University of Fribourg Continuing Education Center, September 20, 2023.

 

123. “Edgar Lee Masters and the Power of Pathos.”  IAUPE Conference Rome, Italy, July 11-14, 2023.

 

122. “Poetry is Tuning!”  Poetry. Experience. Attention. The International Network for the Study of Lyric Conference,  Oslo, Norway, June 6, 2023.

 

121. “Form and Voice: Contemporary Poets and Musical Conventions.” Panel “Poetry from the Page to the Ear,” organized by Thomas Austenfeld, American Literature Association Annual Conference, Boston, MA, May 26, 2023.

 

120. “History, Theory, and Anglophone African Literature”: Guest Lecture for Prof. Julia Straub’s lecture, “Writing the 21st-Century: Perspectives on Contemporary Anglophone Literature,” Fribourg, May 4, 2023.

 

119. MOVETIA visit to Boğaziçi University (Istanbul) for eight hours teaching on (1) Modernist American Poetry and (2) Toni Morrison’s A Mercy, April 22-26, 2023.

 

118. “Teaching Southern Literature Today.” One-day workshop at the Liceo Cantonale di Mendrisio, February 17, 2023.

 

117. Journée d’études, séminaire de l’Agrégation, Aix-Marseille University, Aix-en-Provence, France, January 12, 2023. Lecture and discussion: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night.

 

116. “T.S. Eliot and The Waste Land: Modernism a Hundred Years Onwards.” Guest lecture University of Bern, upon invitation by Prof. Thomas Claviez, April 12, 2022.

 

115. “African Anglophone Literature: History, Theory, and Teaching Practice.”  One-day workshop  at the Scuola Cantonale di Commercio, Bellinzona, February 25, 2022.

 

114. “Teaching Southern Literature Today: A Workshop.”  Palacky University, Olomouc, November 4, 2021 (online).

 

113. “A Poem and Its Voices: ‘Memories of West Street and Lepke’ by Robert Lowell.” CUSO Workshop: “Working with Poetry” directed by Julia Straub and Gabriele Rippl, University of Fribourg, June 11, 2021.

 

112. “American Sestinas: A Century of Aesthetic Paradoxes.”  Presented at the conference Contrainte créatrice : la fortune littéraire de la sextine dans le temps et dans l’espace, directed by Marion Uhlig.  University of Fribourg, May 19, 2021.

 

111. “Title/Abstract/Thesis: How to Prepare Your Dissertation for the Academic Market of Ideas.” Guest lecture to doctoral seminar in Foreign Language Department at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, upon invitation by Prof. Francesco Rognoni, May 4, 2021 (online). 

 

110. “Recent African American Women Poets: Tracy Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Claudia Rankine.” Guest Lecture upon invitation by Prof. Agnieszka Soltysik Monnet, University of Lausanne, April 27, 2021 (online).

 

109. “Katherine Anne Porter and Kay Boyle: Expatriate Women Writers.” Guest lecture upon invitation by Prof. Sandra Spanier, Pennsylvania State University, March 31, 2021 (online).

 

108. “’a swamp // where graves had been. I recall’: Natasha Trethewey’s Monumental Work of Memory.” Doing Southern Studies Today conference, January 13, 2021.  Humboldt University Berlin (online).

 

107. Respondent to Keynote Address by Prof. David Caplan, “On Erasure,” Conference New Poetries—New Poetics?, University of Konstanz, February 14-15, 2020.

 

106. “Amerikanische Literatur nach 1945: Weltmacht, Protest, Vietnam, Vielfalt.”  Ringvorlesung First Came America. Volkshochschule Zürich, 5. Februar 2020.

 

105. “Between Lyric and Epic: The Challenge of Walt Whitman.” Guest Lecture, Universität Trier, January 22, 2020.

 

104. “What Poets Do With History: Derek Walcott’s Omeros and the Battle of the Saint(e)s.”  Guest Lecture, Muhlenberg Center at Martin-Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg, January 14 and 15, 2020.

 

103. Convocation Address: “Spots of Time and Ice Cream Sundaes.”  Franklin University 50th Anniversary Convocation, September 27, 2019, at Franklin University, Sorengo (Lugano), Switzerland.

 

102. “Impersonating Poems: The Lyric’s Voice Between Speaker and Audience.”  International Society for the Study of Lyric (INSL) Conference, Lausanne, June 4, 2019.

 

101. “Life Studies at Sixty.”  American Literature Association Conference, Boston, May 25, 2019.

