Dr. Abigail Fagan, PhD (sie/ihr)

© Felix Brinker
Dr. Abigail Fagan, PhD (sie/ihr)
Address
Schloßwender Straße 1
30159 Hannover
Building
Room
317
Office hours
appointment by email
© Felix Brinker
Dr. Abigail Fagan, PhD (sie/ihr)
Address
Schloßwender Straße 1
30159 Hannover
Building
Room
317
Office hours
appointment by email
Positions
Research Staff
Office hours
appointment by email
English Department

Abigail Fagan’s teaching is research-led: her most recent projects guide the topics of her teaching, and discussions with students fundamentally shape her ongoing academic inquiries. Her courses regularly engage issues in critical pedagogy, Black studies, critical Indigenous studies, queer and feminist theory, early American literature, and US-American literature of the long nineteenth century. Her current book project responds to trends in the current discourse of critical university studies by taking a long view on the development of the university in US-American society as a colonial institution. Her award-winning dissertation, “Bloated: Power and the Body in American Temperance Literature,” appealed for a reassessment of the significance of anti-alcohol literary propaganda by analyzing a wide range of temperance texts published between 1827 and 1920. Abigail Fagan also understands community engagement to be an integral component of any academic’s work. She was co-speaker of the German Association for American Studies’ Diversity Roundtable from 2020 to 2023, co-founded and organizes the Hannover-based Decolonial Feminisms Reading Group, and is an executive board member of the Grenzmuseum Böckwitz-Zicherie, a small non-profit museum devoted to local history of the former border zone between East and West Germany.

Resume

  • Professional Career

    Since 2019
    Assistant Professor of American Studies, Leibniz University Hannover

    2017-2019
    Lecturer and Research Assistant in American Studies, Leibniz University Hannover

    2013-2016
    Graduate Instructor in American Studies and First-Year English, University of Connecticut

    2011-2013
    Graduate Instructor in American Studies and Rhetoric and Composition, University of Cincinnati

    2010-2011
    English Teaching Assistant, Dientzenhofer-Gymnasium, Bamberg, Germany

    2009-2010
    Fulbright Teaching Assistant, Berufsbildendene Schulen II, Wolfsburg, Germany

    2008
    Student Orientation Coordinator, Pacific Lutheran University

    2007-2008
    Editor in Chief, Saxifrage, a student literary magazine, Pacific Lutheran University

  • Education

    2019
    PhD in Englisch, University of Connecticut
    Dissertation: "Bloated: Power and the Body in American Temperance Literature"
    Graduate Certificate in Feminist Studies

    2013
    MA in Englisch, University of Cincinnati
    MA Thesis: "Not Just a Devil and a Destroyer: Deconstructing Gender and Reconstructing Subjectivity in Ernest Hemingway's The Garden of Eden"
    Graduate Certificate in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

    2008
    BA in English and Political Science, Pacific Lutheran University 
    BA Thesis (English, creative nonfiction): "Like Calling Kissinger"
    BA Thesis (Political Science): "Columns: Press Freedom and Divided Society in Jordan"

  • Memberships and Offices

    Membership and Offices

    Membership

    Voices and Agencies: America and the Atlantic, 1600-1865, a research network funded by the German Research Council
    German Association for American Studies/Deutsche Gesellschaft für Amerikastudien
    American Studies Association
    European Association for American Studies Women’s Network
    National Women’s Studies Association
    Society for the Study of American Women Writers
    Decolonial Feminisms Reading Group

    Offices

    Current

    Representative for Non-Tenured Teaching Staff, Executive Board for the Leibniz University English Department
    Secretary, Grenzmuseum Böckwitz-Zicherie
    Advisory Board Member, WiN, Journal of the European Association for American Studies Women’s Network

    Previous

    Co-Speaker, Diversity Roundtable, German Association for American Studies 
    Reading Tour Academic Coordinator, Palm Art Press
    Chair, English Graduate Student Association Diversity Committee, University of Connecticut
    President, English Graduate Organization, University of Cincinnati
    Graduate Mentor and Member of the Advisory Committee, English Composition Program, University of Cincinnati
    Executive Board Member, Shark Eat Muffin Theatre Company
    President, The Mark: A Creative Writing Group, Pacific Lutheran University

  • Conference Organization

    Co-organized with Dorothee Marx and Chang Liu: German Association for American Studies’ Diversity Roundtable Biannual Symposium, “Moving toward Collective Action: Activism and Academia.” Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel. May 14-15, 2022.

    Co-organized with Dorothee Marx, Chang Liu, and the Executive Board of the German Association for American Studies, Digital Town Hall: “What is the GAAS’s responsibility as an academic institution in Germany?” 16 April 2021

    Co-organized with Anna-Lena Oldehus, “Sisterhood?!” Workshop, Ladies Lunch on Tour 2019, Pavillon Hannover, 9 March 2019.

    “Transnational Islamic Feminisms: A Students' Conference,” Leibniz University Hannover, 27 January 2018.

    Roundtable and Workshop, “Critical Race Theory,” University of Connecticut, 28 October 2014.

    Co-organized with Janine Morris and Mark Manibusan: University of Cincinnati's Fourth Annual Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference, “Being Undisciplined.” University of Cincinnati. 6 April 2013.

  • Awards, Fellowships, and Grants

    Grants, Fellowships, and Scholarships

    Deutsche Akademisches Austauschdienst (DAAD) Conference Travel Award, 2023
    Graduate Academy Grant, “Contacts, Networks, Careers,” Leibniz University Hannover, 2023
    Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, University of Connecticut, 2016
    Graduate Student Travel Award, University of Connecticut, 2016
    Graduate Student Governance Association Research Fellowship in support of Master’s Thesis Project, University of Cincinnati, 2013: financed two-week archival visit to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston
    Pacific and Ancient Modern Language Association Conference Graduate Student Scholarship, 2012
    Fulbright Grant for English Teaching Assistantship, Germany, 2009-10
    Knudsen Scholarship for an Excellent Creative Writing Portfolio, Pacific Lutheran University, 2006                                       

    Writing Awards

    Honorable Mention for the Best Article Published in Amerikastudien/American Studies in the Year 2020
    University of Connecticut CGS/ProQuest Dissertation Award and UConn’s Sole Representative for the National CGS/ProQuest Dissertation Award, 2019
    Milton Stern Dissertation Award for the best dissertation defended in the English Department in the academic year of 2018-19, University of Connecticut, 2019
    Wallace Stevens Poetry Prize, First Place, University of Connecticut, 2015
    AETNA Creative Nonfiction Graduate Prize, First Place, University of Connecticut, 2015
    AETNA Creative Nonfiction Graduate Prize, First Place, University of Connecticut, 2014
    Graduate Playwriting Prize, University of Cincinnati, 2013
    Graduate Playwriting Prize, University of Cincinnati, 2012
    Academy of American Poets, Graduate Prize, Honorable Mention, University of Cincinnati, 2012

    Teaching and Service-Related Awards

    Campus Cultur, e.v, Preis (Annual Prize awarded by Campus Cultur, an alumnus group invested in active student culture) for the Student Group, Decolonial Feminisms Reading Group, 2023
    Preis der Fakultät für besonderes Engagement in der Lehre (Faculty Prize for Extraordinary Engagement as an Instructor, nominated by students), Leibniz University Hannover, 2021
    Departmental Award for Excellence in Graduate-Student Teaching and Service, University of Cincinnati, 2013
    Certificate of Accomplishment in Leadership and Service, Pacific Lutheran University, 2008
    Humanities Scholarship for Excellent Academic Work, Pacific Lutheran University, 2007