Dear Colleagues,

On February 22, 2005, the Rector of the University of Greifswald (Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Rainer Westermann) presented his plans for the future structure of our university. Intended as a possibility of coping with the severely reduced funding for higher education in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, these plans entail the closure of the Institute of English and American Studies (as well as the Institutes of Romance Languages and Literatures and of Classical Studies) and the transfer of staff to the Institute of English and American Studies at the University of Rostock. However, severe cuts in staff are, of course, the main objective of the re-organisation, resulting inevitably in a substantial reduction in research and teaching in our field of knowledge.
This is the third assault on our institute, and after the intended closures of the entire Institute in 1996 and of the American department in 2004 have successfully been prevented, the future existence of English and American Studies is once more at stake. We emphatically protest against these plans. If we want to succeed in our desperate attempt to save anglophone languages and literatures at the University of Greifswald we need the active support of colleagues, of the Institutes of English and American Studies in Germany and abroad, and also of other institutions for higher education and culture in general. Only widely supported pressure on the politicians who are ultimately responsible for the reduced funding of higher education and the catastrophic consequences for the universities, i.e. the Minister-President and the Minister of Culture and Education of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, will offer a hope of having the plans for the abolishment of English and American Studies in Greifswald revoked.
Within the University of Greifswald, in its research as well as in its teaching our Institute covers the whole body of anglophone languages, literatures and cultures, not only in the traditional fields of English and American Studies, but also embracing the New English Literatures from Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and the Caribbean together with the respective Cultural Studies and of course relevant aspects of Linguistics. The closure of the department would thus bring to a disastrous end an institution devoted to the advancement of transcultural knowledge and understanding. Moreover, the Institute of English and American Studies shows a distinct and unique academic profile in a variety of fields: Renaissance Studies, Classical Modernism, Theory, Postmodernism, Literature and Science, Gender Studies, Canadian Studies, Minority Literatures, World Englishes, Modern and Historical Lexicology, Discursive Linguistics, Historical Linguistics and Medieval English Studies, Bilingual learning and teaching and Alternative teaching methods. It is vastly improbable that this profile would survive the merger with the department of Rostock and the subsequent cuts in the academic staff.
According to the plans as presented by the Rector, but not yet ratified by the Government of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania - and this is why we still see a chance for successful protest - the Humanities in general face their slow but certain demise, as only a severely reduced Institute of German Studies together with Slavic and Scandinavian Languages and Literatures will be maintained as philological studies besides the Institutes of History and Philosophy. Greifswald would thus lose its character as a university and be reduced to a kind of science-medicine-psychology school - with English being offered only as the academic lingua franca for the remaining fields of North-Eastern European Studies.
We would be very happy indeed if we could secure your assistance in our attempt to save the Institute of English and American Studies in Greifswald. Could you please write to the Minister-President, the Minister of Culture and Education and the Minister of Finance of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, asking for the revocation of all plans to close the institute and emphasizing the importance of English and American Studies for a modern university in the globalized world of the 21st century. Our experience of 1996 has shown that it may be useful to address the letter as 'persönlich und vertraulich' (personal and confidential) in order to prevent its premature elimination by subordinate officials. Moreover, we would be very grateful if you could forward this message to friends and colleagues who might also want to support us by writing letters of protest to Schwerin:

Ministerpräsident des Landes Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Dr. Harald Ringstorf
Staatskanzlei
Schlossstrasse 2-4
19053 Schwerin


Minister für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Kultur
Professor Dr. Dr. med. Hans-Robert Metelmann
Werderstraße 124
19055 Schwerin


Finanzministerin
des Landes Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Frau Sigrid Keler
Schlossstrasse 9-1
19053 Schwerin



We would like to thank you very much for your assistance and support. We would appreciate receiving copies of your letters for our own files. Thank you so much for your time and effort.

Yours sincerely
The chair and staff of the Institute for English and American Studies at the University of Greifswald