DDGC 2025 Conference Program
Interdependence and Solidarity Formations
in German Studies and the Arts
April 10-12, 2025 (Online)
All session times are listed in Eastern Daylight Time
Advanced registration is required.
THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2025
9:30am-10:00am
Welcome, Arrival, Introduction to Conference Theme
Jeannette Oholi (Dartmouth College) & Ervin Malakaj (University of British Columbia)
10:00am-11:30am
Theme: Narratives of Interdependence and Solidarity
Moderator: Priscilla Layne (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
“Jewish-Muslim Solidarity in Contemporary German Culture” Joseph Twist (University College Dublin) (20 minute presentation)
“'Doing Solidarity'? The German-speaking Reception of African American Modernist Poetry in the Long 1920s” Alexandra Dempe (University of Tübingen) (10 minute presentation)
“Translocality, Popularity and Cultural Transfers: US Hip-Pop Culture as Mediator between Chinese and German Rap Song Productions” Yejun Zou (Sun Yat-sen University) (10 minute presentation)
“Shards of Memory: The Diversity of Intergenerational Trauma in Contemporary Germany” Leonie Ettinger (Free University of Berlin) (10 minute presentation)
“My, Your, Our Story? Insights from Collective Storytelling at the Bürgerrat Klima.” Julia Ludewig (Allegheny College) (10 minute presentation)
11:30am-12:30pm
Break
12:30pm-2:00pm
Theme: Solidarity Programming in DDGC & DDFC
Moderator: Beverly Weber (University of Colorado Boulder)
“DDFC and the Shift Toward Solidarity Programming for Change.” Siham Bouamer (University of Cincinnati) & Hasheem Hakeem (Northwestern University) (20 minutes presentation)
“DDGC Mutual Aid Network and the Praxis of Interconnectedness in German Studies” Nichole Neuman (University of Indiana Indianapolis) (10 minutes presentation)
“DDGC Writes and Cross-Hierarchical Solidarities” Hannah V. Eldridge (University of Wisconsin Madison) & Cynthia Shin (University of Indiana Bloomington) (10 minute presentation)
“DDGC Research Cooperatives and Supports for Alternative Research Infrastructures” Suzuko Knott (Connecticut College) (10 minutes presentation)
2:15pm-3:15pm
Theme: Recipes for Alternative Futures
Moderator: Jeannette Oholi (Dartmouth College)
A community dialogue & collective imagining session about food, solidarity, and radical futures with Bradley Boovy (Oregon State University), Maria Stehle (University of Tennessee), & Beverly Weber (University of Colorado)
FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 2025
10:00am-11:30am
Theme: Interdependence and Solidarity Between the Field and Cultural Production
Moderator: Jeannette Oholi (Dartmouth College)
“Schwarze Ästhetiken in der deutschsprachigen Literatur und die Bedeutung von Literaturfestivals am Beispiel der Popup-Werkstatt Schwarze deutsche literarische Perspektiven” Yeama Bangali (20 minute presentation)
“The Arts: Cultural and Educational Landscapes and Productions: Evaluations of an Empowerment Project with Insights from a Practitioner's Point of View” Patience Amankwah (University of Bremen) (20 minutes)
“Recontextualizing the Canon for an Inclusive Reorientation of German Studies” Timothy Brown (University of Tübingen) (20 minute presentation)
“Literary Interventions and Political Writing: Allyship and Solidarity in Contemporary Germany” Laura Marie Sturtz (University of Erlangen-Nürnberg/Columbia University) (10 minute presentation)
11:30am-12:30pm
Break
12:30pm-2:00pm
Theme: From Petrification to Dynamic Solidarity: Animapolitics as Theory and Practice
Moderator: Cynthia Shin (Indiana University Bloomington)
“Living Together: Animapolitics” Sarah Colvin (University of Cambridge) (20 minutes presentation)
“Shimmering, Glistening, Moving: Vitalising Aesthetic Experiments in the German Literature of the 21st Century” Alrik Daldrup (University of Cambridge) (20 minutes presentation)
