283 FOCUS ON GERMAN STUDIES 19 CALL FOR BOOK REVIEWERS The 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/collegedepts/german/focus/reviewers.aspx 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 completion. Focus also accepts recommendations for books to review. SUBMISSIONS REQUESTED Submit 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 2012 volume of Focus on German Studies is January 15, 2012. After that date, Focus will 284 accept submissions for its 2013 volume. Inquiries and submissions should be made to the address below: Vanessa Plumly Sasha Parks Editors Focus on German Studies University Of Cincinnati ML 0372 Cincinnati, OH 45221-0372 USA Phone (513) 556- 0175 Fax (513) 556-1991 fogs.editor@gmail.com fogs.bookreviews@gmail.com http://www.artsci.uc.edu/collegedepts/german/focus/ 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 ML 0372 Cincinnati, OH 45221-0372 USA Phone (513) 556- 0175 Fax (513) 556-1991 285 FOCUS ON GERMAN STUDIES 19 CALL FOR PAPERS CINCINNATI, OCTOBER 19-20, 2012 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 Seventeenth Annual Focus Graduate Student Conference to be held October 19-20, 2012 at the University of Cincinnati. Sponsored by the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center and the Graduate Student Government Association of the University of Cincinnati. Wanna Race?: Constructions and Contestations of “Race” in German Cultural History KEYNOTE SPEAKER: TINA CAMPT, BARNARD COLLEGE C enturies before the word race was used to refer to what was falsely believed to be differing biological human species, the desire to delineate individuals based on physiognomies and skin color had already been present as a means of establishing a so-called “us” vs. “them” binary in literary and academic texts. Medieval and early modern literature presented its readers with stereotypical images of “Moors,” “Zigeuner,” and Jews, casting them as “contested Germans” or simply marking them as “Other.” The enlightenment philosophy and theories of Kant, Herder and Hegel, as well as Darwin’s On the Origins of Species, furthered the development of racial hierarchies and later the field of eugenics in nineteenth-century Germany. The longing to categorize humans according to race was evidenced in imperialist ideologies and the colonial conquest that marked the turn of the twentieth century, which both produced Germany’s first genocide in Namibia, and lead to the institution of German racial purity laws. These laws would later be reflected in what is considered the twentieth century’s most devastating event, the Holocaust. Despite its proven invalidity, race as a category has persisted nonetheless through its 286 transition from a biological to a culturally positioned construction. Thus, the trajectory of racial discourse in Germany and its continued presence, as evidenced in the more recent Sarrazin debate and beyond, evince the impossibility of evaluating German national identity, history, and contemporary political and social trends, without examining the role race has played and continues to play. Furthermore, in an attempt to deconstruct established notions of race, a number of minorities and marginalized groups in Germany have responded through means of cultural production in the form of music, theater, film, and literature, negating and contesting the limitations of a strictly “white” homogenized German identity. This conference seeks to investigate the ways in which the implied stereotypes and social constructs inhabiting the term “race” have been excogitated and perpetuated, as well as recently contested in Germany and the more broadly defined German-speaking world. How have authors, filmmakers, musicians, dramaturges, politicians, historians, artists, and scientists approached, interrogated, and problematized the concept of “race” within German cultural history? In continuing the interdisciplinarity of last year’s conference, we encourage critical and reflective papers from all areas of study with a focus on the German contribution to the conception and contestation of “race.” Possible topics include, but are not limited to the following: · The intersection of philosophy and “race” · “Contested” German identities (German-Jews, Afro-Germans, etc.) · The impact of science and