Obenewaa Oduro-Opuni

Interests

Research

Black German Literature; German Culture; German Cultural Studies; German Intercultural Literature; German Literature; German Language; African American and African Diaspora Studies; Critical Race Theory; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Intersectionality; Migration Studies; Postcolonial Literature and Theory

Teaching

Black German Literature; German Culture; German Cultural Studies; German Intercultural Literature; German Literature; German Language; African American and African Diaspora Studies; Critical Race Theory; Gender and Sexuality Studies; Intersectionality; Migration Studies; Postcolonial Literature and Theory

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Chapters

• Oduro-Opuni, O. (2023). Four Black German Women: On Being Othered, Feeling Anger at Whiteness, Practicing Joy and Finding Belonging in Solitude. In (When) Will the Joy Come?: Black Womxn in the Ivory Tower(pp 204-217).
  More info

  This is a peer-reviewed autoethnographic piece that utilizes a Black (diaspora) studies theoretical framework

Journals/Publications

• Oduro-Opuni, O. (2022). At the Expense of Black Humanity: White Abolitionist Performativity. The German Quarterly, Special Issue on Black German Studies, 95(4). doi:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gequ.12307
• Oduro-Opuni, O. (2021). 'Wer Helfen Kann, der Helfe!’: Deutsche SklavereigegnerInnen und die Atlantische Abolitionsbewegung, 1780–1860. German History, 40(2), 288-289. doi:10.1093/gerhis/ghab080
• Oduro-Opuni, O., & Oduro-Opuni, O. (2019). German Abolitionism: Kotzebue and the Transnational Debate on Slavery. The Journal of Transnational American Studies. doi:https://doi.org/10.5070/T8101044010

Presentations

• Oduro-Opuni, O. (2022, February). Literate and Self-Identity Panel. Honors Seminar; Human Being: A Multidimensional Journey, W.A. Franke Honors College, University of Arizona.
• Oduro-Opuni, O. (2022, January). Black Bodies and Questions of Humanity in German Abolitionist Theater. Modern Languages Association Annual Convention, Unexpected Bodies in Eighteenth-Century German Culture.
• Oduro-Opuni, O. (2022, June). Black Bodies and Black Humanity in German Abolitionist Theater. American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting, Unjust Philologies in the “Modern” University.
• Oduro-Opuni, O. (2022, June). Juneteenth. Panel Discussion/ Webinar: Beyond Juneteenth: Getting to Know Black Arizona.
• Oduro-Opuni, O. (2022, March). Black Bodies and Black Humanity in German Abolitionist Theater. GER 3635: 18th Century Subjugation and Revolution, Department of German, Nordic, Slavic & Dutch, University of Minnesota,.
• Oduro-Opuni, O. (2022, November). In the Wake: Exposing White Abolitionist Performativity and the Limits of Empathy. Keynote: Colloquium on Intellectual History, Gunzberg Center for European Studies, Harvard University.
• Oduro-Opuni, O. (2022, September). Ambiguity and Meaning Making: A Black Studies Approach to Reading German Literature. Deutscher Germanistentag, Polyvalenz als Intervention Zum Umgang mit Populismus in der Gegenwartsliteratur.
• Oduro-Opuni, O. (2022, September). Diversifying German Studies: Berkeley, Cologne, Tucson, and Yale Transatlantic Network, 3-Day DAAD-funded workshop. Diversifying German Studies: Berkeley, Cologne, Tucson, and Yale Transatlantic Network,.
• Oduro-Opuni, O. (2022, September). The Gospel of Student’s Sense of Belonging According to Terrell Lamont Strayhorn. Forty-Sixth Annual German Studies Association Conference, Roundtable: Mentoring BIPOC Students in German Studies.
• Oduro-Opuni, O. (2021). Alumni Panel. Languages Conference. University of Alabama.
  More info

  I was invited to offer my perspective on the job market as a Black international scholar and newly hired professor, as well as discuss my specific experiences as a Black woman in academia. Additionally, I was asked to share details of my current research. I attended the conference virtually in February 2021 as a panelist on the alumni panel.
• Oduro-Opuni, O. (2021). Food for Thought: Next Generation Scholarship in German Studies. German Studies Association conference.
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  I was nominated for the Food for Thought: Next Generation Scholarship in German Studies 2021 in May 2021, which highlights important research that shapes the field in crucial ways. I was chosen as one of nine scholars whose innovative work was featured at the German Studies Association conference’s lunch hour on October 1.
• Oduro-Opuni, O. (2021). “A Decolonial Approach to Reading 18th Century Germany”. Modern Language Association convention.
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  I was accepted to present at the Modern Language Association convention in the fall of 2020 and thus was part of two different panels at the MLA convention in January 2021. I presented a paper called “A Decolonial Approach to Reading 18th Century Germany” as part of the Language and Literature Program Innovation Room Session
• Oduro-Opuni, O. (2021). “Black Bodies and Black Humanity in German Abolitionist Theater". German Studies Association conference.
  More info

  In February 2021, I submitted an abstract to present a paper at the German Studies Association conference in September/October 2021, which was accepted. I virtually presented a paper called “Black Bodies and Black Humanity in German Abolitionist Theater” on a panel called “Imagining Bodies in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Literature: Contagion, Gender, Race,” which was sponsored by the Body Studies Network.
• Oduro-Opuni, O. (2021). “Black German Studies: Eine Einführung am Beispiel des Transnationalen Abolitionismus.”. Arizona AATG Herbsttreffen.
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  In September 2021, I was invited to give a keynote talk at the Arizona AATG Herbsttreffen. My keynote talk in November 2021 was titled “Black German Studies: Eine Einführung am Beispiel des Transnationalen Abolitionismus.”
• Oduro-Opuni, O. (2021). “German-Language Abolitionism and the Bourgeois Tragedy”. Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Convention.
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  The 2020 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Convention was rescheduled to October 2021 due to the pandemic. I virtually presented a paper called “German-Language Abolitionism and the Bourgeois Tragedy” as part of the “Germanic Studies: German Literature pre-1900” panel session.
• Oduro-Opuni, O. (2021). “Late-Eighteenth-Century Literary Conventions: German-Language Abolitionism and the Bourgeois Tragedy”. Modern Language Association convention.
  More info

  I was accepted to present at the Modern Language Association convention in the fall of 2020 and thus was part of two different panels at the MLA convention in January 2021. I presented a paper called “Late-Eighteenth-Century Literary Conventions: German-Language Abolitionism and the Bourgeois Tragedy” as a part of the “Movement: The Aesthetics of Travel and Trade” panel that was set up by the German - LLC 18th- and Early-19th-Century German Forum.
• Oduro-Opuni, O. (2021). “Transnationaler Abolitionismus am Beispiel von Kotzebues Die N****sklaven (1796).”. School of Modern Languages at the Georgia Institute of Technology..
  More info

  I was invited to give a 45-minute talk in April 2021 at the German Honor Society Induction Ceremony at the School of Modern Languages at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The title of my talk was “Transnationaler Abolitionismus am Beispiel von Kotzebues Die N****sklaven (1796).”

Reviews

• Oduro-Opuni, O. (2021. Review of 'Wer Helfen Kann, der Helfe!’: Deutsche SklavereigegnerInnen und die Atlantische Abolitionsbewegung, 1780–1860 . By Sarah Lentz..