GSA Seminar: Beyond the Racial State: New Perspectives on Race in Nazi Germany

We are seeking participants in the seminar “Beyond the Racial State: New Perspectives on Race in Nazi Germany” at the 43rd German Studies Association Conference in Portland, Oregon, October 3-6, 2019.

The seminar seeks to bring together scholars from a range of fields who are pursuing research projects on Nazi Germany in order to critically reevaluate the meaning and function of race in the Third Reich. Drawing on the conveners’ critique of the “racial state” paradigm in their co-edited volume Beyond the Racial State: Rethinking Nazi Germany (Cambridge UP, 2017) and a set of common readings (to be selected with participants), the seminar invites scholars to discuss the ways in which recent research, including participants’ research projects, might allow us to reappraise race’s meaning under Nazism and to complicate its relationship to the Nazis' agenda, actions, and appeal. We are particularly interested in research projects that shed new light on how racial discourse and ideology, racial science, and racial policy functioned in Nazi Germany. Transnational and comparative perspectives that locate Nazi policy in broader trends and the international flows of ideas are most welcome.

Format: Once seminar participants have been identified, we will solicit their suggestions for common readings; we will review these and make available 4-5 core texts, to be read before participants write their papers (max. 4,000 words, to be pre-circulated one month before the GSA conference), relating their research to the seminar’s theme.

Seminars meet for all three days of the GSA conference during the first or second morning slot to foster extended discussion, rigorous intellectual exchange, and intensified networking. In order to reach the goal of extended discussion, participants are required to participate in all three installments of the seminar.

How to apply: Please apply though the German Studies Association’s application portal.

Seminar applicants are asked to submit a brief CV and a 500-word abstract of the paper (4,000 words max.) that they would like to contribute to the seminar; please include a paper title at the top of the abstract. Applications are due by 26 January 2019. You must renew your GSA membership for 2019 in order to be able to apply. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the conveners (email addresses listed below).

Conveners:
Devin Pendas, Boston College, devin.pendas@bc.edu
Mark Roseman, Indiana University, marrosem@indiana.edu
Richard Wetzell, German Historical Institute, wetzell@ghi-dc.org