The GSA Seminar Coordinators are:

Nicole Coleman | Wayne State University | ncoleman@wayne.edu (chair)

Colleen Anderson | National Air and Space Museum | andersonCE@si.edu

Kristin Poling | University of Michigan-Dearborn | kpoling@umich.edu



List of 2026 GSA Seminars (in alphabetical order)

1. Alternative Pasts: Reframing and Reimaging the Past in German Literature and Film

Conveners:

• Muriel Cormican, Texas Christian University, muriel.cormican@tcu.edu
• Jen William, Purdue University, jwillia1@purdue.edu

Abstract: Organized by The German Quarterly’s coeditors, and complementing our previous seminar’s topic of alternative futures, this seminar, to which we welcome all applicants, provides the starting point for a special issue focused on explorations of alternative pasts. German-language literature and film is replete with depictions of shifting power dynamics resulting from disruptions of linear history, from the implicit uchronia of exile and migration literature, to the counterfactual realities created to hold onto a nostalgic version of the past by characters in such works as Wolfgang Becker’s Goodbye, Lenin! or Günter Grass’s Die Blechtrommel, to the recursive temporality and parallel lives portrayed in such works as Sharon Dodua Otoo’s Adas Raum. Participants will read and discuss theorizations of uchronia, metahistory, counterfactuality, memory, nostalgia, the multiverse, and temporal rupture and intentionally integrate some of the theoretical works chosen into their analyses. Seminar participation does not guarantee inclusion in the special issue

Format: Participants submit article proposals (1500-1750 words) by August 24 to be pre-circulated and read by all. Sessions consist of a discussion of 1) theoretical readings (approx. 100 pages total) assigned by the conveners and 2) of submitted article proposals. Each participant will lead one discussion of one other participant's contribution. No auditors permitted.

2. The Appeal of Family: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Family and Kinship in the Past, Present, and Future (sponsored by the Family & Kinship Network)

Conveners:

• William Carter, Iowa State University, w.h.carter@gmail.com
• Jürgen Dinkel, University of Leipzig, juergen.dinkel@uni-leipzig.de

Abstract: Families can generate solidarity and feelings of connectedness. They create economic and emotional bonds, provide access to financial and cultural resources, and enable individuals to address complex economic and political challenges. At the same time, families have served as a social space for conflict, domestic violence, and abuse. What makes family appealing? How do family structures compare with other forms of social organization? How do milestones (birth, marriage, inheritance), times of crisis (war, flight, expulsion), and the challenges of daily life contribute to the family? Is family more important during certain periods of life (old age) than during others (teenage years)? When do families come to the fore (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah), and when do they recede into the background (during the work week, national holidays, etc.)? We invite colleagues from various disciplines (history, literature, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies) to address the enduring role of family: past, present, and future.

Format: Participants will submit a 1500-2500-word paper by August 24, 2026. We will then organize the papers by topic/time period and share them with the group well ahead of the seminar. During our meetings, we will discuss the papers in a roundtable format. Auditors permitted with pre-approval, space permitting.

3. Artificial Intelligence and German Studies: Critical Methods and Pedagogy (sponsored by the Digital Humanities Network)

Conveners:

• Thorsten Ries, University of Texas, ries.thorsten@gmail.com
• Fabian Offert, University of California, Santa Barbara, offert@ucsb.edu
• Patrick Fortmann, University of Illinois Chicago, fortmann@uic.edu

Abstract: More and more projects in Digital Humanities and German Studies are integrating large language and multimodal models into their workflows, "Critical AI" has emerged as a new subfield of the Humanities, and academic newsfeeds are filled with concerns about the future of Higher Education in the age of AI. The seminar "Artificial Intelligence and German Studies" takes stock of these trends and surveys the state of AI adoption and resistance. It brings together current research perspectives on 1) Critical AI methods in Digital German Studies, 2) AI Cultures (e.g. the "German history" of AI, the formation of creative communities around AI in the DACH region, and the intersection of German and Media Studies related to AI), as well as 3) pedagogical developments and efforts in program building in German Studies impacted or inspired by AI (SLA, Literature, Culture, Area Studies; History, others: impact evaluation, mitigations, innovation concepts and best practices).

Format: The seminar features participant presentations dealing with research questions, case studies, grouped around a main topic per day, discussion of research, also hands-on experiments with AI methods and culture examples are invited. The main discussion is framed by a seminar reader (60 pp, early August) distributed beforehand (not including contributions). Auditors permitted with pre-approval, space permitting.