 

100. “Rhetorical Appeal in Kay Boyle’s Poetry: The Place of Pathos.” American Literature Association Conference, Boston, May 24, 2019.

 

99. “Victorious Figures of Bravado: Lowell’s Pathos.” British Association of American Studies Conference, Brighton, April 25, 2019.

 

98. “Pathos in the Poetry of Kay Boyle: Channeling Emotion in 20th-century Protest Poetry.” SAAS Conference, Salamanca, April 9, 2019.

 

97. “Confessional Poetry and The Cold War.” American Studies Week, University of Flensburg, December 3, 2018.

 

96. “Pathos: The Genre of Poetic Address.” SANAS conference Lausanne, The Genres of Genre, November 2, 2018.

 

95. “‘To prepare a face’: Faces in 20th-century Literature and Philosophy.” Australian Literary Studies Association, Canberra, July 4, 2018.

 

94. “American Poetry: Pleasure, Pathos, Prosody.”  Invited Guest Lecture at the University of Klagenfurt. Austria.  January 10, 2018.

 

93. “The Pathos of Modernist Poems.”  Lecture given at a Symposium to honor Prof. Hans Bak on the occasion of his retirement, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands, December 15, 2017.

 

92. “A Plea for Pathos: Recovering an Essential Paradigm for the Lyric.” Situating Lyric Conference, Boston University, June 7-11, 2017.

 

91. “Gestures of Faith in Contemporary American Poetry.” Presented at the conference Spiritual Networks: Religion in Literature and the Arts, 1700 to the Present, University of Halle-Wittenberg, May 18-10, 2017.

 

90. “Self-surveillance: Conscience and Control in Dave Eggers’ The Circle.” Closing Presentation in the series ÜberwachungsRäume / Spaces of Surveillance, a lecture series at the University of Flensburg, Germany, January 30, 2017.

 

89. “An Ecocritical Approach to Robert Lowell.” American Literature Association Conference, San Francisco, May 26, 2016.

 

88. “South Pacific: Love, War, Orientalism, and Tolerance.” Lecture on the occasion of a Swiss European Mobility visit to the Department of American Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, December 3 and 4, 2015.

 

87. “Reassessing the Age of Lowell.” American Studies Colloquium Series at the American Studies Center, University of Warsaw, Poland, November 12, 2015.

 

86. “Giving ‘The Age of Lowell’ its Due.”  American Literature Association Conference, Boston, May 23, 2015.

 

85. “Robert Lowell and the History of Poetic Self-Revelation.”  Distinguished Professors’ Lecture Series, Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland, March 27, 2015.

 

84. “Katherine Anne Porter and the Problem of Europe.”  Guest lecture as part of the SEFOC program, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic, March 19, 2015.

 

83. “Robert Lowell and the Age of Identitarian Poetry.”  Guest lecture, University of Uppsala, February 18, 2015.

 

82. “American Poetry: History, Developments, How and Why to Teach it.”  Continuing Education Workshop to the English Teachers of the Kantonsschule Baden, March 5, 2015.

 

81. “‘to braid her hair for the journey home’: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah.” Guest lecture in Professor Hans Bak’s class on North American Fiction, Radboud University Nijmegen, December 4, 2014.

 

80. “Bibliography in a Digital Age: (Re)covering Kay Boyle.” Faculty Colloquium talk, English Department, Radboud University Nijmegen, December 4, 2014.

 

79. “Lowell’s Dolphin: Shame, Guilt, and the Fate of Confessional Poetry.” SANAS conference, Basel, November 21-22, 2014.

 

78. “Confess–disclose–proclaim: The Trope of Self-revelation in American Poetry Since the Sixties.” SEFOC Conference at Palacky University, Olomouc, October 17, 2014.

 

77. “Kay Boyle Scholarship: Trends and Opportunities.” American Literature Association Conference, Washington, DC, May 22, 2014.

 

76. “Catholicism in the United States: History, religious practice, social place.” Guest Lecture in the Dept. of Sociology, University of Fribourg, October 17, 2013.

 

75. “Memoir, not Autobiography: Lowell’s Self-Articulation Reexamined.” A presentation in two forms. Thirty minute-version: Editorial Institute, Boston University, October 30, 2013. Twenty-minute-version: PAMLA Conference, San Diego, November 2, 2013.

 

74. “The Drama of Staging a Lyrical Moment: An Introduction to the Work of Dana Gioia.” 2013 Triennial Conference of IAUPE, The International Association of Professors of English, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, July 16-20, 2013.

