GSA Summer 2024 Newsletter

Dear Friends and Members of the GSA,

Our Summer 2024 newsletter has been published and may be read via our website. In it, you will find information about 2024 conference-related events, the 2024 election results, conference accessibility guidelines, a list of the 2024-2025 Berlin Program Fellows, and much more. 

Looking forward to seeing many of you in Atlanta next month,

• Margaret E. Menninger, Executive Director
• Jennifer L. Jenkins, Operations Director

GSA 2024 Conference Registration Open

Dear Members and Friends of the GSA,

We are happy to announce that the registration portal is now open for our conference in Atlanta, Georgia, taking place from 26 to 29 September 2024. Your emailed receipt from Johns Hopkins will include a link to reserve your room at the discounted GSA conference rate at the Courtland Grand Hotel in Atlanta, so make sure to check your spam folders if you don’t see it in your inbox.

After you select the dates and room on the conference hotel registration page, you may, on the “Guest Information” page, request an accessible room (check the “Accessible room” box in the “Requests” section) and include other notes for the hotel. Please note that there is a limited number of accessible rooms; if you require an accessible room, we recommend booking it as soon as possible.

Please note that we have updated our conference webpage to include the preliminary schedule as well as other useful information for GSA 2024 participants, including meal and registration rates and presentation guidelines. There will be more conference information coming throughout the summer.

Please check the ... Read more

CfA: GSA Treasurer

Call for Applications: GSA Treasurer

gsa-treasurer-job-ad (1).gif

The German Studies Association invites applications for a five-year renewable position of Treasurer, beginning in the fall of 2024. As the GSA’s chief financial officer, the Treasurer is responsible for the Association’s financial well-being. Using QuickBooks, the Treasurer maintains the Association’s financial records, oversees revenue streams and pays bills, supervises grant and fundraising monies, and manages the Association’s endowments. In consultation with the Executive Director, the Treasurer prepares the Association’s annual budget for the Board’s approval. The Treasurer serves as a full, voting member of the Executive Council, an ex officio, non-voting member of the Executive Board, and an ex officio member of the Investment/Financial Committee. Each of these bodies meets several times a year. Although this position is based on voluntary service,... Read more

CfA: Seminar Participant Applications GSA 2024

Top

GSA SEMINARS 2024

The 48th German Studies Association Conference in Atlanta, GA, from September 26–29, 2024 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
... Read more

CfA: GSA Emerging Scholars Workshop 2024

December 12, 2023

Call for Applications: GSA Emerging Scholars Workshop (ESW) 2024

We are excited to issue this call for the next Emerging Scholars Workshop (ESW) to be hosted at the 48^th German Studies Association Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, from September 26–29, 2024. This workshop is exclusively for graduate students.

The ESW will run parallel to the established seminars, regular conference sessions, and roundtables. It will convene Friday through Sunday, 8am–10am. Participants must commit to participating in all three workshop meetings. For general conference information, see https://www.thegsa.org/conference/current-conference.

Over the past decade or so, graduate programs across the country have contracted. Fewer graduate students now encounter fewer regular graduate courses that have often also become more general in content in order to produce satisfactory enrollment. As a result, much of the specialized but crucial field training has moved into one-on-one tutorials and directed readings. The ESW seeks to give the up-and-coming cohort of scholars access to the leading faculty in their field, increase the advice and mentoring they receive, and allow them to come together for sustained professional conversations. The goal is to enable the next generation of Germanists to produce their... Read more

CfP: GSA 48th Annual Conference

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: GERMAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION ANNUAL CONFERENCE

The German Studies Association (GSA) will hold its 48^th Annual Conference from 26–29 September 2024 at the Courtland Grand Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Program Committee cordially invites proposals on any aspect of DACHL (German, Austrian, Swiss, Liechtenstein) studies, including (but not limited to) history, Germanistik, film, art history, political science, anthropology, musicology, religious studies, sociology, and cultural studies. The committee is especially eager to welcome proposals from scholars in subfields that have been underrepresented at recent conferences, including contemporary politics, economics, and society, as well as papers from all fields dealing with the nineteenth century or earlier.

Proposals for complete panels, for interdisciplinary presentations, and for panel series are strongly encouraged (a series is limited to no more than four panels). Individual paper proposals are also welcome – though experienced scholars are encouraged to develop full session submissions that can help build scholarly networks. The call for seminar proposals has been distributed separately; a call for applications for the Emerging Scholars Workshop will go out in mid-December.

Please see the GSA website for information about the submission process for papers, panels, and roundtables; the OpenWater conference portal... Read more

CfA: GSR book review editor

Call for applications: GSR book review editor

German Studies Review is looking for a book review editor in charge of publications in Literature/Film/ Culture. Ideally, the candidate should be at the level of associate professor or higher, but we will consider applications from colleagues of all ranks. Tasks involve

• monitoring the field for new publications,
• communicating with publishers,
• identifying qualified reviewers,
• sending out books and keeping track of reviews in process, and
• editing reviews.

The book review editors are supported by a graduate student assistant. German Studies Review comes out three times a year and publishes 15–20 reviews per volume. The three-year, renewable appointment begins in May 2024.

Questions can be addressed to Britta Kallin (bkallin@gatech.edu), the outgoing book review editor, or Katharina Gerstenberger, editor of GSR.

Please send letter of interest and a CV to Katharina Gerstenberger (katharina.gerstenberger@utah.edu) by November 15, 2023.

   

Preserve World Languages at WVU

In full agreement with expressions of deep concern on the part of members of the GSA, the Executive Council has sent the following statement opposing the termination of World Languages at West Virginia University to the contacts recommended by our impacted colleagues. We would like to thank you for your vocal advocacy and for providing expert insights and perspectives in support of the preservation of subjects core to our disciplines, especially German language and German-speaking cultures. Individual EC members have also signed the open letters and petitions circulated by faculty and students at WVU, the Joint National Council of Languages and the Diversity, Decolonization and the German Curriculum collective and encourage you to consider doing the same.

We as officers of the German Studies Association write this letter in the name of our members to urge you emphatically to preserve the teaching of World Languages by disciplinary experts at West Virginia University by reversing the recommendation to close the World Languages program and terminate the work of its world-class faculty.

Language learning provides pathways to educational opportunities, jobs, and professions that rely on clear communication and cultural literacy. Language departments and the professional organizations... Read more

GSA 2023 Conference Registration Open

Dear Members and Friends of the GSA,

We are happy to announce that the registration portal is now open for our conference in Montréal, Québec, Canada, taking place from 5 to 8 October 2023. Your emailed receipt from Johns Hopkins will include a link to reserve your room at the discounted GSA conference rate at the Le Centre Sheraton hotel in Montréal, so make sure to check your spam folders if you don’t see it in your inbox. After you select the dates and room on the conference hotel registration page, you may, on the next page, request an accessible room and include other notes for the hotel.

Please note that we have updated our conference webpage to include the preliminary schedule as well as other useful information for presenters, including registration rates and a list of frequently asked questions. There will be more conference information coming throughout the summer.

Please check the preliminary schedule carefully (note that the full listings for the seminars are on a second tab, you may click on that at the bottom of the spreadsheet). We have worked hard to accommodate all accumulated... Read more

GSA Preliminary Schedule, 47th Annual Conference

[posted June 12, 2023]

Dear Friends and Colleagues of the GSA:

The GSA 2023 preliminary conference schedule has now been published with day/time slots, titles of sessions, and participant names and affiliations. Please check it carefully and notify of us of any corrections requests on this form no later than June 30. The final program is due shortly thereafter and we will be unable to make changes to the printed program after that point.

As you look over the schedule, we ask that you note the following:

• The full listings for the seminars are on a second tab, click on "Closed Seminars" at the bottom of the spreadsheet to view them.
• We have worked hard to accommodate all special requests received regarding scheduling, placement in rooms with sound equipment, and honoring the order of panels in series.

If the affiliation displayed for you is no longer current or is inaccurate, let us know via the correction requests form, but please also make the correction yourself in your GSA member profile (this last item is not something we can do), as your member profile... Read more

Syria & Turkey Earthquake Disaster Relief

The GSA extends solidarity and sympathies to those impacted by the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria, including our members who have lost or are waiting to hear from loved ones, friends, and colleagues.

To donate towards ongoing rescue efforts: 

• https://ahbap.org/disasters-turkey
• https://bridgetoturkiye.org/
• https://www.directrelief.org/emergency/turkey-syria-earthquake/

GSA 2023 Panels/Roundtables: Finding Participants

Looking for people to complete a roundtable or panel that you'd like to organize for the GSA 2023 in Montréal? Hoping to find a roundtable or panel in need of your expertise? Fill out this form!

Note: The information entered into this document will be public on this spreadsheet (shown below) until the submissions period is closed. If you don't want to share your name and email on a public form, please consider an alternate method to find participants.

Please email us when your panel/roundtable is complete or if you are no longer planning on organizing a session (so that we can remove your entry and you won't keep being contacted!)

Want to amplify your search? Post on Facebook or Twitter and tag @thegsa or #thegsa2023!

Don't forget that you need to be a current (2023) GSA member to be part of a submission. You can join/renew here.

Looking for more information about the conference? Find it here.

 

GSA Winter Newsletter

Dear Friends and Members of the GSA,

Our Winter 2022 newsletter has been published and is available on our website. You can read about our GSA 2022 prize winners, the 2022-23 Berlin Program Fellows cohort, our upcoming GSA 2023 conference in Montréal, and more. We look forward to seeing you in Canada next October!

With all good wishes for 2023,

• Margaret E. Menninger, Executive Director
• Jennifer L. Jenkins, Operations Director
• Nina Mondré Schweppe, Communications and Strategic Initiatives Manager

Call for Seminar Proposals GSA 2023

The 47^th German Studies Association Conference, to be held in Montréal, Canada from October 5-8, 2023 will continue to host a series of seminars in addition to regular panel sessions and roundtables (for general conference information see https://www.thegsa.org/conference/current-conference). 

Seminars meet for all three days of the conference (Friday, Saturday, Sunday). They explore new avenues of academic exchange and foster extended discussion, rigorous intellectual debate, and intensified networking. Seminars are typically proposed and led by two to three conveners and must consist of a minimum of 8 and a maximum of 20 participants, including the conveners themselves. Seminars must be open to applications from interested participants, and conveners are expected to make every effort to aim for broad diversity and include scholars from different disciplines and at different career stages, including graduate students. Seminars may enable

• extended discussion of a recent academic publication;
• exploration of a promising new research topic;
• engagement with pre-circulated papers;
• a debate among scholars with different approaches; or
• in-depth discussion of a political or public policy issue, novel, film, poem, musical piece, painting, or other artwork.