eugenics on German racial theory · Critical approaches to constructing whiteness · Human zoos and ethnological exhibits in Germany · Racism and Anti-Semitism in contemporary German society · Representations of “race” · Asians/Native Americans in the German imaginary · Imperialism/colonialism, fascism, and racial policies · Gender and “race” 287 FOCUS ON GERMAN STUDIES 19 · Racial images in German visual culture · The Holocaust and its aftermath · “Race” in the GDR · Portrayals of Sinti and Roma · Comparative/Transnational studies of “race” (German/European, German/American etc.) · Constructions and performances of “race” · Racial “Othering” and the marked body 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 an MS Word attachment by June 01, 2012 to Vanessa Plumly and Sasha Parks at fogs.editor@gmail.com (ATTN: Focus on GS Conference). Please include your university affiliation in your email when you submit your abstract. *Please Note: Conference participants have the option of housing with UC graduate students. Vanessa Plumly Sasha Parks Editors Focus on German Studies University Of Cincinnati ML 0372 Cincinnati, OH 45221-0372 USA Phone (513) 556- 0175 Fax (513) 556-1991 fogs.editor@gmail.com fogs.bookreviews@gmail.com http://www.artsci.uc.edu/collegedepts/german/focus/ 288 17TH ANNUAL FOCUS ON GERMAN STUDIES CONFERENCE FRIDAY October 19th & SATURDAY October 20th 2012 Wanna Race?: Constructions and Contestations of “Race” in German Cultural History Max Kade German Cultural Center Old Chemistry Building 731 University of Cincinnati FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19th 3:00 Opening Remarks 3:30 Panel I – Historical Constructions of Race at Home and Abroad Moderator / Wes Jackson 3:30 Christian Wilbers /The College of William and Mary Race and Transnationalism in German America: The 1921 “Horror on the Rhine Mass Meeting” 3:50 Tobias Neuburger / Universität Wien Wissenschaftliche Zigeunerkonstruktion im 19. Jahrhundert im Kontext ihrer sozialen Entstehungsbedingungen 4:10 Philipp Lenhard / Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Dialectics of Universalism: French and German Jews on Race and Nation, 1789-1848 4:30 -5:00 Questions and Discussion 5:00 -5:15 Coffee Break 5:15 Panel II – Literary Encounters with Race: Beyond the Local Moderator / Alex Hogue 289 FOCUS ON GERMAN STUDIES 19 5:15 Simon Lösch / The Ohio State University Dekonstruktion der wissenschaftlichen Erfassung des Fremden in Daniel Kehlmanns Die Vermessung der Welt 5:35 Tiffany Florvil / University of South Carolina The Afro-German Movement and the Politics of Diaspora 5:35 -6:00 Questions and Discussion 7:30 Reception at the home of Dr. Richard Schade SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20th 9:00 Breakfast in the Max Kade Cultural Center 9:30 Panel III – Image(s) in Nations: Mediating Race Moderator / Emily Wyatt 9:30 Kimberly Singletary / Northwestern University An [O]ther Nation: Nothilfe Aesthetics, German Belonging, and the Black Body 9:50 Emily Rath / University of Cincinnati Foreign’ or ‘Other?’: Turkish-German Film, Portrayals of Women, and Andrea Polascheggs’ ‘Other’ Orientalism 10:10 Silke Hackenesch / Freie Universität Berlin Consuming Blackness? Chocolate and the Constructions of Race in German Popular Culture 10:30 –11:00 Questions & Discussion 11:00 -11:30 Coffee Break 11:30 Keynote Address: Dr. Tina Campt / Barnard College 290 Racing the Family Narrative: Black German Family Photography and the Stories Pictures (Won’t) Tell 12:30 -1:00 Questions & Discussion 1:00 -2:15 Catered Lunch (Max Kade Cultural Center) 2:15 Panel IV – Theorizing Race Pre- and Post-WWII Moderator / Matthew Bauman 2:15 Sarah Panzer / University of Chicago Discovering Nordic Culture in East Asia: Nazi Racial Theory and the ‘Aryanization’ of the Japapnese 2:35 Timm Ebner / Bauhaus Universität Weimar “Rassenkrieg": Dispositifs of Secret Knowledge in National Socialist Colonial Fiction 2:55 Christiane Bürger / Universität Heidelberg Die Geschichte der ‘Anderen’: Kolonialhistoriographie in der DDR und BRD 3:15: Maria Daxenbichler / University at Buffalo Transnational Interactions of Racial Ideology in Postwar Germany 3:35 Questions & Discussion 4:15 Closing Remarks Vol19-CALL-FOR-BOOK-REVIEWERS Vol19-CALL-FOR-PAPERS Vol19-Race-Conference