GHI Washington Inaugurates New Pacific Regional Office, GHI West, in Berkeley

30 years after opening its doors in the US capital, the German Historical Institute Washington (GHI) is expanding its operations to the West Coast. The GHI’s new Pacific Regional Office, GHI West, formally celebrates its opening on November 1, 2017, with the inaugural Bucerius Lecture on Migration and Knowledge. This year’s speaker is Armin Nassehi, Professor of Sociology at LMU Munich and one of “the most thoughtful intellectual voices in Germany today” (New York Review of Books). The Bucerius Lecture on Migration and Knowledge is sponsored by the ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius, a leading German non-profit foundation. 

The title of Nassehi’s lecture – The Knowledge of/about Migrants: Preconceptions, Misconceptions, Limits - echoes the major themes of GHI West’s research agenda. Through targeted cooperation with institutions across the Americas as well as the Asia-Pacific Region, GHI West will establish a research network to analyze migrants as conveyors, translators, and producers of knowledge. Special attention will be given to the role of migrant children and young people as creators of new knowledge and mediators between cultures. “Given current debates on immigration policy in Europe and North America, research into the knowledge migrants carry with them and the knowledge migrants need to make their way could hardly be more timely,” GHI Director Simone Lässig points out. “And California is an ideal location for research on migrant knowledge,” she adds. “Not only does it have a long history as a major migration destination, it is also home to some of the leading research hubs in the social sciences and humanities.”

GHI West is housed within the University of California Berkeley’s Institute for European Studies. To take full advantage of its location, GHI West will supplement its research program on migrant knowledge with other initiatives to facilitate cooperation between German scholars and their counterparts in the western U.S. and Canada. “California holds strong appeal for German academics,” Lässig notes, “but they are also becoming aware of the rich opportunities for research and collaboration throughout the West. GHI West will help them take advantage of those opportunities.” 

The GHI Washington is one of ten institutes the Max Weber Stiftung - German Humanities Institutes Abroad (MWS) operates around the world. The opening of GHI West is part of the MWS strategic development initiative to extend and enhance Germany’s participation in international scholarly dialogue. 

For further information, please contact: 

Dr. Sarah Beringer
Research Coordinator & Press Liaison
German Historical Institute Washington
1607 New Hampshire Ave NW
Washington, DC 20009
Phone +1 202 387-3355
Mailto: beringer@ghi-dc.org