Conveners are strongly encouraged to structure their seminars around creative and engaging forms of intellectual exchange;... Read more

GSA 2022 Conference Program

Forty-Sixth Annual Conference, Sept. 15-18 2022, Houston, TX

#thegsa2022

Conference program

• Live preliminary schedule (reflects the latest changes to the program)
• Downloadable .pdf of program (reflects changes through July 15 only - see errata sheet below for changes after 7/15)
• Live errata sheet (reflects the latest changes to the program)

Arts Night at GSA 2022!

GSA 2022 Arts Night

Thursday, September 15 and Saturday, September 17

After two years of virtual events, Arts Night returns to the GSA in person. In collaboration with the DAAD, the DEFA Film Library, and the Black German Heritage and Research Association (BGHRA), this year’s Arts Night Committee is thrilled to present three events to kick off this year’s conference - a photography exhibit, a literary reading, and a film screening. Here’s an overview of the schedule, with descriptions linked below. We hope you will join us.

Thursday, September 15

• 6:30pm, Ballroom of the Americas A: “Visualizing Translation,” Exhibit Vernissage
• 7:00pm, Room 335C: Olga Grjasnowa, Reading
• 8:30pm, Room 335C: Branwen Okpako, Film Screening

Saturday, September 17

• 2pm, Room 334: Kristin Dickinson, Gallery Talk

GSA Distinguished Lecture, July 6, 2022 4-6pm CEDT (Freie Universität Berlin)

GSA Distinguished Lecture, "Normality as a Serious Matter and True Joy"

Dr. Margaret E. Menninger (Texas State University/GSA)

(Registration deadline July 1)

What can the nineteenth century have to say about what is normal in the twenty-first? What is normal in the first place; how will we know when we have returned there? Or, perhaps more aptly put, how does society arrive at consensus about what constitutes “normal?” Remember, normality, too, has a history. What we now perceive as normal has not always been so, as the histories of our now-familiar institutions of high culture can show. There was a time when the public museum did not exist, and it was by no means normal to visit a city and spend time in a building dedicated to art or archaeology. These institutions and their histories also remind us that we will know when normal has returned or been established because it will feel right; it will have an emotional component. Indeed, perhaps finding joy is the best first step back, and art culture is a time-tested pathway. As museums, concert houses, and other cultural nexus points reopen around the globe, we can understand how the... Read more

GSA Preliminary Schedule, 46th Annual Conference

Dear Friends and Colleagues of the GSA:

Here is a *preliminary schedule with the times*, and names of panels/seminars/roundtables and the names of the participants. Please check it carefully and let us know of corrections on this *change form* by June 30. The final program is due shortly thereafter and we will be unable to make changes to the printed program after that point.

As you check this, we ask that you note the following:

• The full listings for the seminars are on a second page, you may click on that at the bottom of the spreadsheet.
• We have worked hard to accommodate all accumulated requests regarding scheduling, placement in rooms with sound equipment, and honoring the order of panels in series.
• If you made a scheduling request because of religious or family obligations and it is not reflected in the preliminary program, please let us know on the *change form*.
• If you have changed affiliations and/or email addresses from the ones we have on file, please let us know and make the correction on your GSA account (this last item is not something we can do) under “*member services*.”
• *
... Read more

GSA Call for Nominations

Dear members of the GSA,

I write to you on behalf of this year’s nominating committee to seek your input and involvement as we prepare for our next round of GSA elections.

Have you ever asked yourself how to become more involved in the GSA? Are there other members whose voices you’d like to see amplified? This year, as per our bylaws, we are seeking to fill a total of five positions, including our next Vice President and four board members. The Vice President serves for two years, after which they become President for another two-year term (followed by two years as Immediate Past President). Board members serve three-year terms. For details, please refer to the GSA Bylaws.

As nominating committee, we are charged with generating separate slates with two candidates for each open position (for reasons to do with the pandemic, the slate for the graduate student board member is already set and carries over from last year).

This is where you come in: please use this form to let the nominating committee know of anyone you would like to suggest for an open position – including yourself! We... Read more

CfA: Seminar Participant Applications GSA 2022

GSA SEMINARS 2022

The 46th German Studies Association Conference in Houston, Texas, from September 15 to September 18, 2022, will again host a series of seminars in addition to conference sessions and roundtables (for general conference information see *https://www.thegsa.org/conference*).

Seminars meet for all three days of the conference 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.

To apply for a seminar, click here or access the portal through the conference website. Applications ask for an abstract describing the nature of your contribution to the seminar (500 words max), as well as a short biography (300 words max). The deadline for applications to participate in a seminar is Monday, March 14th at 11:59 p.m. EST. 

The 2022 GSA Conference will include a total of 18 seminars selected and approved for enrollment through... Read more

GSR Graduate Assistant, call for applications

Call for Applications for Graduate Assistant, German Studies Review

The German Studies Review seeks a graduate assistant for the two Book Review Editors (literature and culture; history and art) with a start date of May 1, 2022. The graduate assistant will work closely with the two Book Review Editors on all editorial and managerial work related to the book review section. This includes editing book reviews, managing spreadsheets (with book titles, author names, publication dates, publisher addresses, reviewer names) as well as acquiring copies from presses for reviewers and communicating with reviewers, presses, and the two Book Review Editors and Editor of the journal.

The successful applicant should be familiar with scholarship in German Studies and experience in editing would be an asset but is not required. Other qualifications include, but are not limited to, reading knowledge of German, excellent grammar and punctuation skills in English and German, knowledge of proper MLA citation formats, strong knowledge of Word and Excel, strong organizational skills, attention to detail, ability to get work done in a timely manner, willingness to communicate with reviewers and representatives of presses.

We welcome applications from advanced Ph.D. students, especially from groups who... Read more

46th Annual GSA Conference Submissions Portal Open

Dear GSA Members and Friends,

Happy New Year! While 2022 has gotten off to a bumpy start, we hope that you enjoyed the holidays and are staying safe and healthy. We are writing with some reminders and updates about the 2022 Annual Conference (#thegsa2022).

The OpenWater submission portal for the conference is now open for seminar proposals. The portal will be open for individual papers, panels, and roundtables in the next days.

• Follow this link to submit your proposal, then click on the login sign in the upper right corner.
• You may also find a link to the portal and other information on the conference website. 
• To submit a proposal, you must be an active 2022 member of the GSA. You will use the same username and password to log into the OpenWater portal as you use to log into your GSA profile. Contact Mrs. Ursula Sykes (
... Read more

Portal open, CfP: 46th Annual GSA Conference

The German Studies Association (GSA) will hold its 46th Annual Conference from 15-18 September at the Hilton Americas Hotel in Houston, TX.

2/23/2022 Updates:

• Thank you for your patience as we developed our new conference submission interface. This process took longer than we had anticipated, but we are excited about our new partnership with OpenWater. We are now ready to accept submissions for Seminar Applications, as well as Individual Papers, Panels and Roundtables.
• The direct link for the submissions portal is here: *46th GSA Annual Conference Submissions*
  • Please note that in order to log in to the submissions system, you must be a current GSA member. If you need to update your membership, please do so under *member services*.
  • If you experience any technical problems with the submission website, please contact Operations Director Dr. Benita Blessing (operations@thegsa.org). Because we are working with a new system, please inform us of any issues so that we can correct them. Thank you so much!
  • If you have any questions about your membership, please contact our partners at Johns Hopkins University Press (jrnlcirc@press.jhu.edu).
• Seminar descriptions can be found
... Read more

CfA GSA Emerging Scholars Workshop 2022

Call for Applicants

GSA Emerging Scholars Workshop (ESW)

We are excited to issue this call for the Emerging Scholars Workshop (ESW) to be hosted for the third time at the 46th German Studies Association Conference in Houston, Texas from September 15-18, 2022. This workshop is exclusively for graduate students. The Emerging Scholars Workshop (ESW) will run parallel to the established seminars and in addition to regular conference sessions and roundtables (for general conference information see https://www.thegsa.org/conference).Over the past decade or so, graduate programs across the country have contracted. Fewer graduate students now encounter fewer regular graduate courses that have often also become more general in content in order to produce satisfactory enrollment. As a result, much of the specialized but crucial field training has moved into one-on-one tutorials and directed readings. The new Emerging Scholars Workshop seeks to give the up-and-coming cohort of scholars access to the leading faculty in their field, increase the advice and mentoring they receive, and allow them to come together for sustained professional conversations. The goal is to enable the next generation of Germanists and Historians to produce their best possible work, be competitive across fields, and contribute to the vitality, relevance,... Read more

Nov. 18 noon-1:30pm EST: Debates On Holocaust Memory: Coloniality, Black Lives, and Multidirectionality”

Dear colleagues,

Please join us on Nov. 18, noon-1:30pm EST, for this exciting webinar:

“Debates On Holocaust Memory: Coloniality, Black Lives, and Multidirectionality” 

The translations of Michael Rothberg’s Multidirectional Memory and Esra Özyürek’s Being German, Becoming Muslim into German have become part of ongoing national debates about the relationship between the Holocaust and colonialism. You are invited to join Michael Rothberg (UCLA) and Esra Özyürek (University of Cambridge, UK) in conversation about new developments in these debates. The webinar will be moderated by Damani Partridge (University of Michigan).

** Advance registration via Zooom required ** (see below; registering early helps us admit attendees on time)

Holocaust webinar Nov 18.jpeg

Date: Thursday November 18th, 2021 

Time: Noon-1:30pm EST  

Michael Rothberg is the 1939 Society Samuel Goetz Chair in Holocaust Studies, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, and Chair of the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Los... Read more

Berlin Program CfA, deadline Dec. 1

The Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies is soliciting applications for their fellowship competition 2024/25.

Please spread the word about this great opportunity. Application deadline is: December 1. 

cfa_banner_2022.jpg

The Berlin Program offers up to one year of dissertation or postdoctoral research support at the Freie Universität Berlin, one of Germany’s leading research universities. It is open to scholars in all social science and humanities disciplines, including historians working on German and European history since the mid-18^th century.

The program offers four different fellowships:

• Berlin Program Dissertation Fellowship
• Berlin Program Postdoc Fellowship
• Max Kade Berlin Fellowship
• Kerstin Leitner Berlin Fellowship

For key features and eligibility, check our Fellowships Overview.

