The German Historical Institute's Pacific Office incorporates Latin America and the Pacific into the GHI’s research agenda. It further strengthens the GHI’s research focus by connecting the Atlantic and Pacific worlds with German, European, and Jewish history, the history of the Americas, migration, and the history of empires and their legacies, while exploring inter-American, transpacific, and global entanglements.
Photo credit: The Campanile on the University of California, Berkeley campus, with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. © 2021 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Programs
The Pacific Office Berkeley helps coordinate programs in the GHI’s core research fields: It manages programs to further transatlantic academic and cross-cultural exchange, it developed an academic network of German historians on the U.S. West Coast, and it promotes the research of junior academics through fellowships and symposia. The office supplements its scholarly offerings with an active public-outreach program.
Fellowships
Binational Visiting Tandem Fellowship at GHI Pacific Office in Berkeley
GHI Pacific Office and IES at UC Berkeley offer German and North American postdoctoral scholars the opportunity to develop a binational research tandem in order to work on research projects that contribute to the research foci on German, European, and global history at the GHI's Pacific Office in Berkeley for two years.
Fritz Thyssen Pre-Dissertation Fellowships for Students in German & European History at West Coast Universities
GHI Pacific Office and the Department of History at UC Berkeley grant up to five summer fellowships to graduate students in German and European History to visit German archives and libraries to review material for their dissertation.
Guest Scholar Program
The GHI guest scholar program is designed to give visiting doctoral and postdoctoral scholars who have their own funding a base for their independent research in either Washington, DC or at the GHI’s branch office at the University of California, Berkeley (GHI Pacific Office).
Annual Events & Conferences
Conference Series on “Histories of Social Justice”
From 2026 to 2028, the Pacific Office will convene a conference series on “Histories of Social Justice.” Practices, experiences and public debates surrounding conflicting ideas of social justice have played a crucial role in shaping European and transregional history – leaving significant traces in the 19th and 20th centuries. The series will address forms of engagement with social justice as well as the impact and resonance of social justice activism in European and transregional history during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Gerda Henkel Lecture Tours
The Gerda Henkel Lecture Tours brings German historians to the West Coast where they present their research at up to four different universities with the goal of facilitating the general dialogue between German historians and their colleagues in the U.S. and Canadian west. The lecture tours are coordinated by the Pacific Regional Office of the Germany Historical Institute, Washington. You can learn more about past lecture tours by using the filter on the events page.
Annual Feldman Lecture (in cooperation with the UC Berkeley Institute of European Studies)
Established to honor the life and work of former IES Director, Gerald Feldman, the Gerald D. and Norma Feldman Annual Lecture brings eminent scholars to UC Berkeley to share their work in German and European Studies.
West Coast Germanists Workshop
The West Coast Germanists’ Workshop brings together historians of Central Europe and the German-speaking world from as far east as Colorado and as south as Mexico City to explore German history within a particular focus or theme.
Lecture Series "New Directions in German and European History“
The lecture series “New Directions in German and European History” features 3 to 4 historians per semester who present and discuss current research on German and European history. The lecture series is a collaboration between the GHI Pacific Office, the Department of History, and the Institute of European Studies at UC Berkeley.
Academic conferences, lectures, and other public events
GHI Pacific Office cooperates with regional partners to facilitate scholarly networking as well as disseminate research to a larger audience by organizing academic conferences, lectures, and other public events. Find the latest GHI Pacific Office events by filtering for "bay area" under events.
GHI Pacific Office Team
Viola Alianov-Rautenberg
Research Fellow, GHI Pacific Office Berkeley
GHI Pacific Office Berkeley
Institute of European Studies | University of California, Berkeley | 249 Philosophy Hall | Berkeley, CA 94720-2316
Phone +1.202.387.3355
Emma Clarke
Events & Administrative Assistant, GHI Pacific Office Berkeley
GHI Pacific Office Berkeley
Institute of European Studies | University of California, Berkeley | 202 Philosophy Hall | Berkeley, CA 94720-2316
Phone +1.202.552.8920
Amy Kerner
Research Fellow, GHI Pacific Office Berkeley
GHI Pacific Office Berkeley
Institute of European Studies | University of California, Berkeley | 249 Philosophy Hall | Berkeley, CA 94720-2316
Phone +1.202.387.3355
Heike Friedman
Program Officer, GHI Pacific Office Berkeley
GHI Pacific Office Berkeley
Institute of European Studies | University of California, Berkeley | 202 Philosophy Hall | Berkeley, CA 94720-2316
Phone +1.202.552.8920
Isabel Richter
Deputy Director & Program Director, GHI Pacific Office Berkeley
GHI Pacific Office Berkeley
Institute of European Studies | University of California, Berkeley | 249 Philosophy Hall | Berkeley, CA 94720-2316
Phone +1.202.552.8936
Visiting Fellows & Affiliated Scholars
Daniele Valisena
Visiting Fellow
GHI Pacific Office Berkeley
Institute of European Studies | University of California, Berkeley | 202 Philosophy Hall | Berkeley, CA 94720-2316
Phone