Julia Nitz (MLU Halle-Wittenberg)
This lecture explores the concept of “culture wars” and how it can be applied as a framework for understanding contemporary socio-political issues in the United States. It will examine its origins, its possible meanings, and its relationship to electoral politics and education. The idea is to create an understanding of what is actually meant by this concept in a US context and in how far politicians situate themselves within this framework and/or cater to people who do. We shall ask whether there is more to people’s voting rationale than economic concerns, or prejudices, or anxieties. Finally, we will open a discussion about the role of education, or, rather, about control of educational systems within this cultural struggle. Why is the field of education so contested and what are the roots and core issues at stake? The talk is open ended, in the sense that it is meant to encourage debate rather than provide absolute truths or definite answers. So, let’s talk!!
Julia Nitz is Associate professor of Anglo-American Cultural Studies at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. She has served as Executive Director at the Center for American Studies and is co-founder of the Intercontinental Crosscurrents Network for the study of transatlantic women’s networks in the long nineteenth century (crosscurrents.uni-halle.de).
Her research focusses on the American Civil War, women’s life writing, intertextual cultural studies, historiographic and museum narratology as well as Anglophone (Caribbean) film and adaptation studies. Her publications include Georg III. Rezeption und Konstruktion in den britischen Medien (1990–2006) (WVT, 2010), Towards a Historiographic Narratology (2011), and with Sandra H. Petrulionis and Theresa Schön, an edited volume on Intercontinental Crosscurrents: Women’s Networks across Europe and the Americas (2016).
Her most recent monograph Belles and Poets: Intertextuality in the Civil War Diaries of White Southern Women (LSUP, 2020) establishes the extent to which literature offered a means of exploring ideas and convictions about class, gender, and racial hierarchies in the Civil War-era South.
Apart from her interest in British and American cultural studies, Julia is a passionate player of Ultimate Frisbee and an ardent reader.