The 2013 German Studies Association Conference will have another lineup of outstanding luncheon and banquet speakers. We hope that as many of you as possible can attend these important events. Each luncheon will cost $29, and the banquet costs $42. Tickets can be reserved at the same time that you register for the conference.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4: LUNCHEON SPEAKER: Professor David Blackbourn, "Honey, I Shrunk German History"
We are pleased to welcome Professor David Blackbourn as our Friday luncheon speaker. The topic of his talk is “Honey, I Shrunk German History.” On the faculty of Harvard University for many years, he is now Cornelius Vanderbilt Distinguished Chair of History at Vanderbilt University, where he teaches a variety of courses in modern German and European History. Among Professor Blackbourn’s many books are Marpingen: Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Nineteenth-Century Germany (1994), The Long Nineteenth Century: A History of Germany, 1780-1918 (1997), and The Conquest of Nature: Water, Landscape, and the Making of Modern Germany (2006). He is currently completing a book on Germany in the world.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4: BANQUET SPEAKER: Professor Ruth Kl'ger , "The Future of Holocaust Literature"
Our distinguished banquet speaker is Professor Ruth Kl'ger, who will speak on “The Future of Holocaust Literature.” A celebrated author of numerous books and recipient of numerous prizes and honors, she is Professor of German Emerita at the University of California, Irvine. Among many other things, Professor Kl'ger is well known for her award-winning memoir of her experiences in the Holocaust, weiter leben: eine Jugend (1992; her own English version, Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered, 2001). She is a well-known scholar of German literature, especially of Lessing and Kleist. Among her most recent awards are the Lessing-Preis des Freistaates Sachsen (2007), the Hermann-Cohen-Medaille(2008), the Ehrenmedaille der Stadt G'ttingen (2010),the Theodor-Kramer-Preis (2011), and the Austrian Danubius Prize (2011).
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5: LUNCHEON SPEAKER: Ilija Trojanow, "EisTau: A One-Act Performance"
Our Saturday luncheon speaker, Ilija Trojanow, will present “EisTau: A One-Act Performance,” based on his recent novel, EisTau (2011). The story takes place on a cruise ship in the Antarctic and mainly concerns a Bavarian glacier researcher and a waitress from the Philippines. Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, Trojanow is the author of more than twenty books, including the acclaimed novel Der Weltensammler (2007). Received with his family in Germany as a refugee, he is a world traveler who has also made his home in Nairobi, Paris, Mumbai, and Cape Town. He has made significant contributions to the understanding of African and Indian literature in Germany, and is the recipient of many prizes and awards, including the Bertelsmann Literature Prize at the Ingeborg Bachmann competition in Klagenfurt in 1995, the Marburg Literature Prize in 1996, the Thomas Valentin Prize in 1997, the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize in 2000, and the Leipzig Book Fair Prize. He currently resides in Vienna.