Instagram story viewer> @_grannygreta_> Posts

Prof. Greta Olson

@_grannygreta_

626

followers

1077

following

Director of the Center for Diversity, Media, and Law and Professor of English and American Literary Studies at the University of Giessen, Germany

POSTS STORIES REELS

Delighted to commune with Law and Humanities thinkers, poets, and activists at the Law and the Humanities World conference at @uniluzern on 1 & 2 September 2026.

Talks began with an excellent plenary by Dr. Nilanjana Premaratna (U Newcastle) and Prof. Lars Waldorf (U Northumbria) on agonistic storytelling in recent exhibitions by Sri Lankan artists.

A highlight was also Isahbella Rai's (U of Warwick) excellent workshop on Un/Writing Authority in which she invited participants to redact the text of the Colston 4 Judgement (2022) and reflect on what is involved when dominant narratives concerning cultural heritage are contested.

I then had the pleasure of moderating a panel on art and the legal archive in which Dr. Nataliya Tchermalykh (Graduate Institute Geneva) discussed political controversies surrounding the 2026 Venice Biennale and artistic forms of creating justice. Dr. Parvathy Salil then offered a reading of politician and activist C.K. Janu's Adimakka (Slave children) 2023, as a positioning of Janu as a "knowing subaltern." Finally, @louise_debethune delivered a musical performance and talk on archives as spaces in which productive conflicts and alternative forms of justice can occur.

My own talk on "Popular Legality and Protest" brought my work on felt law and the affective resonances involved in memefied politics into dialogue with organizers Dr. Laura Petersen and Dr. Steven Howe's (both @uniluzern) research on justice and visual culture during the Weimar era. I argued that protesters can enact alternative normative orders by appealing to earlier protest moments visually.

My thanks go to Prof. Antionette Magnet Dominicé (Art Law Centre, Université de Genève) as well as Laura and Steve and to the participants for all of the deep learning.
@diml_jlu @jlu.giessen @medimi_research_group
@bytheduckpond by @_grannygreta_

Fantastic to be back at the @uniluzern Institute for Interdisciplinary Legal Studies' summer school "Critical Times 2026: Bodies." Grateful to Dr. Steven Howe and Prof. Vagias Karavas for the excellent organisation. Happy to see Prof @_angel_cond_ again and see her facilitate a lively seminar on women's sexuality, autonomy, and the unexpected.

Lovely to witness accounts of unfolding research by Harun Bodar @erciyesuni1978 on film, affect, and embodied struggle; Daniel Lopez @uofmichigan on communities in crisis in Latin America and how bodies can unsettle and challenge; and Mini Saxena @soasuni, wonderfully, on how the researcher's perceived body influences ethnographic work on consent and sexuality.

The day continued with Silvan Schenkel @uniluzern and Lorena Gisler (Uni Bern and Uni Lucerne) on reading criminality in the body; @grigglt (Ghent U), excellent on visual representations of forbidden bodies in interwar Germany, and Lidia Celli (U of Turin and U of Lucerne) on adjudging women's embodied criminality in post-war Italy.

Drs. Laura Petersen @uniluzern and Valeria Vázquez Geuvara (U of Hong Kong) concluded the day by leading an empathetic circle on embodied academic life.

I had the honor of facilitating the next day in a session on bodies, metaphors, and law, in which I could introduce co-authored work with Dr. Laura Borchert @transcript_verlag on transing law; and Lilli von Stengel @lillivonst on Trial by TikTok in the post-Dobbs era.

Back at the @jlu.giessen and @DiMl, the academic year concluded with an excellent talk on current threats to legal certainty in the United States by Prof Ralph Grunewald (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and collaboration.

It's a wrap on a wonderful and challenging academic year.

@medimi_research_group by @_grannygreta_

What a delight to attend the 2026 Law, Culture, and the Humanities Conference in Chicago, abuzz with the opening of the Obama Center and Juneteenth.

