German Studies Association - Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung

Das ZZF auf der
40. jährlichen Konferenz der
German Studies Association
September 29 – October 2, 2016
Veranstalter:
German Studies Association
Ort:
San Diego, California
Town and Country
Resort & Convention Center
Übersicht über die Beteiligung von Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern des
Zentrums für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam an Sektionen auf der 40. jährlichen
Konferenz der German Studies Association (Stand: Juni 2016):
Sessions Number: 11, 135, 261
Biographical Approaches to Germany’s Divided Past
Garden Salon 2 – Fri/Sat/Sun 8:00 AM – 10:15 AM
After decades of focusing on structures and processes, people have made it back into German
historiography, and personal stories enjoy an almost unprecedented popularity: autobiographies are
listed on all best-seller lists, museums increasingly draw on witness testimonies to mediate
historical content in a more personal way, and eye witnesses (Zeitzeugen) raise their voices in order
to have an impact on the public interpretation of “their” past. The question at hand is: How should
historians react towards this “rise of the personal witness”? While some scholars underline the moral
obligation to incorporate victim narratives, others are rather hesitant due to the unreliable nature of
memory. The overall increasing personalization and emotionalization of historiography may, on the
one hand, lead to more approachable accounts and thus to a greater attention and acceptance by a
non-academic audience. On the other hand, historians need to be aware of the problems and
dangers that are involved – from the “biographical illusion” (Pierre Bourdieu) to the risk of blurring
the lines between facts and fiction, between the scholarly quest for knowledge and the societal
demand for moral affirmation. The seminar therefore seeks to scrutinize the general impact of this
development on academic historiography and to probe possible new ways of treating
autobiographical sources.
Convenors:
STEFANIE EISENHUTH Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam
HANNO HOCHMUTH Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam
Konrad H. Jarausch University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
MARTIN SABROW Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam
Katrin Bahr University of Massachusetts
Sasha Colby Simon Fraser University
Karolina Hicke University of Massachusetts Amherst
Tobias Hof University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
DOMINIK JUHNKE Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam
Scott Krause University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Phil Leask University College London
Melanie Lorek The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Jon Berndt Olsen University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Kimberly Redding Carroll University
Derek Schaefer University of Illinois at Chicago
David Spreen University of Michigan
Marcel Thomas
James Franklin Williamson Gordon State College
Jonathan Yaeger Juilliard School
Sessions Number: 13, 138, 264
Material Culture and Its Discontents
Le Sommet – Fri/Sat/Sun 8:00 AM – 10:15 AM
From “commodity fetishism” to the uncanny vitality of objects; from Simmel’s “Eigengesetzlichkeit
des Materials” to John Law’s “relational materiality”: the theoretical field of material culture is
marked by a continuous process of redefinition and expansion. This seminar is dedicated to
exploring new directions and trends in the study of materiality in German cultural and literary
studies, particularly those that highlight the unruly nature of subject-object relations and seek to
uncover gendered aspects of material practices. Some of our subjects will include (but will not be
limited to): ephemera; salvaged and recycled materiality (relics, archives, domestic craft); fugitive
materiality (from spectres to spirit photography); pollution matters (smog, dust, electronic waste);
abject materialities (from bodily fluids to broken things); ‘extreme’ collecting and collectors (wet
specimens; war trophies), consumerism and desire, kitsch. Simultaneously, we will focus on
historiographic and meta-disciplinary questions: what notions of materiality are prioritized by
certain epistemic and cultural models; do specific (literary) genres presuppose a particular relation
to materiality; what are the effects of the long-standing association between women and matter,
and, how are things themselves gendered; what tends to be excluded from current critical
discussions on “material culture,” especially in German Studies? We hope to initiate a broader
dialogue leading to a group publication project.
