Dr. Helen Gibson
Office hours
Winter Semester 2024/25
During the winter semester Prof. Helen Gibson will hold office hours on Wednesdays from 11am to 1pm in room 207 or by appointment.
Degrees and University Education
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2021 |
Defended dissertation, Freie Universität Berlin (summa cum laude) |
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2014 |
M.A., Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität München |
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2005 |
B.A., University of Virginia |
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2004/05 |
Semester abroad at L’Université Lumière Lyon 2 |
Academic Career
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2024 - present |
Visiting Assistant Professor, History Department of the John F. Kennedy Institute, Freie Universität Berlin |
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2021 - 2024 |
Research Fellow at the Chair for North American History, University of Erfurt |
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2021 |
Teaching Position in the Department of English and American Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin |
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2015 - 2021 |
Doctoral Candidate at the Graduate School of North American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin |
Governance/Administrative Positions
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2021 - present |
Editor for history, social sciences and international relations for the European Journal of American Studies (EJAS) |
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2021 - 2024 |
Co-editor of the Sonderforschungsbereich / Transregio SFB TRR 294 “Strukturwandel des Eigentums” blog “Transformation of Property” |
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2022 - 2024 |
Vertreterin der akademischen Mitarbeiter*innen im Ausschuss für Haushaltsangelegenheiten, University of Erfurt |
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2023 |
Equal Opportunity Representative of the Sonderforschungsbereich / Transregio SFB TRR 294 “Strukturwandel des Eigentums” |
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2018 - 2020 |
Co-speaker of the Diversity Roundtable (DR) of the German Association for American Studies (GAAS/DGfA) |
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2017 - 2020 |
Co-coordinator of the NYLON Berlin research group at the Georg-Simmel Center for Urban Studies (GSZ), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin |
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2013 - 2014 |
Tutor at the Writing Center of the Department of English and American Studies, Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität München |
Fellowships and Research Grants/Awards
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2022 |
Rolf Kentner Dissertation Prize, Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) |
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2021 |
STIBET grant, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) |
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2021 |
Research stay at Temple University (DAAD-Kooperation “Internationale Studien und Ausbildungspartnerschaft mit Temple University ISAP”) |
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2020 |
STIBET grant, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) |
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2015 - 2019 |
Doctoral fellowship, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) |
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2017 |
Heidelberg Spring Academy grant (HCA) |
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2016 |
Futures of American Studies Institute grant, John F. Kennedy Institute (JFKI) |
Organization of Conferences/Workshops
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2024 |
“Living Black Ungendered Embodiment/ Flesh/Enfleshment Otherwise,” Erfurt (organized with July Ackermann) |
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2023 |
“Epistemic Reparations: Attending to the Grievances and Harms of the Colonial/Racial/Capital,” Erfurt (organized with July Ackermann) |
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2023 |
“Knowing/Refusing ‘Value’: Reclaiming Kinship at the Expense of Capital,” Rostock (organized with Sebastian Jobs and Nadja Klopprogge) |
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2023 - 2022 |
"Relating to Land,” Erfurt (organized with Sofia Bianchi Mancini, Dirk Schuck, and Markus Vinzent) |
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2021 |
“Race and Propertization,” Erfurt (organized with Barbara Lüthi) |
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2021 |
“Property ‘Objects’ and their Discontents,” Jena (organized with Verena Wolf and Petra Gümplová) |
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2020 |
“The GAAS in 2030: Imagining Future Practices of Critical Diversity in American Studies,” Berlin (organized with Cedric Essi and Anna-Lena Oldehus) |
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2016 - 2019 |
“From Canada to Mexico: Doctoral Lab in North American History,” Berlin (organized with Nadja Klopprogge, Thomas Lindner, Marvin Menniken, and John Woitkowitz) |
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2018 |
16th Annual NYLON Conference, Berlin (organized with Aditi Surie von Czechowski, Till Großmann, Christian Güse, Tinatin Gurgenidze, Nadja Klopprogge, Anna Kokalanova, Hannes Langguth, Aram Lee, Gala Nettelbladt, Gözde Sarlak-Krämer, Hannah Schilling, Sébastien Tremblay, Jiann-Chyng Tu, and Urszula Ewa Woźniak) |
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2017 |