4. Beyond the Camps: Carceral Environments across German History

Conveners:

• Emine Seda Kayim, University of Kentucky, seda.kayim@uky.edu
• Claire Zimmerman, University of Toronto, claire.zimmerman@utoronto.ca

Abstract: Studies on German carcerality have focused mainly on the Third Reich, the Holocaust, and the GDR, with scholars closely examining political prisons and camps to expose the instrumentality of civil (and actual) death in industrial modernity. Following recent research on carceral environments in the humanities (Chiang, 2018; Morin, 2018; Pieris and Horiuchi, 2022), this seminar will cross-examine colonial, environmental, and trans-species practices of incarceration across modern German histories with a host of places designed and built to lock up and punish. We invite scholars who investigate, among others, carceral histories of German colonies, penal ecologies, non-human carceral geographies, and contemporary prison design, as well as comparative studies on spaces of forced labor and premature death. By holistically discussing German carcerality beyond temporal and ideological frameworks, and the human—non-human divide, the seminar will probe and theorize carceral-spatial logic from the medieval period to the present.

Format: The seminar will be based on (a) participants’ pre-circulated works-in-progress (max. 5,000 words), due by August 25, and (b) key texts (max. 80 pages) provided by the conveners to frame the conversation theoretically. Discussions will be organized thematically, with participants giving a 5–7-minute presentation on their contribution. Auditors permitted with pre-approval, space permitting.

5. The Comic and the Present

Conveners:

• Teresa Kovacs, Indiana University, tekovacs@iu.edu
• Joel Lande, Princeton University, lande@princeton.edu

Abstract: As works by Zupancic and Agamben, as well as the Critical Inquiry issue edited by Berlant and Ngai attest, the comedic is a magnetic yet unresolved topic of critical reflection. Such salience among theorists owes a lot to the exceptional relationship that comic literature and performance fundamentally maintain with the contemporary. Whether high or low literature, extemporaneous performance or dramatic theater, comic varieties of imaginative expression draw their vitality from the here and now. What’s more, changes across time and place go hand in hand with changing deployments of the comic as a response (as critique or affirmation) to a shared lifeworld. The comic is as much an aesthetic as a political site of contestation, where society tests competing self-understandings. Our seminar explores variations in the deployment of the comic as a reaction (adequate or inadequate) to the present.

Format: Our Seminar solicits the participation of graduate students and faculty from across the disciplines. Day 1-3: Based on pre-circulated readings by the conveners (by 6/30), participants will present their project for approximately 10 minutes, accompanied by in-depth discussions of the shared readings in relation to the presented case studies. Auditors permitted with pre-approval, space permitting.

6. DEFA's Screened Environments

Conveners:

• Stephan Ehrig, University of Glasgow, herrehrig@gmail.com
• Daniel Pinto, Univeresity of Chicago, dcpinto@uchicago.edu

Abstract: This seminar will examine how East German narrative and documentary films address questions of social and environmental justice. While environmental protection was enshrined in the GDR constitution, the key industries of steel, lignite and chemistry, instrumental for the post-war recovery and nation-building, led to massive pollution and public health problems. Within culture’s function as an Ersatzöffentlichkeit, vernacular film forms of the GDR visually mediated these environmental and social contradictions and ruptures, metabolizing them to figure more socially and environmentally just futures. Participants are invited to explore urban, rural, and industrial spaces’ intersections and interconnections on film via diverse frameworks, including but not limited to agency, cultural techniques, and questions of gender, class, and age. 6-7 participants’ contributions will be published in a special issue on environmental studies and East German film, forthcoming in German Screen Studies in 2027.

Format: Participants will submit draft articles of 5000-7000 words by 24 August 2026. Papers will be read by all participants, workshopped individually during the seminar, and returned with detailed written feedback from both editors and one assigned contributor by 27 September. The revised articles will be due by 30 October 2026. Auditors permitted with pre-approval, space permitting.

7. Encountering the European “East”: Imagination and Practice

Conveners:

• John Deak, University of Notre Dame, jdeak@nd.edu
• Jesse Kauffman, Eastern Michigan University, jesse.kauffman@emich.edu
• Mark Kettler, University of Notre Dame, mkettler@nd.edu
• Gregor Thum, University of Pittsburgh, thum@pitt.edu

Abstract: Looking to Russia, East-Central Europe, or their own peripheries, Europeans have imagined the “East” as primitive and stagnant, but also as a preserve of creative diversity, as dangerous, as a bastion against revolution, and a model of utopian modernization. These frameworks conditioned behavior. But they could also be discarded or revised in response to local experiences. This seminar approaches perceptions of the “East” in modern Europe with an emphasis on conceptual diversity and attention to encounters. It explores how merchants, state officials, and intellectuals imagined “the East” in manifold and contradictory ways, and how these ideas shaped political, economic, cultural, and military projects. It simultaneously considers how encounters with the real spaces and populations of these regions launched processes of negotiation, resistance, and cooperation which reshaped these interpretive frameworks and associated projects. It invites a variety of approaches, including research on commerce, cultural contact, state-led development, nation-building, and empire.

