Blog

A Note to Readers: Our blog includes news items, research materials,
and teaching resources – browse past posts by month on the right. If
you would like to contribute your own syllabus or other materials (in
English or German), please contact us at mgp@berkeley.edu.

Traveling in Pandemic Times: Yoko Tawada and Poetic Border-Crossing

Yoko Tawada’s guest appearance in the third installation of “Archives of Migration” sparked a lively and contemporarily relevant conversation on the potential of poetic border-crossing in pandemic times, where physical mobility has been intensely challenged by closed-off national borders and … Continue reading

Pandemic Palimpsest: Yoko Tawada’s “Paul Celan und der chinesische Engel”

MGP editor Qingyang Zhou and Jezell Lee, both participants in our series of Zoom workshops with authors, reflect on our event with poet, playwright, and novelist Yoko Tawada, examining the transnational homage and fragmentary intertextuality of her latest novel, 2020’s … Continue reading

Radio Plays about the Crimes of the NSU: Part III – From the Victims’ Perspective

In the last installment of the three-part series on the NSU trial, guest columnist Monika Preuß focuses on the personal narratives of the victims of crimes committed by NSU members. You can read this post in the original German here.  … Continue reading

Hörspiele zum NSU-Verbrechen: Teil III – Einblick in die Perspektive der Opfer

In the last installment of our three-part series on the NSU trial, guest columnist Monika Preuß focuses on the personal narratives of the victims of crimes committed by NSU members. You can read this post in English translation here.  The … Continue reading

Archiving Memories in Pandemic Times: Documenting Jewish Exile in Shanghai

In spring 2019, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) hosted an event series titled “Afterimage” to showcase renowned German director Ulrike Ottinger’s critically acclaimed documentaries, while inviting her to discuss her research methods and approach to visual … Continue reading

Imagining the Other Side of Things: Zafer Şenocak and Hidden Archives

MGP editor Elizabeth Sun follows up on our recent event with Zafer Şenocak, interrogating the possibilities for resistance that lie in the counter-hegemonic reconstruction of historical narrative. On Friday, April 2, we welcomed the widely published Turkish-German author Zafer Şenocak … Continue reading

“Ich bin Diskursfeind”: Zafer Şenocak on Unreadable Archives

The second installment (April 2) of the Zoom event series “Archives of Migration: The Power of Fiction in Times of Fake News” invited Turkish-German author Zafer Şenocak in conversation with Deniz Göktürk (Professor of German Studies, UC Berkeley) and Kristin Dickinson … Continue reading

Hörspiele zum NSU-Prozess: Teil II – Auditive Dissonanzen im Gerichtssaal und in der Öffentlichkeit

In this second installment of the three-part blog post series on the NSU trial, guest columnist Monika Preuß analyzes the polyphonic structure of several radio plays and the resulting “Rashomon” effect created by the layering of diverse perspectives of the … Continue reading

The NSU Trial in Radio Plays: Part II – Cacophony in the Courtroom and the Media

In this second installment of the three-part series on the NSU trial, guest columnist Monika Preuß analyzes the polyphonic structure of several radio plays and the resulting “Rashomon” effect created by the layering of diverse perspectives of the trial participants … Continue reading

Against Categorization: On Inanimate Objects as Narrators in Sharon Dodua Otoo’s “Adas Raum”

A village woman who just lost her newborn in 1459 pre-colonial Ghana, a British countess who pioneered the invention of the computer with her exceptional mathematical talents in 1848, a Polish inmate forced into prostitution in a Nazi concentration camp … Continue reading

Animating Untold Stories: Sharon Dodua Otoo

MGP editor Elizabeth Sun and Ardo Ali, both participants in our new series of Zoom workshops with authors, reflect on the opening event with Berlin-based writer and activist Sharon Dodua Otoo. The first installment (March 5) of the Zoom workshop … Continue reading

Hörspiele zum NSU-Prozess: Teil I – “Saal 101”

The 2021 election year in Germany is destined to be a year of heated political debates on the country’s past and future. While right-wing extremism is still on the rise in some parts of Germany, politicians and legal practitioners are … Continue reading

The NSU Trial in Radio Plays: Part I – “Saal 101”

The 2021 election year in Germany is destined to be a year of heated political debates on the country’s past and future. While right-wing extremism is still on the rise in some parts of Germany, politicians and legal practitioners are … Continue reading

Jule Thiemann: Digitale Fluchtnarrative und Postmigrantische Perspektiven

The latest installment in our Mission Possible series of reflections on the future of German Studies comes courtesy of Dr. Jule Thiemann of the University of Hamburg’s Institut für Germanistik, who argues that the field must turn towards expanding the … Continue reading

Jule Thiemann: Postmigrant Perspectives and Digital Narratives of Flight

The latest installment in our Mission Possible series of reflections on the future of German Studies comes courtesy of Dr. Jule Thiemann of the University of Hamburg’s Institut für Germanistik, who argues that the field must turn towards expanding the … Continue reading