Otilia Teodorescu-Stadler and Timo Müller will present on the modernist aesthetics of early automobility at the 36th Biennial Conference of the European Association for American Studies. The conference, entitled “Visions of Freedom,” explores “how the concept of freedom has shaped the United States—past and present, real and imagined.” Timo Müller’s and Otilia Teodorescu-Stadler’s talks will be part of the panel “Roads to Freedom? Controversial Automobilities in American Modernism,” which seeks to complicate the automobile’s promise of freedom with the more controversial aspects of automobility like environmental issues, social inequality, gender, and racial identity through the lens of modernist fiction and poetry. Timo Müller will present a paper titled “Free Air? Automobile Aesthetics and the Exposed Body in the Modernist Novel,” and Otilia Teodorescu-Stadler will present a paper titled “‘In Passing With My Mind’: Automobility and Desire in W. C. Williams’ Early Poetry.” The conference will take place at the University of Bologna from September 1-4.

When: September 2, 11:00-12:30

Where: Bologna, Italy

You can find the program and more information about the conference here.