Microsoft Word - focus15.doc 224 CONTRIBUTORS FOCUS ON GERMAN STUDIES 15 225 KARINA BERGER completed her M.St. at the University of Oxford in 2006 and is currently a PhD student at the University of Leeds. The main focus of her research is post-unification literature looking back at the Second World War and its aftermath. She is part of the major research project funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council "From Perpetrators to Victims? Discourses of German 'Wartime Suffering' from 1945 to the Present" based in the German Department at the University of Leeds from late 2005 to September 2008. Her thesis examines the trajectory of literary representations of the expulsion of ethnic Germans from the eastern territories from the 1950s to the current day. MARTIN KLEY studied at the Universities of Augsburg (Germany), Pittsburgh (where he earned his M.A. in German Studies with a thesis on the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard), and Texas. Having successfully defended his dissertation, entitled All Work and No Play? Labor, Literature and Industrial Modernity on the Weimar Left, in Austin in April of 2008, he will join the German Department at Gettysburg College as an Assistant Professor in the Fall. His research focuses on the Weimar Republic, Marxist theory, and Film Studies. His article “German Romanticism Goes to Hollywood: Heinrich von Kleist’s ‘On the Puppet Theater’ and Being John Malkovich” appeared in South Central Review in the Fall of 2007. ARI LINDEN received his B.A. in History at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2005. He is currently entering his third year at Cornell in the Germanic Studies program. His primary focus is on German-Jewish history, literature, philosophy, and theology, stemming from the mid-nineteenth century all the way to World War II. He is specifically interested in some of the luminaries of fin-de-siécle Vienna: Karl Kraus, Otto Weininger, Sigmund Freud, Arthur Schnitzler, Ludwig Wittgenstein, etc. Ari has also worked on Frankfurt School theorist Theodor Adorno and his close affiliate, Walter Benjamin. This his is first publication. MATTHIAS MANSKY is a doctoral candidate in German Philology at the University of Vienna, where he was a Forschungsstipendiat in 2007. He is currently writing his dissertation on Cornelius von Ayrenhoff. He has presented conference papers on Ayrenhoff, 226 CONTRIBUTORS Tobias Philipp von Gebler, August von Steigentesch, and Ferdinand Raimund. He has published a further article on Ayrenhoff entitled “‘Hätte Molière den gleichen Stoff behandelt, es wäre ihm nicht besser gelungen’ (Friedrich II.) – Cornelius von Ayrenhoffs Komödien zwischen Lustspiel- und Possendramaturgie” in Nestroyana in 2007 and has written a chapter for the forthcoming Ferdinand Raimunds Sprach- und Bildwelt — inszenierte Fantasien due out in 2008. QINNA SHEN is a graduate student in German at Yale University. She is currently working on her dissertation, “From Jacob Grimm to GDR Witches: Feminist Witchcraft and Magical Realism in East German Women’s Writing.” She has recently accepted a position as a Visiting Assistant Professor in German at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Her research interests include 20th century German literature, East German literature, Women’s Studies and German film, especially DEFA films. ANTONIUS WEIXLER studied German Literature, Art and Media Studies, and Political Science at the University of Konstanz, Germany and the University College Cork, Ireland. In 2007, he enrolled as a PhD-student at the University of Konstanz and is currently preparing a dissertation on Carl Einstein. His further research interests are: literature and art of the historic avantgarde, intermediality, the relationship between text, and image and narratology. FOCUS ON GERMAN STUDIES 15 227 228 ANNOUNCEMENTS ANNOUNCEMENTS FOCUS ON GERMAN STUDIES 15 229 CALL FOR PAPERS he German Graduate Student Governance Association of the University of Cincinnati and the editors of the graduate student journal Focus on German Studies present the Thirteenth Annual Focus Graduate Student Conference held on October 31- November 1, 2008 at the University of Cincinnati “Mediating the Message: The Poetics of Communication in German Literature, Language, Film and Culture.” Communication has always had the power to convey ideas, images, concepts and thoughts that have shaped our cultural knowledge and influenced individuals or entire populations for centuries. In the age of digital media, ideas and notions are now transmitted in a blink of an eye. Analyzing these communication processes—and the layers in between—exposes the failure that may lead to far-reaching problems of incomprehensible dimensions. This conference seeks to stimulate discussion on how these communication processes work in the framework of literary texts and films. We would like to address following questions: • What kinds of roles do theories of communication play in literature and film? • How have communication processes changed over time? • How do cultures communicate with each other within literature and film? • In what way do images and texts correlate and communicate with each other? • How do genders communicate with each other in literature and film? • How are the media depicted in literature and film? • How is the question of reality addressed in literature and film? • What role do the media play in canon formation? We invite graduate students from all disciplines to submit paper proposals responding to these or similar questions related to the interplay between communication, literature, film and culture in modern or pre-modern