February 27-29, 2004, University of California, Berkeley
Check the IES Calendar of Events for
specific information about location, times, etc.
Californian historians studying modern German history have
been very active as researchers and trainers of graduate students, but
until now have faced a lack of forums in which to present and discuss both the
new work recently published and the work in progress by professors and graduate
students. This workshop provides the first opportunity to assemble scholars and
create a statewide network that will facilitate future interaction and collaboration.
It is designed to bring together faculty and graduate students working in the
field of German history at all the University of California campuses. A select
group of other institutions in the Bay Area -- Stanford, St. Mary's College,
and the University of San Francisco -- have also been invited. Since the early
modern Central Europeanists have organized such events in the past and have a
network of their own, the meeting is intended primarily for those working on
German issues of the eighteenth and twentieth centuries.
Though scholars from several different subfields -- political, cultural, intellectual,
social, and environmental history, as well as history of science -- will attend,
the intent is to bridge specialized fields by addressing questions in the realm
of modern German history that remain relevant to all researchers. These can be
identified as issues of political culture and modernization; long- term deficits
of democracy; parallels and differences of Germany and 'the West'; and the question
of how race, class and gender informed definitions of German identity. The cultural
roots and the aftermath of the National Socialist past also remain a prominent
focal point.
The conference will consist of five panels:
In session I, new work on post-1945 Germany will be presented by cultural, political
and social historians. Topics include the narratives of victimhood in 1950s West
Germany; the history of prisoners of war returning to German society; debates
about the Dachau concentration camp after 1945; and the transformation of the
West German public sphere up to the 1970s.
Session II deals with a range of projects on nineteenth- and early twentieth-century
German and Austrian history. Contributions will most likely focus on environmental
changes during the period of industrialization; the history of German mental
asylums in the nineteenth century; and continuities and breaks in early twentieth-century
cultural debates.
In Session III, new research on intellectuals and ideologies will be discussed.
The research to be presented focuses on the role of intellectual history and
the 'Other' Germany; critiques of scientific rationality in the federal republic;
and W.E.B. Du Bois' love affair with imperial Germany.
The remaining two panels are intended to provide a forum for the discussion of
dissertation projects.
The three-day conference will be held at the Berkeley campus and is being organized
by the UC Berkeley DAAD Visiting Professor
Christina
von Hodenberg and Professor
Gerald
D. Feldman, Director of the Center for German and European Studies of the
Institute of European Studies. Local participants will include not only members
of the History Department and affiliates of the Center for European Studies,
but also members of the German and Political Science departments.
