Call for Papers:

"Germany’s Colonialism in International Perspective"

 International Interdisciplinary Conference on German Colonialism and Post - Colonialism

September 6-9, 2007, San Francisco, USA

In response to increasing study of Germany’s colonial legacy, we are soliciting papers for an International Interdisciplinary Conference on “German Colonialism and Post- Colonialism” at San Francisco State University. The 35 years of Germany’s colonial rule left a lasting impact on territories in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Ocean and shaped German politics. However, due to twentieth-century historical developments in Germany and the centrality of Britain’s and France’s imperialistic thrusts, Germany’s brief colonial engagement has been viewed as relatively insignificant. Recent interest in Germany’s colonial history has been motivated by contemporary developments in the German political situation, such as the change of Article 116 of the Basic Law in 2000, the call for a “deutsche Leitkultur” (“defining” or “leading” German culture), the resistance to the notion of a multicultural society, and the brutal attacks on Afro-Germans, as well as by the interest in postcolonial theory in academia. There does exist a wealth of significant historical inquiry into German colonialism. However, only over the past years has there been a change in scholarship that included, for instance, the notion of race as one of the central components in identifying links between historical colonialism and contemporary German society. The conference organizers seek a broader spectrum in order to grasp Germany’s imperial project, including, but not limited to the disciplinary fields of medicine, law, and anthropology. In addition, we invite scholars who focus on the intersection between modernity and colonialism. This conference will address Germany’s biased and troubled relationship with its colonial past by using as its departure point the “scramble for Africa.” While the organizers acknowledge that colonial engagement neither started nor ended with formal colonial rule, we wish to limit the historical frame and focus. We invite theoretically informed papers dealing with aspects of Germany’s colonial empire to the present day addressing the relationship(s) between:

- German National (cultural) Identity and German Post-Colonialism;

- The Construction of Race as a Signifying “Otherness”

- Race, Gender, Nation, and Religion and their connection to modern economic and intellectual systems

- Colonialism and Modernity

- The Visual Representations of Colonialism in the Arts and Literature (cartoons, postcards, stamps, paintings etc.)

- German Colonialism and Film

- Guilt, Responsibility and National Identity in Postwar Germany; or Means of Coming to Terms with a Colonial Past

- Reception / Perception of Germany’s Colonialism and Post-Colonialism seen from the “Outside” – Responses from Other Countries and Ethnicities

- Germany’s Colonialism in Comparison with Other Colonial Powers such as England, France, and Spain

- German Colonialism and the Orientalist Tradition (i.e., Ottoman, Persian, Chinese, and Japanese)

- German Colonialism and the Relationship Between the Professional Study of Texts and National Interest

- German Colonialism and the South Pacific (German New Guinea, Micronesia, Melanesia and Samoa)

- Contemporary Germany, Xenophobia, and its Colonial Past

- Colonialism, Violence, and language

- German Colonialism and Black Jews

- Colonialism, Violence, Genocide and Holocaust

Confirmed Speakers:

Dr. Russell Berman (Stanford University)

Dr. Klaus Scherpe (Humboldt Universität Berlin)

Dr. Alexander Honold (Universität Basel)

Dr. Beate Kundrus (Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung)

Dr. Oliver Simons (Harvard University)

The conference organizers would like to acknowledge the generous support and cooperation by the Goethe-Institute San Francisco, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, and the College of Humanities at San Francisco State University.

Papers should be 20 minutes long and must be presented and discussed in English. Please submit a paper proposal of no more than 400 words and a brief C.V. simultaneously to

Dr. Volker Langbehn at Dr. Mohammad Salama at

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Deadline for submission: December 1, 2006