Located in one of the densest and most innovative academic regions in Europe, a Berlin Program Fellowship offers extraordinary research opportunities. Each semester, our colloquium led by distinguished scholars, serves as the central meeting point to share, discuss and support... Read more

Arts Night 2021: Max Czollek & Sasha Marianna Salzmann

Join us for a virtual GSA Arts Night to kick off this year’s conference with two special guests:

Max Czollek & Sasha Marianna Salzmann

In-yer-face-Germany: From Postmigrant Theater to De-Integration

Reading and Conversation with Johanna Schuster-Craig and Olivia Landry

Tuesday, September 28^th, 2pm EDT / 20Uhr MESZ

Veranstaltung in deutscher Sprache, Diskussion deutsch und englisch. 

We gratefully acknowledge support from the DAAD and 1014.

The event will be hosted virtually via this website. Click *here* for the schedule link.

In theater congresses such as the “Radikale jüdische Kulturtage,” in essays such as Desintegriert Euch!, in debates, performances, workshops, lyric poetry, plays and novels, Max Czollek and Sasha Marianna Salzmann have been exploring the continually reconfigured “We” that today characterizes and polarizes German society. They ask how this “we” has been defined in relation to different “others”– after the end of World War II, after the labor recruitment treaty with Turkey in 1961, after reunification in 1990, and after the migrations of post-Soviet Jews to Europe? And how have new voices – Czollek and Salzmann among them... Read more

Call for Auditors, GSA 2021

CALL FOR AUDITORS

Dear Colleagues:

This year’s GSA Conference in Indianapolis will again feature a number of three-day seminars. As in the past, this year’s conference will also allow for a limited number of auditors to attend individual seminar streams. Auditors attend the seminar but are not formal participants, so they may take on other presenting roles at the conference. Please note that the specific roles and rules for auditors will be defined by the respective seminar conveners.

If you are interested in auditing a seminar, please contact and apply to the seminar’s convenors directly. Below you will find a list of seminars available for auditors, including information about whether the seminar is in-person or virtual. Due to space restrictions and other considerations, we must ask convenors not to admit more auditors to their seminars than the number specified. The number of auditors is limited to six regardless of the number of conveners and active participants. 

Sincerely yours,

Margaret Eleanor Menninger, Executive Director of the GSA

Vance Byrd, 2021 GSA Program Director

Elizabeth Drummond, Chair of the GSA Seminar Committee

Richard Langston, GSA Seminar... Read more

GSA Preliminary Schedule, 45th Annual Conference

Dear Friends and Colleagues of the GSA:

Here is a *preliminary schedule with the times*, and names of panels/seminars/roundtables and the names of the participants. Please check it carefully and let us know of corrections on this *change form* by August 10. The final program is due shortly thereafter and we will be unable to make changes to the printed program after that point.

As you check this, we ask that you note the following:

• All session times are parallel. That is to say, there are virtual AND in-person sessions in each time slot because some attendees in Indianapolis are also participating in virtual sessions.
  • All session times are Eastern Daylight Time. You can check what time it will be for you during the conference using a time zone converter such as this one: *Time and Date*
• We have done our best to comfortably accommodate presenters in as many time zones as possible. It is not possible to avoid all late nights or early mornings. This may also mean that the order of some panel series has changed; this was unavoidable and we will renumber the panels to reflect
... Read more

Conference updates + updated schedule + FAQs: Indianapolis in-person and virtual (28 Sept. 2021)

Sept. 28, 2021

Thank you for your patience as we organize our first hybrid (virtual and in-person sessions) conference, September 30-October 3 2021. You can find the latest conference information on the current conference page.  



GSA Program Schedule, PDF:

• An archival record of the conference schedule is available under the "conference">>"previous conferences" tabs at the top of our homepage. 
• Click here to access the *GSA 45th Annual Conference Schedule* as a PDF, updated regularly!
  • Please note: We will continue to make effort to keep this schedule updated within 48 hours. You will see withdrawals, changes in modalities or time, and other edits noted in red next to the session title. Please email Operations Director Dr. Benita Blessing if you need to make a change, or see an error. Thank you for your help and patience!

New

• ​​You can now log in here to the *Virtual Conference Platform.* Your GSA membership must be current, and you must be registered for the conference for access. (Exhibitors, we will send you access information separately.) The site is still under construction, but take a
... Read more

Letter of Concern to Georgia Convention and Visitor Bureaus

The GSA Spring Newsletter is here!

Dear colleagues, 

Please click to read or download our *Spring 2021 newsletter.* It includes information about the 2021 conference, elections, and other important news. We hope you enjoy the new format!

Sincerely,

David Imhoof        Margaret Menninger

GSA Secretary       GSA Executive Director Read more

Conference update: deadline extended + member survey

Feb. 9, 2021

Dear Members and Friends of the GSA,

I hope all of you are settling in to the new year. We have heard from many of you with questions about this year’s conference. And we hear your concerns about the safety, logistics, and equity issues involved in meeting in Indianapolis as planned. Although the situation remains fluid and it remains too soon to make final decisions, we want to share the information below, and ask for your help as we consider our options. 

Submission Deadline: Extended

Based on your feedback, we’ve decided to extend the submission deadline for panels, papers, and roundtables to March 1. We hope that the extra two weeks will encourage you to take part in our annual conference and give those of you interested in submitting abstracts adequate time to do so.

Conference Planning: Survey

In order to help us to plan for this fall, we need to know more concretely how all of you as of right now envision your participation in the conference. The options open to us in terms of format vary widely in complexity and cost both to the wider membership and... Read more

CfP Berlin Program Summer Workshop

CfP: Ninth Berlin Program Summer Workshop: June 30–July 2, 2021 ( Apply by March 17)                                                                                                                                                       

bp fellows image.jpg

 

We are, maybe we have always been, “alone together.” And while the challenges of being “alone” and “together” have existed historically in various, often complex ways, the current moment of cultural extremism, of Brexit, of American unilateralism, and of a global pandemic, have given the challenge a new urgency. 

In her last New Year’s address to the nation on December 31, 2020, Chancellor Angela Merkel touched on the need to be “together” and “alone” simultaneously while urging the German public to cooperate with pandemic measures: “To me, this is an expression of what makes it possible to... Read more

ANN: Dissertations in German Studies

List, Dissertations in German Studies

(x-posted from H-Net)

Dear colleagues, 



The German Studies Association (https://www.thegsa.org) will post information in its spring newsletter about dissertations completed in any area of German (i.e., Austrian, German, Swiss, German diasporic) Studies (any discipline or interdisciplinary). If you received your Ph.D. in 2019, 2020, or 2021, you may be listed in our newsletter. If you have supervised a dissertation that was completed in 2019, 2020, or 2021 that has not already been listed, please encourage the author to submit a description following the guidelines below. 

Send an email to the GSA President, Dr. Janet Ward (president@thegsa.org) by 30 April, 2021. Please type “GSA dissertation list” in the subject line. Be sure to include, in this order: 

1. Name (last, first) 

2. Title of dissertation 

3. Institution and department in which it was defended 

4. Name of dissertation director(s)

5. Month and year of defense (or degree if no defense) 

6. Abstract of the dissertation of 200 or fewer words in either English or German. (150 words is desired length, 200 words an absolute... Read more

Submission Instructions, New and Returning (Postponed) Sessions 2021

Members can submit applications through our conference submissions portal *here* when it opens on January 5th 2021. 

Instructional videos

Due to the pandemic, a number of sessions and individual papers accepted for the 2020 conference later postponed their presentations until 2021 (they are now "returning" sessions). There are separate submissions tracks for "new" and "returning" submissions.

• If you are submitting a new panel, roundtable, or individual paper for 2021, you will use the "new" track.
• If you or your session postponed in 2020 in order to present in 2021, you will use the "returning" track. You do not need to resubmit abstracts for anything that was previously accepted, but you will be asked to provide the following information for the Program Committee to review:
  • Names of sessions members and titles of session and/or papers
  • Whether the submission has no changes at all from 2020, or
  • Whether the submission has minor changes, and to note them (changes in commentator/moderator, minor title edits, etc.)
  • Whether the submission has significant changes (not all participants will return, requests for a replacement presenter/paper) and a description of those changes (including titles and abstracts for significant changes or additions)

If... Read more

GSA Winter Newsletter

Dear Members and Friends of the GSA,

The winter newsletter is now available. You can find it here: Winter Newsletter 2020

It contains updated reports from the President and Executive Director, information on the 45th annual conference of the GSA in October 2021, reports on prize winners for 2020, information on the 2021 prize competitions, a variety of additional reports, and an In memoriam section.

I hope that all of you have a safe and healthy holiday season, and that 2021 will be a better year for all of us!

Best regards,

David E. Barclay

Executive Director Read more

CfP: GSA 45th Annual Conference

The German Studies Association (GSA) will hold its 45th Annual Conference from 30 September to 3 October 2021 at the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The Program Committee cordially invites proposals on any aspect of German, Austrian, or Swiss studies, including (but not limited to) history, Germanistik, film and media studies, art history, political science, anthropology, pedagogy scholarship, musicology, economic studies, religious studies, sociology, and cultural studies.  

Proposals for entire sessions, for interdisciplinary presentations, and for series of panels are strongly encouraged (although we discourage thematic series of more than four panels). Individual paper proposals are also welcome. The call for seminar proposals has been distributed separately.  

Please see the GSA website (www.thegsa.org) for information about the submission process for ‘traditional’ papers, sessions, and roundtables, which will open on 4 January 2021. The deadline for proposals is 15 February 2021. 

Separate submission tracks have been set up for returning proposals that were postponed from 2020 and new proposals. There is more information about this on the GSA website, and instructions will also be available on the submission interface when it opens.

Please note that all proposed presenters... Read more

CfP: GSA 45th Annual Conference

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: GERMAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

The German Studies Association (GSA) will hold its 45th Annual Conference from 30 September to 3 October 2021 at the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The Program Committee cordially invites proposals on any aspect of German, Austrian, or Swiss studies, including (but not limited to) history, Germanistik, film and media studies, art history, political science, anthropology, pedagogy scholarship, musicology, economic studies, religious studies, sociology, and cultural studies.  

Proposals for entire sessions, for interdisciplinary presentations, and for series of panels are strongly encouraged (although we discourage thematic series of more than four panels). Individual paper proposals are also welcome. The call for seminar proposals has been distributed separately.  

Please see the GSA website (www.thegsa.org) for information about the submission process for ‘traditional’ papers, sessions, and roundtables, which will open on 4 January 2021. The deadline for proposals is 15 February 2021. 

Separate submission tracks have been set up for returning proposals that were postponed from 2020 and new proposals. There is more information about this on the GSA website, and instructions will also be available on the submission interface when it opens.