The conference opened with a superb talk by @gretalafleur on sex panics, measures of risk, and law, and continued for me with a thoughtful session on sex, gender, and the law led by Naomi Mezey. We proceeded with two excellent panels on Teaching Law and Literature with, amongst others, Simon Stern on teaching L&L at law school; Julie Stone Peters on teaching with film; Ralph Grunewald on facilitating large enrollment classes, Lisa Siraganian on legal personhood; and Marc Firmani on law, AI, and liberal arts; and me on teaching Law and Outrage. (All pictured.)

Another highlight was presenting work from the forthcoming "Law, Narrative, and Narratology," ed. by Simon Stern and myself, and coming out in August with @nyupress, with contributing authors Nicole Mansfield Wright on "Freedom and the Domain of Choice," Ralph Grunewald on narrative agency and police deception, Helena Whalen-Bridge on "Party Narratives and Altered Burdens of Proof," and me on the critical reformist energy in Law and Narrative work. (Authors and editors pictured.)

I took in other excellent panels on sociolegal fictions, law and the novel, free speech and censorship, law and gender with Andrew Majeske (pictured). The conference allowed me to commune with scholars whom I have been reading for years and to meet wonderful newer people in the field such as Lindsay Stern, Marc Firmani, Oladayo Koleola, Abigail Sprenkle, and the winner of one of this year's dissertation prizes, @lind_mueller.

Thank you, LCH friends, @dpu_hum_ctr, and the fantastic HI Chicago, where I stayed (pictured).

Thanks also to lovely Chicago, alight with the Obama Center celebrations, for reminding me of what the United States can be.

@diml_jlu
@jlu.giessen
@hiusa
@medimi_research_group by @_grannygreta_

One of the most satisfying parts of our Humanities for Humans event last week, apart from the spirited conversations on and off stage, was the strong interest in our books.
ㅤ
There's nothing more beautiful than a reader fully immersed in reading.
ㅤ
📷 @juliamerkel_photography

Thanks again to @1014nyc and our speakers @_grannygreta_, @femsista and Irene Kacandes.
ㅤ
#DeGruyterBrill #AcademicPublishing #Books #Reading by @_grannygreta_

Grateful to have been included in the @degruyter_brill and @1014nyc event on 'reading' and thinking critically about AI images on 11 June in Berlin.

Prof. Irene Kacendes drew us together in her thoughtful Humanities for Humans event and book series. Dr. Myrto Apioto opened by asking provocatively, Why talk more about AI given the endlessness of the hype?

My sister panelist @femsista spoke about the anti-democratic impact of beauty filters and the ever narrowing set of look standards that keeps people silent. Quoting work by Prof Maria Schreiber (Uni Klagenfurt), she suggested we stop and consider our need to reflexively resend AI images. What makes us want to click?

I could connect work I am doing with @donna.bisestile in @medimi_research_group on dystopian images of migration as in the POV Brandenburger Tor one pictured, and how they serve to mobilize fears and channel grievances. I cited work by @torsa_ghosal and Prof Regina Kreide @politicaltheory.jlu on how LLMs confirm user biases affirmatively, and Prof Julian Ernst @diml_jlu work on how to teach AI image literacy.

This connected to the "What does facism mean now?" event that Prof Regina Kreide organized on 9 June online with Profs Bill Scheuermann (Indiana U) and Paula Diehl (U of Kiel). Amidst the important debate about whether to call present developments neo- or post-faschist, I talked about how AI images "mobilize passions" (Robert Paxton) and serve the politics of grievance (Naomi Klein).
@wissenschaftgegenfaschismus by @_grannygreta_

What an absolute pleasure to welcome so many guests to our Humanities for Humans discussion last week. Thank you to Greta Olson, Elisabeth Lechner and Irene Kacandes for the animated conversation on AI images, and to everyone who came!
ㅤ
To learn more, explore the reading list our speakers put together via our bio.
ㅤ
We've published several talks from the series in our open access volume “Humanities for Humans.” Download it for free on our website!
ㅤ
Many thanks to our partners @1014nyc and 1014 Deutschland, and to the Walter de Gruyter Foundation for supporting this event.
ㅤ
📸 @juliamerkel_photography
ㅤ
#DeGruyterBrill #AI #Images #Visual #Culture by @_grannygreta_

Wonderful days of bathing in ideas at the 2026 ISSN conference in beautiful and friendly Aarhus.

