Gerd Hurm is a professor of American literature and culture. He joined the University of Trier in 2001 and became the founding director of the Trier Center for American Studies (TCAS) in 2004. He studied, researched and taught at the following institutions: University of Freiburg (MA in English and American literature, German literature, geography, 1980-1986, Dr. phil. 1989, Dr. habil. 1999), King's College, London, GB (1982), UNC, Chapel Hill, NC (1984), M.I.T. Cambridge, MA; Columbia U, NY (1988), U of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA (Fulbright scholar, 1994), Clark U, Worcester, MA (2002), U of Basel, CH (2008-2010), PSU, Portland, OR (Fulbright scholar, 2006, 2012) and the U of Luxemburg (2009- ). He also serves as the Trier Fulbright liaison professor (2001-). In 2017, he joined the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies at the JGU Mainz as an advisory board member.
Main Areas of Teaching and Research:
American modernism (focus: urban studies, postwar period)
American political rhetoric (focus: Presidential speeches)
Visual studies (focus: 20th-century American photography)
Media studies (focus: orality and literacy)
Gender and transnational studies
African-American literature and culture
Upcoming Conferences, Symposia, Events
Public Humanities Initiatives:
Annual Literary Symposium on Contemporary American fiction (2009 - )
Public Lecture Series "American Studies" at Trier City Library (2010- )
Installation Art Project at European Art Institute, Trier
Author Readings at Trier City Library (E. Callenbach, J. Wray, F. Hoppe, A. Pehnt, etc.)
Lecture Series in cooperation with Centre national de l'audiovisuel (CNA), Dudelange, Luxembourg
Publications - Selected Monographs and Edited Books
o Edward Steichen. Luxemburg: Editions Saint Paul (October 2019).
o (with Anke Reitz and Shamoon Zamir), ed. The Family of Man Revisited: Photography in a Global Age London: I.B. Tauris, 2018.
o (with Steven Alford), ed. Motorcycle:Speed and Rebellion? International Journal of Motorcycle Studies Vol 6. 2010. http://ijms.nova.edu/Spring2010/
o (with Ann Marie Fallon), ed. Rebels without a Cause? Renegotiating the American 1950s. Oxford: Lang, 2007.
o Rewriting the Vernacular Mark Twain: The Aesthetics and Politics of Orality in Samuel Clemens’s Fictions. Trier: WVT, 2003.
o (with Paul Goetsch), ed. Important Speeches by American Presidents after 1945. anglistik & englischunterricht 54. Heidelberg: Winter, 1994.
o (with Paul Goetsch), ed. The Fourth of July: Political Oratory and Literary Reactions, 1776-1876. ScriptOralia 45. Tübingen: Narr, 1992.
o Fragmented Urban Images: The American City in Modern Fiction from Stephen Crane to Thomas Pynchon. Frankfurt: Lang, 1991.
Selected Essays and Articles
Reviews, Encyclopedia Entries, Interviews, Panels
Gerd Hurm has written on topics in American literature from the 18th to the 21st century and has contributed to various encyclopaedia, journals, and newspapers, including Kindlers Literaturlexikon, Harenbergs Lexikon der Weltliteratur, Metzler Lexikon amerikanischer Autoren, BZ, and FAZ. He has also served as a reviewer for the DAAD, the MLA, and various publishers. Interviews have appeared in SWR, Radio 100,7 (Luxembourg), WBEZ (Chicago, ILL), Trierischer Volksfreund etc.