Please note that all proposed presenters must be members... Read more

CfA: Berlin Program Fellowships, due Dec. 1

The Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies is soliciting applications for our fellowship competition 2021/22. We are now accepting applications. Please spread the word about this great opportunity. 

The Berlin Program offers up to one year of dissertation or postdoctoral research support at the Freie Universität Berlin, one of Germany’s leading research universities. It is open to scholars in all social science and humanities disciplines, including historians working on German and European history since the mid-18th century.

The program accepts applications from nationals, permanent and long-term residents from the U.S. and Canada. Applicants for a dissertation fellowship must be full-time graduate students enrolled at a North American university who have achieved ABD status by the time the proposed research stay in Berlin begins. Also eligible are U.S. and Canadian Ph.D.s who have received their doctorates within the past two calendar years from a North American university.

Located in one of the densest and most innovative academic regions in Europe, a Berlin Program Fellowship offers extraordinary research opportunities. Each semester, our colloquium serves as the central meeting point to share, discuss and support... Read more

CfA: GSA Seminar Applications 2021

GERMAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION: CALL FOR SEMINAR PROPOSALS

The 45^th German Studies Association Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, from September 30 to October 4, 2021 will continue to host a series of seminars in addition to conference sessions and roundtables (for general conference information see *https://www.thegsa.org/conference*). With 13 seminars postponed from the 2020 conference (click *here* for those seminar topics), we will have space for approximately 15 new seminars, for a total of about 28 seminars in Indianapolis.

Seminars meet for all three days of the conference. They explore new avenues of academic exchange and foster extended discussion, rigorous intellectual debate, and intensified networking. Seminars are typically proposed and led by two to three conveners (in special cases, there may be four conveners) and must consist of a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 20 participants, including the conveners themselves. Conveners are expected to make every effort to aim for broad diversity and include scholars from different disciplines and at different career stages, including graduate students. Seminars may enable extended discussion of a recent academic publication; the exploration of a promising new research topic; engagement with pre-circulated papers; an opportunity to debate the work of scholars with... Read more

GSA Cocktail Hour

GSA_Cocktail_Hour_flyer.jpg

GSA Conference Survey and Election Results

Please note: the survey will close July 3, 2020, 5pm EDT. 

Dear GSA Members,

As promised in our Spring Newsletter, we write to you today in the wake of a special GSA Executive Board meeting: on June 15th, Board members convened on Zoom to discuss various options for our conference in the fall, originally scheduled for October 1-4 in Washington, DC. We realize that many of you are anxious to hear whether, and in what form, that conference will take place. While we are still in discussions with the hotel and with providers of online conferences, we can assure you that we have every intention of holding our conference, even if the exact format is yet to be finalized. For this purpose, we are also seeking your input by way of this brief six-question survey, which we would ask you to complete by the end of June. In return, we plan to provide you with further details of our fall conference planning by the middle of July.

Please contact Dr. Benita Blessing (operations@thegsa.org) if you have any questions about the survey. The survey will also be sent to members' email addresses and made available through social media.... Read more

GSA - Opportunities to Become Involved

SUBJECT: GSA - Opportunities to Become Involved

FROM: Johannes von Moltke

February 24, 2020

Dear friends and colleagues, members of the GSA,

I write with an invitation to become involved in one of the many roles and committees that make the German Studies Association run. 

Having reached out to many of you in the past with requests to serve on particular committees, I have been humbled by the investment that members show in the GSA and by their readiness to serve. Now we are looking to broaden the base for anyone interested in volunteering by asking you to identify a fellow member or yourself for consideration by the nominating committee. 

You may express your interest in one or more positions and/or nominate another member by navigating to this short form, where we have listed opportunities for involvement.

In particular, I would like to draw your attention to the newly formed committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. This committee, which will be chaired by former President Irene Kacandes and include at least one Board Member and one member at large, will be charged with two primary tasks: to advise the board on ways of making the GSA as diverse, equitable,... Read more

Winter Newsletter 2019

Our 2019 Winter Newsletter is now available here. Read more

CfA: GSA Emerging Scholars Workshop (ESW)

Call for Applicants

GSA Emerging Scholars Workshop (ESW)

We are excited to introduce a new conference format exclusively for graduate students, to be hosted for the first time at the 44th German Studies Association Conference in Washington, D.C., from October 1-4, 2020.

The Emerging Scholars Workshop (ESW) will run parallel to the established seminars and in addition to regular conference sessions and roundtables (for general conference information see https://www.thegsa.org/conference).

Over the past ten years, graduate programs across the country have contracted. Fewer graduate students now encounter fewer regular graduate courses that have often also become more general in content in order to produce satisfactory enrollment. As a result, much of the specialized but crucial field training has moved into one-on-one tutorials and directed readings. The new Emerging Scholars Workshop seeks to give the up-and-coming cohort of Germanists and historians access to the leading scholars in their field, increase the advice and mentoring they receive, and allow them to come together for sustained professional conversations. The goal is to enable the next generation of Germanists and Historians to produce their best possible work, be competitive across fields, and contribute to the vitality, relevance, and productivity... Read more

GSA Statement on Nobel Prize for Literature

The following statement on Peter Handke and the Nobel Prize for Literature was approved by the GSA Executive Council on 16 October 2019.

In the days since Peter Handke was awarded this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature, much has been written about the decision to reward an author who supported and defended Slobodan Milošević and who denied the genocidal acts of which the Serbian leader and his regime were found guilty.

Handke’s support for Milošević is a matter of historic record. So is the slaughter of thousands of Muslims at Srebrenica, which did not prevent the author from seeking the company of Radovan Karadžić, a convicted war criminal and the main perpetrator of this genocidal act. In view of these facts, the controversy over the Nobel Prize, such as it is, revolves around the question whether it is possible to separate literature and literary value from history and politics. The Swedish Academy certainly appears to think so, rewarding Handke for his “linguistic ingenuity” while remaining silent on his politics. According to its permanent secretary Mats Malm, “it is not in the Academy’s mandate to balance literary quality against political considerations.”

We disagree with the premise of such statements... Read more

Dr. Margaret Menninger Named New ED of GSA Beginning 2021

At its meeting on 3 October 2019, the GSA Board unanimously approved the appointment of Dr. Margaret Eleanor Menninger, Associate Professor of History at Texas State University, as the GSA’s third Executive Director. She will assume that office on 1 January 2021; the current Executive Director, Prof. David E. Barclay, will remain in that function until the end of 2020. 

Professor Menninger has served as NEH Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities at Texas State, where she has taught in the Department of History since 2001. She received her A.B., M.A., and PhD degrees at Harvard University, where she studied with David Blackbourn. She is an accomplished chamber musician and is currently completing a manuscript on  A Serious Matter and True Joy: Philanthropy, the Arts, and the State in Nineteenth-Century Leipzig. Among other things, she has published on the idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk. 

She brings a wealth of experience in the GSA to her new duties. She has served with distinction as Program Director and as chair of the Seminar Committee, and she is currently the GSA Secretary. We are confident that the GSA will thrive under Margaret Menninger’s leadership.  Read more

2019 Spring Newsletter

Our 2019 Spring Newsletter is now available here. Read more

Berlin Program Summer Workshop - Deadline April 1

DISORIENTATIONS/DESORIENTIERUNGEN

Once again, Europe and Germany are dealing with extraordinary political, economic, cultural, and administrative crises. Britain is leaving Europe. Other countries are also considering their own exit. There is potentially another global financial crisis on the horizon. Nationalism is on the rise throughout the region. The largest minority party in Germany’s parliament is now the neo-nationalist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). The #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements have galvanized attention around sexual assault and racial violence.

And if these issues are not disorienting enough, there are the overarching challenges of global warming and immigration, and the European project itself is seriously at risk of disintegration. This list, by no means comprehensive, identifies some of the most important issues facing Germany and Europe politically, culturally or economically in the present moment.

Yet periods of cultural, social, political, and personal confusion often lead to opportunities for substantive reflection and even radical interventions into prevailing assumptions and norms. How do moments of upheaval create spaces for political and cultural engagement? How do disruptions, social anxieties, cultural conflicts, gender troubles, racial reflections, calls of conscience, transformations in technologies, and the indeterminacy of language allow for restructuring, aesthetic evolutions, even transformations in collective sensibilities?... Read more

Call for Seminar Applications

The 43^rd GSA Conference in Portland, Oregon from October 3-6, 2019 will again host a series of seminars in addition to its regular conference sessions and roundtables.

Seminars meet for all three days of the conference 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.

The submission site is at https://www.xcdsystem.com/gsa. You will use your thegsa.org username and password. Submitters must be current (2019) members. Please apply to only one seminar at a time. The deadline is January 26, 2019, at midnight Eastern Standard Time. For more information, visit our current conference page.

The following seminars have been selected and approved for enrollment at the 2019 GSA Conference:

01 Asian German Studies

02 Beyond the Racial State: New Perspectives on Race in Nazi Germany

03 Beyond Versailles: From Brest-Litovsk to the End of the World War in East Central Europe (co-sponsored by the... Read more

Call for Papers: German History Society Annual Conference

King’s College London, Tuesday 3 September- Thursday 5 September 2019

The German History Society in the UK and Ireland, which publishes the journal German History, is inviting proposals for its twelfth Annual Conference. The 2019 conference will be hosted by King’s College London. The keynote speakers will be Felicitas Schmieder (Hagen), Rebekka von Mallinckrodt (Bremen) and Johannes Paulmann (Mainz).

The Society invites historians of Germany from all parts of the world to submit panel proposals on their research topics in German history broadly conceived, including the history of German-speaking people within and beyond Europe, from the medieval period to the present day. Panels will last for 90 minutes and should have three speakers and a chair. Each paper should be no longer than 20 minutes.

Proposals for round table format panels, and for panels that address specific methodological problems, problems of source criticism, or problems of public history and education in the field of German history, are also welcome. These, too, should involve three speakers and a chair, and should last 90 minutes, with each paper 20 minutes in duration.

Proposals for individual papers will also be accepted, with the proviso that the conference organisers will seek to group individual papers into groups of three for the purposes... Read more

GSA Statement on Pittsburgh Shootings

The German Studies Association is horrified and saddened beyond words by the attack on the Tree of Life synagogue, and expresses its deepest sympathy to all those affected by this atrocity.  Our annual conference took place in Pittsburgh just a few weeks ago, and we feel a special attachment to that city. As scholars of German Studies and as human beings, we have a special obligation, given the history of the German-speaking world, to resist all forms of antisemitism. Read more

PDF of Print Program Now Online

The printed program is now available in PDF form. You can find it here.