Convenors:
Catriona MacLeod University of Pennsylvania
Bettina Brandt Pennsylvania State University
Peter Erickson Oakland University
Matt Erlin Washington University
Samuel Frederick Penn State University
Alice Goff University of Michigan
Jacob Haubenreich Southern Illinois University
Brook Henkel Haverford College
Claire Taylor Jones University of Notre Dame
THOMAS LINDENBERGER Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam
Peter McIsaac University of Michigan
Helmut Puff University of Michigan
Caroline Schopp University of Chicago
Franziska Schweiger University of Colorado
Sessions Number: 23, 149, 275
German-Occupied Europe in the Second World War
Terrace Salon 1 – Fri/Sat/Sun 8:00 AM – 10:15 AM
Overcoming national compartmentalization, this seminar aims to elaborate a framework to guide
occupation research toward broad-based comparison focusing on human interactions. We will
examine Nazi occupations with attention to relations between occupiers and local populations,
differences among regimes, and implications for the postwar world. Differences between zones, and
the perception that occupation in the West was “clean" compared to the East, have disguised
similarities across regimes and overshadowed the fact that occupiers moved, leading to the flow of
ideas and practices around German-dominated Europe. Members of occupied populations also moved,
though under much different conditions. Interactions between Germans and non-Germans within the
Reich and occupied territories affected policies Europe-wide. Comparing developments across Europe
speaks to recent debates about the nature of the Nazi empire, its antecedents, and interactions
between colonial projects outside Europe and imperial projects within. The seminar centers on
exchanges and “accommodations” between Germans and locals that underpinned occupation. Can
concepts such as “Verflechtung" and cultural transfer between enemies, as well as transnational
approaches, render comparison possible despite varying violence, exploitation, and brutality? How
did ground-level interactions and confrontations engendered by occupation influence the postwar
era?
Convenors:
Raffael Scheck Colby College
Julia Torrie St. Thomas University
Shelley Baranowski
PATRICK BERNHARD Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam
Chad Denton Yonsei University, Underwood International College
Thomas Irmer Independent Scholar
Robert Kirchubel Purdue University
Andrew Kless University of Rochester
Alexander Korb University of Leicester
Lindsay MacNeill American University
Michael McConnell University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Eric Roubinek University of North Carolina Asheville
Alessandro Salvador University of Trento
Christoph Schiessl University of Missouri – St. Louis
Devlin Scofield Northwest Missouri State University
Elizabeth Vlossak Brock University
David Wildermuth American Friends of the Documentation Center of Austrian Resistance
Session Number: 84
Ten Days that Shook the Century? Modernity and the Meaning of the Russian
October Revolution
Fri 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM Sunrise
ROUNDTABLE
Moderator: Geoff Eley University of Michigan
JAN BEHRENDS Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam
Kasper Braskén Åbo Akademi University
Katherine Pence Baruch College, City University of New York
Kimberly Zarecor Iowa State University
Session Number: 185
Reframing Post-War German Identity: Consumerism, Youth Culture and Urban
Space
Sat 10:30 AM – 12:15 PM Windsor
Moderator: Heidi Tworek University of British Columbia
Commentator: Annette Timm University of Calgary
German Post-War Youth Culture: A Case of “Americanization”?
BODO MROZEK Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam
“How many Jews…?” Driving the Volkswagen through Space and Time
Natalie Scholz University of Amsterdam
Mapping the Urban Space: Cross-Media Constructions of Identities in Hamburg and Leipzig in the
Fifties
Inge Marszolek Universität Bremen
Session Number: 249
Historicizing and Problematizing “Historical Authenticity”
Sat 4:15 PM – 6:00 PM Windsor Rose
Moderator: MARTIN SABROW Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung
Commentator: Paul Lerner University of Southern California
Authenticity: Aspects of a Key Concept in Cultural History and Public Memory
ACHIM SAUPE Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung
Curators' and Visitors' Concepts of Authenticity
Silke Dutz Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien
“Questionable History”: Facts, Interpretations, and Authenticity in Museum Displays
Joes Segal Wende Museum