Dr. Isabel Kalous
Dr. Isabel Kalous
Department of English and American Studies
Chair of American Studies (Prof. Dr. Paul)
Bismarckstr. 1
91054 Erlangen
- Phone number: +49 9131 85-22440
- Email: isabel.kalous@fau.de
- Website: https://www.angam.phil.fau.de/fields/amst/culture/staff/isabel-kalous/
Office hours
Mon, 12:00-13:00
(please register in advance via e-mail)
Research Interests
Non-motherhood, Childfreeness, and Reproductive Justice
Environmental Sentimentality in Climate Fiction
Ecological Antinatalism
Travel Writing and Cultural Mobility Studies
African American Literature and Culture
Current Research Projects
- Non-Motherhood in American Literature and Culture
- Associate member of the interdisciplinary research training group (GRK 2726) “The Sentimental in Literature, Culture, and Politics”
- Associate member of the project “Semantiken des Verzichts” (funded by the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 2023-24)
Administrative Functions
Study advisor (American Studies) for studies abroad
Webmaster (American Studies/Prof. Paul)
Education
Dr. phil. in English and American Literature, Justus Liebig University Giessen (2020)
M.A. in International Cultural and Business Studies, University of Passau (2013)
Employment
Since 2023: Senior lecturer in American Studies at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
2021-2023: Scientific coordinator of the “Schelling-Forum,” Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities
2020-2021: Research Assistant at the Department of English and American Studies, LMU Munich
2015-2019: Research Assistant at the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture, JLU Giessen
Fellowships, Grants, Awards
- 2024: Dartmouth Stipend from the Bavarian American Academy for the Summer Institute “Futures of American Studies” at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
- 2023: BAA Fellowship for the 12th International Summer Academy of the Bavarian American Academy in Lexington, Kentucky
- 10/2019–03/2020: Doctoral completion grant, FAZIT Foundation
- 2016–2019: Several travel grants from the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture and the International PhD Programme Literary and Cultural Studies for conference presentations in Germany, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, and the US
- 2018: Dr.-Herbert-Stolzenberg Award for Excellence in Higher Education Teaching, JLU Giessen
- 2017: Participant of the annual summer school of the Hermes Consortium for Literary and Cultural Studies, Aarhus University
- 2015: Yale University Post-Graduate Research Fellowship of the Bavarian American Academy
- 2015: Travel grant for female early career researchers from the University of Passau
- 2014: Travel grant of the Graduate Center at the University of Passau
Service to the Profession
- Representative of the non-professorial teaching staff of English and American Studies (2024–)
- Elected Member of the Council for Academic Staff, Department of English, American, and Romance Studies (2023–)
- Elected representative of the research management team of the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture in the Board of Directors (2017–2019)
- Member of the editorial team of On_Culture – The Open Journal for the Study of Culture (2016–2018)
Teaching
- Lektürekurs: American Civilization (FAU)
- Grundseminar Culture/Culture A (FAU)
- Eco-Apocalypse, Extinction, and Endings in American Literature and Culture (FAU)
- American Journeys: Travel in Literary and Cultural Texts (FAU)
- Introduction to Climate Change Fiction (University of Passau)
- American Travel Writing (University of Passau)
- Slavery and Resistance in African American Literature and Culture (University of Passau and JLU Giessen)
- Introduction to Transatlantic North American Studies (JLU Giessen)
Publications
Authored Books
- Kalous, Isabel. Black Travel Writing: Contemporary Narratives of Travel to Africa by African American and Black British Authors. transcript, 2021.
BibTeX: Download
Journal Articles
- Guttzeit, Gero, and Isabel Kalous. "Covering Surveillance: The Visualization of Contemporary Surveillance on Scholarly Book Covers." On_Culture: The Open Journal for the Study of Culture (2021).
URL: http://geb.uni-giessen.de/geb/volltexte/2021/16235/
BibTeX: Download - Kalous, Isabel. "Navigating Hostile Terrain with the Green Book: How a Travel Guide Mobilized African Americans During Segretation." Journal of the Austrian Association for American Studies 3.1 (2021): 11-31.
BibTeX: Download
Book Contributions
- Kalous, Isabel. "Reimagining slavery from a twenty-first-century perspective." A Comparative Literary History of Modern Slavery: The Atlantic world and beyond. 2025. 168-187.
BibTeX: Download - Basseler, Michael, and Isabel Kalous. "The Post-Civil-Rights Novel: Re-negotiating African American Identities, Racism, and Cultural Memory in Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad (2016) and Paul Beatty’s The Sellout (2015)." The American Novel in the Twenty-first Century: Cultural Contexts – Literary Developments – Critical Analyses. Ed. Michael Basseler & Ansgar Nünning, 2019.
BibTeX: Download
Miscellaneous
- Kalous, Isabel. Memory as Superpower in Ta-Nehisi Coates’s The Water Dancer. U.S. Studies Online, 2020.
URL: https://usso.uk/2020/12/09/memory-as-superpower-in-ta-nehisi-coatess-the-water-dancer/
BibTeX: Download - Kalous, Isabel. "Mapping New Paths in the Field of Travel Writing Studies." Rev. of The Routledge Research Companion to Travel Writing, by Alasdair Pettinger and Tim Youngs (eds.). 2020.
BibTeX: Download - Kalous, Isabel. "African American (Im)Mobilities in the Antebellum United States and Today." Rev. of Colored Travelers: Mobility and the Fight for Citizenship before the Civil War;
The Post-Racial Negro Green Book, by Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor;
an Miles. 2018.
BibTeX: Download - Kalous, Isabel. "Writing Travel, Writing Resistance: African American Narratives of Travel in the Age of Segregation." Rev. of African American Travel Narratives from Abroad: Mobility and Cultural Work in the Age of Jim Crow, by Gary Totten. 2016.
BibTeX: Download