JAAAS - Journal of the Austrian Association for American Studies

JAAAS - Journal of the Austrian Association for American Studies The Journal of the Austrian Association for American Studies (JAAAS; ISSN 2616-9533) is a peer-revie JAAAS is powered by Open Journal Systems.

The Journal of the Austrian Association for American Studies (JAAAS; ISSN 2616-9533) is a peer-reviewed open-access journal which creates an interdisciplinary space for debate on all aspects of American studies. It functions as a forum for Americanists in Austria and the global academic community. Published twice a year, the journal welcomes submissions on a wide range of topics, aiming to broaden

the multi- and interdisciplinary study of American cultures. JAAAS does not charge any article-processing charges (APCs). JAAAS is supported by the Austrian Association for American Studies and hosted and supported by the University of Graz, Austria. JAAAS is published twice a year, in the spring and in the fall. Open-access content is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

29/10/2025

Why higher ed needs to listen to the contrarians in setting policies on using tools like ChatGPT in faculty work.

28/10/2025

How the legacy of the Civil War—as presented by writers, poets, and artists of the time—has shaped American visions of democracy.

Shirley Samuels' Haunted by the Civil War is now available (23 Dec UK pub). Learn more: https://hubs.ly/Q03Qfd590

In Haunted by the Civil War, Shirley Samuels explores the work of Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, Frederick Douglass, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and others to investigate the long cultural shadow of America’s cataclysmic sundering. Juxtaposing these texts with images—ranging from paintings by Winslow Homer to newspaper and magazine illustrations of political controversies—Samuels argues that the Civil War still haunts our attitudes toward democracy. The recent toppling of Confederate monuments, the continuing protests over racial and sexual discrimination, immigration, and Indigenous land rights: each of these forms part of the war’s legacy.

Examining the fraught deliberations about an ideal American in the early republic, Samuels turns to the language of sensation in the poetry of Melville, Dickinson, and Whitman alongside Lincoln’s relation to the poetic and visual culture of his time. She considers the haunted afterlives of war in the work of Louisa May Alcott and Harriet Beecher Stowe as well as in popular nineteenth-century inspirational fiction. And she investigates the literature of men at sea (and on rivers, enabling both connection and escape), as seen in Melville and Mark Twain, while examining women’s wartime work and experience, in writings by Gilman and Frances Harper.

Why does the Civil War still haunt us? To find the answer, Samuels identifies not only the ghosts that cannot rest but also the cultural practices that name them.

26/10/2025
26/10/2025

🇦🇹 Happy Austrian National Day 2025!

Today, we celebrate October 26, marking the day in 1955 when the Austrian Parliament adopted the Constitutional Act on Austria’s permanent neutrality – a defining moment in our nation’s postwar history. 🕊️

Since 1965, Austrians have observed this day as National Day, reflecting on our enduring commitment to peace, freedom, and international cooperation. 🌍

Austria remains militarily neutral and firmly committed to defending the principles of the United Nations Charter and international law.

22/10/2025

A user’s guide to the fundamental practice of literary studies, providing context, examples, and practical exercises.

Dan Sinykin and Johanna Winant's Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century is out now! Order yours: https://hubs.ly/Q03Pzq620

Close reading—making an argument based in close attention to a text—is the foundation of . This book offers a guide to close reading, treating it as a skill that can be taught and practiced. It first explains what close reading is, what it does, and how it has been used across theoretical schools ranging from affect studies to Black studies to q***r theory to Marxism. It then presents a series of master classes in the practice, with original contributions by scholars from a range of different institutions. Finally, it provides practical materials, worksheets, and suggested activities for instructors to use in the classroom. The tone throughout is encouraging and accessible, inviting readers of all backgrounds to hone their craft.

The book divides the practice of close reading into five steps, coining a term for each step: scene setting, noticing, local claiming, regional argumentation, and global theorizing. It traces the roots of close reading, showing how it has spread far beyond its origins in practical criticism and New Criticism. In twenty-one short chapters, contemporary scholars discuss close readings by such prominent literary critics as Erich Auerbach and Helen Vendler, describing how their arguments work and how to achieve similar results. An essential resource for instructors and students at the undergraduate level and beyond, this book shows how understanding close reading can make us better readers, thinkers, and writers.

22/10/2025

📢 Join us for the next lecture in the European Forum on US History

“Slavery, Gender, and Emotions in the Antebellum US South”

👩‍🏫 by Beth Wilson, Cardiff University
🗓️ Monday, 27 October 2025
🕔 17:15–18:45 (online)
📚 2 OZN points

The European Forum on US History, in cooperation with the ASC, is hosting an online lecture “Slavery, Gender, and Emotions in the Antebellum US South” by Beth Wilson.

Prof. Wilson is a lecturer in History at Cardiff University and has published articles on slavery, emotions, and gender in American Nineteenth Century History and Slavery and Abolition. Her book, “I Felt All This”: Enslaved People’s Emotional Lives in the US South, will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2026.

This lecture will explore enslaved people’s emotional lives and the ways they developed their own emotional frameworks to resist and survive the institution of slavery.

🔗 Register here: https://tally.so/r/nPKgJQ

22/10/2025
22/10/2025
22/10/2025

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Journal mission and aims

Interrogating the notion of "America" and looking at the U.S. within its transnational and (trans-)hemispheric interconnections, JAAAS wants to challenge disciplinary boundaries by bringing together original and innovative work by scholars who focus on topics as diverse as literature, cultural studies, film and new media, visual arts, ethnic studies, indigenous studies, performance studies, q***r studies, border studies, mobility studies, age studies, game studies, and animal studies. Apart from offering insights into trans- and international American literary and cultural studies and offering European perspectives on America, the journal also seeks scholarship that deals with history, music, politics, geography, ecocriticism, race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, law, and any other aspect of American culture and society.

JAAAS welcomes submissions from new, emerging, and established scholars on various topics related to American culture (literature, film, television, visual arts, etc.). Although scholars working in the broad field of American Studies are the expected primary authors, anyone conducting research on American culture is encouraged to submit a proposal.

Work that meets the following prerequisites is likely to be a good fit for JAAAS:


  • It is original scholarship, neither previously published in English nor under consideration elsewhere, with a compelling argument;