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SUMMARY:Navigating the New Normal? Book Bans & Challenges in the USA
DTSTART:20260529T180000Z
DTEND:20260529T193000Z
DTSTAMP:20260517T084600Z
UID:indico-event-4061@indico.uni-muenster.de
CONTACT:americanstudies@uni-muenster.de
DESCRIPTION:Speakers: Silvia Schultermandl\, Aline Franzus\n\nNavigating t
 he New Normal? Book Bans & Challenges in the USA\n \nBook bans and challe
 nges in US public schools have been increasing at unprecedented rates over
  the past five years\, with PEN America reporting a ‘complex and extensi
 ve climate of censorship’ across the country in their 2025 report\, ‘T
 he Normalization of Book Banning’. Isolated protests by concerned indivi
 duals have been replaced by well-funded\, coordinated attacks from organiz
 ations such as Moms for Liberty and No Left Turn for Education. Since Janu
 ary 2025\, these threats to young people’s freedom to read have been pla
 ying out in a broader context of repression\, backed up by legislation and
  policy at both state and federal level. Individuals – such as Librarian
  of Congress Carla Hayden – have been removed from their posts\; specifi
 c topics and materials have been deleted from government websites\; fundin
 g has been withdrawn.\n \nAs this crackdown leads to copycat acts on this
  side of the Atlantic\, thinking and talking publicly about censorship and
  its ramifications is something we want to make space for here in Münster
 . To facilitate this\, Dr Cedric Essi (University of Zurich) will modera
 te a panel of four distinguished speakers from the US and Germany:\n\nEmil
 y Drabinski\, Associate Professor and Chair of the Queens College School o
 f Information Studies\, CUNY\, served as President of the American Library
  Association from 2023-24\; \nMaude Hines is Professor of English and Cha
 ir of Black Studies at Portland State University\;\nWriter and activist K
 elly Jensen has been widely commended for her anti-censorship work\, incl
 uding by the American Association of School Librarians and Publishers Wee
 kly\, for whom she was a person of the year 2022\; \nCorinna Norrick-Rü
 hl is the Chair of Book Studies at the University of Münster and co-foun
 der of the Banned Books Network Münster. \n\nThe event will be in person
  only and will not be recorded. We hope you can join us for what promises 
 to be a compelling and timely discussion.\n\nhttps://indico.uni-muenster.d
 e/event/4061/
LOCATION:Aula (Schlossplatz 2)
URL:https://indico.uni-muenster.de/event/4061/
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