 

73. “Occasional Poets: Kay Boyle and Katherine Anne Porter.” Alternative Modernisms Conference, Cardiff University, May 16-17, 2013.

 

72. “Transposing the Key: Tracking the Confessional Voice from Poetry to Memoir and Beyond.”  The Poetics and Politics of Crossing in the U.S.: 11th Conference of the Spanish Association of American Studies, University of  La Laguna, Tenerife, March 20-22, 2013.

 

71. Keynote Lecture: “Fleeing, Flying, Staying, Leaving: Escape and Ecology in American Literature.” Conference In Fuga, Catholic University of Milano, Italy, March 1, 2013.

 

70. ERASMUS visit to the University of Salamanca, February 20-22, 2013.  Presentation to graduate students and faculty: “Library and Database Research Using Remote Catalogues.”

 

69. ERASMUS visit to Aix-Marseille University, Aix-en-Provence, France, December 6-7, 2012. Presentations: (a) “American Pastoral: Intertextuality and ‘the past undetonated'” to a class of Agrégation students. (b) “A Question of Voice: Lowell, Didion, and literary history” to LERMA, Laboratoire d’Études et de Recherche sur le Monde Anglophone, at Aix-en-Provence.

 

68. “Foer the Love of Schulz! An Archaeological Reading of Tree of Codes.” In Search of the Lost Original: Comparative Perspectives on Bruno Schulz (1892-1942). Conference at the University of Fribourg, November 30, 2012.

 

67. ERASMUS visit to University of Rome “Tor Vergata,” Rome, Italy, November 22-23, 2012. Presentations: (a) “Emily Dickinson: Context, Scholarship, Philology.” (b) “Library and Database Research Using Remote Catalogues.”

 

66. Guest Lecture / guest instructor: “Love Medicine as part of contemporary American Literature.” Radboud University Nijmegen, October 17, 2012.

 

65. Keynote Lecture: “Whatever Happened to the Confessional Voice in American Poetry?” ELLE Conference, Partium Christian University, Oradea (Romania), September 15, 2012.

 

64. Roundtable contribution, “Celebrating 50 years of Katherine Anne Porter’s Ship of Fools.” American Literature Association Conference, San Francisco, May 25, 2012.

 

63. “Transatlantic Literary Journeys.” Narrenschiff / Ship of Fools. A Transatlantic Encounter. Conference at the University of Fribourg, directed by Thomas Austenfeld, May 11-12, 2012.

 

62. “Nobody’s Nation: What Remains of Multiculturalism in American Literature?” Tertium Datur: Hybridisierung, Synkretismus, Créolité. Interdisziplinäres Kolloquium Universität Fribourg, April 20, 2012.

 

61. “The Last Report: Louise Erdrich between Communities—A Comparative Analysis.” Native America: Indigenous Self-Representation in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. Conference at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, February 24-25, 2012.

 

60. ERASMUS visit to Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy, February 9-11, 2012. Presentations: (1) “Library and Database Research Using Remote Catalogues.” (2) “Robert Lowell’s Life Studies and the Obsession with Cleanliness.”

 

59. “Robert Lowell in the Bathroom.” Mid-Twentieth-Century Poets and Cultural Change.  PAMLA Conference, November 6, 2011, Scripps College, Claremont, CA.

 

58. “European Perspectives on the American West.” Invited Lecture, California State University Bakersfield, November 3, 2011.

 

57. “Looking for ‘Siegfried’: Generation Without Farewell and the Life Story of a German Journalist.” American Literature Association Conference, Boston, May 28, 2011.

 

56. “Recollection and Revolution: Katherine Anne Porter and Kay Boyle as Poets.” American Literature Association Conference, Boston, May 28, 2011.

 

55. “Mule and Wagon vs the Dixie Limited: Transportation in Flannery O’Connor.” SAUTE Conference, Bern, May 7, 2011.

 

54. “Violence in American History, Literature, and Culture.” Invited Lecture, Partium Christian University, Oradea (Romania), April 15, 2011.

 

53. “Terrorism as Satire: America’s Tacky Empire and Chuck Palahniuk’s Pygmy.” Presented at the conference “Terrorism through the Lens of Literary Epistemology: Historical Imagination and Narrative Practice,” University of Fribourg, December 3, 2010.

 

52. “Parallel Lives: Kay Boyle, Tamara de Lempicka, and Cool Modernism.” SANAS joint conference with AAAS Innsbruck, November 12, 2010.

