ASSOCIATION FOR GERMAN STUDIES IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND

CALL FOR PAPERS

Conference at the UNIVERISTY OF NEWCASTLE, 31 August-2 September 2016

DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: 1st April 2016

The next conference of the Association for German Studies in Great Britain and Ireland will take place at the University of Newcastle, 31 August–2 September 2016. The lead panel for the conference will be Trauma Narratives, with a number of regular as well as one-off panels.

If you are interested in contributing a paper to any of these panels, please send your proposal directly to the e-mail address of the conveners listed below. Proposals for papers should be 150-200 words and should reach the relevant conveners by 1 April 2016.

http://www.ags.ac.uk


Lead Panel: Trauma Narratives
Conveners: Beate Müller (Newcastle); [log in to unmask] / Teresa Ludden (Newcastle); [log in to unmask] – please email both conveners with your proposal

The lead panel invites colleagues to explore the topic of trauma narratives in German history, culture, literature, and film. The contexts in which representations of trauma have been debated are wide-reaching, ranging from war-induced trauma to trauma inflicted through abuse, violence, or sexual violence, from legacies of trauma caused by genocidal persecution to those originating in political revolutions and economic catastrophes. Possible topics and approaches include:
- trauma and memory, trauma and repression;
- trans-generational trauma transmission, e.g. second- and third-generation representations of trauma, or representations of the 'Erlebnisgeneration' (Holocaust survivors, Kriegskinder) to the ‘Nachgeborenen’;
- the ethics of subject positions, e.g. with regard to discourses of authenticity, the public figure of the 'Zeitzeuge', the 'era of the witness' (Wieviorka), or 'speaking by proxy' (Levi) etc;
- genre-based analyses of trauma narratives, e.g. testimony, memoir, diary, fiction, poetry etc;
- theoretical readings, e.g. approaches to the topic via Foucault, psychoanalytical trauma theory, Frankfurt School;
- the significance of gender, class, and age for trauma and its mediations
- representations of trauma induced by war, social upheaval, revolution
A publication comprising of contributions to the lead panel is being considered. For further information, please contact the conveners.


Linguistics, Language Teaching and Learning, and Translation Studies
Convener: Melani Schröter (Reading); [log in to unmask]

The linguistics standing panel at the AGS welcomes papers on any aspect of German and Germanic linguistics, including comparative studies, translation studies and research on teaching German as a foreign language. Papers may deal with diachronic linguistics or trends in current usage, second language acquisition, language policy, sociolinguistics and (critical) discourse analysis. A range of contributions is welcomed, those with a more theoretical and conceptual angle as well as those based on empirical research. A range of methodological approaches within empirical linguistic analysis is equally embraced. Please note that this year, a special panel on 'Linguistics, Language Teaching and Learning and Translation Studies' is envisaged. Please refer to the CfP for this panel in order to decide which panel might be more suitable for your proposal. The conveners of both this and the proposed special panel will also liaise with each other in any case of doubt.  


Teaching German as a Foreign Language: Features, Functions and Challenges
Convener: Clive Earls (Maynooth); [log in to unmask]

This panel will explore current theory and practice surrounding the teaching of German as a foreign language by investigating its contemporary features, functions and challenges. It welcomes papers from scholars from multiple disciplinary and interdisciplinary backgrounds including Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Sociology, Education, and Literary & Cultural Studies. Papers may deal with areas such as Second Language Acquisition, German as a global language, Language Policy and Planning, Didactics, Computer-Aided Language Learning (CALL), Discourse Analysis, amongst others. A variety of research within and/or across different national contexts, as well as studies within and/or across primary, secondary and tertiary education sectors is particularly welcome.


Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Convener: Henrike Lähnemann (Oxford); [log in to unmask] 

Proposals are welcome for papers on any aspect of medieval German studies, the early modern period, or their reception in later periods. Contributions by postgraduate students will be particularly welcome.


