GSA 2025 Seminar: Adaptation Studies - Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy, Arlington, VA
We invite applications for the GSA Seminar "Adaptation Studies - Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy" at the 49th Annual German Studies Association Conference in Arlington, VA, September 25-28, 2025. The deadline for submissions is February 19, 2025 and there will be no late submissions accepted.
We conceive adaptations broadly and intend for this seminar to be multi- and transmedial.
Seminar description: Adaptation studies once assumed the uniqueness and supremacy of literature as source of film adaptations. Today it considers the process, product, and context of transforming works across media, most recently with attention to embodiment and the environment. Adaptations appear in our courses, but often not as object of study. This seminar will consider case studies or teaching units on topics such as adaptation and the uncanny, adaptation as resistance, adaptation for/by children and/or youth, ecology and adaptation, economies of adaptation, embodiment and character, feminist adaptation, the work of art in the public domain, the limits of adaptation, social media and crowdsourced adaptation, the source object after adaptation(s), transcultural adaptation, or transmedial adaptation. We will examine current research in adaptation studies, which will inform discussion of case studies and teaching materials led by participants. The seminar will emphasize lively conversation for mutual growth and cultivation of a research community.
Format: We will distribute readings—not to exceed 150 pages—to participants upon acceptance for first-day discussion. Participants will submit 1500-2000 words of a case study or teaching materials by August 15 to everyone. Each participant will be assigned one for careful reading and will lead discussion together with the writer.
Application Information: Interested participants should submit an abstract describing their contribution to the seminar (500 words max), as well as a short biography (300 words max) via the OpenWater submissions portal by 19 February, 2025, 11:59pm EST. Membership in the GSA for 2025 is required to apply.
Please contact the seminar conveners, Gwyneth Cliver (gcliver@unomaha.edu) and Sarah McGaughey (mcgaughs@dickinson.edu) with any questions.
Contact Information
Sarah McGaughey
Professor of German
Dickinson College
Gwyneth Cliver
Associate Professor of German
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Contact Email
mcgaughs@dickinson.edu