Dr. Jens Temmen
Assistant Professor
Jens Temmen is a postdoctoral research assistant at the American Studies department at Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf (Germany). He received his PhD in American Studies as part of his PhD fellowship with the Research Training Group minorcosmopolitanisms at the University of Potsdam. His first monograph, titled The Territorialities of US Imperialism(s): Conflicting Discourses of Sovereignty, Jurisdiction and Territory in Nineteenth-Century US Legal Texts and Indigenous Life Writing (Universitätsverlag Winter, 2020), analyzes discourses of sovereignty, jurisdiction, and territoriality in legal and literary narratives on the North American continent and in the Pacific. In 2016, he was a DAAD-funded visiting scholar at the Center for Biographical Research at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (USA). He is co-editor of an anthology titled Across Currents: Connections between Atlantic and (Trans)Pacific Studies (Routledge, 2018) and coeditor of a Special Forum of the Journal for Transnational American Studies (JTAS) on “American Territorialities“. His postdoctoral research project employs an ecocritical and a posthuman studies lens to analyze representations of Mars colonization in contemporary US literature and culture.
Since October 2020 | Postdoctoral Research Assistant at the American Studies Department, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf |
Since December 2019 | Associate postdoctoral researcher at the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz |
Since March 2020 | Member “Young Academy“ (Junge Akademie); Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz (Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur Mainz)
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August 2019 | PhD in American Literature and Culture (summa cum laude) at the University of Potsdam (Thesis: The Territorialities of US Imperialism(s): Conflicting Discourses of Sovereignty, Jurisdiction and Territory in Nineteenth-Century US Legal Texts and Indigenous Life Writing)
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September 2016 – September 2019 | PhD Fellow at the Graduate College “Minor Cosmopolitanisms“ (DFG funded), University of Potsdam
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June 2018 | Research stay at the Department of English, York University Toronto, Canada (funded by the RTG “Minor Cosmopolitanisms“)
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February 2018 | Research stay at the Department of Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies, Macquarie University Sydney, Australia (funded by the RTG “Minor Cosmopolitanisms“)
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December 2017 | Research stay at the Department of English, University of Delhi, India (funded by the RTG “Minor Cosmopolitanisms“)
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July 2016 – August 2016 | Visiting scholar at the Center for Biographical Research, University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa, Hawaiʻi, USA (Visiting scholarship funded by the DAAD)
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April 2013 – September 2016 | PhD Candidate in American studies at the Department of English and American Studies, University of Potsdam (PhD supervisor: Prof. Dr. Nicole Waller, University of Potsdam, and Prof. Dr. Alfred Hornung, JGU Mainz)
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August 2012 – March 2013 | PhD Candidate in American studies at the Department of English and American Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz PhD Candidate in American studies (PhD supervisor: Prof. Dr.Nicole Waller, University of Potsdam, and Prof. Dr. Alfred Hornung, JGU Mainz |
2016 | Full PhD fellowship funded by the DFG at the Research College “Minor Cosmopolitanisms,“ University of Potsdam, Germany
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2016 | Research scholarship of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) (Awarded for a visiting scholarship at the Center for Biographical Research, University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa, HI, USA)
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2016 | Travel and Research scholarship of the Commission for Research and Junior Scientific Staff (FNK), University of Potsdam, Germany (Awarded for a visiting scholarship at the Center for Biographical Research, University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa, HI, USA)
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2015 | Teaching scholarship of the Commission for Development, Planning and Finances (EPK), University of Potsdam, Germany Awarded for a seminar field trip to the Karl May-Museum Radebeul as part of a undergraduate seminar on “Introduction |