Format: Participants will pre-circulate position papers (1500-2500 words, due 24 August 2026), outlining how their (proposed) research advances our understanding of European conceptions of the “East”, related projects, and how encounters with the "East" transformed these frameworks and projects. Seminar discussion will develop themes for a conference, planned for 2027. Auditors not permitted.

8. From Labor Migration to De-Integration: Postmigration and Its Discontents

Conveners:

• Kathrin Bower, University of Richmond, kbower@richmond.edu
• Karolina Hicke, Swarthmore College, karolinaahicke@gmail.com

Abstract: Labor migration and immigration flows have shaped post-war German society (East and West), but their influence on cultural life since the 1970s was either marginalized or deemed a threat to identity and social cohesion. This seminar examines aesthetic strategies and institutional struggles through which migrantized and minoritized creators have claimed visibility and authority, from manifestos and writer collectives to theater, film, and comedy. We ask how categories such as “migration background” flatten identifications, how calls for “de-integration” contest assimilationist expectations and reframe memory politics, and how struggles over canon, institutions, and public discourse shape what counts as “German.” Taking “postmigration” as a contemporary milieu and critical framework rather than a genre or endpoint, we interrogate how postmigration has been conceptualized and deployed by cultural practitioners in the Federal Republic to re-assess migration, hierarchical structures of access, identification, and memory politics, and discuss applications for teaching and research in German Studies.

Format: Six readings selected by the conveners will be available to participants by June 15. Participants will submit a short paper (1,000-1,250 words) by August 24 connecting concepts from the readings to their teaching or research. Sessions will include brief presentations by each participant, followed by open discussion and feedback. Auditors permitted with pre-approval, space permitting.

9. Gaming Expectations

Conveners:

• Alex Hogue, Coastal Carolina University, ahogue@coastal.edu
• Evan Torner, University of Cincinnati, torneren@ucmail.uc.edu
• Brandy Wilcox, Knox College, brandyewilcox@gmail.com

Abstract: Bringing games into the language and culture classroom experience can incorporate authentic tasks and target-language usage into a lesson. Yet the foreknowledge and expectations of both instructors and students provide additional wrinkles. This seminar will explore the topic of games through the lens of expectations that shift thanks to classroom experiences, gulfs between participant intentions and actual behavior, the necessity to predict players’ behaviors, and the linguistic, pedagogical, and cultural scaffolding necessary to facilitate gameplay. We will examine current research in game studies and pedagogy, which will inform the discussion of seminar-participant responses and workshopping. Focusing on both the theoretical and the practical, this seminar will emphasize the collaborative development of skills and materials to support and expand scholars’ pedagogical abilities in classroom game implementation.

Format: Beforehand, participants will read 25,000 words worth of texts provided in May 2026, write 1000-word response papers by August 24th, and optionally provide sample games. Day 1 addresses the response papers related to gameplay and expectations. Day 2 features examples of game-based pedagogy that uses “expectation” as a design element. Day 3 involves the participants’ response to the gameplay. Auditors permitted with pre-approval, space permitting.

10. German Television Studies – Theory, Research Strategies, and Applications

Conveners:

• Sunka Simon, Swarthmore College, ssimon1@swarthmore.edu
• Necia Chronister, Kansas State University, nchroni@k-state.edu

Abstract: Traditionally under the purview of Media Studies, scholarly engagement with television has made only few inroads in German Studies. However, German Studies scholars stand to benefit from the study of television, as it offers a rich topography of material with which to investigate the intersections of aesthetics, politics, historical contexts, technological changes, and medium specific approaches to storytelling, genre, and audience address. This seminar will bring together scholars interested in growing television studies as a field within German Studies to analyze German-language television in its various formats, eras, and contexts. We will investigate the relationship between German studies (with its emphases on cultural studies, textual and visual analysis, genre studies, etc.) and the theoretical underpinnings that support the study of television as a medium. Finally, we will discuss the practical challenges of studying television and share resources.

