ASANOR biannual conference 2026
June 4-6. Kristiansand, Norway
All presenters also need to be registered members of ASANOR. Click here for information on how to join us.
The 2026 American Studies Association of Norway Conference looks back to its early years for inspiration. The very first themed ASANOR seminar was titled “The Bicentennial of the US Constitution.” Many years later we return to this document, not only to revisit its cultural and historical significance but also to ask what it means to invoke the Constitution now, in a time of intensifying democratic crisis and rising illiberalism.
From the expansion of executive power to attacks on voting rights, judicial independence, and press freedoms, many of the traditional pillars of U.S. liberal democracy are under threat. However, illiberalism is not new to the American experience. Slavery, settler colonialism, voter suppression, censorship, and patriarchal legal structures all point to a long and uneven history of constitutional struggle.
This conference invites scholars of American literature, history, politics, culture, and the arts to reflect on how the United States has been—and continues to be—constituted: legally, politically, imaginatively, and culturally. How have people in and beyond the U.S. interpreted, challenged, reimagined, or resisted the idea of America as defined by its Constitution?
You can register for the conference from November 25 here.
Keynote Speakers:
Xine Yao
Associate Professor in American Literature to 1900
University College London
Sarah L. H. Gronningsater
Associate Professor of History
University of Pennsylvania
Hotels in Kristiansand:
Here are some suggested hotels.
Thon Partner Hotel Parken
Scandic Kristiansand Bystranda
Comfort Hotel Kristiansand
Thon Partner Hotel Kristiansand
Citybox Hotels Kristiansand Lite
Thon Partner Hotel Norge
American Studies Association of Norway 