TU Dortmund University Awards Honorary Doctorate to Professor Ed Folsom

The President of TU University, Prof. Manfred Bayer, welcomed the guests on behalf of the university, while Manfred Sauer, former Mayor of the City of Dortmund, welcomed the visitors on behalf of the city. Both expressed gratitude to Prof. Ed Folsom and the laudator, Prof. Christopher Merrill from Iowa. They were delighted to welcome the Walt Whitman expert into the “TU Family.” Prof. Folsom taught as a Fulbright Professor at TU Dortmund University in 1996. His stay laid the foundation for a highly active university partnership between TU Dortmund University and the University of Iowa in Iowa City in many areas since then. Folsom, along with international scholars, founded the “Whitman Week,” bringing advanced students and Whitman specialists together. It took place for the first time in Dortmund in 2008 and has since been organized annually at universities around the world.

“I am pleased to now be able to call Prof. Folsom one of us,” said Prof. Walter Grünzweig from the Department of Cultural Studies, who has been personally cooperating with the new honorary doctor for almost 40 years. “We appreciate Ed Folsom for his extraordinary research and teaching, as well as his interactions with students and other scholars. We look back on decades of collaboration between TU Dortmund University and the University of Iowa, for which we would like to express our sincere thanks.” Prof. Folsom also supported the new translation of Whitman’s work “Leaves of Grass,” which American Studies students at TU Dortmund University presented to the public at the end of last year with actor Armin Mueller-Stahl.

Prof. Christopher Merrill, Director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, praised his longtime friend and colleague Ed Folsom in his laudation for his revolutionary studies of Whitman’s work. In particular, he mentioned Folsom’s co-founding of the digital Whitman Archive and his numerous scientific publications about the lyricist.

In his speech, the literary scholar thanked his colleagues in Dortmund. Since he came here as a Fulbright Professor in 1996, the city of Dortmund has had a special attraction for him. Whitman’s early commitment to democratic values and the exploration of the topic of diversity themes find great interest here. In this thematic context, Whitman has been present in Dortmund for years: as part of the “Gedankenzüge” (Thought Trains) project, Whitman quotes under the title “Experiment Democracy” have been running through the city in 68 Dortmund subway trains since 2022.