Please note that the online program at https://www.xcdsystem.com/gsa/program will be kept updated with all changes before and during the conference. Read more

2018 Election Results Announced

We are delighted to announce the results of the 2018 German Studies Association election.

• Vice-President: Janet Ward, Department of History, University of Oklahoma
• Secretary: Margaret Menninger, Department of History, Texas State University
• Board Member (History): Ben Marschke, Department of History, Humboldt State University
• Board Member (German Language, Literature, and Culture): Priscilla Layne, Department of German and Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
• Board Member (Interdisciplinary): Damani Partridge, Departments of Anthropology and Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan
• Board Member (Graduate Student Representative): Christy Wahl, Department of Art History, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Herzliche Glückwünsche!

We invite all the members of the Association to join us in thanking those of our colleagues who stood for election and volunteered to donate their time and energy to furthering the many goals and projects of the German Studies Association. We are deeply grateful to them. Read more

2018 Conference Registration Now Open

Online conference registration, meal reservations, and hotel reservations for the 42nd annual conference of the GSA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, are now open at www.thegsa.org/members/conference.

When you pay your registration fee, you will be able to purchase meals at the same time. After September 1st, all registrants will pay an additional $10 fee. Please be aware of the refund policy on conference registrations.

You must first register for the conference to be eligible for our special group rate of US $169.00 per night at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown. Please note that you can only reserve a hotel room at the conference rate with the link you receive by email after registering.

Once you have registered, you will receive a confirmation e-mail from Johns Hopkins University Press with the link to the special hotel reservation page. Do not discard or lose this email. It will serve as your receipt and provide access to hotel reservations at the conference rate.

Conference Registration Rates (before 1 September)

• Regular, joint, and emeritus members: $110.00
• Non-members: $180.00
• Independent scholars (members): $50.00
• Independent scholars (non-members): $100.00
• Students (members): $40.00
• Students (non-members): $90.00
• Exhibitors: $200.00 / table

After 1 September, prices for all registration categories will increase... Read more

Austrian Cultural Forum New York (ACFNY) Travel Grants 2018

The Austrian Cultural Forum New York (ACFNY) and the GSA are happy to announce that there will be limited funds available to support selected young Austrian Studies scholars participating in the 2018 GSA conference. Read more

Call for 2018 Panels and Papers

The German Studies Association (GSA) will hold its 42nd Annual Conference from 27 to 30 September 2018 at the Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA).

The Program Committee cordially invites proposals on any aspect of German, Austrian, or Swiss studies, including (but not limited to) history, Germanistik, film, art history, political science, anthropology, musicology, religious studies, sociology, and cultural studies.

Proposals for entire sessions, for interdisciplinary presentations, and for series of panels are strongly encouraged (though we discourage thematic series of more than four panels). Individual paper proposals are also welcome. The call for seminar proposals has been distributed separately.

Please see the "current conference" page here for information about the submission process for ‘traditional’ papers, sessions, and roundtables, which will open on 5 January 2018. The deadline for proposals is 15 February 2018.

Please note that all proposed presenters must be members of the German Studies Association. Information on membership is available here.

In order to avoid complications later, the Program Committee would like to reiterate two extremely important guidelines here (the full list of guidelines is available here):

1. No individual at the GSA conference may give more than one paper or appear on the program in more than... Read more

GSA Seminars 2018: Call for Participants

The 42nd GSA Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 27-30 September 2018, will again host a series of seminars in addition to its regular conference sessions and roundtables.

Seminars meet for all three days of the conference during the first morning slot to foster extended discussion, rigorous intellectual exchange, and intensified networking. They are led by two to four conveners and will consist of either 12 to 15 or 16 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.

The following seminars have been selected and approved for enrollment at the 2018 GSA Conference:

1. Art Film/Film Art in Contemporary Germany
2. Asian German Studies
3. Critical European Culture Studies
4. Digital Humanities and Pedagogy across the Disciplines (sponsored by the Digital Humanities Network)
5. Documentary Fiction and Terms of Engagement: (Post) Industrial Worlds of Work and Labor
6. Feeling beyond the Human: Animals, AI, Machines (sponsored by the Emotion Studies Network)
7. Fragments of the German Body, 1600-2000
8. From Empire to
... Read more

2017 Prize Winners Announced

The German Studies Association is pleased to announce the following prizes, which were awarded at the Forty-First Anniversary Conference in Atlanta on 6 October 2017:

DAAD Book Prize for best book in History and Social Sciences published in 2015 or 2016:

The winner is Professor Greg Eghigian (Pennsylvania State University), The Corrigible and the Incorrigible: Science, Medicine and the Convict in Twentieth Century Germany (Ann Arbor:  University of Michigan Press, 2015).

Here is the prize committee’s laudatio:

Greg Eghigian’s book, The Corrigible and the Incorrigible: Science, Medicine and the Convict in Twentieth Century Germany, traces scientific, medical, and administrative approaches to criminality, policing, incarceration, efforts at rehabilitation, and therapeutic practices across 20th century Germany. Impeccably researched, fluidly written, beautifully crafted, and measured in tone, this study is driven by a desire to probe the “correctional imagination”—namely, an aspirational project, both punitive and rehabilitative, that mobilized notions of “good and bad, normal and pathological, corrigible and incorrigible” to shape the management of criminal behavior and the fate of offenders. Revising Foucault, Eghigian astutely emphasizes the chronic disparity between ambitions and reality: the plans of those with power always fell short. Nonetheless, the sum of such efforts had a lasting impact and produced “influential visions of crime,

... Read more

2016 Prizes Announced

2016 DAAD Book Prize

The DAAD and the GSA are proud to announce that Professor Matt Erlin, Washington University of St. Louis, is the winner of this year's DAAD Book Prize for the best book in literature or cultural studies published during the years 2014 and 2015. His book Necessary Luxuries: Books, Literature, and the Culture of Consumption in Germany, 1770-1815was published by Signale/Cornell University Press in 2014.

Here is the text of the committee's laudatio:

Matt Erlin's Necessary Luxuries: Books, Literature, and the Culture of Consumption in Germany, 1770-1815(Signale/Cornell University Press, 2014) is an engrossing, elegantly written, and carefully argued work. Erlin approaches 'luxury' as a Foucauldian field of discourse, and combines readings from the period's economists, social theorists, and critics to flesh out the contours of the debate surrounding the term. Close readings of important novels show the ways in which they positioned themselves within this discourse as positive, even necessary, luxuries. The book elucidates an important moment in German culture — the end of the Enlightenment and the rise of consumer culture — with implications for other national cultures, as well as for our understanding of subsequent developments in Germany. As the Digital Age calls the significance of literature into

... Read more

Arts Night 2017

Please book your conference travel so that you can join us for the GSA Arts Night on Thursday evening, October 5, at the Sheraton Atlanta Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia! Inspired by “First Night” celebrations on December 31st in many cities, this will be our third annual Arts Night, celebrating the creative and performing arts as an important part of German studies.

The Trey Clegg Singers 

Atlanta’s Premiere Multicultural Chorus

(Sponsored by The Halle Foundation)

Hymns and German Chorales from the Lutheran Tradition

Spirituals and Freedom Songs from the Civil Rights Era

6:30 PM – 8:30 PM Capitol North

The Trey Clegg Singers is a non-profit organization with a mission of spreading peace, hope, and love locally, nationally, and internationally through the expression of multicultural choral music, sacred and secular, from a global perspective.

The talented singers represent a broad spectrum of backgrounds in membership hailing from various church and college choirs, other community choruses, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus, and the Atlanta Opera Chorus.

http://www.thetreycleggsingers.org

The DEFA Film Library Presents: 

Isabel on the Stairs (Isabel auf der Treppe)

GDR, 1984, dir.... Read more

Silent Auditor Applications for Seminars

This year’s GSA Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, will again feature a number of three-day seminars. The full list of seminar topics, conveners, and participants can be found in the GSA Conference Program. This year’s conference will allow for a limited number of silent auditors to attend selected seminar streams. Unlike regular seminar participants, silent auditors will be allowed to present papers in other sections of the conference. They will not be listed in the program as auditors. Please note that the specific roles and rules for silent auditors will be defined by the respective seminar conveners.

If you are interested in auditing one of the seminars, please contact and apply to the seminar’s conveners directly. Below you will find a list of seminars available for silent auditors (not all seminars are accepting auditors). Due to space restrictions and other considerations, we must ask seminar conveners not to admit more auditors to their seminars than the number specified.

(Post)Migrant Theater: Now and Then

Conveners: Ela Gezen (egezen@german.umass.edu); Olivia Landry (olandry@pitt.edu): Damani Partridge (djpartri@umich.edu)

Number of Auditors: 5

Affect and Cognition in Holocaust Culture

Conveners: Erin McGlothlin (mcglothlin@wustl.edu); Katja Garloff (garloffk@reed.edu);... Read more

Austrian Cultural Forum New York: Young Scholars GSA Travel Grants 2017

The Austrian Cultural Forum New York (ACFNY) and the German Studies Association (GSA) are happy to announce that there will be limited funds available to support selected young Austrian Studies scholars who will participate in this year's conference of the German Studies Association which will be held in Atlanta from 5 to 8 October 2017.

Applicants must not be older than 35 years and must not have received any travel grant from the ACFNY in the past. Applicants who receive financial support from other governmental Austrian institutions to cover travel and accommodation costs will not be considered.

The funds are intended for Austrian Studies scholars who are either completing an appropriate advanced degree or who have completed that degree within the past three years. Austrian Studies scholars from North America as well as from outside North America are eligible to apply for these funds. Austrian citizenship or residency in Austria is not necessary. Applications from scholars working in contemporary Austrian Studies (since 1945) will be given preferential treatment.

Depending on the number of accepted applications and budgetary circumstances, the travel grant comprises $350 (for scholars from North America) and $550 (for scholars from outside North America) to offset travel costs.... Read more

Statement by the German Studies Association on the Executive Order Concerning Immigration

The German Studies Association expresses its deep concern about and opposition to the Executive Order on the admission and vetting of non-citizens to the United States, signed by President Donald J. Trump on 27 January 2017.

As it is currently being implemented, this Executive Order presents serious challenges to the freedom of academic movement, academic freedom, and intellectual exchange. The impediments for students are significant. The Executive Order as it stands will seriously impact applications to graduate and undergraduate study at American universities and deny universities the benefit of the scholarly skills and contributions of researchers and visiting faculty members, thereby impoverishing our intellectual and academic institutions. The consequences of the Executive Order for American intellectual, economic, financial, educational, and scientific leadership could be catastrophic.