“Animapolitics and Public Intellectuals: Network Solidarity and Chained Actions in the German Literary Sphere” Tara Talwar Windsor (University of Cambridge) (20 minutes presentation)
2:15pm-3:15pm
Theme: Memory and Solidarity
Moderator: Regine Criser (University of North Carolina, Asheville)
“‘Our lives, our profit’ – VietGermans Claim the History of Contract Workers” Katrin Bahr (Centre College) (10 minute presentation)
“Yiddish Third World Solidarity and Memory Work” Miriam Chorley-Schulz (University of Oregon) (10 minute presentation)
“The ‘Cruel Optimism’ of Mnemonic Frameworks of the Holocaust” Shoshana Schwebel & Braden Russell (University of British Columbia) (10 minute presentation)
“Connective Methodologies and Missed Connections in Cultural Memory Studies” Jason Groves (University of Washington) (10 minute presentation)
3:15pm-5:00pm
Chit-Chat with Jeannette and Ervin
5:00pm-6:30pm
Theme: Emerging Perspectives on Solidarity
Moderator: Beverly Weber (University of Colorado Boulder)
“‘We Dey’: Amoako Boafo, Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński and the Reinvention of the Austrian Portraiture Tradition” Luca Arens (Columbia University) (20 minute presentation)
“Bicycle Greenwishing: Images of Sustainability and Infrastructures of Solidarity in Munich and Berlin” Seth Peabody (Carleton College) & Jennifer Hosek (Queen’s University) (20 minute presentation)
“Indigenous Knowledges in/and German Studies: Reckoning with Solidarity and Incommensurability” Maureen Gallagher (Australian National University) (20 minute presentation)
SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 2025
10:00am-11:30am
Theme: Formations of Interdependence and Solidarity Networks
Moderator: Regine Criser (University of North Carolina, Asheville)
“Solidarität und Genozid. Zu erzählerischen Verbindungslinien zwischen dem Genozid an den Tutsi Ruandas und der Shoah” Anne D. Peiter (Université de La Réunion) (20 minute presentation)
“Networking Weimar Film Studies: Opportunities and Limits” Lawrence Alexander (University of Oxford) & Molly Harrabin (University of Warwick) (20 minute presentation)
“Movida Americana: How to Bring a Culture Back From Fascism” Joseph L. V. Donica (Bronx Community College, CUNY) (10 minute presentation)
“Memories from the Margins: Rethinking Narratives in narratif” Hazar Oghan (University of Geneva) (10 minute presentation)
11:30am-12:30pm
Break
12:30pm-1:30pm
Theme: Envisioning Future Interdependence and Solidarity in the Field
Moderator: Ervin Malakaj (University of British Columbia)
“Being Stupid Together: The (Peri-)Menopausal Brain in the Seminar Room” Barbara Nagel (Princeton University) (10 minute presentation)
“Critical Virtual Exchange on Palestine, Israel, and Germany: Attempts to Decolonize the Foreign Language Teacher Training Curriculum” Fabian Krengel (University of Regensburg) (20 minute presentation)
“Dependency Studies and Crises of Interdependency in Higher Education” Evan Torner (University of Cincinnati) (10 minute presentation)
1:45pm-3:00pm
Theme: Theoretical Reflection on the Glossary of Interdependence and Solidarity for German Studies
Moderator: Cynthia Shin (Indiana University Bloomington)
“LIVE LAUGH LUIGI: Aus der Krankheit eine Waffe machen” Maggie Rosenau (University of Colorado Denver & Boulder) & kelly j. drumright (University of Colorado Boulder) (20 minute presentation)
“Care and Love: Visions of Solidarity” Adrienne Merritt (University of Colorado Boulder) (20 minute presentation)
“Multitude of German Speaking: Expanding voices of Central Asian German Studies” Zhanar Beketova (University of Pennsylvania) (10 minute presentation)
3:15pm-4:15pm
Theme: Coping and Hoping: Competing Desires, Artistic Action and the Neoliberal University
Moderator: Ervin Malakaj (University of British Columbia)
A community dialogue with Barbara Schmenk (University of Waterloo) & Janice McGregor (University of Arizona)
4:30-5:00pm
Closing Remarks
Jeannette Oholi (Dartmouth College) & Ervin Malakaj (University of British Columbia)