The volume is a contribution to the ongoing debate on the internationalization of American Studies. The essays by European, American and Latin American scholars provide critical evaluations of a wide range of concepts, including trans-national and post-national, international, trans-atlantic, trans-pacific, as well as hemispheric, inter-American and comparative American studies. Combining theoretical reflections and actual case studies, the collection proposes a reassessment of current developments at a time when American nations experience the paradoxical simultaneity of both weakened and strengthened national borders alongside multiple challenges to national sovereignty.

Marietta Messmer is Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands). She works on inter-American cultural and political relations with a special focus on migration studies. Armin Paul Frank is Professor Emeritus of English Philology at Göttingen University (Germany) and founding director of the Göttingen Center of Advanced Studies in Literary Translation.