All-encompassing as it might seem, the headline of our Americanist seminar emphasizes an important shift of focus. Unlike many Americanists in Europe and world-wide, we do not understand the concept of “American Studies” as synonymous to that of “US Studies”; instead, we approach the cultures of the dual continent as inextricably connected “communicating vessels.” A thus defined research profile of our seminar allows us to diagnose the dynamics of the interdependence among various phenomena and processes occurring both “within” the Americas, but also “across the oceans”: between Europe, Africa, and the Americas – as well as between the Americas, Asia, and Oceania.