GSA 2023: "Theories of Migration and Solidarity in German Jewish Authors", Montreal (03.03.2023)
Applications are now open to our GSA seminar. Please submit your abstract and a short bio via the GSA website by March 3, 2023 at https://thegsa.secure-platform.com/47
This seminar seeks to foster discussion of the complementarity, contradictions, and conflict between various theoretical concepts, including postmigration, multidirectionality, alliances, entanglement, similarity and lines of affiliation in contemporary German-Jewish literatures. We focus on how theory illuminates discourses of migration, diaspora and cosmopolitan solidarity in (German) Jewish literature, especially in relation to interactions between intersectional Jewish, gender, queer and other minoritized identities in both recent literary texts and cultural producers’ public performances and interventions. Considering theoretical concepts such as Foroutan’s Postmigrantische Gesellschaft (2019), Yildiz’s Postmigrantische Visionen (2018), Rothberg’s Multidirektionale Erinnerung (2021) and its German reception, the seminar offers new perspectives on leading questions in German-Jewish literature. This seminar investigates German-language cultural production by a small cohort of 10-12 self-identified Jewish authors since the 1990s such as Grjasnowa, Salzmann, and Kapitelman. It will explore current theoretical debates in relation to contemporary German Jewish literature by writers from the former Soviet Union.
The seminar participants are asked to respond to one or more of the three theoretical texts in excerpts and to further primary (or secondary) texts as they wish.
Please note that you must be a paid member of the German Studies Association to participate in the seminar. Information on membership is available on the GSA website (https://thegsa.org/member-services/my-membership). Travel costs and accommodation need to be self-funded.
Interested participants are asked to submit an abstract describing the nature of their contribution to the seminar (500 words max), as well as a short biography (300 words max) at https://thegsa.secure-platform.com/47. The application period will close on March 3, 2023.
Feel free to email one of the three co-convenors, Agnes Mueller (agnes.mueller@sc.edu), Stuart Taberner (gllsjt@leeds.ac.uk), or Miriam Wray (miriamwray2011@gmail.com).
Format: We will include a syllabus of theoretical and methodological reading of 3 core readings (one cornerstone text for each session) in relation to German-Jewish literature and pre-circulated position papers by August 15th (ca. 1000 words each) from all participants. The three conveners will each lead the discussion of one session of the seminar.
DEI components: The scholarly research focuses on vital issues such as migration, refugee crises, intersectional feminist, queer interventions and cosmopolitan solidarity. Seminar material will not rely on one mode of engagement but will foster a range of scholarly identities in mind such as race, ability, gender, sociological-economic status, FGLI, nationality and religion.