In the American Studies Leipzig’s aspeers tradition of “continuity and change” (Koenen and Herrmann iii), this nineteenth issue is in many ways a ‘first.’ Not only have we received more contributions than ever before, but the group of student editors is also bigger than any other previous team, counting fourteen members. While putting together, editing, and publishing a journal issue within four months constitutes an ambitious endeavor, requiring a more than strict schedule, discipline, and teamwork, the sheer number of editors and contributors added new challenges to the execution of this project. However, the team managed this well and, even more, they have surpassed themselves on many levels: The MA editors showed cooperation, patience, and, where needed, a certain stubbornness, as they pulled through and showed an extent of editorial craft and intellectual commitment that is outstanding. The quality of the diverse contributions attests to the success of this year’s project, and we as the head editors can only express our appreciation for the MA students’ stamina and excellence.
The topic of this year’s issue, “Spaces of Resistance,” not only connects to what Hintz and Schubert identified as “recent upheavals” in 2025 (v) but also reflects the hurdles we faced during the double-blind peer-review process and the following editing phase. The editors had to treat each contribution with utmost care and moderation, striking a balance between their personal political and ethical convictions and academic rigor as young scholars. The present collection of articles demonstrates these considerations as they negotiate diverse levels of resistance from an American-studies point of view. Whether they discuss resisting traditional portrayals of female protagonists in movies, oppose mainstream readings of novels, or suggest rhetorical interpretations of autobiographical texts—these scholarly contributions to the ongoing debate that is American culture and literary studies explore the nuances of explicit and implicit forms of resistance in great depth. In addition to these snapshots of newly emerging European American studies scholarship, this year’s editors solicited two professorial voices—one in the form of a short essay by PD Dr. Martin Lüthe and one in the form of a conversation with scholar and author Hannah Michell—which extend this issue’s explorations of the relationship between the United States and ‘spaces of resistance’ even further.
The debates in the microcosm of our classroom engaged with the larger struggles in US culture. On a political scale, oppression and discrimination have been met with resistance, be it through action or by means of representation and expression. So for the first time in the history of aspeers, the present issue is entirely dedicated to the topic that was formulated in the Call for Papers. By criticizing injustice and interpreting and theorizing ways of resistance and their implications in novels, movies, or in working life, aspeers 19 is thus already participating in the formation of the discourse on resistance. And even though we as head editors might not—and, indeed, should not—necessarily share every opinion and interpretation presented in the articles, we firmly stand behind the seriousness and intellectual engagement shown by each author. Taken together, the different contributions by emerging voices of European American studies testify to the productiveness of disagreement both as a topic and a driving force of the field.
As such, this issue also remains true to the spirit of American studies as a subject and discipline, which has made space for many contradicting voices since its early beginnings. Above all, however, we want to congratulate this year’s team of MA editors on the results of their hard work. And it is with great pleasure that we now present this new issue, hoping that its readers find it as thought provoking as we do.
Works Cited
Hintz, Peter, and Stefan Schubert. Foreword. aspeers: emerging voices in american studies, vol. 18, 2025, pp. v-viii, www.aspeers.com/2025/foreword.
Koenen, Anne, and Sebastian M. Herrmann. Foreword. aspeers: emerging voices in american studies, vol. 9, 2016, pp. iii-v, www.aspeers.com/2016/foreword.