Events
Simon Voss presents at the 41st AIEL Conference
Location: Roma Tre University
Conference 'Futures and Frontiers in US American Culture(s)'
Location: John F. Kennedy Institute lecture rooms, 3rd floor Lansstraße 7-9 14195 Berlin
Orientation Week Bachelor & Master in North American Studies 2026/27
Welcome to the John-F.-Kennedy Institute! We recommend that first semester students attend both days of their respective degree orientation (BA: Wed&Fri; MA: Thu&Fri). The event will be held in-person.
Politisches Bildungsforum Hessen: Der politisch-kulturelle US-amerikanische Einfluss auf Hessen, Deutschland und Europa
Location: Museum Reinhard Ernst Wilhelmstraße 1, 65185 Wiesbaden
Nikolaus Wolf at the Research Colloquium Social Sciences
Nikolaus Wolf (Humboldt)
Location: Room 201 John F. Kennedy Institute, Lansstraße 7-9, 14195 Berlin
Andrea Bernini at the Research Seminar Economics
Location: Freie Universität Berlin Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaft Boltzmannstraße 20, 14195 Berlin Kaminzimmer, room 202
Toman Barsbai at the Research Colloquium Social Sciences
Toman Barsbai (University of Bristol)
Location: Room 201 John F. Kennedy Institute, Lansstraße 7-9, 14195 Berlin
Luca Stella at the Research Seminar Economics
Location: Freie Universität Berlin Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaft Boltzmannstraße 20, 14195 Berlin Kaminzimmer, room 202
Nina Boberg Fazlic at the Research Colloquium Social Sciences
Nina Boberg Fazlic (TU Dortmund)
Location: Room 201 John F. Kennedy Institute, Lansstraße 7-9, 14195 Berlin
Erik Haustein at the Research Colloquium Social Sciences
Erik Haustein (Joint Research Centre of the European Commission)
Location: Room 201 John F. Kennedy Institute, Lansstraße 7-9, 14195 Berlin
Yajna Govind at the Research Seminar Economics
Location: Freie Universität Berlin Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaft Boltzmannstraße 20, 14195 Berlin Kaminzimmer, room 202
Workshop with Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Location: Room 340
Research Colloquium Literature/ Culture | Nicole Waller (Universität Potsdam). “Posthumanism, Indigenous Studies, and Black Studies on Turtle Island: Conversations and Incommensurabilities”
Location: John F Kennedy Institute for North American Studies Lansstr. 7-9 14195 Berlin Room 201
Lecture Series "gender, sexuality, power" | Alexis Pauline Gumbs (Poet + Activist):"The Rhythm of Gray Whales Praying": Audre Lorde and the Future of Earth.
Location: Großer Hörsaal (R B.001) Arnimallee 22 14195 Berlin
JFKI and FMI BA Conference
Ever wondered what topics BA students dedicate months of research to? From German history and gender studies to global power structures, our BA Student Conference offers insight into the diversity of undergraduate research. The JFKI & FMI BA Student Conference brings together undergraduate students from the Friedrich Meinecke Institute and the John F. Kennedy Institute at the Freie Universität Berlin to present their current research projects in history, culture, politics, and society. Join us for a day of engaging presentations that showcase how diverse, critical, and innovative BA-level research can be. The conference offers a space for academic exchange, discussion, and the exploration of ideas that connect past and present.
Location: Lansstraße 7-9, Rm 319
Graduation 2026
July 10, 2026
Location: Ceremony: Arnimallee 22, lecture hall B.001, Reception: JFK-I, Lansstr. 7-9, room 319
Research Colloquium Literature/ Culture | Hunter Hargraves (California State University, Fullerton): “Democracy Dies in the Edit: American Tribalism and Late-Stage Reality Television”
Location: John F Kennedy Institute for North American Studies Lansstr. 7-9 14195 Berlin Room 201
Lecture Series "gender, sexuality, power" | Jeannine DeLombard (University of California, Santa Barbara): "Wife, Daughter, Spinster, Litigant: Black Women & Girls in the 1st US Civil Rights Movement"
Location: Großer Hörsaal (R B.001) Arnimallee 22 14195 Berlin
Archival Workshop with William McAllister
Location: Room 319
Simon Voss presents at the 2nd Berlin PhD Conference in Economics
Location: Berlin School of Economics
Writing Retreat: Between Empire and Exile -- African American Thought and the German Colonial Imagination
Location: Oxford Room (Stabi Lab) Unter Den Linden 8 10117 Berlin
Research Colloquium Literature/ Culture | Stefanie Schäfer (Universität Mannheim):“Fact & Fiction, Fashion & Feminism: Towards a Critical Study of the First Lady”
Location: John F Kennedy Institute for North American Studies Lansstr. 7-9 14195 Berlin Room 201
Research Colloquium Literature/Culture | Shane Denson (Stanford University): “Art & Artifice, or: What AI Means for Aesthetics.”
