German Graduate Seminar travels to Berlin

In connection with the CGES collaborative and graduate seminar Leslie Morris and Rick McCormick have organized and are teaching in Fall 2014, "Place & Displacement: Transnational German-Jewish Culture" (GER 8300), Leslie, Rick, and 6 of the 8 graduate students enrolled in the seminar are off to Berlin this week.

In Berlin, they will be joined by their partner seminar group that is also part of the CGES collaborative, taught by co-organizer Ofer Ashkenazi, History and the School of Arts at the Hebrew University. Ofer's seminar and the seminar at Minnesota have been meeting together via interactive video during the semester, but now they will meet without the media interface in Berlin. Ofer is bringing all 10 of his graduate students to Berlin.

Besides attending the opening of the international DAAD conference, "Wendepunkte," attending a session of a conference at the Jewish Museum, "Contemporary Jewish Life in a Global Modernity," and visiting such sites of German-Jewish life in Berlin as das Bayrische Viertel, the group will gather together at the Rosa-Luxemburg Stiftung on Sunday for a colloquium at which the students from both universities will make presentations on the research topics they have each chosen for their seminar papers.

Leslie, Ofer, and Rick want to thank the following organizations for their support of this collaborative:

The Center for German & European Studies, the Center for Jewish Studies, and the Department of German, Scandinavian & Dutch at the University of Minnesota; Daat-Hamakom: Center for the Study of Modern Jewish Cultures of Place--supported by the I-CORE Program of the Planning and Budgeting Committee and The Israel Science Foundation; the Richard Koebner-Minerva Center for German History and the DAAD Center for German Studies at the Hebrew University.

Dan Karvonen's translation of Finnish crime novel published

Among the Saints, Dan Karvonen's English translation of Finnish author Jari Tervo's crime novel "Pyhiesi yhteyteen" has been published by Ice Cold Crime. Although Jari Tervo's novels have been translated into many languages, this is his first book to appear in English. Each chapter is told in the first person by 35 different people affected by a murder that occurs in the woods of Finnish Lapland.

Angelica Fenner (Ph.D., 1999) edits essay collection

The Autobiographical Turn in Germanophone Documentary and Experimental Film, a collection of essays edited by Angelica Fenner (Ph.D., 1999), has been published by Camden House.

Jenneke Oosterhoff publishes new book on Dutch grammar

Jenneke Oosterhoff's book Modern Dutch Grammar: A Practical Guide has been published by Routledge.

Jack Zipes publishes translation of Grimms' first edition

Jack Zipes has published a new book, The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The Complete First Edition. It is the first translation into English of the Grimm's original collection, and the dark stories are not your children's fairy tales!

Juliette Brungs (Ph.D., 2013) working for Social Pedagogic Institute in Berlin

Juliette Brungs (Ph.D., 2013) is working as a Project Coordinator for the foundation SPI (Social Pedagogic Institute Walter May) in the project "Diversity-orientierte und Interkulturelle Kompetenz" (Diversity-Oriented and Intercultural Competence) in Berlin, developing and teaching workshops for state employees and smaller businesses on the topic.

She is continuing her academic work with the Postdoctoral and Doctoral Colloquium "The Aesthetic of Applied Theater" under the guidance of Professor Mathias Warstat at the Freie Universität Berlin.

Constantin Parvulescu (Ph.D., 2006) publishes book on Postwar Eastern European Cinema

Constantin Parvulescu (Ph.D., 2006) has written a book on postwar Eastern European film, Orphans of the East: Postwar Eastern European Cinema and the Revolutionary Subject, to be published by Indiana University Press in June 2015.

Andrew Patten defends dissertation

Andrew Patten successfully defended his dissertation, "All that is the Case: The Collection, Exhibition, and Practice of Weltliteratur," in September 2014.

