The Forty-sixth Annual Conference of the German Studies Association (GSA) is taking place from September 15-18, 2022 in Houston, Texas.
As co-coordinator of the Black Diaspora Studies Network of the GSA, Dr. Obenewaa Oduro-Opuni is coordinating and moderating a session on "Mentoring BIPOC Students in German Studies." She will also be the commentator for the panel "Combatting Anti-Black Racism through Transnational Connections." Our head of the department, Dr. Barbara Kosta, is giving a talk on "Judith Nika Pfeifer’s Novel Violante: Honor Killing, Power and Gender" as part of the panel on Austrian Literature and Cinema. The panel "Trees in German Culture: From National Icon to Critical Plant Studies" will be commented on by Dr. Joela Jacobs, who is also participating in a seminar on "Nazism and the Holocaust in the Contemporary Imagination." Dr. Janice McGregor is participating in a seminar on "Escape from Grading Hell: How to Move Away from Grades and Focus on Learning."
PhD candidate Richmond Embeywa is giving a talk on "Ideologies and Representations of Interculturality in German Integration Courses for Refugee-Background Adults" within a panel on "Contemporary Representations of Migration and Neoliberalism,” and he is presenting his research at the “Food for Thought” luncheon showcase. Thomas Fuhr, also one of our PhD candidates, is presenting on "From Unterleuten to Über Menschen: Detachment and Dehumanization in Juli Zeh’s 2021 Novel" within a panel on contemporary author Juli Zeh. As part of the panel "Body and Embodiment in German-language Comics," PhD student Christina Becher is giving a talk on "Vegetal Bodies: Posthuman Corporeality in Contemporary German Comics." PhD student Peju Alfred is participating in the emerging scholars workshop on “New Pathways for Black German Studies.”
We are also looking forward to meeting our UofA alumni at the GSA conference: Dr. Patrick Ploschnitzki (University of Florida) and Dr. Kyung Lee Gagum (MSU Texas) are co-organizing the seminar "Found in Translations," Dr. James Howell (Texas A&M University) is moderating a panel on “Collective Identities in German Soccer,” and Dr. Yannleon Chen (University of Arkansas) is presenting on "Crime, Punishment, and Whiteness: White Fragility in German Krimi" within a panel on “TV Crime Series in German.”