Judging from the omnipresence of notions of ‘crisis’ and ‘disorder’ in recent scholarship (cf., e.g., Berberoglu; Foster et al.; Thompson), the first quarter of the twenty-first century seems to have been perceived as a particularly tumultuous start into the millennium, especially from a US perspective. Writing in early 2025 amid the uncertain consequences of Donald J. Trump’s second presidential term, we are in some ways facing a similar situation as we did eight years ago, though maybe with slightly less surprise at Trump’s electoral win. Back then, the aspeers foreword speculated that issues like “postapocalyptic visions [...] and facets of post-fact and post-truth” might gain “renewed relevance and importance, with the field of American studies perhaps facing a (re)politicization” (Schubert v). Partly, this has indeed happened, and the past eight years of aspeers are testament to the interest American-studies scholarship has taken in recent upheavals (political and otherwise), sometimes more and sometimes less implicitly instigated by the first Trump presidency. This was, for instance, reflected in aspeers issues devoted to themes such as anger, imperialism, and apocalypses, in graduate contributions on literature (e.g., Nostitz), politics (e.g., Lieback), or the media (e.g., Szkarlat), and in professorial contributions by Derek R. Ford and Donald E. Pease.
This year’s issue of aspeers on American (Anti-)Heroes is devoted to a topic that is similarly pressing in today’s cultural and academic landscape, for at least two reasons: For one, the glorification and polarization implied in who or what is considered (anti-)heroic relates to many discourses of crises and populist upheavals of the last few years quite directly, from political cults and conspiracy theories to popular resistance. Moreover, speaking to contemporary as much as to historical times, concerns around heroism also permeate US culture more broadly and more fundamentally, as different iterations of heroes and anti-heroes have appeared in a variety of mythical constructions of ‘America’ and have fueled investigations of the US from multiple disciplines. Both of these dimensions invite analyses especially of the complexities of heroism, questioning binary constructions of heroes and villains and uncovering the contradictions or ambiguities between who is deemed a hero and an anti-hero. From this point of view, American studies’ breadth of interests appears invested in current political debates but also, at times, in transcending them, not wanting to myopically be reduced to academic trends either.
Still, that such political upheavals animate scholarship—and perhaps graduate scholarship in particular—was equally evident in this year’s submissions and contributions. Echoing last year (Schmieder and Schubert v), we again received a very large number of submissions, especially to the topical call for papers but also to the general section, and with a distinct national and disciplinary spread. The contributions in this issue are also evidence particularly of this thematic and disciplinary diversity, tackling subject matters that range from literature, nonfiction, and film to politics and social media, with approaches from literary, cultural, and media studies as well as history. Outside of strictly aspeers itself, the growing prominence of graduate-level American-studies scholarship in Europe can also be seen in more and more aspeers authors and articles being cited in other scholarly publications as well as in a few similar journals having emerged in the last years, demonstrating both the demand for MA-level scholarship and the realization of the vision of the founding editors of aspeers eighteen years ago. In comparison to such younger projects—and perhaps somewhat unusual for the twenty-first century’s embrace of digitality—aspeers continues to be published both as an open-access online journal and as a printed one. Next to the general advantages in terms of visibility that such a hybrid publication has, we also believe that preparing a journal issue for print includes particular challenges for and requires unique skills from our graduate editors, honing their editing and publishing expertise and generally pointing to the importance of aspeers as both a scholarly undertaking and “a laboratory in which to explore the didactic opportunities of project-driven learning” (Koenen and Herrmann iv).
Upholding these core goals of the project and the scholarly rigor with which submissions are discussed and eventually edited seems all the more important in politically and academically turbulent times. Might one’s immersion in aspeers’s intensive publishing process also be able to afford a certain ‘meditative’ respite from other matters of the day? In this particular year, it was once more especially thanks to the excellent work ethic and unrelenting enthusiasm of this issue’s group of graduate editors that the journal’s academic standards continue to be so high. We commend the thirteen editors for their diligence, their energy, and their remarkable willingness to invest a lot of time in myriad group discussions, not just of the submissions themselves but also of the different ways to improve them and to carefully edit them, of how to acquire creative contributions and a professorial-voice essay, how to write an introduction, how to defend scholarly and editing standards, and how to tackle all of these steps in terms of logistics, communication, and organization. Truly a lot of effort was spent on discussing and deciding matters, in depth and at length, in just the past four months. While we are certain that this has ultimately secured this issue’s scholarly excellence, we hope that it has also helped our graduate editors refine their own writing, editing, and team-working skills. As in previous years, the group was also (visibly and invisibly) helped by aspeers alumni: We want to thank Josefine C. Bernhofer for her editorial assistance, especially during the article discussions, and Marvin Loye for his work in the editorial back office.
The combination of these efforts has led to an issue featuring five graduate contributions that cover a wide range of topics and disciplines in American studies. Three of them investigate different notions of (anti-)heroism, while another two complement the topical section to showcase the breadth of current American-studies graduate scholarship. To expand this graduate interest in (anti-)heroes and related topics, a professorial-voice essay by Professor Carmen Birkle on nineteenth-century ‘heroines of medicine’ fosters a dialog with the student contributions, and four pieces of art enrich the issue’s analytical interest with a creative one. Together, these contributions provide an invaluable insight into contemporary graduate scholarship in American studies and beyond, on American (Anti-)Heroes and beyond, and they speak to the strength, visibility, and necessity of American-studies scholarship even or perhaps particularly in tumultuous and uncertain times.
Works Cited
Berberoglu, Berch, editor. The Global Rise of Authoritarianism in the 21st Century: Crisis of Neoliberal Globalization and the Nationalist Response. Routledge, 2020.
Ford, Derek R. “The Struggle of ‘American Anger’: In Defense of Extremism.” aspeers: emerging voices in american studies, vol. 12, 2019, pp. 139-44, www.aspeers.com/2019/ford.
Foster, Russell, et al., editors. The Crisis of the Twenty-First Century: Empire in the Age of Austerity. Routledge, 2024.
Koenen, Anne, and Sebastian M. Herrmann. Foreword. aspeers: emerging voices in american studies, vol. 4, 2011, pp. iii-v, www.aspeers.com/2011/foreword.
Lieback, Hedwig. “Truth-Telling and Trolls: Trolling, Political Rhetoric in the Twenty-First Century, and the Objectivity Norm.” aspeers: emerging voices in american studies, vol. 12, 2019, pp. 9-36, www.aspeers.com/2019/lieback.
Nostitz, Christoph. “The Metalanguage of Border Crossing: The Deconstruction of Myth in Yuri Herrera’s Signs Preceding the End of the World.” aspeers: emerging voices in american studies, vol. 15, 2022, pp. 13-29, www.aspeers.com/2022/nostitz.
Pease, Donald E. “Visions of America: An Interview with Professor Donald E. Pease.” aspeers: emerging voices in american studies, vol. 11, 2018, pp. 125-31, www.aspeers.com/2018/pease.
Schmieder, Katja, and Stefan Schubert. Foreword. aspeers: emerging voices in american studies, vol. 17, 2024, pp. v-vii, www.aspeers.com/2024/foreword.
Schubert, Stefan. Foreword. aspeers: emerging voices in american studies, vol. 10, 2017, pp. iii-vi, www.aspeers.com/2017/foreword.
Szkarlat, Katharina. “‘Now Fact Has Become Opinion’: ‘Fake News’ and the Search for Truth in The Daily Show.” aspeers: emerging voices in american studies, vol. 11, 2018, pp. 33-50, www.aspeers.com/2018/szkarlat.
Thompson, Helen. Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century. Oxford UP, 2023.