Sixth West Coast Germanists' Workshop: Globalizing German History in Research and Teaching

Call for Papers

We are inviting graduate students, postdocs, and faculty in the Western United States, the Western Provinces of Canada and Mexico who conduct research in German history or German studies to join us at the sixth West Coast Germanists’ Workshop, jointly organized by the German Historical Institute Washington, its Pacific Regional Office in Berkeley, and the University of California, Los Angeles, where the workshop will take place on February 23 & 24, 2024. The workshop will comprise paper presentations focused on researching and/or teaching a global German history as well as informal gatherings to network and exchange ideas. The event seeks to provide a supportive forum for work-in-progress in the research of German history and culture from the medieval period until today and a venue for discussing how and why to teach German history in the twenty-first century.

We aim to address the predicament of Germanists in the West, our geographic challenges – our distance from Europe and from each other – as well as the opportunities and possibilities for doing German history and German studies in places with abundant resources from German émigrés and thriving German immigrant communities in the arts, business, and technology. We also consider the potential benefits of seeing Germany and Europe from a Pacific perspective.

People interested in attending should use our online portal to register for the workshop by November 15, 2023. Individuals interested in presenting a paper at the workshop should also include a one-paragraph proposal. Please contact Heike Friedman (friedman@ghi-dc.org) if you have problems submitting your information online.

Thanks to the support of the German Historical Institute Washington, the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, and UCLA we will be able to subsidize participation in this workshop. Priority will be given to paper presenters, graduate students, and anyone in need of financial assistance.