Format: Participants will submit article proposals (1500-1750 words, analytical or theoretical in nature) by August 24 to be circulated and read by all. In sessions, we will discuss the proposals and pre-assigned theoretical readings (150 pages) and work in small groups to exchange feedback on individual contributions. Production of an edited volume is possible. Auditors permitted with pre-approval, space permitting.

11. German Women and Epistolary Culture

Conveners:

• Jadwiga Kita-Huber, Jagiellonian University, jadwiga.kita-huber@uj.edu.pl
• Juliane Wuensch, Skidmore College, jwuensch@skidmore.edu

Abstract: This seminar explores the central role of letter writing in the lives and professional trajectories of German-speaking women. In eras when women’s access to public literary and intellectual spheres was limited, letters became vital instruments of self-expression, education, and agency. During the so-called “epistolary era” in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, though to a lesser extent in later periods, women used epistolary practices to navigate social constraints, nurture literary careers, and shape emerging intellectual circles. This enabled women to cultivate friendships and establish influential networks that supported their artistic and intellectual ambitions. By analyzing the role of selected correspondence, we will consider how women fashioned communities across distances, asserted authorial voices, and contributed to broader cultural and literary developments. The seminar invites scholars to present their current research, contributing to interdisciplinary discussions of gender, authorship, emancipation, and the materiality of communication throughout the centuries.

Format: Participants submit a 1,000-2,000-word description of their current research projects (including dissertations, articles, book chapters, and monographs) by August 24th, 2026. Conveners will circulate selected letters and published research by the same deadline. The sessions consist of analysis and discussion of pre-circulated materials, 10-15-minute presentations of individual projects, and networking. Auditors permitted with pre-approval, space permitting.

12. Germany in the Global 1960s

Conveners:

• Isabel Richter, German Historical Institute, Pacific Office, richter@ghi-dc.org
• AJ Solovy, Vassar College, asolovy@vassar.edu

Abstract: In the twenty-first century, scholars working across disciplines have devoted considerable energy to placing Germany in its global context. Yet during certain historical periods, global trends and international political cultures shaped Germany in particularly impactful ways. This seminar situates the 1960s as an era in which Germany became increasingly connected to and inflected by global political and cultural developments. We are especially interested in investigating how Germany influenced and was influenced by increasingly globalized protest and social justice movements, Holocaust memory cultures, extreme right political networks, and anti-fascist movements. We also welcome transregional analyses of countercultures, popular culture and arts, non-traditional political spaces, generational identity formation, and radical environments. In taking up these themes, the seminar will bring new insight to scholarly debates about post-1945 German history, culture, and politics, as well to ongoing theoretical and methodological discussions about “globalizing” German history.

Format: Participants will submit papers (1500-2500 words) by August 24 to the conference. During the seminar, authors will offer a five-minute introduction to their papers followed by group discussion. Auditors permitted with pre-approval, space permitting.

13. In Defense of Academic Freedom: Public Writing Workshop Seminar (sponsored by American Friends of Marbach)

Conveners:

• Johannes von Moltke, University of Michigan, moltke@umich.edu
• Veronika Fuechtner, Dartmouth College, veronika.fuechtner@dartmouth.edu

Abstract: This seminar brings together scholars from different disciplines and national contexts to address contemporary threats to academic freedom, artistic freedom, and freedom of speech - and to raise awareness of such threats through public writing. German Studies, two former presidents of the GSA noted on its 40th anniversary, has flourished “in the guise of a morality tale about how modern institutions and economies could develop into barbarism under antidemocratic, antiliberal leadership.” This relevance has only increased in the intervening decade. German Studies scholars are well-positioned to speak to historical, aesthetic, social, theoretical, and experiential dimensions of antiliberal erosion and democratic backsliding. We invite participants from all fields to explore past and present threats to civil liberties in academia, the arts, and the archive, in exile and across national borders. With this seminar, we seek to marshal our collective knowledge about authoritarianism and bring it to bear on an increasingly authoritarian present.

Format: Participants are invited to bring their individual expertise on these matters to an interactive, hands-on public writing workshop with Andrea Kaston-Tange (Macalester). Individual sessions will (1) explore readings/resources on academic freedom and analyze successful op-eds (pre-circulated by Aug.1); (2) develop public writing skills; (3) collaboratively refine material for pitching to public-facing venues. Auditors not permitted.