Postgraduate Forum (PGF) of the German Association of American Studies (GAAS/DGfA), Berlin (organized with Anne Potjans, Simon Rienäcker, and Jiann-Chyng Tu) |
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2016 |
“Flows and Undercurrents: Dimensions of (Im)mobility in North America,” GSNAS Graduate Conference, Berlin (organized with Kira Álvarez, Sarah Epping, Jie Feng, Lars-Frederik Bockmann, Lee Flamand, Christian Güse, René Kreichauf, Betsy Leimbigler, and Sören Schoppmeier) |
John F. Kennedy Institute, Freie Universität Berlin
Winter Semester 2024/25Undergraduate:
Gendering American History, Helen Gibson, Mondays, 12:00-14:00
Other-than-Human Ecologies on Turtle Island, Helen Gibson, Mondays, 14:00-16:00
Graduate:
Histories of (Racial) Capitalism, Helen Gibson, Tuesdays, 12:00-14:00
Winter Semester 2020/21Undergraduate:
On Care Work: Black Midwifery and a History of Science, 1619 to 1877, Wednesdays 12:00-14:00
Winter Semester 2017/18The History of Felon Disenfranchisement and Race in the United States Pre-1877, Helen Gibson, Mondays 12:00-14:00
University of Erfurt
Summer Semester 2024Rootwork and Reciprocity: Healing with Plants in Black and Indigenous Communities
(Graduate seminar)
Winter Semester 2023/24The History of Racial Capitalism / Die Geschichte des rassifizierten Kapitalismus (Undergraduate seminar)
Summer Semester 2023History and Physics: Cosmic and Quantic Moments (Graduate seminar)
Winter Semester 2022/23Histories of Enslavement in the United States (Graduate seminar)
Summer Semester 2022Gender History, Black Feminist and Womanist Theory (Graduate seminar)
Winter Semester 2021/22The Politics of Mobility: Mobile Subjects and Stasis in the United States (Graduate seminar co-taught with Dr. Barbara Lüthi)
Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
Summer Semester 2021Topics in American History (Undergraduate seminar co-taught with Prof. Dr. Eva Boesenberg)
Research Areas
• Black feminist and Womanist theory
• U.S. cultural history
• Mobility studies
• Other-than-human ecologies
• Indigenous studies/philosophy
I am currently researching the lived experiences of grand midwives—Black and Indigenous midwives and healers—in the context of the total violence (Ferreira da Silva 2022) of slavery in British North America and the United States. My research fundamentally questions the legitimacy of post-Enlightenment understandings of private property and, more abstractly, value. Embracing a black feminist poethical (political, ethical) methodology developed by Denise Ferreira da Silva (Ferreira da Silva 2014), my research questions include: What was the juridical, economic, ethical and symbolic significance of granny midwifery? In what ways do grand midwives’ practices evidence a social poiēsis that demonstrates the impossibility of total commodification (Hartman 2016; Judy 2020)? How are the metabolic legacies of racialization and commodification available to cosmic and quantic fractality (Ferreira da Silva 2022)?
Select Contributions in the Media (Audio-Visual)
Freie Universität Berlin, "The Christian Evangelical movement has had a lot of success in influencing public opinion for a long time." 6 November 2024.
Edited Volume & Journal Issue
Helen A. Gibson, Sofia Bianchi Mancini, Dirk Schuck, and Markus Vinzent, eds. Relating to Landed Property. Frankfurt/New York: Campus Verlag, 2024.
Helen Gibson, Anne Potjans, Simon Rienäcker, and Jiann-Chyng Tu, eds. Current Objectives of Postgraduate American Studies (COPAS) 19, no. 1 (2018).
Articles & Book Chapters
Helen A. Gibson. “The Otherwise Cosmogram.” In Relating to Landed Property, edited by Sofia Bianchi Mancini, Helen A. Gibson, Dirk Schuck, and Markus Vinzent, 209-227. Frankfurt/New York: Campus Verlag, 2024.
Helen A. Gibson. “Teaching Towards Calvin Warren’s Nonmetaphysical Historiography.” In Participation in American Culture and Society, edited by Philipp Löffler, Nathalie Rauscher, and Welf Werner, 163-178. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2024.
Helen A. Gibson. “Granny Midwives’ Epistemic and Embodied Care.” In Herausforderung Solidarität. Konzepte – Kontroversen – Perspektiven, edited by Kerstin Schmidt and Joost van Loon, 303-316. Bielefed: Transcript Verlag, 2024.
Helen A. Gibson. “Access to Labor and Leisure in Cars: Early Black Motorists’ Automotivity in Miami.” Mondes du Tourisme 21 (June 2022): 103-125. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/tourisme.4549.
Helen A. Gibson. “Felons and the Right to Vote in Virginia: a Historical Overview.” The Virginia News
Letter 91, no. 1 (2015): 1-9.
Book Reviews
Helen Anne Gibson. Review of Massive Resistance and Southern Womanhood: White Women, Class, and Segregation by Rebecca Brückmann. (H-Soz-Kult: https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-50129) March 2023.
Helen Gibson. Review of Unpayable Debt by Denise Ferreira da Silva. (SFB 294 Blog 'Transformation of Property': https://sfb294-eigentum.de/de/blog/unpayable-debt-decolonial-redress-beyond-the-knowable/) December 2022.
Helen Gibson. Review of Roadside Americans: The Rise and Fall of Hitchhiking in a Changing Nation by Jack Reid. H-Soz-Kult: www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-29308) September 2020.
Helen A. Gibson. Review of Remaking Black Power: How Black Women Transformed an Era by Ashley D. Farmer. Amerikastudien/American Studies 64, no. 4 (2019): 619 - 621. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33675/AMST/2019/4/12.
Helen Anne Gibson. Review of Von Selma bis Ferguson. Rasse und Rassismus in den USA, edited by Michael, Butter; Franke, Astrid; Tonn, Horst. (H-Soz-Kult:
https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-24840) April 2017.