Amanda Halter, M.A.

CV

   
Since 05/2020 

Research Associate in American Studies, FSU Jena

since 09/2019 

PhD Candidate in American Studies, FSU Jena

Working Title: "Reading Environmental Violence in Contemporary American Young Adult Fiction"

since 2019 Adjunct Lecturer in American Studies, FSU Jena
2018-2019

Leave Replacement: Research Associate in American Studies, FSU Jena

2016-2018 Student Assistant for Editorial Work, Institute of Social Geography, FSU Jena
2016-2017 Student Assistant, Institute of English and American Studies, FSU Jena
2015-2017

M.A. English and American Studies, FSU Jena

“The EcoBildungsroman: Coming of Age in Narratives of Ecological Crisis”

2014-2015

English Language Arts Teacher, Bronx Prep Middle School, Bronx, New York, USA

2011-2014

B.S. Adolescent English Education, Nyack College, Nyack, New York, USA

2009-2011 A.A. General Studies, Laramie County Community College, Cheyenne, Wyoming, USA
2005-2009

Highschool Diploma, East High School, Cheyenne, Wyoming, USA

Publications and Research Interests

  • Editorial Work
    • Felgenhauer, Tilo and Karsten Gaebler, eds. Geographies of Digital Culture. Abingdon: Routledge, 2018.
    • Gruber, Eva and Caroline Rosenthal, eds. Gained Ground: Perspectives on Canadian and Comparative North American Studies. Rochester: Camden House, 2018.
  • Publications (Articles)
    • "Adressing a Failing US Environmental Education from Within: An Ecopedagogy of Fiction." 2022 DGfA Conference Proceedings, 2024 (Manuscript Submitted).
    • "Post-Pandemic Walden: An Examination of Thoreauvian Place-Based Education Through Covid and Beyond." (with Caroline Rosenthal) Teacher Education in (Post-)Pandemic Times: International Perspectives on Interculturality, Diversity and Equity. Eds. Silke Braselmann, Lukas Eibensteiner, and Laurenz Volkmann. Lausanne: Peter Lang, 2024, 125-154.
  • Publications (Reviews)
    • Dana Luciano. How the Earth Feels: Geological Fantasy in the Nineteenth-Century United States. Amerikastudien/American Studies, 69.3 (2024), (Manuscript Submitted).
    • "Karen Kilcup, Stronger, Truer, Bolder: American Children's Writing, Nature, and the Environment." gestern ROMANTIK heuteExterner Link. Forum für Wissenschaft und Kultur (2023).
  • Talks & Guest Lectures
    • "Drawing #WaterBack in Indigenous Picturebooks." Ringvorlesung, "Ways of Water: Aquating Poetics and Politics in North American Literatures," FSU Jena, 12.06.2024.
    • "Soccer and Gender in the US and Germany." Guest Lecture, Seminar "Football/Soccer and 21st Century Culture," University of Paderborn, 03.06.2024.
    • "The Environmental Humanities." (with the Ecocriticism Research Collective). Ringvorlesung Nachhaltigkeit, FSU Jena, 02.11.2023.
    • "Ecocriticism on the Ground: A Sketch of Ecocriticial Work at FSU". (with the Ecocriticism Research Collective). Research Colloquium at the Ernst-Haeckel-Haus, FSU Jena, 29.06.2023.
    • "Literature and Literary Studies in/of the Anthropocene." (with Carolin Grzenia). Guest Lecture, "Teaching the Climate Crisis" Seminar, FSU Jena, 21.06.2023.
    • "Bridging Place-Based Learning and Critical Pedagogy: Picturebooks as Practical Application." In "Workshop: Place-Based Education and Environmental Care," as part of the DFG-funded research training group "The Romantic Model" at FSU Jena, 11.05.23.
    • “Facets of Literature in the Anthropocene.” (with Carolin Grzenia and Florian Wagner). Guest Lecture, “Nature Writing and Ecocriticism” Seminar, FSU Jena, 12.01.23. 
    • "'Re-Drawing' Nature: The Environmental Imagination in Contemporary Picturebooks." Invited guest lecture in the seminar "Bilderbücher in der Grundschule," University of Potsdam, 26.09.2022.
    • "The Anthropocene in Art and Literature." (with Carolin Grzenia and Florian Wagner). Guest Lecture, "Romantic Thought in the Epoch of the Anthropocene" Seminar, FSU Jena, 03.05.2022.
    • “Addressing a Failing US Environmental Education: The Potential of Young Adult Anthropocene Fiction.” Annual DGfA Meeting: Political Education & American Studies, University of Tübingen, June 9-11, 2022.
    • “At the Center of the Storm: A Critical Analysis of Adolescence in Young Adult Eco-Fiction.” Workshop on Constructions of Adolescence, Hosted by Technische Universität Dresden, virtual, 16.07.2021.
    • “Crises, Chasms, and Unlikely Collectives: Growing Up in Contemporary Young Adult Eco-Dystopian Fiction.” International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts: Climate Change and the Anthropocene, virtual, 20.03.2021.
    • “’Maybe it was the end of the world- that world’: An Examination of Hope in Young Adult Eco-Dystopian Fiction of the Anthropocene.” 31st Annual Mardi Gras Graduate Student Conference: Uncertain Futures: Exploring Ambiguities, Hopes and Anxieties, Louisiana State University, virtual, 10.02.2021.
    • “Ecocriticism and Young Adult Literature: Texts as Expressive Agents for Change.” Guest Lecture, Nature Writing and Ecocriticism Lecture Series, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, 21.01.2021.
    • "The Bildungsroman in the Anthropocene: Reading Narratives of Formation in the New Epoch." Regional Colloquium of American Studies. 25.10.2019, Halle, DE.
  • Research Interests
    • Children’s and Young Adult Literature
    • Ecocriticism
    • The Anthropocene in Literature and Culture
    • Adaptation Studies: Film, Literature, and Popular Culture
    • Literature Between the Wars and The Lost Generation

