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With the generous financial support of the AHSS Faculty Research Committee, Johannes Vith attended and presented a paper at the 51st International Conference of the Austrian Association for American Studies, titled “Education, the Arts, and American Studies.”

The conference was held at the University College of Teacher Education Vorarlberg in Austria, focusing on the timely intersection of education, politics, and the arts within American Studies. Given the current climate of book bans, educational restrictions, and political interference with school curricula in the United States and beyond, the conference encouraged discussion around the role of education in society.

At the conference, Vith presented a paper titled “Teaching the Opioid Crisis: Nico Walker’s Cherry (2018) and Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (2019),” which investigated how literature can serve as a meaningful medium for understanding complex public health issues, specifically the Opioid Crisis. In his paper, he argued that literature offers a powerful means of humanizing large-scale social and health issues, making them more relatable and accessible to students and readers. Focusing on two contemporary novels—Walker’s Cherry and Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous—Vith demonstrated how these works portray the Opioid Crisis from deeply personal perspectives, illuminating the lived experiences and emotional struggles of addicts and their friends and families.

Through his analysis, Vith underscored the value of literature in bridging the gap between abstract statistics and real human impact, providing educators with tools to engage students in discussions about pressing social issues. His presentation sparked thoughtful dialogue among attendees about the role of storytelling in education, particularly when addressing urgent matters such as public health crises.