14. Literary and Cultural Plant Studies in German Studies: State of the Field and a Look Toward the Future (sponsored by the Environmental Studies Network)

Conveners:

• Christina Becher-Tiessen, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, C.Becher@em.uni-frankfurt.de
• Joela Jacobs, University of Arizona, joelajacobs@arizona.edu

Abstract: Over the last 10-15 years, literary and cultural plant studies has emerged as a new research paradigm. This seminar takes stock of the field, specifically within German studies, and asks where it is headed. A plant studies seminar at the GSA 2016 resulted in the Literary and Cultural Plant Studies Network (plants.arizona.edu), which connects an active community of scholars. It seems fitting to reconvene in the same context to discuss the development of German studies approaches to plants. Whether it is with concepts like the “Pflanzenseele” or Goethe’s “Urpflanze,” in Blossfeldt’s photographs or films like “Little Joe,” or through literary texts like Poschmann’s “Kieferninseln” or de L’Horizon’s “Blutbuch,” we ask: What are the specific and localized methods and approaches that distinguish our field; how are we in conversation with interdisciplinary, multilingual, and decolonial research around the world; and how can we learn from each other, engage in networking, and foster collaboration?

Format: When applying, prospective participants should describe their approach to plant studies. Once accepted, participants share seminal readings up to 20 pages with a ca. 500-word introduction by July 1. Our discussion days will 1) map the history; 2) assess the current state; 3) brainstorm future needs of plant studies in German studies. Auditors permitted with pre-approval, space permitting.

15. Maintaining Integrity While Teaching Under Threat

Conveners:

• Nichole Neuman, Indiana University Indianapolis, nmneuman@iu.edu
• Petra Watzke, Lawrence University, petra.watzke@lawrence.edu

Abstract: Instructors in all disciplines face increasing challenges in the classroom, such as state-imposed laws governing what can and cannot be taught, architecture and classroom layouts that hinder the ability to navigate spaces, students’ changing attitudes, and the threat of deprofessionalization. This means that teaching sensitive topics – on the Holocaust, on gender and sexuality, on politics, etc. – makes for challenging dynamics that may spill out of the classroom. This seminar will explore the myriad ways in which instructors encounter threats to their safety and ways to teach with integrity while affected by factors, internal and external, beyond one’s control. The seminar will be organized around a common reading, combined with participants’ presentations of a challenging scenario they have encountered; while teaching under threat. Together, we will then discuss strategies to cope with unsafe spaces while attending to personal needs and circumstances.

Format: Before the conference, participants complete a common reading on mitigating unsafe spaces and submit a text (250-300 words) about an experience with teaching under threat. The seminar combines discussions of the common reading and participants' presentations of their case studies with the goal of developing strategies for teaching under threat. Auditors not permitted.

16. The Merz Chancellorship: Challenges and Opportunities at Home and Abroad

Conveners:

• David Patton, Connecticut College, dfpat@conncoll.edu
• Jennifer Yoder, Colby College, jayoder@colby.edu

Abstract: The Merz government, the fourth “grand coalition” to form since 2005, may not be grand in terms of size, but it is grand in its policy ambitions. Its 2025 coalition agreement depicts the coming years as critical if Germany is to remain free, secure, prosperous and fair. As the government enters its second year, a Superwahljahr with five Länder elections, this seminar will examine the government’s prospects for success. Its opportunities range from the long-promised Zeitenwende in security policy, to reforms to ensure competitiveness, to advancing an energy transition. Yet the government contends with a low approval rating, internal divisions, and a resurgent AfD that is poised for regional electoral success. The new government operates within a difficult international environment: the Trump Administration tacks a confrontational course; European partners, including France, struggle; and Russia and China present new security and economic tests. This seminar focuses on these and other topics.

Format: Participants will write and read pre-circulated papers of no more than 4,500 words in length. Papers will be submitted and circulated by August 24, 2026. The seminar will group and discuss papers on the basis of common themes, whether domestic public policy, foreign policy, and electoral politics. Auditors permitted with pre-approval, space permitting.

17. The Power and Politics of Popular Culture in the Twentieth Century

Conveners:

• Jonathan Wipplinger, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, wippling@uwm.edu
• Kira Thurman, University of Michigan, thurmank@umich.edu

Abstract: From the glittering stages of the Varieté hall to the dance floors of discotheques, from reading Groschenhefte to watching Tatort, popular culture has functioned as a vital conduit for exchanging ideas and shaping public opinion. This seminar explores frameworks, methodologies, and histories that make visible the power and politics of popular culture in the modern German-speaking world. We are particularly interested in exploring how popular culture impacted and was impacted by political, technological and economic developments in Germany across time. Bringing together music and sound studies, television and media studies, youth and childhood studies, race, gender, ethnicity, and nationalism, our seminar takes seriously popular cultural production and reception in local and transnational contexts. How have the production and reception of popular culture changed over time? We welcome projects investigating the cross-fertilization between genres of popular, folk, and mass culture in addition to work addressing graphic, visual, and audio cultures.

