SANAS Conference 2026: American Un/Freedoms

In the year of the United States Semiquincentennial, the 2026 SANAS conference examines the contested histories and the current state of American un/freedoms. Whose individual rights, liberties, and freedoms matter when and why? Which unfreedoms are tacitly accepted, and which are explicitly cast as necessary, for example, in the name of (national) security? Which different meanings have been assigned to the term freedom by political actors from across the ideological spectrum, and how have literary and cultural representations negotiated questions of un/freedom in the US (and beyond)?

The conference is organized by Prof. Dr. Katharina Gerund  and Prof. Dr. Barbara Straumann.

Please find the Call for Papers here (PDF, 216 KB).