Beth Kautz to conduct workshop on Integrating Sustainability Topics in the Foreign Language Classroom

Beth Kautz is traveling to Washington and Lee University in Virginia this week to conduct a faculty workshop on topic of "Content-based Instruction Beyond the Norm: Integrating Sustainability Topics in the Foreign Language Classroom." In addition to the faculty at Washington and Lee, the workshop will be shared via Adobe Connect with virtual attendees from other institutions that are part of the Associated Colleges of the South.

UMN Alumnus Geir Haarde named Iceland's Ambassador to the U.S.

UMN Alumnus Geir Haarde (M.A. in Economics, 1997) has been named Iceland's Ambassador to the U.S., to begin in January 2015.

Rebecca Aylesworth (M.A., 2014) now Academic Advisor in University Honors Program

Rebecca Aylesworth (M.A., 2014) has been hired as an Academic Advisor in the University Honors Program.

Ariel Schwarz (B.A., 2013) named Team Coordinator at World Economic Forum USA

Ariel Schwarz (B.A., 2013) has been hired as a Team Coordinator at the World Economic Forum USA in New York City.

Jennifer Hoyer (Ph.D., 2010) named director of new program in Jewish Studies at the University of Arkansas

Jennifer Hoyer (Ph.D., 2010) has helped found and is the director of a new
program in Jewish Studies at the University of Arkansas, where she is an associate professor in the Department of World Languages, Literatures & Cultures.
Details.

Charlotte Melin editing volume on Foreign Language Teaching and the Environment for the MLA

Charlotte Melin is editing a volume in the Modern Language Association's series "Teaching Languages, Literatures, and Cultures," under the title Foreign Language Teaching and the Environment: Theory, Curricula, Institutional Structures.

Jacqueline Listemaa (M.A., 2013) awarded SWEA Scholarship

Jacqueline Listemaa (M.A., 2013) was awarded the Swedish Women's Educational Association (SWEA) Minnesota Scholarship to support her Summer 2014 visit to Finland, where she visited the Åland Islands and Helsinki to gather and compile materials about the Swedish-speaking population in Finland.

These materials will be available for use in GSD's Swedish classes to introduce students to the Swedish-speaking population and culture in Finland.

Kalani Michell awarded Fulbright Grant

Kalani Michell has received a Fulbright Award in the Young American Journalist Program for 2014-15. She will spend the academic year in Berlin, Germany, completing archival research on expanded cinematic practices and contexts between the 1960s/70s and today. Her dissertation project addresses the question, "How do we relocate cinema in the digital age, when film is no longer simply to be found in movie theaters?"

James Parente named Director of the DAAD Center for German and European Studies

James A. Parente, Jr., has been named the new Director of the University of Minnesota's DAAD Center for German and European Studies (CGES).

Paul Peterson to teach Swedish and German at Augustana College

Paul Peterson has accepted a two year position beginning in Fall 2014 as a teaching fellow in Swedish and German at Augustana College (Rock Island, IL) in the Department of World Languages, Literature, and Culture.

Adelia Chrysler and Moritz Meutzner win awards from the Center of Jewish Studies

Adelia Chrysler and Moritz Meutzner are each recipients of the Theresa and Nathan Berman Graduate Fellowship in Jewish Studies and the Leo and Lillian Gross Scholarship in Jewish Studies and used the funding to support their research during Summer 2014.

Christine Allen elected to Phi Beta Kappa

Christine Allen, a graduating senior with a dual degree in German Studies and Animal Science, has been elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa by the Alpha Chapter of the University of Minnesota.

Leo Riegert (Ph.D., 2005) awarded tenure

Leo Riegert, who earned his Ph.D. in our department in 2005, has been awarded tenure at Kenyon College in Ohio.

Melissa Wicker to participate in MN Goes to Berlin Program

Melissa Wicker, a double major with GSD and History, will participate in the Minnesota Goes to Berlin Program in Summer 2014.

Students awarded GSD Scholarships

The following students have been awarded GSD scholarships for the 2014-15 academic year.