Format: The conveners will share approximately five organizing texts by August 1. Written by established thinkers such as Kaspar Maase and George Lipsitz, these texts will lay the groundwork for discussion. Each participant must engage with at least one of these texts in a position paper (1500-2500 words) due September 1. Auditors permitted with pre-approval, space permitting.

18. Queer and Trans Studies and the Future of German Studies (sponsored by the Queer and Trans Studies Network)

Conveners:

• Javier Samper Vendrell, University of Pennsylvania, samperja@sas.upenn.edu
• Meagan Tripp, Franklin & Marshall College, meagan.tripp@fandm.edu

Abstract: Queer and Trans Studies are well established within German Studies, as evidenced by recent publications, GSA panels, and the association’s interdisciplinary network. The field is thriving across literary studies, history, art and visual culture, and language pedagogy. This seminar takes stock of that momentum while asking how queer and trans scholarship in German Studies currently engages broader interdisciplinary fields and how it can further contribute to them, expand its interdisciplinarity, and gain greater visibility. The seminar will discuss recent theoretical, historiographical, political, and pedagogical developments and their impact on research, teaching, and professional life by pre-circulating a short reading list together with essays by each participant addressing the future of queer and trans studies within German Studies. The seminar will also address the effects of the current political climate and ultimately aims to foster solidarity, build community, and collectively imagine strategies for resistance and care amid growing anti-LGBTQIA+ hostility.

Format: Participants will discuss a shared reading list of approximately 30 pages per session, assembled collaboratively with attention to interdisciplinarity and the future directions of the field. Pre-circulated 3000-word essays are due August 24. Daily sessions will feature brief presentations, prepared responses, group discussions, and collective brainstorming. Each participant will lead responses to two essays. Auditors permitted with pre-approval, space permitting.

19. Reconceptualizing Elemental Media. Technical and Non-Technical Media Concepts for the 21st Century

Conveners:

• David Gould, Indiana University Bloomington, digould@iu.edu
• Janice Cheon, Yale University, janice.cheon@yale.edu

Abstract: The seminar will examine the last ten years of contributions to the question of elemental media raised by John Durham Peters in his book The Marvelous Clouds. The seminar will raise concerns about how the ambiguities of the concept, which was formulated to bridge the divide between technical and non-technical media concepts, have resulted in its appropriation in support of a maximally technical understanding of media (Bernhard Siegert) and a maximally non-technical understanding of media (Eva Horn). The seminar seeks to relate operative ontologies of cultural techniques to artistic representations of elemental nature, in order to clarify the question of technicity. If climatic systems have “become media” (Joseph Vogl’s locution) as a result of contingent historical processes, then how do literary modes of representation make these events observable? Theorists of media and literature who are interested in developing a precise language for discussing climate are encouraged to apply.

Format: Day 1: discussion of selected readings (assembled by organizers) and broader scholarship (participants can contribute to collected bibliography); Day 2: brief presentations of participants' pre-circulated Thesenpapiere (1500-2500 words, due August 24); Day 3: discussion of implications/provocations for pedagogy and teaching. Auditors not permitted.

20. Reenvisioning the German Curriculum, Twenty Years On: The 2007 MLA Report Foreign Languages and Higher Education: New Structures for a Changed World in 2026 (sponsored by the AATG)

Conveners:

• Bridget Levine-West, University of Vermont, bridget.levine-west@uvm.edu
• Jennifer Redmann, Franklin & Marshall College, jennifer.redmann@fandm.edu
• Julia Ruck, Emory University, julia.ruck@emory.edu

Abstract: Calling for “new structures for a changed world,” the 2007 MLA Report challenged higher education to rethink the mission of language learning amid global transformation. As a response, some German programs piloted genre/multiliteracies-based curricula, advanced national standards and K–16 articulation, and expanded the field toward decolonial and ecological approaches. In many places, however, the curricular language vs. content divide and the concomitant labor hierarchies endure; German enrollments continue to decline. Today, our “changed world” exceeds what the Report’s authors imagined. Universities increasingly orient curricula toward “career readiness,” conflicts over DEI and global education have intensified, and the humanities face heightened demands to articulate their value. Meanwhile, AI's emergence prompts pressing questions about the objectives of language education. This seminar reassesses the 2007 Report from the perspective of 2026 to evaluate its impacts, identify unrealized potentials, and outline future approaches to language education and curricular design for German Studies.