The German Studies Association feels a particular ethical, moral, and intellectual responsibility to speak out on behalf of refugees. Millions of Americans are directly descended from Germans who had to flee their native land for political or religious reasons, beginning in the eighteenth century and continuing until 1945 and thereafter. The contributions of German refugees to this country have been legion, from Carl Schurz to Albert Einstein. Moreover, since its creation in 1949 the Federal... Read more

Call for Papers

The German Studies Association (GSA) will hold its 41st Annual Conference in Atlanta, Georgia (USA), 5-8 October 2017.

The Program Committee cordially invites proposals on any aspect of German, Austrian, or Swiss studies, including (but not limited to) history, Germanistik, film, art history, political science, anthropology, musicology, religious studies, sociology, and cultural studies.

Proposals for entire sessions, for interdisciplinary presentations, and for series of panels are strongly encouraged, though we strongly discourage thematic series of more than four panels. Individual paper proposals are also welcome.

The Call for Seminar Proposals was distributed separately. Please check here for details; the deadline for preliminary seminar proposals was November 21, 2016. The deadline for final proposals is December 8, 2016. Applications for participation in seminars will be opened on January 5, 2017.

Please see the GSA website for information about the submission process for "traditional" papers, sessions, and roundtables, which opens on January 5, 2017.

ALL proposals must be submitted online; paper forms are not used. The deadline for proposals is February 15, 2017.

Please note that presenters must be members of the German Studies Association. Information on membership is available here.

In order to avoid complications later, the Program Committee would like to... Read more

Call for Seminar Proposals

The 41st GSA Conference in Atlanta, Georgia (5-8 October 2017), will continue to host a series of seminars in addition to its regular conference sessions and roundtables.

Seminars meet for all three days of the conference. They explore new avenues of academic exchange and foster extended discussion, rigorous intellectual debate, and intensified networking. Seminars are typically proposed and led by two to three convenors and they consist of approximately 12 to 20 participants, including representation from different disciplines, a representative number of graduate students, and faculty of different ranks. For example, seminars may enable extended discussion of a recent academic publication; the exploration of a promising new research topic; engagement with pre-circulated papers; an opportunity to debate the work of scholars with different approaches; the coming together of groups of scholars seeking to develop an anthology; or the in-depth discussion of a political or public-policy issue, novel, film, poem, art work, or musical piece.

Seminar proposers should design topics that will suit the three-day structure of the conference and also submit a list of potential applicants while providing enough room for other GSA members to participate. The purpose of this list is to show that an outreach effort has been... Read more

Conference Registration and Hotel Reservation Information

Online conference registration, meal reservations, and hotel reservations for the 40th annual conference of the GSA in San Diego, CA are now open. Please go to http://www.thegsa.org/members/conference to register.

When you pay your registration fee, you will be able to purchase meals and pay for A/V expenses at the same time. After September 1^st, all registrants will pay an additional $10 fee. Please be aware of the refund policy on conference registrations.

You can only reserve a hotel room at the conference rate of $195.00 by registering for the conference. You will not be able to reserve a room at the conference rate by calling the hotel or by booking with an online agency. You must first register for the conference to be eligible for the rate.

Hotel reservations at the GSA conference rate will be available until 5 September or until rooms at the hotel sell out. Our primary hotels sell out well before the deadline every year. We may be able to arrange additional capacity at an overflow hotel, but we cannot guarantee that this will be the case. Please reserve your room(s) as soon as possible.

Once you have registered for the conference, you will receive a confirmation e-mail from Johns Hopkins University Press with... Read more

Conference Registration Refund Policy Explained

You may cancel your 2016 conference registration before 1 July 2016 for a full refund. Cancellations between 1 July and 23 September will be refunded, but will incur a $50 cancellation fee. No refunds are available for cancellations after 23 September 2016. For more information, contact helpdesk@thegsa.org. Read more

Three-Session "Thread" Limit Waived for 2016

Our recent announcement that "threads" or "strings" of thematically related conference topics would be limited to three sessions per topic has resulted in concern on the part of some of our members.

Accordingly, we've decided to waive that limitation for this year's conference, and revisit the matter at the next meeting of the Executive Board in late September.

The original decision to limit the number of thematically linked sessions was based on the concern that 'mini-conferences' might develop within the larger conference, and discourage the interdisciplinarity that is one of the hallmarks of our association.

Again, we're waiving the three-session limitation for 2016, and will revisit the issue later. Read more

Call for Seminar Proposals

In response to the success of the last two years' seminar programs, the 40th GSA Conference in San Diego, California (September 29-October 2, 2016), will continue to host a series of seminars in addition to its regular conference sessions and roundtables. 



Seminars to meet for all three days of the conference to explore new avenues of academic exchange and foster extended discussion, rigorous intellectual debate, and intensified networking. Seminars are typically proposed and led by two to three conveners and they consist of approximately 12 to 20 participants, including representation from different disciplines, a representative number of graduate students and faculty of different ranks. They may, for instance, enable extended discussion of a recent academic publication; the exploration of a promising new research topic; the engagement with pre-circulated papers; the opportunity to debate the work of two scholars with different approaches; the coming together of groups of scholars seeking to develop an anthology; the in-depth discussion of a political or public-policy issue, novel, film, poem, artwork, or musical piece.



Seminar proposers should design topics that will suit the three-day structure of the conference and also submit a list of potential... Read more

GSA Arts Night

Crystal Gateway Marriott, 1 October 2015

Many of us are busy making plans to see friends and deciding which panels to attend. Please include in your schedule our new Arts Night Initiative.



Just in case you've missed the new development: we have put together a slate of four events featuring artists or the work of artists for Thursday evening, 1 October. Along the model of First Night celebrations in many cities, the events will run simultaneously and most will be repeated. Held in the main conference hotel, the sessions will run 7-7:50pm and 8-8:50pm.



Where would we be without the arts? Unlike our federal government, the GSA has decided to put more resources into the arts, not less. Please show your support by attending one or both sessions. 



SESSION ONE 7:00-7:50 pm



Session One 7:00-7:50pm, Room: JEFFERSON ROOM

DEFA Film Library DVD release: 'ARTS IN EXILE'

Erich Fried: The Whole World Should Endure (Die ganze Welt soll bleiben: Erich Fried, ein Portrait)

GDR, 1988, Dir. Roland Steiner, 30 min., color



Born... Read more

Conference Registration and Hotel Reservation Information

Online conference registration, meal reservations, and hotel reservations for the 39th annual conference of the GSA in Washington, DC, are now open. Please go to http://www.thegsa.org/members/conference to register.

When you pay your registration fee, you will be able to purchase meals and pay for A/V expenses at the same time. After September 1^st, all registrants will pay an additional $10 fee. Please be aware of the refund policy on conference registrations.

You can only reserve a hotel room at the conference rate of $175.00 by registering for the conference. You will not be able to reserve a room at the conference rate by calling the hotel or by booking with an online agency. You must first register for the conference to be eligible for the rate.

Hotel reservations at the GSA conference rate will be available until 1 September or until rooms at the hotel sell out. Our primary hotels sell out well before the deadline every year. We may be able to arrange additional capacity at an overflow hotel, but we cannot guarantee that this will be the case. Please reserve your room(s) as soon as possible.

Once you have registered for the conference, you will receive a confirmation e-mail from Johns Hopkins University Press with the... Read more

2015 Conference Information

The Thirty-Ninth Annual Conference of the German Studies Association will take place from October 1 to October 4, 2015, at the Crystal Gateway Marriott, 1700 Jefferson Davis Highway. Arlington, Virginia 22202. Many of our members will be familiar with the hotel, as this will be our fourth meeting there since 2001. For those members from outside North America who may be visiting the area for the first time, Arlington is directly across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The hotel is located on a Metro line that is very convenient both to the Ronald Reagan National Airport and to downtown Washington.

This conference again promises to be one of the larger gatherings in our history. Following two years of successful experiments with a series of intensive, three-day seminars, this year we are offering twenty-five seminars on a wide range of issues in German Studies. As was the case last year, the seminars will run concurrently on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday during the 8:00 a.m. time block. Once again we are scheduling three Sunday time slots in order to accommodate the large number of excellent sessions reviewed by the Program Committee; the entire conference will end by 1:45 p.m. on Sunday.... Read more

Austrian Cultural Forum New York: Young Scholars Travel Grants

The Austrian Cultural Forum New York (ACFNY) and the German Studies Association (GSA) are happy to announce that there will be limited funds available to support selected young Austrian Studies scholars at this year’s conference of the German Studies Association in Washington, DC from 2 to 4 October 2015.

Only applications from scholars working in Contemporary Austrian Studies (since 1945) will be considered. Applicants must not be older than 35 years and must not have received any travel grant from the ACFNY in the past. Applicants who receive financial support from other institutions to cover travel and accommodation costs will not be considered.

The funds are intended for Austrian Studies scholars who are either completing an appropriate advanced degree or who have completed that degree within the past three years. Austrian Studies scholars from North America (Canada, Mexico, and the United States) as well as from outside North America are eligible to apply for these funds. Austrian citizenship or residency in Austria is not necessary.

Depending on the number of accepted applications and budgetary circumstances, the travel grant comprises $500 (for scholars from North America) and $1,000 (for scholars from outside North America) to offset travel... Read more

Berlin Program Summer Workshop June 18-19, 2015: Call for Papers

Deadline for Proposals: February 15, 2015

Violence, Oppression, and Civil Disobedience: From the Cold War Past to the Neoliberal Present

The year 2015 marks the 25th anniversary of the unification of Germany as well as dramatic moments of civil disobedience across the globe. In the same year, for example, Mandela was freed from prison in South Africa and the Persian Gulf War started. The year 2015 is also the 50th anniversary of the end of the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials in West Germany, a year that saw American troops arriving in Vietnam, the Watts Riots in LA, and Malcolm X's assassination. These events signify important transitional moments ' beginnings and endings ' in national and international histories and relations. At the center of each of these moments of civil disobedience are both violence and oppression.

The fourth annual workshop of the Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies will look through German eyes at violence, oppression, and civil disobedience on a global scale from the Cold War past to the Neoliberal present. How have Germans'East, West, unified'engaged in or responded to violence and oppression in their own countries/country and abroad since 1945? To... Read more

2015 Seminars Now Open for Applications

The 39th GSA Conference in Washington, D.C. (October 1-4, 2015) will again host a series of seminars in addition to its regular conference sessions and roundtables.

Seminars meet for all three days of the conference during the first morning slot to foster extended discussion, rigorous intellectual exchange, and intensified networking. They are led by 2 to 4 conveners and will consist of either 12 to 15 or 16 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 expected to participate in all three installments of the seminar.

