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Atalie Gerhard

Atalie Gerhard
 

Dissertation

Contemporary Contestations of Containment: Black and Indigenous Women’s “I”-Life Narratives from 21st Century Canada and the U.S.

(Supervisor: Astrid Fellner, Saarland / Heike Paul, Erlangen-Nürnberg
Mentoring: Paul Morris, Winnipeg)

My thesis analyzes life narratives from the 21st century told by women who are racialized as Black and who are Indigenous and racialized as Brown/Red in Canada or the U.S. I argue that in “I”-life narratives, the “I”s contest containment. The “I”s stand in for individuals as well as their respective groups and represent not having the space which they need to experience their own identities and thus being contained. My corpus includes narratives of ordinary women. In my readings of their “I”-life narratives, I will identify shared delineations such as, for instance, objectification and exploitation in Audre Lorde’s speech “Learning from the 60s” from 1982 and Dorothy Mills-Proctor’s “Born Again Indian: A Story of Self Discovery of a Red-Black Woman and Her People” from 2010. While Lorde later published her speech in her collection Sister Outsider (1984), Mills-Proctor first published her essay in Kola: A Multicultural Literary Magazine and then as an Apple Book. I have selected narratives of (ex-) incarcerated women from the book Inner Lives: Voices of African American Women in Prison (2003) by the law professor Paula C. Johnson from the U.S. and interviews with Indigenous women who had survived the 60s Scoop from the podcast Missing and Murdered: Finding Cleo (2018) by the Pulitzer Prize-recipient Connie Walker and her CBC team from Canada. Each narrative in its context could help understand women’s representations that emerged and found solidarity worldwide in movements like Black Lives Matter or Idle No More. While they thematize power relations between racialized and gendered women and the respective states, identity politics also play a major role.

Education

Since 2019
Doctoral Candidate at IRTG Diversity
2017 - 2019
Start of doctorate in American Studies, Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
2014 - 2016
Master of Arts in North American Studies: Culture and Literature, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
2011 - 2014
Bachelor of Arts in English and American Studies/French Romance Studies, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg

Work Experience

2022-2023
Contract lecturer (Seminar: “First Nations Women’s Life Writings”), Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Paderborn University
01/2016 - 03/2016
Student research assistant, Chair of American Studies: North American Cultural and Literary Studies (Prof. Dr. Heike Paul), Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg
10/2015 - 12/2015
Interim secretary, Chair of American Studies: North American Cultural and Literary Studies (Prof. Dr. Heike Paul), Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg
10/2013 - 09/2015
Student research assistant, Chair of American Studies: North American Cultural and Literary Studies (Prof. Dr. Heike Paul), Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg

Awards and Fellowships

2016
2016 Certificate for civil commitment in voluntary refugee work, Bavarian State Ministry of Work and Social Affairs, Family and Integration, 29/11/2016.

Publications

2022
“The Monstrous Return of the Commodified Female: How Zombie Strippers (2008) and From Dusk Till Dawn (2014) Transgress Foundational American Cultural Values,” in: Mihaela Precup (ed.), [Inter]sections – The American Studies Journal at the University of Bucharest 25, 33-52, https://intersections-journal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/AG-FINAL.docx.pdf
2022
“Losses Not to Be Passed On: Paula C. Johnson’s and Sara Bennett’s Portraits Rewriting (Ex-) Incarcerated Black Mothers”, in: Lesly Deschler Canossi/Zoraida Lopez-Diago (eds.), Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation: Another Way of Knowing (Leuven: Leuven University Press), 145-170.
2020
"From the Hood to the White House: The Cultural Imaginary of Presidential Blackness in Head of State", in: Niels Bjerre-Poulsen (ed.), American Studies in Scandinavia 52.2: Spec. issue on the American Presidency and Presidential elections, 81-99, https://rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/assc/article/view/6500/7015
2019
“Commemorating Compassion, Countering Containment: The Female Wars on Terror Witnesses of Helen Benedict’s and Lynsey Addario’s Transcultural Narratives”, in: Dragoş Manea/Mihaela Precup (eds.), [Inter]sections – The American Studies Journal at the University of Bucharest 22: War and Conflict in Autobiographical and Documentary Narratives, 46-63, https://intersections-journal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/3.-AG-article.pdf
2018
“The Monstrous Return of the Commodified Female: How Zombie Strippers (2008) and From Dusk Till Dawn (2014) Transgress Foundational U.S. Cultural Values”, in: Rachid M’Rabty (ed.), The Dark Arts Journal. New and Emerging Voices in Gothic Studies 4.1: Transgressive Femininity and Contemporary Gothic.
2018
“Creepypastas: How Counterterrorist Fantasies (Re-) Create Horror Traditions for Today’s Digital Communities”, in: Ina Batzke/Eric Erbacher/Linda Heß/Corinna Lenhardt (eds.), Exploring the Fantastic: Genre, Ideology, and Popular Culture (Bielefeld: Transcript), 239-268.
2017
“Bricolage of Protest: Unveiling the Multicultural Dimensions of the Chicano Movement through its Murals of Protest”, in: Sämi Ludwig (ed.), American Multiculturalism in Context: Views from at Home and Abroad (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing), 371-386.
2016
“African American Corporeality: Repossessing the Nobility of Africa”, in: Hayes Peter Mauro (ed.), The International Review of African American Art 26.3: Race and Labor in American Art, 12-18.

