GSA Spring 2025 Newsletter

Dear Friends and Members of the GSA,

Our Spring 2025 newsletter has been published and is available on our website. You can read about our new GSA team members, the 2025 GSA book prizes and calls for nominations, the 2025-26 Berlin Program Fellows cohort, our upcoming GSA 2025 conference in Arlington, and more.

With our best wishes,

Margaret E. Menninger, Executive Director

Josh Seale, Operations Director Read more

2025 GSA Conference: Notice for International Visitors to the U.S.

If attending the GSA conference from outside the United States, please note:

This is an exclusively in-person conference and virtual participation is unfortunately not possible.
However, we are aware that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has recently become more stringent and less predictable with travelers, regardless of citizenship, at United States entry ports. Please review any guidance provided by your university and country of citizenship for travel to the United States.
Although we sincerely hope all members will be able to attend the 2025 conference in Arlington, VA, if the international travel situation prevents you from traveling to the United States, please contact Program Director Daniel Riches, Executive Director Margaret Menninger, and Operations Director Josh Seale immediately.

Advocating for the National Endowment for the Humanities

As is known to many of you, funding for future and even current NEH grants is under threat. The GSA recently signed on to the National Humanities Alliance statement supporting the NEH. If you have been impacted by cuts to NEH grants, please let the NHA know immediately. We also encourage you to contact your elected representatives to ask them to keep the funding for the NEH intact. Read more

April 17, 2025: Virtual Workshop with the GSA Mentoring Committee

The GSA Mentoring Committee invites PhD students in German Studies to a virtual workshop: "Introduction to the Academic Job Search."

Join us on Zoom on Thursday, April 17, 2025, 2:00–3:30pm CT. Please register here.

The workshop will address the following topics:

Job outlooks
Types of faculty positions and institutions (how to read a job announcement)
Basic elements of the job application (letter, CV, teaching philosophy statement, etc.)
What makes a strong candidate and application?
Process and calendar (what happens when, from the announcement to the offer)
A very brief introduction to preparing for other types of jobs inside and outside of the university

There will be time for questions and answers.

Panelists:

Elizabeth Loentz (Germanic Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago)
Catriona MacLeod (Germanic Studies,University of Chicago)
David Meola (History, University of South Alabama)
Christine Rinne (German, University of South Alabama)
Liz Schoppelrei (German Studies, Society for the Humanities, Cornell University)

Questions? Email Elizabeth Loentz, loentz@uic.edu Read more

GSR 48.1 Now Available to Members

Dear members of the GSA,

I am pleased to inform you that German Studies Review 48.1 is now available. A preview, including the cover and table of contents for 48.1 can be found at the end of this letter. Starting with this issue, GSR will be online only. Information on how to access the issue can be found here:

Go to the Project Muse website – https://muse.jhu.edu/browse.
Click on the gold Log In button in the top right corner.
Enter the username and password for your GSA account in the boxes provided and click Log In.
If login was successful, your username will appear in the top right corner.
Click on Browse in the upper left corner and then scroll down and click on View more Journals. An alphabetical list of journals will appear.
Use the tools on the left to find the title for which you have a paid subscription. There will be a green check next to the title(s) you can access.
Click on the journal and a list of available issues will appear. Click on the issue you would like to access. This will bring up a Table of Contents with a

GSA SEMINARS 2025

The 49th German Studies Association Conference in Arlington, VA, from September 25–28, 2025 will again host a series of seminars in addition to panels and roundtables (for general conference information, click here).

Seminars meet for all three days of the conference (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) during the first or second morning slot to foster extended discussion, rigorous intellectual exchange, and intensified networking. They are led by two to four conveners and consist of 10 to 20 participants, at least some of whom should be graduate students. In order to reach the goal of extended discussion, seminar organizers and participants are required to participate in all three installments of the seminar.

Please note some important seminar application guidelines:

You must be a

CfP: German Studies Review: The GSA Fiftieth Anniversary Issue

Call for Proposals: The GSA Fiftieth Anniversary Issue

German Studies Review is inviting contributions to a special issue on the 50th anniversary of the German Studies Association (GSA). We are looking for reflections both on the history and the future of German Studies in North America. The issue is asking: How has the study of German literature, culture, politics, and history shaped the intellectual landscape in the US and in Canada? Which future developments and changes can we see?

Contributions may address the following questions:

How does the study of literature, art, philosophy, and history of German-speaking countries diversify and enrich the cultural debates in the US and in Canada? Which trends and transformations has the discipline seen over the past decade and what does this tell us about its future?
Which impact does German Studies have on higher education or international relations? What is the place for the study of German politics, history, and culture in a world marked by old and new international cooperations and diplomatic affiliations?
How have German scholars, filmmakers, writers, and philosophers responded to challenges from political extremes on the left or the right?

CfP: Virtual and Regional Meetings

Call for Proposals: Virtual and Regional Meetings

The German Studies Association (GSA) is piloting and helping to sponsor two new types of scholarly gatherings that would occur outside of the annual meeting: regional and virtual meetings. The purpose of this initiative is to provide scholars with accessible venues where they can build communities and exchange ideas about topics and themes in German, Austrian, and/or Swiss art history, anthropology, culture studies, economics, history, language, linguistics, literature, music, and political science. We are calling for proposals for either regional meetings or virtual meetings that could take place between August 1, 2025 and July 31, 2026. Applications will be due on March 1, 2025. Organizers will be informed of the outcome of their application no later than May 1, 2025.

GSA Regional Meetings ($1,500)

The GSA invites proposals for regional meetings where participants would be located within a reasonable distance from each other. Such meetings could take place anywhere in the world. Organizers will have flexibility in structuring the regional meetings, but they should broadly help to promote scholarly exchange and build communities within German studies. These gatherings could include informal presentations and discussions of current projects, or pre-circulated papers,... Read more

CfA: GSA Emerging Scholars Workshop 2025

December 15, 2024

Call for Applications: GSA Emerging Scholars Workshop (ESW) 2025

We are excited to issue this call for the next Emerging Scholars Workshop (ESW) to be hosted at the 49th Annual German Studies Association Conference in Arlington, Virginia, on September 25–28, 2025. This workshop is only open to graduate students.

The ESW will run parallel to the established seminars, panels, and roundtables. It will convene Friday through Sunday, 8am–10am. Participants must commit to participating in all three workshop meetings. For general conference information, visit the current conference page.

Over the past decade or so, graduate programs across the country have contracted. Now, fewer graduate students encounter fewer regular graduate courses, which have also become more general in content to meet satisfactory enrollment. As a result, much of the specialized yet crucial field training has moved into one-on-one tutorials and directed readings. The ESW gives an up-and-coming cohort of scholars access to leading faculty in their fields. It increases the advice and mentoring they receive and cultivates a sustained professional conversation. The goal is to enable the next generation of Germanists to produce their best possible work, be competitive... Read more

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