 

51. “Pigs, Ghosts, and a Ship of  Fools: Modernist American Women Writers and Totalitarian Europe.” SAGVL Conference “Autoritäre Moderne / Modernité et Autorité” in Fribourg, Switzerland, October 8-9, 2010.

 

50. “The Voice of the Academic Writer: Nonfiction Essays and the Question of Authority.”  Conference of the European Association of English Studies (ESSE) in Torino, Italy,  August 25, 2010.

 

49. “Transcontinental Hemingway.” International Hemingway Conference Lausanne, Switzerland, June 29, 2010.

 

48. “The Age of Lowell and the Discontinuities of American Poetry.” Invited Guest Lecture, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Brescia, Italy, March 20, 2010.

 

47. “Information Literacy for Ph.D. students.” Invited Guest Lecture, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano, Italy, March 18, 2010.

 

46. “‘Drowning is not so pitiful’: Matchimanito Lake as historical, therapeutic, and demiurgic locale in Louise Erdrich’s work.” Spanish Association for American Studies Conference, Barcelona, April 2, 2009.

 

45. “Between Homage and Autobiography: Learning and Teaching in David Levin’s Exemplary Elders (1990) and Frank McCourt’s Teacher Man (2005).” Academic Autobiography Conference, Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, March 28, 2009.

 

44. “Rosicky’s Neighbors: Values, Virtues, and the Contingency of Criticism.” Invited Guest Lecture, English Department of the University of Bern, Switzerland, March 9, 2009.

 

43. “Genre, Voice, Identity: Nonfiction Prose and the Personal Essay.” Swiss Society of General and Comparative Literature, University of Fribourg, March 7, 2009.

 

42. “Arthur Miller’s The Misfits: The Last Frontier of the West.” University of Lausanne English Department, December 5, 2008.

 

41. “Rosicky’s Neighbors: Values, Virtues, and the Contingency of Criticism.” English Department of the University of Arizona, Tucson AZ, November 21, 2008.

 

40. “Locked Up Underground: Kay Boyle and Prisons.” Biennial Conference of the Swiss Association of North American Studies, Crêt-Bérard, November 15, 2008.

 

39. “Teaching Lowell Beyond the Alps: A Multilingual Approach to Imitations.” American Literature Association Conference, San Francisco, May 23, 2008.

 

38. “Four Visions of America: Beyond the Unum.” Biennial EAAS (European Association of American Studies) Conference, Oslo, May 11, 2008.

 

37. “Rosicky’s Neighbors: Values, Virtues, and the Contingency of Criticism.” Antrittsvorlesung / Leçon Inaugurale, University of Fribourg, April 30, 2008.

 

36. “The Fret of Modernism: The Discourse of Fear in American Culture, 1917-1941.” Miroirs de la Peur. Journée d’Etude / Tagung, University of Fribourg, October 12, 2007.

 

35. “A Happy Naturalist?  Jeremy Bentham and the Cosmic Morality of The Octopus.” American Literature Association Conference, Boston MA, May 2007.

 

34. “Playing the Prodigal: Walcott’s Variations on a Biblical Parable.” “The Caribbean Unbound” Conference, Franklin College, Lugano, Switzerland, March 31, 2007.

 

33. “Sensations: The Hypertrophy of Aesthetics in Philip Roth’s Everyman.”  Biennial Conference of the Swiss Association of North American Studies, Geneva, November 11, 2006.

 

32. “The Spinet and the Coffin: Katherine Anne Porter and the Art of Music.”  American Literature Association Conference, San Francisco, CA, May 26, 2006.

 

31. “Negotiating Frontiers in Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain.”  VIIIth Conference on “European Culture,” Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona (Spain), October 20, 2005.

 

30. “‘Will the real Louise Erdrich please stand up?’  Unearthing German heritage and culture in The Master Butchers Singing Club.”  American Literature Association Conference, Boston MA, May 27, 2005.

 

29. “Walcott’s Omeros: Starting a New World.” 20th Century Literature Conference, Louisville KY, February 24-26, 2005.

 

28. “Reluctant Modernism: Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Spanish Baroque Culture.”  Ninth Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, Pamplona (Spain), August 3, 2004. 

 

27. “Research Projects Exploring Connections between Spanish and Austrian Literature.”  Presented at “Into the Classroom: Incorporating Faculty Seminars and Teaching Abroad into the Curriculum.”  March 12-13, 2004, Clayton College and State University.

 

26. “Spanish Baroque and Austrian Modernism in Hugo von Hofmannsthal.”  20th Century Literature Conference, Louisville KY, February 26-28, 2004.

