DDGC 2025 Call for Papers

The fifth biennial DDGC Conference will draw on our collective’s long tradition of coming together in community to take stock of the field and anticipate better structures for it in the future. We will gather under the theme, “Interdependence and Solidarity Formations in German Studies and the Arts,” which strikes us as a particularly urgent framework to think through some of the impasses and active structural suppressions for (artistic) collective action as well as scholarship tied to it that we are witnessing in our circles. We pay special attention to structures of interdependence between the field and various cultural landscapes and art as well as activist practice.

We will draw on insights from comrades working in Black studies, disability studies, ethnic studies, feminist studies, migration studies, and queer/trans studies, who have long theorized the role of interdependence, solidarity, and other formations for coalitional work aimed at reconceptualizing the academy. The scholar-practitioners working in these fields maintain that theory is an important starting point for developing their political practice. Here, practice entails forming support infrastructures and networks for people and their work in times when existing institutions fail them. The 2025 DDGC conference will feature work across the theory-praxis dynamic. 

The conference theme is intended to be capacious enough to hold different types of projects. Participants may submit an abstract either for a presentation (~ 20 minutes) or a shorter work-in-progress (“Werkstatt”) presentation (~10 minutes). We anticipate contributions to focus on, but not limited to, the following subthemes: 

The Field: German Studies and its Institutions

• Critical histories of the field with a focus on interdependence and solidarity. Such projects advance critiques of dominant methods for academic work (which includes research, teaching, service, community work, administrative and support staff work, etc); critiques of established institutional infrastructures for work; critiques with a focus on labor issues in the academy; and critiques with a focus point on structural oppression informing formations, practices and knowledge production for the field.

• Liberatory histories of interdependence and solidarity in the field. Such projects describe past and present liberatory formations in the field, which could serve as a model for ongoing or future organizing initiatives. What are the limits of the field and what does German studies work look like outside of its traditional boundaries? What theoretical and methodological approaches can be used as liberatory practices in the field? 

• Envisioning future interdependence and solidarity in the field. Such projects sketch futures of the field. Which practices, perspectives, approaches do we need to overcome in order to create a field that is shaped by solidarity and interdependence? What can we contribute to solidarity within the field?

• Theoretical reflection on the glossary of interdependence and solidarity for German Studies. Such projects take concepts such as solidarity, interdependence, mutual aid, coalitional futures, etc and theorize them for and through German studies and related fields. How can we apply these concepts to teaching, reading, writing, etc.? What do these concepts mean for those of us in the field?

The Arts: Cultural Landscapes and Productions

• Interdependence and solidarity between the field and cultural production. Such projects critically engage with questions such as how the field relies on cultural productions (and vice versa) and how cultural productions are received in institutions. Further questions include how knowledge is produced in the cultural landscape and the field and if these knowledge productions are interdependent. 

• Activism. Such projects examine formations of activism in the cultural landscape and the field. What does activism mean in the cultural landscape and the field? What changes in the field, the institutions, can be observed if scholars develop activist practices in their research, work outside of institutions and are both part of the institutions and the cultural landscape? What formations of scholarship and cultural production arise when the field is more and more intertwined with the cultural landscape?

• Narratives of interdependence and solidarity. Such projects examine solidarity formations and interdependence in literary texts (e.g., solidarities between Black characters and POC characters, friendship and other forms of relationships). What sorts of aesthetics arise in narratives of solidarity? Can we speak of an aesthetics of solidarity and if so, what can we say about its formations and characteristics?

• Formations of interdependence and solidarity networks. Such projects trace network formations in the cultural landscape. What formal or informal networks among cultural practitioners shape the cultural landscape and what future networks are needed? Have these networks produced outcomes and, if so, how is the reception in the broader public, media, and the field? Networks could include festivals of culture (literature, film, etc.), book clubs, (literary) magazines, edited volumes, podcasts, lectures series, and other events. 

CONFERENCE FORMAT

Conference participants (including presenters and attendees) will have the opportunity to sign up for a reading group in which we will read and discuss texts together by way of anticipating the discussions during the conference. The reading group reading schedule will be published in January 2025. 

The conference will take place over three days. The first day will be devoted to traditional presentations on research and art practice projects (~20 minutes), the second day to short presentations about works in progress (~10 minutes), and the third day will be devoted to a “reading in community” event where all participants will read excerpts from select texts (by bell hooks and Şeyda Kurt) and share out some of their ideas based on that reading. 

SUBMISSION INFORMATION

We invite expressions of interest to share work addressing some aspect of the theme for the conference. Scholars working at any stage of their career, those under- or unemployed, and those working internationally are welcome to submit their work for consideration. The conference languages are German and English.

All work of the DDGC aligns with its Guiding Principles and, as such, we ask that you read and commit to those before you submit your work. If you require support, want to brainstorm or workshop your submission before you send it, reach out to the co-organizers at any time. 

Submissions are due by November 18, 2024. To submit your work for consideration, please fill out this form. We are not requesting formal abstracts. For any questions about the submission process, reach out to the co-organizers. 

REGISTRATION

The organizers aim to finalize the conference program in December 2024. At that point, the program and the conference registration portal will be available on the DDGC website. The conference will be online, free of charge, and open to scholars whose work aligns with the DDGC Guiding Principles. We will expect people who register to commit to the entire conference.

CO-ORGANIZERS AND MAIN CONTACTS

Jeannette Oholi (Dartmouth College) and Ervin Malakaj (University of British Columbia)