WEMPO
Western Myths in Popular Culture (WeMPo) is Stefanie Schäfer’s research focus and area of expertise. As a Marie Skłodowksa Curie fellow, she worked on the project Transatlantic Cowgirl Mobilities (TACOMOLINK) at the University of Vienna.
https://anglistik.univie.ac.at/research/research-projects/tacomo/.
Her output over the last decade has covered the transnational and transatlantic dimensions of the North American Western Myth in the US, Canada, and in Germany from the 19th through the 21st century. She has published on different media from the Western film to the German crime series Tatort, creative nonfiction and poetry, and rodeo cultures. WeMPos methodology draws from settler colonial and ecocritical critique and integrates Indigenous knowledge production and decolonial thought.
Publications
Schäfer, Stefanie, and Alisa Preusser. “A Home Where the Buffalo Roam? Teaching and Challenging the Canadian West.” Teaching Canada II: Identities, Cultures, Regions, edited by Geneviève Susemihl and Grit Alter, Winter, 2025, pp. 129–156. https://www.winter-verlag.de/en/detail/978-3-8253-9546-9/Susemihl_ea_Eds_Teaching_Canada_2/.
Schäfer, Stefanie. “Cowgirling in Thuringia: The German Police Procedural Tatort Goes Western.” Ladies in Arms: Women, Guns, and Feminisms in Contemporary Popular Culture, edited by Teresa Hiergeist and Stefanie Schäfer, transcript, 2024, pp. 181–196. https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-6955-8/ladies-in-arms/?c=313000000.
Schäfer, Stefanie. “Knots and Knowledges: The Canadian West, Settler Colonial Intimacies, and Aritha Van Herk’s Calgary Stampede.” Zeitschrift für Kanada-Studien, no. 70, 2020, pp. 163–178. https://www.kanada-studien.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/zks_2020_09_Sch%C3%A4fer.pdf.
Rosenthal, Caroline, and Stefanie Schäfer. “The Calgary Stampede through a Cultural Studies Perspective: A Teaching Project.” Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, vol. 16, no. 1, 2015, pp. 48–57. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532708615615604.
Schäfer, Stefanie. “Plantation Spaces and the Black Body: Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained as Maroon Narrative.” Black Studies Papers, vol. 1, no. 1, 2014, pp. 167–187. https://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:gbv:46-00103784-16.
Conference Panels, Conference Presentations, and Guest Lectures
Schäfer, Stefanie. “Eat. Sleep. Rodeo? Körper/Ästhetiken der Westernkultur [Bodies/Aesthetics of the Western Culture].” Ästhetik und Politik des Sportfilms [Aesthetics and Politics of the Sports Film], 6 Sept. 2025, University of Mannheim. Conference Presentation. https://www.uni-mannheim.de/news/aesthetik-und-politik-des-sportfilms/.
Schäfer, Stefanie. “Buffalo Power: Origin Stories & Métis Futurism in Chelsea Vowel’s ‘Michif Man.’” 4 July 2023, Marburg University. Guest Lecture. https://www.uni-marburg.de/de/fb10/iaa/aktuelles/nachrichten/canada-day-lecture-on-july-04-2023.
Schäfer, Stefanie. “Return of the Bison? Canadian Literature meets Indigenous Futurism in Chelsea Vowel’s Buffalo is the New Buffalo (2022).” 21 Mar. 2023, University of Innsbruck. Guest Lecture. https://www.uibk.ac.at/canada/events-zentrum/2023/gastvortrag-schaefer.html.en.
Schäfer, Stefanie. “Cowboys All! Rodeo Culture and the Western Myth in North America.” 20 Nov. 2020, Amerikahaus München. Teacher Seminar.
Schäfer, Stefanie. “History Reloaded? Eternal Girlhood and the Afterlives of Annie Oakley.” 31 Jan. 2020, University of Mainz. Guest Lecture. http://www.obama-institute.com/jan-31-history-reloaded-eternal-girlhood-and-the-afterlives-of-annie-oakley/.
Schäfer, Stefanie. “Cowboys All! Settler Colonialism and the Invention of Tradition at the Western Spectacle.” 30 Jan. 2020, University of Mainz. Guest Lecture. http://www.obama-institute.com/jan-30-cowboys-all-settler-colonialism-and-the-invention-of-tradition-at-the-western-spectacle/.
Schäfer, Stefanie, and Emily Burns. “Rethinking Buffalo Bill’s Wild West in Europe, 1887-1890.” Western Historical Association Conference, 16–19 Oct. 2019, Westgate Resort, Las Vegas, NV. Panel Chair.
Schäfer, Stefanie. “Between ‘Flintenweib’ and ‘Fräuleinwunder‘: Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West in Germany and Austria.” Western Historical Association Conference, 16–19 Oct. 2019, Westgate Resort, Las Vegas, NV. Conference Presentation.
Schäfer, Stefanie. “America’s Sweetheart Charms European Royals: Annie Oakley, Gun Culture, and Western Myths.” 08 Jan. 2019, University of Bamberg. Guest Lecture. https://www.uni-bamberg.de/amerikanistik/gastvortraege/americas-sweetheart-charms-european-royals-annie-oakley-gun-culture-and-western-myths/.
Schäfer, Stefanie. “Cowgirldom on the Move: The Transitional Performances of Annie Oakley.” Joint 32ndEuropean Association for American Studies (EAAS) & 63rd British Association for American Studies (BAAS) Conference, 4–7 Apr. 2018, King’s College London. Conference Presentation. https://ebaas2018.wordpress.com/.
Schäfer, Stefanie, and Gabriele Pisarz-Ramirez. “Fleeting Encounters: Outlaws in the Americas.” 5th Biennal Conference of the International Association of Inter-American Studies (IAS), 22–24 Mar. 2018, University of Coimbra. Panel Chair. https://www.interamericanstudies.net/?page_id=6716.