The following seminars have been selected and approved for enrollment at the 2015 GSA Conference:

1. The Berlin School and Its Global Contexts

2. (Re)tracing Cosmopolitanism: Weltliteratur, Weltb'rgertum, Weltgesellschaft in Modern Germanophone Cultures, ca. 1800 to the Global Present

3. Making Democratic Subjectivities

4. East German Cinema and TV in a Global Context: Before and after 1990

5. Imagining Europe: Assessing the 'Eastern Turn' in Literature

6. The Epic Side of Truth: Narration and Knowledge-Formation (Sponsored by the DAAD)

7. Experience and Cultural Practice: Rewriting the

... Read more

Call For Seminar Proposals

In response to the success of the last two years' seminar programs, the 39th GSA Conference in Washington, D. C. (October 1-4, 2015) will continue to host a series of seminars in addition to its regular conference sessions and roundtables.

Seminars are meant to meet for all three days of the conference during the first morning slot to explore new avenues of academic exchange and foster extended discussion, rigorous intellectual debate, and intensified networking. Seminars are typically proposed and led by two to three conveners and they consist of approximately 10 to 20 participants, including a representative number of graduate students.

Seminars may, for instance, enable extended discussions about an important recent academic publication; the exploration of a promising new research topic in a setting that is at once focused and interdisciplinary; the engagement with pre-circulated papers; the opportunity to meet and debate the work of two scholars with different approaches to a given subject; the coming together of groups of scholars seeking to develop an anthology and using the seminar as a platform to coordinate their research and writing; the in-depth discussion of a recent or not-so-recent political or public-policy issue, novel, film, poem, artwork, or... Read more

Report from Kansas City: The 39th Annual Conference of the GSA

The GSA Conference in Kansas City (September 18-21, 2014) was both intellectually stimulating and a great success. Over 1,300 German Studies scholars and advanced students participated in this year's annual conference, held in Kansas City, just down the street from the National World War I Museum, an appropriate location on the centennial of that conflict's outbreak. There were 326 sessions, panels, roundtables, and seminars held in the rooms of the Westin Kansas City Crown Center.

The conference opened with an especially thought-provoking plenary lecture on Thursday evening by historian Christopher Clark, author of the widely heralded study The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914. And a number of panels and sessions focused on World War I, such as those on 'Austria-Hungary 1914-1918,' 'Beyond the Schlieffen Plan,' 'Visualizing the Great War,' and 'Archive und der Erste Weltkrieg.' But since 2014 also marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, that more recent historic event was also well represented. One of the luncheon presentations was given by (then) Mayor of Berlin, Walter Momper, who held the crowd spellbound as he recalled the little known, behind-the-scenes communications between leading politicians in the East and West about an imminent lifting... Read more

Welcome to Kansas City!

Welcome to Kansas City for the 38th annual conference of the GSA! We hope that you will find your stay here to be both intellectually and personally rewarding. I'd just like to mention a few highlights here, in addition to those described in the first part of the printed conference program. More information will also be provided in the welcome packet that you'll receive at the conference registration desk in the Westin.

TRANSPORTATION: Let's begin with transport to the conference hotel, the Westin Kansas City at Crown Center (1 East Pershing Road, Kansas City, MO 64108), and our overflow hotel, the Sheraton, located very close to it. Most of you will be arriving by plane, and we've arranged a discounted shuttle rate to the hotels. The GSA has made arrangements with Super Shuttle for reduced round-trip tickets from the airport to the hotel and back. Reservations can be placed by calling 1-800-BLUE VAN (258-3826) and providing the code 8T9US. Reservations can be made online. Three Super Shuttle kiosks are located in each terminal at Kansas City International Airport. They are staffed by Customer Service Representatives at each pick-up location.

The Westin and the Sheraton are located in the... Read more

Berlin Program GSA Distinguished Lecture 2014

Orientalism and the Classical Tradition in Germany

Suzanne Marchand, President, German Studies Association; Boyd Professor of History, Louisiana State University

It was a particular pleasure this year to have Suzanne Marchand, President of the German Studies Association and Boyd Professor of History at LSU, deliver the annual Berlin Program Distinguished Lecture. Her visit to Berlin underscores the transatlantic cooperation between the GSA and the Freie Universit't that the Berlin Program is founded on, and is also felicitous given the seminal role that research groups at the FU have played in her field of intellectual history or Wissenschaftsgeschichte.

In her talk, Professor Marchand described the formation of Orientalistik in the German-speaking world and its close relationship with the ever-popular study of ancient Greece. Critical of disciplinary histories that cull off one field and focus only on its internal debates, Marchand emphasized the importance of seeing Oriental philology in relation to larger cultural movements and the histories of other academic areas. As she puts it, Orientalism, like Classical Studies, was the child of Christian humanism, but one that was left behind when Classicism became secular around 1790. Her argument centered on two flowerings of the discipline that book-ended... Read more

Learn More About the Conference Hotel and Kansas City Attractions

The Thirty-Eighth Annual Conference of the German Studies Association will take place from September 18 to September 21, 2014, at the Westin Kansas City at Crown Center, 1 East Pershing Road, Kansas City, Missouri 64108. For those members from overseas who may be visiting the area for the first time, Kansas City is located on the state line between Missouri and Kansas. We are meeting on the Missouri side.

The Westin is located in downtown Kansas City, and is immediately adjacent to Hallmark's 85-acre Crown Center, a complex of stores, shops, and restaurants. (Kansas City is the headquarters of Hallmark Cards.) It is also adjacent to the beautifully restored Union Station, which this year is commemorating its own centennial.

And, as we all know, this year witnesses the centennial as well of the First World War, and thus it is especially appropriate that the German Studies Association is meeting in Kansas City. The Liberty Memorial, dedicated in 1926, is on a hill close to the hotel, and on the Memorial's grounds is the National World War I Museum, with which the German Studies Association has been cooperating in preparing for this year's conference. The museum is the... Read more

Austrian Cultural Forum New York: Young Scholars Travel Grants

The Austrian Cultural Forum New York (ACFNY) and the German Studies Association (GSA) are happy to announce that there will be limited funds available to support selected young Austrian Studies scholars who will participate in this year's conference of the German Studies Association in Kansas City from 18-21 September.

Only applications from scholars working in Contemporary Austrian Studies (since 1945) will be considered. Applicants must not be older than 35 years and must not have received any travel grant from the ACFNY in the past.

The funds are intended for Austrian Studies scholars who are either completing an appropriate advanced degree or who have completed that degree within the past three years. Austrian Studies scholars from North America (Canada, Mexico, and the United States) as well as from outside North America are eligible to apply for these funds.

Depending on the number of accepted applications and budgetary circumstances, the travel grant comprises $500 (for scholars from North America) and $1,000 (for scholars from outside North America) to offset travel costs.

Travel grants are for one person only and cannot be split among several applicants. Applications must be submitted to the Austrian Cultural Forum New York/ACFNY (desk@acfny.org), no later than... Read more

GSA Exchange Now Open for Conference Planning

The German Studies Association is pleased to announce a pilot program for the 2014 Conference: The GSA Exchange. The Exchange is an online forum for prospective participants to discuss the creation of sessions. It is specifically targeted at participants who have a paper proposal but are not already part of a formal panel or session. We hope that the Exchange will make it easier for scholars with similar interests to find their 'family' before the deadline for submissions to the 2014 conference (February 17).

The Exchange and its forums can be accessed at http://germanstudiesassociation.org/exchange/. Before accessing it, you will need to register an account. It is not possible at this time to link your Exchange account with your regular GSA online profile, but please register with the same e-mail address you use there. This will help speed up our verification process; we do want to limit access to the Exchange to those interested in participating in the GSA Annual Conference. If you are not currently a member of the GSA, please sign up at the main GSA website. Please bear in mind that only paid members of the GSA may submit proposals for the GSA conference.

... Read more

Call for Papers: Thirty-Eighth Annual Conference

The German Studies Association (GSA) will hold its Thirty-Eighth Annual Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, September 18-21, 2014. 

The Program Committee cordially invites proposals on any aspect of German, Austrian, or Swiss studies, including (but not limited to) history, Germanistik, film, art history, political science, anthropology, musicology, religious studies, sociology, and cultural studies. Proposals for entire sessions and for interdisciplinary presentations are strongly encouraged. Individual paper proposals and offers to serve as session moderators or commentators are also welcome. Applications for seminar topics went out a few weeks ago; that deadline is December 15. Applications for participation in seminars will be opened on January 6. 

Please see information about the submission process for "traditional" papers, sessions, and roundtables, which opens on January 5, 2014. ALL proposals must be submitted online; paper forms are not used. The deadline for proposals is February 17, 2014. 

Please note that presenters must be members of the German Studies Association. Information on membership is available on the GSA website.

In order to avoid complications later, the Program Committee would like to reiterate two extremely important guidelines here:

• No individual at the GSA Conference may give more than one paper or participate in more than two
... Read more

2013 GSA Prize Winners Announced

The GSA is pleased to announce the results of the 2013 prize competitions. They include the GSA/DAAD book and article prizes, the Sybil Halpern Milton Book Prize, and the Graduate Student Prize.

• The DAAD and the GSA are proud to announce that Professor David Ciarlo (University of Colorado, Boulder) is the winner of this year's DAAD Book Prize for the best book in history or social sciences published during the years 2011 and 2012 for Advertising Empire: Race and Visual Culture in Imperial Germany.
• The DAAD and the GSA are proud to announce that Professor Ari Joskowicz (Vanderbilt University) is the winner of this year's DAAD Article Prize for the best article in Germanistik or cultural studies published in the German Studies Review during the years 2011 and 2012. His article, "Heinrich Heine's Transparent Masks: Denominational Politics and the Poetics of Emancipation in Nineteenth Century Germany and France," appeared in the GSR, volume 34, no. 1 (February 2011).
• The GSA is pleased to announce that, for the first time, two books and three authors are sharing the 2013 Sybil Halpern Milton Prize, awarded every other year, and this year for the best book or books on the Holocaust published in 2011 or 2012. The co-winners
... Read more

Douglas H. Shantz on the movement that changed Protestantism

Arising in late 17th century Germany, Pietism indelibly altered the Protestant Reformation. Not only did it inspire John Wesley's Methodist movement and Alexander Mack's Brethren movement, its tenets lie at the core of modern-day Evangelicalism.

But as University of Calgary Professor Douglas H. Shantz relates in his latest book, An Introduction to German Pietism, the history, roots, and impact of this reaction to Lutheranism are much broader, more nuanced, and darker than is generally understood.

JHU Press Journals Public Relations and Advertising Coordinator Brian Shea caught up with Professor Shantz at the German Studies Association annual meeting in Denver earlier this month to find out more about why he wrote the book and what he hopes it will accomplish.