    Affiliations, Memberships, and Academic Networks

    • Children's Literature Association (ChLA)
    • Ecocriticism Research Collective, Institute of American Studies, FSU Jena
    • German Association of American Studies (DGfA/GAAS)
    • Young Adult Studies Association (YASA)
  • Teaching

    MA COURSES:

    • Keeping it "Real": Young Adult Fiction and Realism (WiSe 24/25)

    BA COURSES:

    • Introduction to Literary Studies II (SoSe 24)
    • Demystifying Literary Theory (WiSe 23/24)
    • The Western (SoSe 23) 
    • Adaptation: Literature to/from Film and Beyond (WiSe 22)
    • The Environmental Imagination in Children's Picturebooks (University of Erfurt, SoSe 22)
    • Introduction to Literary Studies II (SoSe 22)
    • Introduction to Literary Studies II  (WiSe 21/22)
    • Wild Things: Children's Culture and Ecocriticism (SoSe 21)
    • Young Adult Literature (WiSE 20/21)
    • Gatsby(s) on the Silver Screen (WiSE 20/21)
    • Revisions of the Bildungsroman in Anglophone Literature and Culture (WiSE 19/20)
    • The Lost Generation (WiSE 18/19)
    • The American Bildungsroman (SoSe 18)
  • Media
  • Other
    • "Environmental Crisis and Culture: An Introduction to Ecocriticism and a Public Discussion" (with Ecocriticism Research Collective). Public Climate School, FSU Jena, 22.11.2021.
    • "Climate Change Stories: A Reading and Discussion" (with Jamie Hyatt). Public Climate School, FSU Jena, 19.05.2021.
    • "The Climate Crises and the Literary Imagination: A Reading and Discussion" (with Ecocriticism Research Collective). Public Climate School, FSU Jena, 21.11.2020.