Call for Papers: Modern Languages, History, Comparative Literature, European Studies, Art History, Foreign Language Education, Sociology, Political Science, Philosophy, Linguistics, Anthropology, Ethnomusicology, Folklore

The graduate students of the Department of Germanic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin invite graduate students and other colleagues in Modern Languages, History, Comparative Literature, European Studies, Art History, Foreign Language Education, Sociology, Political Science, Philosophy, Linguistics and related disciplines to submit abstracts for our eighth annual graduate symposium, to be held on the UT campus in Austin, Texas on Friday, April 9, 2004.

Call for Papers:

"Survival, Transformations, and Adaptations: Identities in the History and Culture of Central and Northern Europe"

Keynote Speaker: Dieter Haller, Cultural Anthropologist and Visiting Professor at the Department of Germanic Studies, University of Texas at Austin

The complexity of one's identity is a topic that has intrigued scholars for years. A growing body of research continues to explore, among other things, how identity evolves, how it is shaped by outside forces, and how it emerges after moments of social unrest. Questions surrounding past and present (mis)representations of Jewish identity in Central Europe, for example, continue to generate discourse among social scientists, while the more recent phenomenon of "Ostalgie" exemplifies the dynamic of a re- emerging GDR identity largely absent following German reunification.

This one day event is intended to provide an interdisciplinary forum for the discussion of issues pertaining to national, group, and individual identities. Proposals from all periods are welcome.

Topics can include:

Nation and Identity
Family and Family Relations
"Ostalgie"
Discourses of Gender: Representations of Masculinity and Femininity in Literature, the Arts, and Popular Culture
Visual Culture/Media Representation of ethnic, political, and social Minorities
The German Homeland and Borderlands
Jewish and German Identity
Intellectuals and the State
Narratives of Migration and Travel
Guerillas, Freedom Fighters and Terrorists
Approaches to Teaching Cultures within Cultures
Open Topic

Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words by Friday, February 20, 2004. Include your name, the title of your paper, your university and department affiliation, your address, telephone number, e-mail address, and any equipment requirements. Presentations will be 20 minutes each (8- 10 pages).

You may send your abstracts by mail OR as an attachment in e-mail. Abstracts in hard copy should be mailed to:

Jason Williamson and Clair Mealy
Dept. of Germanic Studies
University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station C3300
Austin, TX 788712-0304

Abstracts per e-mail should be sent to one or both of the following:
jaskwilliamson@mail.utexas.edu
chmealy@mail.utexas.edu