2014 | Fellowship of the Potsdam Graduate School, University of Potsdam, Germany (Awarded for the participation in the Junior Teaching Professionals Program)
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2014 | Travel grant of the Embassy of the United States of American, Berlin (Awarded for the participation in the Salzburg Global Seminar, 2014)
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2012 | Master thesis prize of the "Professor Dr. Friedrich Schubel-Stiftung" (Awarded for the outstanding master thesis “Displacing the Nation in the American Southwest: Joaquin Murieta and Geronimo's Story of His Life”, 2012)
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Since 2020 | Humanity in Transformation (Interdisciplinary research group at the Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz)
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Since 2019 | Writing Life on Mars: Conceptions of Planetarity and Extraterrestrial Human Life in Representations of Space Exploration and Colonization in Contemporary North American Literature and Culture
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Since 2014 | American Territorialities (with Prof. Dr. Nicole Waller, Potsdam)
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2014 - 2018 | Connections between Atlantic Studies and (Trans)Pacific Studies) (with Nicole Poppenhagen, Flensburg)
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2019 | Workshop “The Popular Culture of Settler Colonialism.“ (Panel at the 66. Annual Conference of the DGfA / GAAS, Hamburg, with René Dietrich, Mainz) |
2018 | Conference “Minor Cosmopolitan Weekend,“ Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (Conference organizing team) |
2018 | Book launch Across Currents: Connections Between Atlantic and (Trans)Pacific Studies (Conference “Minor Cosmopolitan Weekend,“ Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, with Nicole Poppenhagen) |
2018 | Guest lecture by Prof. Dr. Keith L. Camacho (UCLA), “Sāmoan Youth Gangs and the Transoceanic World: A Commentary on Indigeneity, Power, and Race.“ (Conference “Minor Cosmopolitan Weekend,“ Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, with Nicole Poppenhagen) |
2018 | Summer school “Minor Cosmopolitan Justice and Aesthetics.“ Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia (Summer school organizing team) |
2017 | Lecture series “Minor Cosmopolitan Theory.“ University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany (Lecture series organizing team) |
2016 | Symposium “American Territorialities.“ (University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany, with Nicole Waller) |
2016 | Workshop “Rethinking ’Territory’: Territorial Rights and Water.“ (Panel at the 63. Annual Conference of the DGfA / GAAS, Osnabrück, with Nicole Waller, Potsdam) |
2015 | Workshop “’Views from Different Shores’: Future Directions in Transpacific Studies.“ (University of Potsdam, Germany. Workshop, with Nicole Waller, Potsdam) |
2015 | Workshop “(Trans)Pacific Knowledge Landscapes.“ (Panel at the 62. Annual Conference of the DGfA / GAAS, Bonn, with Nicole Poppenhagen, Flensburg) |
2014 | Conference “Postcolonial Justice.” 25th annual conference of the German Association for New English Literature (GNEL) and the 14th biannual conference of the German Association for Australien Studies (GASt) (Conference organizing team) |
2014 | Workshop “Teachers Workshop - Postcolonial Justice.” University of Potsdam, Germany (Workshop organizing team) |
2012 | Conference “American Lives.” 63. Annual Conference of the DGfA / GAAS, Mainz (head of conference organizing team) |
2011 | Workshop series “Mapping the World, Mapping Literature“ American studies division, JGU Mainz (Workshop organizing team) |
2010 | Conference “Life Writing and Ecology.” American studies division, JGU Mainz (Conference organizing team) |
2020 – 2024 | Member “Young Academy“ of the Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz (Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur Mainz) |
2016 - 2019 | Alumnus of the Graduate College “Minor Cosmopolitanisms” (funded by the DFG), University of Potsdam, Germany |
Since 2014 | Alumnus of the Junior Teaching Professionals Program, Potsdam Graduate School, University of Potsdam |
Since 2014 | Fellow and Alumnus of the Salzburg Global Seminar American Studies Association |
| Member of the American Studies Association (ASA) |
| Member of the German Association for American Studies |
| (DGfA / GAAS) |
| Member of the Association for Anglophone Postcolonial Studies (GAPS) |
| Member of the Potsdam Graduate School (POGS) |
Since 2015 | Member of the Advisory Board; Potsdam Graduate School, POGS |
Monographs
2020
The Territorialities of U.S. Imperialism(s): Conflicting Discourses of Sovereignty, Jurisdiction and Territoriy in Nineteenth-Century U.S. Legal Texts and Indigenous Life Writing. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2020. Print.