Read more

Welcome to Denver!

Welcome to Denver, site of the 37th annual conference of the German Studies Association from October 3-6, 2013. As we all know, the greater Denver area and much of Colorado have recently suffered grievous losses as a result of devastating floods. The GSA extends its wishes for a speedy recovery to all who have been affected by this catastrophe.

The conference will take place at the Denver Marriott Tech Center, 4900 South Syracuse Street, Denver, Colorado 80237. The Tech Center is located in the southern part of Denver, close to Cherry Creek State Park and Interstate 25. It is also very close to the inexpensive Denver light rail (Belleview Station), which takes 20-25 minutes to reach downtown. For schedules and other information, please visit http://rtd-denver.com.

We look forward to returning to the Rocky Mountains for the first time in many years. Famed as the 'Mile-High City' (or 1,609 meters for our non-US members!), Denver is, of course, a prime tourist destination, given its location close to the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. A vibrant city in its own right, with a lively city center, Denver is also the gateway to such attractions as Rocky Mountain National Park,... Read more

Visa Denied to Speaker

On Monday, Sept. 30, we received word that United States authorities have refused a visa to our Saturday luncheon speaker, Mr. Ilija Trojanow. According to the German press, he was in Brazil on Monday and was trying to board a plane to this country when he was informed that he could not enter the US. Mr. Trojanow and his colleagues in Germany, among them Juli Zeh, believe that his visa denial is directly related to his public opposition to the surveillance activities of the US National Security Agency (NSA) in Europe and elsewhere.

As soon as we know the details of what exactly happened, the German Studies Association will take appropriate and vigorous action in response to this situation. Certainly it will be discussed at our Board meeting on Thursday, and we'll proceed from there.

In the meantime, we have to formulate a practical response for those of you who have purchased lunch tickets for Saturday's luncheon, at which Mr. Trojanow was going to perform part of his most recent work.

In view of what has happened, we are organizing a panel of experts to lead a discussion, at the end of lunch, concerning the NSA's... Read more

Special GSA Reception/Cash Bar to Highlight Interdisciplinary Networks

In addition to its usual cash bar just before the annual banquet of the German Studies Association on Friday, October 4, the GSA is also sponsoring a SECOND cash bar reception on Saturday, October 5, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. to call attention to our interdisciplinary activities. This occasion will give GSA members a chance to network with our networks! The coordinators of the GSA's twelve interdisciplinary networks will be introduced at this reception. You will get a chance to start thinking about interdisciplinary initiatives for the 2014 conference in Kansas City.

The cash bar/reception will take place in the Private Dining Room at the Denver Marriott Tech Center. Despite its name, the room will be open to GSA members! It is located west of the Summit Tower entrance and elevators on the north end of the building. We look forward to seeing many of you there! Read more

GSA Celebrates Cooperation with Berlin Program: Event on July 3

Any GSA member who is in Berlin on Wednesday, July 3, is invited to attend an event in celebration of the Association's many years of cooperation with the Free University of Berlin and especially the Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies. It will also take place in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's memorable visit to Berlin.

Professor David E. Barclay, GSA Executive Director, will speak at 6:00 p.m. in Room L 115 (Seminarzentrum) in the "Silberlaube" of the Free University on "Old Glory und Berliner B'r. Die USA und West-Berlin 1948-1994." The talk will be introduced by Professor Harald Wenzel, Free University of Berlin, and moderated by Professor Andreas Etges, University of Munich. It includes commentaries by Walter Momper, former mayor of Berlin; Professor Dorothee Brantz, Technical University of Berlin; and Dr. Klaus Dettmer, Landesarchiv Berlin.

A reception will follow. Please reply to Karin Goihl (bprogram@zedat.fu-berlin.de) if you plan to attend. Read more

Conference Registration Now Open for 2013

Online conference registration, meal reservations, and hotel reservations for the 37th annual conference of the GSA in Denver, Colorado, are now open. Please visit the Member Services section and select Conference Registration in the left column to proceed.

The online conference registration and hotel reservation link will be available until 10 SEPTEMBER or until rooms at the hotel sell out. Anyone who registers for the conference after 10 September will be required to pay an additional $10 fee.

Please note that you can ONLY reserve a hotel room at the conference rate of $169.00 AFTER you have registered for the conference itself. You will NOT be able to reserve a room at the conference rate by calling the hotel or by booking with an online agency. You must first register for the conference to be eligible for the rate. Once you have registered for the conference, you will receive a confirmation e-mail from Johns Hopkins University Press that will contain the link to the special hotel reservation page. DO NOT DISCARD OR LOSE THIS E-MAIL, AS IT WILL CONTAIN THE HOTEL RESERVATION LINK.

Please note as well that you can make meal reservations at the same time that you register for the... Read more

GSA Dissertation List: Submissions Requested

The GSA posts information in the spring newsletter about dissertations completed in any area of German (Austrian, Swiss, German diasporic) Studies (any discipline or interdisciplinary). If you received your Ph.D. in 2011 or 2012 or have already defended in 2013, you may be listed in this year’s Spring newsletter. (No repeats, however!) If you have supervised a dissertation that was completed in 2011 or 2012 that has not already been described here, please encourage the author to submit a description following the guidelines below.

Send an email to GSA Vice President, Irene Kacandes, by March 25 at Irene.kacandes@dartmouth.edu Please type “GSA dissertation list” in the subject line. Please forward this notice to any institutions or individuals for whom you believe it is relevant. In your submission, be sure to include:

1. Name
2. Title of Dissertation
3. Institution and department in which it was defended
4. Date of defense
5. Name of dissertation director
6. 150-word abstract of the dissertation in either English or German. (Longer abstracts will be shortened, so please get it the way you want it at the right length!)
Read more

German Studies Review Redesign Honored by Editor's Group

The redesign of the German Studies Review recently received the 2012 Best Journal Design award from the Council of Editors of Learned Journals. The award honors a journal that launched a new design between 2010 and 2012. The Johns Hopkins University Press, which began publishing the journal with the 2012 volume, worked collaboratively with Editor Sabine Hake on the new design.

“This award marks yet another milestone in the brief partnership between the Press and the GSA,” says JHUP Journals Publisher Bill Breichner. The new website for the association was recognized by The MARCOM Awards in late 2012. “We’re happy the CELJ recognized this impressive transformation for GSR.”

Designer Laura Lindgren used a sans serif type font inspired by typographer and designer Jan Tschichold and created a cover which allows for changing colors (yellows for 2012, blues for 2013), an homage to the rainbow colors of the edition Suhrkamp books, the most famous book series of postwar West German publishing.

“The stylish new contemporary design was chosen to reflect better the forward-looking disciplinary orientation of the association and its commitment to cultural studies,” says Hake, Texas Chair of German Literature and Culture at the University of Texas at Austin. “More specifically, key elements were chosen based... Read more

2013 Award Programs Announced

In 2013 the GSA will again make a number of awards. We hope that as many members as possible will make nominations and submissions.

The DAAD/GSA Book Prize will be awarded for the best book in history or social sciences that has been published in 2011 or 2012. Inquiries, nominations, and submissions should be sent to the committee chair, Professor Carl Caldwell, Rice University, by 15 February 2013. The other members of the committee are Professors Monica Black (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) and Ben Marschke (Humboldt State University).

The DAAD Article Prize will be awarded for the best article in Germanistik or culture studies that appeared in the German Studies Review in 2011 or 2012. Inquiries, nominations, and submissions should be sent to the committee chair, Professor Jennifer Kapczynski, Washington University in St. Louis, by 15 February 2013. The other members of the committee are Professors William Collins Donahue (Duke University) and John Pizer (Louisiana State University).

The Sybil Halpern Milton Book Prize is awarded every other year, and will again be awarded in 2013 for the best book in Holocaust Studies published in 2011 and 2012. Submissions should be sent to the committee chair, Professor Jeffrey Herf, University of Maryland at College Park, by 15 February... Read more

Honoring Prof. Friedlander

The GSA has lost a close friend. Professor Henry Friedlander (President 2001-02) died Thursday, Oct. 18. Some years ago, he created the Sybil Milton Book Prize in honor of his late wife. To honor his memory, the GSA would like members and friends to consider a donation to the Milton Prize fund to ensure the financial footing of the honor. (The $1,000 prize is awarded every other year.)

Visit our Contribute page to support the Milton Prize in honor of the late Henry Friedlander and the late Sybil Milton.

Donations may also be sent as paper checks to Professor Gerald Fetz, GSA Secretary/Treasurer, Dean Emeritus, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812. Read more

Election Results Announced

Elections recently took place for the GSA Vice Presidency and for three positions on the GSA Board. The new Vice President will assume of?ce on 1 January 2013 and will become President on 1 January 2015. The Board positions are for three-year terms and will begin on 1 January 2013.

The Vice President-elect is:

• Irene Kacandes, Dartmouth College.

The new Board members are:

• German Literature and Culture (one position): Elizabeth Ametsbichler, University of Montana
• History (one position): Janet Ward, University of Oklahoma
• Political and Other Social Science (one position): Alice H. Cooper, University of Mississippi

The membership also approved the proposed change to the GSA bylaws, concerning the Interdisciplinarity Committee.

As always, the GSA is deeply grateful to all members who volunteer to be candidates for elective of?ce and who volunteer or agree to serve on our various committees. Without you, the GSA would simply cease to exist. Read more

Dissertation List Planned

The German Studies Association plans to post a list of dissertations completed in 2011 in its Spring 2012 newsletter, to be posted on the new website. The lists for 2009 and 2010 give a good overview of trends in German Studies and are available online within the Spring newsletters for those years. Brief abstracts are invited in all German Studies fields, from literature, history, and political science to musicology, art history, visual studies. Abstracts should include:

• Name of the author
• Title of the dissertation
• Institution where the dissertation was written and approved
• Name of dissertator supervisor
• Year the dissertation was approved
• A very brief abstract of no more than 150 words, in English or German

Any institutions that missed being included in the Spring 2011 newsletter may add dissertations from 2009-2010. Abstracts should be sent to Suzanne Marchand and should arrive no later than March 10, 2012. Read more

Dues Increase for 2012

At its meeting in Louisville in September 2011, the GSA Board approved a modest dues increase for 2012, our first in seven years. Regular dues for North American members will increase from $50 to $70 annually, while dues for non-North American members will increase from $65 to $80 a year. Joint memberships will increase from $80 to $90. All other dues will remain unchanged, and conference registration fees are not being increased. Please visit the Member Services section for information on the new rates. Read more