The German Graduate Student Governance Association of the University of Cincinnati and the editors of the graduate student journal Focus on German Studies present the Fourteenth Annual Focus Graduate Student Conference held on October 16- October 17, 2009 at the University of Cincinnati
Sponsored by the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center and the Graduate Student Government Association of the University of Cincinnati
"Morphing Identities and the Merging of Cultures in German Literature, Language and Film"
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Sabine Wilke (University of Washington, Seattle)
In recent years, the number of publications with ‘identity’ in their titles has increased significantly. With the 20 year anniversary of the fall of the Wall, the year 2009 offers ample opportunity to look into the state and status of identity in united Germany. In addition to issues of East and West German identity, migrant literature, generational conflicts and gender issues further enrich the pool of ‘identity research’. Group identities are as much en vogue as individual identities. A good number of authors and film makers concern themselves with quests for identity in their works. But can identity be the answer to so many different problems? Do we need to expand our approach beyond the identities we have been talking and writing about for the last 20 years? Might it even be the case that the fall of the Berlin Wall triggered the pursuit of identity research?
This conference provides a platform for discussion of identity research but also of addressing the possible need to find new models for making sense of the modern world and of Germany twenty years after the wall.
We invite graduate students from all disciplines to submit paper proposals responding to these or similar questions related to the forming of identities (or their rejection) in regard to its representations in literature, film and culture in modern or pre-modern time periods. Possible topics include, but are by no means limited to:
- identity and Heimat
- gender and identity
- sexuality and identity
- the significance of identity research today
- identity in reunited Germany
- migrant literature and dual identity development
- rejection of identity
- memory and identity
- new concepts of identity
- beyond identity
- language and identity formation
Revised conference papers can also be submitted for publication in our
Focus on German Studies journal. Please send an abstract of 250-300 words
in either English or German as a MS Word attachment by September 15, 2009 to
Marie Buesch and Joshua Arnold at fogs.editor@gmail.com (ATTN: Focus
on GS Conference). On a separate cover sheet, please list the proposed
paper title, author's name, university affiliation and email address.
Conference participants have the option of housing with UC graduate
students.
Department of German Studies
University of Cincinnati
ML 0372
Cincinnati, OH 45221-0372
USA |