Location: John F Kennedy Institute for North American Studies Lansstr. 7-9 14195 Berlin Room 340
DEVOTED: Texts We Carry (Reading Event with The FU Review)
Location: Room 201
Lecture Series “gender, sexuality, power”| Ela Przybyło (Illinois State University + MVBZ, FU Berlin): "Queer Little Splinters Everywhere: Asexual Challenges to Sex Scarcity Research and Queer Theory’s Continued Investment in Obligate Sex
Location: Großer Hörsaal (R B.001) Arnimallee 22 14195 Berlin
Julia Zimmermann at the Research Colloquium Social Sciences
Julia Zimmermann (Carlos III Madrid)
Location: Raum 201 John F. Kennedy Institute, Lansstraße 7-9, 14195 Berlin
Workshop with Ela Przybyło
Location: Room 340
Global History Colloquium / FMI Mid-Term Lecture: Anne Gerritsen (University of Warwick) on "The Object of History: How Things Can Help Us Write Early Modern History"
Location: Koserstraße 20 A336
Research Colloquium Literature/ Culture | Maria Sulimma (Universität Freiburg): “Trivial Pursuits: Narrative, Leisure, and the Gentrifying City”
Location: John F Kennedy Institute for North American Studies Lansstr. 7-9 14195 Berlin Room 201
Lecture Series "gender, sexuality, power" | Nathalie Rennhack (FU Berlin):“I would descend with celebrity to posterity” - Female Authorship and Authority in the Early Republic
Location: Großer Hörsaal (R B.001) Arnimallee 22 14195 Berlin
Research Colloquium Literature/ Culture | Jennifer Fleissner (University of Chicago): “The Recalcitrant Self: From Collectivity to Interdependence”
Location: John F Kennedy Institute for North American Studies Lansstr. 7-9 14195 Berlin Room 340
Conference "Dilemmas of Interdependence"
Location: JFKI for North American Studies Lansstr. 7-9 14195 Berlin Room 340
María Cecilia Schwedhelm Ramirez and Veronica Bayiha ñwa Quillien: "Language Reclamation as Reproductive Justice"
Location: LOCATION CHANGE This event will now occur at Iltisstraße 1-4, Room K009
Freya Rubel presents at the Nordic Annual Environmental and Resource Economics Workshop
Location: Stockholm School of Economics
Simon Voss presents at the ESPE 2026 Annual Conference
Location: Espoo and Helsinki
Research Colloquium Literature/ Culture | Christa Dierksheide (University of Virginia) & Nicholas Guyatt (Cambridge University): “Jefferson’s Wolf: A Founding Father’s Troubling Answer to the Problem of Slavery”
Location: John F Kennedy Institute for North American Studies Lansstr. 7-9 14195 Berlin Room 201
Lecture Series "gender, sexuality, power" | Anna Marta Marini (Humboldt Fellow, FU Berlin): "Disposable Lives, Ethnoracialized Bodies and Genderscapes on the U.S.-Mexican Border"
Location: Großer Hörsaal (R B.001) Arnimallee 22 14195 Berlin
Dr. Reiko Füting, Composer and Professor, Manhattan School of Music Speaking as part of Kira Alvarez’s seminar “Politics of Sound: The Twentieth-Century Classical Music World in the United States” Seminar
Location: Lansstraße 7-9, 14195 Berlin Room 340
Research Colloquium Literature/ Culture | Mark Rifkin (University at Buffalo):“Indigenous Erotics, Leaky Bodies, and Grounded Relations: Queer Native Placemaking in Joshua Whitehead’s Jonny Appleseed”
Location: John F Kennedy Institute for North American Studies Lansstr. 7-9 14195 Berlin Room 201
Lecture Series "gender.sexuality, power" | Annelot Prins (Independent Researcher):"Billionaire Aesthetics: Taylor Swift, Labor Extremism, and the Cultural Politics of Work and Power"
Location: Großer Hörsaal (R B.001) Arnimallee 22 14195 Berlin
Max Steinhardt presents at the 5th Gender and Economics Workshop
Location: University of Luxembourg
Research Colloquium Literature/ Culture | Simon Strick (Independent Scholar):“On Fascistization, or American Culture as Bad Object”
Location: John F Kennedy Institute for North American Studies Lansstr. 7-9 14195 Berlin Room 201
Lecture Series "gender, sexuality, power" | Elahe Haschemi Yekani + Anne Potjans (HU Berlin: “What rises up within, between us?”: Race and Intersectionality in Literary Studies
Location: Großer Hörsaal (R B.001) Arnimallee 22 14195 Berlin
Research Colloquium Literature/ Culture | Günter Leypoldt (Universität Heidelberg):“Literature and Networks: A Socio-Institutional Perspective on Literary History”
Location: John F Kennedy Institute for North American Studies Lansstr. 7-9 14195 Berlin Room 201
American Academy Lecture| Maaza Mengiste (Wesleyan University, Author + American Academy Berlin Fellow): Author Reading and Discussion
Location: Henry-Ford-Bau Hörsaal A Garystr. 35/37 14195 Berlin
Sven Hartmann at the Social Sciences Research Colloquium
Sven Hartmann (Uni Trier)
Location: Raum 201 John F. Kennedy Institute, Lansstraße 7-9, 14195 Berlin
Research Colloquium Literature/ Culture | Renae Watchman (McMaster University / Mercator Fellow, Universität Potsdam): “Re-storying Indigenous Identity Claims in Literary and Creative Arts.”