Conference Presentations

11/2023
“The Alienist.”
Erfolg in Serie—Amerikanische Serien als Gesellschaftsdramen: Season XI. Saarland University/Kino 8 1/2, 14.11.2023.
09/2023
“(Anti-) Liberational Feminism in the Neo-Westerns Harriet (2019; dir. Kasi Lemmons) versus Terror on the Prairie (2022; dir. Michael Polish).”
Populäre Kulturen/Popular Cultures. 8. Jahrestagung der Kulturwissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft (KWG). Saarland University, 27.-30.09.2023.
06-07/2023
“Transcending Trauma: Decolonial Feminist Healing in the Novels Birdie (2015) by Tracey Lindberg and The Break (2016) by Katharena Vermette.”
Narrating, Representing, Reflecting ‘Disability’: 21st Century ‘American’ Perspectives. Center for InterAmerican Studies and Faculty for Linguistics and Literary Studies, Bielefeld University, 30.06.-01.07.2023.
05/2023
“Conceptual Borderlands: North American Indigenous Discourses that Link/Separate Violence against Women with Extractivism.”
Borders in Crisis: Border Struggles and Border Violence in a Global Perspective. 9th Seminar of the UniGR-Center for Border Studies Organised by Saarland University/UdS American Studies Graduate Forum 2023. Saarland University and Online, 11.-12.05.2023.
03/2023
“Black-Indigenous Women’s Identities in 21st Century Canada: Life Narratives Locating the “I” Between Solidarity and Confrontation.”
Solidarities. Networks – Convivialities – Confrontations. 44th Annual Conference of the Association for Canadian Studies in German-speaking Countries (GKS). Hotel am Badersee, Grainau, 03.-05.03.2023.
01/2023
“From Hanged to Heroine: Anglophone Approaches to Angélique, a Black Québécoise Icon.”
Seminar: Black Canadian Literature. Potsdam University, 11.01.2023.
09/2022
“Keynote: Mag. Dr. Doris Eibl. “Sources et non pas racines: la narration de la filiation dans La Ballade d’Ali Baba de Catherine Mavrikakis.”
(Un-) Making Canada. Nachwuchsforum der Gesellschaft für Kanadastudien e.V. (NWF)/Emerging Scholars’ Forum of the Association for Canadian Studies in German-Speaking Countries (ESF). Online, 29.09.2022. (Keynote moderation)
07/2022
“Contemporary Feminist Life-Writing.”
Seminar: Women Life Writings. Saarland University, 05.07.2022.
06/2022
“Womanist Awakenings in the Multicultural North: How Fatuma Adar’s and Méshama Eyob-Austin’s Life Writings Represent Black Girlhood in Canada”
Life Writing, Creativity, and the Social in the Americas. Center for InterAmerican Studies, Bielefeld University, 24-25/06/2022.
05/2022
“Studying Indigenous Literatures and Cultures of Turtle Island in Europe: Questions of Methodology, Positionality, Accountability, and Research Ethics”
Nachwuchsforum der Gesellschaft für Kanadastudien e.V. (NWF)/Emerging Scholars’ Forum of the Association for Canadian Studies in German-Speaking Countries (ESF)/Forum de la Relève Académique de l’Association d’Études Canadiennes dans les Pays de Langue Allemande, Online, 05-06/05/2022. (Co-organization, Webinar Moderation, and Panel Moderation).
04/2022
“The Borders of Humanity: Pursuing a Connection between Indigenous Women’s Life Narratives of Victimization and Indigenous Discourse Surrounding the Keystone Pipeline”
Wastelands: 34th European Association for American Studies (EAAS). Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Madrid/Online, 06-08/04/2022.
12/2021
“Connecting Containment, Staging Sovereignty: The Aesthetics of the O’odham Anti-Border Collective’s Facebook Videos (2020-2021)”
Border Close-Ups: Film and Everyday Lives in the Borderlands. UdS American Studies Graduate Forum 2021. Universität des Saarlandes, 02-04/12/2021.
05/2021
“Remembering Activism”
International Workshop: Narrated Lives – Remembered Selves. Emerging Research in Life Writing Studies, Online, 13-14/05/2021. (Panel Moderation).
04/2021
“Resisting Cultural Containment by Renouncing (Black) Feminism?: Universalist Ideals of Conservative Black Women (2016-2021)”
4th Biannual European Association for American Studies (EAAS) Women’s Network Symposium & Polish Association for American Studies (PAAS): Feminisms in American Studies in/and Crisis: Where Do We Go From Here?, Online, 29/04/2021.