Format: Participants will read pre-circulated articles (ca. 50 pages) and submit a 2,000-word contribution (research paper, theoretical piece, or curricular model) by August 24th that addresses a retrospective, diagnostic, or prospective issue in language education. We aim to develop a collaborative publication based on the seminar’s outcomes. Auditors permitted with pre-approval, space permitting.

21. Reparations: Transnational and Comparative Perspectives (sponsored by the Legacies of Nazism Network)

Conveners:

• Emily Marker, Rutgers University Camden, emily.marker@rutgers.edu
• Julia Roos, Indiana University Bloomington, roos@iu.edu

Abstract: This seminar seeks to promote new interdisciplinary transnational and comparative research on reparations and restitution. Our work will center on two axes: 1) the diversity of experiences with Holocaust reparations among Jewish and non-Jewish victims of Nazism (including “anti-socials,” Roma, and victims of forced sterilization and euthanasia); and 2) how Holocaust reparations have figured as a model in debates about compensation for German and international (e.g., French, British, Dutch, etc.) colonial crimes and the crimes of transatlantic slavery. We invite scholars from the disciplines of history, literature, political science, sociology, legal studies, and colonial studies to join us for a sustained exploration of these two axes in their own right and also to think deeply about their interconnections. We hope the seminar will be a launchpad for developing an edited volume on reparations that will make a meaningful, timely contribution to this urgent matter of public debate.

Format: Seminar conveners will circulate a set of common readings (3-4 articles/book chapters) to provide seminar participants with a shared foundation of the contours of current debate. Participants will prepare a short position paper (~1000 words, due August 24, 2026) relating to their own research to be pre-circulated ahead of the conference. Auditors permitted with pre-approval, space permitting.

22. Retouching the German Flesh. Materiality and Meaning in a Culture (sponsored by the Body Studies Network)

Conveners:

• Cynthia Porter, Ohio State University, porter.506@osu.edu
• Cara Tovey, University of California, Los Angeles, ctovey@humnet.ucla.edu
• Heikki Lempa, Moravian University, lempah@moravian.edu

Abstract: Since the 1990s, the exploration of the body has established itself in the methodological and thematic repertoires of German studies. The rise of feminist and gender studies (Butler), increasing interest in health humanities, new focus on the historicity of disability, and the discovery of the bodiliness of emotions have, among others, either opened new aspects into the understanding of the body or turned the body into a methodological framework (Canning). Recently, the body has received a panoply of new openings that call for an overview and rethinking of the field (Hilger, Motyl, George, Creech and Haakenson, Waldschmidt, Scott, Gelderlos, Herzog, Dickinson, Funkenstein). We invite contributions that explore, but are not limited to, the body as a medium, body politics, the racialization of the body, gender performance, sexuality, queerness, the history of the body, medical humanities, food, dis/ability, and the body in media.

Format: We invite short position papers (1500 words) due August 24, 2026. The papers will be pre-circulated to allow extended discussion on two days of the seminar. Additionally, one day will be dedicated to group discussion of the seminar theme, including common theoretical and methodological approaches that unite the seminar contributions. Auditors permitted with pre-approval, space permitting.

23. Teaching Palestine in the German Studies Classroom

Conveners:

• Faye Stewart, University of North Carolina Greensboro, afstewart@uncg.edu
• Beverly Weber, University of Colorado Boulder, beverly.weber@colorado.edu

Abstract: This seminar invites participants to explore strategies for teaching the entanglements of German and Palestinian histories, politics, literatures, and cultures. Palestine’s relevance to German studies is evidenced by forthcoming special issues in German Quarterly, New German Critique, and Feminist German Studies, but a focus on pedagogy is lacking. How do we effectively relate Palestine to German history, language, and culture and navigate teaching this in the current environment? This seminar provides a space to learn about the burgeoning discipline of “Palestine-German studies” and to discuss strategies to teach these challenging materials from interdisciplinary / multiple disciplinary perspectives. This seminar welcomes teachers of German-language and German Studies courses at all levels, as well as film, visual studies, Holocaust and genocide studies, gender studies, history, and beyond. While the conveners will bring recommendations for possible lesson plans, we will tailor the seminar to concrete courses that participants can envision or are teaching.