Location: John F Kennedy Institute for North American Studies Lansstr. 7-9 14195 Berlin Room 201
Lecture Series "gender, sexuality, power" | Birte Wege (FU Berlin): Staging Identity in American Theater: Two Case Studies
Location: Großer Hörsaal (R B.001) Arnimallee 22 14195 Berlin
Rüdiger Bachmann at the Research Seminar Economics
Location: Freie Universität Berlin Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaft Boltzmannstraße 20, 14195 Berlin Kaminzimmer, room 202
Inaugural Ernst Fraenkel Lecture | Brook Thomas (UC Irvine): "Birthright Citizenship, Ltd.: The Controversy over Trump’s Executive Order 14610”
Location: Großer Hörsaal (Raum B.001) Arnimallee 22
Lecture Series "gender, sexuality, power" | Joanna Arnow (Filmmaker + DAAD Berlin Fellow) - Conversation with Madita Oeming
Location: Großer Hörsaal (R B.001) Arnimallee 22 14195 Berlin
Taylan Alpkaya at the Social Sciences Research Colloquium
Taylan Alpkaya (Uni Mannheim)
Location: Raum 201 John F. Kennedy Institute, Lansstraße 7-9, 14195 Berlin
Conversation with the author Doug Woodham
Location: John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies Lansstr. 7-9 14195 Berlin R340
Research Colloquium Literature/Culture | Anna Marta Marini (JFKI Humboldt Fellow): "Ethnoracial Borderscapes, Latinx Assimilationism and Anti-Immigrant Sentiments in US Cinema"
Location: John F Kennedy Institute for North American Studies Lansstr. 7-9 14195 Berlin Room 201
Lecture Series "gender, sexuality, power" | Film Screening “The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed “ (dir. Joanna Arnow)
Location: Großer Hörsaal (R B.001) Arnimallee 22 14195 Berlin
Research Colloquium Literature/Culture | Florian Sedlmeier (Universität Hamburg):“Free Indirect Positions: Sebastian Barry’s Historical Novels”
Location: John F Kennedy Institute for North American Studies Lansstr. 7-9 14195 Berlin Room 201
Lecture Series "gender, sexuality, power" | Helen Gibson (FU Berlin): "Reproductive Justice as Anti-Fascist Practice"
Location: Großer Hörsaal (R B.001) Arnimallee 22 14195 Berlin
Freya Rubel at the Annual Conference of the Economic History Society
Location: London School of Economics and Political Science
Environmental Shocks and Marriage Formation: Evidence from the Dust Bowl
Location: Universidad Carlos III in GETAFE (Calle Madrid nº 135; Edificio (Building) 18, Carmen Martín Gaite) Room 18.1.A.07
Postponed: End of Term Party 2026
Location: JFK-I, Lansstr. 7-9, 2nd floor
Lecture Series S16: Wrap-Up and Overview
Location: Gr. Hörsaal (Raum B.001) (Arnimallee 22)
Lecture Series S15: Frank Kelleter (FU Berlin): ”Theorizing Loss, Losing Theory: Styles of Coping in the Elegiac Humanities, 2008-2025"
Location: Gr. Hörsaal (Raum B.001) (Arnimallee 22)
Lecture Series S14: Giacomo Tagiuri (University of Amsterdam): “The Governance of Loss”
Location: Gr. Hörsaal (Raum B.001) (Arnimallee 22)
Lecture Series S13: Sherry Lee Linkon (Georgetown University): “Black Struggle and Resilience: LaToya Ruby Frazier’s Portraits of Deindustrialized Communities”
Location: Gr. Hörsaal (Raum B.001) (Arnimallee 22)
Lecture Series S12: Stefanie Müller (FU Berlin): “Climate Change Memoirs”
Location: Different venue: Henry Ford Bau Hörsaal A Garystr. 35-37
Lecture Series S11: Tobias Becker (University of Heidelberg): “The Politics of Nostalgia and the Poverty of Theory”
Location: Gr. Hörsaal (Raum B.001) (Arnimallee 22)
Lecture Series 10: Arlie Russel Hochschildtl (University of California, Berkeley): “Loss, Shame and the Right’s Narrative of Stolen Pride”
Location: ONLINE via Webex Please not different time and place.