 

25. “Giving Everyone a Voice: Translating von Hofmannsthal’s Jedermann” at a Special Session, “World Poetry in Translation” at SAMLA, Atlanta GA, 14-16 November, 2003.

 

24. “‘Our Cleopatra’: Peter Taylor, Katherine Anne Porter, and Southern Identity” at the American Literature Association Conference, Cambridge MA, May 23, 2003.

 

23. [with Tanya Bennett] “Begin Here: Introducing African-American Literature into General Education” at Kennesaw State University’s conference “Stepping Up to the Plate: Best Practices in Diversity Education,” April 26, 2003.

 

22. “Peter Taylor’s A Summons to Memphis: Duty Ethics and American Individualism.”  20th Century Literature Conference, Louisville KY, February 27 – March 1, 2003.

 

21. “American Women Writers in Europe.”  Invited Theme Day Lecture, Drury University, Springfield MO, February 20, 2003.

 

20. Introductory Speaker at NGCSU Faculty Retreat: “Why Should We Care About Ethics?”  Black Mountain Lodge, Dahlonega GA, Sept. 13, 2002.

 

19. “Shifting the Ground of Responsibility: The two versions of Rita Dove’s The Darker Face of the Earth.”  20th Century Literature Conference, Louisville KY, February 21-23, 2002.

 

18. “Memories of Heidelberg: Stafford’s Multiple Selves and the Negotiation of Collusive Guilt.”  SAMLA, Atlanta GA, November 9-11, 2001.

 

17. “Ron Hansen’s Women: Politics, Religion, Sexuality.”  Western Literature Association Conference, Omaha NE, October 17-21, 2001.

 

16. “Ethical Criticism and Porter’s Voice.” American Literature Association Conference (Katherine Anne Porter Society), Cambridge MA, May 24, 2001.

 

15. “Generation Without Farewell: Kay Boyle’s Ethical Assessment of Germany.”  20th Century Literature Conference, Louisville KY, February 22, 2001.

 

14. “Teaching Values through Western haecceitas:  Western Stories, Lived Experience, Ethical Models.”  “Spiritual Frontiers” Conference at Brigham Young University, Provo UT, March 30-April 2, 2000.

 

13. “Language as a Tool of Honesty.” (Workshop: Language as a Tool).  Sixth Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, Haifa (Israel), August 1998.

 

12. “Travellers, Not Tourists:  The Trope of Travel as Acculturation.”  (Workshop: Perceptions of the Arts and Texts of the Twentieth Century).  Sixth Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, Haifa (Israel), August 1998.

 

11. “‘Fear in a Handful of Dust’: Foreigners Experience the West in Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees.”  Western Literature Association Annual Meeting, Albuquerque NM, October 15-19, 1997.

 

10. “Thomas Wolfe and Katherine Anne Porter: Two Americans Discover Their Democratic Roots.”  International Thomas Wolfe Conference, Munich (Germany), May 23-25, 1997.

 

9. “Mirandas Abroad: Two Girls of the Golden West Meet the Nazis.”  Western Literature Association, Lincoln NE, October 2-5, 1996.

 

8. “Memory, Literature, and European Nation States.”  Fifth Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas, Utrecht (Netherlands), August 19-24, 1996.

 

7. “Porter’s Totalitarianism Revisited.”  Katherine Anne Porter Society at the American Literature Association’s Annual Conference in Baltimore, MD, May 27-30, 1995.

 

6. “Problems of Regional Identity: Katherine Anne Porter as Western Writer.”  Western Literature Association Conference, Salt Lake City, October 5-8, 1994.

 

5. “‘O Bella Roma’: Robert Lowell’s Religious Imagination in the Nineteen-Fifties.”  LeMoyne Forum on Religion and Literature, Syracuse (New York), October 15-17, 1993.

 

4. “The Necessary Imagination: European Writers Encounter the West.”  Western Literature Association Conference, Wichita (Kansas), October 7-9, 1993.

 

2. “Under the Microscope: Porter and Steinbeck Dissect Humanity.”  Northeastern MLA Conference in Philadelphia, March 1993.

 

2. “Day by Day: Lowell’s Poetic Eschatology.”  Southeastern Conference on Christianity and Literature, New Orleans, 4-6 February 1993.

 

1. “From Mexico to Germany: Katherine Anne Porter and Politics.”  International Katherine Anne Porter Conference at Baylor University (Waco, TX), 14-16 May 1992.