Format: Participants will circulate a document including either draft lesson plans or a description of a course they are working on, potential course materials, and questions they are grappling with by August 24th. Seminar discussion will be structured around pedagogy, teaching materials, and strategies for navigating challenges. Participants will leave with concrete lesson plans for general education, German-language, history, visual studies, and interdisciplinary classrooms, as well as a repository of materials shared with all participants. Auditors permitted with pre-approval, space permitting.

24. Transatlantic Illiberalism: The United States and the Federal Republic of Germany

Conveners:

• Michelle Kahn, University of Richmond, mkahn@richmond.edu
• Jeremy Best, Iowa State University, bestja@iastate.edu

Abstract: Our seminar invites scholars from all disciplines interested in exploring illiberal and anti-democratic exchanges between the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany from 1945 to the present day. By shifting our attention to the darker side of the transatlantic relationship, scholars can nuance the often celebratory narratives of America’s influence on postwar Germany. This work has become especially important in our current moment, as we are witnessing ongoing challenges to the liberal postwar consensus, most notably in the form of collaboration among far-right movements in both countries. Possible topics to explore could include, but are not limited to: de-Nazification efforts, the U.S. military presence in Germany, memory cultures, economic relations, social and political movements, cultural cross-fertilizations, youth cultures, and far-right networks. The signs of transatlantic illiberal influence might be revealed through the study of contemporary politics, historical records, and/or literary or visual arts, among others.

Format: Participants will pre-circulate papers of approximately 1,500 words, due by August 24th, 2026. The papers will be grouped into themes that will structure discussion for the majority of the seminar. The remaining hour will consist of a summative conversation aimed at promoting future research and collaborations. Auditors permitted with pre-approval, space permitting.

25. Vernacular Knowledge in German Studies

Conveners:

• Denise Phillips, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, aphill13@utk.edu
• Corinna Treitel, Washington University in St. Louis, ctreitel@wustl.edu

Abstract: Recent decades have seen growing scholarly interest in the knowledge of ordinary people. In Lived Experience (2022), Pamela Smith explored the practical knowledge of craftspeople circa 1400. Patrick Joyce did something similar for twentieth-century peasants in Remembering Peasants (2025). Environmental and agricultural historians have explored how rural people thought about the natural world, while German historians have added Wissensgeschichte to their repertoire. In the process, scholars have jettisoned simplistic contrasts between elite, “progressive” science and popular, “backward” superstition, but thorny questions remain. Given the often mediated nature of surviving sources, how can we know what artisans, peasants, and other such people knew? How might scholarship on popular religion, ritual, and everyday life enrich our methodological toolbox? How should we use the proverbs, spells, songs, and stories collected by folklorists? This seminar invites scholars from all career stages, chronologies, and disciplines to think together about these and related questions.

Format: Participants will prepare and pre-circulate a 1,250-word think piece drawn from their own area of scholarly interest by August 24th, 2026. To promote productive conversation, participants will also read about 100 pages of shared texts before the seminar, including excerpts from Joyce’s Remembering Peasants and Smith's Lived Experience. Auditors permitted with pre-approval, space permitting.

26. What is Weimar Today?

Conveners:

• Manuela Achilles, University of Virginia, ma6cq@virginia.edu
• Jared Poley, Georgia State University, jpoley@gsu.edu
• Pamela Swett, McMaster University, swettp@mcmaster.ca
• Jonathan Zatlin, Boston University, jzatlin@bu.edu

Abstract: What is Weimar today? Is it only the persistent tug of the past? The bubbling disquiet of an unsettled and unsettling era? Or maybe just the return of the repressed? The seminar seeks to understand the connections -- imagined, intuited, emoted – between the Republic and the pressures, possibilities, and uncertainties shaping our present moment. The seminar will seek to clarify the stakes of Weimar for us today. Participants in the seminar will explore this issue through the lens of similarities and differences, continuities and disjunctures, or permanencies and fluidities. Possible topics include literary and cultural productions; political structures; the politics of feeling and affect; outsiders/insiders; gender crises; exclusions/inclusions; religions; sex; social class; material culture; the effects of trauma, dis-ease, and chaos; comparisons to cases from other geographic or temporal contexts (for example, the Austrian Republic).

Format: Seminar participants are expected to produce essays related to the themes of the seminar by August 24 for precirculation (the length is flexible but 2,500-4,000 words is ideal). The essays will be grouped and introduced by the conveners for the first two meetings; the third session of the seminar is devoted to summation and broad thematic discussion. Auditors permitted with pre-approval, space permitting.

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