CANCELED - Lecture Series S09: Heike Paul (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg): “Lost Cause-Sentimentalism and the Rise of Right-Wing Populism”
Location: Gr. Hörsaal (Raum B.001) (Arnimallee 22)
Guest Lecture: Steven Sarson
Location: John-F.-Kennedy-Institute Lansstraße 7-9 14195 Berlin Room 319
Lecture Series S08: Martin Lüthe (FU Berlin): “Playing Loss and Losing Play? Digital Games as Affective Agents of Loss”
Location: Gr. Hörsaal (Raum B.001) (Arnimallee 22)
Lecture Series S07: Christian Lammert (FU Berlin): “Reconfiguring Welfare States: A Dynamic Approach to Loss in North America and Western Europe”
Location: Gr. Hörsaal (Raum B.001) (Arnimallee 22)
Workshop: "Disconnect: When Music Excludes and Divides"
Location: John-F.-Kennedy-Institut für Nordamerikastudien, Room 319 Lansstraße 7-9, 14195 Berlin
Lecture Series S06: Rebecca Elliott (London School of Economics): "W(h)ither the Sympathetic State? The Dismantling of the Disaster Safety Net in the United States"
Location: Gr. Hörsaal (Raum B.001) (Arnimallee 22)
Lecture Series S05: Jacob Hacker (American Academy Fellow): “Inequality, Insecurity, and America’s Democratic Crisis”
Location: Gr. Hörsaal (Raum B.001) (Arnimallee 22)
Reflecting on 50 Years of Feminist Media Studies: Join a Workshop with Leading Scholars
Location: JFKI, Room 203 (Lansstraße 7-9, 14195 Berlin)
Lecture Series S04: Lora Anne Viola (FU Berlin): “The Politics of Loss in US Foreign Policy and the Undoing of Multilateralism”
Location: Gr. Hörsaal (Raum B.001) (Arnimallee 22)
Max Steinhardt at the housing policy conference "Bezahlbar Wohnen!"
Location: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Haus 1, Berlin
Max Steinhardt at the housing policy conference "Bezahlbar Wohnen!"
Location: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Haus 1, Berlin
Serial Encounters
A Symposium Celebrating Frank Kelleter’s 60th Birthday
Lecture Series S03: Discussion of Andreas Reckwitz’s "Verlust"
Location: Gr. Hörsaal (Raum B.001) (Arnimallee 22)
Lecture Series S02: Sebastian Kohl (FU Berlin): “Insuring Loss”
Location: Gr. Hörsaal (Raum B.001) (Arnimallee 22)
Lecture Series S01: Introduction: Research Questions and Projects
Location: Gr. Hörsaal (Raum B.001) (Arnimallee 22)
Max Steinhardt at the Economics and Politics of Irregular Migration Workshop of the HWWI
Location: HWWI, Mönkedamm 9, 20457 Hamburg
Research Colloquium Social Science: – Hans Joas (HU Berlin/University of Chicago) Book presentation of “Universalismus”
Location: Room 201 John F. Kennedy Institute Lansstr. 7-9 14195 Berlin
Research Colloquium Literature/Culture S13 - Katharina Gerund (University of Zurich):"The Waiting Wives of the Forever Wars: Military Spouses in Post-9/11 US Culture"
Location: John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies Lansstr. 7-9 14195 Berlin Room 201
Research Colloquium Social Science – Alexandra Scacco (WZB): “Anatomy of a Riot” (book presentation)
Location: Room 201 John F. Kennedy Institute Lansstr. 7-9 14195 Berlin
Research Colloquium Literature/Culture S12 - Julia Faisst (TU Dortmund): "Disappearing Children: Border Narratives of Underage Migration"
Location: John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies Lansstr. 7-9 14195 Berlin Room 201
Lecture by Carl-Ludwig Holtrerich: Edward A. Tenenbaum and the Deutschmark
Location: Room 340 John-F.-Kennedy-Institut für Nordamerikastudien Lansstraße 7-9 14195 Berlin