Edited Volumes and Journals
2020
with Nicole Waller. Eds. American Territorialities. Special Forum of the Journal of Transnational American Studies (JTAS). 11.1. escholarship.org/uc/acgcc_jtas/11/1
2018
with Nicole Poppenhagen. Eds. Across Currents: Connections between Atlantic Studies and (Trans)Pacific Studies. Abdingdon: Routledge. 2018. Print.
2018
with Nicole Poppenhagen. Eds. “Across Currents: Connections between Atlantic Studies and (Trans)Pacific Studies“. Spec. Issue of Atlantic Studies: Global Currents. 2018. Print.
Articles or Book Chapters
2021
“Writing Life on Mars: Posthuman Imaginaries of Extraterrestrial Colonization and the NASA Mars Rover Missions.“ Posthumanism and Ecocritical Life Writing. Eds. Ina Batzke, Lea Espinoza, Linda Hess. Forthcoming. Print.
“Passing on the Torch to Light Out the Territory Ahead: Conflicting Temporalities of (Arrested) Mobility in Geronimo’s Story of His Life.“ The Minor on the Move: Doing Cosmopolitanisms. Eds. Kylie Crane, Sara Morais Dos Santos Bruss, Lucy Gasser, Anna von Rath. Edition Assemblage. Forthcoming. Print
2020
"The Un/Incoroporated States of America: The Grammar of Jurisdictional Incongruence in US Imperialism." Spaces of Empire. Ed. Mahshid Mayar. U.S. Studies Online: Forum for New Writing. usso.uk/the-un-incorporated-continental-overseas-global-states-of-america-the-grammar-of-jurisdictional-incongruence-in-us-imperialism/.
with Nicole Waller. “Introduction: Mapping American Territorialities.“ American Territorialities. Eds. Jens Temmen and Nicole Waller. Special Forum of the Journal of Transnational American Studies (JTAS). 2020: 5-31. escholarship.org/uc/item/3js9b5td
“The Imperial Grammar of Jurisdictional Incongruence.“ Charting the Minor Cosmopolitan. Ed. Zairong Xiang. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2020. 9-11. Print.
2019
“From HI-SEAS to Outer Space: 'Hawaiʻi as Mars' and the U.S. Legal Discourse of Hawaiian Annexation.“ Maritime Mobilities in Literature and Culture: Critical Perspectives. Alexandra Ganser, Meg Samuelson and Charme Lavery. Eds. Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. Print.
2017
with Nicole Poppenhagen. “Introduction: Across Currents: Connections between Atlantic Studies and (Trans)Pacific Studies.“ Across Currents: Connections between Atlantic Studies and (Trans)Pacific Studies. Spec. Issue of Atlantic Studies: Global Currents. Nicole Poppenhagen and Jens Temmen. Eds. 2017. 149-159. Print.
2016
“’So it happens that we are relegated to the condition of the aborigines of the American continent’: Disavowing and Reclaiming Sovereignty in Liliuokalani’s Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen and the Congressional Morgan Report.” Postcolonial Justice. Anke Bartels, Lars Eckstein, Nicole Waller, Dirk Wiemann. Ed. Cross/Cultures 191 Leiden: Brill/Rodopi, 2017. 333-356. Print.
2015
with Sonja John. Conference report: “Biopolitics–Geopolitics–Sovereignty–Life: Settler Colonialisms and Indigenous Presences in North America.” Transnational American Studies Institute, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 25.-27.6.2015, in: H-Soz-Kult, 04.08.2015. Web.
“Overriding/Overwriting the Reservation: John Rollin Ridge‘s The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta, the Celebrated California Bandit.“ Rural America. ed. Antje Kley and Heike Paul. Heidelberg: Winter Verlag, 2015. 131 – 148. Print.
Reviews
2016
Rev. of The Unsettlement of America: Translation, Interpretation, and the Story of Don Luis de Velasco, 1560-1945, by Anna Brickhouse. Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik ZAA. 2016. Print.