time periods. Possible topics include, but are by no means limited to: T 230 ANNOUNCEMENTS • communication theories in literature (e.g. Luhmann) • communicating criticism: the media in the eye of literature (Medienkritik, etc.) • philosophical notions of media and technology (e.g. Benjamin, Frankfurt School, etc.) • intercultural communication in literature and film (e.g. Migrantenliteratur und – film) • depiction of media in literature and film (e.g. treatment of war, terrorism, politics in the media that is interpreted by authors, intellectuals and film) • media coverage of authors (e.g. Günter Grass, Martin Walser) • discussion in literary media (literature debate of the 90s, Fräuleinwunderliteratur, etc.) • literary awards and their media coverage (Büchner-Preis, Hölderlin-Preis, Bachmann-Preis, etc.) • gender-based modes of communication in literature and film • interplay between text and images in literature and film • themes of globalization and technology in literature and film • intercultural communication in second language acquisition • language of the media: between fact and fiction / communication or coercion? Revised conference papers can also be submitted for publication in our Focus on German Studies journal. Information on the keynote speaker will be announced soon. Please send an abstract of 250-300 words in either English or German as a MS Word attachment by September 1, 2008 to Alexandra Hagen and Marie-Luise Buesch 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. Alexandra Hagen, Editor-in-chief Marie Buesch, Book Review Editor Focus on German Studies University Of Cincinnati ML 0372 Cincinnati, OH 45221-0372 USA Phone (513) 556-2752 Fax (513) 556-1991 fogs.editor@gmail.com fogs.bookreviews@gmail.com http://www.artsci.uc.edu/german/NewsEvents/focus/index.html FOCUS ON GERMAN STUDIES 15 231 CALL FOR BOOK REVIEWERS he purpose of our book review section is to introduce our readership to primary and secondary works published within the last two years. Our aim is to discuss the work thematically and stylistically and, when possible, to contextualize the work within the author’s oeuvre or its respective genre. We have the cooperation of major Austrian, German and Swiss publishers and can provide review copies. Please see our website for current list of books available for review. http://www.artsci.uc.edu/german/newsEvents/focus/reviewers.html If you are interested in reviewing books for Focus on German Studies, please send us the following information: (1) name and address, (2) institution, (3) area of interest, (4) topic of MA thesis or dissertation, and (5) your projected date of degree completetion. Focus also accepts recommendations for books to review. SUBMISSIONS REQUESTED ubmit an example of your best academic work to Focus on German Studies! Focus on German Studies, a journal produced by the German Graduate Student Governance Association (GGSGA) at the University of Cincinnati, is an important voice of the next generation of scholars in German Studies. Submissions demonstrating original scholarship in any area of German-language literature or German Studies will be considered for publication. We also publish interviews with German-speaking writers. Please submit papers to the email below as a Microsoft Word attachment or on disk to the address below in Microsoft Word format. Manuscripts should be ca. 15-20 pages in length, double-spaced. They must follow the MLA style guidelines. The manuscript should be prepared so that it can be read anonymously. The deadline for submissions to be considered for the 2009 volume of Focus on German Studies is December 15, 2008. After that date, T S 232 ANNOUNCEMENTS Focus will accept submissions for its 2009 volume. Inquiries and submissions should be made to the address below: Focus on German Studies Attn: Alexandra Hagan Department of German Studies University of Cincinnati PO Box 210372 Cincinnati, OH 45221-0372 USA Phone: (513) 556-2752 Fax: (513) 556-1991 fogs.editor@gmail.com SUBSCRIPTIONS One volume per year Check appropriate option(s): ____ $ 20 Student Membership ____ $ 22 Faculty Membership ____ $ 28 Institution ____ $ 5 Additional postage for subscriptions outside North America ____ Back issue: Send Vol. ____ Issue ____ Total Amount Enclosed: ____________________________ Name: ____________________________ Address: ____________________________ All orders should be made payable in USD to: Focus on German Studies Department of German Studies University of Cincinnati Box 210372 Cincinnati, OH 45221-0372 USA Phone: (513) 556-2752 Fax: (513) 556-1991 FOCUS ON GERMAN STUDIES 15 233 Consider joining HGCEA! Historians of German and Central European Art and Architecture GCEA is an affiliated society of the College Art Association. It was founded in 1997 to foster study of the visual and material culture of Central Europe and enhance communication and cooperation among scholars working on the art and architecture of the region. The society maintains a website, publishes a newsletter, Eurotexture, sponsors sessions and a reception at the annual CAA conference, and organizes and supports scholarly endeavors and events focused on Central European topics. The society's members include American and international scholars (affiliated and independent), including graduate students. Graduate student members presenting on HGCEA panels at CAA are eligible for travel grants. An HGCEA-supported anthology, Of Truths Impossible to Put Into Words: Max Beckmann Contextualised, edited by Rose-Carol Washton Long and Maria Makela, will be published by Peter Lang in 2008-9. See www.hgcea.org for more information and membership details. H 234 NOTES