The Blog Assistants

I am a traveler, a culture enthusiast, a teaching devotee, and a newcomer to blogging.

Coming from a culturally diverse family, I benefited from various experiences when growing up, one of which was visiting the United States and Canada. For as long as I can remember, this chance to see the world has left me filled with both familiarity and curiosity. Traveling has therefore always been a part of my life.

I am studying teacher training for vocational schools with an emphasis on social pedagogy and English at Leuphana University in Lüneburg with one semester to go before I finish my Master’s. With all the academic writing during my years of study, nothing had prepared me for one particular seminar last year: Tasks such as writing personal essays, monologues, and vignettes on your life left me both challenged and inspired.

I am thrilled about the amazing opportunity to be part of the American Studies Blog, as it gives me the chance to embrace all of my passions in a very interesting and inspiring environment of enthusiastic and gifted individuals.

Blog posts by Maike Newman

Ever since I started traveling in 2008, I can’t stop thinking about where to go next. Spending six months in New Zealand on a working holiday visa was about the best thing that could have happened in my life. Six years and quite a number of countries and experiences later, I decided to study Teacher Training with a focus on English as a Foreign Language. This is what brought me here. As a student at Leuphana University, I get the opportunity to work for the American Studies Blog Crew and help out with filming, editing, and video production. Furthermore, I would like to use my technical knowledge for upcoming projects and maybe even write a blog entry or two. This will also help me to prepare for a semester abroad, which I can hopefully do in the U.S. You might even hear from me from over there.

Writing allows us to create entire universes basically for free. I guess that’s what has fascinated me about reading and writing fiction from a very young age. I grew up with one foot in Germany and the other in Norway, having two places to call “home,” yet never truly at home anywhere. History, philosophy, fiction as well as far-away places and times have always been “homes” of mine, creating a deep sensation of longing and a strange form of nostalgia for times and places I’ve never experienced personally. The United States of America is just one of many examples: I’ve never been there, yet I’m fascinated by this country!

In 2012 I started studying Cultural Studies in Lüneburg with Cultural Theory and Analysis and Media and Communication Studies as my main subjects and Philosophy as my minor. In the following years, I gained insights into a variety of viewpoints and approaches affiliated with the broad term of “culture” and learned that studying culture can be a very personal experience. As is writing, which has become a personal passion of mine that has grown with the number of semesters passing. However, it wasn’t until recently that I got the opportunity to contribute to the American Studies Blog, which I see as a potential merging and solidification of many fields of personal interest: the USA, writing fiction, journalistic writing and involving myself in various artistic, media, historical, sociological and philosophical topics from the perspective of a writer who has something to share.

Blog posts by Kai-Arne Zimny