American Spaces of Resistance

aspeers is the first peer-reviewed journal for MA-level American studies scholars in Europe. It is a platform for the best work done by American studies graduate students below the PhD level. It aims to foster academic exchange among young Americanists across Europe, and to thereby advance the field as well as its genuine European perspective on ‘America’ and its presences and effects around the world.

aspeers features a general section in addition to a topical one that brings academic works into a dialogue on one common theme. For the upcoming issue, this topical section will be organized around different notions of "American Spaces of Resistance." Please feel free to send in work to have it considered for publication in aspeers if

  • you are a student of American studies (or related fields) at a European university and are looking to publish a paper without a topical restriction.
  • or you are a student of American studies (or related fields) at a European university and are looking to publish a paper on "American Spaces of Resistance."

Please see the following Calls for Papers for details. Please also note our style guide at www.aspeers.com/style, which will provide you with many helpful instructions on how to prepare your submission for maximum success.

general academic contributions | due October 19, 2025 | pdf

topical academic contributions | due October 19, 2025 | pdf

Please see our submission guidelines and FAQ section. Submissions should be directed to submit@aspeers.com.

1) General Call for Papers

For the general section of its nineteenth issue, aspeers seeks outstanding academic writing demonstrating the excellence of graduate scholarship, the range of concerns scrutinized in the field, and the diversity of perspectives employed. We thus explicitly invite revised versions of term papers or chapters from theses written by students of European Master (and equivalent) programs. For this section, there are no topical limitations. Contributions should be up to 7,500 words (including abstract and list of works cited). The submission deadline is October 19, 2025.

2) Topical Call for Papers on "American Spaces of Resistance"

The ‘No Kings’ protests on June 14, 2025, incited millions of people across the United States to oppose the policies of Donald Trump’s second presidency, manifesting an outspoken resistance against forms of autocracy. While the fervor and visibility of protesting has wavered throughout US history, sites and moments of resistance (against the government, specific policies, businesses, individuals, etc.) dominate the nation’s collective memory: from the anti-monarchist sentiment linking ‘No Kings’ to the Boston Tea Party, from the abolitionist movement to demonstrations against the Vietnam War, from the Stonewall uprising to Occupy Wall Street or the #MeToo movement.

In fact, US culture has mobilized diverse material and symbolic spaces to give expression to a multitude of forms of resistance throughout history, often also transcending direct political action. Literature and the arts have served as creative vessels for the voicing of disagreement (e.g. in utopian/dystopian imaginations), and popular and folk culture have given visibility to vernacular forms of defiance through polysemy and ambivalence. Spaces of resistance also matter geographically in American culture, e.g. in the perceived urban/rural divide or through the metonymic importance of regions like the US South. This multiplicity begs a number of critical questions: Does resistance form a pivotal part of a mythic US national character—or is it instead a mere momentary aberration from a cultural norm (as might be visible from a transnational perspective)? What identities and communities are constructed and imagined around a tangible or felt resistance? What is even understood as resistance, against and by whom in particular? Are the causes connected to resistance habitually framed as progressive, or at times also as reactionary (e.g. in upholding a status quo), or even as anarchic—and how has that been (re)evaluated in later eras?

For its nineteenth issue, aspeers dedicates its topical section to “American Spaces of Resistance” and invites European graduate students to critically and analytically explore US literature, (popular) culture, history, politics, society, and media through the lens of ‘resistance.’ We welcome papers from all disciplines, methodologies, and approaches comprising American studies and related fields. Potential papers could cover (but are not limited to):

  • Representations of resistance and counter-hegemonic narratives in literature, film, TV, music, games, etc.

  • Social and civil rights movements, grassroots activism; collective resistance and coalitions of resistance

  • The role of geographic places, spaces, and mobilities in cultural and political practices of (counter-)protest

  • Material and symbolic transgressions of borders and boundaries; subcultural, folk, or indigenous spaces as sites of resistance

  • Digitally based resistance movements; fandom as a space of resistance

  • ‘Radical’ identity constructions (e.g. around gender, sexuality, disability, ‘race’) as forms of resistance

  • The aestheticism(s) of resistance

  • Resistance in the public sphere and through public performance (e.g. civil disobedience); in labor (e.g. malicious compliance); in political theory and philosophy (e.g. Black radicalism)

  • Resistance and counter-resistance movements in different political contexts (e.g. far-right self-understandings of the January 6 Capitol Riots or the ‘sovereign citizen’ movement as resistance)

aspeers, the first graduate-level peer-reviewed journal of European American studies, encourages fellow MA students from all fields to reflect on the diverse meanings of “American Spaces of Resistance.” We welcome term papers, excerpts from theses, or papers specifically written for the nineteenth issue of aspeers by October 19, 2025. If you seek to publish work beyond this topic, please refer to our general Call for Papers. Please consult our submission guidelines and find some additional tips at www.aspeers.com/2026.

PDF icon aspeers_cfp_2026_general.pdfPDF icon aspeers_cfp_2026_topical.pdf