• Alexandra Angoli: Finnish Connection Scholarship


• Riley Feldmann: a Max Kade Travel Grant


• Evelina Knodel: Gerhard Weiss Memorial Scholarship


• Seth Moline: Mary Ann Wilson Hansen Scholarship for Scandinavian Studies


• Wensi Wang: Hirschbach Study Abroad Scholarship & a Max Kade Travel Grant


• Melissa Wicker: a Max Kade Travel Grant


• Harry Wohl: a Max Kade Travel Grant

Taya Poplin-Redhouse awarded Birkelo Scholarship

Taya Poplin-Redhouse, a GSD major, has been awarded a Selmer Birkelo Scholarship for the 2014-15 academic year.

Selmer Birkelo Scholarships provide one year of scholarship support for approximately 14 outstanding College of Liberal Arts students majoring in fields relating to history, modern languages, classics, or the social and behavioral sciences.

Emily Parrent awarded Talle Family Scholarship

Emily Parrent, a German minor, has won a Talle Family Scholarship for the 2014-15 academic year.

The Talle Family Scholarships inspire, reward, and support high achieving students representative of the academic excellence of the College of Liberal Arts with full senior-year scholarships. The award is highly competitive; only ten students out of the college's more than 14,000 undergraduates receive the scholarship each year.

Michael Demianiuk (B.A., 2013) awarded Fulbright Scholarship

Michael Demianiuk, who graduated from the University of Minnesota in Spring 2013 with a History major and a German minor, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to continue his studies and work in Germany. He is currently there as part of the Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange Program.

Matthias Rothe's Collaborative on Brecht funded by IAS

Matthias Rothe (GSD) and Lisa Channer (Theatre Arts & Dance) proposed the Research and Creative Collaborative "Brecht's America: Rehearsing Failure," which has been funded by the Institute of Advanced Studies for the academic year 2014-15. Details.

Prof. Rothe will direct the German Play, a long-standing department tradition, on "Brecht's Crisis (A Research Theater)" in Fall 2014.

Colleen Kim awarded Fulbright Teaching Assistantship

Colleen Kim, a graduating senior and a German minor, has been awarded a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship for the 2014-15 academic year.

Meagan Tripp awarded Fulbright and DAAD Grants

Meagan Tripp received a Fulbright grant and a DAAD grant for the 2014-15 academic year. She has accepted the Fulbright grant and will be conducting research on her dissertation, "Dance on the Page, Poetry on Stage: Intersections between Modernist German Poetry and Dance."

Department to Host Conference on the Frankfurt School

Theorizing Crisis:
The Conceptions of Economy of the Frankfurt School (1924-1969)

Friday, 3/28/2014 - Sunday, 3/30/2014

35 Nicholson Hall
Free, No Registration Necessary

The end of the German Empire in 1918 was, as it is well documented, accompanied and followed by economic crises, by constitutional crises, by revolts and coups d'état. The year of 1924 then not only marked the beginning of a (short) period of relative stability; it was also the year in which the Institute for Social Research was founded in Frankfurt. This overlap is not mere coincidence. Despite crises and unrest, the revolution had not happened and capitalism seemed to have reinvented itself. This can doubtlessly be seen as a major inspiration for the foundation of the institute. A return to Marx and an attempt to theorize the intricate relation between economy, politics, law and culture became the project of the Frankfurt School, made all the more urgent by the rise of National Socialism. The works which perhaps best exemplify this move are Friedrich Pollock's studies on state capitalism and planned economy (1928 and 1932), Henryk Grossmann's crisis theory (1932), Otto Kirchheimer's work on the relation between law and economy (1928 and 1939), and Franz Neumann's book "Behemoth: The Structure and Practices of National Socialism" (1941-1944). A common denominator of these diverse approaches was not only their point of departure: a crisis without redemption, but also the conviction, as Max Horkheimer put it in 1937, that "the economy is the first cause of misery and the theoretical as well as practical critique has to have economy as its main focus" (p. 61). This colloquium attempts to revisit first and foremost the economic thinking of what could almost be called the other Frankfurt School, overshadowed by the later prominence of Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer. In the light of the current crisis of economy we would like to look into the relevance of their economic analyses. Our ultimate concern is for a form of critique that can do justice to our present by neither losing sight of economic forces nor turning them into a modern Fatum, a determination with last and ultimate authority.