Eighteenth-Century Studies
Convener: Steffan Davies (Bristol); [log in to unmask]

This panel invites papers on all aspects of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century culture: its literature, theatre, visual culture, history and thought. The panel warmly welcomes comparative perspectives and work connecting this period to others. 


Nineteenth and early Twentieth-Century Studies 
Convener: Malcolm Spencer (Nottingham Trent); [log in to unmask] 

Papers are invited on any aspect of the culture of German-speaking countries in the nineteenth century and earlier decades of the twentieth century (up to about 1930), including literature, theatre, visual and musical culture and thought.  


Montage as an Explanatory Tool
Convener: Mario Slugan (Warwick); [log in to unmask]

At least since Adorno's and Bürger's work montage has become the explanatory model for construing literary modernism and avant-garde, respectively. Focusing on (English) literature, David Trotter's recent Cinema and Modernism has proposed that this paradigm is anachronistic for in practice it too often singles out Soviet film montage as the source of influence. Appearing only in 1925 it could have hardly influenced pre-1925 works. This panel seeks to explore advantages and drawbacks of continued use of montage in the discussions of German modernist and avant-garde production from collage to literature. It invites both theoretical and methodological considerations as well as case studies. 


Travel Writing from the Enlightenment to the Twenty-First Century
Convener: Dagmar Paulus (University College London); [log in to unmask]

Since its beginnings, travel writing has been a popular genre with a wide readership. It helped spread knowledge about other cultures but sometimes also reinforced stereotypes and colonial thinking. Between the observed culture and the observers, uneven power relations could take hold. Some travelogues therefore say more about the writers' original cultures than about the visited ones. This panel invites papers on various aspects of the genre from the beginnings to today, such as cross-cultural experiences, attitudes towards the visited culture, perceptions of West and East, the role of different means of transport, and the works of female travellers.


21st Century Theatre and Performance
Conveners: Lizzie Stewart (St Andrews); [log in to unmask] / Richard McClelland (Oxford); [log in to unmask] – please email both conveners with your proposal

Recent years have seen a wave of German theatre hit UK stages: German-language directors dominated the Edinburgh International Festival in 2015; the Barbican hosted critically acclaimed productions from Tanztheater Wuppertal (2012) and the Schaubühne Berlin (2013 and 2015); even Shakespeare was not immune, as evidenced by the Globe Theatre's Shakespeare Is German festival (2010-11).
This panel aims to respond to such developments by offering a medium-specific space for the discussion of contemporary German-language theatre and performance at the AGS. We invite papers on topics relating to 21st century theatre texts, new performance practices and the institutional contexts which shape them. 


Visual Culture 
Convener: Dora Osborne (Durham); [log in to unmask]

This panel will bring together scholars working on different aspects of visual culture within or connected to German Studies. Topics may include, but are not limited to: film; photography; performance art; installations; new media; archive media; text-image relationships; urban environments; memorial projects; museum culture; curation.


German Studies and Modern Languages Research – Trends and Case Studies
Convener: Michael Gratzke (Hull); [log in to unmask] 

Comparative and Interdisciplinary German Studies have been part and parcel of current discussions about Transnational Modern Languages research. Rather than looking at each discipline within Modern Languages as distinct and predominantly concerned with a nation (state), we are adopting a more global perspective. Transnational Modern Languages research – it can be argued – does justice to linguistic, historical, cultural and social specificity precisely because it explores the particular in the context of real-world interconnected exchange processes comprising globalized and digitized communities, international and domestic conflicts, trade, migration, translation, hybridity and the beginnings of post-hybrid identities. 
This panel invites colleagues to raise questions about the future of German Studies and to showcase work which builds on notions of Comparative and Interdisciplinary German Studies in the UK, Ireland and beyond. Papers may take an academic shape; we will be equally happy to entertain opinion pieces and Gedankenexperimente. There will be room for single-speaker and multi-speaker presentations.