I particularly enjoyed panels on Listening in and to Narrative with Dr. Simona Adinolfi @donna.bisestile @medimi_research_group and @jlu.giessen, including Lilli von Stengel @lillivonst @diml_jlu; meeting @lena_mattheis and @cmejeur amongst others at an excellent panel on trans realities;
reconnecting with friends and colleagues, like Dr. Melanie Kreitler, now at @ugent; and Dr. Wibke Schniedermann, @birtechrist, and Prof. Dorothee Birke on a panel on digital paratextual practices.

More learning about new directions in unreliable narrative studies and hearing @torsa_ghosal in a great paper on rage bait in border crossing LLM narratives; and discovering the possibilities of supporting democracy with narrative fiction with @eskomainio amongst others; and getting ideas for innovative teaching practices at the wonderful pedagogy lunch. Communing with @dosenttimakela and others during the Narrative Dance was a joy.

A happy time of non-hierarchal deep learning. Appreciation to all of the organizers.
@the_narrative_society by @_grannygreta_

Only one week left to go, so clear your calendars! If you're in Berlin, make sure to join us next Thursday.
ㅤ
This is a unique chance to visit our publishing house, hear from our speakers Greta Olson, Elisabeth Lechner and Irene Kacandes, and chat and mingle over a drink afterwards. The event is free and open to the public.
ㅤ
Sign up at the link in our bio! We can't wait to see you.
ㅤ
#DeGruyterBrill #Panel #Discussion #AI #Images @diml_jlu @jlu.giessen @dartmouthcollege by @_grannygreta_

The Center for Diversity, Media, and Law and I are delighted to learn from Dr. K. Allison Hammer, our current Fellow, about new developments in transmasc research and activism.

@wgss_siu
@diml_jlu
@jlu.giessen by @_grannygreta_

Online! Here is what I’ll be talking about next…#transisbeautiful #transgender #masculinity #transmasculine #transisbeautiful

10 am CST! This Thursday, 5/28.

Zoom ID: 667 0684 4403
Passcode: 581435.

What does it mean to think trans masculinity in an age when the manosphere has made the toxic features of normative masculinity hyper-visible, while trans studies has largely turned its attention elsewhere? Drawing on my book Masculinity in Transition, this lecture argues that trans masculinity is caught in a double bind: assimilated into a fascist-adjacent imaginary of the “real man,” and apparitional within trans studies itself, where critiques of transmasculine desire as heteronormative and urgent calls to center trans femininity have left transmasculine subjects without their own scholarly archive. Reading this violence of erasure alongside the resurgence of overt fascist masculinity, I return to the butch and butch/femme histories that earlier feminist movements ostracized — what Bobby Noble calls the “no man’s land” of gender — to ask what these archives offer for thinking masculinity otherwise. Beyond the manosphere is not a utopia but a recovery: of history, of butchness, of the unfinished feminist question of how to inhabit masculinity without reproducing its dominations. The lecture closes with a plea for history as method, and for a future of trans masculinity that refuses both invisibility and the manosphere’s seductions. by @_grannygreta_

As we honor IDAHOBIT 2026 as a commitment to democracy, let's return focus to how the popular can contribute to or resist the current anti-gender moment.

Join us for Prof. K. Allison Hammer's talk on 18 May at 4:15 central European time.
@wgss_siu
@diml_jlu
@jlu.giessen by @_grannygreta_

The learning continued with Dr. Simona Adinolfi's @donna.bisestile talk on Critical Posthumanism, AI, and Images of Migration, and Janina Schlüsselburg's talks on Resistance to the White Gaze and Representations of Manus Island in Mainstream Australian Media on 7 May during the @medimi_research_group Humanrightization conference, and on 11 May in a talk at the @jlu.giessen.

Both thinkers invite us to consider migration and how migrants are represented from decolonializing perspectives. Deep thanks to you both. by @_grannygreta_