10/2020
"Dismantling Distance or Commodifying Crisis? Women Depicting Diversity and Social Issues in VR Experiences from the U.S."
Distance and Diversity in Times of Crisis: Literary Expressions and Artistic Responses. UdS American Studies Graduate Forum 2020. Universität des Saarlandes, 15-17/10/2020.
02/2020
"Black Experiences Matter: The Prison Resistance of Marie-Josephe Angélique and Les derniers jours de Smokey Nelson (2011) from Québec"
National Association of African American Studies & Affiliates 28th Joint National Conference. Dallas/Addison Marriott Quorum by the Galleria, Dallas, Texas, 17-22/02/2020.
11/2019
“Waves of Exclusion: The Fugitive Voices of Reinaldo Arenas (Antes que anochezca: autobiografía; 1992) and Aeham Ahmad (Und die Vögel werden singen: Ich, der Pianist aus den Trümmern; 2017) in their Memoirs of Migration”
Liquid Trajectories: Flight, Mobility, and Migration. UdS American Studies Graduate Forum 2019. Universität des Saarlandes, 29-30/11/2019.
10/2019
“Prisoners Podcasting or Podcasted Prisons? A Cultural Studies Analysis of Ear Hustle (2017-)’s Performances of Convict Inclusion”
Podcasting Poetics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz, 11-12/10/2019.
10/2019
“No More Prisoners of Radicalism: Leonard Peltier’s and Ahmad Mansour’s Critiques of Institutional Containment and Their Transcultural Efforts for Post-Colonial Peace”
Local Alignments, Global Upheavals. Re-Imaging Peace, Legitimacy, Jurisdiction and Authority. Annual Conference of the Peace and Justice Studies Association & Peace and Conflict Studies – Canadian Association, Canadian Mennonite University & Menno Simons College, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 4-6/10/2019.
08/2019
“Postcolonial Theory”
International Research Training Group “Diversity: Mediating Difference in Transcultural Spaces”, Universität Trier, 13/08/2019. (Workshop Organization and Moderation).
09/2018
“Self-Representation Behind Bars: On the Redemptive Potential of Narrative in Inner Lives: Voices of African American Women in Prison (Ed. Paula C. Johnson, 2003)”
Writing Her/Self in Text and Image in Anglophone Women’s Life Writing - International Conference on Women’s Life Writing Organized by Paris Nanterre’s FAAAM group, Femmes Auteurs Anglo-Américaines (FAAAM), Université Paris Nanterre, 28-29/09/2018.
09/2017
“Traumatic Interventionism in the Alternative U.S.-American Historical War Narratives Blue Ravens (Gerald Vizenor; 2014) and Redeployment (Phil Klay; 2015)”
Erotema – A Conference on Rhetoric and Literature, Kulturvetenskapliga Forskargruppen (KuFo) vid Karlstads Universitet, Karlstads Universitet, 14-16/09/2017.
03/2017
“Empowerment and Containment in Compassionate Representations of Female Wars on Terror Witnesses by Helen Benedict and Lynsey Addario”
2nd Biannual European Association for American Studies (EAAS) Women’s Network Symposium: Transnational Feminism and/in American Studies, Université de Lausanne, 31/03/2017.
11/2016
“Critiques of U.S.-American Counterterrorist Communities of Virtue Through its Pop-cultural Individualizations in the TV-Series Homeland and Generation Kill”
2016 Biannual Conference of the Swiss Association for North American Studies (SANAS): American Communities: Between the Popular and the Political, Universität Bern, 04-05/11/2016.
09/2016
“Fantasies of ‘Knowledge’ (De-)formation in Selected Creepypastas of the U.S.-American Counterterrorist Culture”
7. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Fantastikforschung (GfF) e.V.: The Fantastic Now: Research in the Fantastic in the 21st Century, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, 22-24/09/2016.
09/2016
“The Fantastic in Popular Genres”
7. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Fantastikforschung (GfF) e.V.: The Fantastic Now: Research in the Fantastic in the 21st Century, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, 22-24/09/2016. (Workshop Moderation).
 
 
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