Details:
Time & Date: Thursday, November 26, 2026, 10:00 a.m. – ca. 12:15 p.m.
Location: Fakultätssaal (01-185), Philosophicum, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Prof. Dr. Jens Temmen (Chair of American Studies, KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt) has been invited to give this year’s Obama Lecture at the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies. His talk is titled:
“‘New Planet Dad, Please?’: Post-Planetarity in North American Astroculture”
Drawing on Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014) and Richard Powers’ Bewilderment (2021), the talk examines how visions of humanity’s escape into outer space, promoted by US tech oligarchs, have made contemporary North American astroculture a key arena for negotiating tech-fascist ideology, and argues for a critical debate on “post-planetarity” discourse.
The annual Obama Lecture takes place on Thanksgiving and also includes the award ceremonies for the Obama Dissertation Prize and the Hans Galinsky Memorial Prize.
For more information, go to: https://www.obama-institute.com/nov-26-obama-lecture/