Detailed Schedule of Events

Play-Acting as Nazis Is No Innocent Game

Late last week, City Pages published photographs that showed men dressed in German SS uniforms seated in the main dining room of northeast Minneapolis restaurant Gasthof zur Gemutlichkeit surrounded by Nazi flags. According to a participant, this was a WWII Historical Re-enactment meeting and "just like any club that has a party."

In Germany and several other European states laws prohibit the public use of symbols of Nazism, in particular flags, insignia, and uniforms. The reason: it assaults the human dignity of others by insulting, maliciously smearing, or defaming segments of the population.
While in the US the First Amendment to the Constitution warrants constitutional protection to this type of manifestation -no matter how offensive its content- incidents of public display of racist or extremist symbolism have usually been followed by indignation, outrage and demands for action.

On this occasion, however, the gravity of the case seems to have gone unremarked upon. The protagonists of the dinner were "reenacting," i.e. playing. "Play-acting" can claim the mantle of harmlessness. According to the mentioned participant it is "cool" to dress up like Germans from World War II and go to a German restaurant, eat German food, and drink German beer.

We wonder what exactly the mostly male participants in this Nazi-themed dinner party were re-enacting. A militarized, fundamentally anti-democratic, and ethnically cleansed community? A supremacist fantasy of conviviality stipped of its underlying genocidal violence and passed off as nice and normal? To witness fellow Minnesotans entertain themselves in this fashion and to do so at a restaurant named "Gasthof zur Gemuetlichkeit"--German conviviality inn--is nothing short of obscene.

The Nazi-themed dinner is a grievous insult to the WWII victims and survivors and their families and to American veterans of WWII and their relatives.

It is also offensive to present day Germans and to the way the Federal Republic of Germany has tried to deal with this awful legacy.

The Gasthof episode is symptomatic of a wider phenomenon that should be reflected upon seriously. It seems that Nazism and the Holocaust have entered a stage of extreme trivialization.

As University of Minnesota professors and center directors committed to teaching about the Holocaust and genocides, German culture and history, and Jewish Studies, we resist such trivialization. As Minnesotans we are proud of our state's distinguished record as a haven for political refugees and victims of civil wars. That ethos of sharing and that vision of community are incompatible with what the Gasthof supposed "re-enactors" aim for.

Free speech is a crucial good. But we are also free to choose to react to it. We hope that as a fellow Minnesotan you will join us in distancing yourself from what has been happening for the past six years at the Gasthof.

Prof. Alejandro Baer, director, Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Dr. Sabine Engel, director, DAAD Center for German & European Studies
Prof. Rick McCormick, chair, Department of German, Scandinavian and Dutch
Prof. Riv-Ellen Prell, director, Center for Jewish Studies

Read this piece in the Star Tribune.

Jennifer Hoyer (Ph.D., 2010) honored by the Jewish Federation of Arkansas

Jennifer Hoyer (Ph.D., 2010) has been honored by the Jewish Federation of Arkansas for her outstanding contributions to the Jewish community.
Details available from the University of Arkansas Newswire.

Beth Kautz awarded a DAAD grant

Beth Kautz has been awarded a DAAD grant to attend the 41st annual Jahrestagung des Fachverbands Deutsch als Fremdsprache (Conference of the Association for German as a Foreign Language ) and the DAAD workshop „Lernkulturen in der Sprach- und Kulturvermittlung DaF" (Learning Cultures in the Instruction of Language and Culture in German as a Foreign Language) at the University of Münster, March 20-22, 2014.

Leslie Morris receives Imagine Fund Award and named Residential Fellow in IAS

Congratulations to Leslie Morris, who has received an Imagine Fund Annual Award for AY 2014-15 and will also be a Residential Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) in Spring 2015. She will be working on Lacunae: Loss After Loss.